la revedere bucuresti

Jump!

Okay... story of the week! So, we decided to go visit the adorable old Sora Simonescu! She's sooo cute, I just love her sooo much! She has polio as a child so has a very difficult time walking and therefore physically can't get to church in the cold weather, so we hadn't seen her in a couple weeks. Last time we went to go see her there was a ton of construction and we had to walk half the way and take 2 different buses, so this time we left ourselves an hour to be sure to arrive on time. 

me, in a street

However.... the construction wasn't as bad, and we ended up arriving 45 minutes early. Now, we were tempted to just go in and visit with her early, but we figured we should show our faith and do some contacting while we waited. We have been knocking blocs regularly for the past few weeks, mostly using survey contacting. One of the elders even did a statistic that only 2.7% of doors will actually be nice to you and take your survey... 

me, Sora and Familia Tita :)

We decided to knock a block while we waited. It was a huge bloc with 10 floors and about 50 apartments. We got doors slammed in our face over and over again, almost everyone was home and they all yelled at us, saying they were orthodox. Well, about half way down the block, finally one door opened and a lady turned on the hallway light and spoke to us for a couple minutes. She was very pleasant, but not interested. She took a little pass along card and closed the door. We continued, the next man yelling at us ...normal. We went down a floor and every continued to be very rude, when all of a sudden the door above us, where the nice lady had lived opened. We saw the shadow of a man in the stairwell, he yelled, "Where are they?! Where did those girls go?!" Now usually,  man yelling like this results in him calling the police and us having to run for it! So, of course we were terrified. We backed up against the wall, as we watched his shadow searching the stairwell for us. We stayed perfectly silent and tried not to move so as not to set off the motion-sensitive light. Sora gestured to the elevator and we were both about to make a run for it when the man came down the stairs and found us! 

"Hey, I want to know more about this!" He said, holding the pass along card we'd given to the lady. 

Did we feel stupid?! ... YES! There we were hiding, thinking the worst, when in reality he wanted to know more! We ended up going into their apartment and having a short lesson about the plan of salvation. That's the first time I've gotten into an apartment in 10 months! :D It was very exciting. I mean nothing came of it, he's not interested one bit and spent most of the time telling us why we were wrong, but on the bright side, we may have planted a seed... :)

The District

Haha :D Oh funny moment this week was at district meeting. A couple of the elders had received letters from their wards/stake back home. One elder's ward in Idaho, does a letter where they take excerpts from every missionary's emails to create a big newsletter update on how everyone is doing. It was sooo funny! All the other missionaries had huge paragraphs of uplifting  and inspiring stories, the excerpt from the elder in our district was about 2 lines long and just talked about the snow. Well, what was the ward supposed to put in the email? Stories of getting yelled at, nearly getting arrested, and your only investigator dropping you and trying to give the Book of Mormon back, aren't exactly ensign material. But that's okay! Do you know why? Because we have faith! We here in Romania and Moldova know that this is the Lord's work, and he will hasten it in his time. And the cool thing is that there are prepared people here, like Elena, Andreea, Monica and Ritta. They're just a little harder to find :)

Well, I love you all.... oh and guess what?! for my last transfer I'm going back to Iasi! I'm even going back with the same companion - Sora Kelly!! We're going to be the Sister Training Leaders for the East Romania and Moldova :D We're sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D  I really have loved serving in Buch... it took me a while to love it here, but now I really do! I love Panduri! and Sora Fletcher has been a dreeeeam to serve with! she's amazing!  

The Church is true! Keep the Faith!

Love Sora Rivera

Four Years Later

Many of you know that about 4 years ago, I came to Romania volunteering. I was working with children with disabilities and also with children from under privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds. There I stayed in the small city of Drobeta Turnu-Severin and met some wonderful people, and I fell in love with Romania. It was an unforgettable experience. 

Nicola did my hair :D

This week, after receiving voie from President Hill, Sora Fletcher and I took off to go visit Severin for a day, before heading to Craiova for our exchange with the sisters there. I'd called my friend Ramona and set up everything and I was ridiculously excited! It was amazing! We spent about 24 hours with Ramona, her family and the other team members and their families.

Nicola and me

The beautiful little Nicola (Ramona's daughter) was just 4 years old when I last saw her and now she's 8! We had so much fun! I let Nicola do my hair and nails and we became best buddies once again, especially since this time I can actually speak to her. It was also really cool because everyone was like... "uuhhh... how do you know Romanian?" haha :D We spoke in romanian the whole time and everyone was very impressed :) It was a cool way of seeing just how much I've changed and how much I've learnt. 

Nicola did my nails Orange and sparkley :D

Ramona and her team are doing amazing work here in Romania! They've started a new counselling center for youth and women, they are working to promote better education for children from under privileged backgrounds, and they are working to fight against abortion. We also got to sow them what we've been doing in Romania, we showed them the new Romanian church website and even gave them a Book of Mormon: amazing. 

Me and Ramona at the top of the Water tower in the center of Severin

There is also a member who lives in Severin so we went to visit him too. He took us for a walk down by the port and past a cool castle but at one point he very nearly got attacked by some crazy street dogs. I, unhelpfully, slipped on the ice and was lying on the ground as he yelled at the dogs and they growled ready to pounce. Luckily we all got away safely :)

us and alexandru, (the member)

The next day, we headed to Craiova and had our exchange with the sisters there. I went with Sora Wright and Sora went with Sora Newell. Sora Wright is in her first transfer and she is full of energy! It was a lot of fun to be around! 

one of our puppies!!! (her and her brother and sister live next to our apartment building :)

So on the train to Severin, (about 6 hours), we'd brought monopoly deal and sandwiches and crackers and we were playing our game and munching away. There was a Romanian family sitting across the aisle from us, also playing a card came, but instead of sandwiches or crackers, they had brought along for their lunch, a massive jar of pickles and bread. HA! #Only in Romania - I mean really? It was super funny, and I just realised how funny and endearing I found the whole thing. gotta love Romanians, and as one of the Elders said, "We all have our own spiritual pickles and bread, and God loves us anyway" ;)

Love you all! Keep the Faith!

Sora Rivera

PS Missionary humour - Just read Alma 17 and 18 this morning, I just love the verse where everyone thinks that Lamoni stinks but the Queen says, "to me he doth not stink" haha so funny :)

End on a good note

I've been avoiding writing this email. Saving it for when I had nothing else to write about. Since I wrote just a couple days ago, updating you on our Iasi and Moldova travels, I really have nothing else to say. So here it goes...

us at the top of the water tower

Confession: I am the Relief Society piano player!

I know what you're thinking, "Jessi, since when do you play the piano?" 

Sora and mee

Okay, well many, many years ago as a 9 year old I took some piano lessons. I learnt to read music but I decided that I didn't really care for piano and so I quit. Now skip forward about 12-13 years to summer in Constanta with Sora Polatis. She plays piano and has permission to practice piano during the week for Sunday slujba (job). As she was practicing one day I thought, hey, wouldn't it be fun if I learnt to play the piano. She retaught me some basic piano, and I too began practicing, just using the simplified hymns. From that time onward every time we got bunged on a lesson, as we waited for the person to show up, we would practice piano. 

Going to Iasi, they had pianos that could play themselves. They have all the hymns programmed in them, so all anyone needs to do if press a button. But coming to Panduri was a different story. Last transfer, Sora Heim would play for Relief society. But this transfer, I, with my poorly played simplified hymns, am the best pianist in the room. It's kind of embarrassing sometimes when they ask me to play ones I've never tried before but I'm definitely improving.

Now, I again know what you're thinking, "Jessi, don't you wish you'd kept up with the piano lessons and practiced?" 

us by the Port

Answer: Yes and No. I had no interest at the time, so I probably would've ended up hating the piano, but of course I wish I could play any old hymn they threw in front of me. Also, if I knew the piano, I'd lose the hilarious story of being asked to play the piano every week...:D

2nd Confession: We now teach piano lessons! That’s right! The branch president has decided that the all the missionaries teach piano lessons as a way of finishing new investigators, and inviting less actives and part member families to come to church. It's a genius idea really, the only flaw in the plan is that I neither Sora nor I play the piano... my simplified hymns is the extent of my skill. We've received a number of referrals already though, so I gotta get practicing!

us by the snowy castle

It's amazing the skills one learns on their mission! I've not only learnt how to teach the gospel and speak Romanian and play the piano, but my other new found skills include: juggling, crocheting, teaching English, milking cows, reading Romanian Cyrillic, moonwalking, cooking, baking, origami, rapping, beat boxing, and talking to strangers!

We're going to Craiova and Severin this week! I'm so excited! I love this work! I love the Lord. Jesus is the Christ! 

Keep the faith!

Sora Rivera

Many are called, but few are Frozen

(I have to give credit to the subject title of this email to Elder Danielson, one of the Russian elders in Orhei. It was far too witty not to use :D)

 

Many are called, but few are frozen

IASI

So last week, we went to Iasi again. We got to go visit the wonderful Soras Kelly and Hovey. Sora Kelly and I got to catch up a bit and it was just so much fun! I love Iasi. I went on the exchange with Sora Hovey who is only in her second transfer but totally rocking it! It was pretty funny, because she really wanted to work on Survey contacting and being able to do the whole thing by herself. So I was like, great! Go contact that guy, and just to warn you, I won't say anything. She did wonderfully, contacting the man, starting it, asking him the survey questions and then he said something and she panicked and looked at me, as promised I just stayed silent and smiled, and she totally rocked it! She testified to him and spoke wonderful Romanian! :D I love being a sister training leader just for moments like that! :D

English Classes

They started... and yaaaaaaaaaaaay we got tons of people! We've already started having gospel lessons with a few students too, and so have the elders, so that's been a real booster especially during the cold weather

BLIZZARD!

Sooooo, a huge massive blizzard hit Romania. I've never seen so much snow in all my life and it just wouldn't stop snowing! All day Friday, Saturday and Sunday it just snowed and snowed!. Our lovely boboc, Elder Daland from southern California was kinda freaking out haha.

on exchanges with Sora Bischoff in Orhei, Moldova

SUNDAY 

...was the craziest day, so as I said it was snowing like crazy, but we had stuff to do at the church early, so we trudged through the storm leaving at 8am and we arrived after about an hour at the chapel. The elders were already, hopelessly trying to shovel the car park. Slujba started at 10 went until 1pm, when we had a lesson with a new investigator (which went super well btw). Then we met with Elena to help her with her English school work, then we were running late for our interviews with President and the assistants, so despite having still not packed to leave to Moldova we ran across the city to the office for interviews, but because of the snow it took forever and we were suuuper late. We ran in, had a really quick interview, then the office elders drove us to our apartment so we could pack and get to the gara to catch our train. On the way home I warned Elder Phelps that our road was blocked with snow so just to wait for us on the main road... but no, his ego made him think he could get the little car through... so of course it got stuck. They then spent the next 30 minutes digging the car out of the snow while we packed and grabbed food for the trip. In the end we got to the gara and made our train. 

Suuuper cute old lady in our branch, Sora Simonescu, she reminds me of grandma, I just love her! :D - 

MOLDOVA

On the Sleeper train to Moldova

Sadly because of the snow, the typical 14 hour journey to Moldova was made even longer: 18 hours later we arrived in Chisinau, with barely enough time to shower, change and eat before we caught a maxi taxi to Orhei for our exchange up there. Which by the way was a very unpleasant maxi taxi. It was jam packed. Luckily I had a seat but unfortunately the guy whose butt was in my face had eaten to many brussel sprouts or something, so I was tortured with awful smells for the following 45 minutes ugh. 

ORHEI was great! Sora Caruso and Sora Bischoff are rocking that cute little city! Their DL Elder Danielson, taught me how to bare a short testimony in Russian, so I'm super pumped about that! And Sora Bischoff and I had fun block knocking and talking about life! 

CHISINAU was also wonderful. The day after orhei we went back to Chisinau on a better smelling maxi taxi. I went on exchanged with Sora Case and Sora went with Sora Bynum. Sora Case and I went to visit one of the members. It was super cool because her first language was actually Russian instead of Romanian. Ah, I just love Moldova, and Russian, and the Romanian/Russian combination everywhere :) I'm so glad I got to go visit again.

in the elevator, about to brave the blizzard!

JOURNEY BACK TO BUCHAREST

The journey back to Bucharest was only 16 hours this time. We left Wednesday afternoon and got back late this morning. However, about 5 minutes away from pulling into the gara the train got stuck because of the snow. We sat there for 45 minutes... Sora and I were going crazy! Then this guy is like, you can either wait or if you want you can climb out here and walk. We were the second people off the train! We jumped down into the snow, which was now reaching our thighs and got a great workout as we attempted to walk through the snow to the gara. In the end we made it back safe and sound!

Yaay! So that was my crazy week. It was great! And we're excited to head to Craiova next week. And maybe if we're in Buch for longer than 3 days we'll be able to actually meet with these new people from English :) 

Love you all, keep the faith!

Sora Rivera

сестра pивера

p.s. I saw frozen again :D (it was a treat from President since Romania and Moldova are frozen haha)