Week 8

LAST WEEK OF THE MTC!!!!!!

Oh my goodness it's my last week of the MTC!! Including today I have 4 days left!! I kinda freaked out the other day when I received my travel Itinerary. Ha-ha it's amusing now that I look back, I just became so nervous about leaving I just burst into tears... but I'm over that stage and now I'm just excited. Today is the last day I get to go to the Temple for the next 16months :( craaazy!!

Thanksgiving - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to speak to us!!!! It was awesome!! He really is a modern day Paul. He told us to "Buck up! Get to Work!" and stop saying "oh when I get back to real life..." He yelled, "THIS IS REAL LIFE!!! This is the most real your life is gonna get! Capital R capital L!" It was so awesome! He really helped me to understand how important and special is this opportunity. Everything the Lord does is to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal Life of Man... and guess what... that's what we get to do for this limited time only... worry about nothing else but bringing people to Christ! AWESOME

I'm trying to think of interesting things to tell you about from the past week... other than an Apostle of the Lord coming to visit! The other day was pretty fun in class. My teachers Sora Whiting and Fratele Frandsen set up a room like a train and then had a timer going, if the time ran out it mean that the train was arriving at their stop. They then pretended to be passengers and Elder C and I had to go and try to get their phone numbers and an appointment. It was sooo difficult! We were trying to come up with interesting questions to spark their interest, often we'd try to lead it to the fact that we were not Romanian... then the person would ask... "What are you doing here in Romania...?" ha-ha and we'd smile and say in Romanian... that's a good question... hahahhaha :D yaaay! It's exciting and I can't believe that I'll be doing it for real next week... NEXT WEEK!! say whaaat??? Next week???! Yep that's what I said..!"

I didn't have any amusing Romanian mess-ups this week. Sorry to disappoint... but I'm sure by my first pday in Romania I'll have some good ones... and it would just be with my teachers this time... they'll be with reaaaal Romanian strangers.... oh my I'm nervous... but excited! :) Oh I also get to see Sora Macdonald this coming week, hopefully anyway, I believe she told me in an email that she'd be in Bucharest when I arrive so fingers crossed.

I've been studying a lot about the nature of God this week. Focusing on the scripture in 1 John... "God is love". It makes me think about how he really is our father and how much he loves me. I'm a daughter of God... that's so amazing! He knows me personally, he knows my name, who I am, what makes me happy what makes me sad. Elder Holland pointed this out how throughout the scriptures God calls people by their names. "Adam... Moses, my Son... Samuel Samuel! ....He knows us personally!" I can't wait to get to Romania and hopefully bring some light into people's lives, and help them to realize that they are children of God and that our Loving Heavenly Father knows them personally and that Christ has restored His church to the earth because He loves us so much. :D

Anyway... I'm out of email time!! I love you all... the next email won't be until a week of Monday... from ROMANIA!! :D   va iubesc!!

Love Sora Rivera

Week 7

Penultimate week at the MTC!

Soooooooooooo this week was another wonderful week here at the MTC... the snow has melted and the weather is beautiful for a November in UT. I'm not even wearing my boots today!! I still do not have a testimony of wearing tights... I still refuse to wear them! I know I'll eventually have to when I get to Romania, or else I might die or get frostbite.... but for now I'm enjoying the pleasant weather.

Romanian Mishaps - I’ve actually been doing very well this week! I had one accidental slip on last Saturday however. I was teaching "Andrei" who is portrayed by Fratele Vizante... the real Romanian teacher... as in he is from Bucharest... so he speaks suuuuuuuuper fast, but anyway I was teaching him, and I was trying to tell him how if he'd except our message he's have a lasting happiness.... accidentally told him he'd have lasting pain.... OOPS! haha but then I realized what I'd said and I corrected myself, but it was really funny. But I didn’t feel too bad cos right after that Elder Criscenti told him that we still believe in polygamy and after his mission he'd be able to have more than one wife.... a fost haios!! (It was funny!!) hahaha I was like NUUUUUUUU!!!!!! Elder Criscenti had totally misunderstood what we were talking about. He thought we were just talking about marriage in general, whereas Andrei had actually asked us about polygamy Oooops!

New Soras - The new Romanians arrived this week!! Bobocii!!! :) they’re so cute and scared and freaking out but they're amazing and they're all going to be wonderful missionaries. I'm companions with Sora Polatis! An awesome girl from Idaho. We get along great and even though I'm still a solo for class, she's my companion outside of class, so it's nice not to feel so alone. The other Soras are Sora Kelly and Sora Gerhartz both from New Jersey. They're both awesome! Then three new elders came in last week too for Romania. They’re also really great! The six of them are a strong district already! They all have different strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other.

I had a great experience on Sunday. In Relief Society I sat next to this random senior missionary, Sister Platts. She was so cute and told me this is her second mission and she will be going to Ecuador! She then proceeded to tell Sora Polatis and I the story of the loaves and the fishes where the apostles brought what they had but through Christ it was enough. She said how we are the same. We are inadequate and small and nothing in comparison to him, but if we bring ourselves to Christ then he will make it enough! Anyway I thought that was really cool! :D

I'm studying joy this week in the Book of Mormon. I was reading in 2 Nephi 2:25 about how the whole purpose of this life is to have joy and so I've decided to study joy, so please feel free to write me your thoughts, scriptures, talks, anything really about how we have true joy in this life!

I love being a missionary! Everyday I learn new things and do my best to put them into words in my journal, then each week I attempt to give you a taste of what I've been learning. But I love you all and I pray for you!

Keep the Faith!!

Sora Jessi Rivera

Week 5 or 6

OOPS

Hello everyone! I can't believe that It’s been 6 weeks in the MTC!! I have 2 weeks and 3 days left... but who's counting?? The new Romanians arrived yesterday!! 3 sisters and 3 elders. They're all so cute and adorable! For those of you who don’t know, in English, we call brand new missionaries "greenies" in Romanian we call them ducklings!! hehee the word is "boboci" pronounced like bo-boch :D hehee so the ducklings arrived and they’re so sweet and nice and I really like the girls already, I've barely spoken to the elders yet so maybe by next week I'll have a better update for you on them but for now... just know that the girls are great and I finally don't feel quite as alone! :)

Elder Cristie & Me!

I find it amusing how the better I get at Romanian, and according to my teachers I speak wonderfully... I have a feeling they’re just being supportive but it's nice to hear just the same... but anyway the better I get at Romanian... the bigger my language mess ups become. I swore at my teacher in Romanian this week half way through a lesson.. OPA! It was a complete accident but still he burst out laughing and said after a year of working at the MTC I'm the first missionary to have done that... oopss My bad! Ah well, overall I'm improving a lot, the Lord is definitely blessing me! Reading in Romanian is still really difficult but if I take my time, I can usually get my ideas across in Romanian. I've also started to get to the point where my English is declining and I have permanently replaced Prophet to be profit and Nephi to be Nefi, and God is Dumnezeu... even when I'm speaking English haha :) oh but also on the bright side I learned to quote Moaning Murtle in Romanian this weeks... oh the small things that delight a sister missionary

So when you’ve been at the MTC for 6 weeks you start to feel like a 30 year old in a singles ward. you're that guy ;) the one everyone knows, the old one who knows the rules, the schedule, you admire them, but at the same time they just seem so old and weird! yeah... so that's me now! haha

This week, in the Book of Mormon I'm still working through 1 and 2 Nefi, I've going to be studying gratitude. I think it's a huge important topic. If you thank the Lord, and you are grateful you've more likely to be happy, you can't expect to be blessed and happy first.. Then you can say thank you! So yes anyway... if you care to dear elder me your thoughts on gratitude... that'll be much appreciated! And I'll be grateful hahha ;) get it??!! oh wow I'm such a missionary

I had many wonderful experiences this week! I think I told you last week about my experience with my investigator Dana, about how she was unemployed and about to be thrown out on the street... well just as an update... she found a job and the Lord blessed her... it's so cool cos even though these investigators aren't real, the teachers use the real experiences that the investigator actually had so it's cool to relive the experience of the real Dana and the missionaries. Also we got a new investigator Traian, because Gheorghe was baptized and even though in real life the missionaries would continue to teach them, here at the MTC we just get a new investigator. The real person he is based on is a girl named Alexandra. But anyway Traian is far more difficult than Gheorghe. He's Agnostic, and he is angry with God but he’s not really sure if there is a god... but anyway we had a wonderful lesson yesterday and the spirit was sooo strong! and afterwards we had a class study session just completely focusing on the Atonement. And it's just amazing to think that Jesus Christ not only took upon him our sins, but also all of our trials, our suffering... everything! He completely understands everything we go through... wow! He's amazing! Check out Alma 7:11-13 :)

Anyway got to go... 

Love you all! Thank you for your love and support and prayers! I send the same love and support and prayers right back at you! :)

Keep the Faith

Sora Rivera

Week 4!

TIME GOES BY

Hello world!! So this week was my half way week in the MTC!! yaaaay!! People say wow time flies... I disagree... time is just time... I don't feel like time is rushing by, occasionally in the MTC there are slow days and fast days, but I have to disagree with the statement that the weeks fly by... they don’t, they’re just weeks :) haha

I made another Romanian mistake yesterday morning... and I know when I'm reading missionary emails I like to hear about them so here it goes... so apparently the verb for "to appear" and "to defend" are very similar in Romanian. So yeah... you can imagine how when I was retelling the First Vision... I made a mistake. No no no... God the Father and Jesus Christ did not defend themselves against Joseph Smith, they appeared to Joseph Smith... hahah my teacher had a good laugh about that one. :P

My Two Companions going to Sweden: Stripey Sister Robbins, & Sister Merrill

I had an awesome experience yesterday that I'd love to share. I went to teach my investigation Dana. My teacher Sora Whiting plays her, and I teach with Sora Wilson as my companion..., which basically means that Sora Wilson just sits there, and only speaks when I ask her to haha. So anyway I went in to the lesson and asked her if she'd been to Church last Sunday. She admitted no, because she was looking for work. Her family is about to get kicked out of their apartment onto the street, and she has a 7 year old son called Cristi. Well at this point my heart was to break! She then asked us if we'd be able to take Cristi for a couple days just until her and her husband could get enough money to find an apartment. Well of course as missionaries we're not allowed to do that so I looked at Sora Wilson terrified hoping she'd come to my rescue, I whispered "I don’t understand" she said "yes you do" and I whispered back "no no I don't know what to say" she whispered back "yes you do"... but no... I wasn't been a scaredy cat... I really honestly didn’t know what to say... but I remembered the scripture where the Lord promises that if we open our mouths then the Lord will fill them. So I opened my mouth... I said " am credinta ca..." which means "I have faith that...." and all of a sudden I felt the spirit, I felt a peace come in to my heart and I just knew the direction I wanted to take the lesson. I began testifying to her of faith and the Lord's love for us. The words flowed beautifully and I'm pretty sure even my grammar was better than usual. The spirit was so strong and we were all close to tears.  I shared the scripture with her in 1 Nephi 3:7 where the Nefi tells us that the Lord will provide a way for us to accomplish his commandments. I testified to her that going to church was a commandment and would bless her life. The spirit then prompted me to promise her that she'd have enough money and she wouldn’t be homeless if she'd be obedient... that scared me! I resisted to tell her that at first.. what if it didn’t come true... but I have faith in the Lord... so I promised her that if she would come to church on Sunday then the Lord would bless her and she'd have enough money to pay her rent. The Lord always follows through on his promises so it was amazing to be involved in His work.

I've been reading in 1 Nephi this week, a lot about Nefi's faith and his experiences. I love the Book of Mormon and I don’t know if I can add to my testimony of it last week, except that I STILL know it's the word!

Overall my Romanian is slowly improving. I've studied a lot about my purpose as a missionary this last week, and how this is HIS work, HIS mission, HIS glory (Moses 1:39) and therefore this isn't MY mission at all. So every time I get discouraged in the language or in my teaching or any other trial... I feel hope because I know that this is His work and the Lord will qualify His servants. So through his help I can achieve whatever he asks me to do. So yeah I'm really working on trying to follow any prompting from the spirit... basically as long as it's a good thing... just do it! So I encourage you all to try to recognize the lords hand in your life, and recognise the spirit. So of course in order to have the spirit you need to be obedient to the commandments... so yeah do your best with that too :D haha I fail every single day... I make mistakes, but thank goodness, through Christ's atonement I can try try and try again to change :)

Thank you for your love and prayers. I pray for you, I think of you, and I thank the Lord for the the wonderful people in my life and his Tender Mercies. Keep the Faith!

Sora Jessi Rivera

Week 3

BUNA!!!!!!! :D Isn't my Romanian improving? :P So the amazing and wonderful district left on Monday at 5am to fly to Romania. I miss them soooo much!! I completely fell in love with that district. They have some amazing gifts and every single one of them taught me something different and brought me to Christ. Most of all I miss Sora Macdonald who was a gift from God!! I love her sooo much and I totally cried saying goodbye to her, we hope to serve together later in our missions but chances are we'll be training all the new missionaries. Apparently within the first two weeks after conference the amount of missionary applications per week increased by 471% They are expecting to have to open about 30 new missions next year!! How insane is that?!!! It's so exciting to be involved, right now as the Lord is hastening His work!! :D and I can truly testify that it is His work, His glory. I watched a fantastic video of a Devotional Elder Holland gave to the MTC a few years ago. It was a pounding pulpit vigorous talk, about how this is His work. He was also really funny and said how his wife's Avon lady is more persistent then some missionaries, and she’s just selling makeup. You'd think people teaching of salvation and eternal happiness could be a little more persistent than an Avon lady ha-ha. Funny image but so true! We have the best message of all, and that's why we’re bothering to leave our families for 18-24 months. If this gospel weren’t true, if I didn't know without any doubt that this is the one true church... well honestly I wouldn't have bothered coming. But I do know... so I'm here, and I'm loving it!

So since Sora left I had to have a new companion, so I was technically assigned to be with the girls in my room. They’re all going to visitors centers. Sister Stobbe is from uuummm somewhere in UT I think, I don’t remember and Sister Coplan is from Arizona. They’re both really nice. They’re my official on paper companions but that will change in a couple days because we have such different schedules starting next week because they start their visitor center training, The Swedish girls have the same schedule as me so they’ve been my adopted companions. Sister Kirsa Merril, from UT, going to Sweden... is so awesome! We’ve been friends for years and she went to Romania on the BYU internship so its great to hang out with her a lot, and her companion is Sister Robbins who is also from Utah and going to Sweden and she's really great too. Since we have class in the same building and we live just down the hall from one another they’ve been dropping me off at class and taking me to meals. It's nice not to be completely alone but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss Sora like crazy, or my amazing district.

Elder Criscenti and I are doing well. We committed Gheorghe to a baptismal date. It was super exciting and our Romanian is improving and our teaching skills are improving. And although they’re not real investigators, they’re just our teachers pretending to be investigators it still feels real, we pray for them we plan for them we study the scriptures to find answers to their questions. We love them so much and they are real people, our teachers pretend to be investigators that they themselves taught when they were in Romania, so it'll be cool to meet these people when we get there, and see how accurate our teachers were ha-ha.

Elder C and I have a funny way of communicating, now that our Romanian is getting better we pretty much speak Romanian 100% of the time, in most classes according to our teachers they have parts of the lesson in English, just general study of the gospel, but they cant do that with us so it's cool to be progressing so well. But yeah its funny because I understand Elder C really well, now, even our teacher sometimes are like WHAT?? and have no idea what he’s saying cos they cant tell if he’s trying to speak rom, Italian or English, (usually its a mix) but I usually translate, and I've learnt to pick up on a few Italian phrases that he always says ha-ha.

My teachers are so amazing!! I could never survive the MTC without them. Especially since Sora left on Monday it was really hard but I had Sora Whiting that afternoon and then I've now started teaching a new investigator with one of the teachers Sora Wilson as my companion. Since the other district left, and the new district doesn’t come for another 3 weeks, these next 3 weeks, we get all 7 teachers!!! :D So Sora Wilson and I teach together some afternoons and Fratele Frandsen teaches with Elder C. The one problem with having a teacher as your companion is pretty much that  I end up teaching the whole lesson and she just bares her testimony at the end, or jumps in if I get into trouble. Like the other day I was teaching a guy to pray (the guy was Fratele Frandsen) and I taught him about the importance, bore my testimony and asked him to try. But apparently I'd forgotten to tell him to pray out loud because we knelt down and I just sat there hearing nothing until I looked up and he goes "Amin!" and smiled and in Romanian said "did I do okay???!" with a big smile on his face. Ha-ha but I hadn’t yet learnt the phrase "speak out loud" so I just starred horrified at Sora Wilson who came to my rescue. hahaha Fratele Frandsen did it on purpose cos he knew that I hadn't learnt it, but apparently that'll happen all the time in Romania unless I specify "Cu glas tare"  haha. ooops!

Also I was teaching Fratele Vizante (who is a real Romanian...yes that’s right straight from Romania!!) and I always get nervous teaching him because he speaks super super fast and uses grammar I've never heard haha, and I was teaching him to pray. I had said my testimony and showed him how and done everything right then I asked him if he'd try and he said No thanks, I don't want to" and he told me afterwards that apparently I looked like a deer in the headlights I was so shocked and surprised. Hahaha, but I talked him into it eventually and he gave a beautiful prayer haha, he just likes to make fun of me for being so scared haha. Oh interesting fact about Fratele Vizante... he served his mission in London South! He served in East Grinstead actually. He'll sometimes tell me stuff he misses about England.. mostly being Malteasers hahahah :D

Anyway I'm out of time, but I love you all and I promise I'm slowly working on replies to letters. Thanks you for your love and support and your prayers. One wonderful thing about the MTC is that you pray constantly, I haven’t even been able to count the number of times I pray... all day everyday pretty much, and all in Romanian haha :) but I pray for you :)

Oh I have a scripture you all need to look up Alma 26:11-12 :D I want to be a missionary like Ammon.

Keep the faith!! va iubesc

Sora Rivera