Chicken on the Tramvai

Ceau ceau!! This week has been a roller coaster...as usual! It's amazing to me how as a missionary you can be crying and heartbroken in the morning, then rejoicing and laughing by the afternoon. But this week I've again learnt a lot, and I continue to recognize the Lord's hand in my life as I take part in His work.

Fun on the Tramvai?

Random funnies... Sora Cook and I were on the Tramvai on the way to the church for our district meet on Thursday, when all of a sudden we hear a loud high pitched squeak. Sadly, it isn't too uncommon to hear strange noises on the Tramvai so at first we didn't think anything of it. Then it happens again. A loud, high pitched... this time more of a SQUAWK! I look up ahead and see a man, looking very nervous, fidgeting with a plastic bag. SQUAWK! It happens again. "There's an animal in that guy's bag!" I whispered to Sora Cook. "I think it's a bird." "No, it's just the Tramvai." She said, looking very confused. SQUAWK!!! It happened again. "Okay, or maybe that guy has a bird in his bag." We then arrived at our stop so purposely walked to the front exit, peering into the man's bag as we left. It was a chicken! The man had a chicken on the Tramvai. Probably was his dinner that night, but I don't like to think about that... I'm going to blissfully imagine that he now has a pet chicken named Gheorghe.

Another random funny moment…We were walking back form our Friday afternoon service project. The Elders were heading back to their apartment for lunch and Sora Cook and I were heading to a member's home, so we were all walking through Centru together, when all of a sudden this old lady in a trench coat and wooly hat grabs Elder Benson by the hand, exclaiming that he must be from England, and he needed to come and marry her daughter. She kept pointing at his blonde hair, and jumping for joys saying "Anglia!!" (England). Sora Cook, Elder Groberg and I were all busting up laughing. She then turns to me, and demands that I write down her address so that Elder Benson can come visit. Elder Groberg helpfully passed me a pencil and I scribbled down the address and Elder Benson continued to be baffled by the crazy lady. She then decided that he must be Prince William! and she was so excited she smacked him on the shoulder and cracked up laughing. By this point, we didn't think things could get any funnier/stranger... when we see one of our favorite crazy ladys in the city walking towards us. The first crazy lady is still yelling about how she's met prince William as the second lady walks past with her thick bottle glasses, and only two teeth saying "Ceau la voi, Mormonii!!" (Hi Mormons!!). Finally after a few more minutes of the first crazy lady making Elder Benson promise to come visit her daughter and give her blonde royal bloodline children, we were able to get away. I think missionaries attract crazy people. We're a magnet for them. Maybe it's the nametag... but either way crazy people seem to find us.

With Tina

Investigators..... We've had some great success with Tina this past week!! YAY! She's just doing wonderfully. When we finally met with her after she'd cancelled about 5 times she apologized and she said that she knew it was Satan trying to tempt her and distract her from her path to follow Christ. She recognized that when she doesn't meet with us she loses the Spirit in her life and she regrets it every time. She we met with her twice last week, and we have 4 lessons planned for this week. We've talked about the Plan of Salvation and about the Restoration. We also have a great lesson about prophets and we gave her a Liahona so she can read the latest conference talks. She is a perfect example of feasting on the words of Christ. She reads everyday from the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets we give her, and now from the Liahona. We're going to introduce the Doctrine and Covenants to her this week and I can just imagine her crying for joy when she hears that there's even more revelation and words of God to read! Oh she is just so cute! Sadly her husband still won't give permission for her baptism or for her to attend church. But we are praying constantly for his heart to be softened and we fasted for them yesterday. I know and have faith that his heart will be softened and that Tina will be baptized. I recognize though, that it will be on the Lord's timing so we must be patient and continue in faith. If the Lord can soften the heart of Pharaoh to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, if he can heal the raise the dead and heal the blind, if he can do other miracles such as appear to a 14 year-old boy, I know that he can soften the heart of a grumpy Hungarian man so that his wife can be baptized. We just have to be patient. 

Other investigators... Ramona is still progressing! YAY She's the one whom we met block-knocking. She is a young student, very kind and really open to meeting with us. We had short lessons about prayer, but she still won't pray in front of us. We're aiming to have a member in the lesson with her next week. One amazing thing about our tiny branch is that everyone is a convert! So everyone knows what it's like and remembers learning to pray out loud, or remembers their first time at church. So we're hoping by having a member there she'll have a friend and have someone to relate to. 
Another investigator is a super old man names Ioan Batrana. He is in his 70s and he started learning English through our English program a year ago! and wow is he good at English! He speaks better English than I do Romanian. His goal for learning it was so that he could speak to his 12 year-old granddaughter who lives in England. He came to church for the first time yesterday! and we're aiming to have another lesson with him soon. He's the cutest old man, and it just goes to show, that it's never too late to learn something new.

English... We started English classes this last week. They're okay. We contacted like crazy!! Giving our leaflets and advertising. Yet we don't have many students. The biggest problem is the location of the church. It's in a very bad area of the city. So although the building is super nice it's in a far away area, which is also not the safest part of town. We’re hoping to get the church moved into the centre of the city in the next few months. But we did have a few really nice brand new students turn up and a couple of them said they were interested in learning more about the church as well as learning English... fingers crossed!

Anyway that's about all the news I have this week. Sora Cook and I are just having a whale of a time here in Arad. We find ourselves laughing constantly. We also make homemade tortillas and make ourselves burritos almost everyday... not that you really care... it's just a random fun fact! :P

This work is incredible. I can't even express the joy in my heart as I see people begin to accept the true Gospel. I love being a missionary! I love this Church and I love the opportunity to testify of my Saviour everyday.

Keep the Faith!

Sora Rivera