My Mission and Before

July 21, 2013

Well goodmorning...afternoon for those that are on my side of the world,

You heard from me not too long ago announcing that I am now out of the hospital! Hooray and it still has just been the weirdest week. For a lot of reasons. Just to update you on a few things transfer board came out this week and I am leaving to Bucharest! I am moving to the big city and am serving in the Panduri branch there. In Buch we have two branches and they have chapels! So I wont be in a little villa anymore it'll be different for sure. So and this next transfer will be a little bit weird as well. We have Sister Trainer Leaders in Buch and they travel to all the other cities in Romania to help train other sisters (basically they are like ap's but for sisters) anyways so we have four stl and they are all in Buch. Well now we have 6 sisters total in Buch. So 4 of us will all be living in one apartment. And I am training (ha training) a mini missionary from Ploiesti who does not speak English. Ha it's going to be so great.

We have a district meeting once a transfer at the Boyds house and we just have a big lunch (and I mean literally a huge lunch) and we find out what is happening for transfers! So when Elder Boyd picked us up I already knew that I was getting transferred after everything that has happened with me being in the hospital I figured they would probably want me closer to the Capital just in case anything happens ever again. And so I asked him and he tells me that I am heading over to Bucharest and I have a little trainer over my name and that freaked me out. Hahaha I may have stared at the transfer board for 30 minutes trying to grasp what on earth Heavenly Father is trying to do to me. But there ya have it I am excited for my new companion (I will definitely start to get a lot better at this language) she is about 24/25 and she has been trying to go on a mission for the last like 2 or 3 years! And she finally has everything settled and her papers should be in and she should be getting her call. And she agreed to be a mini missionary while she waits! Isn't that cool? She wont technically be my companion until about the 4th of August though because she will be in Slovakia for the huge YSA Conference in Eastern Europe.
So many new things in store for this next upcoming transfer!

 

A little about this last week. Well most of it I was in the hospital... and well yeah. Haha I really did have the nicest nurses and doctors and they would just come in just to talk to me. Also probably they wanted to practice English and I wanted to practice Romanian. I learned a new word Doare (hurts) haha. I didn't like how many times they had to take my blood or stick a new IV in me. And they stuck a dang Catheter in my artery in my arm which I don't think is normal cause that hurt. I was super mad I kept telling them that hurts and they looked at me and said no you just feel it. I had to bite my tongue after that. Since that's the Romanian thinking over here haha. It makes for some great stories though :) But in general the hospital really wasn't that horrible and I think that I am extremely extremely extremely blessed. And so many branch members here were surprised they for 1. treated me and for 2. was able to get out when I said I would.

Here in Romania most of the time you have to bribe the doctors a lot of money to even be treated. And then to be let out they try to suck as much money out of the insurance companies as possible, they want you to be completely healed before they let you out. Haha Elder B is going through the same thing right now... he's trying to escape it's great :) But in my case I didn't have to bribe any doctor or anybody to be treated, and one of our investigators also told me that if you don't bribe them they are super mean to you and they weren't that way to me either. I am so blessed. :)

One of our Elder's here is leaving for home in a couple days and so he wanted to go to a rugby game on Saturday that we all went to as a district (part of our pday for today) and that was really fun. I now understand a lot more about Rugby even though I guess they were not good here. It was still fun.

We were able to meet with one of our amazing investigators D and D. I guess D was out of town la tara with a bunch of friends and we called to meet up with them and they just were so happy to meet with us. We had an amazing lesson about how to receive revelation and how we need to pray and ask God and do the things He has already commanded us like reading the Book of Mormon to receive answers and to just have that knowledge. The spirit was so strong and D looks at us and is just always in Awe saying I am 45 years old and I don't know any of this how is it possible that you two are so young and you just know. It was beautiful and she agreed to pray about the Book of Mormon and read it and put it into practice. And then on Sunday she came :) She looked so beautiful it was absolutely wonderful! We had the district presidency come and talk this Sunday and it was absolutely perfect for a lot of our investigators! They talked a lot about how you can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and how you can loose your testimony if you aren't actively refining it. It was just a beautiful Sunday :) I am really going to miss Cluj a lot.

 

Cluj literally has one of the strongest branches here in Romania and they are so loving. My heart breaks a little to leave these wonderful members who I love so dearly. Because I do they are wonderful, and powerful. Gosh I am just going to miss them so much!

I love you all so much. And am grateful for you all and your prayers. I have felt your prayers and I am continuing on :)
Cu dragoste,

Sora Stewart