June 3, 2013

Hello to All,

Well I know you all must be so excited to hear or not if we had a baptism! And good news we did! It was absolutley beautiful and our wonderful investigator is the newest member to the Cluj-Napoca Branch here!
Her baptism was on June 1st at 5:00 pm. I was so pleased with what I saw and felt and just really how it all turned out here. They haven't had a baptism here in Cluj for about a year. So the members were all really excited. Sora Modzelewska and I put together the program and called the poeple to speak. We asked this wonderful sister, Sora Condorachi, and she was just tickled pink to talk. When we called her she just about screamed with excitement, exclaming that she hasn't had the opportunity to talk at a baptism for a long time. Most of the branch came to the baptism, which is just amazing, and the elders invited their investigators too. The missionaries and our district decided to sing a musical number, which went really well, since well I will speak for myself and say that I am not the best singer. :) We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer and one of the members played it on the guitar for us. It really was beautiful. Sabina got baptized by Elder Boyd and we watched the restoration video while she got ready.

We helped clean the church after and Sora Modzelewska and I were just leaping for joy! Our wonderful investigator got baptized!

Later that day we found out that the property that the church has bought for the future place of the Cluj-Napoca Chappel was just down the road and had some cherry trees. And since it rained earlier that day and that was canceled. We decided to go down as a district.

There were so many cherries. I may just be naive on this situation but I think that comes from when you grow up in Las Vegas where not many things grow. It was so beautiful. It was just green everywhere with all sorts of vegetation. And the trees were beautiful. So many cherries. I felt like a little kid because I had never experiences picking things from trees before. So much fun! And now we have a bunch of cherries in our fridge that I now eat for breakfast every morning.

On Sunday Sabina was confirmed a member of the church by recieving the Holy Ghost. President Iepure said a beautiful blessing, I am so grateful that I was able to be apart of this experience with her. It just makes me so grateful!

After church we went to Salvatore and Aurelia's they have a different set of missoinaries over every week. We all rotate. They just like to serve us. And I do not complain since she is a wonderful cook! This couple is just filled with so much life and happiness. They really love one another. When Aurelia was in the kitchen Salvatore was explaining to us that when she cooks he eats it. And vice versa. Sora Modzelewska looks over at him and says I think that if she cooks you should clean. And he just sits there and says now wait a minute. Aurelia pops her head out of the kitchen and tells us yeah yeah yeah! Keep talking! I like the sound of this! It was so funny and so cute! I just love these members so much!

We really have the best branch in all of Romania. :)

We continued to have a few other lessons this week. And so we are still working and progressing here. It rained quite a bit this week. The weather is so interesting here as it will be super sunshiney and then just pour buckets of rain on us! I have had to bring my umbrella everywhere. Sora Modzelewska doesn't like to get wet. And I absolutely love it. Haha she always gives me a look when I stare up at the clouds and say that it is about to rain :)

I love you all so much!

Until next week,
Sora Stewart

May 27, 2013

Bună Dimineaţa,

It has been an incredible week here in Cluj. I am absolutely amazed at the work we have here to do. Sora Modzelewska and I have had a lot of lessons to attend to that every night we just about pass out on our beds. It's truly amazing too because we just run in to people all the time and they are willing to let us in and talk to us and let us teach them. Truly a miracle here. I am just so very grateful that this branch is growing and we are helping them build up the kingdom here. It is absolutely amazing to see.

Sora Modzelewska and I have had some fantastic stories, and events happen this week. On Thursday we had district meeting and our district meeting goes on like always but this time it went a little long. And in comes this lady and sits in on our meeting just in time for the closing prayer. We had no idea who she was, or if it was one of the others investigator, but she came in sat down and just waited. We went up to her afterwards and she looked at us and was like I wanted someone to teach me English. So there Sora Modzelewska and I go and we go into the other room and start teaching her. We like to teach some English and then do like 30 minutes of Gospel Discussion. Which she agreed to. And after we were done with the lesson this sweet Maria looked at us and said,"I don't want you to waste your time with me. And I really like the way you teach me. So please let me pay you." We looked at her and almost jumped out of our seats insisting no no no. Don't pay us! And then we explained that we don't want money. We are Christians. We are good people who want to serve. All we desire is to share our message about Christ and about why we are so happy. We don't want your money. We are happy to do this service. And then we asked if we could just close with a word of prayer. This wonderful woman was so touched that she just started crying. I haven't seen someone in this country be as touched as this woman was at this moment. It was a wonderful moment that was so filled with the spirit, and it was beautiful to see that she could feel it. That this moment of service and charity and the power of our words touched her. Such a tender mercy.

We continued on with teaching Karen this week. Our sweet sweet investigator. Who I just wish I could communicate with. It's so fascinating and irritating to see that after 4ish years of Spanish I don't really remember anything. Anyways our wonderful member Sora Kiss translates for us. We had a wonderful discussion on the Book of Mormon that was purely set on the spirit. We weren't really sure what we were going to talk about when we got there but we just knew that we had to depend on the spirit. We asked her if she was reading the Book of Mormon and if she felt like the things we had talked about were true. She was so uncertain and said she really doesn't think that this church is  for her and just started throwing out a lot of excuses. So we quickly just brought it back to the Book of Mormon where she confessed that she wasn't reading it. But from the chapters we had given her she thought it was good but liked the Bible better. We were just able to bear our testimonies that if she doesn't read the Book of Mormon that she wont know. That what was in her hands was the defining evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We were able to just talk to her and tell her how wonderful and important she is to Heavenly Father, that she can strengthen this relationship with Him, and she can find happiness she has never felt before. It was a BEAUTIFUL moment. It felt like instead of her back tracking and heading the other way she is now turned back around and listening and waiting. Gosh I just love being a missionary :)

Now the title of this email is called the Power of Rain. And now you will know why. After one of lessons with Karen we left our phone at Sora Kiss's house. And well she lives in Floresti which is La Ţară outside of town. And so we had to wake up and head straight there since there are only a few buses that go there every hour. So after the craziness of going there, grabbing our phone, and coming back, waiting for a bus, and seeing about our lessons that day we sat down on a bench just right outside the bus stop. And I'm sitting there just listening to Sora Modzelewska talk about our day and what we need to do and who we need to call. This lady walks by and smiles at us and I smile back and we return to our conversation. The lady turned back around and sat down right by Sora Modzelewska and just starts talking to us. Now my mouth was probably open and my eyes were probably big as saucers because people here don't come up to us and talk to us. They just don't. And they specifically don't come and sit down out of all the benches right by us and are super friendly. So I am honestly already in shock. We start talking to her a little bit, when it starts to rain. I was so mad, and I have never been mad at the rain before I like the rain! But once it started to rain she looks over at us and just said it's starting to rain really bad, stands up and walks away. Ahhh I just felt like we had lost that opportunity. But when she said it was raining hard it was raining hard, no exaggeration here. So we get up and run to one of the blocks behind us just to have some kind of shelter. And what do you know it was her block. And she invited us in. She invited us in to her home and just wanted to talk to us. I didn't understand everything that she had said, but she told us about her life. She told us that a few years ago she had had a stroke in Canada and that she knew that God had saved her life for some reason. That even though a part of her back was paralyzed she had some reason for being here. And of course we are sitting there thinking of course you have a purpose, let's share our message! So we do. We share the message of the restoration and she says that we can come back and she said that she will start to read the Book of Mormon.

Now this is where the power of the rain comes in. I watched as this woman (Anna Marie) comes up to us and sits by us on the bench. And at that exact moment it starts to rain. We just happened to run for cover at her block. Where she had not yet entered. And she let us in. And at that moment we started to talk about the Restoration of the gospel (And I am staring out the window, because I have never seen so much rain in my life) the rain completely stops, the clouds parted, and the sun shine started to beam through the window. There are no coincidences in this work. None. What a testimony builder this was to me, that the Lord has people He wants us to teach. And He prepares these people. And with our faith in Him, He will give unto us mighty miracles.

Our sweet dear Sabina is getting baptized this Saturday! I am so excited and it has been such a sweet experience to teach her. I have loved every moment of meeting with her. From the very first time where she sat down next to us, not really sure what to say or what to do. You could just see this longing she had to be apart of something that just felt like home. She wanted to find this comfort that we know the Gospel can bring in to every persons life. And every time we meet with her. She grows. Her light has changed. She may still be the same person who doesn't like attention, or doesn't like to be around a lot of people. But she is so much happier. Her appearance, the way she holds herself up has changed. I never really understood when people said that they can see the light people have, and how it shines or it dims. I have never understood that. Until now. Because I have seen it. I remember at the begining and at this moment now where she is understanding the principles and applying them to her life. And her light, this essence, feeling, has changed round about her. You can see it. You can see that she feels love and she returns love. :) 

This life is filled with so many beautiful opporunities and experiences that we really don't notice. Or at least I haven't noticed. I can't believe that I have lived most of my life in this gospel, but haven't really used all that I had at my disposal. Or I haven't used all the blessings, opportunities, and experience the gospel gives me. Live FULLY in this gospel. Don't just stick your foot in. Immerse yourself and you will not believe the blessings that come.

I am so grateful and so happy to hear about the things going on back home. I can not tell you how full my heart is to hear that you are being member presents for this wonderful neighbor. And I hope that you will look for more of these opportunities. Don't be afraid to share the gospel. What do you have to loose? And look at what they have to gain. How many people I could have shared the gospel with and I didn't because I was scared. I am super ashamed to say that I was scared to share the gospel. So don't be or do what I did. Just jump in :) It feels absolutely fantastic!

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

Sora Stewart

 

ps. Matthew! I don't know if you have watched this Mormon Message but you need to. It just brought tears to my eyes and I hope it brings tears to your eyes as you reflect on your missionary work that you are doing here and the missionary work you have done :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLWERGAIdD8&feature=player_embedded

Me on the bus. There was some crazy guy singing and playing guitar. It was quite the sight to see.

This is Karen our Spanish speaking investigator and her husband Marin. She is so adorable

One of our new investigators Damaris. She's super adorable!

 

George, Me, Sora Modzelewska, and Mariana

Hehehehe. She doesn't even know I took this picture of her. Sora Modzelewska cleaning our kitchen.

This is the wonderful couple of gardens that are outside of our balcony. I have named them starting from the left. Farmer Joe, Farmer Bob, and Farmer Billy Bob. Their gardens are turning out beautifully!

May 20, 2013

Hello my loved ones!

Things are great here in Cluj-Napoca, and the work is just blooming. We have a really wonderful district who are just filled with the desire to work, and share the gospel with everyone.

I feel like things are never really normal with the last couple weeks of this transfer, there are just so many changes and so many things going on in general.

Last monday we went to go see Familia Iepure. Who is the branch president here. His wife Weronica is from Poland and so Sora Modzelewska just fits right in. It's really adorable and very cool to see how Sora Modzelewska has just molded into this branch! She keeps telling me that she feels that the Lord was preparing her, her whole mission to come to Cluj and be apart of this branch. I honestly feel that she will die her, I think she really wants to die here actually too. :) Anyways back to Familia Iepure they have the two most adorable kids. Dani and Simi. Super cute little boys and since Weronica is Polish and Mihai is Romanian and they speak English to each other. Weronica speaks polish to the boys and Mihai speaks Romanian to them. They obviously know Romanian best because well we live here in Romania! They understand all of those languages. So we were sitting and talking and Dani comes up to me and says something. And it doesn't sound Romanian and so I listen harder and I felt so dumb he was speaking to me in ENGLISH! "Please Come." He kept saying that over and over and I didn't understand him. Extremely embarrassing. President Iepure was laughing so hard. It was a good moment. :)
I think I told you about our wonderful little couple that we are teaching Mariana and George? Maybe? I'm just going to talk about them again because they are such wonderful blessings that have come into our life. They are pretty open about religions, but they are still orthodox and like thier religion which is totally understandable. We teach them 30 minutes of English and 30 minutes of Gospel discussion and this last time they agreed to come to church! I didn't get my hopes up but as we are walking up to the Villa and I saw their car I may have done a few heel clicks walking up to the front door. They were dressed in Sunday best and the branch just enveloped them with love. It was almost a perfect Sunday. The speakers spoke about what we wanted to teach them and they told us that they really loved împărtăşania. Sunday School not as good. But we still have lessons to teach them and appointments set so we are excited :)
They are such a loving couple who just laugh all the time. They are just so happy which is wonderful to see here. :)
The biggest blessing since I have been here? Sabina. Oh my goodness my heart just rejoices with her. Because I just love her so dearly! She has come to church every week since we have started meeting with her, she has agreed to every commitment, and has kept every commitment. She has read and prayed and has commented in Church. And she just is so humble, so willing to follow the example of Christ. She makes me feel so loved, which is strange since I am supposed to make HER feel loved! Yesterday we were talking and she just wanted to know about my life, and family, and what I like to do. And she must have given me 30 hugs within 10 minutes. And she just kept saying over and over how grateful she was that we were there for her and that I was just the person she needed in her life. Oh my goodness I can't even put it into words how much she made me feel so loved. The most beautiful part to me is when she was talking about my church and then looked at me and said well actually I guess it's my church now too. :) She is so excited to be batized on the 1st and she agreed to have pictures taken since she wouldn't let us take any pictures before. I can not even discribe to you how much I love this woman, and how loving she is, and how willing she is to follow Chist. It's the most beautiful thing I have seen here. :)

We had exchanges this week too. Well sorta. They changed some things out here with mission rules and ways to do things. Before each area would switch with a specific area. Like Cluj switches with Sibiu and Timişoara with Arăd and so forth. Well now we have Sister Trainer Leaders which is what Sora Ewell is in Arăd and so now the STL goes to all the areas she can and has an exchange with the senior companion to help them meet goals and be a better trainer or Senior companion. So Sora Ewell and her companion Sora Deruvo who was in the MTC with me came and we had an exchange. I was with Sora Deruvo and we just had a blast. I really like exchanges because I am forced to have to speak and try my hardest to communicate. And I just immerse myself in the language and with what we are doing. And I was complemented on my Romanian which is still really bad, but Romanians have mercy on me and just love that I am trying to speak in their language and they love that. They appreciate that oh so much. It really is just nice to see that I am progressing little by little in this country. :) Little blessings just matter so much to me.

And I had such a blast serving with my dear friend for that day. :)

I love this gospel. And I love being a missionary more and more each and every day! I love feeling the spirit and I work everyday to just have the spirit be my constant companion. I think that that may be one of my favorite things about being a missionary. Is that I feel the spirit all the time. And it testifies to my investgators and I all the time. It's the most amazing feeling. I can't imagine now how it would feel to not have this constant companion that just feels my life with such great stregth, hope, and happiness. I know that God lives and He loves His children. I see everday how He has prepared His children to accept and be apart of the Gospel. I have no doubt that He knows all of us and He knows His lost sheep. And He still loves them. :) Isn't that beautiful? I'm learning a lot about love lately. And it is beautiful, endless, and everlasting :)
I love you all :)
Sora Stewart

 

There was also this super cool guy that made this unicycle and was riding it up and down the street in front of the church. Have I mentioned guys wear short shorts.

Our wonderful senior couple. Have I told you how much I just love them?
OH I forgot. I got food poisoning this week. That was not fun. And I'm so grateful for these two because Sora Boyd goes right into mom mode and just took care of me. Since well I couldn't leave the bathroom floor that day. :) We have wonderful angels here ;)

The wonderful sisters in our zone :)

The Elders right before they were about to be taken into the police office :)

Sibiu :)

Sibiu :)

Elders in our sleeper train the next morning.

Super weird I KNOW!

Train Ride from Cluj to Buch

People love to take pictures of us when we face the sun and I can't see a dang thing! haha

 

May 13, 2013

Hello!
It's been kind of an odd week because of holidays and all these travels that we have had to do. I feel like the transfer really hasn't started and that we were kinda gypped! We had zone conference in Sibiu. And wow Sibiu is absolutely beautiful. You can see the mountains in the distance and I really miss looking at all the mountains from back home. That is something I never really thought I would miss. Sibiu is a little bit like Cluj where it's a lot of the cobblestone walkways and the old buildings where they are all different colors.
Anyways so Zone Conference we went to Centru to go contacting and well we ran into a little bit of trouble with the Police there where they said that we weren't allowed to pass anything out. Our poor Elders were in the station for about 30 minutes, we didn't know if they were going to be able to come back out! No worries everythings fine, but our big plan of our zone is to storm Western Europe with Books of Mormon. Our zone goal is to pass out 200 books in 6 weeks which is completely do able. We want a Book of Mormon in every home. Wouldn't that beautiful? And people here really see the value of books, much more than they do at home. They always ask us are you honestly giving these away for free? That's their first question not that they don't want to read it, but they are just astonished that we are giving out things for free. It's really beautiful to see how they value certain things.

We also had to travel to Buch this week for my visa. Remember how I said I really liked trains? Well, I'm not a huge fan of them anymore. Especially in the summer they are extremely extremely hot. And Cluj is really far from Buch. But now we are back here and back to work with our investigators!
We had a miracle come into Sora Modzelewska's life and mine or I should say two miracles. We ran in to this lady a few days before the Paşti just to ask and see how they celebrate and what they do and everything. It was a nice conversation and we announced who we were and told her what we teach. And she said she was interested and was really open about religions and would love to meet with us. Well after all the craziness of traveling we were finally able to meet with her and we thought it was just going to be her. But no she brought her wonderful husband. They took us in their car and drove to the church, where they just opened up their whole lives to us. They are such a wonderful family, where they told us how they have had trials with not being able to have kids but know that the Lord wants them to adopt. And so now we have 2 new investigators who are some of the most sincere people I have met here in the country.

A beautiful experience happened yesterday after church as well. Our wonderful investigator Sabina who has a date in 2 weeks and sincerely wants to be baptized we had a discussion about the word of wisdom... which well didn't really go over as well as Sora Modzelewska and I would have hoped it would have. But with the help of the spirit and the wonderful Senior Couple we have here she told us that she would like a blessing to help her with her help and help her with her not wanting to drink coffee. And in the blessing their were some wonderful blessings promised her and I saw as she was super uptight because she didn't really know how blessings worked or how these things happened, and then to see her relax her body and see that she was receiving the things that were being told to her.

It's such a miracle to me to see how the Lord prepares people. To see how He never abandons His children. And that He honestly has the most patience in the world. That everything is in His time, and His time is always the most perfect time. I am constantly reminded about this, because I get impatient, and I want things done now. Or I feel that sometimes the Lord just isn't answering things the way that I want them done. He is a perfect teacher for me.

I really LOVE being a missionary. I am learning so many new things and developing so many attributes that will affect my life forever. No wonder mom is so perfect :)
I love you all,

Sora Stewart