Polatis Missionaries

Buna Ziua Dragii Mei! Ce mai faceti? vreau sa vad pozele din nunta lindsei! Dar o sa astept. Sper ca voi vedea saptamana viitoare.

Ha I really wanted to see pictures from Lous wedding! ha that is want my little rant in Romanian is... ha but hopefully next week? I was really excited to come and see some pictures today.. but it is ok- I realize how busy you have been. I am very glad that the wedding weekend was a success! I was in Brasov during the weekend but I was thinking about Lou a lot! I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little bit sad to be missing the big celebration. I mean I know this sounds really selfish.. but I just wanted to have both. Be on my mission and home for the wedding! but I am glad that it was great! The family really seemed to pull through to help out!

**and congratulations to Sarah as STL! wahoo!! "finally caught up to Abby...." not even... I am working hard to keep up with Sarah! This position is getting me ready for anything. We have 5 girls coming in Nov.-- 5 in Jan. and-- 9 in February. We are opening up ALL cities to sisters and there is currently only 22 sisters in the mission right now so this is going to be a big adventure for the rest of my mission!

*** I am going to start off with a spiritual thought of sorts for everyone. I listened to the talk "joy and optimism in the gospel" by Brother Wilks. AMAZING. I just need to say that I know that our Heavenly Father loves us so much! He is our biggest cheerleader and number one fan. He wants us to be happy and he knows us so well. We are here on earth to truly have joy. True joy comes through living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Enduring to the end.. not in agony.. but in happiness! We are so blessed. I know that this gospel is true. After everything I have learned on my mission I know that I will have a great foundation for the rest of my life. God loves us. Jesus Christ truly did die for us. His grace is sufficient. We are sons and daughters of God. I know it. This Church is True.. The Book of Mormon is amazing.. I feel bad sometimes because as I read it I feel like I have never read it before I look up and interrupt Sora LUnd and say "Did you know that this was in here!!!" Basically I freak out about how amazing and simple God's eternal truths are. I love you all!

So this week has been a great week full of adventure! I love my Romanian Mission-- You have to be here or have come here to understand this mission. It is great! Some highlights!

*Sora Lund and I presented in Zone Training this past week and it was a lot of fun. Surprise guests of President and Sora Hill - who I love! Well we were talking about contacting.. normal.. that is what we do! Well we didn't use any scriptures or anything from preach my gospel... we basically had the "doctrine of Sora Polatis and Sora Lund" it was so much fun. We basically told everyone to be themselves and have fun! God does now want a cookie cutter missionary. Especially in this mission. if you are too hard on yourself you will drive yourself crazy and nothing will get done. We talked about doing the little things and having fun everyday. Talk to everyone.. don't be scared.. show people we are normal!! We called it "normal person contacting." It was so much fun! Sora Lund actually tried to quote something out of preach my gospel.. ha in the middle I randomly stopped her and said that is not in preach my gospel.. I said that last night.. haha it was so funny. At the end President Hill looks at us both and just says "that was phenomenal!" Another reason why I love President Hill! It was great!

* One day we had THREE lessons scheduled in one day. We were so excited and so prepared! I was actually feeling a little overwhelmed due to the fact that we were going to be so busy! We also had to help Sora Gorzo clean her house that day. Well our first lesson went through.. member lesson who fed us some delicious food-- gustos! Next our other lessons with REAL investigators fell through.. such a bummer!! ah we were so prepared! Well we will keep trying! We cleaned at Sora Gorzo and she insists on feeding us well... she had 2 week old Sarmalle.. o man we were all so sick!!! Sora Gorzo also bought me a night gown for my birthday!! hahaha I will send the picture!

*BRASOV! ok So this was my first time going to brasov and it was amazing!!! Words cannot describe that place and pictures don't quite to it justice.. but I tried! On the train to brasov we did our "normal person" contacting and talked to this cool girl for like an hour on the train.. She seemed great.. of course from a city we don't have missionaries in.. but we gave her the website so she could research more!

*I had an exchange with Sora Drotar this week in brasov- her family is actually Romanian. she grew up in Arizona and she has only been a convert for 2 years! So crazy. Her parents only spoke Romanian to her growing up so she is amazing! We had two lessons that day and went contacting! It was so much fun! I feel like I learn so much more on these exchanges than they learn from me but it was super fun! We had a lesson with these three little kids and they live in the most humble of circumstances.. i realize i should always be so so grateful!

*On the train ride back we left brasov at 7am.. we sat next to these ladies speaking in hungarian. I felt like I really needed to talk with them but I was super tired so I feel asleep while they were talking to each other. Well I woke up and they spoke romanian to some else on the train so I then just started talking to them... MAN... I love catholics!!! the nicest people ever. They were so nice and we talked about everything.. the gospel the Book of Mormon. They even had sympathy for me when I told them I was missing my sisters wedding that day! ha but they didn't end up taking the book of mormon or anything but they were so nice and they now know about our church so it was a success!!

* We got home and we had a branch activity with a couple of the closer branches... We had a lot of food and then they were doing some dancing. We then set up a trick or treating lane for all the little kids. We all dressed up and brought candy. The elders even carved some pumpkins while we were gone.. it was so much fun! they were all yelling trick or treat and talking pictures with us! so much fun! It was like I was a princess at Disney land! ha

* That night we went english contacting and some kid came up saying hi to all of us.. he was kind of crazy.. anyways.. he comes up and is shaking all of our hands and then pulls me in and kisses me on both cheeks.. I was so thrown off.... He then tried giving us flowers.. super awkward.. we just walked away---- creeper... thankfully we were with the Elders.. ha

*So cute at church the little kids of the branch bore their testimonies and a little kid said.. " I am so thankful that Joseph.... (pause... uhh)... monson restored the true church! ha it was so cute! i love them.

*We went to Gorzos after church.. and low key... but I honestly think that she just used the 2 week old saramalle... now almost three weeks old and made a soup... ROUGH... is all I am going to say. but I love Sora Gorzo and she loves us ... dechi asa e.

*English contacting at the park.. talking to these nice old ladies on the bench for like 10 min.. they then look up and say "wait... you are not orthodox?" haha it got a little awkward after that..... I Love romania!

Well that is all for this week! I get on my midnight train to go to Arad tonight! I am very excited to go to that! We will get back Thursday morning. I Love you all.. Have a great week! keep me updated! I want to see some pictures asap! Good luck with everything!

cu mare drag! Sora Abby Polatis!