Remember that one time...

It's strange how since the age of 17, I've felt at home in this country. Crazy things happen, the language is terrifically hard, and the people are completely different from the Brits, and yet... I feel perfectly at home. I enjoy the feeling of being outside of my comfort zone. I'm so far from my comfort zone that it's hard to remember what my comfort zone ever looked like. Yet, not matter how comfortable I become, I'm still surprised by the crazy things that can happen. But anyway.... our wonderful investigator, Tina, still hasn't smoked, and still reads the Book of Mormon everyday. Sadly we couldn't meet with her last week because she was in Bucharest but we have a lesson with her tomorrow morning. The journey to Tina's is an adventure! I loves it! So I will share it with you:

Adventures with Sora Cook on the Tramvai

We say a prayer and leave the apartment. We of course take the lift, which, though small, is quite fancy for Romania. On the way out of the building we say hi to our neighbour, Alexander. He's smoking down on the porch of the building, his tall Russian hat plopped on his head, just over his bushy grey eyebrows. He tells us we're going to be late and rolls his eyes...as usual. The building cleaning lady exclaims we're not wearing enough layers. It's not too cold today! She laughs and wishes us health and a good day. Our slightly crazy neighbour, Maria, blesses us as we walk towards the Tramvai stop. My favourite... Gheorge! with his cute one tooth, and giant fluffy hat is taking a stroll around the blocks. We stop to say hi. He once again, asks me if in Scotland they speak English. I once again tell him that it's on the accent, which is different. "Oh thanks! I've been wondering!" he smiles.

We now have to rush because our Tramvai is coming. We hurry towards the Tramvai stop, past the illegal cigarette cartel, and the cute scruffy dog, across the street, and right on time, the Tramvai pulls in. We board and sit down. The homeless, drunk man smells bad so we sit nearer the front. The lady next to me glares at my nametag and before I can get a "Good Morning!" in, she moves as far from me as possible. A cute old lady boards a couple of stops in. She sits next to me. Her bright pink lipstick stains her 3 teeth and her headscarf is wrapped tightly under her chin. I speak to her a little and she thinks we're very cute. No, she doesn't want my "book" or to come to church, or to come to English classes, but how very "cute" we are. Sigh. The Tramvai gets closer to centru. The crowd starts packing in, and Sora Cook and I stand to allow the babas and the old men to sit. We're now squished into a crowd. It's a little hard to contact someone when your face is pressed up against their shoulder. As we pass centru to Bul Rosu, the Tramvai empties and we can once again sit. Usually, at this point, we go over our lesson plan for Tina. The Tramvai picks up speed as it heads to the outskirts of the city. Across the bridge, there are a couple fishermen along the banks of the big grey river.

The Tramvai slowly empties and we arrive the end of the line in Aradul Nou. The gara (train station) is small, and super muddy. But don't worry, there's a meat stand if you've been craving some raw steak. We trudge through the thick mud towards the real train tracks, away from the Tramvai line. The homeless people don't bother us, as we start our trek down the tracks. In Romania, there is no electrical rail so there’s no huge danger of crossing the railway tracks. We walk down the tracks for about 5 minutes, carefully listening out for trains, until we reach the small muddy pathway, which leads to civilization. We trek through the mud and walk down a couple streets, past the corner where we found the cute puppy about a month ago. Finally, Tina's apartment blocks are in view. We cross the road and head to the large yellow blocks with the dark red staircases. Number 24, is around the back and one flight up. We walk up the stairs and we see Tina. She waits by the window. With a huge smile she waves and runs around to open the door. It's such an amazing feeling! The smell of smoke is gone, her scriptures and liahona are out on the table and half a grapefruit is sitting on a plate for each of us. "Fetitile mele! Asteptam!" (My girls, I was waiting). Tina is so incredible. I feel so blessed every time I meet with her, just to have the privilege to be a part of her journey towards Christ.

Paula


In other news... we've started working with Paula. She's a 19 year old girl who was baptised about 2 years ago. She's been less active for quite a while and was actually hit by a Tramvai in November of last year, so she's been in and out of hospital. But now she's doing a lot better and has just started coming back to Church and meeting with us. She was raised in a Casa de Copii (children’s home/ foster home), so she has a few social issues and is super clingy. But she just needs love! And so Sora Cook and I just love her to pieces! And she adores us! She's one of the funniest people I've ever met. She was a little cheeky thing the other day after a lesson we had with her. But that night she called us and apologised for her behaviour and the next day came to institute and brought us cards to say she was sorry and how much she loved us! Oh she's just so cute! She's a tiny thing. The 8 year old boy in our branch, Manu is about the same size as her. She's really good friends with Manu actually. Her pure innocence combined with complete bluntness is amazing. Our branch mission leader Edy, has a non-member wife, Timea, who's pretty apathetic towards the church and she's very stand offish. But the other day, at institute. Paula yells to her "Hey! Why are you sitting over there by yourself?! Come sit by us!" and Timea actually listened and came over. "Do you like it here? Why are you grumpy??" Paula asked. Hahah! It was so funny and sooo blunt! But the coolest part was that Timea actually laughed and started to open up. She said she did like it but she was nervous. "Oh you don't need to be nervous!" Paula said, "These people are really nice!" It was so cute! And it was amazing to see Timea start to come out of her shell. I love how Heavenly Father uses all of us to bless the lives of others! Paula's lack of social skills became a great strength!

Remember that one time where I was being made a trainer after just 2 transfers... YEAH! So I'm a trainer starting THIS Wednesday. Sora Cook is heading to Chisinau in Moldova! I'm heartbroken to see her go, but also excited for her new adventures. I've heard that the branch is incredible there and I know she's going to be amazing there! I'm just selfishly sad, and want her to stay with me! So on this week, I'll be getting a boboaca of my own! I'm really nervous! Usually President Hill calls people to let them know that they'll be training, but nope.... I found out on Saturday as we looked up the Transfer board. I'm a trainer!! YIKES! I can't believe it. I'm still a boboaca! But I'm also excited to grow and learn from the experience and to allow the Lord to teach me as I attempt to help my boboaca to have an amazing start to her mission.

That's about all I have time for this week! I wish I had more time so I could tell you all about the things I've learnt in my scripture study this week! I've been reading more in my "Prayer" themed Book of Mormon. I've been reading about Ammon, and Alma and Amulek. They were the most incredible missionaries and I've been learning from their example different ways in which I can improve as a missionary! :)

This church is true! and I know that I'm exactly where the Lord needs me to be! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet! and I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God!

Keep the Faith

Sora Rivera

Waffles, lessons, interviews

This week was another wonderful and beautiful week in Arad. It started out last p-day. After internet we headed to G's house. Remember G? The spy, the secret service guy who knows everything, the one with whom we were caroling until after midnight on Christmas eve... yeah him... so anyway we went to his house for Waffles! He has a nice waffle iron and he decided to make waffles for the missionaries. He also had just come back from Paris and brought each of us Eiffel Tower key rings. He then walked us to the grocery store because he was "meeting someone" ...whatever that means. He managed to terrify both Sora Cook and me. G apparently thinks it's super funny to just slip into the background unnoticed and jump out and scare us when we least expect it. Probably something he learnt on the job ;)

Me and Sora Krista and Fratele Krista from our branch

Investigators... So Ramona cancelled on us this week :( Called us from a blocked number and said she'd let us know when she was free. Sora Cook and I, both rolled our eyes... typical... heard that one before, probably never see her again, BUT Ramona called us the day before yesterday and actually set up an appointment for us to come over this week! Yay!! Just goes to show, that we need to have more faith, because clearly Heavenly Father knows what He's doing! Tina is just wonderful! We had 4 lessons with her last week! She's completely ready to be baptised. She asked for a blessing this week to stop smoking. When the sister missionaries originally met with her 3 years ago she was smoking a pack a day but since then has been cutting down. For the past number of months she'd only been smoking 2 cigarettes a day, but she really wanted to stop and told her husband not to leave her any money for cigarettes anymore. The Elders came with us on Wednesday morning and gave her a blessing. It was a super spiritual and beautiful experience. And... she hasn't smoked since! She said she hasn't even had the desire to smoke. She knows that the Lord has really been helping her. She also said something really cool the other day that I keep forgetting to say. She told us that she feels as though she knows me. There’s a familiarity about me and the moment she met me she felt love in her heart. Amazing! Since her husband is still so against her baptism we've moved to the end of March and we're continually praying that his heart will be softened. We have a new investigator. He's an amazing old man, Ioan. 72 years old! He comes to English classes and last week came to church for the first time. He's been learning English for just 1 year so that he can go visit his daughter and granddaughter in England. We had an amazing lesson with him about prayer and how to recognize answers from our prayers. It was so beautiful, he told us that he feels as though he's never received an answer from a prayer and then he asked us how we know if we've received an answer. We were able to speak to him about our experiences, and share our testimonies with him, that we know that Heavenly Father will answer his prayers. 

We had interviews this week with President Hill, Sora Hill and the assistants. One sad thing we found out though, was that it's almost certain that Sora Cook will be leaving Arad :( I do not want her to leave at all! But at the same time I did kinda see it coming. She's been in Arad her whole mission.. 8 months! That's a crazy long time. Most of the Sisters seem to stay in one area 3-4 transfers. So yeah, we're almost certain that she's leaving so we've had a bit of a pity party and eaten a few too many chocolate bars.

This Saturday we have a branch Valentines Day activity. Sadly, there's no activities committee in our branch so the missionaries and Edy (our branch mission leader) end up running the activity. But we have some fun games planned, and we'll be making valentines cards and decorating cookies so it should be fun. And we're hoping to have a few investigators there, and also a few of the mai-putin active members. Fingers crossed, it should be fun.

I've been studying a lot about consecration this past week or so, the talk "Consecrate Thy Performance" by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, really helped me to understand not just the principle of consecration but also how we can apply it in our lives. Consecration isn't just about material things, it’s about humility and entirely submitting yourself to the lord. Amazing!

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Keep the Faith!

Sora Rivera

Chicken on the Tramvai

Ceau ceau!! This week has been a roller coaster...as usual! It's amazing to me how as a missionary you can be crying and heartbroken in the morning, then rejoicing and laughing by the afternoon. But this week I've again learnt a lot, and I continue to recognize the Lord's hand in my life as I take part in His work.

Fun on the Tramvai?

Random funnies... Sora Cook and I were on the Tramvai on the way to the church for our district meet on Thursday, when all of a sudden we hear a loud high pitched squeak. Sadly, it isn't too uncommon to hear strange noises on the Tramvai so at first we didn't think anything of it. Then it happens again. A loud, high pitched... this time more of a SQUAWK! I look up ahead and see a man, looking very nervous, fidgeting with a plastic bag. SQUAWK! It happens again. "There's an animal in that guy's bag!" I whispered to Sora Cook. "I think it's a bird." "No, it's just the Tramvai." She said, looking very confused. SQUAWK!!! It happened again. "Okay, or maybe that guy has a bird in his bag." We then arrived at our stop so purposely walked to the front exit, peering into the man's bag as we left. It was a chicken! The man had a chicken on the Tramvai. Probably was his dinner that night, but I don't like to think about that... I'm going to blissfully imagine that he now has a pet chicken named Gheorghe.

Another random funny moment…We were walking back form our Friday afternoon service project. The Elders were heading back to their apartment for lunch and Sora Cook and I were heading to a member's home, so we were all walking through Centru together, when all of a sudden this old lady in a trench coat and wooly hat grabs Elder Benson by the hand, exclaiming that he must be from England, and he needed to come and marry her daughter. She kept pointing at his blonde hair, and jumping for joys saying "Anglia!!" (England). Sora Cook, Elder Groberg and I were all busting up laughing. She then turns to me, and demands that I write down her address so that Elder Benson can come visit. Elder Groberg helpfully passed me a pencil and I scribbled down the address and Elder Benson continued to be baffled by the crazy lady. She then decided that he must be Prince William! and she was so excited she smacked him on the shoulder and cracked up laughing. By this point, we didn't think things could get any funnier/stranger... when we see one of our favorite crazy ladys in the city walking towards us. The first crazy lady is still yelling about how she's met prince William as the second lady walks past with her thick bottle glasses, and only two teeth saying "Ceau la voi, Mormonii!!" (Hi Mormons!!). Finally after a few more minutes of the first crazy lady making Elder Benson promise to come visit her daughter and give her blonde royal bloodline children, we were able to get away. I think missionaries attract crazy people. We're a magnet for them. Maybe it's the nametag... but either way crazy people seem to find us.

With Tina

Investigators..... We've had some great success with Tina this past week!! YAY! She's just doing wonderfully. When we finally met with her after she'd cancelled about 5 times she apologized and she said that she knew it was Satan trying to tempt her and distract her from her path to follow Christ. She recognized that when she doesn't meet with us she loses the Spirit in her life and she regrets it every time. She we met with her twice last week, and we have 4 lessons planned for this week. We've talked about the Plan of Salvation and about the Restoration. We also have a great lesson about prophets and we gave her a Liahona so she can read the latest conference talks. She is a perfect example of feasting on the words of Christ. She reads everyday from the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets we give her, and now from the Liahona. We're going to introduce the Doctrine and Covenants to her this week and I can just imagine her crying for joy when she hears that there's even more revelation and words of God to read! Oh she is just so cute! Sadly her husband still won't give permission for her baptism or for her to attend church. But we are praying constantly for his heart to be softened and we fasted for them yesterday. I know and have faith that his heart will be softened and that Tina will be baptized. I recognize though, that it will be on the Lord's timing so we must be patient and continue in faith. If the Lord can soften the heart of Pharaoh to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, if he can heal the raise the dead and heal the blind, if he can do other miracles such as appear to a 14 year-old boy, I know that he can soften the heart of a grumpy Hungarian man so that his wife can be baptized. We just have to be patient. 

Other investigators... Ramona is still progressing! YAY She's the one whom we met block-knocking. She is a young student, very kind and really open to meeting with us. We had short lessons about prayer, but she still won't pray in front of us. We're aiming to have a member in the lesson with her next week. One amazing thing about our tiny branch is that everyone is a convert! So everyone knows what it's like and remembers learning to pray out loud, or remembers their first time at church. So we're hoping by having a member there she'll have a friend and have someone to relate to. 
Another investigator is a super old man names Ioan Batrana. He is in his 70s and he started learning English through our English program a year ago! and wow is he good at English! He speaks better English than I do Romanian. His goal for learning it was so that he could speak to his 12 year-old granddaughter who lives in England. He came to church for the first time yesterday! and we're aiming to have another lesson with him soon. He's the cutest old man, and it just goes to show, that it's never too late to learn something new.

English... We started English classes this last week. They're okay. We contacted like crazy!! Giving our leaflets and advertising. Yet we don't have many students. The biggest problem is the location of the church. It's in a very bad area of the city. So although the building is super nice it's in a far away area, which is also not the safest part of town. We’re hoping to get the church moved into the centre of the city in the next few months. But we did have a few really nice brand new students turn up and a couple of them said they were interested in learning more about the church as well as learning English... fingers crossed!

Anyway that's about all the news I have this week. Sora Cook and I are just having a whale of a time here in Arad. We find ourselves laughing constantly. We also make homemade tortillas and make ourselves burritos almost everyday... not that you really care... it's just a random fun fact! :P

This work is incredible. I can't even express the joy in my heart as I see people begin to accept the true Gospel. I love being a missionary! I love this Church and I love the opportunity to testify of my Saviour everyday.

Keep the Faith!

Sora Rivera

The Lemonade Diet

Where on earth do I start this week? This week has been hard, and yet I'm just so happy! I guess something I've learnt in this past week is how to just be happy in spite of trials. It'd be so easy to murmur and complain but it's so much more fun to just relax and be happy and grateful. I was reading over my MTC journal and goodness I just seemed so stressed out! I want to tell my MTC self "Chill out! Relax and do your best! You're not perfect and you're never going to be perfect! Allow the Saviour's amazing Atonement to make up for all of your weakness and just continue trying to improve everyday." So I guess that I've really learnt to be happier this week. Just trying my best and trying to improve a little everyday is enough, I shouldn't get mad at myself for mistakes, I just need to learn from them and moving on.

Souvenir time?

Investigator news... our investigator Tina, the one with whom we set a baptismal date, she has cancelled on us about 5 times :( She says she's been sick, but we went over this morning and there was no answer so we don’t really know what's going on :( However, despite her cancelling she's still reading the Book of Mormon, and the pamphlets we've given her, and she still loves to speak to us on the phone. So things could be a lot worse. We'll keep trying though and hopefully the Lord will give us inspiration as to how we can best help her. We have a new progressing investigator, Ramona. She's a young woman whom we met Bloc knocking. We had a good lesson about prayer the other and how through prayer we can know the truth. We have another lesson with her this week so we're excited about her.

Zone training... Last week we had the best zone training meeting ever! So our elders, the ones in Arad are the zone leaders, which means everyone travels to us for the Zone training meeting, which happens at the start of every transfer. As part of the meeting the Elders wanted to talk about the Teaching Model which is to explain, demonstrate, practice, re-evaluate and practice again... or something like that. So Elder Benson had the hilarious idea to do an EFY line dance. We could use the teaching model to teach the whole zone a dance. So after getting permission from President Hill, Sora Cook taught the 2 zone leaders and me an entire EFY line dance, then the next day at the Meeting we taught it to the whole zone. It was so funny! And probably the most interactive and entertaining meeting I've ever had the pleasure to attend! Win for creative ideas!

Missionary brain.... It's official! I have a missionary warped brain haha! This week Elder Benson, Sora Cook and I somehow got it into our heads that we should do a lemonade cleanse, (you know, where you drink nothing but lemonade for 10 days straight??) Yeah this sounds completely ridiculous as I type it. Elder Groberg refused to be a part and laughed at us as we squeezed lemons and mixed together our first drink. Thursday was day number 1, by noon we were starving! Noon!! It was completely ridiculous of us! By 3pm Sora Cook and I were block knocking and getting yelled at by crazy old ladies and we finally had enough and called Elder Benson saying that we were quitting. He too was sick of watching Elder Groberg eating happily in front of him as he sipped his lemon juice. So we all quit! Our lemonade cleanse lasted less than half a day, less than a fast Sunday, but at least with fast Sundays you have a purpose... this had no purpose except to be stupid!!! ooops! So yeah... we changed our ways and feasted on burritos the moment we got home. Please remind me never to do that again!

Any hooooo that's about all for now! Arad is wonderful and I loves it! :) I loves being a missionary!! This Gospel is so amazing! I love the opportunity to share it everyday! Keep the Faith!

Ceau Ceau!

Mini Miracles

SERVUS!!!! (thats a Hungarian greeting) It's fun being so far west and getting to learn occasional words and phrases in Hungarian. There's an amaaaazing couple in our branch, the Sebestyns, originally from Hungry. They're older maybe late 50s or early 60s. I just adore them! And Fratele Sebestyn is a huge man with a fluffy beard and only a few teeth and he just has the biggest heart! At the beginning of church every week as people come in the door you can just hear him saying Servus! Servus! to everyone :) I loves it!

I gave my first talk in Romanian yesterday! It was scarey! I decided to give it about the Book of Mormon. I spoke about how it is the Keystone of our religion adica (in other words) if we know the Book of Mormon is true then we know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this Church is true, and I also spoke about how through reading it we come closer to God, then I invited the whole branch to read in Cartea Lui Mormon in fiecare zi. I started thinking about the Book of Mormon for my talk subject because Sora Cook and I have been studying it a lot for our investigator, Elena. She's a 7th day Adventist, who knows the Bible inside out. She's not really progressing at the moment so we're thinking of having final lesson with her this week... the progressing or dropping lesson :( She's a wonderful wonderful woman! She loves God and she wants to follow his will but her pride is just too high at the moment. We know that the Book of Mormon is the key. If she reads it and prays about it with a sincere heart then she'll receive and answer for herself that it is the word of God, however she just doesn’t have an open heart right now. She admits it to be an inspired Book but refuses to accept anything accept the Bible. She then uses the Bible to explain that the Sabbath Day should be Saturday and brings up tons of different scriptures that we can't explain. Her intentions are good, she loves us and admires our testimonies, but sadly as of right now, she just isn't open to the receiving more of God's word into her heart. As we met with her last week I shared with her a scripture that perfectly describes her... 2 Nefi 29:8, that whole section reminds me of her. She's been a great learning experience for Sora Cook and I however, and we're grateful to be a part of her journey to find the truth even if right now she isn't ready to accept it. 

I've really been working hard to see the Lord's hand in my life everyday. For over a year now I've been writing daily in my journal, things that I'm grateful for, tender mercies of the Lord. It's just amazing to see how much the Lord loves and blesses us. Every time I understand just a little more of Romanian, or every time we're block knocking and someone doesn't slam the door in our faces, or we see a super cute puppy on the street and it makes us smile. If your eyes are open, and you quit murmuring about trials, or life's annoyances, then it's easy to see the miracles all around you. It's like the story in 2 Kings chapter 6, about Elisha and his servant and how the armies were coming against them, and Elisha tells his servant not to be afraid for more are with us than with them, and then he prays that his servant's eyes will be opened, then his servant is able to see that the hill is full of chariots of fire and armies to protect them. There are countless blessings and mini miracles in our lives everyday if we just open our eyes to them. 

Snow has been an example of a mini miracle... something I'm grateful for! It snowed like crazy on Saturday! The duvet of snow returned... however by Sunday night it was raining and washed the most of the snow away! It was super good snow however! Perfect for hitting elders with snowballs, and apparently even better for hitting Sister missionaries in the face with big piles of snow... or so I've heard. It's been fun to have snow again even if it was just for a few days. 

I got all my mail this week! YAY! In a few letters people kept asking me about Arad as a city and I guess I realized that I've never explained it except for saying I loves it... so Arad is a small city. By Tramvai it takes about 45 minutes or so across the city, maybe a little more. It's small but with lots and lots of people, all crammed into tall apartments blocs. In the center of town are some big churches, Orthodox, Catholic, baptist, pentecostal. etc. the Majority of people here are Orthodox. a lot are born into it, to be Romanian is to be orthodox and so when people change religions it's like turning your back on your culture. There's a MacDonalds (of course) right in the center of town, and there are 2 really awesome shopping malls. Theres beautiful old historical buildings right next to falling apart old ugly apartment blocks. The tramvais are typical trams running through the city, occasionally people throw up on them.... or people are drunk and sing to you... it's fun! This past week we've been block knocking a lot and have actually had some success. 

So now to tell you about Tina! This past week we set a baptismal date with an investigator, Tina. She is a 50(ish) year old woman. She started meeting with sister missionaries back in 2010, and missionaries haven't met with her since March last year, but we'd been praying for guidance and as we looked through our records in the Area Book we came across Tina. She had read lots of the Book of Mormon, come to church and supposedly knew the Church was true but for one reasons or another (including a husband who was very against the church) she never got baptised and stopped meeting with the missionaries. Sora Cook and I both felt prompted to call her, so I called her up and set up an appointment. For those of you who don't know, usually when you start teaching an investigator you start by talking about the restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but both of us felt strongly prompted by the spirit to teach about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end (5 pas) and then focusing the lesson on Baptism through correct authority. So we arrive and had our lesson... it was amazing! She starts out by telling us that that morning she'd been reading in 2 Nefi 31. This chapter is all about baptism!! We had this fantastic lesson and she was so interested and we invited her to be baptised on the 9th of February and she said yes. She told us that her husband is still against churches in general but no as much as he used to be he's more neutral nowadays. She then told us that in the past she knew the Book of Mormon was true but didn't have the desire to be baptised but now she does. Then the most amazing part of all, she tells us that the other day she'd be praying to know what to do, what was her correct path, was is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or was it another church. And that same day... we called, and she knew that this was the true church! So that was an a amazing miracle this week! Please pray for Tina, pray for her husband to stay open minded. We know that she is ready for baptism. It was an amazing lesson! The spirit was teaching her. I've never felt more like an instrument in the Lord's hands. I was just there for the ride, Heavenly Father was just letting me observe this amazing woman's conversion. I love being a missionary!

That's all I have time for! The Church is sooo true! The Book of Mormon is the word of God!

Keep the Faith!

Love Sora Rivera

If you are fat, it must be God’s will

Hello all!! so I survived my first transfer in Romania!!! And guess what everyone??? the four of us are all staying in Arad!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! I was a little nervous since Sora Cook has been here for 5 transfers and this would be her 6th transfer in Arad = half of her entire mission spent in one city, so I was a little nervous that she'd get transferred but yaaaaaaay she's not going anywhere... and neither are our wonderful elders! YAY for the best district ever!! We went ice skating today. The weather here is still cold but not too bad. It tends to snow a little then melt from day to day. There hasn't been huge snow since before Christmas.

Skating with the Elders

Lessons and peoples.... This week, we had a few good lessons with potential new investigators. There was one lady who we found in our Area book. She'd been taught a few lessons about 3 years ago. We'd been praying, and thinking and reading in our Area Book (which is a folder with records of all the people taught). I felt prompted to call her, and so we had a lesson and it went really well. She's a super strong Christian with the utmost faith in the Bible and was really great to talk to and we had a good restoration lesson. She's having trouble accepting that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate people, and although we could give her a huge list of Scriptures that clearly show they are separate people (although one in purpose) we know that the best way for her to accept it is to accept the Restored Gospel, the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet. If the Book of Mormon is true, then that means Joseph Smith was a prophet and he did indeed see God the Father and Jesus Christ as separate people. We have another lesson with her tomorrow, so fingers crossed. We also had a lesson with a man and his wife whom we found through the Area Book. The record indicated the most perfect golden investigator, who read the Book of Mormon in one night and committed to be baptised, but then the record just stopped. So we met with Him and his wife. They were very nice but not interested in Eternal Salvation... jk... the wife was content and happy with her life, and although the husband knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God he doesn't really care, and is more concerned with running a retirement home from his backyard. He says if the church will fund his retirement home then he'll join. So yeah... you meet lots of interesting people on a mission. 

Yay for skating!

If you are fat, it's God's will.... Sora Cook and I have been exercising outside everyday. We have skipping ropes and we play hymns on our iPod speakers as we jump, or do lunges or tricep dips on the benches. One morning this past week, our orthodox neighbour, Maria, who loves to write out prayers for our salvation, came outside at 6.45am to tell us that what we were doing was not Biblical, it's just not in the bible. She said that she is fat because God wants her to be fat and there's nothing she can do to change that! .....  hahaha she's really nice though, we just nodded and smiled and told her we understood but we were gona do it anyway. She then brought us a creepy orthodox picture of Jesus later that morning. So yes, good to know... if you're fat it's God's will!

Talking next week!!!!!! Yikes, so I'm giving a talk in sacrament next week. I'm really really nervous. I love giving talks in English... but Romanian??? blaaaagh! I'm nervous. I think I'm going to end up writing it all out then having the Elders and Sora Cook help me to translate it. I can speak on whatever I feel prompted to speak on. Sora Cook spoke yesterday, a wonderful talk about receiving revelation. I'm thinking of speaking on gratitude but I don't quite know yet. I recently read 'Murmur Not' by Neal A. Maxwell. It's a talk he gave in 1989 in a general conference. It's amazing and I highly recommend it. I printed it off and I've read it over and over again this week. And as I try to apply it in my life, I'm noticing far more blessings. I'm thinking of using a few quotes from it in my talk.. but we'll see, I'll let you all know how it goes next week! 

Weird starring man with a moustache... So yesterday at the Tramvai stop there was this man. He had a moustache, and he was starring at us. So, a little creeped out, we went walked away. He followed us a bit and continued to stare. We stood behind the shelter and he stood on the other side. We had lost sight of him by this point so wondering where he was we peeped our head around the shelter and boom he was there. Weird. we continued talking, and waiting for the Tramvai. The moustache man was still behind the shelter. I then tried to peep around and BOOM all of a sudden I'm standing face to face with the moustache man just starring at him as he starred back at me. "Ceau" I said. "Ceau" He said back. We continued to stare, meanwhile Sora Cook's busting up laughing at the awkwardness. "Cum sunteti?" (how are you?) I asked. "bine, si dumneavoastra?" (fine, and you?) He replied. "bine" (fine) I said..... We continued to stare at one another. We then went into a slightly awkward conversation about who we were, as missionaries that we were on our way to the Retirement home, and I gave him a pass along card with mormonii.ro on it. Hahah It was strange. 

The Elders don't like dogs... Long story short, a giant bear sized dog lives at the Retirement Home where we go and sing every week for service. And the bear sized dog must be able to smell Elder Benson's fear because it was growling super loud and then it would wag it's tail and let Sora Cook and I met it, then it'd turn to Elder Benson and growl. I like him, he's a giant fully dog.. I think part wolf, or grizzly, or both, but I like him. Elder Benson and Elder Groberg have been trying to find other places in Arad where we can do service because they hate the dog so much. Silly elders, He growls probably because he knows that they hate him. 

Well that's all I have time for this week. I love this Chruch! and I know that it is the only Church upon the earth that has the true Priesthood authority of God. I know that Christ is the head of this church. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a living prophet upon the earth today. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God alongside the bible. Recently I've been reading at the end of Mosiah. I just know with every fiber of my soul that the Book of Mormon is true! I love this work! 

Keep the Faith

Love Sora Rivera