Romania at Last

ROMANIA AT LAST!!!

I don't look anxious about leaving at all do I?

Ceau Ceau!! I'm in ARAD!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right!! ARAD!! :D Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy!!! So I know my teachers probably laughed when they heard this because they knew that Arad was the city I was desperately hoping to be assigned to! :D so yay... go me/go the Lord for assigning me here:) oh and for those of you who are curious... Elder Criscenti went to Craiova!

Okay so backtrack... rewind...

The final week of the MTC was crazy and awesome! It was super hard to say good-bye to my wonderful teachers! They helped me so much and my testimony increased greatly in the MTC, and I know that was in part because of my teachers who challenged me and encouraged me! I hope you'll all enjoy the pictures... I don't have any on my camera of Sora Whiting and I... because I forgot my camera on her last lesson :( But needless to say they're amazing and I love them!

Then came Monday...... We flew to Detroit... then to Amsterdam... then to Bucharest... For some reason I wasn’t able to sleep at all on any of the flights AND I'd had a nervous/restless night's sleep on Sunday night... so needless to say by the time I arrived in Bucharest I was exhausted. But... cool experience, in the Amsterdam Airport, Elder Criscenti and I spoke to a lot of Romanians, and got a conversation going with a man named Stefan from Galati. He's married with 4 children and had been working in Amsterdam was a couple weeks and was excited to get home to his children. We told him what we were doing and he was very interested. Then we told him about the Book of Mormon. We didn't have a Romanian Book of Mormon to give him... I had my own triple combination, which is marked and noted, but he asked if he could read it during the flight which of course we said was fine. Afterwards we then got his number and told him that missionaries could contact him and give him his own copy which he was pleased about.... so then 2 days ago I called the Elders in Galati to give them the referral and they texted us yesterday saying they spoke to him and are setting up an appointment :) Yaaaaaaaaaayyy!! Missionary work!!! It was so cool! and all in Romanian... I'd been afraid that arriving in Romania would be like the Best Two Years... the scene "That's not the language they taught me in the MTC..." haha but for the most part it's been going really well

Sis & President Hill

Okay so then I met President and Sister Hill and my trainer Sora Cook. Sora Aly Cook is from Sandy Utah, she's a dancer and just the cutest thing and a super obedient and hard working missionary! I just adore her. This is her first time training, this is her 5th transfer but she's just awesome and really loves and appreciates my input. We're making a great team and learning a lot from one another. We get along really well, and have had lots of fun in just the past few days! We have a lot of hope and faith for our little city of Arad. President and Sister Hill are super funny! They told us funny stories of Sora Hill's childhood, and President Hill used to be Dean of the Marriot Business school at BYU so he has some great stories too. 

Me & Sis Cook

So Arad is a 12 hour train ride away... so Sora Cook and I stayed over night at the some Sister's apartment in Buch and then the next day we had meetings and things and then waited at the train station for a very very long time. It was freezing! but there were lots of missionaries there to make it fun... Then our train was almost 2 hours late so at 1.45am we boarded the train to Arad with our elders. In Arad... there are two sisters .. Me and Sora Cook, and two elders, Elder Benson (an Indie, blonde haired, ridiculous boy but he has an amazing love for the people) and there’s Elder Groberg (and smiley elder with a strong spirit and big heart... and yes his uncle was the John H. Groberg). 

Train on the way to ARAD

So the four of us went to our train compartment.... a sleeper compartment for us to share for the next 12 hours... which was about the size of a shoebox! yeah... we laughed so much when we saw it and Elder Groberg and I had all of our luggage, because Elder Groberg was transferring from Ploesti to Arad... so yeah... it was hilarious... and we had a lot of fun! The elders and Sora Cook and I all get along great and we had a lot of hope and faith for the wonderful city of Arad.

Ok so ARAD - it's a typical Romanian city... full of ya know... Romanians... haha :) I loves it! It's a beautiful city though, honestly, despite the fact that right now it's buried under about 4 feet of snow. The day I arrived there wasn't even an inch of snow, just light layer of sleet... however right now a blanket of snow doesn’t even begin to describe it... maybe a comforter of snow... and mattress of snow... a duvet of snow!! (I'm soooo glad we bought those snow boots mum ;) )

Snow - lots of snow!

The branch has about 20-25 active members. They’re so cute!!! I love them soooo much!! They are few but they are strong. They're faith is like nothing I've ever seen. My first lesson was with a couple, the Sebyesten' (Nu stiu cum se scrie) but they’re so cute and they nicknamed me "boboaca tare" (meaning... the amazing duckling) J. A duckling is what they call a greenie (brand new missionary). Sora Sebeysten is so funnny and speaks super slow and draws her words out. Here they say the word "fine" spelt... fain like the english word fine... but it means like excellent... so they say "ce fain??!!!" in ways that we'd say "how great?" haha They send their love to Fratele Sandberg by the way. I also met with Cristina Chira who send her love to Sora Wilson, she'd been less active for a while but it starting to return to church. Then... yesterday... Sunday... I met Dana Gergelie... the reason I had wanted to come to Arad was because in the MTC I taught an investigator, Dana, who Sora Whiting pretended to be. I met her! She was baptized over a year ago and her husband Ghitza was baptized a few months ago. They have a 7 year old son Cristi who will be 8 at the end of December, they send their love to "Sora Ausen" aka Sora Whiting. I was sad to learn that they'd been less active and Sora Gergelie hadn’t been to church in 6 weeks but we called her on Saturday and then they all came to Church yesterday!!! :D It truly was a miracle as well because there was sooo much snow!! We are hoping to meet with them this week. They’re a beautiful family and we hope they're going to start coming back to church.

Someone doesn't read the DO NOT OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS labels!!!

Okay I'm nearly out of email time and I need to email President Hill... LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Thanks for your prayers. We really really need them!! We don’t currently have any progressing investigators but we have some lessons set up for this week and lots of potentials that we'll be contacting... so we need all the faith and prayers we can get!!

LOVE you all!! Keep the Faith... oh btw... I've been studying prayer in the Book of Mormon... just so you know if you want to study with me :)

Love Sora Rivera

Week 8

LAST WEEK OF THE MTC!!!!!!

Oh my goodness it's my last week of the MTC!! Including today I have 4 days left!! I kinda freaked out the other day when I received my travel Itinerary. Ha-ha it's amusing now that I look back, I just became so nervous about leaving I just burst into tears... but I'm over that stage and now I'm just excited. Today is the last day I get to go to the Temple for the next 16months :( craaazy!!

Thanksgiving - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to speak to us!!!! It was awesome!! He really is a modern day Paul. He told us to "Buck up! Get to Work!" and stop saying "oh when I get back to real life..." He yelled, "THIS IS REAL LIFE!!! This is the most real your life is gonna get! Capital R capital L!" It was so awesome! He really helped me to understand how important and special is this opportunity. Everything the Lord does is to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal Life of Man... and guess what... that's what we get to do for this limited time only... worry about nothing else but bringing people to Christ! AWESOME

I'm trying to think of interesting things to tell you about from the past week... other than an Apostle of the Lord coming to visit! The other day was pretty fun in class. My teachers Sora Whiting and Fratele Frandsen set up a room like a train and then had a timer going, if the time ran out it mean that the train was arriving at their stop. They then pretended to be passengers and Elder C and I had to go and try to get their phone numbers and an appointment. It was sooo difficult! We were trying to come up with interesting questions to spark their interest, often we'd try to lead it to the fact that we were not Romanian... then the person would ask... "What are you doing here in Romania...?" ha-ha and we'd smile and say in Romanian... that's a good question... hahahhaha :D yaaay! It's exciting and I can't believe that I'll be doing it for real next week... NEXT WEEK!! say whaaat??? Next week???! Yep that's what I said..!"

I didn't have any amusing Romanian mess-ups this week. Sorry to disappoint... but I'm sure by my first pday in Romania I'll have some good ones... and it would just be with my teachers this time... they'll be with reaaaal Romanian strangers.... oh my I'm nervous... but excited! :) Oh I also get to see Sora Macdonald this coming week, hopefully anyway, I believe she told me in an email that she'd be in Bucharest when I arrive so fingers crossed.

I've been studying a lot about the nature of God this week. Focusing on the scripture in 1 John... "God is love". It makes me think about how he really is our father and how much he loves me. I'm a daughter of God... that's so amazing! He knows me personally, he knows my name, who I am, what makes me happy what makes me sad. Elder Holland pointed this out how throughout the scriptures God calls people by their names. "Adam... Moses, my Son... Samuel Samuel! ....He knows us personally!" I can't wait to get to Romania and hopefully bring some light into people's lives, and help them to realize that they are children of God and that our Loving Heavenly Father knows them personally and that Christ has restored His church to the earth because He loves us so much. :D

Anyway... I'm out of email time!! I love you all... the next email won't be until a week of Monday... from ROMANIA!! :D   va iubesc!!

Love Sora Rivera

Week 7

Penultimate week at the MTC!

Soooooooooooo this week was another wonderful week here at the MTC... the snow has melted and the weather is beautiful for a November in UT. I'm not even wearing my boots today!! I still do not have a testimony of wearing tights... I still refuse to wear them! I know I'll eventually have to when I get to Romania, or else I might die or get frostbite.... but for now I'm enjoying the pleasant weather.

Romanian Mishaps - I’ve actually been doing very well this week! I had one accidental slip on last Saturday however. I was teaching "Andrei" who is portrayed by Fratele Vizante... the real Romanian teacher... as in he is from Bucharest... so he speaks suuuuuuuuper fast, but anyway I was teaching him, and I was trying to tell him how if he'd except our message he's have a lasting happiness.... accidentally told him he'd have lasting pain.... OOPS! haha but then I realized what I'd said and I corrected myself, but it was really funny. But I didn’t feel too bad cos right after that Elder Criscenti told him that we still believe in polygamy and after his mission he'd be able to have more than one wife.... a fost haios!! (It was funny!!) hahaha I was like NUUUUUUUU!!!!!! Elder Criscenti had totally misunderstood what we were talking about. He thought we were just talking about marriage in general, whereas Andrei had actually asked us about polygamy Oooops!

New Soras - The new Romanians arrived this week!! Bobocii!!! :) they’re so cute and scared and freaking out but they're amazing and they're all going to be wonderful missionaries. I'm companions with Sora Polatis! An awesome girl from Idaho. We get along great and even though I'm still a solo for class, she's my companion outside of class, so it's nice not to feel so alone. The other Soras are Sora Kelly and Sora Gerhartz both from New Jersey. They're both awesome! Then three new elders came in last week too for Romania. They’re also really great! The six of them are a strong district already! They all have different strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other.

I had a great experience on Sunday. In Relief Society I sat next to this random senior missionary, Sister Platts. She was so cute and told me this is her second mission and she will be going to Ecuador! She then proceeded to tell Sora Polatis and I the story of the loaves and the fishes where the apostles brought what they had but through Christ it was enough. She said how we are the same. We are inadequate and small and nothing in comparison to him, but if we bring ourselves to Christ then he will make it enough! Anyway I thought that was really cool! :D

I'm studying joy this week in the Book of Mormon. I was reading in 2 Nephi 2:25 about how the whole purpose of this life is to have joy and so I've decided to study joy, so please feel free to write me your thoughts, scriptures, talks, anything really about how we have true joy in this life!

I love being a missionary! Everyday I learn new things and do my best to put them into words in my journal, then each week I attempt to give you a taste of what I've been learning. But I love you all and I pray for you!

Keep the Faith!!

Sora Jessi Rivera

Week 5 or 6

OOPS

Hello everyone! I can't believe that It’s been 6 weeks in the MTC!! I have 2 weeks and 3 days left... but who's counting?? The new Romanians arrived yesterday!! 3 sisters and 3 elders. They're all so cute and adorable! For those of you who don’t know, in English, we call brand new missionaries "greenies" in Romanian we call them ducklings!! hehee the word is "boboci" pronounced like bo-boch :D hehee so the ducklings arrived and they’re so sweet and nice and I really like the girls already, I've barely spoken to the elders yet so maybe by next week I'll have a better update for you on them but for now... just know that the girls are great and I finally don't feel quite as alone! :)

Elder Cristie & Me!

I find it amusing how the better I get at Romanian, and according to my teachers I speak wonderfully... I have a feeling they’re just being supportive but it's nice to hear just the same... but anyway the better I get at Romanian... the bigger my language mess ups become. I swore at my teacher in Romanian this week half way through a lesson.. OPA! It was a complete accident but still he burst out laughing and said after a year of working at the MTC I'm the first missionary to have done that... oopss My bad! Ah well, overall I'm improving a lot, the Lord is definitely blessing me! Reading in Romanian is still really difficult but if I take my time, I can usually get my ideas across in Romanian. I've also started to get to the point where my English is declining and I have permanently replaced Prophet to be profit and Nephi to be Nefi, and God is Dumnezeu... even when I'm speaking English haha :) oh but also on the bright side I learned to quote Moaning Murtle in Romanian this weeks... oh the small things that delight a sister missionary

So when you’ve been at the MTC for 6 weeks you start to feel like a 30 year old in a singles ward. you're that guy ;) the one everyone knows, the old one who knows the rules, the schedule, you admire them, but at the same time they just seem so old and weird! yeah... so that's me now! haha

This week, in the Book of Mormon I'm still working through 1 and 2 Nefi, I've going to be studying gratitude. I think it's a huge important topic. If you thank the Lord, and you are grateful you've more likely to be happy, you can't expect to be blessed and happy first.. Then you can say thank you! So yes anyway... if you care to dear elder me your thoughts on gratitude... that'll be much appreciated! And I'll be grateful hahha ;) get it??!! oh wow I'm such a missionary

I had many wonderful experiences this week! I think I told you last week about my experience with my investigator Dana, about how she was unemployed and about to be thrown out on the street... well just as an update... she found a job and the Lord blessed her... it's so cool cos even though these investigators aren't real, the teachers use the real experiences that the investigator actually had so it's cool to relive the experience of the real Dana and the missionaries. Also we got a new investigator Traian, because Gheorghe was baptized and even though in real life the missionaries would continue to teach them, here at the MTC we just get a new investigator. The real person he is based on is a girl named Alexandra. But anyway Traian is far more difficult than Gheorghe. He's Agnostic, and he is angry with God but he’s not really sure if there is a god... but anyway we had a wonderful lesson yesterday and the spirit was sooo strong! and afterwards we had a class study session just completely focusing on the Atonement. And it's just amazing to think that Jesus Christ not only took upon him our sins, but also all of our trials, our suffering... everything! He completely understands everything we go through... wow! He's amazing! Check out Alma 7:11-13 :)

Anyway got to go... 

Love you all! Thank you for your love and support and prayers! I send the same love and support and prayers right back at you! :)

Keep the Faith

Sora Rivera