Chisinau and Conference

I love Moldova!

In Chisinau

I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows it! I'm in love with Moldova. Chisinau (pronounced Key-she-know) is absolutely amazing! The signs are all in both Russian and Romanian. The people all speak Russian and then a lot also speak Romanian. As you walk down the tree-lined streets of Chisinau, the people are usually chatting away in Russian, or Romanian with a thick Moldovan accent. It's fantastic! I was just loving it the whole time. I kinda felt like a boboaca again. Everything was brand new, the money, the language, even the transport. I went around like a crazy tourist taking photos of everything, and I bought the coolest Russian doll earrings, and a half size Russian doll for mum :D Sora bought a big fluffy Russian hat. It was awesome!

The church in Chisinau - check out the Russian sign on one side and the Romanian on the other

Us in Moldova

Domnul Cobeb - So on Thursday.... we'd stayed over night in Chisinau, and before heading back to Romania we of course had to go buy Russian dolls, hats, belts, bags etc. So there was 12 of us plus two of the missionaries serving in Chisinau as our guides.  The 14 of us had to stay together because our phones don't work in Moldova. We headed to the piata (market). It was huge!! Seriously enormous. It's this giant outdoor market/maze thing. It's a crazy maze of fruit sellers, and belt makers, and pretzel stands. We had a great time going through and finally finding the Russian hats. We then made our way down the street to find the Russian dolls. As we walked, all of a sudden one of the missionaries asks, "Where's Elder Cobabe?" We all looked around the group. ...there were only 13 of us. We lost Elder Cobabe!!!! We turn around, looking left right he was no where to be seen. Of course at this point Elder Ward, Sora and I (the only ones in the group with a sense of humor) burst out laughing!! We realized the last time we'd seen him was 40 minutes earlier back at the start of the piata. Half of us went back to the piata to see if we could find him. We searched and searched for about 2 hours, all the while, Sora, Elder ward and I were laughing and making up funny stories as to what was happening to our missing elder. Knowing Elder Cobabe, he probably hadn't even noticed the fact that he was missing. We started asking all the venders if they'd seen a young American-looking guy in a suit and tie. One woman said, "Try announcing his name over the loud speaker" So we run over to the administration building and had them announce it in Romanian over the loud speaker. We spelled his name out phonetically so the guy could read it. It was hilarious as we stood there, as if we're in the middle of Wal-Mart, "DOMNUL COBEB... your friends are waiting for you by the administration building". After nearly 4 hours of searching, he was eventually found. Turns out, he'd been looking at belts when we'd all accidentally left him.

Sora and I on my one year mark!

Year Mark - yay! one year on the mission! We went out to eat to celebrate. I had Apple pie.... it changed my life! Happy one year to meeeeeeee :D

Conferences - We had zone conference in Chisinau this week. It was absolutely wonderful. President Hill is always so inspired. My favorite quote from him was, "Tough missions make tough missionaries!" :D yeah! That's us!

Then this weekend, was General Conference. Again, absolutely wonderful! I only got to see half of it so far but I especially loved Elder Edward Dube's talk. He said, "It doesn't matter where you serve, it matters how". He was talking about "position/status" in the church but I also understood it as "where" quite literally as in the place where you are. So whether I'm in Iasi/ Constanta or hopefully one day Chisinau..... It doesn't really matter, it just matters what kind of missionary I am.

In Moldova

Russian & Romanian versions

Russian & Romanian versions 2

Andreea's Baptism in Constanta

Alright, have a great week everyone. We've got a busy week up ahead. It's transfer boards this Friday, I'm probably staying in Iasi, and Sora is probably leaving, but we'll see.

Keep the Faith!

Love Sora Rivera

p.s. The beautiful Andreea in Constanta was baptised this week!! She emailed me this photo from her baptism :)