Polatis Missionaries: Transfers!! We are still together!!

Transfers!!!...... Drum roll..... "I said Drum Roll...." - Christmas Vacation... haha I AM STAYING IN MIHAI BRAVU ....... Drum roll.... WITH SORA KELLY!! wahoo... We are super super excited! They really did not switch up the girls in the mission at all because we have all the youngsters.. so everyone is staying with their trainers.. and Sora Kelly and I are now Co - Seniors! I am really excited to be staying here.. yes it is not the prettiest city... . but here there is literally millions of people... which is perfect for missionaries! Secondly, they talk so fast here! so this is a perfect place to learn the language because anywhere I go after this will be a piece of cake.. everyone here slurrs all of their words together.. But it is so cool.. I am understanding ALOT! which is a miracle... some one came over and told us to do something in Romanian.. and with out even thinking I answered right back.. Sora Kelly was like "how did you know what she was saying.." ha I just looked back and shrugged.. ha wahoo.. the language is coming.. no worries I am NO PRO but it is great being with Sora Kelly because we have to figure it out.. We are going to make some solid goals for this transfer to boost our language... even if Sora kelly and I get transferred after this transfer.. we will have been TOGETHER.. 5 out of the 7 months on the mission.. ha good thing we really like each other! My District is so cool.. Remember Elder Poulsen from the MTC and Elder Whitehead they will be in my district.. so now 5/6 of us from the MTC are in Buch (gerhartz stayed on the Panduri side) It is going to be so much fun.. In my district there is 8 elders.. we have the office elders and now zone leaders in our district.. everyone is so cool!! This summer is going to be amazing!!

If you guys are wondering about how the weather is here.. well it is HOT!! ha we went from one week of spring to now it is blazing.. I will now be able to kind of compare to Sarah mission! ha my body is not used to this humidity.. but it will be good.. we are going to get some nice tans!! We tried turning on our air conditioner.. and it was working great.. and then like 10 min later it started smelling like melting plastic.. and then it sounded like a gun shot.. and then our fire alarm started going off.. haha so I guess we will be calling our proprietire.. ha and we were having a serious mold problem in our bathroom we found this amazing stuff that kills it in 2 seconds.. it has to be illegal.. it is so amazing!

So this week has been good... We learned self defense on Monday from Elder Hollist (our marine man.. now district leader for next transfer) Sora Hill came to observe and it was so much fun.. I can basically take any one out that tries to mess with me.. ha I think that Sora Kelly and I will now be assigned in teaching other sisters in the mission:) So it should be super fun!

Tuesday we went and did our service.. we are going to cut down on going to that place every week.. the kids are crazy in the heat and no one wants to learn english when it is so fun outside.. and it is really sad.. we were trying to talk with the kids and they starting messing with us.. trying to get us to swear.. sad.. so young... we then also went to english and we asked our class what they thought the purpose of life was.. it was crazy how many "eat drink and be merry" answers we recieved.. they were all like.. I think we are here to just be happy and enjoy ourselves... Sora Kelly and I had to testify about the importance of the fact that we are here to prepare to meet God. This day we were also walking home and there is a lot more gypsies and homeless people out now that it is warm... so this little gypsie kid starting following us and giving his recited lines "you are both beautiful.. please give me money" he kept repeating it and followed us all the way to our block.. I didnt know what to say.. as missionaries President Hill told us not to give out anything because as a church we pour a lot of money into this country... and it is not using our funds wisely.. so all I could say was "I am sorry.. and God loves you..." He then left after he realized he wasnt getting anything. I felt bad!

Wednesday our girl that was basically telling us she wanted to be baptized last week stood us up.. such a bummer.. we planned our whole day around her and even canceled one of our less active appointments for her... now she won't pick up or text us back... so not sure what to do about that?? I guess we will just keep trying until she tells us to stop! ha but this week we were really trying to have a good turn out at this easter family night thing we planned.. we invited the ward and then we passed out like 500 flyers to families.. we had an easter egg hunt and games and some food... I thought that it went good because some of our people from our English class came and a lot of people from the ward came.. no new families came to it.. but it was ok.. I still had a lot of fun that night!

We had a funny thing happen when we were waiting to get on our tram.. this lady was sitting there so we went over and started talking to her.. it was cool.. she make it clear she was orthodox and then our tram came.. We are riding on the tram and she comes back to us and gives us her grandsons number and tell us to call him.,. she was like.. "he speaks english" So we called him right there and he was very confused.. we invited him to church though and asked him if he wanted to know more.. He then called us the next day to say that he really thought it was a joke.. we gave him the mormon.org website to look up more about our church.. it was just funny because it was so random.. because we realized that his grandma was probably just trying to set us up with her grandson!!! hahaha but who knows.. he really might come to church!!!

On Sunday it was fun.. I am meeting with this guy in the ward because.. ok get this he is like a professional FLUTE player.. or he thinks he is haha He has been asking me for a while to get together and practice... he even brought out his phone and showed me all of the videos that he has done of him self playing.. this guy is like 60 years old.. ha so Sora Kelly had to give a little talk on Sunday in Romanian and she was very nervous and trying to rehearse with a girl in our ward.. well we have to be in the same room so she is there.. kind of freaking out and then I have to practice with this guy playing the flute!!! So funny.. I was laughing as I was playing.. haha it was funny to because I didnt have to play the piano in church so then I ended up leading everything and then a lady came up to me and asked if I would come play in primary.. ha so I went up there.. so now my schedule for sunday playing the piano will be - sacrament..sunday school- relief society and then run up to primary. then run back down to relief society.. hilarious.. but I must say it is making me improve... and it was hilarious so I am playing the "do as I am doing song" and it was so funny because the little boy had a toy gun.. so then the primary teacher gave a gun to the other boy and they started shooting each other in the song.. "high or low... fast or slow..." haha

That night we also met with one of our English students and she really really needs the gospel in her life... She doesnt have any hope and she says she only feels piece when she is with us.. She came to the church because she also loves to play the piano.. so she printed me out a song and really wants to teach it to me.. so that will be part of our lessons! We will see how it goes.. she thinks the bible is scary and corrupt so we just tell her to read the Cartea Lui Mormon!!

I love you all so so much!!! Have a great week!! We are so so blessed.. wow I can't say that enough!

cu drag,

Sora Abby Polatis