On the Up

As a warning... this email may seem a little all over the place. My brain is currently in that blaaah all over the place mood. It's possible because all I've eaten is 2 bars of chocolate today... but anyhoo...

Tina came to church again! And guess what?? I met her husband! This is a huge break through! The husband didn’t want her to stay for more than just the first hour, so after sacrament meeting Tina met with our branch president so that he could get to know her a bit. And then she hurried outside. Perfect! I thought! Her husband was clomping to pick her up. So I ran outside just in time to see a taxi pull up and a giant man step out of the back. "this is Miki!" Tina said, "And Miki, these are my beautiful girls!" He was very friendly and we shook hands and he had a great big smile on his face as we told him how much we love Tina. It was so cool! We were actually able to meet him. And... Tina has invited us over to have a lesson with the two of them tomorrow where we're going to speak about her baptism and ask for his permission for her to be baptised this weekend! I have prayed long and hard about this. I've poured my soul out to God on behalf of Tina, and I know that the Lord is in control. He knows and loves Tina and He has a plan for her. I sincerely hope and pray that His plan incudes her baptism this Friday, but if not I will have patience and faith in Him and His perfect timing.

Us with a dead cat

English classes... English has started up again. Sora DeRuvo and I went block knocking, contacting and we did just about everything we could possibly think of to raise awareness of the English classes and to invite people. And... we had a nice size class. 8 people came! Okay, I can hear the chuckles, for most cities, 8 people is a terrible turn out for English. Iasi, Cluji and Timi tend to get about 80-100 people... but 8 people for Arad is excellent! Go us! Last time, the most we ever got was 5 people and that only happened once. So 8 is a decent number and it was the Catholic Easter on the weekend and more people have promised to come next week. YAY! English is one of the largest sources of finding people in this mission. It's cool because we start and end each class with a prayer, and then at the end we have a spiritual thought and people are often naturally curious. Half the members in this country were found through English classes. We already have 2 potential investigators through just the first class. Yay! Things are looking up!

Random Baba wandered into the photo

Familia Sofroni... so my favourite family in the branch are this cute family called the Sofronis. Sadly, they want to move to England and Dani, the Dad, has already moved and is looking for work there. But on the bright side they want help learning English so twice a week my companion and I have been going to their house to teach them English. And, even cooler, they invite friends and neighbours over to learn English, and then afterwards we share a spiritual thought. So currently they have a 15 year old girl staying with them. Her name is Roxi, and sadly she's married to Sora Sofroni's 20 year old nephew and she's possibly pregnant.... but anyhoo, every time we've gone over, Roxi has been quite uninterested and quiet. She'll sit through the English lesson, and look around and play with her hair during the Spiritual thought. We gave her, her own book of Mormon, and tried to commit her to read a chapter and pray about it. She did not keep the commitment and still seemed very uninterested. Then on Saturday we had an English lesson and Roxi actually participated quite a bit. Then afterwards we read the chapter she was supposed to have read the Book of Mormon (Alma 32) and we talked about its message of Faith. I then shared my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon to change lives and to bring us closer to Christ. She listened but still didn’t seem too interested. But I was speaking to Laura, the 9 year old daughter of the family yesterday at Church, and she told me that Roxi actually read 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon by herself on Saturday night after we left! Amazing! Shows how much I know! The Spirit was working the whole time and she's starting to grow in her faith. We're hoping to speak about the First Vision and Joseph Smith next lesson. I love being a missionary and getting to watch the Spirit work in people's lives.

Last week we also had Zone Training meeting, which is at the start of every transfer. Sadly it was snowing super bad and Sora DeRuvo and I had been all the way out at Tina's house. Then because of the snow the Tramvais were late. The meeting started at 12pm and it was 1158 by the time the Tramvai came. We ran to the church and were about 20 minutes late! Ugh! So embarrassing. We ran in dripping wet to see the entire zone of missionaries, and the assistants, sat pleasantly around a big table. So embarrassing. Everyone then teased us since they'd all come from other cities and yet the only two people who were late were the two sisters who actually live in Arad... ugh typical! Silly weather! I'm sick of this snow and rain! Bring on spring and summer!

Anyway I love you all and I love Romania and I love being a missionary. This church is true. Our Lord and Saviour restored his true Church through Joseph Smith. I know God lives and I know he loves us. Happy Catholic Calendar Easter! (It's not Easter here until May 5th, because we go by the Orthodox calendar)

Love Sora Rivera