Week 3 MTC February 28, 2013

Buna!
Ce facets voi?? I can see already that this keyboard is going to cause me problems as the shift button won't capitalize my letters. Anyways this week was good I can feel myself being able to understand most of the grammar principles which if you look up all the grammar principles in Romanian you will see that it's difficult... why is there so much to memorize?!?!?! But I really am doing great here and I love the MTC, I love my companion and I love the people in my district. We had a successful week and I don't know if Matt had to do this but we have progressing investigators (our teachers) but they play their investigators they taught in the MTC. Anyways we have had some fantastic lessons and it is just so beyond cool to see how much you can feel the spirit! I never want this feeling to leave. I have things I desperately need to fix and I need to work on them. I have noticed that about myself is that a lot of those that I talk to are just assuming that because they are understanding what is happening at the moment, they feel so comfortable and they just kinda stick in that mode. I came here on a mission not only to help those people in Romania understand that The Truth is restored here on Earth and we want everyone to accept it, but I came here to better myself. I don't want to just get comfortable in doing one thing I want to always be focusing on being better in my scripture study, or my language study, or feeling the spirit, or being able to teach in fluency. I don't want to be one of those missionaries that are just stuck in the mode and comfortable with how things are. So when my teacher asked what is a personal goal that I would like to work on I told him a million hahaha. He kinda just stared at me and said lets focus one at a time. And as the other sisters told me what they said I was kinda shocked... "Hmmm I don't know I'm not really having any struggles so I don't know if I need to work on anything." I need the struggle. It's hard and it's beyond frustrating to struggle at different things, but I need it. I don't really know if this is making sense... I hope it is. I just don't want to settle for what feels comfortable. I want to be extraordinary. Maybe that sounds a little selfish, but to reach the goals and dreams that i want to reach as a missionary, and really just as a child of My Father in Heaven, I need to be extraordinary. And I am sure that my investigators want extraordinary.
Sorry vent in what I want to be is over haha. Things are really good here though I'm happy, through these stressful frustrating times. Never thought I would say that. Can I just say I LOVE being a missionary. It is just the coolest experience. I love being able to read my scriptures for hours and hours and be studying it going from the bible dictionary to all sorts of references. It's super fascinating. Why was I never so fascinated with this before hand??? I have been missing all of this my whole life! WHY! :) But because I am so happy, I know Heavenly Father is just letting me know over and over and over again that I could be in no better place then I am now. It's so fascinating how The Lord prepares you in certain ways. I am grateful!
We had Elder M. Russell Ballard come on Tuesday and of course being the person I am I show up over an hour early so I can get up front and close which I was. Mother have I ever told you that I am grateful that you are always on time and you made me that way? He gave such a good talk and every person that has showed up to our firesides/devotionals they always have to comment on how many Sister Missionaries there are.  I guess when I came we were the first huge roll of Sister Missionaries so I have just been used to it. Anyways he gave such an awesome talk on just how the Lord really trust the young people of the church. That's why he asks us to serve, because he trust us! He called us "miracles" as he has talked to so many other churches and they have always asked how do you get so many young people to come and serve, and the answer that he always gives is that we WANT to serve the Lord because we Love The Lord. Such a simple simple simple answer, but it is the most amazing answer. We are miracles :)
Anyways I'm sorry Mama to hear that you lost your tooth... you may need dentures when your older HAHAHHA :) I'm just kidding... hopefully. I hope your teeth will get fixed and I'm sorry your on that medicine... I've been there.
Dad please get better. You haven't been sick in such a long time! And if you're sick eating healthy food and I'm over here feeling my body slowly shut down from all the food they feed us I don't want to know what's going to happen to me. Also could you please get me Suzy's home address. Sister Montenegro and I have letters to send her. I think you can just find it on the church website.
Oh Elder Hodson randomly appeared here at the MTC as he almost ran up and ALMOST gave me a hug hahaha. I was so freaked out and excited just because I didn't know he was here. We settle for hand hugs over here. I guess Elder Jackson has appeared here too although I have not yet seen him, he is around here somewhere and as Sister Montenegro had asked me in Hungarian I needed some translations I will let Ya'lll know when I see Him. It's super cool to see everybody here! And all the languages. My companion and I have random English Fast where we don't speak English for a time! It's been extremely helpful.
Ummmmm.... Oh yeah. Spencer I wasn't complaining! I never COMPLAIN! :) I am as happy as can be, but It's cool that you got third in Mr. Bengal and no it was not a surprise to me to hear that Cole won. Also September is a good time to come here... It might be overly overly full here have fun with that :)
Chantal and Matt I am so happy to hear the blessings that have come in to your life with financial reasons and I hope Matt that your job gets a bit easier... not necessarily easier but you will be able to do more. I will keep you in my prayers. And I am sorry to hear about neighbor problems. Just think though you could be on a floor with thousands of sister missionaries blow drying there hair at 3-6 in the morning ;)
haha. Anyways my time here is almost done. So I am just going to attach a few pictures. I hope to hear from you again...
I also don't know if I answered everybody's questions but basically just know that I am well. I am happy, and I LOVE being here, I love being a missionary. I love teaching the gospel. And I also love letters. Is that a hint for you all?
Love you much and always!
Sora Stewart

So because we do lots of sack lunches we needed a refrigerator and so we put all of our food outside! Haha it's quite the site!

 I was crying because I could not see.

So this is of me and my companion with two of the Sorori that left that weekend. They were so sweet and I just loved them!

This one is of us cleaning our classroom. Our vacuum was not working and so Elder Jarman was so mad! It was hilarious. And my companion likes to photo bomb everything. :)

So over presidents day weekend we didn't get any mail it was sooo horrible! But come that Wednesday all of us got a bunch of letters where as our poor Italian Sora got a little thing in the mail saying she needed shots. She ended up having to get six shots she could barely move her arms the next day we had to help her get dress and put her coat on and everything. She has been quite the trooper in adjusting to everything in Utah with the dryness in weather, which has made her have a 3 bloody noses everyday. She even had one in the Temple Session the other day. The poor sister! So we just had to take this picture.

Week 2 MTC

Buna Familie!
Ce Facets? Everything here is going well and it has been eventful here. Last P-day I went to the temple and let me just tell you it's the best feeling in the world. How often do we really have to just take the whole day and study the scriptures, study the language, and pray PRAY to our Heavenly Father. It is just such a blessing in my life that I have the opportunity to be here. Yes it is absolutely exhausting, the language is hard and I don't know exactly how to speak or to express the ways of the gospel in what I could express in English. Mom and Lindsay I understand now why you wanted to go English speaking. Sharing the gospel is such an amazing experience, it is something that I love to do, and because I can't really speak my language it is SOOO FRUSTRATING! With all of this frustrating though it really brings you to your knees. I know for me I am brought down to my knees every night and morning in humble prayer that this is what the Lord wants for me. He needs me to be humble, haha so I am getting a big huge slice of humble pie. We really can't do anything without Heavenly Father by our side. It's impossible and as I look back on all the times that I felt like I do it all on my own I just want to slap my past self! How on earth did I ever think that I could do great things and get by on things without this gospel or without prayer or without just looking towards Heavenly Father in asking for help! Anyways I am just grateful that I have this experience to really show me how much I have to, need to, and want to be directed by the Lord at all times.

Like I said the language is hard... it's harder than I thought it would be and it's not necessarily the speaking but it is the grammer principles! There are so many different ways to conjugate and then you have to add things to the words to make "the" holy ghost or "of" the holy ghost! Holy cow it is hard! We are trying to remember years and years worth of study grammer principles in to 6 weeks! Oh just fyi my district 7 missionaries 5 sisters and 2 elders are now the only missionaries going to Romania. The other district who were here last week and were supposed to be leaving on Monday got a call from our mission president on Friday night and were told that they had to fly out on Monday morning! I felt so bad for them because they had already told their family they were leaving in a week not in a few days and everything was closed on campus because of Presidents Day. Some of them weren't able to talk to their families before they left! They were beyond stressed. I just pray that that does not happen to me, especially since they had 10 weeks here to learn the language and study and we do not have that amount of time.

My teachers are fantastic you can just tell that they are inspired! I had had a hard day, just upset with not understanding the language and everything just kinda builds on each other after a while. And I just cried. My first cry of the MTC woohoo! Mark that off my check list now, but hey it took me two weeks to get to that point. I am proud of myself! Anyways we were having coaching missionary study with one of our teachers Frantille Frandsen and just asked how he could help, what was going on, what were we frustrated about. And I needed help and if he was offering this was the Lords way of providing me comfort. He sat there just pondering and just starting searching the scriptures and he just gave me this scriptures that just felt every frustration and every sadness and just everything that I was feeling and it made it a million times better. I am so grateful that our teachers care so much for us and they trully want us to succeed. It's nice to know that they are feeling and they have felt every ounce that we have felt and maybe even more since the program has imporved so much!

I don't really remember what questions were asked so I'll just answer a few that I remember!
Lindsay I loved your letter everytime I pass the laundry room now I always think of that. I also don't believe that I can get any pictures through dear elder but I would love pictures if you can send them to this email that would be quite lovely! I would love to say Kate!
Amy so your dear elder did not translate the Romana words exactly but I understood 95% of it even though it ended up looking like this c09840923e Fac989839ts bine902384092384cuv134u239048antez. It was quite fun to figure it out. I do feel that the Lord is blessing me with the language though. Especially since two weeks ago I had no idea what no was! And now I can speak in sentences and I can read Romana pretty well. Secretly Eu Place Limii Romana. :) Oh and I have not met any Poland missionaries yet. We are on the floor of a bunch of islanders and american sign language missions. I am in a branch with Italians though there are like 7 Italian districts and our district. :)

Emily I am so excited that you are doing track in my district I have a bunch of people that are all cross country, marathon, 5k runners, sprinters, they are all pretty athletic.

Spencer I have heard nothing from you, but I am going to give you some advice that I wish I would have done before my mission and it would have made my time here a little easier I think. Oh just FYI the MTC is hard. It is really really really hard and it takes a lot of adjustment and you are going to need ajuti (help) but you are going to need ajuti from Un Domn. It's fun putting Romana Cuvants in aici haha :) Anyways read really really read preach my gospel read all the lesson read every single thing that is in the book and really study it. It will ajuti so much! I wish that I had read more than I did!

Anyways Mom and Dad I do really love it here and I enjoy your letters oh so much. Because of Presidents Day weekend we didn't have any mail it was so exhausting sometimes we just need all that encouragement from our families! Oh also I think that it is extremely funny that you had to give a talk what did you talk about I want to read it! Everything is well here and I really do enjoy the MTC, some people always say that they hated the MTC but there is just so much happiness and the spirit is just so strong here. I am enjoying it. I think that I may freaked out when I have to leave... It's like a 13 hour flight... can someone pass the sleeping pills now??
Hmmm I cant really think of what else to say but my time is up. Just know that I am well I think of you and I hope you are all doing well please send dear elders they are so wonderful and I enjoy them all so very much!
And Jess I don't have your ADDRESS I have a letter to send to you!
I love you all so much my time is out!
Papa! (byebye)
Cu toti iubeste,

Sora Stewart

Sister McKay, Sister Stewart, Sister Montenagro
Rachael, Jenna, Angelina
Vegas Friends

This is where I'm going!
Florida, Hungry, Romania

Elders and Sisters in my District

Sisters in my district

Elders in my district

Love getting Mail!

dearelder.com
MTC Mailbox 302
ROM-MLD 03-18

My Family Loves Me!

Sora Adams & Sora Stewart ( MTC Companions)

In front of the Romanian Flag

Jenna's first letter from MTC

Buna Ziua,

My wonderful Family and friends that read this, my first week has been extremely difficult but extremely blessed. It's amazing to me how obedience and faith can build you so much to know your language and to really understand why you are here. Anyways my first day here was obviously the hardest and as I walked into my language class and they had started about 30 minutes before I got there and everyone knew how to say things. It scared me!!! And the whole time I was thinking why on earth did I put that I really wanted to learn a language down on my papers. Of course this is the first day and with all mixed emotions of uncertainty and what is going on, it all blew over really fast. I have a wonderful companion whose name is Sora Adams, she is from the Seatle, Washington area and she is 23 turning 24 on the 24th. Language has been good for the most part, Romana (what Romanians call there language) is frustrating in quite a few ways. It is a romance language which I was expecting is a lot like Italian, some things are like spanish not to many though, but they say things somewhat Slovik like they would in Russia. I guess if I get sent to Moldova I will have to try and pick up on Moldovian and Russian which is what they speak there. No worries right :)

I really do love it here, I am already sick of the food and it's amazing how many carbs they serve here! Seriously! Why so much bread! I don't need so many carbs for sitting in a classroom studying! We do have about 50 minutes to work out everyday and so I run and bike everyday! It is amzing what excercize can do to clear your mind! And I still bring all my vocab and verbs to study while I read. Romana has a lot of irregular verbs that I have to remember.... This is when I pray for the Lords blessing everyday. We are teaching an "simpatazant" investigator. Who is our teacher starting Friday. Did I mention that the language is really fast! It's such a blessing though to realize how much I knew a week ago and now sitting in class and when we are teaching I can understand most of it. I use a lot of gestures when teaching, it's pretty hillarious if I do say so myself.

I definitely feel the prayers that have been given, and I know that is why I am being so blessed. The district I am in is actually the biggest district of Romanian Missionaries to come to the MTC, the district before us has 6 people and we have 7, we were supposed to have 8 but one Sora never showed up. Nu Stiu... I don't know. That's basically my favorite word. Anyways I really do love the MTC and I love my district the Elders are of course a little immature and I don't know if they fully recognize the spirit in their lives yet. They weill though.

I have seen many friends here and I see Sister Montenegro quite a bit. They are all doing well and Sister Mackay went off to Florida on Tuesday. We have had some wonderful firesides and its amazing how easy it is that they spirit just talks to you all the time. I'm grateful I know how to hear and recieve answers to prayers.
I am so very thankful for all your letters and it is the best part of the day to get letters. It's just dissapointing when you see everyone else get letters and you don't. Mom and Dad I recieved Matt's letters before I recieved yours. I recieved yours on Tuesday, the ones you wrote in Reno? And then I recieved 2 from Mom yesterday and one from Dad yesterday. I love them haha.

Oh just fyi I haven't cried yet... yet. hahaha It is overwhelming at times but then you just feel the spirit and know that you will eventually get the language and it isn't going to be perfect when you go out anyways so don't get frustrated.

I also am missing Chantals letter :( I looked and looked and I think I may have left it in the car or it fell out at home :( I would really love it pretty please!
Well I think thats all???
My P-day is on Thursdays and I did send you a letter that on the return address has my box number and all that.

With all my dragostea,

Sora Stewart

Mission Picture Overload!!!!!

 

Thankyou very much Pricilla Davis! I love my pictures!!