Polatis Missionaries: Spring has sprung in Romania!!

Familia Mea,

Well some sweet things that happened this week.. So the first day that Sora Kelly and I were together at the train station as we were switching companions this random lady came up to us.. she was gypsie and we kind of just thought that she was goiing to ask us for money (it is not good to judge:( ) so anyways we kind of had some small talk with her and she was then like "Can I give you my number to learn more about your church?" So we did and then we found out that she lived closer to the other sisters in Buc so we just handed her number over to them.. We didnt really think anything happened from it but we found out yesterday that she really was interested and that she and her 5 kids went to church on Sunday!!! So cool huh! So I guess I learned 2 lessons that day.. don't judge.. and that I can actually make a difference in this country! So I was really excited about that!

The language is coming still slower than my liking.. but I guess I just have to get used to it! people tell me that it is kind of like a switch that happens in your brain and it kind of just starts to make sense.. well I am still waiting for that switch:) ha but it was cool the other day we were all at the church and one of the old ladies was inviting President Hill and his wife over for dinner and they didn't understand her.. so then the sister pulled me over and had me translate.. It was pretty cool and mean it was some simple phrases but I was happy.. so the language is coming.. Greg was saying that he thinks that my language must be coming because I make a lot of mistakes in my emails... ha Sorry hopefully you guys can still read them... :)

This week has been a very interesting faith testing week for Sora Kelly and I. We got stood up by ALL of our investigators. Every single one of them bunged us. I just don't get it? I heard that it is hard for missionaries in the city because everyone is so busy they said it is alot better up north and out of Bucharest. So it happens to all of us here. But it was weird like we call one lady the day before and she was all "yes.. of course I would love to meet tomorrow" .. the next day we are waiting and waiting.. we call her up and she was like " O ya.. well I dont have time for that today..." and then yesterday we set up to meet with our girl we are teaching and we called her as we are waiting and then she calls us back an hour later and was like sorry but I left buc 2 hours ago. ha So yes 0 other lessons for the week. It was very frustrating but our recent converts and less actives never less us down so we still have those lessons during the week! One of our less active sisters taught us how the Romanians cook their fish.. I don't remember how we do it in Idaho because I am not a huge fan of fish.. but it was crazy she was just like chopping it up bones, fins, head and all went into the pot! I am glad we are NOT aloud to eat fish on the misison:) We also went and visited Sora Gorzo this week because she wants to help us with the language.. we knew she would try to feed us but we tried telling her we didnt need food.. anyways... so we are sitting there eating..and she ALWAYS has a 3 course meal.. full of soup and that was fine until we got to the main course with some sort of meat and rice and these bright red sausage things.. you would be proud.. I did eat it.. o man but we were kind of feeling sick after! ha We also had our English class this week and we thought that it would be cool to talk about success.. well not such a good idea.. because our people in class really don't like Romania and they don't feel like they are successful in anything.. so lesson learned! So this week struggled a little bit but We will continue to mergam inainte! (go forward) ha It can only go up from here right? It is not starting to get very warm so the parks and everything are amazing!

Kind of funny story for the week.. So we are park contacting and we pass these two random guys sitting on a bench.. well they start trying to speak English to us and we just ignore them... (as usual) but then like 5 minutes later they are right behind us and they want to talk to us.. so I naturally start talking about the Book of Mormon in my broken Romanian.. ha and we give them some pamphlet.. well they kind of just kept walking with us and they were like "come have drinks with us.." after we explained that we don't drink they asked us to come get juice with them.. after we said no to that they were really feeling beat up.. they then said "how about if we bring juice to church then will you drink it with us" ha we again told them no and we said that we had boyfriends and that they can come to church if they want.. but not to hang out with us.. ha I thought that it was really funny.. because they guy was like "you look just like my ex- girlfriend.." I get that all the time back in the states so I was laughing about getting it here in Romania too. He was like " I really like you.. not like you like you .. but you are really cool and nice.." his English struggled a little bit so he was just throwing stuff out there.. well we told a kid in our district the story and he is in the military.. his name is elder Hollist.. he did not think that the story was funny AT ALL... he was like "if they show up to church I will beat them up..." so he is now going to teach us self defense and make us pepper spray.. ha so family I will be safe...we usually go contacting with the Elders anyways.. or have them close by... :) I know that as long as I am following the spirit and not being stupid I will be protected! There was a lot of people in the park we were at and it like like at 2:00 in the afternoon! So we are smart!!!

Sunday was a cool day for us though because we all fasted to find families! We really need families in our branch! So it was cool because we all went to the park.. all the elders and sister in buc went to a park and we had like 8 of us singing hymns and then 4 were passing out stuff and then we had like 6 others with chalk explaining the plan of salvation!! The assistants and office elders and the zone leaders were all there so it was really fun! It was really cool and the parks are amazing.. I didnt realize all of the cool lakes that Romania has! so pretty! we are going to go contacting in all these pretty parks a lot more often!! :) So it was really fun all fasting together.. we didn't see results right away but we know we will be blessed for our efforts!

Well family have a great week! I love hearing from you all!! I will back on the internet at like 10:00 AM your guys time today! love you all! I am going to be getting off soon because we got permission to all go paint balling today! People of coming from some surrounding cities so I think we will have about 25 missionaries playing so it should be a good time!! And this week is looking good also! The church is true! I love you guys so much! read your scriptures every day.. I am almost done with the book of mormon.. amazing.. amazing.. :) You guys are the best!

Va iubesc! Cu Drag, Sora Abby Polatis