Sora Nicole Smith Mission Blog: I'm All Out of Alliterations . . . But Not Spirit!

Transfers are in two weeks on September 17th, we'll probably find out about them on like the 13th. I sure hope I stay in Arad! I feel I've gotten to know and worked so hard in this branch and I am NOT ready to leave any time soon!!! :)

Here are some pictures I took of the water tower museum and of Arad from up in the tower:

Water Tower Museum

Looking up at the inside of the roof

The water storage area

Looking out over Arad from the tower

Another view of Arad from the tower

SO anyway, a lot has been going on and I don't even really know where to begin! I guess I can start with Hunedoara and Lipova. We went to Honedoara and Lipova. :-) We toured a really cool castle.

The Castle at Honedoara

Lipova from the castle

Moving on. We've been working the hardest I've ever worked my entire mission, and so many blessings have been happening right and left.

We've been working with Ioana, but she hasn't been able to be in Arad much because she has had to stay at home in the countryside. But we still stay in contact with her and she's as cool as ever. She was able to come to church this last Sunday and we re-committed her to a soft baptism commitment (without a date). This week we plan on setting a date with her, so cross your fingers!

Visit to our Branch President's farm in the country

Also, Cristina. She's so great. She has been really good with regularly meeting with us, and she was hoping to get her mission call re-issued. Well, she was told that if she comes consistently to church until the end of the year, she can go on her mission. We were worried when she then didn't turn up to church on Sunday. So we called her and she had work. BUT, she told us she was able to schedule Sundays off from then on and it won't be a problem anymore. SO AWESOME!

Pictures of the place we have church meetings after we fixed it up.

Sora Smith and Elder B

Sora Florita has been coming regularly now. Also, we found out she used to be a smoker and gave that up a while back. PERFECT connection for Maria. Sora Florita has also lost a son in the past, and we think she'd be a perfect fellowshipper for her.

We visited a member who is unable to come to church because of her age, Sora Gerhardt, and she is so funny. She's a little frail old woman who takes in and care of stray animals and has little knick-knacks all over her home and... is an online gamer. Haha, she says all her friends think she's 32 and they love her, and that's how she's learning English............... bahaha. She's great. We're going to try to get the sacrament taken to her weekly.

Maria. So. She is so awesome. Our first lesson with her, she told us all about her story the previous year how her son had passed away. (The full story is actually very long and very sad, I would have to tell you the details in a better setting.) We had an amazing lesson about the plan of salvation, and Sora Lidia was boldly telling her how she needed to be baptized so she can be baptized for her son. She wanted that so badly, I'll bet her son was right there telling her it was true. The next lesson was the Restoration, and I'm sure he was there too because the spirit was strong and she accepted being baptized on September 13th. Unfortunately, with exchanges and me getting a bad cold, we haven't seen her much, but we're calling every day to see how she's doing and give her reading assignments. She's been reading the BOM to her children, who both wanted their own copies. We sent the Elders in our place the day I was sick, and it went well apparently :)

We've been visiting a sick member in the hospital, Sora Krista, and she's having a hard time. She had a stroke. We came and sang to her and it was very sweet.

Me, Sora Cox, and Sora Smith

P-day

Treats

For Zone Conference we talked a lot about boldness and giving commitments and Cristina came because President Ivory thought it would be nice to invite her.

It's weird being one of the old missionaries anymore...

So that's pretty much all that's been going on.

I feel like I'm forgetting something important so be expecting a "p.s." email soon.

Anyway, awesome things are going on and God is good! I've been learning a lot, too. We've started a Branch project of reading the Book of Mormon, starting today (September 1) and ending by January 1. Two chapters every day, and that's the whole Book of Mormon. I'm excited. What's scary about that is, as soon as i'm finished with the book, I'll have 20 days left!

Here are a few more random pictures I took: