Hello all,
I've
was able to see a little bit of Conference, about half of the Saturday
and Sunday morning sessions. It was cool because I got to watch them
live! But because it started at 7 in the evening here in Romania, we
couldn't watch the afternoon sessions. BUT! I will be able to read them
on my own time.
I absolutely loved what Richard G. Scott said, that
God doesn't hold weakness at the same level as rebellion. That was so
profound, I love Richard G. Scott, and not just because I got to see him
at the MTC :)
Yup,
I'm over my Curent (spelled with only one "r", because Romanians never
use double consonants!) Sora Gerhartz's finger is healing great, we've
been going back to the doctor to get it cleaned and looked at. Today,
when we arrived to get it cleaned, there was a HUGE line that was going
to take an hour or two to wait in. But, when the doctor stepped out for a
minute and recognized us, she said, "Come in real quick!" and she let
us skip the entire line. She likes us a lot and she's easy for me to
understand so I can freely talk to her in my Romanian :) She says we can
always skip the line each time we come.
We
did English classes again, and I had four students this last time! My
class is growing. I really don't like the lesson plan, though, so I
decided to create my own, and the classes are going a lot better now and
are more fun. One student, Andie, has been coming to English for many
months and never stays after for the spiritual thought, but now she is! I
think she likes me. She's in her 20's and she's really cute. And her
English is perfect, haha, I don't know why she keeps coming.
I miss going to the temple! We won't get a chance to go to Kiev at all. You missionaries with temples close by are so lucky.
So,
what do you get when you mix boredom, curiosity, and a box-dye sale at
Kaufland? Answer: A red-headed missionary! Yup, you have two red-headed
daughters now. Surprise! I don't know if I'll keep up with this red
hair or not, but for the time being, I kind of like it, hahaha.
So, this week, I finally had my first lesson! (We
don't count the one with Maria because it wasn't really our lesson, we
just sat in with the elders on their lesson). Surprising that it's only
been my first lesson, huh? Let me explain why: Usually new missionaries
come into a city where there were already missionaries and investigators
to jump right into. I didn't. I was white-washed into my area, meaning
we had to start completely from scratch. But hey, I can say now that I
was whitewashed into my first transfer, that's pretty cool!
When we went villa knocking a week ago, we met one
woman named Ani who had a big family, she was very cheerful and she
shared grapes from her vine with us. We had to leave quickly, though, so
we told her we wanted to meet later and she agreed. So, this week, we
were finally able to meet with Ani and give her the first lesson (and
the very first lesson for me!).
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Sora Gerhartz tells me it was the worst and hardest
lesson she has ever had on her entire mission. How's that for a first
lesson ever? Ani and her family call themselves "Charismatica", which
basically means they believe that God doesn't have a religion, but they
believe in faith, Christ, the bible, etc. Ani and her daughter Eunice
had a really hard time accepting the fact that Adam and Moses and
Abraham were prophets. They don't believe in prophets, which is funny
because they believe in the bible, apparently.
But really, the whole
lesson we tried teaching about the restoration and they bible bashed
against even the most basic things we said, like about how prophets
speak the word of God and the concept of apostasy, etc. The worst thing
they had misinterpreted, though, was when Ani said the words, "Eu stiu,
eu STIU ca eu deja am viata vesnica! Dumnezeu mi-a marturisit." (I
know, I KNOW that I already have eternal life! God told me so.) Sora
Gerhartz and I just looked at each other and... you know. It wasn't a
good lesson. We ended with just asking her to at least read and pray
about the Book
of Mormon, saying that if something is true God will tell
us and she says "Yeah, we'll see then." So really, I'm not sure if she
will read or even open her heart to the spirit, but at least we did our
job and the ball is in her court now. Then, as we were leaving her villa, she left us off with,
"You two should preach repentance instead of all this strange Mormon,
Jospeh Smith stuff," and that was that. Wow, I still get fired up
talking about it, it was such a crazy lesson.
Then, on the other side of the spectrum, we had
another first lesson this week! I can't remember if I already told this
story, but a couple of weeks ago it was my turn to decide where to go,
so I just got on the bus and asked Heavenly Father to guide my feet. I
felt impressed to get off on a stop we had never been before, and I
walked right into an empty looking park and immediately contacted a
woman sitting alone on a bench. We asked to talk more later, and she
agreed as long as it was after September 29th because she was testing
for her doctorate in economics. So, we finally got to meet with her.
Her name is Mihaela, and she is Orthodox which means a lot when I say
she accepted the message of the restoration, because Sora Gerhartz told
me that she has never converted a member of the Orthodox faith. WOW that
lesson went a whole lot better than the one with Ani! Mihaela was
polite, she listened intently, agreed to another lesson, is reading the
Cartea lui Mormon, she asked real questions.. Unfortunately, however,
her husband is really against all religion and he has no idea she has
been meeting with us. She's been coming to English class and then
meeting afterward, so all he knows is that she's coming to English.
We're a little concerned about him. We hope this will work out.
So, about Maria. We've been trying to get her to
come to Sacrament meeting, but she loves her church so she can't ever
come because it's at the same time. This week, though, because we had
conference, our church service was at 5 p.m. so we thought it would be
perfect for Maria to be able to come. So, on Sunday morning, we went
with her to her Catholic service (the church was absolutely beautiful! I
can't take any pictures inside of it, sorry,) and asked her to come to
ours at 5. She said no, because she really just didn't want to. We're
really disappointed, and we think it might be time to drop Maria because
she will not progress unless she comes to sacrament meeting, which she
won't. We're giving her a week or maybe two, but then we'll have to let
her know. We're hoping and praying to help her discover how much she and
Gabriella need this church, but we don't want to push her, either.
Anyway, that's pretty much what has happened in the
last 5 days. The good news is our numbers are slightly increasing each
week, so we've been seeing how our white-washing here has begun to take
effect and open the mission. The crazy news is we get our transfer
boards this Friday so we'll see who is where next transfer (holy cow I'm
almost in my second transfer!). Sora Gerhartz predicted we'll stay
together, usually trainees and trainers do the first two together. So,
all is well in Romania, and we'll have to see where this week goes for
those we met with last week.
Never thought I'd see a "no farting" sign. Ever. This
was on the wall in the restaurant LactoBar, honestly, we saw it and
Elder Lake says "Haha, that looks like it says no farting." and then,
after closer inspection, that's what it really was. Hahaha, we had a good laugh.
LactoBar is the closest thing to an American burger we've found here. It's not actually that great, but we love the decorations. A car in LactoBar, we had to take a picture with it.
All of the men here just keep on trying to hit on me!
Thought for the week (in Romanian, of course):
Sunt
foarte recunoscătoare pentru înțelegerea pe care le avem în aceasta
biserică. Mulți oameni au ochelari de cal peste ochii lor, deci
mulțumesc Tatăl Ceresc pentru Cartea lui Mormon și fiecare lucru avem să
știm unde să mergem și cum să credem.
Oricum, mulțumesc pentru rugăciunile voastre și dragostea pe care am primit-o de la voastră! Vă iubesc!
Sora Smith
(And a translation because I'm nice):
I am very thankful for the understanding we have in this church.
Many people have blinders over their eyes, so thank you Heavenly Father
for the Book of Mormon and everything we have to know where to go and
how to believe.
Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and the love I have received from you. I love you all!
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