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