Mini Miracles

SERVUS!!!! (thats a Hungarian greeting) It's fun being so far west and getting to learn occasional words and phrases in Hungarian. There's an amaaaazing couple in our branch, the Sebestyns, originally from Hungry. They're older maybe late 50s or early 60s. I just adore them! And Fratele Sebestyn is a huge man with a fluffy beard and only a few teeth and he just has the biggest heart! At the beginning of church every week as people come in the door you can just hear him saying Servus! Servus! to everyone :) I loves it!

I gave my first talk in Romanian yesterday! It was scarey! I decided to give it about the Book of Mormon. I spoke about how it is the Keystone of our religion adica (in other words) if we know the Book of Mormon is true then we know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this Church is true, and I also spoke about how through reading it we come closer to God, then I invited the whole branch to read in Cartea Lui Mormon in fiecare zi. I started thinking about the Book of Mormon for my talk subject because Sora Cook and I have been studying it a lot for our investigator, Elena. She's a 7th day Adventist, who knows the Bible inside out. She's not really progressing at the moment so we're thinking of having final lesson with her this week... the progressing or dropping lesson :( She's a wonderful wonderful woman! She loves God and she wants to follow his will but her pride is just too high at the moment. We know that the Book of Mormon is the key. If she reads it and prays about it with a sincere heart then she'll receive and answer for herself that it is the word of God, however she just doesn’t have an open heart right now. She admits it to be an inspired Book but refuses to accept anything accept the Bible. She then uses the Bible to explain that the Sabbath Day should be Saturday and brings up tons of different scriptures that we can't explain. Her intentions are good, she loves us and admires our testimonies, but sadly as of right now, she just isn't open to the receiving more of God's word into her heart. As we met with her last week I shared with her a scripture that perfectly describes her... 2 Nefi 29:8, that whole section reminds me of her. She's been a great learning experience for Sora Cook and I however, and we're grateful to be a part of her journey to find the truth even if right now she isn't ready to accept it. 

I've really been working hard to see the Lord's hand in my life everyday. For over a year now I've been writing daily in my journal, things that I'm grateful for, tender mercies of the Lord. It's just amazing to see how much the Lord loves and blesses us. Every time I understand just a little more of Romanian, or every time we're block knocking and someone doesn't slam the door in our faces, or we see a super cute puppy on the street and it makes us smile. If your eyes are open, and you quit murmuring about trials, or life's annoyances, then it's easy to see the miracles all around you. It's like the story in 2 Kings chapter 6, about Elisha and his servant and how the armies were coming against them, and Elisha tells his servant not to be afraid for more are with us than with them, and then he prays that his servant's eyes will be opened, then his servant is able to see that the hill is full of chariots of fire and armies to protect them. There are countless blessings and mini miracles in our lives everyday if we just open our eyes to them. 

Snow has been an example of a mini miracle... something I'm grateful for! It snowed like crazy on Saturday! The duvet of snow returned... however by Sunday night it was raining and washed the most of the snow away! It was super good snow however! Perfect for hitting elders with snowballs, and apparently even better for hitting Sister missionaries in the face with big piles of snow... or so I've heard. It's been fun to have snow again even if it was just for a few days. 

I got all my mail this week! YAY! In a few letters people kept asking me about Arad as a city and I guess I realized that I've never explained it except for saying I loves it... so Arad is a small city. By Tramvai it takes about 45 minutes or so across the city, maybe a little more. It's small but with lots and lots of people, all crammed into tall apartments blocs. In the center of town are some big churches, Orthodox, Catholic, baptist, pentecostal. etc. the Majority of people here are Orthodox. a lot are born into it, to be Romanian is to be orthodox and so when people change religions it's like turning your back on your culture. There's a MacDonalds (of course) right in the center of town, and there are 2 really awesome shopping malls. Theres beautiful old historical buildings right next to falling apart old ugly apartment blocks. The tramvais are typical trams running through the city, occasionally people throw up on them.... or people are drunk and sing to you... it's fun! This past week we've been block knocking a lot and have actually had some success. 

So now to tell you about Tina! This past week we set a baptismal date with an investigator, Tina. She is a 50(ish) year old woman. She started meeting with sister missionaries back in 2010, and missionaries haven't met with her since March last year, but we'd been praying for guidance and as we looked through our records in the Area Book we came across Tina. She had read lots of the Book of Mormon, come to church and supposedly knew the Church was true but for one reasons or another (including a husband who was very against the church) she never got baptised and stopped meeting with the missionaries. Sora Cook and I both felt prompted to call her, so I called her up and set up an appointment. For those of you who don't know, usually when you start teaching an investigator you start by talking about the restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but both of us felt strongly prompted by the spirit to teach about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end (5 pas) and then focusing the lesson on Baptism through correct authority. So we arrive and had our lesson... it was amazing! She starts out by telling us that that morning she'd been reading in 2 Nefi 31. This chapter is all about baptism!! We had this fantastic lesson and she was so interested and we invited her to be baptised on the 9th of February and she said yes. She told us that her husband is still against churches in general but no as much as he used to be he's more neutral nowadays. She then told us that in the past she knew the Book of Mormon was true but didn't have the desire to be baptised but now she does. Then the most amazing part of all, she tells us that the other day she'd be praying to know what to do, what was her correct path, was is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or was it another church. And that same day... we called, and she knew that this was the true church! So that was an a amazing miracle this week! Please pray for Tina, pray for her husband to stay open minded. We know that she is ready for baptism. It was an amazing lesson! The spirit was teaching her. I've never felt more like an instrument in the Lord's hands. I was just there for the ride, Heavenly Father was just letting me observe this amazing woman's conversion. I love being a missionary!

That's all I have time for! The Church is sooo true! The Book of Mormon is the word of God!

Keep the Faith!

Love Sora Rivera

If you are fat, it must be God’s will

Hello all!! so I survived my first transfer in Romania!!! And guess what everyone??? the four of us are all staying in Arad!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! I was a little nervous since Sora Cook has been here for 5 transfers and this would be her 6th transfer in Arad = half of her entire mission spent in one city, so I was a little nervous that she'd get transferred but yaaaaaaay she's not going anywhere... and neither are our wonderful elders! YAY for the best district ever!! We went ice skating today. The weather here is still cold but not too bad. It tends to snow a little then melt from day to day. There hasn't been huge snow since before Christmas.

Skating with the Elders

Lessons and peoples.... This week, we had a few good lessons with potential new investigators. There was one lady who we found in our Area book. She'd been taught a few lessons about 3 years ago. We'd been praying, and thinking and reading in our Area Book (which is a folder with records of all the people taught). I felt prompted to call her, and so we had a lesson and it went really well. She's a super strong Christian with the utmost faith in the Bible and was really great to talk to and we had a good restoration lesson. She's having trouble accepting that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate people, and although we could give her a huge list of Scriptures that clearly show they are separate people (although one in purpose) we know that the best way for her to accept it is to accept the Restored Gospel, the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet. If the Book of Mormon is true, then that means Joseph Smith was a prophet and he did indeed see God the Father and Jesus Christ as separate people. We have another lesson with her tomorrow, so fingers crossed. We also had a lesson with a man and his wife whom we found through the Area Book. The record indicated the most perfect golden investigator, who read the Book of Mormon in one night and committed to be baptised, but then the record just stopped. So we met with Him and his wife. They were very nice but not interested in Eternal Salvation... jk... the wife was content and happy with her life, and although the husband knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God he doesn't really care, and is more concerned with running a retirement home from his backyard. He says if the church will fund his retirement home then he'll join. So yeah... you meet lots of interesting people on a mission. 

Yay for skating!

If you are fat, it's God's will.... Sora Cook and I have been exercising outside everyday. We have skipping ropes and we play hymns on our iPod speakers as we jump, or do lunges or tricep dips on the benches. One morning this past week, our orthodox neighbour, Maria, who loves to write out prayers for our salvation, came outside at 6.45am to tell us that what we were doing was not Biblical, it's just not in the bible. She said that she is fat because God wants her to be fat and there's nothing she can do to change that! .....  hahaha she's really nice though, we just nodded and smiled and told her we understood but we were gona do it anyway. She then brought us a creepy orthodox picture of Jesus later that morning. So yes, good to know... if you're fat it's God's will!

Talking next week!!!!!! Yikes, so I'm giving a talk in sacrament next week. I'm really really nervous. I love giving talks in English... but Romanian??? blaaaagh! I'm nervous. I think I'm going to end up writing it all out then having the Elders and Sora Cook help me to translate it. I can speak on whatever I feel prompted to speak on. Sora Cook spoke yesterday, a wonderful talk about receiving revelation. I'm thinking of speaking on gratitude but I don't quite know yet. I recently read 'Murmur Not' by Neal A. Maxwell. It's a talk he gave in 1989 in a general conference. It's amazing and I highly recommend it. I printed it off and I've read it over and over again this week. And as I try to apply it in my life, I'm noticing far more blessings. I'm thinking of using a few quotes from it in my talk.. but we'll see, I'll let you all know how it goes next week! 

Weird starring man with a moustache... So yesterday at the Tramvai stop there was this man. He had a moustache, and he was starring at us. So, a little creeped out, we went walked away. He followed us a bit and continued to stare. We stood behind the shelter and he stood on the other side. We had lost sight of him by this point so wondering where he was we peeped our head around the shelter and boom he was there. Weird. we continued talking, and waiting for the Tramvai. The moustache man was still behind the shelter. I then tried to peep around and BOOM all of a sudden I'm standing face to face with the moustache man just starring at him as he starred back at me. "Ceau" I said. "Ceau" He said back. We continued to stare, meanwhile Sora Cook's busting up laughing at the awkwardness. "Cum sunteti?" (how are you?) I asked. "bine, si dumneavoastra?" (fine, and you?) He replied. "bine" (fine) I said..... We continued to stare at one another. We then went into a slightly awkward conversation about who we were, as missionaries that we were on our way to the Retirement home, and I gave him a pass along card with mormonii.ro on it. Hahah It was strange. 

The Elders don't like dogs... Long story short, a giant bear sized dog lives at the Retirement Home where we go and sing every week for service. And the bear sized dog must be able to smell Elder Benson's fear because it was growling super loud and then it would wag it's tail and let Sora Cook and I met it, then it'd turn to Elder Benson and growl. I like him, he's a giant fully dog.. I think part wolf, or grizzly, or both, but I like him. Elder Benson and Elder Groberg have been trying to find other places in Arad where we can do service because they hate the dog so much. Silly elders, He growls probably because he knows that they hate him. 

Well that's all I have time for this week. I love this Chruch! and I know that it is the only Church upon the earth that has the true Priesthood authority of God. I know that Christ is the head of this church. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a living prophet upon the earth today. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God alongside the bible. Recently I've been reading at the end of Mosiah. I just know with every fiber of my soul that the Book of Mormon is true! I love this work! 

Keep the Faith

Love Sora Rivera

Another...Not so Boring Week

So I don't think I've told you before, but often, especially old people, Romanians as they say good bye they'll say "health, peace, blessings for you, blessings for you family... etc..." They'll just go off on a rant of all the blessings they wish upon you. It's really cute! And I kinda wish they did that in English! The other day Sora Krista, an amazing member in the branch, wished upon me and Sora Cook, health, blessings, and rich intelligent and handsome husbands :) fingers crossed hey? :D

La Multi Ani!!! :D i.e. Happy New Year!!! Happy 2013!!! For New Years, we played games at the villa we use for church until 11.30pm, then we waled to Centru and watched the fireworks. And YES, we had permission from President Hill, we were then allowed to sleep in until 8am the next day :) We played Monopoly Deal and Settlers of Catan in Romanian. we = Sora Cook and I and the 2 Elders. It was really fun! Then the fireworks were in the center of town, it was really cool! And oh it was so cute, there was this tiny girl on her Dad's shoulders who exclaimed after every single firework "O Tati, a fost cel mai super!!" meaning "Oh Daddy, that was the best one!" hehe it was so adorable.

Paintballing for the first time!

This week has been a little crazy with ups and downs. A lot of people still are out of town until the end of this week. Kids here don't go back to school until Jan 14th/15th so a lot of families just leave the city for the Holidays. We did a lot of work on our Area Book though. Finding potentials. In just one night we set up three lessons. The Area Book, for those of you who don't know, is where we keep all the records of people taught. Some missionaries have been useless at keeping records which has been frustrating. One such example was an elderly man named Gheorghe who'd had a dream where a man in white told him to listen to the missionaries. He met the missionaries and stayed up all night reading the Book of Mormon and finished it. He then came to church and committed to be baptised the following day. But then.... that's all that's written on his record! Nothing else! What happened to the guy? Did he move? Did he back out? Did they even meet with him again? ....So after reading his record I called him and he gave me his address and said we could come visit... so we're going to go this week and find out what happened. Both Sora Cook and I have really gained a stronger testimony of record keeping throughout this week. It's like with the Pioneers. They planted seeds so that the pioneers on the trail behind them would be able to harvest the crops. The pioneers planting weren't able to make use of the crops but the pioneers after them were! So we're making good use of our Area book! The seeds left by previous missionaries may have grown and these people are now prepared to receive the truth. So we are prayerfully searching and finding people. We are also making sure we keep good records of everyone whom we teach, so that if they aren't ready right now, future missionaries can have records of the "seeds" we plant. 

Have any of you ever watched "The District" or "The District 2" ?? It's where they went around filming missionaries in their day to day lives. Especially the first district, is really funny and pretty unbelievable. Sora Cook and I were watching some this week and realized how hilarious "The District, Arad Romanian style" would be. As we watch it, sometimes we are envious of how simple their lives seem in that video. Having lessons not cancel, Not eating chicken heads etc. However, we are SO grateful to be here in Romania. I mean how boring would our emails home be, if we ate normal food, and didn't get yelled at all the time, and weren't freezing cold in the snow everyday, and if people didn’t throw up on the Tramvai as we tried to contact them, or if our investigators didn't want to meditate in the middle of our lessons... I mean... How boring? :)

I went paint balling today for the first time!! It was so fun... I'll send a few picture of me in the gear, The Paintball man is going to email us the action pictures he took so I'll send them next week hopefully. We had a zone Pday, where all the elders in the zone came here to Arad. The only other sisters in the zone didn't want to come, so it was Sora Cook and I and 11 Elders. We went to this big empty building place where this guy runs a paint balling place and it was super fun! and It was really funny, because I was so scared of getting hit that I'd spend most of my time in the games just hiding, then occasionally shooting people from behind. Since I hid, most of the time they didn't know where I was and then I'd pop out and shoot them from behind. Yay! Fun Pday!! :D

So we went to visit a less active family in our branch this past Saturday. They are the same family to whom we brought Christmas Presents. The Relief Society president told us that they hadn't eaten in a few days so we brought them a few groceries. It was so sad to see the terrible conditions in which they live. The children are so skinny, where they all are! They really have nothing. It was so sad! The kids are so precious. I sat and took turns reading the Book of Mormon with the little boy Seby. He is almost 9 years old, super smart, and just the happiest and sweetest little boy. He was helping me to pronounce my Romanian words better! Then I also read with the little girl Alexandra. She's nearly 10 years old and just an angel! She's a really good helper for her Mum, and just loves the sister missionaries. It was really hard to see their living conditions, but I was grateful that we could visit and show them some love. 

Okay... this next story, I don't mean in a way to scare you Dad, (or Colin, or anyone else who's prone to worrying). So this past saturday Sora Cook and I were completely protected by the Spirit. We were running a little late for our bus, so we decided to take a Taxi to the bus stop (which was across town), instead of taking the Tramvai. As we walked to the Taxi stop, both Sora Cook and I had a little thought, "skip the first taxi". It wasn't a big warning sign, or anything, it was just a little thought to skip the first one in the line. But both of us thinking we were being silly and paranoid didn't say anything and just went to the first taxi anyway. We opened the door and climbed in and Sora Cook told him our destination. The moment I sat down I felt something was wrong. He turned around and stared at us as though he was insane! He just stared. He then turned around to turn the car on, and just stopped and turned back to stare at us. The most awful feeling came over me as I saw his radio was unplugged, and just the most terrible look in his face. I saw that Sora Cook had the same feeling. "Get out! Get out!" I said to her, she tried to open the door but it was locked! The Taxi was doors were on child-lock. So in a moment of inspiration, Sora Cook rolled down the window and opened the door from the outside, and we booked it out of there! We immediately talked about it, and both of us had had the same feelings. That man was planning something, something evil, we don't know what it was, but we know for a fact that the Spirit restrained him. I don't mean this experience to scare you. It was really testimony building and we have been praying in gratitude ever since. I am just so grateful that we were worthy to have the Spirit with us, and that our Heavenly Father protected us. We have also decided not to take Taxis unless we are with the Elders from now on, and we are also going to listen to every little thought, even if it seems silly. But yes... we are safe, we are fine! We told our Elders about it, and both agreed that the Lord had protected us and they insist on being with us in Taxis from now on. 

Oh there is the cutest most adorable old lady in our branch! She's just moved here from Brasov, was baptised 6 years ago. When the missionaries first asked her to be baptised she told them she was too old, but they told her that was even more reason to do it, and if the Lord had blessed the missionaries to come into her life and for her to receive an answer to her prayers that this was the true church, then she was obligated to be baptised! Oh she is just so cute! She went to the temple 4 years ago. She just loves the Church and loves the Book of Mormon, and the Temple! She's got this really cute little old lady voice, and walks really slow and I just love her. Her name is Sora Matei! One greeting that people say, young people usually say it to older people, means "kiss the hand" so I always say it to Sora Matei because it's very respectful and just so adorable. I love her! ...In case you couldn't tell.

Okay that's all I have for this week! I love this work! The gospel is so true! I just love sharing it with people! I love Arad, and I love Sora Cook, and fingers crossed we'll be together here, next transfer. 

Thanks for your love, prayers and support!

Keep the Faith!

Love Sora Rivera

Syrup Burns!

Oh wow... this week has been long! It started last p-day... Christmas Eve. We went shopping for gifts for a family in the branch. They're very poor. 3 children and the parents live in a tiny one-roomed shack. We bought them toys, and food for Christmas. So Christmas Eve, a friend of the missionaries, who I'll just call "G" drove Sora Cook and I and the Elders out to the family's home so we could drop off the presents. Then afterwards G was like, "Okay, so now where are we going?" and thus began our Christmas Ever adventures. He drove the 4 of us, (like a maniac) all around the city, singing to members and also random friends. At one point we turned up at an apartment. We kept asking where we were but he wouldn't say. We caroled to them and they invited us in, they then fed us a 3 course meal, and then we left.... Yeah we still don't know who they were or how G knows them. So our Christmas eve was extremely adventurous!

Christmas day was great! We had permission from President Hill to do a district breakfast at the Elder's apartment. So we went over and made eggs and bacon and pancakes. for some reason Elder Groberg had the bright idea to heat up the maple syrup... yeah, it boiled over and caught fire. But don't fear, no one was hurt! :) and the smoke alarm eventually stopped, or perhaps it ran out of batteries :P Just kidding (Dad stop freaking out). Then we paid a random bald man to drive us to Timisoara where we had dinner with the Senior couple and the 6 missionaries in that city and we Skyped our families. So all in all... typical christmas day :)

Advice: It's mainly for members of the church... but really for anyone who ever feeds missionaries. Don't feed them so much!!! :( If you offer food... we will eat it, just to be polite. Give us very little to eat, and if we want more, we will ask! Okay... everyone got it? Not yet??? Okay.. allow me to give a little story of what's been going on this week. So for the past week or so, we've been trying to visit and carol to, every member in the branch. 3-4 homes per evening. After we sing, they give us bread, and sarmale, and salad, and more bread, and sometimes soup until you're so full you feel like you're gonna throw up... then come the desserts! They bring out cakey things and expect us to eat 5-6 of them. When we ask if they want some too, they say oh no, we ate one earlier. Then after we eat all of that at apartment number one... we go visit another family and the same thing happens. It's really cute of them though. I love the branch. They just love and adore the missionaries, and they show their love in feeding us at Christmas until we pop! Most of them can't afford to feed us more often, so they go all out for Christmas. 

In spiritual news.... We have a new investigator!! Yay!! and we started working again with one of our old investigators. We have a new investigator named Adriana. I met her and got her number on a Tramvai a week or so before Christmas, but she'd been out of town. We had lunch with her and shared a lesson about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She is really funny, and open to us. She is very kind and has a beautiful singing voice. We discovered her singing talents because part way through our lesson after sharing a testimony about Christ, she said "Hai sa cantam" which means "let us sing" and she started singing. It was a little random, and a little funny but it was spiritual and she is looking for more light in her life. We also met with one of our old investigators and we have a lot of hope for her. Her name is Meli. She is 14 years old, the granddaughter of a less-active member. Her whole family is less active. She knows the church is true. But she is afraid to make the commitment of Baptism because she is afraid of making a mistake afterwards. She's so cute! and really believes in the Book of Mormon and is completely ready for baptism, we just need to help her recognize for herself that she is ready. Oh! we have a bunch of potential new investigators to meet with in the next couple weeks! Sora Cook and I are particularly hoping to teach families. We have 2 different potential families to start teaching. So keep us in your prayers, and that the hearts of the people in Arad will be opened.

There's a family in the branch, the Sfroni family. They are so cute!!! I know I say this every week but it's true! The members here are adorable! And the Sfroni family are no exception. They are all baptised, and they're working to save money for the temple. They just have one daughter, Laura. She's 9 years old, and has the cutest smile in the world! Her best friend, Alexa, is 11 and she wants to learn about the church. We had a lesson with Alexa and the Sfronis yesterday and this week we are hopefully going to have a lesson with her whole family. Alexa prayed yesterday with all of us and it was beautiful. She just was so sincere and bore her heart out to the Lord. Apparently Laura and Alexa pray together! What an awesome little missionary Laura is :) I love them!

Sorry this email is kinda short. The week between Christmas and New Years is quiet, as a lot of people are out of town visiting family. Sora Cook and I were also sick, so we've not been contacting as much as visiting less actives this week. It's more difficult to contact people on the street if you're losing your voice. Tonight... well, we don't really know what we're doing for New Years. So far all we have planned is Pizza. :)

I love the work! I love being a missionary! I know this Church is true! and I know Christ lives!

Keep the Faith

Sora Jessi Rivera