Constanta... still a dream

Running on the beach

Constanta has to be the best place in the whole world!!! I know I keep saying this every week! I'm just soo grateful and I need to shout it out!! We are still running everyday on the beach. I keep finding cute fluffy puppies everywhere. Lidl the grocery store is having English week this week and selling Heinz Baked beans!! So yeah, I'm just loving life! I feel like I'm in a dream!

I love how many of my friends back home, and people all over the world seem to be "catching the wave" of missionary work. I love it! How cool? I remember on the plane from the states to Amsterdam on the way here, I was sitting next to a guy and I made it a goal that I would give him a mormon.org card. Goodness, I was so nervous. I talked to him for a good chunk of the flight then right as we were landing, I still hadn't given him the card. I said prayers for Heavenly Father to help me, and I was seriously so nervous. But right as the plane taxied in I gave him the card and told him about the website. I remember I was so proud of myself! Now, my confidence has really grown and I talk to people here, there and everywhere about the Gospel in another language, nonetheless, but the truth is that as long as we are doing our best, and trying to push ourselves out of our comfort zone then the Lord with bless us and help us know what to do and say.

Investigators... Andreea is doing wonderful, as always. She was out of town this past week for a few days, but she'll be back today and we're meeting with her Friday. I seriously missed that girl!

View from our window

We had a super amazing experience with our investigator, Lucretia, this past week. She is the mother of a young man from the branch, Gabi. Gabi, has to be one of the most legit people I've ever met. He found the church through English, a few years ago, and now he is about to go on a mission. He had his last interview with President Hill on Friday! Gabi really exemplifies what it means to be converted unto the Lord. Gabi's Mother, Lucretia, has never been very interested, nor opposed to the church. She comes from humble circumstances and has a lot of trials in her life and in the past hasn't been able to see how the Gospel could help, but last Sunday, she came to church completely out of the blue, so we set up a lesson with her and Gabi. We taught her about the restoration and the lesson went beautiful. Gabi testified to his mum with the Spirit, and such power! She told us that she wants to change her life. We were able to testify to her that through Christ, she really can change. Lucretia also said her first out loud prayer, using her own words. I decided to just go ahead and ask her to pray and if she was hesitant than I was planning to help her, but she said okay and said a perfect beautiful prayer. Gabi, was completely shocked and after saying Amin, he looked wide-eyed at us and said "wow!" I think one of my favourite things about being a missionary is teaching others to pray and getting to witness their first prayers. Their very first spoken conversations with their Father in Heaven.

So we currently have 5 investigators! 5!!! Say whaaattt??? I know right?! I've never had so many investigators before. So there's the two I've already explained, Andreea and Lucretia, and then there are three young women named Alina.

Alina 1 - is 19, found bus contacting about English. This Alina is quite tall so we've nick named her Tall Alina. She is quite open and has started to say her own prayers and is reading the Book of Mormon. Last week we invited her to read Alma 32 and she loved it! We were also able to have a lesson with Alina and Elena, a recent convert who is also 19. Elena was a great help and testified to her strongly about comign t church! I just love lessons with members! They're so key!

chalk contacting with the Elders

Alina 2 - Nicknamed, little Alina, because she's just a little tiny thing! She is 24 years old and just finishing a masters. We found her through English, she's in the beginners class. Last Tuesday, during the spiritual thought of English classes we explained why the Book of Mormon is so important and what it means to us and then invited our students to take a copy and meet with us. One student who came to get a Book of Mormon was little Alina. We agreed that after English class on Saturday we would meet and talk more about it, and we asked her if she'd read the introduction of the Book of Mormon before Saturday. So Saturday roles around... after English we went and sat in one of the classrooms with Alina and started to get to know her a little better. Then we pull out a Book of Mormon to begin the lesson and she pulls out her Book of Mormon from her bag, along with a folder with a page and a half of notes that she took after reading the introduction! It was soo cool. She just lit up inside and smiled as she talked about all the things she learnt and how excited she was to meet with us! It was soo cool!

Alina 3 - Nicknamed Backpack Alina, because she has a bright red backpack. We met with backpack Alina for the first time yesterday. She is in the intermediate English class and was curious about what we are doing here in Romania so we set up the lesson to talk with her about what we do. She is 24 years old, living here in Constanta with her boyfriend. She is looking for ways to improve her life and is really open to learning about other churches. We also mentioned Mariana, who is the branch president's wife and Alina was really excited and she asked us if Mariana could come to the next lesson! Alina is soooo cute! She said she doesn't really have many friends in Constanta and would really love to get to know more people. Well perfect! We told her, there are many great people here at our church! We're meeting with her again on Wednesday. The spirit was super strong in the lesson. The Lord has really blessed us with opportunities to meet prepared people.

I'm so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this week! The work is going well, and the Lord is pouring out blessings and opportunities for us to teach. So, we're doing our absolute best to show Him our gratitude and make use of all of the opportunities.

I wrote like 8 letters in the past week, and I'll be buying stamps this week, so everyone who has written should be receiving a reply soon :)

Thanks for your love and support!

Keep the faith!

Sora Rivera