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| Me and Some penguin friends |
Arad
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| Me outside Pizza Ok in Arad after 12 hours of travel |
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| Me and Sora Adams |
I got to go back to Arad this week.... but it was a little rough
getting there. Our train was supposed to leave at 11.45 pm Sunday night, long
story short, we missed our train and ended up taking the day train at 5.45am
instead. It was rough! But we finally arrived. I went on the exchanges with
Sora Adams. She is so completely wonderful! We had a very very long day of
nothing but contacting in the freezing cold weather. We found absolutely
nobody, and had a great time doing it! I felt that sentence come alive from
PMG, that says something along the lines of, you may be disappointed with the
choices of others, but you will not be disappointed in your self. Sora Adams
and I walked all day long, and talked all day long. The only person who stopped
to talk to us was a creepy guy who fell in love with me.
Timisoara
The day after Arad we went to Timisoara and I went on the exchange
with Sora Hebdon.
She's a really hard working missionary. We got bunged twice, normal,
but thankfully we were lucky enough to have a lesson with a woman from Nigeria.
She was sooo cool! The elders had found her bloc knocking and had referred her
to the sisters. She has a strong faith in Christ and was very interested to
hear about "our book". We had a cool introductory lesson, getting to
know her. I felt so inspired by the lesson. I'm looking forward to hearing how
she progresses.
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| Me and Sora Hebdon |
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| Panduri Chapel |
Bucharest
So far, Buch is great! It's crazy busy, and I'm not as fan of that,
but I really enjoy that there are always people to talk to and things to do.
The branch is also really cool. It's my first time having a chapel in this
country. There are many members, only about 50 are active, but we're trying to
use the Christmas season to our advantage. We also have a great district. Sora
and I have been working really hard, talking to many people, and getting to
know the members. We have a couple investigators who aren't currently
progressing, but hopefully that'll change this week. The branch president
really likes me already, so things are looking promising. This branch has had a
rough history with forming good relationships between members and missionaries,
so hopefully that should change soon. :)
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| My new view in Bucharest .. >:[ not quite as pretty as Iasi or Constanta |
Zone Conference
We had the Christmas zone conference on Friday. It was really fun
and very inspired. The assistants gave a beautiful presentation about Grace,
the food was great, the scarf/ tie exchange between all the missionaries was
super funny. I got a cool, grey, infinity scarf :) The Christmas slideshow was
hilarious! With hundreds of pictures of the people I love!
The dying testimonies were wonderful as always. (Dying =
missionaries leaving their mission). It was weird though because so many of the
missionaries leaving are some of my best friends in the mission. I really
enjoyed Elder Ward's testimony, he talked about understanding, and how so often
as missionaries we are searching for understanding: why don't things go the way
we think they should/ want them too. But the truth is, that we can't
understand, because God's ways are not our ways. He put it a lot better than
I'm explaining it, but trust me, it was good.
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| The Sister Training Leaders: From left to right: Sora Heim, Me, Soras Polatis, Lund, DeRuvo and Stapely |
We found out that the new Romania/Moldova Mission President,
starting this July, will be President Ivory. He and his wife are pretty young,
they even have a ten year old son who'll be coming to Romania with them. It
seems so weird to think of a different mission president here, but he seems
great, and he spoke with President Uchtdorf recently who told him that Romania
and Moldova are at a tipping point, in terms of the church. :)
My favourite part of zone conference, was President Hill's short
presentation at the very end. He shared with us the verses from chapter 1 of 3
Nephi. How everyone had been looking forward to the coming of Christ, yet, the
people were persecuted.
7 And
it came to pass that they did make a great uproar throughout the land; and the
people who believed began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things
which had been spoken might not come to pass.
8 But
behold, they did watch steadfastly for athat day and that night
and that day which should be as one day as if there were no night, that they
might know that their faith had not been vain.
They wanted to know that their faith hadn't been in vain. And in
verse 13, Nephi received the wonderful news that the promises were about to
come true!
13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer;
for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the asign be given, and on the bmorrow come I into the
world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused
to be cspoken by the mouth of
my holy prophets.
President asked us, What promises have been made concerning this
land? and concerning Moldova? In the prayer dedicating Romania to the preaching
of the gospel, Elder Nelson promised that Romania was rich in the blood of
Israel, and that it would be a light to surrounding nations. Moldova was
promised, also by Elder Nelson, that stakes would be created to gather in the
people to the church. Yet, none of these promises have come true. We wait,
anxiously, for the day when we will see these promises fulfilled. But just like
the promises that a Saviour would come, we can also have faith that the
promises concerning this land will also come true. I know those promises will
come true. I know that Romania is rich in the blood of Israel, and they will
come to know their master's voice.
Keep the Faith everyone!
Sora Rivera
