English Class

This week was definitely one of the crazier ones of my life.  No big deal, just the everyday things from being a missionary in Romania.  I ripped another skirt this week. Waddoyado? That is three skirts down, took them to the tailor we will see what happens. 

This weeks English class was literally going to be the best ever we decided to teach the students what a s'more was. Yes! There are people in the world who have no idea what a s'more is.  So we had our class in the kitchen roasting marshmallows over the stove.  (Just as a side note they didn't know what a marshmallow was as well.) When we heard a crash.  We run out and on the ground is our one and a half legged English student with blood in a ppol around his head on the floor.  Elder M was trying to help him up and yelled, "Get Ioan!" So I turned around and got another English student Ioan to come out and help.  They wiped the blood out of his eyes and you could see the gash above his right eye brow.  He missed a step and fell hitting the edging of the wall and cracking his head open.  The ambulance, if you could call it that, took about 30 minutes to come, so the guy ended up leaving in someones car.  Hopefully he will be okay, but I have a feeling that nothing will keep him from showing up to our English class tomorrow. 

We had a lesson with 4 of our new investigators and they are progressing very well. It is so exciting to see the growth of people.  We had a service project this week with a member in the ward.  I deleted all of my mission photos because of a virus, but I got most of them back.  There are some crazy virus' in Romania! Super irritating...  Overall it was a good week:) 

-Sora Long

This week on the district... October 2, 2014

SO my district is so cool!!! They are a bunch of hard working missionaries who are seeing success. 

This week my companion and I received a nasty cold.  I had a fever for a bit, she had a fever for a bit.  And we just were not sure if we could leave the door one morning.  But we had 5 lessons planned for the day. So we decided to complete our studies and see what happened.  We received a talk from Zone Conference and we were asked to study it and apply its principles.  So that morning my companion and I read  In the Strength of the Lord by Elder Bednar.  It is fantastic! (I included it as a link and for my missionary friends it will send you to a missionary safe page and I suggest you print it out and read it this week.)

Anyways, we were sick and miserable and we read this talk.  It suggests that we change the way we pray about things.  Instead of praying for us to be healed from our cold, we stopped and started praying that we would have the strength to leave our apartment and complete the tasks that we had laid out before us. We then left that day and had 4 back to back lessons and taught an English class.  It was an amazing day! I learned that it is important not to pray to have your circumstances changed, but to pray to be strengthened in our circumstances.  Although trials and burdens can be hard to bear receiving the strength from the Lord to carry them, rather than trying to throw them off our shoulders is the better route. Because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The point of the story is, you too can use this same enabling power of the atonement.  It is cool and I encourage you try it our sometime. 

Also General Conference happened. When you were all snuggled in your pajamas I was watching the first session at 7:00 at night! We had sacrament meeting on GC day and watched one of the sessions for church.  It was so good! We had the opportunity of watching these sessions with some investigators and they absolutely loved the experience.  It was interesting to see the choir.  I have been told that Americans really stand out like a sore thumb in Europe but I didn't believe it until we were watching General Conference and I noticed for the first time the contrast between Romanians and Americans.  Lots of Blondes in the choir and the hair dos are... different... AHahah! 

I have not seen all of the sessions yet since the last one aired at midnight last night.  But so far my favorite part of conference was the talk from Lynn G. Robbins.  His powerful words of having courage really stuck my heart. SOmetimes it is a little difficult to open my mouth and tell people about the gospel and what I know to be true.  I also really liked the idea from Elder Anderson that spiritual questions deserve spiritual answers.

Anyways, I have to go! But here are a few pictures.  I love you so much and I hope you are all having a great time! Know that I pray for you every day. Pa! 

-Sora Long

This is our district pausing our conference to have a small break and we took a picture, literally I think we were going a little crazy, not really sure... 

Moldova and Back Again: A Tale by Sora Long September 29, 2014

I went to Moldova this week for Zone conference with my district and in total we spent about 24 hours or more on a train or a bus or a cramped car literally going to the capital of the middle of now where Chisinau, Moldova. We went from Constanta to Bucarest by train then from Bucarest to Iasi by train then spent the night with the Iasi sister missionaries. Then woke up the next morning and took a sketchy Maxi Taxi into Moldova.  And it was beautiful.  Just imagine driving through the most beautiful rural place in the world with the smallest, most humble villages.  On the bumpiest hand paved road lined with the tallest green trees with trunks painted white. And add the spice of Romanian Russian almost Bollywood pop songs and a dude with a lead foot driving and you have got the perfect scene for our road trip from Iasi to Moldova. 

The border crossing was the scariest part.  I gave the lady my passport for when I was leaving Romania and she asked me some questions:

"How long will you be in Moldova?"

"Just for today, I will be back in Romania tonight."

"And then when you get back how long will you be here in Romania?"

"For about a year and three months."

"A YEAR AND THREE MONTHS?" She literally yelled that and everyone behind me went quiet.

"I have a visa." And I went to hand her my visa.

"Hem. Next." 

On the train to Iasi we were sitting just a little ways from the Elders when two Romanian police men and a regular looking dude came in and pointed to them saying in Romanian, "This is them, these are the two." Then in English they said. "Immigration police, give us your passports." So while the Elders were hastily digging for their passports I caught the eye of the normal looking guy and pointed to my name tag and said, "Do you want our passports too?" So he took our passports as well.  Were were in the middle of playing uno with this super cool Romanian girl that was sitting by us.  And the girl was very shocked because she had never seen anything like that before from immigration police or any police. All was well they found no problems with our passports and we continued to become great friends with this girl.  When she got close to her stop I wrote my testimony in the front cover of the Book of Mormon in Romanian and we gave it to her.  I hope I spelled everything right... Oh well! But it was crazy!  Even though we were stuck on trains and buses for that long and not able to contact anybody in our area we placed three Book of Mormons into the hands of three very beautiful women.  The first one was on her way to a small village near Iasi for fall break from school.  The second one, Elena, brought cards and taught us Romanian card games while we taught her American card games for three hours and was on her way to start her semester of school.  And the third one was on her way home to Moldova from Constanta to take a year long internship in her home town before finishing school again. The third one was literally stuck in a maxi taxi filled with 15 missionaries and one other Moldovan not including the driver so we got to talk to her about the church and our purpose here as missionaries pretty much the whole way.  Sora Sayre and I sat in the front.  I mean, try having an audience of 13 missionaries listen in while you tell someone about the church for the first time.  A little stressful! It is crazy to see who the Lord lets into our path here.  I don't feel like a minute was wasted.

This is Sora Sayre and I on the maxi taxi to Chisanau last week.

Zone conference was soooooooooooo cool! We had a quorum of the 70 Elder Robert D. Gay come to our conference and his presentation was powerful.  It was really a Zone Conference that talked about miracles.  They are real.  Don't know if you know that but this world is filled with miracles, and sometimes they just get over looked.  We are starting something here as a mission where we are going to pray as a mission 3 times a day at the same time as a mission.  I would like to invite all of you who read this to pray every day for missionaries every where and for miracles.  I would request specific prayers for the Romania/Moldova mission, but that seems a little selfish.  We are praying for baptisms, and for investigators and for the guidance of the spirit we need in order to help others come unto Christ. :) 

On the way back from Moldova we got to go to a duty free store in between the boarders.  This is were every one buys all of their super cheap alcohol, but for 15 missionaries? We stocked up on Pringles and american candy.  The line was huge and no one was buying any alcohol and the guy thought we were weird.  I was at the last of the line and behind me was a Russian looking lady holding a huge bottle of whiskey.  When she put her item on the check out stand the cashier said, "Draga mea!" My dearest! In the deepest voice. I swear he could have kissed her just because he was so happy someone was buying the whiskey! HAHAHA.

The church is true! Thank you for all of your support! I love you all and I pray for you everyday! Don't forget to pray for success here in Romania and Moldova! 

-Sora Long

Headed to Moldova

Hello my friends and family and others!!! 

 I hope your week was just as cool as mine! IT was transfers so I was down in Bucharest picking up my new companion.  Sora Sayre.  She is so awesome! She is from West Jordan, Utah loves everything I love.  I don't understand it, but every companion I have had has amazing hair and it is not fair. 

This P-day we walked this whole city and I showed my new companion our crib! SO much fun! We went to this place to eat that the Elders told us was good and it was... interesting.  I think the Elders were lying 'cause it was gross... The guy gave us this milk drink "on the house." And we sat down and took a sip and it was seriously so bad, but we tried really hard to make our faces look okay for a little bit because he was waiting for us to try it. Apparently it was butter milk, but I don't believe it because I have had butter milk before and it DID NOT taste like that. So luckily it started to rain so we had to pack up our stuff and leave and we took the milk with us because we didn't want to offend the guy who gave it to us for free. And as we were leaving a cute little gypsy boy popped up at my elbow and asked,"Are ya gonna drink that?" I looked behind him and I saw his friend hiding behind a wall.  "Nope." And I handed him my cup. For a split second I thought he was going to pour it all over me, but he carefully balanced the rank liquid and headed back to his friend. His friend was jumping in the air with a smile on his face. "Vrei doua?" Do you want two? We asked and he turned around and said yes. And he ran holding two giant cups of butter milk careful not to spill it on his hands. It was great:) 

This week we will be having Zone Conference and I am so excited! Mostly because it will be in Moldova! What? Crazy right? Our district will be traveling for about 24 there and back again.  And we will be going trough the beautiful cities of Galaţi and Iaşi on a maxi taxi.  Woot Woot!! Road trip! I am so excited! And I hope I get to meet some really cool people on the way there and talk about the gospel.  

The church is true!!! I am so happy to be here and to be sharing this message. 

-Sora Long

Transfer Boards!!! September 15, 2014

This week!!!!!!!!!! 

     So to start off transfer boards came out I cannot believe I am already starting another transfer, it goes by so fast!! And my companion, Sora Ralls, is no longer mine.  To which news I am super sad about.  It is had having good companions and watching them leave.  Sora Ruiz, Sora Ralls, and Sora Quist. love ya all! I love my companions! Sora Ralls and I have had so much fun this transfer and worked so hard, and have become the best of friends. The second shocker, I am staying in Constanta! Weird. I am happy about that though:) These are literally the only members I know in Romania, I love working with them and visiting with them, serving them, etc.  My new companion is Sora Sayre who was the only Sister missionary I remember meeting on my first day in Romania besides my companion.  And she was so nice, even though I am sure talking to my tired jet-lagged self was like conversing with a bucket of nails. Boring.

     This week has been really cool.  We have been let into so many homes to give lessons down here it is almost unheard of.  One day we were cutting through a market and out of the crowd a woman yelled "hey!" We turned around and she came up to us and asked if we were Mormon.

"Yes, we are." 

"What time is church on Sunday?" 

"It starts at 10:00, would you like to meet with us this week to go?" 

"No I can't this week but I will be there next Sunday." 

"Oh good! What is your name?"

"It doesn't matter. Can you get me one of your books?"

"A Book of Mormon?" 

"Yes."

"We have one right here," We of course excitedly pull one out. "You know about this book? That it was written by ancient prophets?"

"Yes, how much does it cost?"

"It is free." 

"Ok, thank you bye!" She got the book, and said she would see us at church next week. 

     It was seriously the quickest conversation, and the fastest contact ever.  I loved it:) It is very strange when people come up to us on the streets because  the church is so small here so we know when someone approaches us it is a miracle every time. I am excited to learn her name at church next weekend.

     Also this week I was trying to lock the church door but instead I just broke the key in the door? I am not really sure how that happened besides a combination of my talent and the fact that doors in Romania are weird.  But this is the 3rd key to break in a lock from missionaries in our district. Just in the last couple weeks! All of them from different doors!! So of course we get the info to find the best key shop and head to the area to get another copy of a key. We got there and we set our Book of Mormons on the counter and while he was making us a copy he told us that he didn't feel like a book could change someones life, that you can only know about things from God by feeling something inside of us. Holy Ghost? Yes.  We explained that we believe that this book could change his life so we let him borrow it for a couple days to read and we get to go pick it up this week and talk with him about it.  Come to find out we went to the wrong key store that the Elders had gone to twice.  SO. Our reasoning with 3 different sets of missionaries snapping their keys in half was due to the fact that we kept getting our keys copied at the wrong store. The church is true. Or missionaries are just to strong for keys here in Romania.

     Once we left that same key store a gypsy woman started following us and asking for money.  She was holding this little baby and saying "Frumoasa, Frumoasa, un Leu." Beautifuls, beautifuls, one dollar, my baby is hungry. It was actually really scary and I thought we were about to be robbed by this woman or by her gypsy friends who were all watching us.  She seriously would not leave us alone and at one point Sora Ralls and I turned a corner and found a dead end.  The gypsy woman layed her hand on Sora Ralls' shoulder and I pulled Sora Ralls away and told the woman to leave. And we literally ran away.  

     As we were walking a little ways away some gypsy children started begging us and we told them we couldn't give them anything.  (It is illegal for us to give them anything) The little girl followed us for a bit then when we turned away and started walking she poked me in the bum and made a loud squealing noise? I don't know how to explain the sound she made, a trill of her R's really high pitched.  But the point is I actually got goosed by a 6 year old gypsy girl accompanied with some tune-age.

     Then we got on a bus to go to a lesson soon after that and while we were on the bus a group of boys our age started to be weird.  One of them sat behind us and grabbed Sora Ralls' red hair at the end and I snatched her hair away from his hands and we got off of that bus.  But the whole time they kept closing in on us at the far end.  At one point one boy got really close and he was creepy and kept asking us,"Speek English?" and Sora Ralls said "HEY" really loud and the whole bus turned and looked at this kid and they left us alone. 

     That was just a strange day over all...  Just another week here in Romania! I feel like there are times when we are watched over very carefully and guided to get out and steer clear of scary situations.  I feel safer here than I did in Provo. Which is interesting... I love this branch and the people here so much! I miss you all and I hop you have a great week.  This morning was the first day of school and all of the kids were dressed up in suits and dresses and carrying huge flower arrangements to school.  The first day of school here is a big deal!! The kids don't have to worry about picking out an outfit, it is a suit, or a dress. Love ya'll! Bye!

-Sora Long

Inspired Contacting September 8, 2014

Seriously, waaaaaay crazy!! I don't have much time but this week was full of contacting the most interesting people.  One lady we were walking past was looking at a wet part of the street very concerned so I said hello to her to see if we could help.   She had very bad vision and she wasn't sure if the wet road was a hole or a deep puddle of water or a very small amount of wet road.  We told her it was safe to walk on and she was very happy.  She talked with us for a long time and at the end of our conversation really wanted to meet up with us again.  She told us we were her angels and that she could see our light and it was beautiful.  I liked that a lot!!!! Earlier in the mission I got a blessing when I was going through a hard week.  I had been wondering to myself way in the world was I sent to Romania.and in the blessing I was told that I was sent here to Romania because I was a light and that people would see this light and be drawn to it. Then on the street this week I run into a half blind lady who can see the light that we as missionaries hold. I have so much hope for the people of Romania! 

We were also walking home one day and my companion Sora Ralls said,"I feel like we should contact this family." So we circled back and contacted them. It was a crazy windy day and it was really kind of hard to hear him speak. He also poured us a glass of home made cherry alcohol and we had to decline. The grandfather was so excited we were there and he said that he had a Book of Mormon and had already read 100 pages of it.  He told us he thought it was a beautiful story and nothing more. We asked if he had prayed about the book to know if it was true and he said, no of course not. So we shared Moroni 10:5 with him and invited him to pray about it. As he was reading the scripture the wind stopped. And everyone focused on the words.  I felt the spirit so strong and I knew that we were suppose to be there at that time to contact this man and his family. We left the family and we will be following up sometime this week.  It was so cool to know that small action of knocking on his door and inviting him to pray was a really important moment in someones life.  I know that for a fact because I felt it when we read that scripture.  The church is so true! The principles it abides by are pure, simple, and the way to true and exquisite happiness. All it takes a little guidance, or a little bit of faith to know whether or not it is true. And I know it to be true with all of my heart.  There would be no purpose of my being in Romania if that was not true. I love you all! I hope you are all safe this week! And I give you the challenge to tell somebody something about the church. 

Heart, 

Sora Long

Cat with a Mustache September 8, 2014

Guess who is getting baptized?!! 

No, not Roger the Turtle.... Our investigator!!  Vlad!

We love this kid Vlad! He is so sweet and we have been teaching him and his mother since I got here in Romania.  On Saturday we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes.  He is so excited and so is his mother. The first baptism I will see in Romania will be in 2 weeks, and it will be with this little cutie right here.  There were so many miracles that lead up to this point and many more to come I am sure. It is amazing to see the progression of people in the gospel and notice how it changes their lives.

    This week has been non-stop awesome! We have been working so hard to get to know the members of the branch here in Constanta so we have been having lessons non-stop.  There is also a lovely member of the branch here who got her mission call to the Birmingham, England mission speaking English so we have started having lessons with her to prep her for that. 

From left to right Elena, Sora Ralls, Me(of course) and the future missionary Andreea.  Are we not cute!? We have such a strong branch together! And these two girls have been so helpful to me with Romanian and tons of other stuff I will be sad to see Elena leave soon for school and Andreea leave soon for her mission. 

This week as we were headed to a lesson a boy sort of yelled at us in English, "Are you here to save us?" And I literally looked over my shoulder to see who he was talking to, but of course it was the English speaking missionaries. Sora Ralls responded ,"I don't think God wants to destroy anyone." So we started talking to him about the gospel and came to find out he actually liked our church and had been introduced to the missionaries in Spain and even attended a few sacrament meetings. Sora Ralls handed him a pamphlet  with our contact information on it. As we were talking to him our bus came up and I turned to Sora Ralls and said,"Our bus is here!" I then proceeded to hop on the bus. As I turned around I watched as the bus doors closed behind me and Sora Ralls was still on the street talking to this kid!!!! She turned to look at the bus just in time to see it drive away with me inside it. So I waved.  It didn't take me long to get a little frightened.  I looked at the people on the bus and ALL of them were staring at me.  They know we go two by two.  I started pacing a little bit because I couldn't remember what I was suppose to do in this situation. The bus came to a stop and I looked up to see we were at a red light.  When I looked in the bus drivers rear view mirror he had a scowl on his face and I just looked up at him and pointed to the door.  I could see him role his eyes as he pressed the eject button and I jumped out of the bus and ran to my companions side as fast as I could.  She didn't notice me running up to her so I grabbed her arm very softly and freaked her out a little.  She had been contacting the same kind for the full 60 seconds we were split apart.  What a good missionary!! 

I love you all so much!! I know school is starting about now-ish, so good luck! You are looking sharp in those polos.  Happy Birthday to Baby Wesley this week and if I forgot anyone else's birthdays... sorry about that. 

And just as a last fun picture, I found a cat with a mustache this week.  Remember I have no access to photoshop, this is real life down here in Romania, a cat with a mustache!! I still am not sure why I was laughing so hard at it!! HAHA! I also probably should not have touched it... YOLO.

Love, 

Sora Long

Where to begin... August 25, 2014

First off!! We met our goal of 10 lessons this week!!! WOOT!! We worked so hard for those, ridiculously hard, and we saw success.  

My personal favorite weird event of the week happened during inspired contacting.  Inspired contacting is when you pray for where to go then you go where ever you feel and knock where ever you feel and then find people.  Sora Ralls and I stood on the corner and said a prayer.  The Sora Ralls asked me where we should go.  I closed my eyes and saw a red house with a black fence.  So I told her, "Red House black fence." 

"What direction?" I closed my eyes again.

"Left."

So we went left and made it down a street and Sora Ralls pointed to a red house with a black fence. We knocked on it, the woman answered.  I spilled out in my best Romanian what the Book of Mormon was and asked if we could share more with her and she said yes. YESSS!!! She was busy then but she asked us to come by this week sometime and tell her the message! Kinda cool right! Earlier that day we were inspired contacting with the Elders and as we were knocking on some apartments the second to last door in the building opened and Sora Ralls gave an awesome summary of the plan of salvation and how it blesses families.  He said he wanted to hear more but was leaving now, but we could come back the next day.  There was the cutest little boy about 3 years old on a bicycle behind him who was peeking at us shyly.  We went to the next door (Which was the last in the apartment complex) but we wanted to wait until the man closed his door or left before knocking, so we both waved to this cute little kid.  As we were making faces and saying "Pa!" or "Bye!" He burst into the cutest fit of giggles and thrust his head backwards really hard making his bike flip over, on top of him and he landed on the back of his head on tile. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! The dad didn't notice that we were the ones that made his kid fall over but he ran over and picked up his screaming child and we left as fast as we could.  I was laughing of course because I am a terrible person. 

The next day we head over to the apartment and in front of the buildng we get stopped by a woman standing outside,"Who are you, what are you doing, what are you soliciting?" She said it so fast not even Sora Ralls understood her completely.

"We are missionaries. Have a good day!"  We responded politely with huge smiles and continued to walk up the stairs.  We got to the apartment and knocked and from two floors down that lady started yelling at us.

"What do you want, what are you doing, who are you... etc" 

And she came up to the door we were knocking at and pulled out her keys!!! IT WAS HER APARTMENT!! She was the wife.  We told her that her husband said we could come give a lesson to their family.  She said it was not beautiful for us to come give him a lesson when she wasn't home. Awkward.  We are motioned inside and find out that the husband was planning not to open the door to us, that since we came 30 minutes earlier than he thought we were coming he hadn't left the house yet.  and since we were there standing in the kitchen the wife let us give her the lesson we talked a little bit about the restoration and she said that we were welcome to come back and teach more.  Kinda crazy!! Because if everything didn't happen in the way it did we would not have taught that family.

Anyways, that is about all this week!! 

I love you all so much!! Happy Birthdays this week to my two very cute siblings Alden and Kenzie who are now old enough to do crazy things like go on dates and stuff.  I miss you all very much and I think about you a lot but know we are all working hard out here to spread the news. 

Pa pa for now! 

-Sora Long 

I didn't take any pictures this week so enjoy a few of me and my district going to the mosque for p-day about a month ago!! :) 

Gaining Momentum August 18, 2014

This week has been really cool:) There are miracles happening here and it is exciting to see the work here gaining momentum.  We had 7 lessons this week. SEVEN! And 2 new investigators. That is crazy:) And I know the number will only grow from there. Woot WOOT! And anyone reading this who doesn't think that is a really miraculous number needs to head on over to Constanta for a little while:) It IS a miracle and I am so humbled and grateful to be a part of it. 

This week we have a new investigator who is amazing:)  It had been a frustrating day and we were headed home after a lesson of ours got canceled when we showed up on their door.  On the way home we passed by this lady on a yellow bench, she is always sitting there in the evenings and I always say, "Noapte Buna!" as I pass by.  Well my new companion walks right up to her and we say hello. Within the next 5 minutes we are talking to the cutest old lady in town who is the sassiest thing on three legs! (One leg is a cane if you didn't get that) She was fantastic and we asked her if we could share a message with her about Christ.  We started taking to her about the Book of Mormon but the conversation steered into the Plan of Salvation and she talked about her husband passing away and started crying.  So Sora Ralls told her she would see him again.  I of course am not really understanding all of what is happening, but I get the general picture and Sora Ralls uses her American Sign Language to sign to me ALMA 40, which is where the verse about the spirit world are found.  So I flip there in my Book of Mormon and Sora Ralls turns it to me and I bore my testimony about her being able to see her family again in the hereafter. And this old lady turns to me with tears just pouring out of her eyes and I, of course being the sympathetic crier that I am, start crying.  I told her about Grandma.  And how sad we all were when she passed away.  (I was dually thinking of Grandma Sheep and Grandma Jane, but it got to complicated in Romanian so I just said my Grandma and called it good). THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG!!! And she felt it, I know she did.  She kept saying, "Nu cred." I don't believe.  We responded, but we do.  And all you need to do is pray to know it.  So she did pray, a beautiful memorized prayer.  And then blew on our faces which was really sweet:)

We taught her one more time this week, and this time we tried to tell her how much God loves her and she said.  Nu mai stiu.  I don't know anymore.  And cried.  And we just bore testimony of it again.  Hopefully we will see her tonight or tomorrow and we are praying that she prayed to know! She keeps using memorized prayers. 

  

The last two days there was a GIGANTIC rain storm, with tons of lightning over the black sea and super loud thunder cracking at the same time the bolts struck. It had quieted down to almost nothing by the time we went to bed.  2am Sunday morning the thunder and lighting got so crazy it woke me up with a start and I was trying to figure out where the light was coming from because it was a continuous strobe light.  As I am looking out of the blinds above my bead Sora Ralls yells, "Sora What is Happening!!" I responded, "It's back. It's big." And we stood in the middle of our apartment for a while just watching the sky light up completely.  Apparently one bolt stuck about 20 feet away from in front of the Elders apartment and, I won't say who, but one of them screamed.  

So Sunday morning we go a little early to the church because I have my first real Romanian talk.  And I am also all of a sudden the Branch pianist for sacrament meeting.  So one hour before church starts we head to the chapel on the second floor and it is flooded!! And hour before church there is a 1/2 inch to an inch of water on the floor.  So we head down to the office and inform the branch president and Sora Ralls and I are going crazy trying to mop up this water in time for church.  Someone left a window open, and that is what flooded the second floor. I am on my hands and knees moping it up and rising it out with towels and the Elders arrive.  Six missionaries and a branch president are doing all we can to get the water up.  Using dust pans to scoop it up, towels, mops and we got it all cleaned up 15 minutes before church and the rest of the branch comes in and doesn't know a thing happened.  I of course don't know how to play the songs or how to read my talk out loud, but that is okay.  

My talk went really well! The woman before gave her 15 minute talk in 3 minutes so I just read mine extra slow in Romanian to make sure it was 10 minutes longer than it needed to be and we were good! Then I sat down and played the one hymn I knew on the piano and everything went great. 

It was raining the whole day and we had planned to go contacting so we get out our rain coats and go out side to go knocking in apartment building, aka bloc knocking.  We get to a building that is 10 floors high and one floor down I have to pee sooooo bad!! I think it was the combination of the rain and an inheritance of a Nelson bladder.  But we keep going.  It gets so bad I ask Sora Rall just to ask a random stranger whose door we are knocking on to let me use their bathroom.  They of course an angry Romanian woman who hates missionaries, English and having to pee yells at us. "NO, you can't!" Probably thinking we were trying to trick our way into her living room. I am walking in circles as fast as I can and Sora Ralls says, "Here is a balcony just go there." Nope! No way. So we continue to knock on doors just to share the gospel, no more asking for mercy.  One floor down I just say we need to leave or I am going to pee on this persons rug.  So we take the elevator and we are running through the rain flooded streets to the mall which is the nearest public restrooms 'cause in Romania there are no near public restrooms. Don't worry I made it just in time.  But it was also a tender mercy because the streets were flooding and we realized it was probably smart to head home.  As we are walking there are cars hydroplaning all over the place and Sora Ralls and I were laughing and talking, and since we were already soaked to the bone we just started jumping in the ankle deep rivers around us all the way home.  Sora Ralls found a sad lady on a cross walk and went up to her and gave her her umbrella.  And went just smiled and waved and everyone thought we were crazy.  It is really fun being a missionary in a different country because you stand out in so many ways as a disciple of Christ like my cute companion did. 

I love being a missionary!!!!! The people here are amazing.

​

Us after the rain.

The lightning storm.

Heart,

Sora Long

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! August 11, 2014

Yesterday:) I hope you had a great one!! You are so old now I don't know what to do.... 

So my new companion is Sora Ralls!! She is super awesome and I will most likely be her last companion on a mission.  This week was sad because I had to say goodbye to Sora Ruiz, but it is great to have a fresh start.  

We set some new goals and because I am fairly new here and Sora Ralls has never been in Constanta so needless to say for anyone who knows me at all, we get lost a lot! But it is good because we get to the parts that I am pretty sure no one has been before in the city as far as missionaries go.  Just on Saturday we randomly walked in front of a gypsy mansion and had people following us because they looked at me and my red-headed companion and go, they are not from here.  So that was a little scary but we got home safe with no incident and now that part of the map is marked do not enter. 

When we were looking at the map super lost the other day Sora Ralls asked a woman on the street for some help finding the park and the woman walked us there no problem.  We talked to her the whole time we walked there and set up a teaching appointment for the next day.  We show up at her apartment after a taxi driver tries to rip us off again and she has the coffee pot boiling and a nice china-crystal set  with home made pastries and 4 fancy crystal glasses for coffee, beer, wine, and water. So of course it was awkward to explain that we don't drink coffee or alcohol, but it went well.  We had given her a Book of Mormon the day before and she had already started reading it.  She loved our lesson and told us that she wanted to meet with us again after she comes home from vacation in  September! Yay! But also sad because she will be gone for a really long time.

Last night we gave a lesson to a woman who Sora Ruiz and I contacted at the edge of the Black Sea and watched the Moon rise.  No worries it was still light outside, but apparently it was a special rare moon rising where the moon was as close as it could be to the earth.  It was so pretty.  We taught our lesson and there was a moment where we felt the spirit so strongly and knew that what we were doing by teaching this woman about the Plan of Salvation was something amazing! 

The church is true! And I can see the changes in Romania in just the 7 weeks I have been here. Thursday is my 3 month mark on a mission and it is crazy to think it has gone by so fast.  I hear school is starting soon at home and that the summer breaks are coming to an end. I love all of you! Good luck in school and have fun during the month of birthdays:) 

-Sora Long 

So this week has been kind of crazy!

 We had 3 lessons in one day! That is unheard of! Well, for us anyways.  And they went so well! It is exciting when you see a change in the pace as big as that was, the rest of our week was filled with visits and 

Transfer boards came out this week, the first since I have been here and I am getting a new companion. A good and a bad thing.  Bad because I love my companion Sora Ruiz. Love LOVE LOVEEE!!! She is one of my best friends and we work so well together and she has taught me so much! But it is good because Sora Ralls is my new companion and I already love her.  I stayed with her for a day in Bucharest and she is so cool! We will be the best of friends so I am not worried at all about her.  I am excited this week to show her around the city, haha been here for only 6-weeks and I will definitely be gettin' her lost. 

Our branch has been gone for the past 2 Sundays because they had a temple trip to Germany.  So cool! It was fun to see everyone preparing to go to the temple, and preparing their family names for the ordinances.  We had 2 members at church yesterday the smallest sacrament meeting I have ever been to. All of us had the opportunity to share a testimony and listening to the two members was really sweet.  One member spoke of patience and she said, "Sometimes it is hard to have patience with my husband, but then I look at him and think how can I not have patience with him?" It was cute:) 

 Anyways, I love you all! I am having a blast here in Constanta!

This is a kitten that loves me, and my earringls:) 

MY super awesome district in the museum last P-day:) 

Sunrise this morning:) 

-Sora Long