Tuesday, January 28, 2014

HAHA so there is never  dull moment here! It has been such a fast paced but extremely rewarding week!

Crazy story:
So Friday we are out doing what we do and we had the ward missionaries with us! Sister Emma and Sister Ginalyn! But we are working and it was about 8 pm so we were finishing up! We walk all the time and we always go to the church and sakay from there----it is like the middle for all of us! But as we were walking we weren't really paying attention just normal but Sis Emma like bumped this guy, and he freaked out ( I am pretty sure he is unstable mentally) But he turn around and started yelling at us----mostly me because I am the only white girl, Sister Ginalyn and Manosig like run, I am just trying to get away BUT he KICKED me! HAHA I didnt really know what to do, I was shocked actually I really had no idea what to do, so we start running away but he walked away like nothing happened! All of us were like "What" but I am alright, it was just weird to me! HAHA buang sia kaayo! 

 So Wednesday and Thursday we went on exchanges with the Sisters from Cadiz. I was with Sister Fotofili! She is legit! She is from Tonga! We had to much fun. They kind of have a hard area! Like it is far from the Church and they are both new there so we really just went at it! We were talking to like everyone we saw and I have just really gotten like crazy bold and my outgoing personality was a plus! We ended up meeting members, who have been less active forever! Inviting like everyone to listen! So hopefully it got a good start for them! I loved Sister Fotofili! She is a missionary from Tacloban so we talked about that! She is super strong! 

There have been a lot of little tender mercies in our area this week! Mostly for us! It has strengthened my testimony of people being prepared. A lot of people have come up to us! They have the desire and want to talk about how they can be better while they are here! I have loved it! 

So we are teaching this family! It is a husband and his wife and they have 2 small girls! There home was destroyed from the typhoon and the bishop actually helped them and in return they said said they would listen! At first it was like a courtesy thing, like they werent really interested but now little by little they are coming around! Well brother is...not sister! Every visit she listens but closes with, Catholic ako sisters, ang Dios prehas sia-Meaning it doesnt matter what religion you are as along and you are close to God! But Brother, he studied like a Bible class in Manila so he is pretty open to what we say! But this last visit was was the best, We invited him to be Baptized, and we showed him a picture of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist! He was like-" Ya, Jesus was a grown man when he was baptized, not a little kid, or a baby" So we explained that we need to follow exactly as he did! He didnt accept a baptism date, due to causing conflict in their marriage! But you could see his mind working and really processing what we were saying! Hopefully he will open his mind a little more and become more receptive! But he is a bible scholar! He was telling us about the apostoles. I hope he will continue and that sister will open her heart and her mind a little bit!  

Saturday we had the Baptism of Sister Socorro! She was so excited! As we waited we gave her a picture book to look and at the end she thought it was hers! She wanted to keep it! HAHA maybe that will be her baptism gift!  But we were a little nervous for her, because she is kind of old, going under the water but she was so little it was just easy for her! She is 78 years old! She has no husband, no kids. So she lives with her sister and her nieces and nephews! But in her testimony she was saying that they were giving her a hard time about being a "Mormon" but she told them that it feels right and it was her decision! She thanked us for me, I was just super happy that even though it was just her, you can tell that she has a testimony! That she knows that she is loved and really, she is not alone! She now just got a pretty big family! I loved it!

It was a good week! Time doesnt really seem to slow down! Just super fast! But It was good! I just finished the Book of Mormon, I was reviewing some of my old notes and study journal entries, it was weird how I learned new things from the same verses! Even thought so much changes here that is one thing that has been constant---my testimony of the Book of Mormon increasing! No matter what, it is there to help us! I love being a missionary! Super happy! 

I love you all! Thanks for doing all the junk to get me ready for school! HA hopefully my essays were alright! Hopefully it is fine so that I can just get started when I get home! HAHA lindsey sent me some pictures from her vacation,  fun! Maybe we could go there when I get home! They all look really good! Sam and Maddy, thanks for the letters-----HAHAHAHAHAHA just kidding there wasnt any! But thanks for your love and prayers! Miss you all! Be good and be Safe!!!

Love Sister S Polatis! :)



finally got my Christmas Package from the Ward!!  THANK YOU!

Sister Manosig

Sister Ginalyn, Sister Emira and Bro. John Mark-beautiful Ocean front!

Frumosilor! 
 We got pounded with snow here! Due to the fact that we had so much snow we all got permission to watch the disney movie frozen today! I love that movie! 
Well this week was crazy.. I slept in my own bed 2 times... I spent 26 hours on a train! 
Monday: 
Arad P-day! Super fun! I love the sisters in Arad-- That city is super cool and we had a lot of fun contacting and loving the missionary life! 
Tuesday: 
Arad exchange day-- Super fun! I was with Sora Bird.. She is super funny! She is in her second transfer! We went English contacting and then we had english class. That night we got on a train to go to Timisoara.. The train was super ghetto! ha We had like a bullet hole in the window we were sitting by. ha We just pray and God has our backs in this country:) 
Wednesday:
Exchange day in Timisoara! I was with Sora Merkley from Utah- She is 19... Super funny! It was my first time in Timisoara... such a pretty city! I guess it was where the revolution was started!
Thursday:
 We were home! We basically washed our clothes... did some weekly planning and then packed up for the next day! 
Friday & Saturday: 
Exchange in Ploiesti! I was with Sora O'Brien. We had a lot of fun!  They actually had a baptism!!!! It was super cool! Sora Peterson was just in Ploiesti so it was one of her old investigators.. - It was cool to plan our exchange that day so that she could be there for it! The girl is 18 years old and it was so cool! Baptisms are awesome! 
SATURDAY NIGHT: So this was a big adventure... It snowed so hard all day in Ploiesti.. After the baptism we really wanted to go home because the bed is pretty hard and we had been gone all week.. so basically it was a blizzard but we left their house at 6 ... went to the train station... Train delayed for 2 hours.. got some food... walked around in the blizzard.. made it back for our train... A train that usually takes only 45 minutes took us 3 HOURS to get back... so we arrived in Bucuruesti at midnight.. When we got off the train - news reporters were there because there was so many people on this late train. The metrous were closed so EVERYONE had to get a taxi to get somewhere.. So we were all waiting around. Nothing was happening.. it seems like every taxi in the company was busy-- so we went around to the side of the train station and I found a guy that would take us if we paid him double.. I just said "fine" ( keep in mind it is snowing super hard) So we get in.. and just prayed.. We told him we werent in a hurry.. but it was still rough. good news... we made it home alive!!!! At about 2 am! I think I could be dropped off in the middle of anywhere in any country and make it! :) ha of course with God watching over me! 

Yesterday we were a little bit dead.. and because of the snow we decided not to go to Sibiu this week. So that will probably be next week! We also had interviews today with President and Sora Hill. I love them so so much! They want the best for us and our so supportive! They get home one transfer after me- So they told me I will have to welcome them back home! President told me he and Sora Hill will always be a part of my life and they look forward to see great things from me!They are amazing!
I am super excited for this week! Don't get me wrong.. I love traveling.. but it will be nice to be in my own bed all week! And be able to work out every morning! I love being a missionary! I know that this church is true! Through Christ we can be forgiven and perfected in Him. His grace is sufficient daily for us to improve. I am so thankful for that aspect of the atonement! The Book of Mormon is True. The gospel was restored. Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Thomas S. Monson is our great prophet today! I love you all! I am so thankful for all your love and support! keep being great!!! 
va iubesc!
cu mare mare drag,
Sora Abby Polatis 
Arad-Sora Bird

Timi center

Sisters of Timi

Ploiesti with Sora Peterson--SNOW

Baptism at Ploiesti

Chapel in Ploiesti

District

SNOW

Hey Family!!
       Sounds like everything is going great over there. Still not much snow though right? Not here either, but a whole lot of cold!!!! It really puts a damper on our finding efforts because once we get out of that car the wind just bites ya. Ha hopefully it can atleast get to -5 through this week. Other than that things are going great. Hopefully you got some of those P-day pictures that Elder Ragozzine took. That was a really fun day! It was pretty well planned out too so I think that everyone enjoyed it quite a bit. I got to see some of my old companions there and we just had a really good time. Some of them are trying to get me to go to Utah Valley and make our own Iowa des moines mission basketball team ha. It sounds like a good time but we will see.
        Well Amber is still set to get baptized this Saturday so we are very excited about that. Our zone has been struggling lately and I don't think that we had any baptisms in January so this should spark it up a little bit. We also set a date for this couple last night who aren't married and have some word of wisdom issues but we are out here to call the sinners to repentance:) It is a little ways away but they agreed to work towards it. My district has been having a hard time setting dates and even inviting people to be baptized so I gave a training on that last week and just talked about how inviting them to be baptized is central to our purpose and that there should be no hesistation with setting that date on the second lesson. Giving them a goal really can transform their hopes and desires into action so we need to do that. I think this cold weather does play a big part in that too though. Ha even with it being so cold people still don't let us in! We had exchanges with the Belle Plaine Elders last week out in Belle Plaine and it was pretty fun. Long drive and used a lot of miles but it was good. There is a senior couple out there who are hilarious and live right next door so they took care of us pretty well.
         We had interviews with President on Thursday and he was telling me how I am probably going to get transferred this next transfer since I have been here so long. It was weird when that finally hit me because I really have been here forever and it is going to be hard to leave this area. He said that he has gotten a couple of visas but not mine yet. He is amazing though and says how he is very glad to still have me be here to help out the mission. So I don't know what he is going to do with me for this next transfer. I know that the visa waiters that already got theirs are going to leave on February 10th so I've got until then to get my visa and leave on that transfer. So We'll see...
          So this week should be a pretty great week. We should have some lessons with a few potentials that we have found and turn them into investigators. One lady of a family that we found called and dropped us before we even taught them. I guess the Jehovas witnesses were going over there quite a bit and I think that she just got overwhelmed. Which really broke my heard because it was a great family and the Dad was going to come and play basketball with us and seemed extremely interested when we first sat down with them. I invited her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon so hopefully she can feel the spirit that comes from reading the Book of Mormon. So that's what's going on lately. Probably some good finding this week so I'll have to break out the thermals;) Hope you all have a great week!!! Love youuuuu
Love, Elder Polatis

Great zone p-day playing crab soccer





playing chair soccer



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Hey Hey! It sounds like you are all doing great! Enjoying the cold! But Maddy, living it up on the snow hill! What a palagpat! HAHA Well I love you all and really am greatful for your prayers! We had such a good week! So much fun! 

So first, Our week was really how it usually goes! We are finding like crazy in order to continue to keep our vision of "Weekly Baptisms" going! So we are trying always to find and prepare! It was so good and we received a lot of little miracles this week! We were able to find and really the Lord had already prepared them for us! We were so excited! 

Transfers were this past week BUT I stayed here in Victorias and Sister Manosig and I stayed companions! We were both so excited! We are feeling comfortable here and we are getting to know that members and build the trust so that was a blessing for us! 

We are teaching this guy right now, Rhandie. He is 44 years old, he is the one who approached us outside of the church and asked if he could go inside. The bars and gates around the church give a false impression to people haha but of course we told him yes. But he has come to church 3 times and every time he always tells us after that he felt something and that the knows this church is the true church! We both feel that he has leadership potential! He reads and really wants to be better. He already asks about the priesthood and when he will receive a calling! He has some trials in his life right now but he tells us all the time that he knows through prayer God will comfort him and help him! He is legit!

My first experience of this in the mission, but we had a District baptism! There are 3 sets of missionaries in our District and we all had 2 candidates! It was so fun and the baptism service was awesome! Grabe gid ang spirit! Everyone showed up and wore their church clothes and it was so reverent! I loved it!

Sister Arabella. She is the mom of our newly baptized member Sister Rubi but she was a little harder at the first because she is sick, but she bore her testimony and she got all teary and said that it took her 9 year old daughter to get to here and she knows that her health has been better because she is praying and doing her best to keep the commandments! That the Holy Ghost is protecting her! She will be strong and I love it because now Sister Rubi has an example. She has support! That is the beauty of the Gospel being a blessing to families! We support each other and help each other!-------Every thing has a purpose! 

Sunday we had the interview of our 78 year old investigator! She rocked it! She is so ready, I am a little nervous for her being immersed in the water but we will prepare her and hopefully it will be fine! I love her! She is so cute, She will speak Hiligaynon to me but Tagalog to Sister Manosig haha

But it was really good! I am so grateful for this opportunity! I love being a missionary! I love the Book of Mormon and everything in it! I had a big question in my mind if I was asking effective questions when I taught or if they werent really a help, but I was reading this morning in Ether and even the Lord asked the Brother of Jared Inspired questions so I know that it is important, ha that no matter what questions can be answered through reading! Everytime! Always a testimony builder! But I love you all! I hope that you are all doing great and staying safe! I love you all! Have a great week!
Love Sister Sarah Polatis
Sister Arabella




Sister Girdlyn Ward missionary

Elder and Sister Anderson-couple missionaries


District Baptisms!! WOW

John Mark--my great friend


Family!!!! 
Can you believe I have lived in this country for over a year! Crazy.. I can actually look in my journals and read what happened to me here last year! It just seems so weird. I still have time! Thankfully! I am loving it here so much! You all sound like you are doing great! 
This week has been great! Full of adventure! Speaking of adventure.. I am actually all the way across the country right now in Arad! I love it here! 

This week: 
Monday: New investigator! On transfer day Sora Drotar and I talked to this lady that was hanging out around the missionaries at the train station. She said she was nervous to come up and talk to us. Well we gave her a book of mormon and got her number. We called her up and she agreed to meet with us at the church. A little before we get this text message asking if she has to pay for the lessons. We replied and said no.. and then we got another message that said... "Houston we have a problem..." We knew that she didnt know english so we were very confused.. We tried calling and then it was just weird.. Anyways we found out once she showed up to the church that she didn't have credit on her phone and that "Houston we have a problem was the only text message that would send for free! ha But we gave her a tour of the church and we sang "be still my soul" as I played it on the piano. She was in tears! She loved it! she has a little boy.. hopefully it works out well. She didn't show up to church yesterday... bummer deal.. but hopefully next week!
Tuesday:
We gave our presentation on speaking Romanian more! It went really well- We talked about really good activities that we can do in our companionships to be speaking Romanian for most of the day. Sora Peterson and I are really working on that and memorizing scriptures this transfer!
Wednesday & Thursday:
Exchange in Pitesti. We hopped on a two hour train to pitesti to be with Surori Hebdon and Gee. They are so cute!! Pitesti is so small. They just reopened the city for sisters. Sora Hebdon is training Sora Gee. The area is a little rougher... only 2 females in the branch.. and about 8 men. Their city map is about 1/8 of the Bucuresti map. Area book is a little low on potentials. They seemed a little worried about the task ahead of them. I just said "God must trust you sisters so much!" We spent time and thought of some really good ideas they can do their area. It was a lot of fun! I love going on exchanges. Each sister just really needs a "you are great! keep going... God loves you" speech! We had so much fun! During lunch we even had a little dance off in the kitchen... ha it was just what they needed! They are both amazing! I know that they will be blessed in that area! 
*funny story... So I am riding on the train to pitesti and this guy about my age is on the train.. he is on the phone and he says in romanian.. I don't have pen.. I need a pen and paper.." I then just handed him my pen and a piece of paper.. He was so surprised that I knew romanian haha He then took the opportunity to keep talking to me.. he tried speaking in english and I would just speak in romanian.. He tried asking us to come hang out with him and his friends.. then he asked for my number.. I explained to him our purpose but he was not at all interested in religion. He said "lets talk about sports.. I am a gymnast!" He then starts stretching his arms in all these nasty ways!!! I almost died of laughter! 
Friday: 
Lesson with a less active. We just thought she was less active because she was sick but we thought we really needed to visit her.. We get there and she wasn't just coming because of health.. she just didn't want to come for other reasons!! I was in shock! Anyways we told her that we would be on her doorstep and 9 on sunday to pick her up. She then also got visited by the district president here in Romania.. Between the two of us SHE CAME! We picked her up and she was so thankful.. She even prayed in relief society and she started crying! it was so precious! 
Sunday: 
Well none of our investigators showed up to church which is super sad. I never know how high my hopes are until they are crushed. But our less active came so that was good! Another funny moment at church was that we have a new senior couple in our branch fresh from Utah. Well it is her second sunday and she comes up to us and says "How long until I will understand everything people are saying to me?" It just put me back to my first transfer in the country-- we just said.. You have some time:) 
Today I am now hanging out in Arad! It is a lot of fun! Elder Poulson and Elder Whitehead are here from my MTC district so we all met and had a district lunch at this Mexican Restaurant.. He it tried really hard to be mexican.. so I guess that is what counts! ha But tomorrow night I leave for Timisoara.. We get home thursday morning.. friday I then go to ploiesti (Sora Petersons old investigator is getting baptized this weekend so we will be there for that. We will be home sunday and then I leave to Sibiu on Monday.. So next Wednesday I will be done with all my exchanges! ha We are going to bust them out! 

That is my life! I love it so much! my mission is so unique! Last night we were waiting at the train station and all of the sudden the assistants show up with all their baggages.. ha they were headed to Iasi and then to Moldova.. it is just crazy.. We are always on the road! But it is great! I can't imagine my mission anywhere else in the world. I may not have a hundred baptisms in this mission but that is not what matters to me. I have learned to how to be happy and to know that God loves me no matter what the outward "success" is. I love Romania! I know that this church is true! God is truly mindful of us and loves us! I hope that you all have a great week! Keep working hard and being great! 
va iubesc atat de mult! va pup! 
Sora Abby Polatis 

Hiii Family!!
      How is everyone doing? It sounds like you are just going with the flow of life which is sometimes just the way to do it. Ha and yea we have interviews this Thursday with President so maybe he is just holding it a secret until then. I was emailing some of my buddies that got their visas and made it down there and yea I guess you do have to get trained all over again. That will be pretty weird going back down to a trainee from district leader, but maybe this is the Lord's way of showing me that I need some more humbling ha. They told me that it is so hot there and that they actually miss the cold. Ha so I am kind of greatful for that because the weather has actually been pretty well as of late. I think that it is supposed to get cold again this week though.
       So some good things happened this week and also some really crazy things. An awesome thing is that we set a date with Amber for the 1st of February:) She accepted it and said that she has a lot of reading to do. Ha so Elder Ragozzine let her use his cd's that have the Book of Mormon on tape and hopefully she has just been eating that stuff up. I guess we will see tonight at our lesson with her at a member's home. She seriously knows almost all the members, so I think that she will remain active and will have a really tough time falling away. Our other investigators really didn't even meet with us this week which was really rough because we were getting ready to get them on date and make sure that they got to church. We taught this less-active lady who has stopped going to church sense she was a teenager and now she is about 27 and married and it was pretty sad because she was telling us all about how when she is about ready to give up and things are just being too tough on her that she gets on her knees and prays. But her husband is basically and atheist so he doesn't believe in any of that stuff. I reminded the less active lady about the plan of Salvation and how she can be with her family forever and she remembered it and everything but I think that her husband has kind of made her not believe it. So I asked him if he would want to be a family forever and he said of course but that he doesn't think that it will ever be like that. Then we offered to say a prayer as we left but he wouldn't let us so I felt bad that he was that hard hearted and wouldn't even let us leave with a prayer. So that was sad and then that same night we got a call from this lady telling us that if we ever came back that she would call the cops on us. Haha people sometimes are really frustrating. A lot of people just always have this depressed look on their face and just don't look happy, if only they knew that what we were sharing would bring them that happiness that everyone is looking for.
       Everything is all good here though! We are having a tri-zone p-day today so I will get to see a lot of my old companions so that should be really fun. We also have exchanges out in Belle Plaine on Wednesday so I'm excited to go out there and see how the work is going clear out in the boonies. Dillon Family is doing well. I think Kerris still has a little bit of a hard time accepting that no other church has any priesthood from God, but that will come over time. Oh and we had dinner with a member that served here when Uncle Dirk was the mission president here and he wanted to know Dirk's email address? He said that Uncle Dirk was awesome. Well I hope you all have a great week and have some goals of sharing the gospel for this new year:) Love you!!!
Love, Elder Polatis

Monday, January 13, 2014

How are you all?--------I think I start every letter out like that!!! But I really do wonder! HA
That is crazy about your weather! Really, here it has been cold to! The people are saying that this is abnormal, it is raining and windy and I feel a little like I am in Idaho! In the morning it is funny because Sister Manosig and I both just stand and stare at the water coming from the shower before we actually get in because it is so darn cold haha we finally get the guts and jump in! We have mastered the 6 minute shower! :)  This morning tho, we couldnt take it so we boiled some water and did a 50/50 shower---start with cold and end with the warm! Super nice! haha 

Well anyways, this week was a good week! We started it out by going to Bacolod for MLC! That was on Tuesday! Like all the elders that were in the MTC with me were there! They were pretty funny! We were all just way excited to see eachother!  President feeds us, and it was American and Filipino food----Baked potatoes! I never thought I would miss it but it was so good! Nice little taste of home! Our Training was good, really most of them were focused on our purpose and aligning our will with Heavenly Father! Such a strong spirit and it always makes your think if you are giving it your all or not? And if you arent, we have time to start now! So it was pretty awesome! 

So Wednesday we went to Cadiz and we gave the training, I love giving the training's  Like reviewing what I learned and I feel like I learn more when I teach it! It was good and I never really stress, and that is how I feel the spirit working! Hopefully they learned something! 

But for our teaching! We have a good round of investigators. All are really committing and having desire! It is always my favorite when they ask about the Book of Mormon, because it means that they are reading! 

First, Sister Corazon! She is 78 years old. She was a referral! She has such a good heart and is willing to do what he commitments. I think I love her so much because she reminds me of Grandma! She has this garden and she is always in it. She wears her little hat and her boots with her shorts and just goes to work! She bore her testimony in gospel essentials class and you can just see the change that she is experiencing! She speaks so much tagalog to me, so little by little I get what she is saying! Her baptism is in January 25!!! 

We have so much potential right now in our area! The people are so receptive and it is a huge blessing to see that! Most of all our investigators are progressing!

I went on Exchanges with Sister Hemi! She is from New Zealand and we had so much fun! I think we laughed the whole time! We stayed focused on what we needed to do but we still were super open and chatty! We taught alot of lessons! I always feel like I learn from them a lot more than they learn from me! 

We didnt have a baptism this week which kind of bummed me out but we will start up again next week! I am way excited for it! I know that I really couldnt do any of this without the Lords help! People are being prepared and ready for us and he is the one that leads us to them! I love it! Legit no??? But the church is true! I love you all! Keep being great! I always am bragging about how I have the best family! I got the letter from the Stake Presidency, so tell them thanks for that! I can always recognize dads handwriting!- tell everyone hi for me! Of course Lou would be vacationing.......always! Be good and be safe-----yup still waiting on a letter from Sam and Maddy!---maybe the email just gets lost every week--ya little palagpats!! write me!!! Miss you all! LOVE YOU!!!
Love Sister S Polatis
Farming in the Philippines

Birthday party for Sister Analiza

All of these 6 foot giants

Elder Parry--same batch as myself

Christmas time with Sister Emma

Hey how is everyone! Well I have had a great week!! I love my mission so much! I feel bad that it is so cold in the united states right now. It is basically spring here! I am in denial that winter is ever coming! Yesterday I wore my coat and we went contacting at the park. I was getting hot! Everyone was out with their families! And today all of the missionaries in Bucuresti are going to a park and playing basketball outside! I love it! I hit my year mark in the country this week!!! Crazy!!! 
First and foremost I need to give a shout out to the Roberts 2nd Ward!!! I can't even fully describe how excited I was to get that great package!! Glenwood Jerky, homemade almonds, toothpaste, toothbrushes, chapstick, lotions, cards, candy, hot chocolate, scarf, granola bars, necklace, popcorn, make up... etc. etc. YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! I felt so loved! I will thank all of you individually when I get home... but thank you thank you thank you! You have always been like family to me! I hope that all of your holidays were great! Thank you for supporting me so much on my mission! I will try my best every day to represent the Roberts 2nd Ward! I also received the letter from the Stake Presidency! Thank you so much! I loved all the support! I can't wait to get home and hug all of you!!!! 

Well this week updates and news: 
1- I forgot to tell you guys this but about 2 weeks ago I cut my hair! ha When I found out I was staying in Bucuresti again I walked into the apartment and turned to my italian companion and said - "Hey lets cut my hair... I need a change!!" I told her "2in with some layers..." Well 4 inches off later it was complete! ha But I love it!! My hair goes super curly now and it is super healthy! I guess I am out on that competition! 
2- I became a Godmother again for the 12th time on my mission! Seriously.. the perks of being a "Buc Rat" I love it! We were able to nas 2 girls and they were so cute! We made sure we just spoke Romanian around them.. one was so cute! She said "I have no idea what you guys are saying but I love it!" We gave them each a romanian scarf too so they loved it! I get to go and do exchanges with a couple of them! I love it! 
3- I love Sora Peterson! She is so amazing! We wake up in the morning and work out everyday. She is amazing at the language! She already knew spanish before the mission. (She is half Dominican Republican) We have all the same goals and we get along like we have been companions for months instead of just 5 days. We speak Romanian all day to each other. The other night we got back to the apartment and it was hard to get back to English. We just keep going and did our nightly planning in Romanian! ha I love it! I feel like I am learning so much! Our apartment is great too! :) 
4- Just like Sarah I went to our MLC this week! it was really good! I feel like I eat at my mission presidents house at least once a week! We have a great breakfast in the morning with waffles and good maple syrup! (maple syrup is so expensive here!) We then talked about the mission and it was cool just how going back to the simple basics of the mission rules and obedience is what brings the biggest blessings! It was really fun because when I walked in I shook President Hills hand and said something like "Bucuresti again President... it is great to be here!" ha He then just said "Sora Polatis we just can't let you go!" So it was funny! The whole mission is shocked- by the end of this transfer I will have been in this city for 10ish months. But I love it! God knows me so well.. So much better than I know myself! This is exactly where I am supposed to be! 
5- My cities for this transfer will be- Sibiu- Ploiesti, Pitesti, Arad, and Timisoara! I am super excited! I have never been to ploiesti, pitesti, or Timisoara! So it will be another big adventure! 
6- Lesson with Raluca!!! She is so amazing! We went through the vision of Lehi! So cool! She understood it all really well and is now reading the Book of Mormon straight through! I was worried before the lesson because she seemed a little hesitant to meet ... but it was GREAT! One of the best lessons I have had with her! :) We are super excited to keep working with her! 
7- I have to give another presentation this week in zone training! It is all about speaking Romanian more and learning the language the best we can... yes i will be giving it in Romanian! ha wish us luck! 

Well that is about it for this week!! I am doing great! You all sound like you are doing great! Keep up the good work! I love you all so so much! Thanks everyone for writing me and for being great! I know that this church is true! God knows all of us so well. He loves us. I have made this great personal study plan to really study about Jesus Christ until the end of my mission.. I can hardly wait! :) Have a great week!!! 
va iubesc atat de mult! fiti buni! 
va pup!
Sora Abby Polatis 
Blocks built around this little church

beautiful tree that is reflected on building

wonderful package from Roberts 2 Ward!!  They are great loving women

Warm winter--me out contacting in the Park

View out my apartment window!! Love Buc

My new comp and our matching coats

Hello Family!!!
        So how is everything? Things are starting to pick up here. We had 3 investigators at church yesterday!! It was really cool to finally have some people be there. It's really cool because these 3 people have some good connections with members in the ward so they have a lot of support. This one lady that came we are going to teach tonight at a less-actives home so we are going to kill 2 birds with one stone:) But we have so many members that want us to teach in their homes so they need to start finding people and then we will come teach them in their home;)
         We found two new investigators last week and have 3 potentials this week that should become investigators this week. Our teaching pool has tripled in these past couple weeks, it's awesome. I don't even think that we did very much finding this week because we had a pretty good amount of appointments to get to. Ha but of course some of the investigators aren't too promising and can't really meet with us all that often but it's just really good to have a good amount of people to work with. Ha so yesterday at church a member came up to me and asked me if I saw him a couple weeks ago when I was on my bike. And I was like yea I remember that. Then he asked me why I was on an exchange with a sister missionary?? Hahaha I just busted up laughing!! Elder Ragozzine has this pretty big trench coat so it kind of looks like a skirt and then he used to ride this purple girl bike so it made sense, but I thought that was pretty funny. Man not a lot went on this week ha I'm struggling to think over what happened this week. Sister Moon cut our hair the other day so now no more swoosh or whatever you guys called it. We also got our 2013 Iowa Des Moines cd just showing all of the baptisms for the mission so that was really cool, even though a couple of my baptisms weren't on there:( ha jk its all good. The music that they put with it is awesome so we watch the video pretty often just to listen to the music. Ummm.... We also went and contacted this referral from the sisters who serve in the 4th ward. Ha I don't think they told this referral that we would be coming instead of them so she was a little surprised, but we did manage to get in and teach her. She is pretty rich and lives in a nice house so it was pretty out of the ordinary for her to be interested. But she also had a family so we were excited to teach her. But then she started asking all of this deep doctrine stuff and about temples, I guess she read the book "the Godmakers" or something so she kind of started to bash with me ha. She was saying how Jesus never worked in secret so how come we have all this secret stuff. haha Pretty lame excuse for not wanting to learn more about it. It was frustrating but towards the end I Just stopped talking to her and listened and then I just told her that she can invite us to do something and we will invite her to do something. So she invited us to pray about if we should focus more on Christ then just on our church haha I was like okay, and then I invited her to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and then to pray if she should read it. So I'm glad it ended good:) We'll give her a call this week. Other than that, all of our other lessons have been going great. Ha we taught this couple that isn't married about the plan of salvation and taught them how the gospel will bring you back to live with Heavenly Father and he just understood it really well and said that of course he wants to live with him again, so it was really cool because before when we just met him he didn't care at all about what we were doing but now he is more realizing his purpose so it's great to see.
            Well sorry that its not very long but I just can't remember a lot of things that went on. I am very grateful to be out here that's for sure. I love being able to focus on the Lord and not have to worry about a lot of things that everyone else has to worry about. It truly is a unique and awesome time in my life. Have a great week. Love you!!
Love, Elder Polatis

Monday, January 6, 2014

Hey family! 
You all sound like you are doing amazing! that is what I like to hear! I am super happy that you received my package and that you liked it! I thought that the nativity was perfect! ha Elder Adams is super nice! I am glad that he got it to you safely and that he talked me up a bit on the mission! I am glad that I paid him off well before he left! haha just joking! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOU! Sorry a little late! It was written on my planner and everything! but you are great and I love you! 
This week has been super crazy: 
TRANSFER NEWS: Well I bet none of you guessed where I am going this week........ Drum roll please... uh russ..... drum roll...... joy to the world.... (from: christmas vacation) I AM STAYING IN MIHAI BRAVU as sister training leader again! this city must love me too much to let me go! I am breaking all sorts of records! this is my 7th transfer in this same city! only 4th in a row.. ha but still! It is more than half of my mission. Sisters only have 12 transfers total! The mission was shocked that I stayed in the city. President told me this whole time that I would be leaving but it was a big surprise to see that I am staying! But I am excited to travel the country once more and to help the sisters across the country! I will be serving with Sora Peterson. She is amazing!! I am so so excited! I did an exchange with her a few weeks ago and she is amazing!  
New Years Eve: Well New Years Eve was pretty fun! We had to go and clean my old apartment for about 4 hours and the panduri sisters came and helped us so it went pretty smoothly! After that we met up with the district to get a good dinner for the night.. well of course nothing is open so we ended the year on the great note of some mcdonalds! - I think when I get home I will never eat there or KFC again! But it was fun then we went to the office and played games and then went up on the roof and watched the fireworks all around the city! it was so so cool! Everyone was putting on their own little show.. so the whole city was lit up! Our apartment it super close to the office so it was really nice! 
New Years Day: We had a lovely Italian Dinner at the Bakers house. Sora Deruvo my companion was the head chef- she is from Italy. So the food was so good! We had our whole district and President and Sora Hill came over! it was a lot of fun! We also watched the new movie Frozen that day! it was super cute! I love disney movies and the messages that they bring to the world! ha That snowman olaf was so so funny!! 
Lesson: Well the other night when we went block knocking we ran into this really nice lady! So we went back and had a lesson with her! We talked about the book of mormon! Her neighbor was also over there. She was leaving to Germany the next day! So it was really inspired that we went and visited her the night we did.. I am glad that we didnt miss her! So we gave her a book of mormon and got her number and we will get it to the Germany Mission. But seriously the lesson was so so great! the Book of Mormon is amazing! People just have to read it and then they can't deny the truth of the words in the book! We all bore testimony and the spirit was so strong! One of my companions said the closing prayer and the neighbor lady was in tears! it was so amazing! We are going to go back and teach the neighbor now! 
Office Building on Fire! So the other night... not our floor of the mission office but 3 floors down started on fire.. our office elders were in the building but they got out and all our safe! They have videos of them getting interviewed on tv so i will copy and paste the links. 



Rude landlord Lady: So you know how we went and cleaned my old apartment forever on New Years eve.. Well we met with my owner of the apartment and she was not a happy camper. Well she is a lawyer here. We went with the senior couple the Bakers and with my companions. She tried ripping us off with money right when we walked in the door. I could not believe it! She then went through the house and wants us to basically replace everything! She then kept looking at us and saying how dirty and horrible we are. I could not believe it. The reason why I bring up this story is because all of the damages that we have to pay for we done before I even moved into the apartment but I had to take all the heat for it. I just like nice reasonable people! I handed her my keys and I was happy to be out of that place! I will be moving into a new place this week! bless her! 
But this week will be great! I will be moving into my new place and getting ready for the new year! We should all make a new years resolution to read the Book of Mormon this year!! I love it! I just love that God never lets us peak.. I was so worried that my mission had peaked after Sora Lund left but clearly God knows me better and it looks like I will continue to be traveling and never have a dull moment until I am laying back on the plane seat in about 4 months! So crazy! I can't believe it!!! I love you all thanks for being great! 
va iubesc! 
Sora Abby Polatis
How are you all doing this week? Oh my word?? This week went crazy fast I cant even believe it!!! 

So Monday we had an activity with our ward missionaries! We went to Ceferina beach! It reminded me a little bit of Costa Rica except that the water was brown! But they brought food and we played games on the beach! It was pretty fun! Our single adults are awesome! 

So first! New Years was great! We worked in the morning, but had to be home by 5! There are so many fire works on the ground and not really safe for us! But that didnt stop our fun haha we cooked, and then people started bringing us food! HAHA oh my food! So much food! But we bought some sparklers (HAHA i am scarred for life, after my experience with lindsey like a million years ago) But I got the courage and we lit the sparkler and we wrote our names and they were only 5 pesos so that is about as long as they lasted! HAHA New Years is a big deal around here! But we stayed up, until 10;45 then both of us were tired so we slept until 11;45 then woke up to ring in the new year with our orange soda haha then went back to bed hahaha WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!! 

Our teaching have been going really great! We are finding more people everyday and I love it! 

On Thursday we had this guy come up to us, he asked if he could observe the church, so of course we told him yes! But we set an appointment with him and we taught him. He believe in prophets and really has such a strong testimony! He came to church and bore his testimony haha I think he is ready! HAHA he is 44 years old and always is telling us how he knows we are called of God because we are 23 years old and have dedicated our lives to God. We are pretty excited about him! He works for the mayor or something, and he says he likes to read, so we thought, YES thats perfect because we have something for you to read! HAHA

So funny story, so Thursday we go out and we have 2 ward missionaries with us, A boy and girl! Well we go to this house and this lady just keeps telling me how pretty I am and She isnt really wanting to listen to us, just making comments about my looks! So she was cleaning and mopping. So finally I kind of just took over, so I started pumping the water into this bucket and it was kind of a big bucket but then I picked it up to carry it, everyone just started at me, saying that they thought I was "High maintenance" that they didnt know I was strong haha! Guess all those years of lifting overweight people paid off! HAHA

Saturday, we had the baptism of Sister Sophia! It really was a good baptism!! She was so excited! She is 14 years old, her dad and sisters are members but he mom isnt! So we will start working with her mom, hopefully this week! 

Really it was a good week! Lots of teachings, so hopefully it continues! Sunday was a good day! If you were to attend relief society here you would think people are yelling at each other and are mad haha it is so loud but that is just the tone of the accent! HAHA

Sister Manosig and I are good! We are preparing to go to Bacolod right now for MLC tomorrow! There was an early transfer this last week, but we both think that we will stay together for 1 more! So it should be fun!!! 

I love you all! I miss you! But things are good! I got a letter from Aunt Jo and Aunt Gayla!! Tell them thanks!! Also Aunt Sandy, she is faithful writer even when I am a bad pen pal!!! Be good and be safe! Maddy, snowboard for me, well it sounds like you are gone everyday so maybe you already are! HAHA Dad I wanna go! Maybe you should make an annual Philippines trip!!! Or just one haha I know the church is true!!! The Book of Mormon is true!!!! Have a good week! 

Love Sister S Polatis!!!! MWAHHHHHH
at the beach





HAPPY NEW YEAR!