April 15th , 2013

Bună!

My wonderful friends and family, I feel as though this week was the longest most drawn out week possible, but then it was also the shortest. How do those two mix I honestly have no idea! After our horrible numbers last week with lessons Sora Ewell and I were really focused and made none stop phone calls and appointments. We were and are super focused on our goals for this area and we really want to help this area grow. Something that we noticed though with other branches around the country that a lot of the baptisms that were happening were all from member referrals. This work is so hard if the members are not with us 100 percent of the way. So we have been trying to focus on the members this week, and this upcoming week as well. We are going to share the story of Abish and how she "ran from house to house to have others witness the power of God". And also with this past general conference a talk that was given by Elder Anderson ""If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart—painted, as Paul said, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”" We are really trying to put on emphasize on these members that we can't do this without them. And so by the end of this week we are hoping to get at least one refferal. The branch does recognize the importance of missionary work though as on Saturday the branch has put together a 24 hour fast for missionary work. We are praying with all the lessons we have with these members that they will try to invite others to accept us into their homes.
We had a few lessons this week and some I truly believe are complete miracles! We met these two girls in Centru the other day and they just guided us to the bus stop. We paused before we left talked a little about our message and they gave us their numbers. The day we set up the appointment however was pouring down rain. Side note: It rains everyday here. The weather here is completely bipolar, but our farmer friends outside our window know exactly when the weather is going to be beautiful, or cold and wet. We look to them to see how the weather is going to be that day. Anyways so we were sure that they were not going to show up, since they had told us over the phone that they were already very firm in their faith, and then with the weather and they had already reschedualed before. Amazingly however they showed up. We walked over to the church (in the pouring rain) and we were able to give a great lesson. It was not the lesson we had intended, but it was definitly the lesson they needed. Sora Ewell on our walk over here had asked a random question (obviously not random to us who are members of the church) "Where do you think we were before this life) and that's when they listened. They had never even thought of that before and they stopped and really sank into our message of the plan of salvation. They were open and when they said the closing prayer they pleaded with Heavenly Father to really just know if this the path that they need to take. That if our message is true they would accept it. This was the golden perfect moment in my (small) missionary life.

We also had another experience that really shows us how the Lord puts people in our path. He is our proprietar, our landlord, turns out he and his family have taken the discussions before but with life they had gotten to busy. So we needed him to come down because my chair... well it's in half. IT WASN'T ME I SWEAR! Anyways and there were some other things wrong with our apartment that just needed to be fixed. So when he came over and he was just so open, friendly, and just ready to talk to us. He has made friends with many missionaries through out the years and he was telling us that one of the missionaries that was in Cluj and his wife are coming back and are going to be staying with his family for a little over a month. And then he invited us over for dinner and to meet his wife and his new baby girl. Now maybe this isn't a big deal to you all. But it was such a huge deal to us to have someone accept us, accept who we are and what we teach and to invite us over. It was a huge deal with us. So we are praying that we will be able to teach this young wonderful family and hopefully with the help of this Old missionary help them come to church!

This week also was extremely hard for me. As I was told by President Hill that my grandmother had passed away. It was really interesting experience for me, especially at this state in my life. We had had district meeting that day and Sora Ewell and I were asked to present something. So we decided to talk on Love, loving members, loving our investigators, and just seeing how the Lord loves us, and how we can show Him our love. We each went around and talked about how they recognize the love of God in their lives when Elder Lund talked about his grandmother. And how in his family there aren't many members and so his grandmother writes him a dear Elder every week and an email and in these letters he obtains so many answers to his prayers. That through his grandmother he can see how much the Lord loves him. And while I was listening I just remember having the feeling come over me and saying,"She's gone." I knew that I was expecting this but I wasn't sure how I would take the sorrow that fills someone when you have this kind of imformation. I didn't know what to think at that moment as I really didn't know if she was gone or what was going on except for the fact that I just had that small whisper. What happened about 30 minutes later getting off the bus and into our apartment for lunch, seeing that we had a missed call from President Hill. And that's when I knew, I dídn't need to hear his voice, I knew. And in those moment when I looked to the future and I knew I wouldn't see her again. And all I had were my memories, there would be no more future experiences. So that's when I knew, after I talked to President HIll, that I had to get down on my knees and just pray to Heavenly Father. Pray to Him for help and guidance, and pray to know to really really TRULY know that the Plan of Salvation was real. I believed it of course and I have always felt that it was real, but I needed to know. I needed to know that I will see her again, that I will see those that I am sealed to and I will have that everlasting joy with them. I do. I do know that this is real. I know that the work I am doing is honestly the most important work I could honestly ever do. To help bring others the gospel of Jesus Christ. To help them understand that we can be "Forever Families" and that I honestly KNOW that I will see those that pass on, and that I will have my family forever. And I do. I know this I know this with all my heart. I am so grateful for this blessing, this answer, this experience no matter how much saddness I feel for the loss of my grandma. I feel so much happier knowing I will see her again, in a much better world then this, with all the time in the world. And that she no longer has to suffer the pains of this world, that she is happy and that she is doing EXACTLY what I am doing, just in a different place.

I have had some tender mercies this week, and some really just funny moments that just make this work so much fun.

- They Boyds: They are the senior couple in this mission and they are amazing. Actually today Sora Ewell and I are going to her house to make cookies with her. And just to spend time with her and have companion study with her. WE LOVE HER. Her faith is absolutely amazing. And her stories of her trials and the love she has for God and her family is just so amazing.

Something I feel like I need to learn is love. Now I love everybody I do. And I'm happy and I just show others compassion, but to truly truly love someone and see someone through the eyes of Heavenly Father I have a hard time doing. Especially when they give me the finger! (not the actual finger) I look to Sora Boyd and her husband and even Sora Ewell. They love so openely and they show actually show their love to everyone. They hug and laugh and touch and just honestly love people. I'm working on that. I want to achieve this kind of love in my life. It is honestly the purest kind of love. Which was really kinda cool that this was continually being brought in though my week as I was reading my scriptures and a verse, not even a verse a sentence pops out to me in Moroni 8:16 "For perfect love casteth out all fear." I love this and this is exactly what they show. I want this so much and so this is my goal at the moment is to show others this perfect love.

- Block Knocking: I finally went block knocking which was so much fun. Even when people slam the doors and keep yelling out,"We have a bible. We don't need anything else." We went with the zone leaders since they had a note that just told them that Mănăştur was the place to go. So they go up to the last block until you litterally hit the forest on the top floor last door. They knock and they are let in by a brother and sister. They gave them the first lesson, set up a return appointment, and this two actually came to church on Sunday. Seriously. How on earth does this happen! These are miracles! Now we didn't have much success, but we saw success and that gave us hope as the Elders were accepted again into another famiies home!

- Little Old Ladies: I love the little old ladies here. They are wonderful. And it super cute since they actually care about your health. There is this little lady that just lives around the corner who at night sells a bunch of things from her garden. We stop and talk with her a little each night  and we bought some fresh garlic one time. I was not wearing tights or boots that night. It was not cold. I was not cold, I walk around all day in a jacket, and on buses it gets hot. And I really really really really hate tights. So I don't wear them. These little old ladies yell at me all the time. Okay not yell but they look at me shake their heads and in Romanian tell me, "You'll sick yourself!" I have had this comment made 5 times this week. :( And I got sick. Sometimes little old ladies know. It was a funny aspect in our lives this week.

- GOOD NEWS: So because I am still in training we watch a bunch of district videos on how to work with the Ward Mission Leader and the Bishop and Members. So as we are watching Sora Ewell and I look at each other and just shake our heads because we have not seen our ward mission leader. Because he hasn't been to church. Nor has he made any contact with us. So are goal was now to reactivate the ward mission leader. But goodnews he went to church sunday so now we have one less member to reactivate :) It was a good week.

I love you all!
Sora Stewart

April 8th, 2013

Good morning!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and week filled with amazing experiences. Especially since Conference was this weekend. The way we do conference here in Cluj is a little different, I did get to hear it all in English thank goodness, but we watched it at 7 at night. It was kinda a weird experience for me yesterday to be looking at the screen and have it be the spoken word. My thoughts honestly were why is the spoken word on it's night time. Obviously my brain really hasn't hit that I am like 9 hours apart here... hopefully my math is right. Anyways conference was absolutely wonderful and I really am just so grateful for just the privilege to watch Thomas S. Monson and the apostles and the other general authorities. How grateful and blessed we are to have wonderful, righteous leaders in our gospel. That what they really want for us, for everyone, is to be happy, make righteous choices, and return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. What greater blessing in this world could there be to have leaders like this in our world???

This week was extremely different for me and even for my companion. We had our zone conference which is in Arăd, and about 5/6 hours away by train. So because it was so far away and it was on Wednesday we had to get on a train Tuesday afternoon and we wouldn't be back in Cluj until about 12:00 am Thursday. It was a long couple of days. The conference was wonderful and we had some fantastic presentations given on how to better our missionary efforts. Sora Ewell and I had to give a presentation on how to make a baptismal service a more spiritual experience. We think it went well, since our time was cut in half. The Lord does love short powerful statements. :)

I don't know if the Romanian mission is just super different because we are all spread out everywhere and have to travel a lot but it's extremely interesting what the elders do on train rides. The Elders in our district like to crochet. It was extremely funny when President Iepure (branch president) walked in on us watching General Conference and started at our Zone leaders and said to them... is this normal for men to do these things. Here only women do them. Later his wife came in who is from Poland and said the same thing but told them they were doing a good job. Sora Ewell and I just laughed. We have a great group here let me tell you. :)

Anyways as far as lessons and things were concerned all of them, and I am not kidding you went out of town, or just couldn't meet with us. Or when we had scheduled our lesson we ended up having to go on a train, since we didn't know when our train was leaving, and trying to reschedule for that week wouldn't work for them. It was extremely frustrating. Especially since this week we really have not wasted any time. We were out contacting all day. I have found out that when people cross themselves around you and little old women run away from you. It has now become super funny to me. Sorry short little comment everytime Sora Ewell and I are on a bus there is at least 5 people around us that cross themselves as they stare at our nametag. It's my favorite game now to watch and see how many people do it. But yes, we contacted all this week and some people aren't nice about us wanting to share the most beautiful message of this world. But we did it anyways. We both feel that the Lord will bless in our efforts this week, with lessons with all the numbers we were able to gain.

Really cool experience this week though. The guy Ionuţi or I may have called him Johnny (name he had in America) we called to invite him to come to institute again and he really paused and sincerely thought about it, but then told us that he couldn't make it. Later that night though he texted us and told us that he did want to take lessons, that he is interested in our message, but just at that point in time with exams that he was taking he didn't have time. He is seriously one of the most sincere people I have met here. It really gave me hope that the Lord does truly guide us to who is ready to except the gospel, except Jesus Christ as their Savior, and change. It's a beautiful thing to see.

Something that I have really learned this week (as I have been reading over last general conference) is to just do the Lord's work, not just me but everyone. I hope everyone will go back and read Elder Holland's talk. Super awesome. I think I have reread that about 10 times this week. We all need to be his disciples not just now as I am a missionary and I am litterally bearing His name and trying to have others see the truth and have true happiness, but after this. Everyone of us needs to be doing this. And I'm really sad to say as I look back I wasn't a perfect disciple, nor am I now but I am trying. Don't be compacent! There is always always always something we can do better in our lives. "Do you love me?" that's what the Lord asks of us and if we do, go out and do this work. Be his disciple for eternity. He needs us. Be that ward member that will invite someone to church and help eveyone you meet understand that they are God's children. Do His work.

I love you all :) I will get off my soap box, but I know as we have approached every person that we come in contact with, even when they yell, run, or cross themselves. I am trying to be the Lord's disciple.
With all my love!
Sora Stewart

April 1, 2013

Goodmorning!
Or whatever time it is there in the USA. There has just been so much going on that I don't even know where to start. Oh I guess I could start off with the fact that they now changed the rules on emails. They now technically have no limit on time and we are allowed to email friends, family, and recent converts. So Jessica you can now cheer up. So that's why it is now being sent to more than you Mom. I promise I'm not breaking any rules and that way you don't have to search for emails everyweek. Hooray.

Okay now to start off with this week I agreed to give a talk in church. Why? I have no idea since I have only been here for two weeks, but hey I might as well just let the members know that I'm serious about the work here! So I gave a talk yesterday on Trials of our Faith. I thought it was good. I don't really remember how I was speaking or really much about me standing up there speaking, but I felt the spirit which is really my number one goal here! I bore my testimony, which I didn't need notes for, and I went and sat down. Now I think I was filled up with so much who knows what because the President Iupure (the Branch President) got up and said something in Romanian that I totally didn't understand. Then Sora Ewell came up to me and told me that he said, "Is there any doubt that the Lord has blessed with the ability to speak Romanian." Isn't that cool! Even though I really can't most of the time. It takes me a really long time to translate and then speak in my head. I'm understanding pretty well though... I hope. Anyways so there is blessings that come EVERYDAY here. The members all came up to me after and told me that they understood and they loved my testimony and my message. It really does bring me hope that hey I will one day speak this language!

We have made a goal this transfer for our area (Sora Ewell and I) they told us they only need 20ish more members to be continually going to church, inactive or new members, for them to build a chapel here. They land is already purchased but they just need a little more and then they will start doing it. So this is our goal to have the inactives and our current investigators build and we will be able to have a chapel.

We taught quite a few lessons this week. So I will just share some cool experiences! I told you last week that we were going to be teaching a lady who only speaks spanish. Well we really had no idea how we were going to go about doing this but just the same we did it. We went over to their house and they have their friends over Alma (who speaks spanish) and her husband Tomas who speaks every other language on this planet I swear! Now Alma and Tomas are actually inactive members of the church, they are the most sweetest people, and so for this lesson to work they were the ones that had to teach their friend Karen. It was super difficult, speaking wise, but the spirit was their and we were able to find out so much of how we need to work with Karen and how the spirit testifies to her. We have another lesson this week with her and she is progressing which I am super thrilled about. And in the process Alma and Tomas are coming to church and they are getting more involved so they can go to the temple. I love this gospel and how it brings families together!

We are also teaching this wonderful lady named Claudia, she is Catholic and I think I told you a little bit about her last week. She is AMAZING! She is so ready and willing to learn and she took what we gave her and read it within the day! It is absolutely amazing, we shared the Plan of Salvation and she just thought that it was so beautiful!

We also started teaching this family the mother is an inactive member and she has a daughter who is 9 that we are teaching. Who is in the picture I will be sending you all. The children are super crazy and it was kinda hard to do the lesson with them literally jumping from furniture to furniture and playing songs on youtube. But then Sora Ewell (she is super amazing, I'm super grateful to have her as my trainer) decided we should sing some church/primary songs. And we did it brought the spirit back in and we were able to teach her, she is really hesitant on baptism, but she loves us which is a step in progress!
I have to tell you about the Militaru Family. They have been investigating the church for 7 years, I have never heard this term until now, but they call them Eternal Investigators. Our zone leader thinks they should be called Professional Investigators because they know how to be progressing enough but then to not be progressing at all to accept huge commitments. So my companion and I have just been searching for ways that we can bring these wonderful people into the church. The mother and the children know so much about the gospel, they really do. They have studied it, prayed about, they know that it's true. The problem is that the dad won't let them get baptized and he just gives a hundred excuses for them not to be baptized. He never really sits in on lessons but he basically invites us over to teach his family. It makes no sense to me. But our goal with them is to have them meet over at members houses the whole family so we can actually teach him. Share our experiences with him and hopefully we will be able to touch his heart and just show him how much we really really really love their family. I'm not kidding when I say this family is amazing, they are so loving!

I have gotten acquainted with some members too this week! How many times can I say I love these people in one letter??? I don't know but I do I love them. They are so loving, they love us as missionaries, you can feel the love they have for all the members and the new investigators. It's just such a site to see! And they speak to me like I know what they are saying which is cool when I do know what they are saying. They always aske me why I am so quite and Sora Ewell just laughs and then I have to explain to her I'm trying to find ways to respond fast enough before the conversations changes and my speaking skills are not fast enough haha. I think this is why they like me is that I'm not afraid to just speak to them "wrong".

We did a bunch of contacting this week and there were some super cool experiences! We had our zone training this week which our zone leaders never told us about. Thankgoodness we were already at the church for a lesson. But we are working on contacting with doing short powerful statements. So me and Sora Stapley went on splits. (They loved the fact that they put the sister who has been out one week and then the sister who has been out 6 weeks together) We went and contacted and we actually got a number and he was super awesome. And then the other sisters met him and then the AP's met him too. This is no coincidence! The Elders have already contacted him and are working with him. The Lord works in miraculous ways here!
We were also doing English Contacting (passing out flyers for our English classes) and we ran into this guy who lived in the USA for like 10 years. Knows English perfectly and we invited him to come to institute with us that evening and he said yes. He is super religious and may not be completely in love with our religion because he just doesn't believe that the priesthood power can exist here on earth. But it was super awesome that we met him for like 15 minutes talked about religion. He agreed to come to institute, stayed the whole time, and after to hang out with us missionaries, and then took a Book of Mormon from us.

I really just love this work here. I love sharing the gospel and just being apart of this work is amazing. I can't think of anything that I could be doing that would be better then this. I'm counting my blessings day by day as we listen to conference talks in Romanian every morning and I am able to understand more and more. I can really trully feel the blessings of the spirit come and I really do know that without the Lord's help I could not do this. There would be no way. I pray everyday to increase myself in conversation, knowledge, spirit. I don't want to be complacent, and I always do want to be put out of my comfort zone so I can be the person the Lord wants me to be.

I love you all so very much!
Love,

Sora Stewart

First week in Romania

HELLO!
Well if you can't tell already I'm pretty excited to be here! It was a really really really long flight over and basically I think that's the only bad news I have! Oh also we met one of the sister missionaries dads at the airport. He was so excited and took a picture with us. He told us that his daughter Sora Ewell would be training on of us! Which is good! Somehow though because my last name starts with an S I was always sitting by myself. On the last plane I asked the guy if we could switch. He was really nice about it and said he would. Thank goodness, haha I was a little anxious and nervous about being in a place I had never been and speaking a language that... well I don't know very well. The last flight I was reading my Romanian Book of Mormon to calm my nerves and to just practice Romanian when I felt this guy sitting in front of us staring at us "speaking" Romanian. Sora Petterson and I started talking to him and he was super nice we talked about religion and had a cool religious discussion, so we gave him a pass along card. Sora Case and Sora Adams were across the row though and took my Book of Mormon and gave it to a guy right on the plane! It was awesome he was so interested and just started reading it right away. He wanted to meet with the missionaries but he is going to Saudia Arabia next week... I hope I spelled that right. Anyways it was cool.

So we met our Mission President and his wife Sora Hill. They are WONDERFUL! Sora Hill is so funny she is just filled with spunk and attitude and she just makes me laugh! President Hill is so unbelievably nice I love them so much already. They really love the people and they love us. How wonderful that is that they just LOVE! We went up to this Park where Romania was dedicated for missionary work and we read off the prayer and sang some hymns. Can I just say how much I love the spirit and how it speaks to everyone. We were singing when this guy came over and just started singing with us and singing his own religious hymns which were beautiful! And after that we went contacting. So yeah people in Buch aren't as nice or maybe I'm just naive. Probably a little of both. I went up to everyone and said Buna Ziua and they all just started and said who are you... haha it was super awkward and super funny. Don't worry I wasn't down in the dumps, but yeah they didn't really like to talk to the random American missionary. It was cool though.

Anyways we met some of the trainers earlier in the day and then we just went in to get our Visas. I still wont have one until the next transfer though which is just fine. As long as I don''t get kicked out of the country. :) We ended up going to the mission home and Sora Hil went over all the rules with us. I thought it was super funny though because all of the missionaries were so jet lagged and they were all falling asleep and I was honestly as awake as ever. Maybe your right dad I no longer need sleep, I have slept to long in my lifetime. But they were all falling over and I couldn't help but laugh! Deci we were introduced to our new companions and our new areas and the moment all of you... or I was waiting for at least... I am serving with Sora Ewell who is from Salt Lake she is wonderful and we get along super duper well. And I already met her dad! Haha weird but really cool. We are serving in Cluj which is just the most beautiful place I love it here!

People are nice here in Cluj we say hello to everyone here and they respond and people actually come up and talk to us! Well technically we go up to them but we still talk to them and they talk back! It isn't Buch! We took a 8ish maybe closer to 9ish train ride and came in the morning. We got everything all settled in and then we went to work. My first couple days in Cluj I didn't know what to think or what to do or what to say. It was kinda overwhelming since our first person we taught was an inactive member who just has no desire to change or make her life better. She is super knowledgeable in the gospel but it was just so sad to see and then our next day was the same too we visited a non memeber and she was just quiet and didn't want to do anything.

Don't worry I wasn't down in the dumps because we had some awesome opportunities. We went over to this families house the mom is a member inactive Sora Sumurdecan and the rest of her family isn't members. We went to go teach her daughter, but her daughter had to leave somewhere so we ended up teaching her just about being an elect lady and how she is part of God's family. She loved the lesson and the scriptures we shared. And her husband joined in the lesson. He said the closing prayer! Which is unusual I guess since he wasn't realy on good terms with the church but HEY it's an improvement. But they both said they would come to church! AND THEY DID! They stayed for all 3 hours and participated and everything. It was so awesome.

We then have a new investigator named Claudia who they met through English classes. She is the most sweetest soul! She is so enthusiastic and sincere. And she just wanted to know about our religion, what are standards are, and what we do, what we believe. So we gave her a strength for the youth and we shared with her the restoration. She seemed interested and wants to meet again. It was really awesome because a lot of people here just seem complacent in what they are doing how they are living. And she told us straight away that she wasnts to be better and make herself better and always improve. It was a really cool lesson. :) I really love her already.

I was going through the area book (I read it ALOT) and we saw this family who has been seeing the missionaries for over 7 years. THey all want to be baptized but the dad wont let them. We are going to teach them this week. And I am so excited this family is AMAZING. They are the best members and they aren't even members! But we asked them to come to church and the mom said she would probably be the one one to come and it ended up that the dad came too and one of the sons! We also have another investigator and they pretty much only speak spanish. So I guess I will be learning spanish here too :) Since I don't really know Romananian yet. We teach them tonight and they are such a sweet family. 'We have to have people translate and so it's going to be realy interesting...

Ummm Quickly really fast. The members here are AMAZING. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! I didn't really understand a ton of what was going on I understood but just some. But they spirit is just so strong there and I was just thinking of how awesome it is that every single one of them is a convert to the church. They have all been on that other side of the door and they have completely changed their lives and you can see how happy they are. They treat us missionaries like we are the best things in this world which is super strange for me, I don't think we have treated our missionaries at home as good as they way these members treat me. They are so willing to do anything to help missionary work. They want people and their families to accept the gospel so much. It really is the most beautiful and humbling experience.
I'm well, I am happy, this city is absolutely beautiful, the people are really nice (for the most part), and their is so much work to be done! And I am so excited and thrilled that the Lord called me to this place. That I can just be around them, learn from them, and I just pray and pray and pray everyday that I can help them in their lives. That I can share the gospel and make their lives filled with purpose and love. I love this gospel :)
I love you all I was going to share pictures but I forgot my connector. My bad :)
Love you all,

Sora Stewart

Last letter from the MTC March 14, 2013

Bună!
Ce faceţi? Sorry I am later in writing today! And some things have gone on this week! We got our travel plans last Friday and we leave the MTC on Monday the 18th at 5:00 am. Our flight leaves 8:00am. We will be stopping in Minneapolis... I think that's how you spell it. Nu ştiu. Anyways... we stop there and then we have about a four hour lay over and then we fly to Amsterdam for a 3 hour layover and then we will be in Bucherest. So I should be in Romania on Tuesday at one Romanian time. I have no idea what time it will be anywhere else. So let me know when you would like me to call and at what time. I do have two phone cards I asked my Branch president if it would be okay to call you both and he said yes. So let me know through Dear Elder or something. Or else you may just have a wakeup call from me :)

So now that the business part of things is done it has been a fun filled exciting adventure here at the MTC. Amy I finally met some Polish missionaries. They aren't going to Poland though they are going to England Polish speaking. Who knew? Deci my companion Sora Adams and I had some awesome lessons. I just love teaching and I think the whole experience here has changed a lot. We teach a lot here at the MTC in Romanian. It does not mean that I am good at speaking at all... but I do understand for the most part of what everybody says in Romanian. We had some lessons that were not planned for yesterday our teachers Fratele Frandson, Sora Whiting, and Sora Wilson all told us that on the spot we would be teaching them according to what their personal needs are. Ummm SCARY! I just wanted to tell them I have no idea how to do this and how to help you with certain things in your life! But this was our assignment and as we started off with a prayer and taught them according to the spirit and what the spirit tells us we need to say somehow we spoke to their heart. Now did I know exactly what I was going to say and had it planned out no. Not at all. But our Heavenly Father knows us all so very personally. He knows what we pray for, He knows what we need, and He will always remember us. He will never forget those that are lost... that maybe are struggling with their testimonies or have gone inactive or maybe just isn't listening to the promptings of the spirit the way we should. He will NEVER forsake us. So as I was teaching with the spirit, and the spirit prompted my companion and I to say certain words, read certain scriptures, read a certain verse in the Hymn book or whatever it was they were touched by the spirit. They were looking for an answer and through the spirit and whatever we had said that the spirit prompted us to say it was the answer to their prayers. Isn't it just abolutely amazing how this Gospel is??? I can't believe somedays that I was called to serve, that I get this opportunity to teach people, that I get to teach them to accept Christ, and to find their way in to eternal happiness. What a BLESSING! And I look back and I realize how I have taken the gospel in my life for granted sometimes. I will pray and pray and pray everyday for the rest of my life to be grateful for this wonderful gift in my life.

We just had some awesome lessons just where the spirit teaches. I can not believe that I will be in Romania in about 4ish days and I will be teaching real people. They might not understand a single word that comes out of my mouth but the spirit will be there and I am excited for that.

We have had some sorrow this week in my district. Last night one of our Elders was just stressing a lot... so he went in to a counseling meeting. His brother I guess had depression issues while out on his mission and just didn't tell anyone until his mission was half way over. Anyways so he went in and just told them what was going on, apparantly he was diagnosed with something where he can't get his stress relieved the same way. I don't know what it is called but he just thought that maybe he would get medicine and he would be okay. They told him last night that he has to go home. The look on his face was just so heart breaking, he wants to serve and he feels as though his body is giving up on him. We tried to comfort him last night and he is feeling a little better about it today... but he is probably going home on the day that we all go to Romania. It just breaks all of our hearts, he is after it is deamed that he can be okay mentally coming straight to Romania so we will see him then.

I have not recieved any Case Family Emails and everything is pretty much blocked on the computers here, so if someone can help and that way I can know little things that are going on in my precious family I would much appreciate it :)

I have loved my stay here at the MTC I don't know why people complain about it. It is a place that is just so full of the spirit and you are completely surrounded by goodness. I see Elder Jackson, Elder Hodson, and Sister Montenegro often and that makes me happy. They are all happy and well and I am the first to leave! WOOHOO I guess most missionaries couldn't get their VISA's into Brazil so most Brazilian Missionaries are now here.

Ummmm I'm not sure what else to say. The next time I write I will be in ROMANIA! Woohoo!

I love you all and I feel your love and support. I feel the blessings everyday. Never take for granted the Gospel in your life. Think of who might need it in theirs :) Share what you have!
Love you!
Sora Stewart

Week 4 MTC dated March 7, 2013

Buna Dimineata,
I'm not sure how correct my spelling is here especially since this computer doesn't have Romanian letters in it. So I'm sorry if the Romanian words I use do not translate correctly! I promise that I can say more words then I can spell... Anywho it has been a wonderful glorious week here at the MTC. And it is seriously crazy that I have been here for about a month now... I only have a week and a half. I'm a little nervous honestly, I don't know the language has much as I wish I did. My teachers, have I told you how wonderful my teachers are, they keep reminding us over and over again that when they left the MTC they knew about as much as we knew at two weeks. TWO WEEKS! I knew nothing at two weeks! So that gives me hope, and I know the Lord is blessing me as I look back at my first day here where my heart was pounding and I kept thinking why did I want to learn a language??? My mind no longer thinks that way just FYI, but it is just so cool to see how much progress I have made! It truly is the Lord blessing me, I couldn't do it any other way. It's also really funny we have a teacher named Fratle Boynton and he went to see the BYU Romanian Language Class. The teacher and him started to speak in Romana and then the teacher asked what they were saying. They way he told the story was so funny because to us he was speaking Romana and we understood everything and then he tells us that they were saying nu inslege, he then stops and says no they didn't even say that they said we don't understand. It was probably a have to be there moment, but it was so funny to us! We have been here four weeks and they have been in classes for over a year in this class and we understand and they don't. That is the power of the Lord. Have I just mentioned how AWESOME it is to be a missionary?
This week we have lessons we have about 8ish lessons? I think last week my companion and I had the most lessons so they let us have like two less lessons this week... Anyways so we were teaching our teacher Sora Wilson or as our investigator we know her as Stella. And I have to tell you that if I have a Stella that I meet on my mission, I will come home the most happiest person if I just get to have ONE experience like the experience we have with her. So let me tell you some "background information" on her. She works all the time and she has 3 kids. Who do not live with her. I guess it's something that is pretty regular in Romania. It's too expensive to get a divorce and get married and so when couples break up they just split up. If they have kids a lot of the time the kids end up living with their grandparents or a nanny of some sort. Isn't it sad? Oh also Romania has one of the biggest surplus of orphans. I mean it is absolutely ridiculous, they have way more orphans then they have room for. Before they were a "free" country the dictator I guess encouraged people to have a lot of kids. So what they would do is that the mom would have the baby and they just leave the hospital. It is the most horrifying thing that I can ever imagine but it's a big issue over there. Sorry little bits of knowledge of where I am going. Back to Stella so she has three kids who don't live with her, but she loves her kids so much. And she wants to see them as much as possible. As we are teaching her you can just see that she has been waiting for this her whole life and as we were explaining the Plan of Salvation and our purpose on this life is to return to Tatal nostru Ceresc and be with our families. She just stopped and said how can I get this. I want this, it was beautiful! She came to church, loved church, she even brought her kids which live hours away. We had a discussion on the importance of baptism and we had a "member" Sora Whiting "Mihaela" come and talk to her. It was the most beautiful lesson. She agreed to be baptized and we knew that the hardest lesson for her to accept would be Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Since she works all the time, and she has to work to help her kids and to just live. So we had the Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy lesson. And you can just tell that she doesn't know if she can do this and she just has to work. And through the promptings of the spirit we were able to explain to her the importance, and we were able to find a scripture that just told her first let your sight be on the Kingdom of God and God will help provide for you. She just started crying. I think that is when it just became so real to me... the spirit is there. She can feel it and through the spirit and her faith in Jesus Christ she committed. I know that technically she isn't a real investigator and this is just the MTC, but it was the most humbling, amazing experience. To see the spirit touch someone so much and to agree to not work on Sundays when they have to work to provide for her household. That much faith in our Savior, to just follow Him.
It makes me think how much Faith do I have. If I wasn't born into the household I was in and if I didn't have this knowledge of the Gospel would I be so willing to accept the gospel? And just follow Jesus Christ. I sure hope so.
I can not wait to get to Romania, because even though I know that I don't know the language, all of the grammar principles, all of the conjugations of verbs, all of the vocab, and everything else that makes me nervous I know that if the spirit is there, then I have done what I have been sent there to do. Now I know I need to learn the language and don't think this is me saying oh I'm good I have the spirit. Hahaha as if. But I know that when I am making my best effort to speak and the spirit is there, that is when conversion starts.
I'll get off my little soap box here of how I have all sorts of revelations. It's pretty cool to see how I'm growing though.
We should get our travel plans today! AHHHHHH I'M SO EXCITED! And a little sad because I wont have my companion that I have at this moment in time. But I am just full of excitement!
Oh mom I did get my card to work and I took out 40. And I will probably take out another 40 next week before I leave. We are supposed to have cash on us just in case purposes. I keep hearing that we may have to pay for our luggage over there and then they will reimburse us... but they I have heard other things... I'm not sure what is going to happen when we leave for our flight. I will keep you posted though. So yeah I guess you can probably expect a call from me next week? Maybe from the airport... yes I guy just told me that we will call from the airport. So I think not quite sure but I believe we will be calling on Monday the 18th. It might be in the morning... so I'm grateful you all are early morning risers. Don't quote me though because I am not completely sure and we haven't gotten our travel plans yet. You will just have to wait until next week for more information on that. But I can only call once and leaving a voice mail counts. So make sure to answer the phone hahaha :)
You are all in my prayers every night. And I love you all just so much. Just know that I am super duper happy here and I love missionary work.
va iubesc!
Sora Stewart

ps. I love all your letters. But I always forget to bring them with me when I am writing letters home so if there are specific questions you want me to answer I'M SORRY! I'll try and write a hand written one today in romanian :)

This is a paper letter we received that I'm now just getting around to typing from 3 weeks ago

Hello Family,
     I feel like I have extra time today, especially since someone opened my washer and didn't restart it, so I have even longer to wait! :( pure sadness there.  Anyways I can go into a little more detail of what's going on.
     There are 5 Sora's including me in my district along with 2 Elders.  Aparently we are one of the biggest districts that the Romanian country has ever had.  That should really tell you now much Romania has been influenced by how many missionaries there are. The district ahead of us is here for 2 1/2 more weeks and they were beyond excited for us to come.
     The Elders in the other district call the Sora's in our distrct overachievers, because we are always studing and I guess we know more Romanian then they did at this point. 
     The Elders that are in the other district are from Europe and they both know like 4 languages.  One is from Italy and the other Austia.  They are super nice and they are our zone leaders.
     When I came into the MTC there were 800 plus Sister & Elders that came in that day.  That is the biggest they have ever had.!  And this week they had 600! Crazy right!
     I really love those that I am with and I love my district and my teacher.  My favorite teach is fratez Boynton, may have spelled that wrong.  He takes a lot of time to answer our questions or language and he doesn't overdo anything.  I am super grateful for that.
     I'm super excited for P-Day today cause that means I get to go to the Temple!!!  My favorite day so far has been Sunday, we just had an awesome speaker and it was just the things I personally needed.  I really love being a missionary, although it is harder than I ever imagined.
     Those that haven't served have no idea of what you have to do and every thing there is to do to be here.   Love Sora Stewart