March 17, 2014

Sorry forgot to say that the only thing that's really affected us with Ukraine. Is that the members can't go to their usual temple trip. It's been post poned until it changes or they might just go to Germany :) Sorry forgot about that

We went English contacting and we came across this adorable guy. He even took an English card :) Seriously was the nicest dog ever!

Sora Ule teaching Andreea :) It was so cute

 

I love my companion :) Sorry we are going to get better at taking pictures I promise!

March 10, 2014

Hello all!

Well first off I'm freezing. I love living right on the beach. It's so beautiful and looking out onto the sea everyday is so breathe taking. I really didn't think that there could be a down side to this... well I was wrong. It's freezing. Freezing, bitter, ice-cold winds. So COLD...  It was really funny though on Sunday we were walking home. Normal. Mihai and Andreea were walking with us and Mihai lives literally right next to us and he said last year at this time he could go and walk on the beach. Haha it was really funny he was super mad that it is so cold and I can't blame it. I'm not a fan of it either!

 

Well this week was good. Every week is just great honestly :)

 

First of all I love my companion. Sora Ule is amazing and she is so talented. She has been such a trooper especially with all the weather and craziness. Like I said weather has been so bad with the wind and the rain. Haha it's just been really bad. But contacting goes on and she's been so good! I love her! Especially since she hasn't been feeling all too well this week, she is still going! She pushes me and I love it! I love working!

 

Well we started our English Classes and they are really good. We actually have like two more lessons this week because of English Classes. We went from like 1 investigator and now we have like 6! The Lord is blessing us. Literally blessing us. English was really good though and we are trying to just have really really professional and amazing lessons as well as spiritual thoughts. We are trying to incorporate a lot of the media that we can use at our disposal... the hard thing is that... well not a lot of it is in Romania but we are trying to figure out all we can do and it's been really good so far.

 

We did quite a bit of contacting we didn't make our goal of 20 hours but that's this week. We are going to push it! Praying for good weather so we aren't stuck in Blocs all day. But whatever it takes. Embrace the suck right dad? :) 

 

We finally had a lesson with Alina... well this will be a long story. I've been extremely frustrated with this. Just the situation in general... because she keeps partial commitments... never comes to church but will basically do everything else. I've been praying so much for her and about her just asking what on earth we should do, I didn't want to waste the time we have and I don't want her to get baptized if she isn't going to be completely converted. I asked Heavenly Father and He said,"Don't give up." So I'm not. So we are still meeting with her and I told Sora Ule everything that she knows and how I just didn't know what to do. I'm so grateful for Sora Ule. Just so you all know. She sat there and then says why don't we talk about how the gospel should be the foundation. I was willing to try anything so we planned out our lesson and we go in there. I was worried for like 3 hours that she would cancel to be honest. She didn't. She came and we started to talk. Sora Ule and I discussed that we really just have to get to the bottom of her desires and really understand where she is at. It was AMAZING. Honestly. I love blunt front forward questions because that's just how Romanians are upfront and blunt. We literally asked her if she wants to meet with us and if she wants to know more about what we teach her. We asked her if she would actually apply these things in her life to really know. She agreed. So testing her faith we challenged her to a baptismal date again and she accepted. With some hesitancy. I know she can be baptized. I know she knows it's true. There is only doubt because she isn't doing EVERYTHING she can yet. I know she can get there and I know I am here in Constanta because she needs this. I know it. She didn't come to church which just about broke my heart. We will be meeting with her this week and we really want a member to come with us. It really might be through the fellow shipping that she will get there.

 

Met with Andreea :) Love her. She's perfect. Literally. Love her so so so so much. She's basically my favorite person ever. :) We are still meeting with her for her new convert lessons every time we have a lesson though she just teaches me and I sit there with my eyes watering because I am always amazed at how she applies the gospel in her life and how much she has changed to be who God wants her to be. I think I just want to weep with happiness basically every time I am around her. She has changed me.

 

We might be starting a piano teaching class since Sora Ule is a boss. :) Literally she's great and plays piano like a beast. She started teaching Andreea how to play the piano. We also had a few potential English students in the past that asked me if I was willing to teach them how to play... if only they knew that I just don't know how to read notes so I can't really teach them but now we have Sora Ule :)

 

We met with Vali this week without Daniela. Daniela wasn't able to come so it was just Vali and now we are meeting with Vali twice a week :) She's the nicest 16 year old ever. She really feels the spirit. During English we watched a film and she was tearing up and was really taking it all on. I love how the spirit teaches people. I absolutely love it. She didn't read in the Book of Mormon this last week... which I kind of anticipated just because they said they didn't understand it. So we planned a lesson on Alma 32.. I feel like that was the best I had ever done talking about that passage of scripture. It was so interesting and it was just because the spirit really wanted her to know this. After she agreed to read all of Alma 32. It was really cool. She also didn't come to church.

 

Saturday was Women's day and I got so many La Multi Ani it was crazy :) We also had a relief society activity... ummm there was 6 of us... 2 missionaries and three members and Sora Mihaiela's mother in law. Sora Mihaiela was so funny we had so much food left over so she calls the elders and tells them urgently," You have to get over to the church now! We need your help now! It's urgent get over here!" I can slightly hear Elder Myler on the end and he was just so confused and sounded pretty worried. I just about died laughing as they got here and joined us sisters eating. Then he ended up doing dishes :) It was a happy women's day after all :)

 

Later that night we went contacting and we met the coolest couple they had been living in New York for the last 17 years they knew English perfectly. They were probably some of the happiest Romanians that I have ever met that didn't have the gospel in their lives. We just started talking for forever and they want to have us over. They came to Romania to take care of their parents and they are just looking for jobs they just kept commenting over and over though that they have just been so blessed and they are grateful for their lives and for God and so on. Gosh I pray that we can meet with them! They were amazing!

 

I gave my second talk in the branch. I thought that talking in front of people would get easier in Romanian it doesn't I get so scared! Alin (our branch president) called me and Elder Bonner the night before and asked us to speak. I talked about faith and I got emotional. Dang emotions. It was okay though as I looked at them and as I am tearing up I see a few of the members and how they had tears in their eyes. That makes it worth it. Tender moment from the Lord.

 

We have so much planned for this week. CONSTANTA IS CHANGING! Literally I have been fasting for the last couple of months for Constanta. That their hearts would be opened and that they would accept us. Since Sora Ule has gotten here things have just fallen in place with English classes, past investigators, current investigators, and potentials. We should have at least 5 lessons this week. And those are actual planned lessons. We have a lesson every single week basically. And with the contacting we have planned we are bound to have a surprise lesson. We called a past investigator named Alina and she wants to meet with us again. I'm so excited. Things are happening. And I just have to give all the thanks to Heavenly Father. I could never be anything without him. Trying to base my transfer off of this quote

 

"If I fail it's my fault. If I succeed it is because the Lord has prepared me to succeed." It is so true. Giving Him all my thanks. I'm so grateful to be here as a missionary. I really don't want to leave. I want to just stay here in Constanta with these people that I Love so dearly. I've been praying and pleading with Heavenly Father that He will let me stay for at least another transfer or another 3 :)

I love you all. The church is true. There is not much else to say then that. Christ lives. Heavenly Father loves us. In these facts that is where we find true happiness!

Love you all!

Sora Stewart

March 3, 2014

Hello everyone,

Another week has come and gone and it's super weird. I feel like everything just kind of blends together and it makes things super crazy... why is time going so fast. I keep asking myself this question. Sora Ule and I are doing great and I love her. It's pretty funny sometimes at night, she says she is usually a night owl, but she almost always falls asleep during 12 week :) I think it's funny. I blame the jet lag.

 

We've been really busy this past week which I absolutely love! Early start on Tuesday to go up to Bucuresti for Zone Training. I think it was one of my most favorite zone trainings. Sora Ule and I gave a presentation on Companionship Study. We really wanted to emphasize that in Preach My Gospel it says to prepare to teach... well we don't have a lot of lessons (typically) BUT we can teach all the time. We just have to prepare that time we have to meet certain people while we contact. We can always turn everything we do into a teaching situation. I really loved that they completely focused on the spirit and how we have to follow the spirit in every single situation. I really really loved that :) It was just super great :) Came back pretty late that evening back to Constanta and a crazy man came on the bus with us. Super grateful the Elders were with us and that he was more talking to them then he was us. He was insane. He kept talking about how there was no Christ and that there was only Satan. I just felt so bad. I felt so bad that the knowledge that he really believed could in no way bring him happiness and you can tell by the lifestyle he is choosing to live now... it was just sad.

 

Wednesday we did some contacting and some studies... nothing super excited. The STL's were coming in so we came in a bit early so we can make them dinner and make their beds and stuff so they would all be ready to go for the next day. We made some great tacos... Oh my heck Mom and Dad thank you so much for the taco seasoning :)

 

Thursday I went on an exchange with Sora Bischoff and it was so fun. After district meeting and discussing about our English classes that we will have this week (Goal this transfer is to really have successful English classes) we went contacting. trying to put into focus of making everything a teaching opportunity and turning No's into yes's. It was a really fun day and Sora Bischoff is such a good missionary! The sister's in this mission just do an amazing job seriously!

 

Friday we did some contacting and tried to put up some English Posters... we got stopped by a cop and told us that we didn't have permission... because we had to pay for the spot... It's one of those huge sign areas where everybody just puts up their posters for free but he wouldn't let us... we had already put up 2... he just told us not to put up anymore. So we stopped and ate a covrig as we watched him walk over and look at our English sign. :) It was pretty cool. We had a lesson with Andreea about Faith and Trials especially since her plans so far is to go on a mission. Have I already told you that she is going to be the best missionary in the world? I can't wait to see what she is going to accomplish. I just adore her so so so so so so much! Anyways we really wanted her to try and make a missionary plan now about sharing the gospel with people and inviting them to activities. She agreed to it as she already asks a bunch of people anyways and talks to them about the gospel but she definitely saw how it was important. It was really cool though, the night before when we were planning I asked Sora Ule what she thought we should teach her. Pulling out her record and seeing what else she needs and so on... she sits there for a bit and then comes up with the topic. We both felt that that is what the spirit wanted us to talk about and then when we had the lesson with Andreea she smiles and said I have been thinking about faith and trials this entire week. It was perfect. :) Such a good lesson. So grateful for my companion and all that she is willing to do.

 

Saturday we did some district contacting for English is the blocks since it was raining. Weather was not on our side last week :) Today is a lot better... anyways. We set up a block knock war sort of thing of if this happens we get so many points and so on. Well we were doing pretty well and I was surprised to see how many people talked to us and listened to us :) Tender mercy from the Lord. Then we go to this one block and this cute adorable old lady is there and we explain who we are and what we do and that we teach English for free. Haha she goes well I don't want to learn I'm an old lady (literally she said baba) but I'll give it to my granddaughter. Then she just starts to talk to us and lets us in immediately gives us food and just starts to talk to us. Her husband was there and they were so nice! We started to talk about families and how important they are. We stayed there as long as we could since we had a lesson pretty soon after but we asked if we could come by again and she was so funny she says,"Anytime you want to see an old lady I'll be here come on by." And then starts to laugh. She was adorable! We are going to try and visit them again this week.

We also had another lesson with Vali and Daniela. Last week we had challenged them to pray using their own words and we taught them how to pray and everything. They were super hesitant just cause they felt that it was a little weird that we don't use fix prayers and we even say prayers out loud. But they did agree to do it. So when we sat down and talked about it they did it. They both prayed and used their own words. It was so cool and the spirit was there. Daniela I guess had a situation where she had to decide what to do and decided to try to pray and see what she needed to do. She literally asked a question to Heavenly Father and almost immediately she knew what she needed to do. She felt so calm and peaceful and she said it was wonderful. Vali told us that when she was praying she just felt that she had been forgiven from what she has done. They both had a wonderful experience which led us more into our discussion about the Book of Mormon. Neither of them have read the Bible and they really don't understand scripture, but after testifying and promising them that they will understand and how the Lord will bless their lives they both took copies of the Book of Mormon and said they would read.
You know something I really love about Romania is that they are for the most part all very very very faithful. They all pray in some way or another. They may not pray with their own words or have all the truth that we have but when we just add the truth that we have their eyes are opened and it's amazing to see all that the Lord can do in their lives when they are willing. I love it. I love Romania. I love the people. I just love it :)

Sunday. MARTISOR! Oh my gosh I haven't explained that yet. Martisor is a holiday here it's like the celebration of Spring. There are a bunch of little markets that have these red and white ribbons on it and then like these little charm things. They are super cute. So tons of people buy them and give it to all the women for martisor. So Sunday I think Sora Ule and I got 5 different things for Martisor. It was so neat! Oh I forgot to say that we got Martisor things from our investigators Vali and Daniela the night before :) They were cute. And we got one from this cute lady that works in the Library that I love to talk and chat with :) She loves us missionaries. Anyways Sunday. We walk in and a ton of Sora Mihaela's family was there her mother and law and her son came and her friend came. She's a wonderful example of a member missionary for reals! So all of us women all received a ton of different charm things and some super good chocolate. I have a problem with chocolate here I know... Anyways it was just a great Sunday. We did have an incident with a member in Sacrament meeting calling out members from the church and saying that they were dealing with Fraud... it was bad. This poor little branch.... we have a great branch president though and great members who all know that she does have a problem she has severe schizophrenia... so we were able to continue with church and the spirit was still there. Later we went over to Sora Mihaiela's family for dinner and a lesson. We really wanted to know what sisters she wanted us to visit and to do with them. When we told her we had to leave she didn't want us to go, her husband and her both asked us to just stay the night. It was pretty funny. hahaha She's the sweetest member and her family is AMAZING! Love them.

 

Well that's about all. I'll just share a bit of what I have been studying lately and what I have been thinking. Romania is hard. It's a hard country and we have so few members here. We have probably 20 members that come to church every week and Constanta is a bigger branch compared to others... its been so amazing to me to watch their sacrifice that they give to the Lord every single week to come to church and be a member in this church. Our dear sweet Andreea had to tell me that when she became a member so many of her friends rejected her and that they had wanted her to still be the same person she was so she had to step away from them. And even though there is really nobody her age in this church... her mother is against the church... and so many other things she comes to church every single week. She goes to institute and she meets with us. She ALWAYS reads the scriptures. I swear we receive a text from her everyday of a quote or a scripture or something. The members here are like this. They are amazing. It just makes me realize how much I have taken for granted. You know at home we have a chapel that is filled with people every Sunday. Here we have a villa... The missionaries have to pass and bless the sacrament every week. They don't have a pianist unless a missionary knows how to play and most of them are single members of their families. They sacrifice so much and it's because they know that every week when they go to church they are renewing their covenants with God. They are being healed. That's why they come it's not to socialize or do any of that. But it's so that they can be completely healed and know at that moment they are doing the will of the Father. That's what this life is about is not doing our will. Really not caring about what we feel like if we are embarrassed or scared or out of our comfort zones it is doing the will of the Lord. Going to church. Reading our scriptures. Serving others this is what we have to do. I just hope by sharing this that we can all see the tender mercy that we have in our life that the church where we are is huge. We aren't chastised for being a different religion and we have people always that are there to lift us. Be SO GRATEFUL and just try to do what He wants. It's okay to be uncomfortable. Haha trust me. I've been uncomfortable here in Romania since day one. But if I was comfortable I wouldn't have learned and grown as much as I have.

 

I love you all so much! I expect LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES of baby KIANA! I can't wait!
Love,

Sora Stewart

This is Sora Ule! She's from Provo she's 19! She's amazing! I love her so much already! We are going to kick butt here!

So loved taking pictures as we were contacting

I can't help it either constanta is just really really pretty :)

The branch this past sunday.

This was just a really cool grafitii thing we found.

Sora Ule again. I took that this morning I told her I Had to send a picture of her home :) hahaha

 

February 24, 2014

Hey everyone!

It has been such a fun fantastical busy week. Yes I know that sentence and those words don't make sense and I just don't care :) That's how this week has been. It's been so great! I love it! 

 

Well, Sora Letinu and I did a lot of cleaning. Why is that always my weakness? Parents I promise I am a LOT more clean than I was before! Still not the best though. Trying. Sorry. Forgive me :)

So Tuesday after contacting for a bit on and eating at Mesapotamia (love that place) walking out of the mall we found a place that has a bunch of toys. Sora Letinu loves kids and one of the kids she adores has a birthday coming up so we went and looked in there for a bit and well I saw this huge stuffed animal Chewbacca. Well Sora Stapley loves star wars. I believe she took 3ish hours one day to explain the entire star wars movies. It was impressive. I had to buy it for her so I did.

That was an important part of this week sa stiti.

 

Anyways, We had a lesson planned out with Alina we really wanted to meet with her one more time before Sora Letinu left. She has just kinda I don't even know. She has been the subject of a lot of my prayers lately. Because she's not really progressing. I've been really trying hard to follow up on her and to my utmost surprise she's read everything that I have texted her. She was even showing Sora Letinu a verse that she loved. Tender. So tender. She still isn't going to church which is a whole other story. We did decide to talk about the restoration again to see how much she remembered. Well she didn't remember much. Unfortunately. Super unfortunate. But that's why we decided to talk about it. We really focused on how the restoration has affected our lives. Andreea was there and I am so grateful she was. SO GRATEFUL! Love her. Love her so much. It was a tender lesson though and the spirit was just so strong. And that is really all I can ask for. The spirit. Something really cool that Sora Letinu said as we were walking home though is that she saw something so good in her eyes. So good and so special. I agree. Can't wait to meet with her again :)

 

Wednesday got up to Bucuresti and it was the longest maxi taxi ride ever. Ughh how I dislike maxi taxis. It was so cramped. So cramped. they had the heat blasting. It was bloody hot. So so so hot. My leg felt like it was going to burn off. I hate small maxi taxis. Okay sorry off of my I hate maxi taxis. We got to Bucuresti and it was so funny. Sora Ralls and Sora Bray came to pick me up at the auto gara because Sora Letinu was staying there to go to Ploiesti. While I was on the phone I heard there is a boy following us. Go faster. Then they hang up. Oh gosh. Haha. So I get there. And Iancu is there. Iancu is this 15 year old boy that was baptized last year in Panduri. He's the coolest kid. Lives so close to the auto gara and when we get lost he always helps us get to the auto gara. These poor soras just didn't know that he was a member and so Iancu had his baptismal program in his pocket that he was going to show them to say that he wasn't a weirdo. This kid who was just baptized last year still carries his baptismal program with him. He carries it with him. Is that not amazing! I just kept thinking to myself. How important the gospel is to him that he wants to remember what he did on that day that he carries it around with him. So special so amazing. Well it was also really funny and Iancu was really chill about it. And walks us close back to the gara so we can do some treaba. Such a cool kid.

Well that was the day I become a mom! So cool. My "daughter" is Sora Ule (pronounced like Sora Ewell). I love her. She's so cool. She's super funny and we just talk all the time :) LOVE HER! She loves to work which is great because hello great week here! I felt so bad though by the time we would get to the 12 week program she would just about be asleep. She is so jet lagged. When we got into our maxi taxi she was just out. I felt so bad she was just so so so so tired!

 

Thursday. We had a lesson with Andreea and with Elena. Andreea said I have a surprise for you! Elena is here! So sweet Sora Ule had a lesson with the two best people ever! :) It was such a good lesson and for having limited amount of sleep on Sora Ule's part she did so good. She really wants to learn Romanian and she is such a hard worker. She's pretty shy and so I was just so impressed with all that she did. Hello gift of tongues here. After out lesson I told them that Sora Ule knows how to play the piano and so Elena begged her to teach her. SO there she was on her first day in Constanta talking to Elena teaching her Piano. It was so tender. Tender mercy. :) Love those moments. Andreea was writing a note in my book of Mormon and so we just sat back and watched them. They were so cute. Such a tender moment.

 

Friday. Lots of contacting. When around the city doing some English contacting. Literally walked across the entire city. Did some competitions with the Elders to see who could pass out the most cards. :) It was so fun :) SO fun. Did the 12 week training program. :) So fun. It was too funny as we were watching a part of the district she fell asleep in the chair. haha. So funny. I was dying. She kept apologizing I just thought it was funny and I felt bad. Let's just say when its bed time as soon as she hits the bed she is out. She's definitely a little culture shocked which is totally normal. Sometimes she'll ask things and I just think well yeah that's just normal isn't it. And then she just looks at me and then I realize... ohhh nope that's just how people do it here. Like buses. As we took the bus the first day and I gave her her ticket she just kinda stared at it... then I realized.. oh yeah. We don't really use public transportation at home Duh... haha. :) We don't have to use 50 bon to use shopping carts and we don't have to bring our own grocery bags. You know didn't really realize how different it is.  :)

 

Saturday. Had district meeting. :) Elder Myler is still here thank goodness. He's such a good leader. We've set some goals for English classes and really trying to have a lot of people come here. That's just how we get most of our investigators. We went over to the park and played Frisbee... I really suck. I need to learn how to catch.. and throw... I just need to learn how to be more athletic... dangit. I decided though even though I can't catch and throw I can be a pretty good defense and knock the Frisbee when they try to throw it :) Andreea and Elena brought some of their friends so that way we can meet them. It was so fun :) There friends were so cute. :) So nice. So NICE! We had to run and eat really fast though and then run to the church because we had a lesson with Daniela and her friend Vali. Taught them 30 minutes of English and then Spiritual thought. We talked about prayer and the importance of using our own words when we speak. They both use fixed prayers. I just don't think I will ever understand fixed prayers. Ever. Sora Ule bore powerful testimony of prayer and how we can feel when we pray. She testified of the Book of Mormon and through prayer she knows it's true. I seriously love my companion :) Love her.

 

Sunday... weirdest Sunday. Lessons were really good... we just have a few members... who well... yeah. Just one... she just thinks crazy crazy things and there was an argument in Relief Society about it. That was crazy. Sora Ule played piano and bore her testimony :) It was so good :) So good :)

Well and that brings us today. :) We have some great goals for this upcoming week with lessons and contacting! Praying that it'll all happen! :) Super excited!

It really was just a crazy hectic fantastic week!

 

I love training. :) It is so much fun and it kicks my butt into super high speed gear of let's get things done! I love it! I love the 12 week program. I think it's amazing for all missionaries not just new missionaries. It really goes over the basics. Why we are here. What our purpose is what we need to do as missionaries. I love it :) LOVE IT! :)

Love you all!
Sora Stewart

Few more pictures of the beach