Mission Week 1!!!

Hello everybody...

Sora Rivera! and so it begins

Henceforth I shall be known as Sora... so I get to the MTC and find out that I'm a Solo sister, which is sorta weird because I do have a companion... Sora Macdonald from Salt Lake City Utah. We're the only 2 sisters going to Romania in the whole MTC (missionary training center). So we’re the only 'Soras.’ She's also going to Romania but she's been at the MTC for 7 weeks, so in just under two weeks she'll be leaving and I have no idea what’ll happen in terms of having a companion. Being a solo also means that I either have to be with my companion, a group of Elders, or my teacher and whoever else. So yeah that's just super weird because being a Solo doesn't mean oh good I get to have some alone time... oh no... it's the opposite, I'm constantly supervised and surrounded by huge groups of people and you know just how much I love huge groups of people.

My class consists of one Elder and me! Just one!... it's super awkward. We have to be supervised by a teacher, or we join in with the other class. And oh did I mention.... that ONE elder... is Italian and doesn't speak English. So basically we've been communicating with broken Romanian, Italian, remnants of high school Spanish, and a whole lot of pointing and charades. So yeah it's been very interesting. His name is Elder Criscenti (prounounced Kri-shen-tee)

Sora MacDonald & I

Apparently at the beginning of this year they changed the way they teach at the MTC. We start teaching an investigator, who's really just one of our teachers pretending to be an investigator on the 3rd day. So getting help from our teachers we plan a lesson in complete Romanian and we have to go teach. Our "investigator" is called Lacov and we've taught him everyday this week. It's been so hard especially since it's just me and Elder C as teaching companions so we can't really communicate properly but the teachers say we're doing an awesome job and progressing super fast. They keep calling us an advanced class because of my previous Romanian knowledge and the closeness of Italian to Romanian so I guess that's kinda cool but I still feel like I'm smacking my head against a brick wall every day. Romanian is okay, I realized that I understand a ton, but I really can’t speak very well. I'm praying for help, (in Romanian) and I’ve learnt a ton in just this past week so I have hope that in the next few weeks I can improve a lot. COLIN - thanks a ton for your dear elders and the one about how you learnt Spanish it was really uplifting :). Oh while I remember ANA - I'm writing you a giant long wonderful letter today :D and I'm also writing Grandad and Grandma :)

Wasn't General Conference amazing? If you didn't see it or don't know what it is check it out here at lds.org it's soooooooooo amazing the announcement about missionary work. Elder Bednar came and spoke to us at the MTC fireside this week... isn’t that amazing??? And anyway he told us it's basically because the Lord just needs to hasten is work and now is the time he's chosen to hasten it! AHH it's just awesome!! And we missionaries are a part of that hastening!! :) I love love love the apostles and the prophet and just everything! I loved GC, especially Elder Holland's talk. Elder Bednar was awesome at the fireside he was sooo down to earth and really funny... he calls it his Apostolic Humour. Ha-ha! I also loved the take from Elder Nelson "ASK THE MISSIONARIES!" We all just had huge smiles on our faces, although in the back of my mind I was think oh poop I need to learn how to respond to all of that in Romanian hahaha!!!

Lacov, our "investigator" told us yesterday that he wants to be baptized and he believes that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really appeared to JS. YAAAAY!! :D Hahah even though it's pretend we take it very seriously and it's amazing because the spirit really does guide me. For example I was in TALL lab on Monday, which is a computer system program thingy that helps you learn your language, and I decided to learn the word for Trial. Little did I know that I was being guided by the spirit because the next day Lacov asked us about Trials and Elder C just looked at me completely bewildered and I was like wait I UNDERSTAND :D haha it was awesome and in terrible Romanian we were able to speak with Lacov YAY Happy day for us...

The District - me & the missionaries off to Romania soon

The first few days here were kinda awful. I wanted to cry and scream and run away! haha I felt like a small child wandering around lost on a big campus. But the Lord has really blessed me because Sora M loves me sooo much and she constantly tells me that so it's reallly uplifting and my teacher are just wonderful and I completely ADORE all of our elders. They’re technically the Elders in Sora's class but they’ve adopted me and Elder C too. They’re just so funny and wonderful. They let me mother them sometimes and they act like brothers and take care of me and Sora. Btw we had this amazing experience after the fireside this week when we have fireside review which is kinda a testimony meeting about what we learnt in the fireside, and every single elder including this one Elder Hollist cried. Now you have to understand... Elder Hollist was in the Marines, he's the big tall man who grew up an army brat and all he knows is Army Army Army. Everything he does he does with determination! It’s hilarious :) Sora and I laugh about it sometimes and Elder H laughs too because he just cant help it. Like the other day he was eating a salad and kept stabbing the lettuce as though it was going to run away. He also refers to our schedule as the agenda and the MTC campus as the premises :). Ha-ha his Marine-ness makes us lol. I wish I had time to tell you about every single Elder, it’s funny because they’re all so young, the oldest one is a month younger than me, yet so often they’re Men in my eyes and they’re so respectful and kind... then they’ll say or do something completely stupid and 12-year-old boy like and you remember how dumb and young they are haha but we still love them :)

I love this Church and this Gospel!! I really do have a true testimony of this Gospel. Christ's Church, his original church is upon the earth today, We have a living prophet, and his name is Thomas S. Monson! Joseph Smith really did see Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. The priesthood authority was restored to the earth! The Lord has a plan for us, he knows us, and he loves us! If I didn't have my testimony... I'd be nothing! I couldn't have survived this week, I'd have taken the next flight home. I love you all, I pray for you constantly. Love the Lord with all you Heart Mind and Strength! "Keep the Faith". As Sister Hinckley once said “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." Well I've done a whole lot of laughing this week, but as Carl B. Cook said in his talk in April 2012 it's better to look up. 

Va iubesc ;)

Keep the Faith!! All my love and prayers

Sora Rivera