My Mission and Before

May 5, 2014

Hello again!

This week just went by so fast. It's crazy. Literally it is just so hard to think of everything that we have done this week. Well, and in a word we've mostly just done contacting this week. Normal.

hahaha... sorry I just opened my planner and on Monday there is a note that says *feed Sora Uhl chocolate* haha :) That's my companion in a nutshell. Love her :)

Tuesday: It was literally our failed contacting day. We had planned out all these different ways to go contacting and everything... and then I forgot the most important thing. The pliants we wanted people to fill out. It was embarrassing. We really wanted to contact using Family History. It's a bit harder here since none of their records are on Family Search yet. There are some people who are interested in finding there ancestors though they just don't want to have to go through all the work of going to different places to find people. That's the only snub in the plan. It really is true that people want to know what kind of connection they have to their ancestors. Even for us missionaries. One of the elders in our district found his great great grandfathers patriarchal blessing and it said," You will be able to speak any language as you share with others about the gospel of Jesus Christ." How crazy is that! Haha. It's been pretty cool to see all that you can find on Family Search though and in a few years, as we are currently digitalizing their records, it will be available to them!

Well instead of Family History contacting we just did some normal contacting and we actually talked to this super nice woman. Sometimes I like contacting. Sometimes :)

Wednesday: It rained all day. Grrr... I mean I love the rain. I do. I just like the rain from standing inside. It is not my ideal situation for contacting. We did have a lesson with Andreea though. It was so fun. Since we are teaching her mission prep we are going through the lesson. We had her explain the Plan of Salvation in 5 minutes and then in 3 then in 1 then in 30 seconds. It was just so cool. She's really understanding that things really have to be simple when we teach. It's just so cool to see how she just automatically applies things. She was a little scared to do it a first. She looked at me and said," I can't! There is just so much to know in the Plan of Salvation." But she did it. We just looked at her and said," Andreea what are the most important things to know about the Plan of Salvation?" And she did it. She just focused on the most important aspects of something that would touch others hearts. It was fantastic. I can't wait to see all the miracles that will happen when she is on her mission :)

We were supposed to have another lesson that night... but ummm... we got bunged. We actually got bunged a lot this week. It was sad. haha. But that's okay.

Thursday: Romanian Labor Day! I swear there are just so many holidays here. I understand Labor Day but gosh I just don't understand that everybody has to disappear. I don't like that. :( The branch planned on a bbq and so we all gathered there during the day. I love this branch so much. :) I really really do. They are like a huge family. It's so interesting the differences. I mean at home all of us members live in this little section just a part of Vegas. Here, some of the members don't even live in the same city. The only time they see each other are at activities and at church. I feel like maybe sometimes as members we take advantage that we just have so many friends in the church that we can go over and walk over to our neighbor who shares the same beliefs as us. Here they don't have that. They don't. They live all over the place. I think that is one of the hardest things is that they do stand alone sometimes. They have to stand up for their beliefs and they are judged big time for it. It's so hard for them. Then you see them at these activities and at church and they are FAMILY. They literally are. They are so united and together. I love watching them. Watching how they really just LOVE one another. It's beautiful.

Friday: Literally just contacting. The entire day. We also were supposed to have a lesson... but we got bunged... again. Normal.

We did some Family History contacting. I'm not going to lie it was hard. A lot of them already to their family tree stuff in school. They also just get very defensive and think we are trying to pry into their lives. Hmmm... I just have to figure out a better way to do it. It was a neat experience though. I'm so grateful I have an artist as a companion. She drew this huge tree. Like it was super cool. It took her like 3 hours to do it and she was COVERED in chalk. haha. :) That was the funny part. It was really cool though and people just kept coming over to look over at it and then we were able to share. I really love chalk contacting.

We did our "sports night" and played some Frisbee with some investigators and with one of the members friends. It was really fun. Aparently I can only catch things when I'm yelled at. haha. Alin figured that one out. It was pretty funny though. I also think I fell about 19 times... I'm getting better at these sports things :)

After sports night though we were sitting on the ground and Andreea tells me," Did you know that if you make a wish and blow out all the seeds out of a Dandelion that your wish will come true? Here, here is a dandelion. Make a wish say that you will stay in Constanta the rest of your mission. This has to be your wish." haha I was laughing so hard and tried to blow it out and nothing blew out. Then Andreea takes the flower and rips out all the little seed things and says," Look I did magic!" Seriously it was the funniest thing ever. I freaking love this girl to death!

Saturday: Well we had our English class. Not really... Sora Uhl and I if there is only one student that shows up to our class we just go help with the other classes. There are just a lot of creepy men here that like to take our class. We don't have many women in our class so if we don't have more then like 3 people we put them in the Medium class. The spiritual though after we did it on Family History. It was cool. Elder Bonner got up there and asked the classes where they thought he was from. Of course they say America, Utah... and whatever else they came up with. Then he got on Family Search and showed them exactly where he was from his ancestors and everything. They all thought it was the coolest thing. It really was so fun. The classes all just got really excited about that.

We taught a 30/30 lesson with a girl named Ana-maria. She's super cool. She's like 20 and really loves the bible. She doesn't exactly practice any religion but she agreed to read the Book of Mormon. Sora Uhl really felt like we needed to talk about how she can find her purpose and she can know these things are true. I have just loved serving with Sora Uhl. She just knows exactly what our investigators need and what people need to know. :) She's going to do miracles here.

We did some contacting later on and we found out where everybody has gone to. The beaches have now opened and there is this part of Constanta called Mamaia. You can kinda of compare it to the strip... maybe not as evil yet...  the heat hasn't exactly hit yet. But everybody was over there. We were contacting and then we just see this huge crowd so we followed them. Seriously I have never seen so many people on the streets before. It was insane.

We had interviews after. I have such a great respect for Sora and President HIll. They are just AMAZING people. They actually leave In like 7 weeks they leave the transfer before I do and so this was the last interview I had with both of them. It made me so sad. I love them both so much! I am just so grateful that I have had an amazing Mission President and Sora Hill is amazing. :) Seriously so grateful.

Sunday: Well had to translate for Relief Society since Sora Hill was there. It was hard. I'm not used to translating. I had to keep telling her sorry since I just couldn't translate everything fast enough... plus a lot of it was reading and exact quote. That's just a bit hard. Us 6 missionaries taught Sunday School about the role of members in missionary work. Sora Uhl and I talked specifically about how they can help in lessons. Most importantly that when we ask them to participate not to go into deep doctrine. haha. Or explain too much information. It was so funny. Sora Uhl started it and because there was English and Romanian that day she starts off," Sora Stewart and I"... but totally said it in a Romanian accent... haha it was so funny! I guess for those that don't know what a Romanian accent sounds like you'll just have to wait.

Well this week we actually have quite a few lessons planned out. I'm really excited. After talking with President and Sora Hill of what I can do specifically to be a better missionary and to just keep going with missionary work and contacting no matter what. I am just so happy and grateful to be here. It's been hard to be a missionary for sure. I am glad though that I have given chances though. Something that President said to me is that you can only just give them chances. They don't have to accept it or like it. But we have to offer it. If that is all we do then we are being successful. So that's what I am doing. I'm giving chances.

Well... this has been a definite scatterbrained letter I Hope you all understand it :)

I am praying for you gramps and for spencer. I keep all of you in my prayers. The Lord will bless you. I promise you that. I know that He will.

I love you all! Ne mai auzim!
Sora Stewart