My Mission and Before

April 22, 2013

Wow! I can not believe that this is our last week of the transfer. Super crazy. I feel as though time has really just flown by. It's a weird concept really to have everything just go by super super fast and then it just goes by super slow at the same time.
Anyways we (Sora Ewell and I) have had just a super crazy busy week. Which is exactly how I love my life. I'm really amazed too that we were able to do all of these things within this week and it's really just a huge blessings. It's honestly hard to think of everything that has gone on this week because we really have been just super busy. I will try to start from the beginning.
Last P-day we went to the senior couples house outside of Cluj. They are just wonderful, some of the sweetest, most humble people I have ever met. And we love Sora Boyd. She is just a fireball, she tells all the time to take notes about how to treat our future spouses when we get home. She's super cute. We came over and just talked and made cookies. She told us stories of her life and just about how much the Lord has blessed her life. We then continued to contact which is our favorite thing here in Romania.

Side note: As I am being trained I have to watch the district movies on how we can work with certain things and improve our missoinary skills. The district is completely not real. I am being serious. There is a joke around here that they should make a Romanian district and when they ask us to translate what people say, we would just have to lie because they don't say very nice things to us sometimes. Or it would just be an interesting district show because... well we contact a lot... it would sure be entertaining though.

Anyways. We basically contact at all times when we don't have lessons set up. But the Lord has blessed us for our efforts these past couple of weeks and has shown us some miracles. Which I honestly hav really appreciated.

Miracles

1. Nicoleta: So Nicoleta is a women who works outside our apartment building... ummm by the trash... She basically just makes sure that no one goes through our garbage. And yeah that does happen quite a bit here. Anyways we weren't really sure what her circumstance were and so we weren't sure we should teach her. It's a much longer story that needs be. But she isn't homeless and she just loves to talk to us. And everytime we would just say hi she would ask for more pliants and different things to read. So we decided to teach her. So we started off with the restoration since she was already reading the Book of Mormon on her own without us telling her to do anything. And at the end we asked her when she knew these things are true will you get baptized. And she just stared at us like we were dumb. And said of course! Hooray! Our first soft baptism invitation accepted! And as we visit her more and more she has continued to read and study, she is just a little miracle that has come into our lives. It actually reminds me a lot of Alma the Younger and teaching the Zoramites, and how no one would listen. But because there were the poor and the humble they were able to accept the gospel. It just reminds me of her situation. She really is a sweet heart.

2. We were contacted: Who said being an American in Europe was ever a bad thing I don't know. Because it really came in handy. We had sister exchanges this week, which I will get to later, and Sora Ewell was just getting back when we went to say hi to someone. We were speaking English before and then switched to Romanian and had a conversation for about 5 minutes. When these twins were just standing off to the side waiting. Then we start walking and they approach us ask us who we are, if we are American, why we are here, and if we can meet up sometime. THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN HERE! Gave us there phone numbers and they now want to meet up this weekend and they said they would come to the activity Friday night. Little miracles :)
3. Karen and Marin: Karen and Marin are the couple I talked about probably my first week here. She only speaks spanish and for the past couple weeks he has been out of town. So we haven't been able to have a lesson. We were able to finally get a lesson in and she came to church. Not only that but she was fellowshipped by at least 6 different members, mind that there are only about 30 that come every week, and there was a sister that translated Sunday School and Relief Society for her. It was so beautiful to see. :)

4. The Members: We really have to best members in here. And I really don't know how to explain the power and the strength they have. They are literally the only active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in a whole city. They are all converts. They all have multiple callings. They all rely on each other, and they all love each other so much. And they understand the importance of missionary work, way better then I ever understood before my mission. President Iepure actually had a branch fast for the missionary work here. HE set this up, and it was successful. People came and they fasted and they understood the importance of it. Can you imagine being in a place where everyone has trully converted to the gospel and they are so converted to the Lord, that they have all changed their lives and they were all nonmembers at a point, and they share their story every week.

We also had Sister Exchanges this week, Sora Ewell went to Sibiu with Sora Stapley and Sora Lund came here with me. So Sora Stapley and I had to kinda well direct everything since these were our towns. And Sora Stapley is only a transfer ahead of me. So it was a new adventure for the both of us. We had lessons set up all day long and so we had to get busy. Now we take buses everywhere and we went to go do a member visit, to obtain refferals, and I had never been there before. Needless to say Sora Lund and I were totally lost. We were actually in the right area just the wrong block and so our sweet Sora Iuşan had to walk out of her house and get us. The next day Sora Lund and I had a bunch of lessons set up and then in between we just contacted. It's really interesting to be with other sisters and see how they contact and do things. I really loved having time with Sora Lund. It all ended in craziness though as Sora Lund and I went to take a maxi taxi to Sibiu and what do you know it left an our early then it was supposed to and we missed it by ten minutes! So this caused craziness for everyone as we all had lessons that evening and needed to get back. So they all (zone leaders and the sisters in Sibiu) Ended up traveling to Cluj. I felt super bad for Sora Stapley she had about a total of 17 hours of travel within 3 days.

Everything did work out though and now we are back to our original companions.

I love you all so much.

Sora Stewart