This is the metro that we wait at everyday. I'm gonna miss the metros. I love metro contacting.

And sora letinu. I promise she doesn't always look mean to me :) haha.

Planul petru Sport! Noi facem exercitii! I just adore Sora G seriously. Jess she reminds me of you.

We found this centiped... how do you spell that? On our wall one day. Those things move fast let me tell you!

The arch of the triumph here in Buch.

The arch of the triumph here in Buch.

I adore her with all my heart! She's such a sweet heart.

P-day. They drank Dr. Pepper from a pepper. Disgusting. So weird.

A park that Sora Stapley and I contacted at :) So beautiful! Loved that day.

Who likes contacting! I DO! :) haha glumesc. Dar serious.

Who likes contacting! I DO! :) haha glumesc. Dar serious.

Who likes contacting! I DO! :) haha glumesc. Dar serious.

The elders came with us. Their a bunch of weirdos.

Ciudat.

They had the lost soldier monument at the park. It was really cool.

Sora Stapley and I.

This is Lilly. She is adorable. La Multi Ani!

Little birthday party outside of the store.

We also did a puppet show for english. That was a lot of fun! So much fun :)

Sora Stapley and Sora Gerhartz. They are the funniest companionship ever!

Rodenberg proclaiming the gospel in a tree. haha.

Sora Gerhartz likes feeding the rats that live below our block. There her pets and they are massive haha it's funny.

I hide him everywhere. :) Hehe

See if you can spot the girafe :) HAHA! And just fyi this isn't my room :) Thanks

BARCELONA!!!! HOORAY!

So they were calling us of the devil. haha just another day :)

We had gone chalk contacting and well some people didn't like us drawing a book or mormon and I drew a dang good book or mormon! Just so ya know. some people believe that if Isus doesn't have two ii's it's false doctrine. We face that a lot here

This is in the middle of one of parks just fyi. :)

September 2, 2013

Hello!
Gosh I am just full of energy and I am just so excited for a lot of reasons. It was just really an awesome week it really really was. Oh and of course there was transfer boards and I found out that I am.... going...... toooo........ ARAD! HOORAY! Haha I'm really excited and I get to be serving with Sora Ralls who is two transfers behind me. She is just so darling I am so excited we are just going to kick but there! I'm kinda sad that I am leaving Panduri already but hey I'll go where the Lord wants me to go.

Just saying this email will be long. Warning you now.

 

This week though kinda started out as a normal week. Sora Letinu and I continued to contact and thank goodness that the weather has started to shift here. It's starting to finally cool down. It's actually really weird to me that it is starting to cool down when it's supposed to. We really do have 4 seasons here. I don't know if I have told you about our zone goal but we wanted as a zone to invite over 1000 people to come unto Christ. Which meant a lot of contacting. Well we actually had achieved that goal this last week and so the zone leaders wanting to push our potential set out another goal. In alexandria there are 2 missionaries and it's a small town and they contact as well I have done this last transfer. So they were getting like 120 commiting others to come unto christ every week. So the zone leaders decided that they wanted each district to try and compete with them to see who would get the most CCC's. And well you know me with competitions. Our whole district would get together and we would just contact our little butts off! Of course if we found someone willing to talk we would get their number and sit down with them. But this goal really made us set out to talk to EVERYONE. They actually said once in the MTC that if each missionary would contact 10 more people then normal our potential investigators would grow and then our progressing, and then our baptisms. It's just what it follows you know. And we have seen this. I believe that our district contacted over 317 people this week! And this is just the start with this goal it has made me think of my own personal goal to contact. :) Pushing myself more and more :) It's great!

I also had sister exchanges this week and since well I live in the same apartment with the STL's I got to exchange with both of them. And something I really wanted to focus on was just using the spirit for everything. Specifically with contacting. Now usually in contacting... gosh I get super anxious it's just awkward and uncomfortable ya know. So when I was with Sora Stapley we had an amazing and I mean AMAZING companion study. It's super interesting because I concentrated a lot on how we can use the spirit and it just pointed out to me over and over again of how we have confidence in ourselves when we should just trust in the Lord to guide us. He will not lead us astray because we are doing His work. It was just SOO COOL! And then we just talked about prayer and that with prayer we can have the spirit with us. So that day we really made a goal to say prayers continually throughout the day. So anytime we would enter a park or enter a metro or anything we would just say a prayer and then as we were sitting we just asked to be guided to people and help us open our mouths to know what to say. It was AMAZING! I have never felt such peace before when I was contacting. And even though we really didn't have "success" in obtaining numbers or referrals it meant more then the world to just have the spirit testify of everything we said as we contacted. It's what I was praying and searching for for the past transfer. I can't even explain how much it meant to me. I wish I would have done this before my mission and my first transfer and it's something that I will continually doing throughout the mission. Later that evening when we were going over goals to set Sora Stapley looks at me and just says Sora Stewart you just have no idea how other people see you. And of course I just stare back at her and say what on Earth are you talking about. And she just continued to say that I didn't see the good things about myself. And that I dwell so much on everything that I have to fix or everything that I need to do to be better. And then she opened up a scripture in Moses 7.

And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced. And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept.

She then looked up and me and said when we let Satan whisper in our ears that's what he does. He laughs. And he tightens the chains around our wrists. And our beloved Heavenly Father He weeps for us. He weeps because He knows our potential. He's created us and He knows how wonderful we are. And so when I let Satan whisper in my ear telling about all my flaws and everything I am doing this to myself! And what Heavenly Father really wants is He wants me to realize my faults but then to talk them to Him and ask His help.

I was absolutely shocked. Because I know I do this... but it was because I wanted to grow and be better it was because I know that I have so much to grow and do. I was just doing it the wrong way. It was just a beautiful moment. And it ended with tears and hugs and hey that's just what sister missionaries do.

The next day was transfers and we found out Sora Gerhartz after 6 transfers in Buharest which is half her mission, is opening the first city in Oradea! So exciting! But I exchanged with her and we again focused on following the spirit. It was super interesting as we focused on the same thing but it was two totally different things. We had really talked and opened up to one another and I felt that some of my biggest questions that I had been pondering to the Lord had finally been answered. And I mean there were quite a few and I know that she was inspired by the spirit to tell me the things she said. It was amazing. Later that night we had a lesson with Mariana and it was so beautiful as we just followed the spirit and let it do everything. And later that night our potential Lily who owns a store below our Block it was her birthday. So we all went down and suprised her with cake since she had to work on her birthday. I have never felt so much love before. She was just in tears as she embraced each and every one of us and just gave us kiss after kiss. Haha don't be suprised when I come home and I kiss you all on the cheeks. That's just what we do here. Don't worry it's normal. :) hehe.

Gosh it was just such a great week!

And I'm just so grateful that I have more time to make so much more of my mission. I feel like every transfer just gets better and better. I am also really going to miss Sora Letinu. She has been AMAZING! And she is just such a trooper. I mean if I were a mini I don't think I would do all that I had her do. Haha. I would probably not be waking up at 6:30 haha that's for sure. :) but no she is just so amazing and funny and we just LOVE each other. I really do love her. She actually told me this week that if I don't write her every week she will punch me in the face. haha actually she said iti voi sparge fata. HAHAH So funny. I just love her so much. And this week she looked sad and I was like hey why the  heck are you sad and she looks at me and just goes I'm going to miss you and when I leave on Wednesday I'm going to cry. Gosh it just hit my heart! How much I love and adore her! I told her she can't cry because if she cries then I'm going to cry and we are eternal friends now! And I'm just going to be that crazy friend who she can't get rid of! She laughed at that. :) Changes are still hard for me especially when you just have love for someone so much. She will do great things in Spain I can't wait for her and to hear all about her adventures!

So Aunt Kath said that I should put something about the culture here. So I am going to put something about the food here. This week Sora Letinu and I made Saramale. Gosh it is so dang good I love it. :) It's basically pork with like grinded peppers and other seasonings with rice and a little bit of bacon in the pot not in the saramale and you mix it all together and then you roll it is cabbage leaves boil it as you put some tomato paste in it as well on top . GOsh it is so dang good. It's a huge thing here and it's super flavorful. :) Yum I have basically had that all week :) And they eat it with sour cream and paine! So good :) I love it. I'll have to make it at home or you guys can all try to make it yourself. :)

Also every area in Romania the people talk a bit different. Buch gosh they talk super fast. I have gotten really good at listening though and understanding. Just a good thing that happened I understood everything at church :) Which was a good and bad thing... And in cluj they always say Cum esti and servus and if you said that here gosh they would look at you weird. Also they say Pa here and if I say pa in Arad people will look at me super weird they say Ciao there. Romania is really interesting because it's the most latin of all languages but they have adapted things from Slovic languages for example to say I it's Eu. but they say it Yo. Hah it's interesting. Little thing about Romania. I'll think of better ones next time :)

I think that's it for now.

Thanks all for the messages I really really really appreciate them a lot! And hearing about how it's just growing back home. It may not be that way here yet with all of the help with members and referalls... but we are trying our little hearts first and we are seeing it grow person by person. And I do know that the church in Romania will be great one day. In the dedication prayer it says that it will be an example country to surrounding nations and I know that it has that great potential! I can't wait to see that day :) But until then we are building the church here with great people like Sora Letinu. Pioneers. It makes me appreciate my ancestors so much more :)

Love you all!
Sora Stewart

This is the piata that we are going to in 10 minutes :) YUMMY FRUITS! for like litterally 10 dollars for a huge bag full of everything you can imagine!

We have sports nights here and... well this is a long story. But we have a couple of gypsy... want to be investigators but we don't have voie to teach them and they ended up chasing Elder Degraw everywhere around it was super funny. He trapped himself in her so they would stop attacking him. And his companion does nothing but laughs. :)

The day of her call!

Super cute lady sora stapley contacted after church :) She was darling!

 

Like I said Sora Gerhartz hates giraffes and we put one in the lift for her to find when she came up :) HAHAH SO FUNNY :)

Don't know what this picture is from... I think Sora Gerhartz took it... At night and I was super tired... I'm just giving you all my pictures that I have taken...

Sora Letinu and I yesterday. Walking to the park... :)

Sora Letinu and I yesterday. Walking to the park... :)

August 26, 2013

Hey there,

Everytime there is a P-day and I open my email I feel an overwhelming sense of love and comfort. Even though P-day's are always just super hectic I really do love them! Mostly for letters and emails :)

Anyways.... I don't even know where to start... there is so much news to discuss from what I have read and I don't really have as much exciting news then you have shared with me!

Wow gosh Chantal and Matt congrats!!!! I AM SO EXCITED! When I read that I might have squealed a bit! I'm super super super excited! An email doesn't really contain how excited I am. I may have just told everyone that is in our little Internet cafe! :) Can I be Aunt Jen? Instead of Aunt Jenna? I think that would be more fun :)

Mom your name will still be Mar Mar ;) That's how you will always be known.

And oh my heck so many things with missions! Seriously it's super crazy I am super excited. Gosh 6 weeks... holy cow I had 5 months I wish I would have gone into the MTC sooner though. I am super excited for you! Just remember on the first day your at the MTC breathe :) haha and get through Sunday. Everything will start to make a little more sense :) And my mission president also says CONGRATS! He knows quite a few people there and has set up some organization over there for RM to set up there own business. Just so you know President Hill was over the business thingy at BYU so he's all about that.

Anyways this week we started to work more on setting up things for the North Bucharest Group. So we have been trying to contact some less actives and after making phone calls with the list we have for a while... mostly because we have about 4 different list that all have different information... we were able to have a few less active visits and invite them to the group that isn't super far away from them.

We were also able to set up about 3 lessons... and then they all bunged us. I was pretty upset. About two weeks ago we were running home to get some supplies and then head out to Herastro park and go contacting with some of the Elders in our district. There was this lady in front of us and she was carrying an extremely heavy bag. I could just tell because she had to stop every 10 steps and breathe and switch hands. Now we were in a hurry but I had prayed that day that Heavenly Father would be inspired to tell me who I should contact. That's something I feel like I struggle with a lot. Is contacting with the spirit. I know that when we have lessons I can feel the spirit. And really through out most of the day after studies I can feel the spirit and can feel like I am guided by the spirit. But with contacting I struggle really knowing who to go and talk to and what to say and all those things. Just something I am working on. And so that day I had prayed to have the spirit guide me with opportunities to talk to people and know what to say and do. So I kinda had to stop myself from being that on time person all the time and ignoring promptings and opportunities. So I went over to her and asked her if we could help her. (Most of the time I have asked if someone needs help they say no) Her eyes opened up and she just gasped and said yes. So sora Letinu and I helped her carry her bags to her house and we later asked for her number and she said yes. We called her this week and she said we could come over but then last moment she had to go la tara with her family. I was so devastated. But i am hoping that we will be able to meet with her this week. Praying seriously praying.

We did a lot of contacting this week and this time no horrible experiences happened hooray! No huge success or lessons. But we keep going. Were still out here. We actually went power contacting this week with the other surori in our district (Sora G and Sora Stapley) We went to the izvor park and it was just an exhausting day and we were about to turn in and you should have seen us all of us I think had been bunged that day and so we were just so down in the dumps sitting in the metro. So Sora Stapley looks at all of us and says hey lets go one more stop and start contacting before it gets dark. Now I will be honest that is the last thing I wanted to do. But we ended up going and it was good. Sora Letinu and I met this family from Italy. And they were so amazing but unfortunately were returning back to Italy the next day and so we gave them a mormon.org card and told them about the church in Italy they lived pretty close to Milan. I wished that another Sora was with us that speaks Italian that would have been super cool. And I also met a girl that lives just a little outside of Cluj. And I was super super super super super excited because HELLO I LIVED IN CLUJ for 4 months! It was so interesting because we were just walking and like I said I am trying to focus on contacting with the spirit in contacting and I just felt like we were pulled to her and I dragged Sora Letinu and said hey lets go up to her. She was just so adorable and said that she had actually been to the church in Cluj but just wasn't ready to progress. She has the address of the church and our number and I am hoping that she will call or show up or something since she wasn't THAT willing to give us her number. :( Din pacate. Ce sa fac?

 

We also taught English this week and there is this sweet lady named Maria that comes to our class and she really is just darling. And I asked her if we could call her and talk to her and she said yeah. She said she was really busy but she would like to so we are going to give her a shot this week.

I am also going to be going on exchanges this week with Sora Stapley and with Sora Gerhartz. I will have an exchange with Sora Stapley on Thursday and then with Sora Gerhartz on Friday. I am super excited because these sisters are so great. Sora Stapley is such a great contacter and whenever she does contacting she just does it with such power and you can tell she is influenced by the spirit. And Sora Gerhartz is so willing. She has such a desire to be a great sister and to learn and to grow and I have learned so much from her already! I am super excited.

I feel like you all had way more information for me than I had for you. But this is just how missionary is sometimes. We are still working hard though and we really are striving to get in more of these lessons. We will be working to try and find these less actives in Northern Bucharest which means I carry a map around with me because streets are crazy here. It's not a grid... it's like a bunch of circles... It's crazy.

Anyways I love you all. And I am so excited for everything that is going on back home! What great things are taking place and I am so excited to hear about how great the Elders are doing back home. Tell them to be grateful for every lesson they have ;) JK but really :)

Love you all!

Sora Stewart

 

Yeah we are a little thug in our gross probably never washed jumpsuits. 

 

And that's a little what the course was like. :)

pretty sure this is Elder Ormsby who later ran out there with just a mask and started screaming "I'm a bunny!" hahaha it was pretty funny. Because us sisters had no idea what he was doing as he just started running around the course everywhere. But quite a few elders followed him out there and started shooting. :) Great game. haha.

This is Sora Gerhartz poor bruise. She had one on her upper thigh that looked the same too. :( looks a lot worse in person.

This is my companion Sora Letinu! She had no idea that I was taking a picture of her :) 

We look up a lot of words in the dictionary. haha.



This is just a usual day of Sora Gerhartz. Haha she is the comedian in the group if you couldn't tell.

Sora Stapley loves Metro surfing. Where we just stand there and try not to fall over. :) This was today before we played basketball.

Off to church. In front of our block :)

They have called Sora Gerhartz the dictator of our district. Haha only because she has been in this area for 6 transfers. This picture explains it all though. 

AUGUST 19, 2013

Hello again!

I honestly feel like P-days come to fast. And P-days are the busiest days ever! Today we are going over to the Mihai Bravo chapel to go play Volleyball and go to Subway. Oh by the way mom and dad I eat a rosii everyday! I hope your happy. I still hate them.... I like them cooked. Still hate them raw. I am trying to make myself like them though. :) You should be proud.

Oricum. I think P-days are so hard here because Buch is so large. So going anywhere or doing anything takes like an hour to get there. That's my only complaint and I only don't like it on P-days. The rest of the time I love it.

I really love Bucharest. I love trying to figure out all of the bus lines and tram vis... I don't know how to spell that. and the metros. Gosh it's so much fun. I love figuring out how the city connects. Especially since Buch is super super super compacted. I mean imagine those track houses back home but then they are all stacked on top of each other... it's crazy. But it's so much fun :)

Well Sora Letinu and I since we are a new companionship in Panduri... I don't know if they have ever had 4 sisters in Panduri before... so we are basically starting from scratch. Okay yeah we are starting from scratch it's like we opened a new section of Panduri it's crazy! Oricum because we are starting from scratch we have no investigators. So this week we have contacted... a bunch. And good news is that I don't hate it as much as I ususally do! :) Cause usually... I hate it a lot... and when I say a lot I mean A LOT!  Oricum. We have just really been trying to build our area and try to obtain investigators. It's also kinda hard at this point and time because right now everybody is out of town... mostly in constanta. But we can't meet with anybody because they are all gone. But Sora Letinu have just continued to press onward and contact and contact until the blisters on her feet just couldn't take it anymore. (She really does have blisters, they make me sad)

OH MY GOSH!!! I FORGOT TO TELL YA'LL! SHE GOT HER MISSION CALL! She is going to the BARCELONA SPAIN MISSION! It's exactly where she wanted to go! Dad I know your super jealous. You can go visit her if you want though. She thinks it's super cool that you went to Mexico and she has a mexican accent it's funny. She is super excited about it though. It was cute her brother called her and opened it for her and she just said the word Barcelona spain... or spania cause that's how you say it in Romanian. But she was just jumping around and screaming it was super cute. And she leaves in the middle of November. So when she gets home she will have about 2 months! I'll tell you what by the end of these next two weeks she will be such a prepared missionary... and a PRO contacter I'll tell you that! :)

Sorry back to us contacting. We have had some success and then I had a really bad experience where basically this lady offended every fiber of my being. And she told me that Las Vegas is Sodom and Gomorah. It was sad :( I didn't like that. She also called me a gypsy... which is really bad... but then she though Sora Letinu was from Alaska... and she looked like she lived in an Igloo. It was so dumb.... and funny. It's okay though she was a little bit crazy... she said she believed that Christ didn't exist and that Satan created the world... but God created Satan so we were all just evil... It was interesting... and really funny and really really really offensive. It's a good thing I'm a Stewart and those things really just roll off my back. :)

After so much contacting though and I am not kidding when I say that all we did was contacting for a week. We went to church Sunday. And I was a little discouraged... because the lessons we did try to set up all bunged us... and it was really disheartening. So I had prayed that week as we had worked hard and as we had come home everyday just absolutely exhausted that Heavenly Father would give us a person to teach. Just one person. So Sunday came and Sora Gerhartz later mouths to me that a lady just walked into church that wasn't a member and hadn't been here before. And of course I about just book it over there to talk to her. Her name is Stefania and she has gone to church before but I believe it was in the states. But as we were talking she just goes do you just want my number and we can just sit down and talk about these things! GOSH I WAS SO EXCITED! It was just such a surprise and a miracle to me of what Heavenly Father puts in my path. We are going to meet up with her this week and I am so so so so so so excited! And even though we didn't contact her and we haven't gotten a lesson out of those we contacted it just shows me that Heavenly Father listens to my prayers and he answers them... just not in ways that I may expect. :) I love being a missionary and just witnessing how Heavenly Father works with His children and how He loves us so :)

Sora Letinu this week are also going to be working a lot on less active work in the North Buch area. They are opening another section of group because it's harder for people in North Buch to travel down south which is where both chapels are here. So they are opening up a group and its going to be in a members home. So Sora Letinu and I are going to go visit the sisters and a few families to invite them and let them know what is going on. Bucharest is really really close to having a stake! ISN'T THAT EXCITING! So Fratele Doru... could be spelling his name wrong... really really wants to reactivate the members in North Buch since there are a ton that are inactive. We hope this works :) We know the work can progress here so much better and faster. I'm really just excited to be a part of that work! SUPER SUPER SUPER GRATEFUL :)

SPENCER! CONGRATS!

I have been looking forward to that email so much and I'll admit that my tears watered up a little bit and my heart just leaped as I heard where you were going. I had a dream last night that you went to China.... it was weird. And then I had a dream that you came here to Romania/Moldova but you were Russian speaking so you were only in Moldova. It was also weird. But super exciting. HAHA. I am super super super super super excited for you though! (yes I know I use super a lot thanks!) I am so excited for all the cool experiences that you will have and to learn a new language... Weird... Matt-spanish. Eu-Romanian Spencer- whatever the heck your speaking in the philipeans... Emily! YOUR NEXT :) haha just kidding you have a while!

I am just tickled pink though that I am hearing about the ward fasting for missionary work. The branch did that in Cluj and then my investigator Sabina was baptized that transfer. Fasting does bring miracles! I love hearing how our ward is just getting so involved with missionary work. What's something super interesting... is I don't really remember what I was doing... I was in my personal study and The Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul ya know and I was looking up how are you happy in this life. And every answer that I found had to do with Service. Serving your fellow men serving your family, just service. And what greater way of service is there then bringing souls to know about our Savior Jesus Christ and about their Loving Father in Heaven. If you don't believe me just read Alma 26!

I think that's all for the week. :) I love you all so much and I love recieving your emails! Your all just so great! :)

Here's to another great week!

Love,

Sora Stewart

AUGUST 12, 2013

Hello my wonderful family and friends,

It never ceases to amaze me how fast time flies by. I literally feel like I wrote you all yesterday. I don't know how this happens I really don't. We have had a busy week though and quite a stressful one at that. We just had so many things to do. Here is a list.

1. Our washing machine broke so we had to go over to the Bensons to fix it. And call the guy to come over and fix it as well.

2. District meeting and Puppet show. The senior couple here the Bensons wanted to put on a show for younger kids about smoking and being healthy (showering, washing food, other things) And so we had to practice it. We do a puppet show and the kids have loved it so far. It's really becoming successful.

Just so you know I have seen kids smoke here at the age of like 10. So it's really good that they are trying this.

3. Lessons with our investigators (bine inteles) we were actually going to have a drop lesson this week but that changed. Will have to tell you why in a later paragraph about that beautiful lesson. We also got bunged a lot this week and I mean A LOT. 

4. A member from Alexandria... don't know if I am spelling that right... anyways came into town for a job interview and she needed help getting there so we helped her around town. Turns out she wants to go on a mission and really wants this job so she can live in Bucharest. Because we are there SISTERS and she wants to do splits with us and learn more about missionary work. SUPER COOL! We really like her and we pray she gets the job ;)

5. I PICKED UP MY NEW COMPANION! Sora Irina Letinu! She is adorable and I already just love her to pieces seriously! 

6. We have started a new area of trying to obtain new investigators and people to just come to the church. SPORTS NIGHT. We have tried to introduce American Football here and we played volleyball, battmittion... how do you spell that? basketball... and other cardgames for those that just want to hang out. It was really successful and fun and we are hoping this Wednesday will be the same :)

7. Well and then Sora Letinu and I are basically starting from scratch. It's like we opened a new area for Bucharest. And we aren't starting off with any investigators because the ones we are teaching before are the other sisters. Gosh super crazy. So now we contact... tot timpul. And ya'll know how much I just love contacting :)

 

So yeah it was a busy week for us. Not to mention that Sora Stapley and Sora Gerhartz were in Arad for exchanges so it was just me and Sora Letinu dealing with the big things in Bucharest. :)

 

First I think I will talk about our wonderful lesson we had and then a lesson that wasn't well my favorite...

So Adina. I believe I have talked about her before and her husband Stuart. We went in preparing for a drop lesson because she hasn't kept any of her commitments and these lessons were now becoming more for her husband who was a less active. And so we went in and if she hasn't kept this last commitment we were going to move on and just kinda teach Stuart. So we go in and I had just been praying that she would hav read the chapter that's really what I wanted. Because she is so wonderful she just wasn't progressing. And well she hasn't read but her husband read. I was so MAD. I am not kidding. I don't think I have ever felt just so dissapointed and mad in a lesson before. But I was just so angry. And I didn't know what to say and what I probably would have said if it wasn't for my companions is that I am not here for myself. I am here for her to help her and she doesn't even see how much she could have and what she would have if she would just keep her dang commitments. AND JUST TRY! But I didn't. And we started talking about Alma 32 again. About a seed being planted. And I wasn't saying much because I didn't want to offend her and I didn't want her to be out of the church for ever ya know especially since her husband is trying to come back to church. So I thought about everything and really just tried to follow the spirit. I had an impression to ask a question, a very bold question that would let us know exactly what she wanted to do. To continue or not or about what she is thinking really. And as some of you know I'm not very subtle about things. And my question was,"Do you have a desire to learn more about this gospel of Jesus Christ." Now I know my companions were worried about this because... well they already know I am super loud and I say things that come to my head... But it was absolutely perfect. And I am just glad that this question was purely given to me by the spirit. Because she paused and thought about it for a while. Her response was this (of course I am paraphrasing) "I want my children to grow up with good standards and morals and I see this in the church. I don't know if I want this in my life right now. But I want it for my future family and for my kids. I want to raise my children in this church. Because I see that it's good and I see the kids in the church and how they are. I want that for my future kids..." Now how interesting was this that she would say this and that opened up a whole new discussion because we were finally able to see and understand that even though she doesn't understand fully the importance of what we are teaching and why she needs it in her life. She sees that it is good... and it will help her kids... and her future family. And we knew that she will someday see how important and see how it can personally help her. We are going to meet with her once more with her husband before he goes off to America and we are hoping we will meet with her again after that. We are also going to meet with her parents tomorrow so HOORAY! We believe that they are curious about what we teach and what we do so it'll be a great thing tomorrow!

Now about my wonderful Companion! I have said very little about her and really because I didn't know much about her! But she is so great. Not even exaggerating she has such a desire to learn and to grow. At first I wasn't really sure what I was doing to be honest. I was told because she already knew the language I really wouldn't be training... but oh gosh was I wrong. So completely completely wrong. I am training and more. She does know the language which is great :) but she didn't know what a missionary was really. And all the things we put into it. How we study and prepare... how we teach... how we plan and what we reallly do. And so I have had to teach her all of this... also it's kinda hard because I have to explain it all in Romanian. But hey my Romanian is getting a WHOLE LOT BETTER. I have been asking Heavenly Father to bless me with the gift of tongues and now He is. My understanding has sky rocketed and I am able to express myself better. Anyways back to my companion. I have really been praying that I would be able to help her in any way that she needs because she really wants to go on a mission. She speaks Spanish like a boss too fyi. And so we have focused so much on the lessons and things in PMG (preach my gospel) and she just gets excited everyday for companionship study and other studies. It's so cute. And she told me she's really grateful because she is learning a lot. I feel like I really am so blessed because I am learning A TON! I have to take lead on everything and I feel like Heavenly Father is training me again :) It's great I love it. She isn't a huge fan of contacting and I am not either but because... we are kinda opening a section of Buch.. not really but we don't have any investigators because we are starting brand new we have to contact. So we do role plays a lot to get her to feel more comfortable. And well I am getting into the contacting thing. It's getting easier and easier. Which I am also really grateful for.
My companion though is fantastic she is so loving and a very determined person. She is a little shy and quiet but when it's just me and her we laugh all the time. And she will tell me  jokes in romanian that I don't really understand yet. She has told me all about her family and the church and her conversion story. She is such a powerful member. She has wanted to go on a mission for a while but because of weight issues she hasn't. But she will be getting her call really soon and then she just has to loose 5 more kilos and then President can set her apart.
She bears testimony like a boss and is so open with the gospel. The spirit just radiats off of her. She will do great things wherever she goes. I am so excited for her. And I really have just been praying that I will be able to help her to become a good missionary. :) She will have so much success.

 

A few other things that have gone on this week. We went paintballing... I didn't get hit hooray! I was sweating like a pig it was super hot. Sora Gerhartz was the star of that day as we were playing President. (President has no gun and has 3 guards who have guns and they basically just protect the president and he has to cross to the other side of the arena...) Anyways Sora Gerhartz like a boss basically crosses over and kills two guards who by the way are WAY BIGGER THEN HER! She is like 5"1' if that and they are way over 6 feet. Anyways she crosses over and sacrificed herself to take out the guards. It was great. She got some bad bruises from it though that made it hard for her to walk around the next day.

We gave the lesson in Relief Society about missionary work. For some reason this branch really is just kinda a stick in the mud when it comes to missionary work. And that makes it so much harder for us. Our investigators really aren't involved with the members and the one time we had a member they fought... ughhh it's extremely frustrating. Especially since I don't know these members well enough. A sweet sister approached me this week though and told me that she has a son living in Henderson. That's not the first time someone has told me they have a romanian relative living in vegas. How interesting is that???

 

We went Chalk Contacting on Sunday! It was so much fun and exhausting. There is this HUGE park and Sora Stapley and I drew a book of mormon and a bible and wrote down some questions and verses. It was so fascinating as people approached us and asked us why we did this. We were told later that we didn't have voie to draw with chalk... I guess they have been changing rules there. 

 

I am super excited for the new movie in the temple! HOW COOL IS THAT! I really miss the temple. So be grateful you get to go :) Remember what a blessing it is! I am also really excited to hear about all of the changes and exciting efforts of missionary work that is going on at home. I had been thinking about this a lot actually. Because I wasn't really a good example at all when it came to missionary work back home. And I felt really bad about it to see what I could have done to have been better and have helped out the missionaries even more. And our ward is small. And we are all kind of the same people I havent really seen a lot of changes that have happened unless a new person or family moves into the ward. But when I hear about how it's starting to happen more at home with missionary work. I really just want to cry because it's so important. So important that as members we do our jobs and help out missionaries as much as possible. Even though life gets in the way and we have jobs and work and families. Just the happiness that we have if we share the gospel and you see someone have that light and life in them. A whole new meaning a whole new lifestyle. It brings so much happiness into my life. And I think our ward would be a whole lot happier if we really focused on missionary work and really really really concentrated our efforts to bring souls unto christ. That's all of our duties as members.

Sorry I'll get off my soap box now. :) Sorry it's such a long letter. I just have so much to say and tell and gosh I just love everything that's happening here. All the new experiences and things that I Get to learn. I AM SO LUCKY! SO SO SO LUCKY AND SO BLESSED!

Love you all!
Sora Jenna Stewart