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