Buna Ziua Dragii Mei! 

I love my mission so much! Honestly this week was so great! We had a lot of random things happen this week. So to start off with just some highlights from the days:

Monday: 

We were contacting on the street and the district president and his family in their car pulled up along the side of us and was honking and giving us thumbs up signs! I loved it so much! That never happens here- I felt like a united states missionary for about one minute! I loved it!

Tuesday: 

-We had this new girl come to English and the family walked in and they were like... "o ya just bring her home after.. blah blah here is our number bye..." Before I could even say anything.- So we ended up escorting this girl back to her house. It was just kind of a weird situation but then it was really cool because when we got to their house. The family had just gotten home from something and they said, "O sorry we didnt mean you had to bring her all the way home just to a convenient close spot and then called us to come pick her up. Well I guess my romanian was lacking when they were saying that part.. but it worked out super well.. because they were super grateful and they said.. "come over anytime!" We are for sure going to take them up on that offer and hopefully teach the whole family! 

- After that we were going to go contacting and we were with another set of Elders in our group well one has only been in the country about 4 weeks so.. we were walking and we said "hey that guy over there is crazy just ignore him" Well he then looks right at him and the crazy man walks over to him.. gets down on his knees and just starts praying to him... and crossing himself. He didn't know what to do. His companion tried making it less of a scene in front of everyone and says to the crazy man.. "it is such a great thing that you pray!" ha we were dying! 

Wednesday: 

This day is why I said my mission is a fairytale. We received permission to switch our pday to wednesday so we all woke up at 4:30 am and hopped on a 2 hour train up to the mountains of romania! it was amazing! The castle is so so cool! We took a lot of pictures but I will save them for when I get home! it was so much fun! We were able to talk to a lot of different people from all around the world. Australia, Israel. the USA. it was so much fun! everyone wondered who the fancy dressed up group of young kids were. We went on the tour and it was so amazing! secret trap doors and so many rooms! plus we were up in the mountains so it was clean fresh air and the view was incredible. After our tour we came out and took some pictures and then all of the sudden this random couple comes up to us and is super nice to us and introduces himself as "brother something.." yep your guessed it.. a tour group of mormons were at the castle that day all from good old Utah! it was really weird. They were super excited to see us! They were confused why we were there on a wednesday because they know our pdays are mondays.. ha there was about 20 of them and then they were asking us how the missionary work was going... We all kind of looked at each other and said,,,"well its a little slow.. but it is great!"

 A women asked me how long I had been out.. it was weird to say 11 MONTHS! crazy.. but she then said, "wow you must have had a lot of baptisms..." I said some people that I have taught are getting baptized soon... but it was funny! I think they understood and wished us luck! We then used our secret language of Romanian and ditched out so we could continue on exploring! 

- As we were walking back sora lund wanted to buy these cheap hand woven wool romanian sweaters.. they are so warm! they are pretty ugly.... ha o sora lund.. I love her! We then bought some fresh raspberries..... mmmmmmmmmm so so so good! I miss some good fresh raspberries! I was in heaven! 

-We then came and tried to catch our train. It was running like 1.5 hours late.. and the people said they would charge us 100 lei to switch our tickets so we just decided we would wait it out. Well then this random train comes up and our zone leaders asks a lady if we can hop on because it was going towards bucharest she said yes and we all hopped on to the random train. And of course we just make ourselves comfortable in first class... ha I just followed the crowd. I knew that we were going to get kicked off.. ha there is no way they would let all 11 of us just hop onto the wrong train. Well the ticket people came back and Elder Whitehead explained to him that a lady wearing an official hat said we could get on and that we could sit in first class.. ha well they didnt let us stay in first class.. but they did let us stay on the train- but we just had to go down to 2nd class! So lesson learned.. always ask for more than you want. Maybe if we had started in 2nd class they would have kicked us off the train! haha 

Thursday and Friday 

Exchanges in Constanta! 

it was super fun! we got on a maxi taxi and headed to constanta. It was a lot of fun! I love constana! I had a really great exchange with Sora cook. She was my sister training leader last transfer so it was fun to have the roles switched! She goes home in about 2 weeks so I really didnt know what I could offer her right at the end! But we really talked about enjoying every moment and always setting good goals! it was great! We then got on a maxi taxi friday night and it was about 1000 degrees so we couldnt sleep but we made it home! 

Saturday

Helping hands day.. some clean up holiday in Romania so we cleaned up around a metrou stop. it was crazy we were like cleaning up where people had been living. Shoes... clothes... other people items... it was really fun! The district president of romania is my favorite! he led all of us missionaries to be his back of singers as he was singing a popular song in romanian! then as he was cleaning I hear him burst into "Beautiful zion!"  song as we are picking up trash! I think he is so great and sees such a bright future for romania! At the end he said "We want to especially thank all of the women that worked here today because we know the men are used to working this hard." I didnt know if I should take that as a compliment or insult! ha 

-We had a lesson with a girl from english. She seemed really nice and it was going well but she is SUPER ORTHODOX ha like the little old ladies on the street. She is only 16 but we told her we respect her religion. We still tried our best to bear testimony to her. It was sad.. She doesnt really know who God is. She said she was scared to pray to him! I felt so bad for her. Even though she said she wasnt interested- we still committed her to try to say a personal pray to God this week and she said yes- So we will see how it goes! 

Then that night we had an amazing dinner and the bensfield home. She and her husband our from America and he works at the embassy! It is probably the best meal I have had since I have been in the country! I love her! ;lemon chicken, fruit salad, normal salad, noodles, brownies and peppermint chocolate ice cream!! so good--

Sunday: 

Never a dull sunday! So we are all in sacrament meeting and it starts to smell really bad of garlic. So we had to open the windows even though it was freezing! Well at the end of sacrament meeting after the prayer.. Sora Gorzo stands up and says ..well yells, "next week all the men need to take showers it smells so bad in here! it was so funny!

Well that was my week! I love my mission:) I am so excited for general conference this weekend I can hardly stand it!!! it is going to be so much fun! I leave for Arad tonight on a midnight sleeper train. Dont worry first class again! We will lock the door:) and then I will arrive home thursday morning at like 6 am.. zone conference friday in bucharest and then General Conference weekend!! wahoo! it looks like it is going to be another great week! I love it! can you believe it is almost October! crazy! I am 22 in like 2 weeks!!!! I love you all! have a great week! 

Cu mare drag,
Sora Abby Polatis 

ola minha familia, Tudo bem??

         Sheesh it seems like I just wrote you all a couple of days ago, time just goes by too fast! I'm waaaayyyy excited for conference!!!!:) I cant believe that this is already my second conference in the mission! I hope all of you are ready for a great spiritual experience and have your notebooks out ready to take notes. Its so great being able to go back and really ponder about what the general authorities say. I love it!! So Rigby is winning football games???????????? Wow that is some news to my ears. 

         So this week has had some ups and downs. We'll start with the downs. So the 11 year old black kid was supposed to be baptized this Saturday right, and he wanted me to baptized him, so I was pretty excited because I hadn't baptized anybody yet. But like 6 hours before his baptism we got a text that said he changed his mind. I guess he talked to his dad and his dad told him that he needs to know more before he just joins a church. It stunk. I mean he passed the interview and was ready to go. We even got him a white shirt and tie darn it!!! So we went over to his apartment that day and talked to him and his mom about it. He said that he just wanted more time, and then his mom said that it would be cool if they could get baptized together which of course we thought was great, so we set another date for the 2nd of November for him and his mom. I think it is also a good thing that he didn't get baptized yet because he didn't even make it to church yesterday so he probably does need to come a little bit more to get more comfortable. On the bright side we set a date with the Dillon Family for October 12th! The dad is totally supportive but he is not ready yet. So it will be the mom and the 2 out of the 3 kids ( the other one will be baptized next year when he turns 8) Its really exciting to see the change that has taken place in her life. The kids are loving church and the mom says that she can't not go. We gave her a blessing last time of comfort and she said that she hasn't had any problems with seeing dark things since that. I love hearing that, because it just adds to my testimony that the Priesthood is real! So they are set for that date! We showed them the baptismal font yesterday and she was a little nervous of being in front of people but its not a big deal, she wants it bad enough. They also have been feeding us every time we go over there so that is another great plus to that! We will keep working with the father and hopefully get him to really gain that desire to believe and plant that seed in his heart.

      Another exciting thing happened last night. We drove past the Portuguese couples house and saw that the lights were on so we decided to stop by. The wife answered the door and of course told me that she couldn't speak English and that her husband was gone who could speak some English. Haha so of course I start speaking some Portuguese with her and told her that I only had 6 weeks training in the MTC. She said I spoke really well. Bom Bom!!:) Haha she was extremely nice, it was tough though that's for sure. I pulled out a livro de Mormon and told her all about it, and then she went and got her bible. I gave her a few scriptures to look up, and I could tell that she doesn't read it that much because she had no idea where any of the books were at, but basically I showed her John 10:16 and then I went to 3rd nephi 15 and showed her os outros ovelhas ( other sheep) Ha it was sweet!!! She took the Book of Mormon and said that she would read some of it, and I told her that next time I would bring a member that can speak the language better. Hopefully this week we can get back there and explain things a little better, really cool though!!

            This week is also transfer calls again... I think I will be happy either way because if I do get my visa I get to go to brazil, but if I don't I will get to see all these baptisms that we have coming up. Pretty exciting time! I think I have it.... my companion just showed me that my money hadn't been put on his card again. Hmm could just be a mistake though so don't be getting dads hopes up just yet haha. The mission is a million times better than the military. I would never trade my mission for that. It's so fun getting to meet all different kinds of people and bringing joy into their lives. This is also the best place to build a sure foundation on Christ and to get that testimony that we need in these latter days. Thanks for all the love and support!!! You are the best family I could ask for. Love you!!!! Have a great week!

Love Elder Polatis

Caught in the RAIN!!  Drenched!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM! wahoo... 18 years old... I can't believe it!!! I was talking with Sora Lund and I said.. ."I think he will be 17... there is NO WAY little sammy is 18!" 

Well it has only been a couple of days since I have last written. but a few things have happened since I last wrote:

- As a district we all went plan of salvation chalk contacting at a park! It was a lot of fun! seriously my favorite way to contact. You just draw out the plan of salvation and then everyone that passes you just ask if you can explain your picture. It is a lot better-- We are able to testify easier and people actually do stop and listen! :) 

FUNNY STORY: 

So Elder Knapp is our district leader and he has starting carrying around pepper spray because and I quote "I dont want to get mugged." Well the best part is that Elder Knapp is the last person in the world that anyone would mess with! ha (ps I carry around pepper spray also.. one of my district leaders was super protective and bought it for me a while back- never had to use it...)  ha so we were chalk contacting and this guy on his bike whistles at Sora Lund to get out of his way and Elder Knapp pulls out the pepper spray and says" I am about to freak out in 5 seconds with my pepper spray... that was a cat call!" ha ha we were all dying.. He is so dramatic! It was really funny-- maybe more of "you had to be there moment." That is one reason why I like contacting with the Elders... they don't let anyone mess with us sisters. 

- After chalk contacting we had a lesson with a girl that Sora Lund and I had met with when we were here in February. She is so great! She lived in the United States with a mormon family while she worked for a summer. She really likes the mormon church. But she is just too smart for her own good. She is really into science so it is hard for her to have faith. She said. "What if everything you guys believe is false?" I remember that mom had someone ask her this same question-- and mom responded by saying "Well then I guess i lived a really really happy good life." I remember that I really like that response so I said the same thing and that really made her think. She committed to reading in the Book of Mormon and we will meet with her again this week so we will see how it goes! 

- We had all sorts of apartment drama these past couple of days. We don't have any hot water. I hate cold showers.. Sarah is a better women then I am. So we called our lady and she tried to help us fix it on the phone but it was not working. She then came later and couldn't fix it so today I think we have some plumber coming today to fix it. We then have to use water filters in this mission. Well we really needed to change ours and it is the mission joke that the filters are RIDICULOUS to get on and off. Well so we were trying really hard and we had the wrench thing out trying to get it off.. we know that it wasnt just us because we were able to get off 2/3 filters but we could not get off the last one.. well after 30 min of trying everything... fire extinguisher and everything... our district leader had to get permission from President and come and do it! We both felt so stupid. I always said I am not going to be that annoying sister missionary that needs something all the time- but it is all fixed now and  now we wont die from the water:) We also have a birds nest that is coming through our wall in the kitchen... ha we can hear the birds. We told our proprietor and she said "Well if we fix it they will just come back.." ha 

- We had district conference yesterday. All of the members from the southern part of Romanian traveled together for like their "Stake conference"  to Bucharest- it went really well. It was really fun to be able to see all the people from Constanta again! I love them all!  I translated for one of the senior couples missionary during the relief society lesson. I really like it.. it keeps me really focused! I was not doing it word for word.. She just wanted the main ideas! Then we planned a mihai bravu district picnic in between the sessions. It was really fun! My district is the best. We then had another couple of hours of the meeting and the whole thing is translated into Romanian and English the whole time. I had quite the headache after that! ha but it was really good. They are trying really hard to motivate people to stay in Romania and help build the church because I guess a lot of people leave to the United States and other places in Europa.

But everything is great! I am really loving this transfer! We are going to Peles castle this Wednesday and then Sora Lund and I will leave to Constanta after District meeting on Thursday and then get back friday night! We are really excited! But thank you for everything! You guys are the best! good luck with everything! do something fun for Sams birthday! Have a great week! 

Cu mare drag,
Sora Abby Polatis 

Hello everyone!! 

 But this week was a good week! It went by super fast. My pictures this week arent that exciting but next week I will try harder. But that is funny about the pictures of me whistling, I hope I looked good:) We were doing an activity and the Elders who were in charge of it speak so soft so I whistled and it got everyones attention, next thing I knew they were making me come to the front! HA then later everyone wanted me to teach them how!  

Tuesday we had to prepare to go to Bacolod. We needed to be there by 4 and it takes 2 hours by bus. So Yes, I experienced my first bus ride. It was super hot but actually really fun seeing different things and different towns. Of course no Air-Con just opened windows, so definitely no chance of me looking good. We just let the wind blow in our hair and enjoyed the ride. It actually went really fast! We stayed with the sisters from the 3rd ward! I forgot to take a picture but they were fun and it was actually kind of weird going back into the city!! 

But we had an awesome zone conference! Next month we have our mission tour. Russel M Nelson is coming so for conference it was like a Mock trial. We had to make sure everything would run smoothly. I love zone conference. I ran into Sister Davis. Man I missed her!! We are like praying that we will companions one day! Tani, it would be sweet! But our focus for the conference was the Atonement. Not just using it when we have sins but for helping us become a better people. The spirit was so strong the whole time! President showed us a movie about the atonement and to be honest I think I cried the whole time! I sometime feel like I am doing this alone, and of course I know that I am not. But that is when I need to learn how to rely on the Savior. Not just in the bad time but all the time! So really, I think that the conference was specifically for me! HAHA seeing other missionaries, I LOVE IT! Sister Livingston is doing great and really she seems so good! The other sisters said that they slept at their apartment and they said she reminds them of me haha so I guess I did something right! It made me miss 5th ward tho!  But I am exited for next month! It should be really fun!! 

We came back and worked. It was actually kind of a rough week as far as teaching goes. Not a lot of people were home so it killed us! But we had a lot of fun walking and talking. It is crazy like since I have a pina companion I am a little more brave when it comes to eating. We stopped and bought banana-q from a street vendor, No worries, we are careful! She eats the meat from the street, but I dont! No way! Ha but we practice speaking. Telling stories or trying to tell stories of past life haha it is funny I bet people would die if they tried to follow our conversations! I love her tho! Sister Batalero is awesome! We get along pretty well!

Friday Sister B was sick, and to be honest I HATED IT! HA she slept so I studied, and studied and read and studied, It gave me way to much time to think! Go for knowledge but other than that I was going crazy! It was a testimony builder, WORK!! You never think about yourself when you are helping others!! 

We are still teaching Brother Rhance and Brother Mark. They are both so ready and super awesome. Both have crazy strong testimonies and desire. On Sunday we had the interview for Mark. They elders both came out and just were telling us how ready he is and that he is an awesome investigator! So we have his baptism next week!! I am excited. This week we are going to focus alot on finding new people. The ones we are teaching aren't really moving forward so we need to find people with desire and ready-ness. It will be tough but we got it!  I had to speak in church! My topic was baptism so I mostly just focused on the covenants of Baptism! They are so important!!  I even spoke mostly hiligaynon so YAY!!! Improvement! Sunday night was awesome, So it has been a couple days of this typhoon rainy-ness. So even with umbrellas you are soaked. So by the time we got finished with meetings and studying and the rain it was pointless to go out! But we stayed home and did language study. All 4 of us! Well Sister Batalero wants so bad to speak English! So I made her practice teaching in English and she made me practice teaching in HIligaynon! We have created a Language study plan that will help us both!! But we laughed a lot last night! Super funny.

Thanks everyone for the letters! And especially all the pictures!! It made me feel so good and shimpre so loved. I have the best family every!! I know that this church is true. I love being here! Even when it is hard, I know I am growing because of it! The book of Mormon, man it is crazy, I can be having a weird feeling day but the second I read I feel strength and the stories, no matter where I am relate to me!! It really is the word of GOD! I love you all! I miss you everyday but I know that I will see you all soon! Just take care and be good! MWAH!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL! 

Sister S Polatis!!!

  Hola familia!!!

 

8515 douglas ave. #19

Urbandale, Iowa 50322

 

          Well there is the mission office address:) Maybe those mystery packages will show up now ha. So how is everything going? 

     Its been a pretty decent week. We went on exchanges with some Elders in our district last Wednesday, and then they took the car back to their area. The one Elder and I had an appointment with the Dillon Family ( the family that is getting baptized) but they had to cancel because it was someones birthday, so we went and saw this potential that we met the week before and she let us right in. She was so open to everything and just so nice to us. She recognized the Spirit better than I think anyone I have taught has. She accepted the baptismal invite and we have another appointment with her tomorrow. I told her that we would love to teach the rest of her family so hopefully they get involved tomorrow. As for the Dillon Family, we didnt even get a lesson with them all week long!! Ha I was pretty frustrated. They all still came to church and everything though and the Mom said that she wants to be baptized as quick as possible. Ha hopefully she is keeping the commandments because we are looking to next Saturday to get her and her kids baptized. Not sure about the dad yet, but he still comes every week too. Its really awesome that she is sensitive to the Spirit and can fell a difference when she comes to church. She says she has to be there or she feels drained throughout the week. We also had the little 11 year old black kid named shawn come and his mom came with him. I guess the older brother cant get baptized because he is on probation right now. So I guess we will have to wait until he gets off probation. So all in all we had 6 people come to church yesterday. Its been a great transfer for getting people to church, ha mainly because of that family.

        We are teaching that other Mongolian lady too. Its hard to tell if she is getting everything but she responds like she does. We have been giving her all of the pamphlets in Mongolian so she can go over it at home after we teach it to her. I also called the mission office and are having them send me some Portuguese Books of Mormons and some pamphlets. Hopefully we can get in to teach this couple here pretty soon. Ha we taught that baptist guy again and he is just trying to put down everything so he's a waste of time now. Ha too frustrating for me.

        Everything is going great though!! Shawn is set to get baptized this week unless he wants to wait and get baptized with his mom. I think he is excited about it! I love seeing the excitement in peoples eyes when they realized that they can come closer to the savior and he can give them that relief. Well after studying the Book of Mormon for 6 months I have realized that back at home when I used to read I didnt really pay attention to what I was reading. That book is so amazing. I love when people ask me a question and I can just answer it with the Book of Mormon, or I can study it after they have asked me and then things just jump out at me about that topic. I hope everyone is getting their spiritual in-take daily!!:) Keep being the amazing family that you are!! I love you all!!

 

Love, Elder Polatis

Hey Everyone!!
Sorry that there was one million pictures but honestly I don't think I can do justice to everything I did and experienced these past 2 weeks! So amazing! 

 Tell the singles ward hi from me! 

Ok well... I have to basically catch you up on 2 weeks worth.. So first week:

- I presented at zone training again. It was really fun to present with Sora Lund we did it on Survey Contacting.. it was really fun! 

- Went and visited Sora Dragu again.. (She was the old lady I was crying so hard to when I was leaving buc) She recognized Sora Lund and I! It was so great! She has nothing but is so happy. She is such a great example to me! I love her! 

- Sora Lund got a package in it with Mac and Cheese... O man that was a great meal!!! haha I never thought I would ever miss macaroni and cheese:) ha

- Ok so when I went to a vegas a few years ago with all my friends in college we were watching the fountains at the bellagio hotel.. well the song was "time to say goodbye" and the fountains coordinated with it.. well I remember watching the fountains and loving life and realizing how blessed I was... all of us were leaned up against the fence and loving life.. well so we were contacting through this cute little park and I start to hear the "time to say goodbye" song and I look over and there is this cute little splash park that has fountains that are coordinating with THAT song.. The kids were running through the water without a care in the world. I loved it so much I just sat there and reflected on how much I have changed but also how I am still the same me... Sora Lund and I sat on a bench and we just watched the fountains for the rest of the song! I felt so happy and perfectly content! I loved it! 

- As far as people teaching goes.. we sneaked attacked a less active member and just showed up at her apartment because she wouldnt meet with the sisters that were previously here.. She was really happy that we were back and let us share a message with her! We love Sora Nan! She is so sweet-- She also said that my Romanian sounds great! (She really helped me when I was here practicing Romanian when I was a young missionary) 

- we also had another lesson and the girl is just not really focused... we showed up to meet her and she brought us Jehovah witness pamphlets .. haha So we really had to restate our purpose..

-I also translated in Church for one of the Senior Couples... it was really fun.. ha I am not super good and it because sometimes I would stop translating because I would think to myself "well this is really easy..." they would then look at me looking for a translation.. ha I was like ..."o sorry sorry they are just talking about the importance of tithing!" 

- We had this crazy guy from America speak in Sacrament meeting.. He said he had a vision or revelation to move to Romanian.. anyways.. he gets up there and he has a missionary translate for him.. I felt so bad for him.. he did a good job translating but the guy was like talking about rumors of wars.. well it does not come across the same way as it would in English.. he started talking about a youtube video that Russia will cause the 3rd world war and that the Mormons are going to break up the United States and cause the second civil war.. well he was not very clear that these were "rumors" so there was quite the commotion from our grandma session in the congregation!  

- We went to Gorzo for her birthday.. we framed this big picture of us for her birthday because her living room has a ton of pictures of missionaries.. well we then got her flowers but we did not know that if you only get 2 different flowers in a boquet it is meant for a funeral... So she was a little offended thinking we were wishing her to die.. ha but she understands that we are americans... lesson learned.. then we had dinner.. a little rough this week COW TONGUE AND STOMACH soup... I just ate it and pretended it was something normal.... haha I think I will be less picky after this mission haha

WEEK TWO

-Well so it was my first train ride ever in my life! I was so excited! ha we felt like we were on Anastasia.. and the hunger games at the same time! ha Sora Lund has a great imagination. I loved it! First off... we get in our little room and get all settled in.. the conductor guy comes and takes our tickets.. we were told to try to keep your tickets because sometimes they try to take them and kick you off the train.. ha well the conductor wouldnt give us our tickets... ha so we just prayed that we would stay on! well we did... we had a lot of fun.. planning.. making goals... a little  bit of sleep (The train ride was about 14 hours) Well we get to the border of Romanian and Moldova.. we are there for about 3 hours! crazy huh.. We were told what would happen -- we would have three people come to our room.. one for our passports... the next to check our bags.. the last one to make sure we were healthy and not bringing diseases into the country.. well the first 2 came and everything went well.. the last one is the funniest one.. so keep in mind this is like at 3 am.. he knocks on the door and opens up the door.. turns on the light and all he says is "Ce fete frumoase" which means... "what pretty girls!" ha we looked like death.. well our beauty must have stunned him because he didnt ask anything about our health he just asked where we were from and wished us luck in Moldova! it was so funny!! Then after that we waited at the border while they changed the wheels on the train because I guess the tracks are different between moldova and romanian.. and the train was freezing.. ha Sora lund went into an empty compartment and stole some more blankets for us.. she was like "I just risked getting thrown into a moldovian prison for you!" ha I was really grateful! We were able to sleep a little bit and then we finally arrived!!! 

- On Monday we had one of the Russian sets of Elders take us all of Moldova because he has served his whole mission in that one city so he was the perfect tour guide! Everything is in Romanian and Russian! 

COOL LESSON

-Then that night I was on an exchange with Sora Case! She is so cute! I love her-- such a hard worker.. well we were meeting with this guy that she had contacted months before.. We met him at the park and sat down with him to get his expectations.. he seemed a little shut out at first.. He then talked about how he feels a void in his life and he is really looking for ways to improve his life. We both strongly testified that this gospel is what he is looking for and that it would change his life.. He was like "you guys seem so sure?" We both said ... We promise we are 100% sure it will change you life..." He then looked at us and really softened up and was like ... well if you are sure ....I want to know more.. So we taught him the whole restoration right there on that bench! it was so cool.. he wanted to do it in English but he was not getting the religious terms so we did it all in Romanian and it is so cool because honestly... I know that my Romanian isnt perfect.. at the end of it he was like "that makes perfect sense." We committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! it was so cool! We were so happy after! 

- Tuesday was our exchange day.. it was really fun.. we did some contacting and talked and made some really good goals! We had to get on our maxi taxi at 5:00 to iasi.. so funny because it is just this little ghetto 18 seater van thing.. We loved it! We went on all the back roads of moldova and got to see the whole country! We went through little villages that had water wells out front.. and by every well was a cross with Christ on it.. it was so crazy! it was an absolutely gorgeous drive! we were also at the boarder again for about three hours going through security and waiting in the line.. I loved molodova but it felt great to be back home in Romania! It is a little sketchy at the borders ha but we made it through! 

- Wednesday we got to Iasi! I loved that city! it was fun to see Sora Rivera again and Sora Macdonald! they are a lot of fun! It was raining in the morning but it stopped for us when we were done with studies.. we went out to lunch because we had to try the "best burger in the whole entire world" ha it did end up being really good! Iasi is gorgeous.. pretty hills... amazing buildings... nice people! I loved it! We went contacting and I worked with Sora Rivera on really making commitments with every contact! She is a great missionary and we have only been apart for about 2 weeks so it was fun to be reunited! 

- We then had to catch another sleeper train at 11 pm to get back to buc this morning at 7 am. While we were looking for a train we met this really really cool girl and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and was really grateful! I will probably never see her again in my life but it was just so cool because we were just talking to her and she turned away and I mouthed to Sora Lund.. "We have to give her a book of mormon!" it was great! 

- The train was good.. we were dead tired so we slept like rocks! ha I was really surprised how well I was able to sleep at these random places.. Heavenly Father really did bless me this week!

Well I know that this was really long novel.. but this is my life! I love it! I am loving this transfer so much! Being a sister Training leader is the best thing ever! I feel myself really growing as I am studying for the other sisters in the mission and helping them achieve their goals! I feel blessed! I can not believe how lucky I am-- I am so blessed! This is the coolest mission ever! Family good luck with everything! the Church is true! I know it! Have a great week! Good luck with everything! 

cu mare mare mare drag,
Sora Abby Polatis 

my district--slacking

all in good form!

Sister Gorzo's birthday

My first train ride

yeah---clean sheets

starting to cool off--going to Moldova

mine looks better--no your's looks better!  no the same;)

sleeping

comfy cabin

train station

ice cream!

our Book of Mormon "raise"

Sister Case

all of us

My theme song  "Like a Diamond"

I had to pay to use this bathroom

best hamburger ever!

Palace Lasi--Looks like Pride and Prejudice castle;)

Polatis Pose

loving life

Gara--after 14 hour ride

1st class sleeper

Snickers--even in Moldova but with chesnuts!

They were so happy with our return gift!!

My new area--La Carlota!!

Ha, Well what a week! A very long but good week!, Tate and Abby both seem like they are doing so awesome! 

But for me, oh my word! What a change! I was transferred to La Carlota!! It is about 2 hours away from my first area! So all that is here is sugar cane and muddy feet! ! Bukid Bukid gd! It is as far south as the sisters can go! My companion is Sister Batalero! She is from Bikol. So from the pines, She is awesome! She is 20 almost 21. We really just laugh a lot because we are both still trying to figure out how we work together!! She is constantly teaching me how to speak, I know but more correctly haha. It isn't  a ward, it is a branch! At church on Sunday we had 70 people! So it was kind of different! But still nice. I love it!! The people here are all so nice. Super welcoming. We will hopefully be finding as we visit the Less active families, there are so many!! Hopefully we can get it back to a ward status. I am still trying to learn the names of people! And our area. It is so confusing! I am the Senior companion and Sister Batalero is JR but she has been in the area, so she leads the area and I lead everything else!! 

But seriously So much SUGAR CANE!! One of our areas is right in the middle of the sugar cane factory. Right now it is harvest time. I was a little bit homesick, at night here it reminds me of Rigby! So crazy! The weather nice and since it is harvest all the trucks were full of sugar cane lined up to be harvested! Really it looked the same as grain and potato harvest!! But I will be fine! Not to sick!:) Any ways, I like it! The city was really dirty, here is so much different! We live in a house. We have 2 other sisters that live with us! Sister Lumancas and Sister Emelio! They are so funny. We have had a good week. Already we have been teaching a few people and have them lined up for baptisms! Our one investigator, his name is Rhance. He is 26 and super elect! He Is keeping all his commitments and he really has a desire to come close to Jesus Christ! He accepted a baptism date for Oct 6!! He speaks really good English! He is awesome! So we are excited to get our mission vision up and running here. 

We have zone conference on Wednesday! I am pretty excited. I am excited to see who Sister Livingston is Training!! I hope that she does alright!! Maybe it will help her step it up a bit! I guess it has too! 

I am so excited that it is harvest time!! That is awesome!! Keep up the good work!! I miss you all and love you! The church is true. I love this work and know that the gospel really blesses the family! That by study and prayer all things really will work! This week I focused my studies on overcoming trials and stuff, all the answers lead to Faith, and Prayer! So easy!! Just trusting the Lord. He has a plan for us and wants the best! Just continue forward with faith!! HALFWAY BABY!!! It really went so fast!!! MWAH!!! LOVE  YOU!!

Love Sis S Polatis!!

our old District

Walking my bridge--weird to have landscape

caught in rain storm

My new area--filled with sugar cane fields!

Caribou hooked to this wagon and filled with sugar cane

My one and only snacking on sugar cane--this could kill your teeth!!

Ward missionaries

First family that I met in my new area