It's Almost Time to Fly to Romania

Dear Family,

Yeah, I got the piece of cake, so Sora Newell and I started eating it but there are so many sweets at the MTC, we gave the rest to some elders. One great thing about the MTC is that if you're not going to eat something, there are a million elders who will gladly finish it for you.

All of the elders in my district have told me that their moms have been checking out my blog. Make sure to say hi to all of them for me! And, thank you for making the blog interesting for me mom. 

"Hello to the mothers of Elders Brown, Cooper, Brundage, Lybbert, and Sookoo!"

Someone mentioned in a talk, I think it was Elder Bednar, that things we don't even credit the spirit for are often spiritual promptings even when we don't realize it. Maybe we will say something that is something we would say normally but it is really the spirit helping us. Was that grammatically correct? I dunno, all of this Romanian grammar and such is making life hard, ha, ha.

I guess we're not the only ones inventing games to help with Romanian. Last class period, Brother
Vizante played battleship with us. Columns are feminine and rows are masculine, so it was hard figuring how to conjugate the sentence, so hey, it helped and it was really fun.

Something I heard and utilized on the first week was that "if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." So, based off of that statement, I'm pretty sure my district is doing things right.

If our district was a sitcom, this picture would be the cover art. It captures everyone in the district so well... (taken on Rainbow Sunday!)

We also watched The Phone Call last Sunday. It was funny because it's filmed in our neighborhood, so I'm all like "THERE'S MY HOUSE!" and the rest of my district sarcastically whoopies. It was great.

This Sunday was black Sunday... obviously Sora Newell and I did NOT pick the theme. I mean, all the elders had to change was their ties, but Sora Newell and I had to go ALL OUT. Boo. But it was pretty funny in a way. That's why we're for sure never letting them pick the theme again (because you know, we have so many more Sundays together).

We had to look pouty in all of the pictures because we joked all day about attending a funeral. And when I say "we" I mean everyone but Elder Sookhoo who isn't capable of making a pouty face.

Sora Newell and I stood out like two black sore thumbs that day. We made sure that we wore NO black and as much color as possible the next day.

We had another General Authority come on Tuesday! Neil L. Anderson came and he spoke about how love and sacrifice are linked, and it was very powerful. My favorite thing he said was "We sacrifice for the things we love and we love the things we sacrifice for." This devotional is also being broadcast to the other MTC's, so Daniel might be able to see me again in the choir. Although, Brother Eggett didn't conduct this time.  I always love it when Brother Eggett conducts because he always tells amazing stories.

After the devotional, they didn't let any missionaries leave because of the thunder and lighting on Tuesday, so we hung around singing songs until the security guards gave the okay to go. We all had
to run from the Marriott Center back to the MTC in the pouring rain. It was nice, but we were drenched because we did NOT anticipate the storm. The thing is, one of the Sorelli that Sora Newell and I are rooming with started having a serious panic attack because of the stress created from having to stay and going through the rain. We're in the residence hall when we see her heaving and seriously in trouble, so we run outside to get elders to give her a blessing. It was a bit of a crazy night, but our zone president is a doctor so he was able to calm her down and everything was fine. Just a little bit of an event.

We have TALL at this MTC, too (for those who aren't reading Daniel's email, it's a computer program that helps with the language learning). We "love" TALL in my district.  Notice how I put the word in quotation marks. (Sarcasm in case you are wondering).

Every week we do TRC which is when volunteers who speak Romanian will come and we give them a short lesson (Michael Abbott came a few weeks ago!). When we did TRC this week, one of the girls we were teaching mentions that she's from Boise, so I try to say that I was born in Boise. Thing is, I said it in accusative form instead of dative form, so instead I said "I gave birth in Boise!" Language mishaps are cel mai bun (the best). In a lesson the tricycle (Lybbert, Sookhoo, Brundage) was giving, their investigator asked who she gives her tithing to. Another accusative vs. dative case, and Elder Brundage accidentally tells her to "give yourself to the bishop." and the teacher says "Elder Brundage, NOOOOO!!!" and they had to cut the lesson short for laughing. Moral of the story is make as many mistakes as you can now before going into Romania where the real investigators are.

I've been utilizing my sewing skills a lot lately. I sewed a little case for my iPod out of a sock. One of the Anziani (Italian elders) ripped his hem, so I repaired his pants for him. I found a hole in one of my shirts, so I fixed that. Sora Newell has a rip in her skirt I'm going to fix. Elder Cooper's hem also came loose in one of his pants, so I'll be doing that, too. I'm just sewing up everything around here. Thing is, I'm not that much of a seamstress, but everyone is pleased with my work and everyone is coming to me for repairs. So that's pretty cool I guess.

Sorry my letter is so scattered and poorly worded today. I'm having to type this really fast because I don't have a lot of time.

I'm a really good prankster. Vizante loves to troll us with screeching his chalk on the board, so I took the liberty of breaking all the long sticks and putting them back together so they look like they're new.  LOL, he was so mad, but he's a good sport.  Also, Elder Cooper has a pen that shocks you when you click it, I got SO close twice to getting Vizante to use it. Tomorrow I will succeed.

We got our flight itinerary on Friday! Here is the basic schedule:

Monday, September 2

9:55 AM - Departing from SLC, UT

1:34 PM - Arrival in Dallas/Ft Worth, TX

3:45 PM - Departure from Dallas/Ft Worth, TX

Tuesday, September 3

8:05 AM - Arrival in Amsterdam, Netherlands

9:20 AM - Departure from Amsterdam, Netherlands

1:05 PM - Arrival in Bucharest, Romania

I will be able to make a phone call before leaving the Salt Lake airport, so be expecting me sometime between 7:30-9:30 AM this Monday!

 Volleyball is super fun and I'm getting better at it, the language is going great and our teachers say we've been ready for a week, Brother Vizante and Brother Frandsen are the best teachers ever and I will miss them, and next letter you receive from me I'll be in ROMANIA!!! It's too bad our district will have to break up, but with such a small mission we'll most likely rub shoulders again along the way. I hope I didn't forget anything, but I'm out of time and so look forward to my call!

La Revedere!

Sora Smith

Notice Brother Vizante's Photo Bomb?