Hey family!!!!!

          Haha well Mom you are right, I definitely would have called you from the airport if I got my visa so yep I am still here. I guess there was only 3 sisters that got it!! I cant believe it. And they even came out a transfer behind me. That visa system is nuts!! So yea there are still 8 of us Elders from the MTC here in Iowa. I talked to President Jensen about it and he was telling me that brazil is needing their missionaries, so now they are not waiting for the transfer. I guess when its here you are gone!! So now I could be heading out any time. As for transfer doctrine. We are getting trainee so we are going to be in a trio again, should be fun. That will give me some more time to study the language while Elder Winchester is training him. We are back in a car share again too so a lot more walking is on the way.

       As for this week, not a lot happened. Found a new family of 3 that is pretty interested and needs the gospel so we are going to start working with them. But sheesh a lot of appointments were falling through like crazy!! That one lady did come to church again though and brought her daughter with her. I guess she stood up in relief society and told everyone how much she loved this church and stuff so that is sweet. Now if only she would let us come and teach her haha. She always says that she is just really busy with work and stuff. But a member was telling me that this lady asked her why she needed to be baptized again to be a member of the church..... Ha She just needs to let us teach her a ton more!!! We confirmed Odmandakh this sunday and after the confirmation this lady just leaned over when I sat back down and said she felt this huge "energy" I was like yep, that is what you call the Spirit of God. She just needs to be taught and baptized so this week we are really going to work on just sneaking over to her house one of these evenings and just teaching a short lesson.

     But yea Odmandakh was baptized last Saturday:) Great guy!! I just wish I could communicate with him more. I wish he was Brazilian:) But the few words he could speak in English was " I feel so happy!!" Ha and he really was. The smile he had when he came out of the water was awesome. We are going to get him a preach my gospel in Mongolian to help him learn more of the doctrine and stuff, and I think he is starting an English next week so that will be good for him. There was also another Mongolian lady that came to his baptism who had no idea what the church was, so we are teaching her this Friday at Mandakhs house:) She can speak some English thank goodness!!

         Oh yea and the reason that I didn't email yesterday was because I was at the temple. We went with this recently activated couple who wanted to go. It was so cool!! The Nauvoo temple is great!! Ha the new movie was actually pretty sweet too. But yea the temple is way cool how it was re-modeled after the first one. We also did baptisms and confirmations with the couple that brought us, because she had a few names with her. They really enjoyed it. They went from less-active to way strong members. They are always asking us what they can do to help us. They are willing to do anything ha.

                 Yea I can see why Uncle Dirk loved it here. Its a great place and the people are pretty friendly most of the time. I'm loving it here!! The visa thing keeps me on my toes but its the Lord's will and I don't think I had much patience back at home so this has strengthened me quite a bit. I love you guys!!!! Have an awesome week.

Love Elder Polatis

Our couple that took us to the Temple

Our Baptism--Ohmandahk

Our district

Our district--special

Well how is everyone?  But this week was really good. I focused in my studies on the blessings that I have and ways that I can improve myself instead of focusing on that which doesnt make me the most happy. Really it worked. I had a really good week. Came home at the end of the day and really what was on my mind was positive things! It just goes to show you that you really can talk yourself into anything and it will all be just fine. But a fabulous week.

Monday: We had our zone activity. We went to the Ruins at Bata. It was really quite fun! So pretty and it was fun to just get together with everyone. We took so many pictures. It was really weird to wear pants. But there really are some pretty things here. Which was nice. We were kind of rushed, we went back grocery shopped in record time and went to and FHE with the Mesa family. So many little kids, super loud but it was so much fun. We took 2 girls from the Ward, they are around the same ages as the investigators and they were the best fellowshippers. So friendly and very inviting of the girls. So we were way excited.

Tuesday, Well it was Tuesday. HA We went to our District meeting. Really it was helpful. When you have tried everything you can do for one family it was nice to get feedback from other missionaries of things you can try. So it was helpful. We went back to the church because we were to cheap to go home haha but we did our studies there. I was focusing on the Plan of Salvation. I know it, in english but in Hiligaynon I struggle a little bit. Mostly just for words. But I drew it out, must say, I am not really that artistic. But it was fun anyways.

Wednesday: So funny story. When Sisters leave they usually leave most of their clothes, Well we have 2 bags just of clothes. Well we were all feeling really sick of what we had, so yes, we did a little searching and we found 3 dresses, Not crazy hidious but bad enough that we still wore them. The one I wore isnt horrible. Sister Becerra and Sister Livingston have already taken their turn of wearing it, we are calling it the Sister hood of the nasty dress club. We all have to wear it. And who ever comes into the house should too. It was actually really comfortable and We all just had a good time with it. I had a really good day. Just went out and went for it. I felt like I talked to everyone. This lady stopped me she was kind of old and possibly drunk, but she was wearing this bag thing on her head, well I felt bad because it was raining really bad, But out of courtesy I offered her my umbrella, well usually they say no but thanks anyways. Well not her, SHE TOOK IT!! HAHA I was shocked. Well Heavenly Father Blessed me, it stopped raining and it didnt rain again until I bought a new umbrealla. IUt was Broken anyways but really I was hoping that it would get me through rainy season.

Thursday: We went out and just worked. We met with the Other sisters to get a cone after all our work was done. Well there was this drunk guy who came into the little convient store. Well he starts talking to us and asking us if we would give him a bible. I didnt have one so I just gave him a pamphlet. Well he would leave and keep coming back to it was starting to get uncomfortable, so the other sisters are like, "Lets go" But the whole store was like watching us and laughing so I decided to just share a little bit and extra loudly I told him what time church was so that others could here and maybe they would come too. HAHA kind of creepy but he was so drunk he couldn't catch us if he tired, poor guy couldnt even stand up straight.

Friday: Taught Sister Mary Joy and Brother John Fren. Oh my word. They are so ready. They will be baptized next weekend. It is a mom and her son. We taught the 10 commandments and I really was struggling through the lesson of speaking, but it was fine because we were all laughing and you could tell that the spirit was there anyways. They look away from the lesson what was needed. So not too horrible.

Saturday we had the baptism of Sister HyraMae. I love her. She is so smart and she understands everything. She is 13. She was so excited she showed up early and we taught her how to bear her testimony. She is the granddaughter of some of our members. So her grandpa baptized her. I was so excited. I never really get over that feeling of seeing the change in people. Not that she was ever bad but you can just tell that she is happy. She is learning new things and applying this gospel into her life. She had a super awesome testimony and really if she gets involved with the young womens and Personal progress she will be awesome.

We had a good day yesterday. I spoke in church. I focused on Missionary Work. How there are so many opportunities all around us. Even if we cant see them as a religious sharing moment, just doing service and being an example. People see that and they recognize that there is something different. We have a lot of new ideas that will hopefully help our proselyting. I am excited for next week. This transfer and flown by. But the work is good and we always do our best to really just make everyday the best. Even if sometimes it is hard, which it is.

But I love you guys. I am always glad to hear that everyone is doing good. We love our house, finally we dont have water issues, but that can change any second. HAHA never know. Everything is super green. Sometimes I am walking and it just hits me that I live on this Island. Weird. Gosh Abby and Tate sound really good.  I love you all! Be good and be safe. Make sure you follow us on FB. Bacolod Fifth Ward.  Miss you all! Feel free to send me pictures anytime you want! I love new pictures!!! HA LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!

Love Sis Sarah

Little Sister HyraMae!!

Preparing the font!!

The Aguando Family

P-day--to the RUINS!

leaning wall of the "Pines"

I feel a hand!

Chess anyone?

ugly dresses that ole sisters leave behind--I wonder WHY???

Buna! Ce mai faceti?

Well this week has been great! I can never really split it into days because I am now at the point where my days all blur together so I will just number some of the main highlights of my week! I love being a missionary! 

1- We skyped with Ritta and Petre!!! Can I just tell you that it is the coolest thing ever to do skype lessons! we had 3 last week! I never realized I had the capacity to love people so fast the way I do now. I can honestly say I love Ritta and Petre. We had a skype lesson with them last night all on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They are so cute!!! I could not stop laughing with excitement as we were all getting ready to start! they are so cute... getting their scriptures all in order with their marking pencils! We are now going to only have one skype lesson per week because she wants time to really study the material we give her! I have picture of us skyping it is so much fun!!! 

2- I spoke in Church Yesterday! wahoo!! It was crazy there was only like 15ish people there because most of the branch is still on their week long temple trip... but it was really cool! I spoke on "how we can apply the atonement in our lives." It was actually pretty long and I translated some of my personal stories so that I could tell them! I wasn't even really nervous until right when I was about to go up... but it was so cool- midway through my talk I found myself in awe... seriously I am speaking Romanian... telling stories... and was even able to throw out some good expressions! It was just how I would give a talk in english but in Romanian.. it felt really really good! I told the story of when I hit Maddy in the face right after she had her stitches out... I was just so thankful that mom and dad... you guys forgave me instantly... I felt so bad... I remember thinking you would hate me forever. But you were very understanding... if I remember right you called me from the hospital telling me everything would be ok. I compared you guys to how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ our very milosi with us just as you guys were to me! 

3- I had exchanges with Sora Kelly this week! It was so much fun! Reunited!! :) We want to serve with each other again so bad! but we had a lesson with our investigator and it WAS SO COOL! seriously these are the reasons I am on this mission. This is the investigator with the boyfriend and last lesson we challenged her to pray specifically about everything we had taught her.. She said. "I felt like Joseph Smith.. I went to a lot of different churches trying to find the truth. When I first met you girls I was very unhappy and didn't know what to do.. You guys teach me and help me. I have never been happier... I prayed about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and everything...(She then paused)... THIS IS IT! This is the truth. I have found it and I want to know more." I was almost in tears. It was so cool! after she hugged and kissed me on the cheeks and then hugged me again.. She looked at me and said. "you have changed my life." I was so happy!!! - After Sora Kelly and I did our studies on the beach and then she did all of her Sister Training Leader stuff with me. It was really fun! 

4- Another note about church on Sunday... (ps I love church in Romania... so much more entertaining than in the states) So one of our less actives sisters is speaking with me. She gets up and she is talking about her car accident she had had a few years back... Well she then was talking about how God blessed her and she said "Acuma... Eu merg... Eu dansez!!" Which means "now I can go and dance!" But when she said this it was accompanied by her dancing in front of the whole congregation with her hands twirling in the air!! ha I could not stop laughing... man... so funny! 

5- A girl in our branch opened her mission call! It was fun- crazy because for her to open her call it was all the missionaries and then she had one friend. It is crazy the role that missionaries play here in Romania! Well she is going to the Toronto Canada mission! She was freaking out and screaming and crying! and some Beesely lady and her husband from Rigby are the mission presidents! She was super excited! 

6- We have a new investigator this week! She is 14 years old and she is so cute! We are teaching her half english and half lessons! She is so nice! She seems very open and excited to read the Book of Mormon! 

Well we will also be finding out about transfers this week. I have no idea what is going to happen. I just have to trust that God will do with me what is best for myself and the mission. I remember feeling a little disappointed that I was coming back to Constanta in June.. I had found out by secret inside office sources that I was going to Moldova.. So I was all prepared for that and then... Constanta? at the time I thought it was strange... Now I can see that I was put back in this area because God truly does love me. The experiences I have been able to have over these past two transfers have been amazing highlights of my mission. I just need to remind myself that whatever happens is supposed to happen! I am excited to find out! Friday Morning is when I will find out!! :) Wish me luck! I love you all! Have a great great week!! Study your scriptures... :) They are true.. I also finished Pearl of Great Price this week! So cool! I also love Joseph Smith History! Keep the faith- keep me updated! I love you all so so much!!! mwwwaauuuhh! va iubesc!
cu mare mare mare drag!
Sora Abby Polatis 
 

Together again--just for 1 day--can't wait to serve with her again!

studying for my talk I had to give at church!!!

Typical mailboxes for 1 entrance into an apartment complex

Skyping my future baptism

a member going on a mission to Canada!!!  So exciting

I LOVE SKYPE-----So fun to teach this way!!!

another celebration!

so thirsty!!

Living on the water!

Baptism--YES

Hello All! Well I feel like I was just doing this yesterday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to JARON and BODE!!! Celebrate. I hope you have a wonderful day and that you party it up! HAHA love you both so much and we will celebrate next year!! Jaron your going to be 25??? WEIRD haha Crazy how time is flying!  During trials is the most important time to learn how important the Atonement really is! That is funny about the hospital bed! I hope that they like it and that it is something that will work for them! Scary to think that we all get older and things really do change really fast! But it is all for the best!  but ya I feel like a way different person here living sometimes with water and sometimes without it! Who would have thought!! HAHA But despite all the hard times I feel really good about being a missionary right now!! So many new things are happening to get this work going and I love it!

Tuesday we had our Mission Presidents Training! Ha I love President! He really is serious but you can tell that he loves us and just wants us to fulfill our potential as missionaries! We focused a lot on "Harnessing the power of the members!" So we got some good ideas to help with that! But Sister Livingston and I were authorized to use FACEBOOK! We have now begun online proselyting! We will take turns with the other Sisters. But it was awesome! It is the Bacolod Fifth ward if you want to check it out!! HA it was weird getting back into the FB scene! But hopefully we will be able to find Less Actives and find people interested through other people! Fingers Crossed that it works! We were pretty excited about it! We will spend probably an hour every couple days to keep it updated! We went out and did normal proselyting. When we got home it was way dark, there was a brown! This was my first one where it was like dark outside so I was a little bit nervous but Sister Vargus whipped these candles out from no where and we all just hung out in the candlelight. I felt like I was in an old movie or something! Pretty funny!!

Wednesday: The other sisters were still pretty lost about where stuff was and where people lived. So we went out with them for a couple hours! Then we headed to our area! We stopped by this house where there are Less actives and investigators. Well as we were teaching it is pretty normal for all the little neighbor kids to come in (because we are american) So we let them come in, it was a huge group of kids well it started getting loud but we didnt mind we usually try to have fun with it but they were getting distracted really easy, so we whipped out the cotton ball alcohol experiment and it worked like a charm. All fully focused and ready to answer our questions. Super awesome and we found some new investigators from it.....LEGIT

Thursday: We had a really good day of teaching. We followed up with Marjoe. He is so awesome. Smart as a whip and just super excited that he was going to be baptized. He reads like everything that we tell him and hopefully he will get the priesthood right away and start passing the sacrament. I love that kid. 

The rest of the week was awesome. We did more online proselyting and then had our baptism on Saturday. Everything went so smooth. The elders came from Bata, they are our zone leaders. They taught Rian but she will be in our ward because she comes with her aunt. Both were really excited. We started on time and everything. Dont judge my pictures tho, It was a brown out and I feel like I looked really ugly, I was so happy on the inside but the outside was kind of a killer haha (Yes I still am a girl-kind of superficial.) We had a good attendance at church on Sunday for recent converts. We are kind of stuck at 50%. We are trying to find ways to get them all there. Take a lot of work. But really things are going good. Sometimes I really do find things that I love. Language is Language. Sometimes I can speak and sometimes I really struggle. But It will come. I just have to be patient.. I love you all! Be good and be safe! MMUUAH!

Love Sister S Polatis

Bro. Dequina with daughter Roalie

Mesa fAMILY

Baptism of Klay Klay

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BODE AND JARON!!! la multi ani si sanatate! :) Give Bode a big kiss from me!!  I love you both and I am excited to celebrate with you both next year! Jaron good luck in school! You will love it!  Hearing about all of these different trials that we have in this life make me very happy to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. There is a mormon message called "mountains to climb" By President Erying onlds.org. The video nearly puts me into tears every time I watch it. The trials people face seem unfair... and almost not needed. one sentence is "When I have done all I can to be good... why has this happened to me?" it is true but the more I study I find out why we are here - the more trials make sense to me. We are here to prove ourselves... worthy to be heirs to the Celestial Glory that we all have the potential in obtaining. It does not make the trials any easy or less sad. Heavenly Father knows that we are sad. He cries with us. But He is also there just waiting for us to cry out to Him so He can lift us up and show us His tender mercies and love.

Well this week has been pretty good. Kind of a random week so I will just number some stuff off for you all:
1-  I finally started feeling better yesterday. It is kind of a rough week when you are sick in a foreign country. But I managed and I am now on my way to a full recovery. I couldn't hear out of my left ear and there was so much pressure on that side of my face I really thought that my ear drum was going to burst. I called Sora Hill She told me what meds to take and then she called the Doctor in Germany. Well he called me a few days later and I was feeling better so I didnt have to get antibiotics or anything so it worked out:) 

2- Remember the guy that was like yelling at us when we were trying to teach the lady on the side of the road... Well we got on the bus and he was there! ha He just looked at us in disgust and almost looked defeated to see that he had not stopped us from carrying around our books of mormon and talking to people... He then crosses himself and looked up to the Heavens as if he was asking for protection from us--- the evil sister missionaries! ha we just smiled and said hello. 

3- Another cool story we had the other day was we were walking down the street and a lady across the road called out to us and asked us to come over. We walked across the street and she was asking us for directions (ironically to the Adventist church) ha of course we had no idea but she was like "I knew I could ask you because you guys look like people of God-- with your Bibles in hand" We then went on and explained to her all about the Book of Mormon and she took it and said she would read it! So cool! People do notice us in Romania! 

4- We watched some of the General Conference from April 2013 at church yesterday because most of the ward is gone on the temple trip to Ukraine so there was like 10 of us at church. I could understand all the talks! It was so cool! It helps that I have heard them in English before but it was a really cool moment for me. I LOVE President Monson. His obedience talk is AMAZING! I love the story of him and Danny Larson. So cute! 

5- Sora Rivera and I only have 2 weeks left together this transfer. President in our interviews told us we were for sure getting split next transfer. So we have decided to bust out all our Romanian skills- We are now only speaking Romanian outside the apartment at all times.. I know we are supposed to be doing that but it is hard sometimes so we are really dedicated.. and right after we make the goal we saw instant results! We were speaking on the bus and one of the ladies who was checking out tickets starting reading my tag and talking to us. She asked where I was from then she just starts touching and hugging and kissing me! So funny I am not used to that reaction! Then We were walking home and another women came up and started kissing and hugging us- I guess she is pretty familiar with the missionaries! ha so yes a lot of love for me that night! it was so funny! 

6- I finished the Doctrine and Covenants! So cool! I love the scriptures. I feel like I am learning so much about the characteristics of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love how so many times it says "your sins are forgiven you" and then they are given an assignment. This really connected to the talk from April conference. "Christ wants to Forgive." So amazing! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want to forgive us and help us move on and progress in life. They don't really care so much as were we have been with where we are willing to go with their help! I just love it! I feel like God knows us so personally. I started reading the Pearl of Great Price this morning and I will finish before the end of this transfer! 

7- We are skyping our Jewish Lady tonight! It was supposed to happen last night but they had to reschedule for tonight... we are so excited we went over there last night and made sure that  everything was working! we are all set! I am sure we are the first people in the whole world to be having a skyping lesson from Romania to Isreal with a Jewish lady who now believes in Jesus Christ! We are beyond Excited! Her baptism as of right now is still scheduled for the 28th - but we are hoping to move it up:) 

I love you all so much! I have the best family ever! Have a great week- Keep me updated on all! I love you so so so much! :) numai bine... sanatate... pa pa... la revedere! va pup!! pa pa (This is how you say good bye to people here.. ha it takes forever to hang up the phone) :) 

cu mare mare drag! 

Sora Abby Polatis  

Tate eats at the mall everyday

at Panda Express--Not Abby--just found 1

Hiiiiiii Family!!!:)

      Elder Winchester and I are trying to get a ride down to the Nauvoo temple tomorrow to do a session with one of his converts that is ready to go in. I'm way excited. I bet that Temple is amazing inside.

        Some cool things happened this week though, not a lot but some ha. So there was this young family that just barely got re-activated like a month, I think I told you about them, we go play ping pong at their house every Monday. But anyway, they are awesome!!!! They were called as ward missionaries and just want to help out with anything they can. They are great and definitely going to speed the work up. I love having them in Gospel Principles class because they just can really relate to the people that we bring to church. So here is the miracle for the week. We spent all day Saturday just looking for people and it was just a really rough day. We did come in contact with this black family that we taught once and they said that they were for sure coming to church, and of course they didn't show up. So it is like 20 minutes before sacrament meeting starts and we have a few investigators there but I was just feeling like this week we didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but right when I was thinking that a lady that we had been teaching just comes out of no where!! Ha its that lady that can like see spirits and stuff. She was gone for like 2 weeks in Vegas and we have had no contact with her and she just decides to show up. She said that she wanted to check it out before she brought her kids. I was way excited because this family would be great to watch progress and become members of the church. It was a great day of church too. She has always thought of us as being like this perfect people and never making any mistakes and just being weird and that is where that less active couple comes into play because in Gospel Principles class she was just bearing her testimony and telling about how she did all this stuff and finally realized that this was the true church. It was great. So now we have an appointment with them this week and can hopefully get them a goal as to when they can be prepared to be baptized. Anyway that's about all that really happened last week. We did have a ton of dinners with members which was awesome. Usually the Sisters get all the dinners ha.

       Gosh transfer calls are already this Saturday again!!! I cant believe it. I am excited to see once again if I got my visa though ha. A member was telling me that his dad has a calling in the church and knows stuff about visas and said that Brazil does have a great relationship with the church there has just been so many that it is just taking a long time. 

       

          Tell grandmas and grandpas hi for me, I miss them all. Yea things are going good here though. We have the Mongolian guys baptism this Saturday. Odmandakh!! Ha he is a cool guy. I have a lot of respect for his faith because he cant really understand what goes on at church all that well and he is still going through with it. The language of the Spirit is great!! I got my little Hino ( Brazilian hymn book) So now I make my companion sing some hymns with me every morning before I start my language study:) Its great.

          Have a great week family:) Love youuuuuuu!!!!

Love, Elder Polatis

Our baptism

My new friend!!

Hi family

Monday: REUNITED!! Oh my word! I got to work with Sister Arnold again on Monday night! I really have missed that girl! Sister Livingston went with her companion to a different area! So we hit up all our old 'best lesson spots" we really just acted like we were still companions except that I was able to speak a lot better than I used to! We really had a fun! I will miss her! I cant believe how fast time goes, she goes home so soon! LOVE HER!! So it was a good day of proselyting!

Tuesday:So since we had to split our area with the other sisters we had to actually go to areas that I haven't been to in a while so it was kind of fun! We went to Riverside. Oh my! What an adventure! It was raining and flooding, and really Riverside isnt by a river at all.....more like a swamp! HA There are these bamboo bridges everywhere and when the bamboo gets wet it gets slippery, I think I almost fell in the swampy water like 800 times! The ward missionaries were like "Sister, Hinay" HAHA like slow down, be careful! But I was on the move. I needed to find these people and it was starting to get dark! We were able to find about 3 families of whom I have never met and haven't been to church in a while! We found one that has a daughter who isnt baptized, so we will work with them and hopefully get the family reactivated and baptize the daughter! I was excited. I felt like I could just do and say whatever and hopefully they can feel like they can trust me and start to come back! A tad hard hearted- But seriously, that doesn't really bug me! I will still try to get them back!! So needless to say, it was HARD but I loved it! I cant wait to find more people in that area. I am sure that once I get a little more familiar with the area I will be fine!

Wednesday: We had exchanges today. So I had to go to Silay! It was with Sister Maloata. What a champ! I loved her! She just attacked her work and really gave me some awesome insights to what I might want to apply here in 5th ward! We had a good day. I had my first tsaangi (Chungy??) experience! Ha sorry I cant spell! But they are all over here and I never stop. Just little stores all along the way. Well Sis M got hungry and so I decided to buy too! HA it was...different! Kind of nice! HA random, I know! We were teaching this lady who was previously catholic and it was like 9pm I was so tired and really this family had a lot of excuses. They had a Santos, Santos in their house (graven image) Well I just sat there trying to catch all of what she was saying about how it isnt bad to have in her house if she isn't praying to it and that it is a sign of respect in the Catholic church and what not, Well me, you know me when I am tired, a tad grouchy and just like wanting to get out, plus my legs were being attacked by mosquitoes. Sister M was trying to explain it like 5 times. Finally I just was like "Sister, I understand it is respect, BUT what is the point if you arent praying to it! And you need to pray and ask God if he wants it in your home, if he says yes, then go for it! But I am pretty sure He would send feelings of discouragement" HAHAHA i felt like a BRAT! I said it nice, it just started to annoy me! After the lesson Sister M gave me props! I didnt feel quite so bad about it! And I cant wait to see if she got rid of it or not! Next week! But it was fun! I liked exchanges!

Thursday:Another Day of Hitting up a new area! We this time went to Sibucao. It is right by the ocean and has such a pretty view. We found a former investigator and visited some LA's! It will take some time but I think that all will be fine! We will continue to work hard in those areas and hopefully people will be open and receptive to the things that we have to say! TANI!!! But we were trying to find this house, and alone the way when it is muddy they have tires that you can jump on to get over without getting to muddy, well this really shady looking kid was helping us find the way and he is in front of me, well I jumped to the next tire and SLIPPED!! HAHA next thing I know this kid is like holding on to me, and yes, I am weird! I like freaked out! Thanking him like a million times but feeling so nervous that the contact we just made was not a handshake! HAHA weird! He was nice though! Maybe I will go back and teach him, who knows! HA

Friday: So i LOVE it when things that I have studied come to my mind in lessons! Really built my testimony that the Spirit is in our lessons and that my studies paid off. We taught Gibran. We gave him a BofM last week and he is already in 2nephi! SO awesome! He is really so interested and he wants to read! All the time he says that this is probably going to be his religion! We were feeling that he was getting to engulfed in knowing everything instead of focusing on how the spirit was testifying to him. So we talked to him about faith and feeling the spirit. All the things I studied earlier just kept coming to mind, since he rejected a Bap date last week I was nervous but something kept at me to just say what I studied and to see where it went. Well I just told him that sometimes we have to take a step in the dark and know that we will have a firm foundation placed under our path. Well he accepted to a date!!! YES!!! I was so excited. He has so much potential and I am stoked to go back this week. 

Saturday-This was the bitter part of the week! Our Baptismal Candidate DIDN'T show up:( He was too sick! He has arthritis and Cancer and he has just been feeling so horrible. BUT we will continue to help him be ready! He has so much desire and he needs to be baptized. We still had a baptism for Farah, Paula and Adrian. Technically it counted for the other sisters but we were the ones that taught them. So they were excited to see us and They were way excited for baptism. Super Cute!! After the Baptism we met with the other Sisters! They are excited to get the work going more in our ward and so we talked about ways to unify our work! We will try them out next week! 

Sunday: Another great Sunday! Most all of our Investigators with a Baptismal date were at church! So they are still progressing! We had an interview for Brother Marjoe. He is a stud! Oh my gosh! He is smart as a whip and he loves all the stories from the Book of Mormon. We started to ask him what he remembers and he can state like everything that we have taught him! He is more than ready and he is 12 and on Sunday he asked when he would be able to pass the sacrament! So I am excited to see him progress after his baptism! We had a good MCM with our ward. They are super helpful and really willing to help us out! This next week will be awesome! I am getting a little better at language everyday. It helps that now I dont let it eat me up inside. If I cant say something or I dont get it I just laugh and ask what! So hopefully soon I will be just letting it come out and not stumbling! But slowly but surely!! I know I can do this! All good things take time!! 

I really love you all! I was thinking the other day how really LUCKY and BLESSED i am! I have the best support system in the whole world! That all of us are active and knowing who we need to follow. It blows my mind sometimes! I just think of how far I have come and wonder really what would have happened had I stayed at home! I love this! As hard as it is I love it! I know that I can do hard things! I just never gave myself the chance to do it!  But I LOVE LOVE LOVE you all! MMUUAAH! Cant wait until next week to hear from you! Just about half way and it is nuts! I feel like I just got here! Weird! Tell everyone HI for me!!

LOVE

Sis Sarah

our splits

Our "Baptisee" before the Baptism

ready to be baptized

Buna Dragii mei! 

FOOD STORIES

-Rough week for food. So we decided to go visit some members in the ward they are really nice and they have three kids. We were walking up and we already ate dinner because we usually don't get fed- Well we run into the Dad and he has grocery bags of food and he was like "you guys haven't eaten have you?" We said- "a little." then he said "Good because we have food for you!" So we walk into the house. I will just paint this picture for you. It is 100 degrees. No Air conditioning. A little 2 month old baby is crying. A two year old little girl is crying. And a 5 year old boy is running around crazy. The mom is in the kitchen preparing our feast. The husband wont let us help or do anything because he is showing us all of their pictures from Portugal. I tried to go help and he was like "no no look at all my pictures." Well after that we all sit down at this little table and the mom brings out our food. She places this big bowl of...... (my stomach dropped) Greek salad. Including... potatoes, boiled eggs, pepper, olives, some sauce and FISH. but don't worry they reassured us.... "its raw fish... straight from the Black Sea." first off you all know that I DISLIKE fish and second we are not supposed to eat fish from the black sea. Well how could we turn it down? He has been out of work for years... they live in this tiny apartment and the mom had just spent an hour making us this "gourmet meal" so I dished out my plate and I did a pretty good just of not getting the fish. Well after I finished the Dad was like "o you need more!" I tried to turn him down but with no luck! He loaded my plate up with 2 more big spoon fulls filled with fish. I just prayed that I would die and swallowed the raw fish strips whole. Heavenly Father really helped us out... I don't know how I did that! 

-Yesterday we went over to a lady's house in our ward to teach her non member husband. Well she always loves to feed us. We got there and it was ..... mamaliga... sorry I don't mean to sound bratty but I am just not a fan... it is like raw corn meal... but the best part of it is that she had cheese that she put with it and as she was pouring out the cheese onto the plate- Sora Rivera pulled out like 3 pieces of hair from the cheese- She reassured us that that was a good sign because it was "non processed cheese" We almost died! I was really missing my very process Cheddar cheese from the states. Thankfully Sora Rivera ate about half of my plate when they left because randomly one of their neighbors came to the gate and was like "hurry miheala... someone is dying..." so the family took off running because one of their really old neighbors was dying. 

Well there is my food stories for the week. ha o Romania- You just have to love it!!! 

 Our investigators are doing good. Our Jewish people are excited to have skype lessons with us in Israel so we are pumped about that. We had a lesson with Andreea... She is amazing! So ready to get baptized! I am so excited for her to be baptized in September! Alina is super solid also- She thinks that we are her angels she is progressing every week just a little slow! but we love her! 

We also started doing this service project where we meet with like 6 girls and two small families at this cafe thing and we are teaching them English and things about the United States. It is really fun. A lady just asked us if we would do it because they know that we are Americans- They give us free strawberry lemonades so it is a win win situation! We are really trying to give a good name to the church. Then afterwards they taught us how to make bracelets and they had to do it all in English. It was super fun! 

A little bit rough on health this week.. we were playing frisbee on Friday night and I fell into this hole and twisted my ankle... I was so scared that I broke it but... thankfully it was fine... I got up.. walked it off and kept playing! My ankle feels great today... and also I NEVER get sick but when I do get sick my whole body shuts down... Well that has been me for the past couple of days.. but we still go out and do everything. Our investigator that came to church was like "it is because you drank water that had ice in it." ha she was being dead serious so I just agreed with her and was like "yes you are probably right!" I was trying to play the piano and I could not play to save my life. Ha but I still made it work and we were still able to sing.

I love Romanian... I am so glad to be here! Being a missionary is the best thing ever! I would not trade it for anything in the world. The scriptures are true! I know that God Loves us so much! I hope that you all have a great week! Good luck with everything! I love you all!
Cu mare mare Drag, Sora Abby Polatis

After my hair "dye" day

street contacting in English

random telephone booth

my district fake laughing

My real district

aren't we cute

we love faking happiness

Hey Family!!

          

        This week has been a fairly good week. A little disappointing because the 18 year old kid that we were going to get baptized this Saturday is too scared of his parents and said that he wants to go to college first and study a little more before he gets baptized. So now I have no idea when that is going to be. So this week was pretty full with finding:) Haha which kills your self esteem pretty fast!! ha jk. We actually had some pretty good success. Finally got to teach this black guy that I knocked into a month ago, and we got his daughter and wife to listen and her daughters friend. It was a pretty quick lesson, but the spirit was there and they ate it up. Ahh I just hate when they come at you with hugs!!!! That is just an abomination to me right now haha. So we have to tell them that we aren't really supposed to hug anyone of the opposite sex, but it just shows me that they really liked the lesson. They are also ready to give up smoking and all that so we are going to work with them this week. Also found another family from Kenya. The dad came to the door wearing an Idaho shirt so that was definitely a good conversation starter, and I guess he has a sister in-law that lives in Idaho falls. They were pretty cool but really Baptist ha. They are going to take a lot of work.

        We also had a lesson with the old lady that took us to the Nauvoo pageant. Ha we went over there and got to make our own pizzas:) She was so funny. I told her that we could only be there for like an hour and she was pretty upset. She thought that we were going to stay until our night was over. Ha so it was kind of a rushed lesson, but she has just had a hard life and wants nothing to do with the Book of Mormon. She did come to church on Sunday though and stayed for all 3 hours. In Gospel Prinicples we were talking about the spirit world, and she had no Idea what that was so it was perfect and got her wanting to learn more. So now she is reading the Book of Mormon;) We will have to turn her over though because she is not in our ward boundaries, but I think that she will progress pretty quickly.

         Yea the transfer is almost over again which is crazy!! So I guess I'll get to see if I've got it or not again. I always hear about how crazy Brazil is getting though so maybe the general authorities are just keeping me safe and holding on to my visa. Everything is going good here though. We are going over to this recently activated families house today to play some ping pong and stuff so I'm excited for that. It has been forever since I've played some ping pong. I'm excited for this week though. We're focusing on setting some dates this week and our schedule is pretty full so we should be way busy this week.

    How is harvest going? It was about this time last year when I was working that with one arm:) But everything is going great, and I'm having fun. It really is a great time to be a missionary. I guess the general authorities have said no more backpacks so I might have to find a side bag or something. But President Jensen said to get one that has a place for a mini I-pad so we might be getting some soon. The work is definitely changing. I love you all!!! Thanks for all your prayers and support. Have a great week.

Love, Elder Polatis

What a successful week! Crazy but it really went well. It was transfer week but I stayed in 5th ward with Sister Livingston, so probably 6 more weeks here! Everyone always gives me crap saying that I will have a Bacolod 5th ward mission haha! Maybe I will! But Sister Davis was transferred from our House she is now is Mansilingan I believe and Sister Vargus is now training an America, Sister Becerra! She is awesome! We all get along super good so that is nice! There were 29 new missionaries and 21 of them were sisters!! Crazy! And I think the next transfer is about the same! Sisters are taking over the field! So first, Mondays are always good! Of course it is P-day! We all went out and got everything all prepared. We followed up with some of the LA's in our ward so just quick visits but they were needed. They need to know that we are still thinking about them and wanting them to come to church!  

Tuesday: We went to our District meeting and I was just feeling it! I We needed to get out and do work!! Well we love the words "I have a referral for you" They are the best things ever! Well it was from a guy in our ward to gives them to us a lot but sometimes they arent really interested so I was a little nervous about this one. But we go to this house and the guy is speaking in Hiligaynon. Then when we start the lesson he starts out speaking ENGLISH!! BLESSINGS!! HAHA  His name is Gibran! He is in his 30's and really is such a religious guy! As we were talking to him he was telling us just that there is something different about the Mormons and that we are all so helpful and wanting to help others all the time. He was previously Roman Catholic and says that something was just always missing so he is on the search for the truth. Anyways so he had so so so many questions and most were just about the priesthood and then what happens to us when we die. Well I wasnt sure where to start, like what should I teach. Well the restoration seemed like the best place to go! Well I start out and then all the sudden he was asking me "Why did the mobs kill Joseph Smith? He was a really good guy just trying to make the world a better place!!" I was like WHAT??  You know about Joseph Smith? He was like Yes, I studied about him from.....oh what do you call it the D&C??? HAHA I just bust out laughing!! I loved it!! Also he has read true to the faith!! So needless to say it isnt just explaining the basics! He really wants to know! I was so surprised and I think he will definitely progress!

Wednesday: Most days are just normal where we teach and we really did good this day! We had a dinner appointment with Crystal and Fidel. They are awesome, we had chopped suey! That is becoming one of my favorites just because I love the veggies and of course rice! 

Thursday! We found some new investigators last week a 15 year old girl and a 10 year old boy! They just live in the neighborhood of  some of our recent converts! Well we started teaching them earlier this week and today both of their moms came and sat in with us! The mom of brother Johnfren the 10yr old seems interested! So we focused on them. We taught the Word of Wisdom and she committed and from what I know she doesnt have a problem! I was just so stoked because I was actually able to speak Hiligaynon thru the whole lesson! Once again BLESSINGS!!! HAHA

Friday, Well we got the news that we would be having another set of missionaries in our ward! 2 sisters! It is Sister DeQuina and Sister Monson (yes she is related to the prophet) HA Sister D has been in the mission 4 months and Sister Monson is brand new! 4 days or something like that! So we met up with them and split the area. We took them on a little tour of what their boundries would be and told them what we had planned and just let them go! We will probably have to work with them more to make sure they know where they are going! They are so cute and we are excited, our area was huge and it will be nice to focus on certain areas!

Saturday: We had a one day mission! Well not really one day, 2 hour mission! Ha we have a huge ward list and we needed to know if they still lived here or what! So we divided and it actually went really well! I love the members who came and supported! It is nice for them to get out and help us find so that when we get transferred the people will know some members! It was great! We will try it again sometime soon and hopefully it can be a little bit longer! We had a pizza afterwards! This pizza is the biggest pizza I have every seen! It was so funny! Tasted Pretty good too!

Sunday! Man, Blessings really do await you when you do what is right! (I might be getting a little weird ha) Quoting hymns and what not! HA! We had a really good day for investigator attendance! The Johnfren and his MOM came! I was so happy to see her and she seemed happy to be there! We had a baptismal Interview for Jaime. He is 59 and has kidney cancer, used to do dialysis 2 times a week and now he has arthritis so he cant take pain meds. Well on Saturday we did a BIQ review with him and he was like "Sisters Im to sick to go to church, I can barely walk." But I was like you need to try your hardest! If you miss your interview you cant be baptized. Well HE CAME!!!!! Poor guy I felt so bad! He was hurting like crazy but he knows that he needs to be baptized so he made it happen! That was a huge testimony builder to me! Being in so much pain but still doing all that he could to fulfill his purpose!! I love it! So He will be baptized on Saturday! I am so excited! I know that this church is true! I love being here and even though it is hard majority of the time and that our running water isn't really every running haha I can do this! I know that Heavenly Father knows us and he gives us what he knows we can handle! He really wants the best for us and when we struggle I think a lot of the times it is because we aren't turning to who we need to be turning to! I love the Book of Mormon! Man amazing the insights that I have received and learning how to apply them to me! I have found out how I like to teach and I can see my personality coming out more and more everyday! I kind of hid it when I couldnt speak and now I cant do that! I just let it go and maybe that is how people will respond to me! Sister Livingston was saying to me the other day, she was like "Sister, I want to be more friendly, like you! People genuinely like you and they trust you!" Not like patting myself on the back but it was nice to hear! We all are so different but that is how we contribute to those around us!! I love this work! So fun!!! Be good and be safe!! Until next week!!! Gosh I miss you guys!!! You are the BEST!!!! MMUUAAH ~~~HI TO ALL~~~

Sarah

Typhoon--forgot to shut my window

Tracting in this much water and who knows what else!!

our 1 day missionaries!

Our HUGE pizza after our 1 day mission day!