My Mission and Before

October 7, 2013

Hello my Family and Friends,

Wow it has been such a crazy, wonderful, fun-filled, adventurful week!! With Zone Conference, Exchanges, General Conference, and the regular things of missionary work how can you ever be bored as a missionary?

I already spoke a little bit about how excited I am for all the things that are happening in our mission. For the rekindled fire on contacting and finding these people that are really searching for the gospel. Because, Gosh Dangit, I truly believe that. This is the Lord's work and He knows that people are out here searching for it and what are we doing if we don't have the faith enough to change it and search and baptize! I know we can do it I honestly do. Can't you feel it? It was all throughout conference! But that's another thing to speak on.

We also had exchanges this week. It was so interesting because we had a pair of sisters that stayed over Sunday night and Monday night. Then they left Tuesday morning and later on we had two new sisters come for exchanges that day and we exchanged on Wednesday. Well and Tuesday was kinda our P-day and there are lots of Sisters that want Gypsy skirts. There SO MUCH FUN. Not so much cute but it's the total culture thing. It really is just super cool. Anyways. We (Sora Polatis, Sora Lund, Sora Ralls, and I) and the Elders (Barclay and Davis) all go to this gypsy mansion. I was so freaked out. Because well some gypsy's are not so nice and you just never know they are kinda really good at pick pocketing. Before we entered the house Elder Barclay goes hey watch your bags and pockets. So we walk into this huge Gypsy mansion and this room is absolutely huge and gorgeous with about 5 or 6 families sitting in there. They were so nice obviously we were trying to buy skirts from them. These families were just absolutely huge though. Darling kids super cute kids. It was quite the experience watching how all these gypsy's are trying to sell us EVERYTHING to cell phones, skirts, head pieces. It is so interesting. We came home though with a load of skirts. Even the Elders picked up some. That was something that anybody that comes into Romania needs to try :)

We went on exchanges the next day though and it was so great. I got to serve with Sora Lund. Gosh, she's so great and I love her so dearly. It's crazy to me that she is leaving so soon! LIKE A TRANSFER AND A HALF! CRAZY! Time just moves by too quickly! Anyways we were able to visit one of our less actives we were also supposed to have another lesson but she called and cancelled at the last minute. Din pacate. It was such a crazy lesson. I really wanted to talk about Enduring to the End since this family the son was just baptized but they dont go to church anymore. It's so exhausting and I wanted to talk to the mother Mihaela and just ask her how she can Endure to the End and what it really means. It was recieved well but it was just so crazy! 3 kids running around in this little room. Litterally it was such a small room and they were all pretty sick. It was so sad. Until next time though :) And Sora Polatis and Sora Ralls went to go see our new investigators Simona and Elvira. I can't wait to see them this week. Seriously can't wait!

We continue to meet with Anca and Sora Ralls were so excited to meet with her! SO EXCITED! When we taught English Anca came and told us that she was no longer nervous about having her daughter go into preschool. You have to understand that her daughter is the shyest most scared little girl I have ever met. She is just so timid and doesn't like to be around other people except her parents. So as you can see Anca was super nervous about leaving her sweet daughter at preschool. And she just tells us that she is no longer nervous and that she just had this peace and she knows it came from God. So we decided to talk about the influence of the holy ghost and prophets. That we can continue to feel the peace in our lives as we follow the prophet and listen and obey his words. She couldn't come but the message was recieved and she told us that she had finally started to have time to read the pamphlets she gave us. THAT IS A BIG STEP FOR HER! We love her so much.

Then to General Conference. Wow... When we came to the church we had to set up everything and we had no idea how to get it to go onto Romanian so for the first little while we had it playing in Italian with sub titles in English. I did not understand much I will be honest and then we finally figured it out more than halfway through the first session. But later on we went to the beginning of conference and watched the Prophets greeting to conference and the call for MEMBERS and MISSIONARIES to work together! Gosh we wish the members could have watched that part! And on Sunday we came early so we could watch the Saturday Evening session. My goodness gracious... did you hear it? Can you feel it? Honestly how could you not? Missionary work, feed His sheep, Work Together, Pray Together, Bring them into your houses, Invite them. Everything about MEMBERS an MISSIONARIES WORKING TOGETHER! Do you see that this is bold! Get it now. Our district wants nothing more than for all of the people here in Romania to watch this session because this is what it lacks! If everyone talked to as many people as they could that day do you realize how huge this church would be? Do you realize how many lives would change? Do you realize how many of God's children would turn toward them and be exactly like the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and set down their weapons of war and bow down before their God and CHANGE! THEY WOULD CHANGE! Do you realize how many people are lost? Look at them... I want you to literally close your eyes and imagine if there was not this church. If you did not know God, if you did not understand the Savior, or the saving ordinances we have now. Just imagine this... and open your eyes. How do you see this world? How do you feel? How would you act? Those feelings... a lot of people have all around the world... I see these people everyday. And I know the only thing that stops me from opening my mouth is fear. But... once we realize the love Heavenly Father has for us and for His people we realize how much HE NEEDS US! We can't sit here expecting it to just change. I'm serious. We can not expect to change or things to change without action! We can not and I mean absolutely can not leave missionaries to do this alone. It's hard. Trust me I know. We all know. And I am so excited to hear about how our ward is doing. How we are having baptisms how there is so much spreading and excitement. But excuse me for being bold. I know we can do better. How many of our neighbors do we know? How many of our old neighbors? How many of our friends that lack this knowledge that we have are searching. Don't give up. Please don't. I know it's hard but I know it can be better. I Do. I know that just as our ward and mission back home can do even greater miracles I know greater miracles can happen here. And they are slowly. They WILL HAPPEN. This is a statement of fact. Can you feel it? Can you feel the change and the urgency of the need of us. Please, please, please, talk. Open your mouths. Pray for opportunities and I promise the experiences that will come you will never forget and will change you for the better.

Stepping off my soap box there :)

Now today.. Gosh today :) SO MUCH FUN! We went to a place called Lipova. It's a ruin. It was like a old fortress for enemies and now it is basically completely distroyed. BUT IT"S SO COOL! It doesn't cost anything and there are really no rules so we went nuts and just climbed and climbed. I've gotta build up some more muscle though and stretch out my legs since I'm SO DANG SHORT THAT THE ELDERS HAD TO GIVE US A BOOST UP EVERYWHERE! It was really funny though. I thought I was falling while Elder Barclay is lowering me down and Elder Criscenti behind me goes," Sora Stewart your touching the ground." ... oh... haha so funny. I was freaking out. Grateful for such great Elders in our district again. And that they are strong and they can help us when we feel like we are going to die off of tall parts of the ruins. Lots of pictures to send :) So much fun though. One of the best p-days. Mom. We are going back here and we are going to do all these things together! OKAY???

I love you all so much! And I hope you have a wonderful wonderful week!

Love,
Sora Stewart

P.S. I like to take random candid pictures of Sora Ralls and people. And these are some cool stairs we found close to our internet place.