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