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