Lam Liver and other Lovely things :)

Yesterday was Easter in Romania! So we got two Easters and that was so fun! (At least I celebrated two easters). Paste Ferecit! :) 

We had an Easter activity at the church and where they served traditional Romanian Easter food and I just started eating it without knowing what was in it. I knew there was Sarmale, hard boiled eggs, and bread, and this other greenish brownish thing that didn't taste super awesome and had a weird texture but I ate the whole thing! It's called DROB, and it's LAMB LIVER and other meat from Lambs, nu stiu. But I ate it and it was a Super fun experience! 

This week we had the wonderful opportunity to share our Easter Video with lots of people at the park. One of the people we met at the park is now one of our INVESTIGATORS and she IS SOO CRAZY PREPARED FOR THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST AND WE HAVE BAPTISMAL DATE WITH HER NOW! Here's a little bit about her story, read, if you want :)

-When we met Magda at the park she expressed all these feelings of frustration that she had with God, and that she had just decided that day that she was done with God and wanted to give up on religion and end her Easter fast. But that we looked so peaceful and that she felt like us coming to her was an answer to her prayer. She told us we were like ANGELS! We met up with her again a couple days later, did a church tour and had a lesson about the restoration. She loved it. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it testifies of Christ, and read the intro and Alma 7:11-13 with her. She just kept on reading out loud and the verse right after was about BAPTISM, so Sora Nowjack talked to her about that and invited her to be baptized on the 28th of April if she continues to learn more and is prepared and ready. She was like, "I've already been baptized, (because she's orthodox) but yeah I can be baptized again! I feel ready for this now, what else do I need to do?" So then we started talking about commandments including the word of wisdom, and she told us that she smokes and drinks and that to completely quit smoking and drinking would be really hard for her, and that it's such a BIG change and if she was being honest with herself she wouldn't be ready for that on the 28th of April. I was able to explain, in the best Romanglish that I know, that God's not asking her to completely change all at once. But that He wants to her to make the small little changes that will change her and her life for the better, and that it starts with reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. She said she would read! She prayed at the end of our lesson! I have such high hopes for Magda! She is SO ready for this in her life! She wants a change! Her desire is so pure! I'm not sure if we will teach her a lot in the future because she lives in the boundaries for the other Branch in Romania, but I have so much love for her and I KNOW that she will enter the waters of baptism in her life, whether the 28th of April or whenever she can be prepared and ready, and that the Lord will bless her IMMENSELY and send her the answers and love that she's seeking in her life right now. 

This was my first real real  missionary experience and it was absolutely amazing. Sitting down and teaching Magda brought the spirit into the room. I was able to share personal experiences, and speak in Romanian that I haven't spoken in before. The Lord truly helps us through His spirit and I am so grateful! This is His work! And I know the Book of Mormon is true! Reading it everyday and sharing it with people on my mission has been such a spiritual treat. This book holds the truth of this gospel. I do not have a perfect testimony of every gospel principle, but this I do know: The Book of Mormon is the word of God and because of this, EVERYTHING else about the Gospel is true. The church is true, the book is blue! 

Voi Iubesc! Cat de ferecit va spun mereu, trieste mantoritorul meu!

-Sora Dahl

Pics of this week!!!

-We found an emoji cake cookbook during our language study! you KNOW I found the poop cupcakes :)

-This is the plate of food I ate for the easter activiy. the drob is the green stuff on the top right YUM lol

-WE MADE GERMAN PANCAKES ON EASTER MORNING! I ate almost the whole pan :) so proud of myself :) I'll let you know how many pounds I gain

O saptamana minunata!

Wow What a wonderful week! So many great things happened! We had our 5 week training with my old MTC district, we had exchanges, we had our English fast (eek), we had our Easter concert, and we had GENERAL CONFERENCE! WOOHOO!!! What a full week! Mission life is good! 

I don't have a lot of time this week but I'm so grateful for this season where we get to remember our Savior and all that He did for us. Traieste! Salvatorul Meu!

In our Easter Concert this week I got to sing a short solo in the song Peace in Christ. I want to share the words:

"Daca alinam. Lacrimi de stergem. Cand traim cum a trait pace-n El avem." 

Mend the broken hearts. Dry the tear filled eyes. When we live the way He lived, there is peace in Christ.

I'm so grateful for my Savior. He is everything in my life. He made everything possible. Because of Him, we have unlimited chances and opportunities to try again, to be better, to smile wider, to be NEW each and every day. He gives me strength and hope and peace. 

I'm so grateful for GENERAL CONFERENCE! We watched the sessions in Romanian so I barely understood anything and tbh I was kinda frustrated. General conference is such a spiritual TREAT and I was frustrated that I could only understand a few main words from each talk. But by the end of the sessions I was able to understand the main ideas better and I know that it's through the Holy Ghost that that was possible. He gives us the gift of discernment! Because even though I didn't understand everything word for word like I normally do, I was able to discern the overall main messages of the talks and that was enough to answer the questions I needed answered. I'm so grateful for conference, and I'm so grateful for our prophet! I love and sustain him and his positive, encouraging countenance gives me strength to declare Christ's gospel with a more cheerful, hopeful heart! 

I'm learning and growing everyday! This is Christ's work! This is His Gospel! He lives! El Traieste!!!!!

--My old MTC district sisters :')

--Sora Lowther's (my old comp) first time trying Luca!!! YUM

--Exchanges ft. Sora Preda! She's the CUTEST member! Every year for her birthday she insists on doing missionary work with the missionaries and visits other members hahaha. She even wears her own missionary nametag that she made herself. hahah she's so CUTE!

--Easter Sunday with me, my mom (Sora Nowjack), my sister (Sora Colt) and my niece (Sora De Waal). Missionary terminology is weird idk

--Me at the Easter targ! Romanians make the CUTEST stuff!!!

Sorry this isn't a very thorough email whoops oh well catch up with ya'll l8r ;-)

FOARTE frig afara! Foarte foarte mult zapada!

It's VERY cold outside! So so much snow! That's what my subject says :)  

Another great week in Romania! Weird and crazy but also so many good things happened! 

This week Sora Nowjack and I met up with this girl named Masa that we met in the park contacting a couple weeks ago. She is SO SO SO NICE! She loves to travel and showed us all these pics of places she's been, so cool! We met up with her twice this week actually, and when we did she insisted to find me on instagram lol and so that was funny, I hope she likes my mission pictures haha

The second time we met up with her she insisted on buying us all these Moldovian candies that she loves because she's from Moldova and wanted us to try them. THEY WERE SO GOOD! I saved all the wrappers and put them in my journal because I loved them so much haha. Anyways, so we went to Starbucks to eat them (don't worry I got a coffee-less frappicino or whatever it's called, I practice the word of wisdom I promise) and we had such a good discussion with Masa about religion! I did my week 4 challenge and led the discussion about the Plan of Salvation and I asked her about what she believes about life after death and she was kinda surprised by the question but she answered. She believes in God, she believes in life after this life and hopes to make it to Heaven and we explained that we believe in the same thing and that we were sent to earth to get a body and to learn and grow and choose right from wrong and that we can become more like God. She kinda got surprised by that and asked "how" and I explained a little bit about the atonement and how through Christ we can become better and it was SO COOL! She was also kinda surprised when we said that we can live with our families forever and so that was kinda cool because you could tell that she probably hadn't heard about that before. She had some good questions for us, and we were able to talk and answer them and she wants to meet up again sometime to talk more about religion! I'm so excited! She also wants to bring us back candies from when she goes to Russia and I'm also excited about that ;)

We have an Easter concert coming up this Saturday where all the missionaries in Bucuresti come together to sing and so we went SINGING CONTACTING in the metro station with a couple other sisters in Buch and one of them played a ukulele and it was so cool! At first I was like......this is weird.. and we got kicked out of the metro lol so then we sang on the street. And it was actually so so good! This one cute girl smiled so big when I gave her a flyer and there was this cute little family with this little girl who was mesmerized by the ukulele and there was this man that recorded us on his phone and HE ENDED UP COMING TO CHURCH AT MIHAI BRAVU (the other church in Bucuresti) haha so that was so cool! At first I was so nervous to sing but by the end of it I was singing loud with confidence and the power of God! It was awesome! 

Another thing for this week, I extended my first baptismal invitation!!!! Didn't go super well, but I told Sora Nowjack I would do it and I did! We were doing a half english/half gospel lesson with this girl Eugenia and at the end I invited her to be baptized if she knew this was true and she just kinda looked at us blankly and didn't really understand hahah... Sora Nowjack saved the conversation. But still I tried! I followed the spirit and even though she didn't agree to be baptized I now have more confidence to follow spiritual promptings in the future!

We still haven't been teaching much, mostly just contacting and meeting with members and less actives, but it's still great! We ate Sunday dinner at Sora Gorzo's hahah and we matched and so I had to take a picture! I love her! She has had missionaries over for Sunday dinner every week for the past 15 years!! 

Still learning, still growing! This is the Lord's work!

-TAYLOR SWIFT :) made me so happy

-My first time trying gogosi! Nutella filled donut basically! YUM

-Masa insisted we take a picture of the candy haha ~aesthetic~

-First time trying sarmale! meat/veggie cabbage roll things. YUM

-Sora Gorzo! Try to NOT laugh at this picture I dare you!!!

The snow is BACK and SO AM I

Hello everyone it is almost April and it still snowing in Romania! Seems like the weather here is just as bipolar as Utah! I thought we made it through the winter but lol NOPE guess not! I've been bundling up, I'll let you know if I freeze and become a Romanian Popsicle! 

It was a great week in Panduri! We haven't had a ton of lessons, and we planned to meet up with lots of people and most of them fell through but hey that's missionary life! I'm getting used to it real fast! We've been vising lots of less active members and sharing messages with them. Sora Nowjack and I are determined to bring them back to church! 

After many days of not having much success with our potential investigators, we had one day that was just full of so many blessings! This past Friday we were able to teach a short lesson about the Book of Mormon to this girl that comes to our English class. We explained about the Book of Mormon, where it came from, what it can do for us, and I didn't speak super well but I invited her to read the first chapter! She took the book! Yay!

Also on Friday we went to go visit a less active member's son for his birthday and give him a bday treat and they weren't home :(  So we started block knocking and like the first door that opened was a man that talked to us and wanted us to come back! He has a daughter and wants to have her learn to study the Bible in English and so we came back yesterday and snuck a Book of Mormon in there too ;) We got to explain about it and we're DEFINITELY gonna go back and check up on them!

After talking to this man we kept knock blocking and GUESS WHAT. We knock block on this door and this younger lady answers with her little kids, and then we SAW EDI AND MIHAILA! The kids that we originally came to see in the first place! We got to give them their candy and with Edi a La Multi Ani! The lady invited us in and we got to stay for a while and ended up talking to her and gave her a Book of Mormon too! She said she would read! We have since gone back to her place, she didn't have time to read but we will come back again! But isn't that crazy?! BLESSINGS!!!

As far as the language goes, I'm still learning and progressing and I've got a loooong ways to go. The members here tell me that I speak pretty well and that I don't have an American accent which makes me FEEL GOOD but then when I speak to people when we contact I like freeze up and can barely say anything. I definitely need the Lord in this work! I cannot communicate with His children without His help! 

Other random things about this week:

-We ate at a members house after cleaning her windows and putting up her curtains. IT WAS DELICIOUS! She has lots of pictures of flowers on her wall haha!

-St. Patricks Day! Wasn't lucky at all, everyone bunged us, but I still wore the little four leaf clover martisor pin that one of our English students gave me. His name is Marin, he's like 50 and he's so cute!

-I stepped in dog poop so that was FUN!

-Our faucet to our kitchen sink like totally blew off and so we got water EVERYWHERE and when we had the landlord guy come fix it he just screwed it back on no problem. Lol. welp.

-We had District Conference and I got to see Sora Madsen from Pleasant Grove! GO VIKINGS!!!

-Also I like to punch icicles when I see them on the street. I also like to lick them?? 

I've got a long ways to go in becoming the missionary the Lord wants me to be but I just keep trying each and every day! One day at a time! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass!

Love all of you! Voi iubesc!

Casa poporului! The heaviest building in the WORLD! 

That's the view we get to see when we block knock in tall complexes!

Almost 2 weeks in Romania

Buna familia si prieteni!! Voi iubesc foarte fult!

Lol I'm such a poser, I don't actually know that much Romanian haha, but I'm still trying and I'm learning and growing every single day!

This has been SUCH a good week, Whoa! We had my first ever zone conference, we had a baptism in Bucurest, and we've been talking to lots of people and I've been meeting so many awesome Romanians!

This past week there have been so many holidays in Romania! They had womens day on the 8th of March, Mucenici Day on the 9th (Not sure what the holiday is actually called?) and they pretty much just celebrate spring all month long! It's so fun! And it actually feels like Spring outside right now! It's AMAZING! Thank you for the prayers, I didn't freeze in the short snow storm we had :')

On the 9th of March we met with some cute Romanian girls Georgiana and Nicoleta, and they fed us Mucenici! It's like this sugar soup with nuts and noodles shaped in the infinity symbol. It was pretty good! And they sell bread shaped in the infinity ALL day long and Sora Nowjack and I tried some and it was SO GOOD! Honestly, I haven't eaten a single thing I haven't liked yet here in Romania. Even when my comp makes eggs with broccoli! It's still good! I'm learning to love all the foods I once hated and it's AWESOME!!

Along with the fun holidays they have people selling things EVERYWHERE on the streets. One day we went to the Targ, which is like this big circle of all these booths of people selling stuff, and we did contacting there and met some really awesome people!

As far as the teaching goes, this week has been a little rough. We have yet to find a real investigator and it's kind of discouraging sometimes but we have been talking to lots of people in the park and meeting lots of new people so I know that it will happen eventually! This week we did have [kind of] our first real lesson, except it didn't go super well haha. We taught Georgiana and Nicoleta the restoration, we started with a prayer, but they lost interest really fast and the rest of the lesson was really hectic and crazy. I was feeling really discouraged because I've been in Romania for almost two weeks and we haven't had a real lesson yet but thankfully the Lord was able to help me through my discouragements and give me motivation to keep moving forward.

WE HAD A BAPTISM THIS WEEK! Her name is Astrid, she's 13, and she was someone my comp taught in her old area. The baptism was AMAZING! The best part about the baptism was the spirit that was there and how happy Astrid was. I actually got emotional standing there as she was baptized. It made me think of my own baptism and how that was one of the happiest days of my whole life thus far. And I cold just FEEL the power of God there as the ordinance was performed--even if it was in another language. God's power is real! And because of it, this sweet little girl was brought unto repentance and unto the Lord! This morning I was reading my mission scripture (Alma 29:9) and it talks about having JOY in the success of other missionaries and not just joy in ourselves and our success. Because in the end it's all about bringing people unto Christ and so that's what we should have joy in! It doesn't matter if I am getting a baptism or if the Surori in Mihai Bravu are getting a baptism, or any other missionary in Romania for that matter. I have JOY because a soul was brought unto God, and that is AMAZING! I am so happy for Astrid!

I barely speak this language, but I'm trying each and every day! Thank you all for the love and support and I pray for you all daily! 

Pics:

-Georgiana bought me a murtisor bracelet!

-The Targ!

-Mucenici! YUM!

-Astrid's baptism

-I find chicken EVERYWHERE! hehe iubesc pui foarte mult

More pics!!

I found ~true art~ this week hahaha YOUR MOM!!! 

Also this is Sister Alger, one of my STLs! I met her twin sister at SUU! small world! 

And I found a fidget spinner in our apartment hahah fidget spinning with my best friend Jesus! :) 

Sunt aici in Romania! WHAT?!

My subject means "I'm here in Romania!" hahaha and guess what, I'M HERE IN ROMANIA! This has been the start of the craziest adventure of my life. Whoa. 

It snowed A TON the day I got here--more than they've had all winter, and I was not equipped haha. I was expecting it to be more like spring, but it's okay, I've been layering lots! Hahaha I'm pretty sure I've been cold for 5 days straight haha but that's okay, it ROCKS!

My first area is Panduri! I'm in like the sketchier part of Bucharest haha so there's like graffiti and trash everywhere and the apartments where we knock block are kinda sad sometimes but there are LOTS of people here and the Lord loves ALL OF THEM! I just need to remember that wherever I go. They speak reeeally fast here in the city and so I understand about one or two words in every conversation I hear but apparently that's a good thing because that means I'll learn fast says my trainer Sora Nowjack!

My companion is Sora Nowjack and she is from Washington state and has been here for a year and she's spent almost her ENTIRE mission here in Bucharest! People are already anticipating that I'll do the same. haha we'll see. Anyways, she's great. She speaks the language really really well and is really patient with me and I'm so grateful for that. Because I can barely speak to anyone here haha. The first couple days here I was just in shock of it all. I barely spoke to anyone, and I could barely even look up as I walked! (Due to the crazy snow). While I'm still trying to get over the fear of opening my mouth and speaking the very slow, broken Romanian I know to the people I see wherever I go, I have already made great progress and I know that I will still continue to progress--I just have to TRY! If I let myself think about the fear, even if only for a second, then I will talk myself out of speaking to someone. But if I just DO IT, whenever the thought crosses my mind, then I do not have time to fear, I have to ACT! This is something I've learned over the past couple days and will continue to work on throughout the rest of my mission. 

We had pretty much everything fall through the first couple days so we just did a ton of knock blocking, which wasn't very successful either haha. I feel like we're just as annoying as the jehovah's witnesses that knock on our doors back in Utah.. like everyone's already Mormon there so WHAT YA DOIN? And everyone here in Romania is pretty much already Orthodox so WHAT YA DOIN? SAVING SOULS THAT'S WHAT! But really, even though I feel like we're just annoying people 90% of the time, i remember that this is people's salvation! This is important stuff! And we have an important message to share! When I keep that in mind I feel less bad about annoying people :) 

We've done some really cool things so far! I tried covrig on my first full day here, which is a pretzel and mine had chocolate inside, SO GOOD! And I tried placinte, which is pie, and mine was a cheese one so pretty much it was a fried quesedila ahaha. still good! We've also been making some fun meals in our apartment!

This week was also a holiday in Romania! Martisor! It's the first day of March, and they do it to welcome spring! Everyone gives women flowers and little pins to put on their shirt. We didn't get anything on the actual day, but we had some members give us some little things a few days after. So cute! America should adapt to this holiday, I love it!

KFC IN ROMANIA! SO GOOD! SO MUCH BETTER THAN IN AMERICA! I LOVE CHICKEN SO MUCH! IUBESC PUI FOARTE MULT!

After everything fell through the first couple days I had this idea that no one in Romania is actually a member.. haha but NOPE! I've been able to meet some REALLY awesome members and I already love them all so much! Today we met Sora Sergentu and she is just the sweetest lady, wow. 

Pretty much no one can actually understand my Romanian, because they're not used to hearing my American accent try to say their words, and so when I try to talk to people they usually just look at me so confused haha. But last night I wanted to tell this lady that I liked her coat, and at first she didn't hear me so it was really awkward, but then my comp and I started talking to her and she was the SWEETEST! So nice and so patient! She works with kids and so [with sora nowjack's help] we told her that I have 7 neices and nephews back home and she loved that! Talking to her was such an awesome experience. We exchanged numbers and will contact her this week! And it wouldn't have happened if I had gotten discouraged and stopped talking to her if she hadn't heard me the first time! That was probably my fav spiritual experience so far. 

Grinchy on this pday morning! 

This is my apartment!

Apparently Romanians love corn on their pizzas and eat ketchup with everything. Dad would love it here! hahaha