Courage!

What a crazy week we've had! It's been so crazy up and down that I think I'll just give you a summary of each day:

Door knocking

MONDAY: After P-day on Monday, we got bunged (stood up) so we went contacting. We decided to talk to people about the plan of salvation. And all was going well. A lady started talking to us and mentioned how her husband had died a few years ago. So we started to testify to her about eternal families and how God has a plan for us. She seemed interested and Sora Polatis then asked her what she felt the purpose of life is. She then talked for about 15 minutes straight about families and something, then Sora opened the Book of Mormon and started to read Alma 34:32. Half way through the verse, a guy came out of nowhere and start yelling at us and the lady, saying we were of the Devil and if she talked to us she'd lose her soul. He yelled at us, he yelled at the lady for even speaking with us. We were speechless as soon as the guy walked away, we hesitantly began to read the verse again, and the lady was naturally weirded out and told us to leave. It was so sad! We never quite get used to the fact that everyone here hates us. We were really bummed. But, on the bright side as we walked home, close to tears, we walked into our bloc and one of our neighbours was also walking in to her apartment. We said hi as we walked past her door up the stairs to our apartment, then she turns to us and goes, "Do you want some chocolate?" Of course, we took it and it was delicious!! :D Yay for tender mercies!

TUESDAY: Every lesson was bunged, sad day.

Cleaning Corn

WEDNESDAY: It was transfer day. Every single missionary in the mission except for a couple of the Russian speakers went to Bucharest, every missionary that was, except for us. So we thought we'd do something fun. We decided to go la tara (out of the city). An elderly couple in the branch live there, and the branch president really wanted someone to visit them, so we jumped at the opportunity and planned it for Wednesday afternoon. We go there, and somehow ended up "cleaning corn" for 5 hours. The corn was dried out for over a year, then we took a metal claw thingy and we scraped off the dried corn into an enormous barrel so that it could later be grinded down. We scraped and scraped until our hands were about to fall off, then Grandpa Vitel would reach into the barrel and pull out more and more for us to do. "Courage!" He kept saying. Then he'd go around the corner and bring in another huge barrel of corn.

Sora Polatis cleaning corn

And to increase the randomness of the story, the couple were originally from the countryside of Moldova. So their accents were super thick and they used different words than we'd ever heard so we honestly felt like it was our first week in the country again where everyone speaks around you and you pick up on about 3 words every 5 minutes! 5 hours straight of barely understanding anything! What a day!

THURSDAY: English contacting all afternoon with the new district. It was super hot out so we went block knocking English contacting. Got a few doors in in the face. Not as good as the elders though, at one point this week they got chased out of a block by a guy with a spatula hahaha!

FRIDAY: 2 lessons!! YEAH!! We were super pumped. Only problem, we got completely lost for like 2 hours. The addresses make absolutely no sense here and the lady we were visiting kept telling us to look for the red car. The red car????!!!! There were like 30 red cars down that 5 mile street! Sigh.

SATURDAY: Weekly planning and no love contacting, as usual. But that's okay! We're keeping up on our tans!

SUNDAY: Amaaaazing day! So we met with Ritta. Our Jewish investigator! Ritta and Petre had brought their photo albums! They were super cute! We're completely in love with them. They seriously the cutest couple ever, despite the fact their in their 60s. So anyway, the lesson! Ritta now believes in Jesus Christ!!! YAY! She had a dream this week that convinced her that Jesus is the Christ, then on top of that, she read 3 Nephi 11 and it was confirmed to her. It was an amazing lesson. I can't even describe how sacred and special it was. To go from not believing in Christ and now she believes that Jesus really is the Messiah... amazing! Definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. We also set a baptismal date with her for the end of September. Ritta and Petre are going to Israel for a month, but we've spoken to President Hill and he said that if they have Skype then we can do Skype lessons. Never did I ever think that on my mission in Romania would I be teaching a Jewish woman in Israel. Seriously awesome!

Then, remember the guy who contacted us on the beach and asked us on dates?? Well, he came to church yesterday!! Hahah!! We thought it was soo funny! We couldn't believe that he actually came! He stayed for all three hours too and even volunteered in Sunday School to read a verse. Haha! Little miracles!

Well that's it for the week! These missions are insane, but so funny! And full of good stories!!! I love you all! I know this church is true! Keep the Faith!

Sora Rivera

Constanta again

Looking at the transfer list

I'm staying in Constanta!!! We found out transfers on Friday and Sora Polatis and I are both staying here in Constanta!!!!! I'm so excited! We were super nervous that I'd be transferred just because there are so many sisters that would be moving around. But it turns out that Sora Polatis and I were the two lucky ones who got to stay here by the beach! I kept joking around as I was leaving Arad, that I was heading to the beach for the whole summer! And so here I am! PERFECT! The Elders are switching it up a bit, but we're super excited for what this next transfer has in store. Sora and I were talking about it the other day, and we've realized that since tons of new sisters will very soon be coming into the mission, and we're some of the oldest, it means that this transfer is the calm before the storm! So we're going to make it the best transfer ever! :D Super pumped! And don't worry, we'll carry on taking photos like crazy ;)

Low hanging wires!

Last Monday, we had an interesting experience. We went to visit a lady whom we found in the Area Book. First off, it took us an hour to get there, simply because Romania directions are so crazy! The block numbers seem to go... C1, C2, P13, C6, A11, MZ 5 etc... yeah... so after walking around a great big lake, all the way down to the opposite side of town, and following the directions of multiple Romanians, we finally arrived at her home. [Side note]: When Romanians give directions it usually goes something like this:

Us: "Excuse me, do you know how to get to the Ciresc Restaurant?" 

Romanian: " Go straight ahead, turn right and ask someone else"

Its very kind of them to try even though they usually have no idea where to go. Ah well, we arrived! The lesson was okay. She believes the Book of Mormon is true and has read it multiple times, only problem is that she believes the Catholic Church is true and the great apostasy never took place. She also gave us coffee to drink and insisted it wasn't coffee. It's funny, how in just a matter of 2 weeks I've been given coffee twice! Sigh... Oh well! Mergem mai departe!

We have the coolest new investigator! She is Jewish! Adica, from Israel jewish! She's the wife of one of the members here. They got married about a year ago. He is the Romanian Christopher Walken Look-alike! Fur reals! I'll  take a picture with him this week! But anyway... she is so cool! And wants to be baptized. Only flaw is that whole not believing that Jesus is the Christ yet. But no worries! She has the desire to know and understand. We're super excited to be teaching her!

With Elena

We had the best branch activity on Saturday! We organized a minute to win it activity! Romanians are sooo funny, because they're a little reserved at first but if you ease them into the situation they get really enthusiastic! We played all sorts of hilarious games and everyone loved it. We played that one game where you start with a cookie on your forehead and you have to get it down into your mouth. Well our branch president, Alin, was like "gross, I don't wanna eat that after its been on my face.... Ugh that's impossible!" But his competitive side won out and he just had to have a go! Then he managed to be the first person to do it! He scrunched and screwed up his face and shook his head as we all cracked up laughing. Then plop! It goes straight in! He then munched the cookie, turned to everyone and yelled, "The church is true!!"  hahaha it was amazing :D

We had a random/funny experience this week. So there we were, 9.25 am. Not having the best day in the world. We were out sitting on the beach ... crying. Then this guy walks up and asks if we could take a picture of him. I guess we must've looked super confused because he was like, "Uhh? What's wrong?! It's just a photo" So anyway we took it and he then sits down next to us and proceeds to tell us his life story. We of course used the opportunity to teach him the restoration and the plan of salvation. He asked us to go on a date with him and his brother, we invited him to come to church and meet the elders :) Gotta love being a missionary. You know you're a missionary when a cute guy asks you out and the only thing you can think of saying is, "No thanks, have you heard about our church?!"

I wanted to share with you a little more about my mission here. This is something that President Hill shared with us last week in his weekly email. He usually does a question and answer session. This is one of them from last week:

Sora Polatis and Sora Lidia

“We've had another week with all zeros. Our lessons didn't work out and we weren't able to find any people that were interested in the truth yet, but we are still looking. Should we be worried about our low numbers?”


ANSWER (from President Hill): I'm so sorry that your planned lessons didn’t work out. That, unfortunately, happens a lot to missionaries--probably all over the world. Just one of the "occupational hazards" of our assignment! We just pick ourselves up off the floor of despair and move forward! I know you're trying so hard! And some weeks you don't even have any "Key Indicators" to report that except zeros! But, never fear, I was a Germany missionary and I fully understand the challenges of România/Moldova missionaries!! You never have to explain low numbers to me. I know you're working hard and often have "nothing to show" for your efforts--except those unreportable "touches" that might someday pay dividends. Just keep trying. Never give up. Never, ever give up!

This wasn't me, that week, but I certainly have had weeks with 100% zeros. in the past I just love how understanding our mission president is. This mission still has multiple branches with missionaries as Branch Presidents. Can you imagine? a little 19 year old as a branch president?! Seriously! We are still building the foundation for the church here. The church is growing, slowly and surely! And I can't wait to see the day, where the church begins to really thrive! This mission isn't about grand events! It's about the little acts, the seeds planted, and the small steps being taken.

With Sora Polatis

Alrighty frumoșilor! Vă iubesc pe voi! Sunteti minutați! știu ca Isus traiește!

mă iubiți!

Sora Riveră

The Fruit Of Our Labours

Scary Fridge: Before

Only in Romania.... so most people if they've heard of Romania, just think of Dracula. Well, this week, Sora and I cleaned out a fridge covered in blood. Allow me to elaborate. On Tuesday all of us missionaries and a couple members from the branch went to one of the member's homes to help him clean, cut wood, and do some yard work and stuffs. It turned out to be a bigger job then we'd expected. So we agreed to return on the Saturday after English. Sora and I had been inside cleaning and clearing out the old cabinets. It was disgustingly dirty. The member lives there with his mother who has Alzheimer's. On Saturday afternoon we returned and he asked if we'd clean out the fridge! "Of course!" we said. The eccentric grandma was wandering around telling us about her three granddaughters as we grabbed the cleaning supplies. A little puppy covered in fleas nipped out our shoes and we opened the fridge door. Sora and I couldn't believe it! There was blood, frozen blood, dripped and splattered all over the inside of the fridge. It seemed to have originally come from a huge piece of meat on the shelves. We asked the lady what the meat was. "I don't know" she said, a little confused, and opened the back to look, "Porc" she said proudly, and then went back to dusting the shelves happily. I don't know if it was porc, beef, or I don't even know... but whatever it was, it was disgusting! But anyhoo, we cleaned and scrubbed and the fridge was a beautiful sparkly white by the end. Don't worry we got some good photos and an even better video! And afterwards, the member from the branch was so grateful that he went to his plum trees and filled bags of plums for us to take home! We called them, the fruit of our labours! 

Scary Fridge: After

Chalk Contact with Random Pony

With the Elders

Also.... another random fact about the service project, one of the member's friends/relatives was sat in the corner the whole time making some sort of vodka/whisky. We invited him to church, but he said he wasn't interested and then proceeded to tell us many racist ideas and plans. One of the newer missionaries was there, kind of listening. He's still at the point in his mission where he doesn't understand much of what people say. As Sora and I sat listening the Nazi-Romanian, I kinda of wished I still didn't understand. Oh well... people just need Jesus! That’s all I can say! :D


I gave another talk yesterday! YAY! The topic was "being examples worthy to follow". I based the talk around the scripture from Romans 5:19 about obedience. It was really fun. I love giving talks! Especially in Romanian. It's excellent language study. Also this week, Sora and I finished Alma and Helaman in the Book of Mormon. We're trying to finish it by next Wednesday. One thing that Sora Polatis and I love is how much the Book of Mormon uses the word "astonished" It's sooo funny! It's everywhere! Have a look out for it as you're reading. I have the goal to read the entire standard works before the end of my mission too. Next transfer is New Testament! I'm very excited :)


We had a fun experience on Thursday. The Elders were on exchanges and the two trainees were put together. Elder Collison and Montoya. Collison has only been here 9 weeks and Montoya just 3 weeks. So we decided to take them chalk contacting. It's a really nice, fun and relaxed way to contact. Perfect, for newer missionaries. They're both still terrified to talk to people! But chalk contacting is easy because you draw out the whole plan of salvation on the ground and then explain it to people, and if you forget what to say, it's right there on the ground in front of you. They did amazing! At first they would barely say a word and would just point and the pictures I drew. But by the end they were stopping people and explaining the whole thing and inviting people to learn more! I remember that feeling, when I was new. Just fearing that people would say stuff and I wouldn't know what to say back. So it was sooo fun to help them to become more comfortable with contacting and to relax and enjoy mission work.


We had the coolest experience on Saturday evening. We were walking home from the church after correlation meeting. As we were coming up the street we saw a little old lady from our block standing in the middle of our street. Her name is stella, me and Sora Caruso met her back in May. She has pretty severe Parkinsons. We went up to her. "Hi Stella! How are you?!" I asked. "I need your help!" She said, in a panicked voice. She looked so scared. She took my arm and we very slowly crossed the street. "Are you heading home?" She asked. She was shaking very bad and could barely walk. "Yes!" We told her. And we began our long journey back to the block.  She'd gone for a walk in the park nearby and had been struggling to walk home for an hour. She had been praying for help and then boom! Heavenly Father sends two little missionaries to help her get home. It was soo cute! She told us about her life and the countries she'd visited. Everyone in the neighbourhood knew her and she told them all that we were her neighbours, helping her home. She lives with her daughter 2 floors below us. It was such a joy to be used by the Lord to serve her. I was filled with love for her! I thought about the scripture, love thy neighbour! Yes! That's why we're here. To love God, and to love our neighbour.

I love this work! This week is transfers, and I hope I get to stay in Constanta with Sora Polatis, but if not, I'll serve wherever he wants me to go. Love you all! Keep the Faith

Sora Rivera xx

Happy 4th of July and stuff

Buna Ziua Dragii Mei!

This week! Wow, I can hardly believe that's it's been a whole week already!

Making Pres Hill put on the Armour of God

Presentation: So this week in Zone Conference, Sora and I were asked to present again. This time, we were asked to present on English Contacting. 50% of the baptisms in this mission come from English classes, so it is vital that English classes are packed full. And since both Sor a Polatis and I find some presentations boring, we were determined to have fun with it. We took the Armour of God from DC 27 and changed it into the Armor of English Contacting! We took all the key points of how to be a good contactor and made it into the Armour. We then dressed up President Hill in colourful Armour that we'd made. It was so funny! President loved it! and so did all the missionaries. The entire zone conference halted in order for everyone to take photos!

Half the sisters in the mission at zone conference

Service: We had a super cool opportunity to do service last week. We'd set a goal to do a little extra service everyday: to constantly be on the look out for random acts of service that we could be performing. On Tuesday night we arrived in Buch for zone conference the next day. We got on the metro and headed towards the sisters apartment. There was a lady there, who had a giant bag on a teenie tiny trolley. They lady was a little older and was really struggling with all of the hundreds of stairs everywhere. We went over to help and she quickly told us no no. Then we continued and she got off at the same stop as us, where she was going to have to climb another huge set of stairs. Everyone was rushing past her even though she was clearly struggling. We went over and asked if we could help again. This time, she accepted and we carried the giant bags up the stairs. "Where are you from? What are you doing here?" She asked us. "We’re missionaries, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." We told her. "I knew it!" she said, "I knew you were with God. You're angels!" She thanked us, wished us health and then left. It was so cool, to help her out and to give her a good impression of the church and missionaries.

Our English class is soooo cute. They brought us flowers!

English Class: We've been continuing our English class with the little girls! They’re seriously adorable and improving very quickly. It's been so fun trying to come up with new games and creative ways to keep them entertained. They completely adore us too! On Saturday all four of them walked in, holding bouquets for us! I hope I can teach a family class every transfer for the rest of my mission!






Stuffs I learnt: We had a great zone conference! I couldn't possibly write everything that I learnt but I'll just share my favourite part which was the sisters meeting. Our Sister training leaders, Sora Cook and Sora Kelly, prepared the most beautiful meeting for us. We talked about the talk by Jeffrey R. Holland called "The Other Prodigal" (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2002/04/the-other-prodigal?lang=eng) It was perfect! It's an amazing talk about not comparing ourselves to others and also being happy for others. It was exactly what I needed to hear. It's really difficult sometimes to not compare myself to others, but this talk really changed my perspective.

Our awesome district: Sora Polatis, Elders: Cobabe, Collison, Montoya, Taylor

Branch Contacting: As I've stated in previous emails... this branch is soooooooo legit! We went contacting in centru with members of the branch this last Saturday Morning. We had a display up with photos of families and a giant Book of Mormon stand. We then sang and took turns contacting people on the street! It was sooo successful! We got a bunch of phone numbers and people really enjoyed the singing and people were, for the most part, saying really positive things about the church. Sora and I were in charge of the music. It was especially cool as we sand Hark all ye Nations in Romanian, and a bunch of different people came up to ask us what our church was all about. The members are so key in missionary work! If anything, this mission is preparing me to be the best member missionary ever!

Happy times with Sora Polatis

Investigator: We had an excellent lesson with Andreea on Saturday evening. she's been working tons so we've hardly been able to meet with her, even though she has a baptismal date. But we were finally able to catch up this Saturday and she's doing soooo solid! I love that girl. I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to be in Constanta in September but whoever is, will definitely be seeing a baptism. We went through the baptism interview questions with her and she was completely solid on all of them. My favourite was asking her if she believed Christ to be her saviour. She looked at me almost surprised, "I don't just believe," she said "I know!"

Me on the rocks

Little miracle: Last week, after internet, Sora Polatis felt prompted to invite the library lady to English class. The woman looked at the little flyer, shrugged and just put it on the desk. But a few days later apparently a man came in, speaking English, and the lady gave him the card. And now... he's being taught by the Elders and he came to church yesterday! How cool is that? He is from Iran originally but has lived in Sweden for like 20 years. He really enjoyed church. I hope he continues to progress. But either way, it was just another little reminder of how much God knows us and is in complete control!
Okay, I should best be on my way! I love you all! The church is true! Romanian rocks, despite their fears of air-conditioning...sigh. Keep the Faith!Sora Rivera

Photos from Constanta

Here are some extra photos, including the promised night gown photo, plus the promised dirty water photo...

Romanian Sun Splash?!

With the Young Women

From the Cookies Lesson

Dirty Water from our taps! Ick!

Elena, Andreea, & Elena's Little Sister Eva

Touching the Black Sea

Night gowns rule

Half Way

 Buna ziua!

With Sora Kelly in Constanta

Speaking of the weather! The summers here are quite fantastic! It's been super... almost unbearably hot! But now, today, and yesterday, there's been a huge storm! With flash floods, thunder, lightening! The whole works. It's a little awkward to show up to people's homes completely drenched, but at the same time, Romanians are amazingly hospitable people! They give you slippers and cardigans and all sorts to keep you warm! I really love it.

Tomorrow is my half way mark. I don't know about you all back home, but time for me is flying!!! Sora Polatis and I were laughing about it! Your life gradually starts to be completely taken over by your mission. You start to see the rest of your life in transfers. You say things such as, "I only have 3 transfers of school left". It’s very weird. A mission is a miniature life. You're born somewhere; you go on through to your midlife crisis, all the way through to your "death". A veil definitely comes over you. You begin to wonder what was I doing before this life? Where will I go after this life? What is my true purpose here? - all questions of the missionary soul. See you all in 9 months!! WOW!

With Sora Polatis

This week we were blessed to have a bunch of children and their parents show up to English class. We quickly decided that a children’s class was necessary so Sora Polatis and I did a little children's class with 4 little girls aged 6 - 12 and their mothers. It was sooo much fun! We taught them the basic introduction questions, name, age, brothers and sister etc. Then we play a bunch of games to help them practice. They loved it! The mothers really seemed to enjoy it too. We're really hoping that they'll come again tomorrow and we can try and arrange a lesson to teach them the gospel too! yay! So fun!

With Sora Kelly

Some of you have asked how Romanian is going? Well, I obviously have a long way to go still. I mean, it's the same with any language! I have a long way yet to go in just English, but I am pleased to say that Heavenly Father has really blessed me. Yesterday, after church I turned to Sora Polatis and I was like... "Isn't it so cool that we just understood all of that?!" :) It's truly awesome! And we've totally decided to be those really annoying RMs when we get home chatting it up in our language so that no one else can understand! :D I've discovered though, that I'm not very good at translating. The other week I was translating for one of the senior missionaries, and I kept forgetting which language I was speaking. The Relief Society president would say something and I'd just turn to Sora Powell (the senior missionary) and repeat it to her in Romanian and she'd look at me strangely. Sora Polatis, thankfully had my back and would just laugh and jump in, in English to help me out.

Update on investigators - Well, Andra dropped us, sadly. Alina is not progressing, she has a boyfriend, and isn't interested in baptism, sadly. Andreea has exams this week, but will be done on Friday! YAY! and she's just as wonderful as ever. And that's all we have right now.

We got to go La tara this week! YAY! That means out of the city. We went to visit some members who live out there. They had an out house and everything! Heehee it was so fun! It was a suuuper hot day, so I look kinda gross in the photos, but I don't really care! Yay for out in the countryside! :)

The Outhouse!

We also went to visit a family in the branch here. Constanta is a fantastic branch! We’re so blessed to have a bunch of families! We went to visit the Constantin family! They are a family with 3 little kids. A 4 year old boy, a 16 month old girl and a baby boy of 1 month! They're preparing to go through the temple this August to be sealed! They are an adorable family. Mihailis, the little boy took quite a liking to me and spent the entire time showing me every single game and toy he owned and all the different ways to play with them. He was also very proud of his brand new baby brother! "E fratiorul meu!!" (he is my little brother!) So adorable!! We did have one of those only in Romania moments at their house though. You know your in Romania when it's about 95 degrees in the house and they give you a hot drink. Sora and I were ready to keel over! Romanians think it's unhealthy to drink cold drinks. Got to love 'em!

I hope that you were all able to watch the broadcast, "The Work of Salvation". Wasn't it just fantastic?! I was blessed enough to watch it twice! Once in English, then again in Romanian. I love how the church is so focused on missionary work! It’s an amazing time to be a missionary. At the same time, it was also a huge humbling experience for me. Sora Polatis and I were both, a little saddened by the broadcast in that, the work here in Romania just doesn't seem to be taking off in the same way it is in other parts of the world. We were blessed though to read in Jacob chapter 5 this week. Verses 21-22 say:

21 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard.
22 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.

I read that. And I felt just like that servant! Lord, Romania is a poor spot of ground! and I felt the Lord say in response... I know! I know it is, but look, Counsel me not Sora Rivera, I'm taking care of it, it's brought forth much fruit and will yet bring forth more fruit.

I love this country. And it's my love for this country that sometimes make this mission so hard. But, I trust that the Lord knows what he's doing. I love this work! I love my mission! This church is true.

Keep the Faith!

Sora Rivera