This week was amazing!!

We had a new senior couple come in to take the place as Branch President and Relief Society President, what is even better is that THEY SPEAK ROMANIAN!!! Sora Soleburg is from Romania and moved to America and married Elder Soleburg.  They have a son who is CURRENTLY serving as a missionary in the SAME mission!! That means their entire family is in Romania serving as missionaries!! It is super crazy!! I am so grateful that they were assigned here to Bacau.  For their first weekend here we had the first Fireside in Bacau in 10 years! And then for Sunday we had the first 3 hour long church in several years here in Bacau.  This city is going places.  The members here are so amazing and so strong some of them holding several time consuming callings to get this branch here functioning like a ward. It just made me think of all those callings I got that I didn't want to do and now looking at these members and realizing they are literally carrying the fate of the church in Romania on their backs.  They give everything they have to the church. 

For the fireside Alin Constantinescu from Constanta came and spoke. He brought his daughter Eve who is 4 years old and it was so nice to see a family that I love from that city!! Eva even remembered who I was.  Sora Merkley and I were with the primary for the 3 hours long church and let me tell you that was a handful.  These kids have never been at the church that long and our class of 5 was quite a hungry tired handful. The teacher handled them so well and the kids were more than ready to go home from the long day.  At one point in class I hiccupped and all of them laughed so hard.  Apparently it is not a good thing to hiccup in Romania, it is considered the same as a burp. (Also, yawning is bad to do) Then Eva says, "You hiccup just like my dad!" haha it was cute.  Apparently when they were on their way back to Constanta on the train.  Eva woke up from her nap and the first thing she said was, "Sora Long hiccuped!" She was still laughing about it.

To prepare for the Senior couple I did some major organization in the church.  I reorganized the attic, closet, and library.  Remember they are all very small, but man a lot of stuff can fit into small spaces.  I found 9 different chalk/white boards, 3 different portable baptismal fonts, and all of the missing pieces to the nativity scene when originally all that was in the box was Jesus:) I mean hours and hours of work man. At the end of it all we had a new classroom instead of the Library. It was fun:) The church is true, and it is growing here in Bacau a little every week .  I love you all!! I miss you and I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Heart,
Sora Long

The Fireside Chili, concocted by Sora Merkley and Alexandra.

 

So cute!

Valentines Day: Half Way there!! February 16, 2015

​ So this last Valentines day was my official Half-way mark.  9 months down, 9 to go.  9 moths ago on May 14th I started my mission!! So crazy, it is going by so fast. And it was so awesome!! It is weird to think I will be counting down from here out instead of counting up!!

For our English class on Tuesday we had a S'mores roasting activity.  As I have mention before I think, people here have no idea what a s'more is so it becomes a super fun activity to share some of our American cuisine. We had a group of almost 20 people gathered in the small church kitchen roasting marshmallows over to open gas flame.  (They didn't even know what a marshmallow was!!) So fun!! There was one student who had come to church last Sunday and started talking to another student about it.  This student then asked, when is church? I want to come!! And promised she would come next week.  Others were very interested in the prospect of coming to church after hearing about it from one of the other students. It was pretty much awesome:)

This week we literally had the best time.  We had a bloc knocking war with the Elders, meaning you knock on as many doors as you can and have a point system involved.  1 point for a door.  2 points for a dog. 10 points for someone who wasn't Orthodox. 10 points for a shirtless guy, etc.  Sora Merkley and I scored 140 points!! And won!! We are the Bloc knock Queens!! and the Elders owe us a cake that is frosted to say just that:) It was awesome:) While bloc knocking we were let into an old woman's home via sondaj (polling) and she was so cute! She just cried at the thought that we were here to help her if she needed us. We had come in while she was watching the Orthodox slujba (Church service), which was interesting.

We decided to have a Branch Valentines Day activity which meant the day before Sora Merkley and I were at the church making all of the dough.  Then that morning on Valentines Day we baked soooo many heart shaped cookies!!! I should have counted them.  But while we were in the kitchen baking cookies Sora Merkely left the room to go to the bathroom, or so I thought.  Then she pops into the room singing at the top of her lungs "OHHHHH!!! Half-Way there, Ohh!! Ohh!! livin' on a prayer!!" (by Journey) and she is holding this huge bouquet of roses spray painted with glitter.  And the Elders are dancing behind her like little back-up dancers.  So funny!! She had set up with the Elders to go get the roses for me for my half-way mark!! It was the best. The best part is that I have a good portion of it on video because my camera was readily at hand;) Best roses I ever got on Valentines day!

Then two of our English student who are the two cutest girls ever showed up a little early and helped us make the rest of the cookies and helped us with the dishes and everything, I couldn't believe how nice they were! I seriously love my English class always the highlight of my week.

 We decorated sugar cookies and had a table set up to make Valentines. We had it start right after English.  The entire English class stayed for the spiritual thought then ALL of them stayed for at least 30-40 minutes of the activity.  There was a really good turn out from the branch and they were all talking to the members of English class.  Then one of the members requested some karaoke so soon all the members were singing their favorite songs and dancing to their favorite folk music.  I was laughing so incredibly hard! At one point one of the older women grabbed an Elder and started dancing with him.  I had tears coming out of my eyes I was laughing so hard as he tried to wiggle out. Then everyone gathered in a big circle and I watched as they all danced traditional Romanian dances.  Then the cute English students grabbed my hand and tried to teach me how to dance in the big circle.  I love those girls!! One English student stayed for the entire activity which meant she was at the church for 3 hours and she kept leaning over to Sora Merkley and I and saying, " I feel so good here at your place.  I feel so happy here." She didn't want to leave.  At one point she looked at a picture of Joseph Smith in the grove and read out loud, "This is my beloved son hear him" in Romanian and in response she said "Asa e!" Or in other words "So true!" It was so funny because she had no idea who Joseph Smith was!! Hopefully we will be able to tell her. Everyone had a great time, one of my favorite days on my mission, if not my favorite.  I am still laughing to myself at the sound of Romanians lip-syncing to English songs when they don't know English!! Mom you would be proud.  We showed the group how to do the chicken dance and the cha cha slide.  Just a room full of old people having a freakin' blast!!

Then the next day at church I had a back up talk prepared and got to give it.  It went really well for how much Romanian I don't know.  Just had to follow my notes, but I didn't read it word for word like I have in the past. Of course I talked about twue love and how we can have that in our lives.  Then I sat down at the piano bench afterword and played "Love one another" for the break hymn.  I am doing pretty good at the piano, practice man.  Works miracles.  I think The soon to be Elders Alden and Dalan should probably start working on their piano skills.... just sayin'. One of the members apparently approached my companion and threatened to stop singing in Sacrament meeting if I kept choosing songs that she didn't know how to sing. Another member as he was giving his talk started wondering to himself whether or not Christ was white"Really, he could be black, yellow or red, we don't know for sure." Another one elbowed me and said, "Sora Long, I love you!" In English and then told me she could have danced all night at the activity the day before.  These members kill me they are so funny!

The Church is true!!! Love one another!! I love you guys!!! Woot!! I AM HALF WAY THERE!!!! OHHH!! JUST LIVIN' ON MY PRAYERS! Thank you for all of your prayers!!

Heart,

Sora Long

 

25th Year Anniversary of the Dedication of Romania February 9, 2015

This week we had an amazing English class!! We have been trying to get the class started up here in Bacau for about 6 months and finally we had a class!!! And all of our students are really awesome and not crazy... I love it when they are not crazy.  They also stay for the spiritual thought which makes them a golden class. On our first day our only dry erase marker died, so the next class one of the students shows up and she says, "I have a gift for you." And hands us this beautiful brand new marker!! So nice!! Then we write the word garlic on the board because we were talking about food and when I try to erase it, of course it won't erase.  She had bought us a permanent marker!! It was hilarious!!

This year marked the 25 years since Romania was dedicated.  Elder Nelson dedicated it just a year after the fall of communism. We had a live broadcasted event from Bucharest Romania and Elder Nelson filmed himself giving a talk for the people of Romania and they played it for us.  Sadly the quality was a bad quality and none of us could understand what he was saying or what the Romanian translation was.  What I got out of it was really interesting.  He speaks at one point about the history of Romania and the promises found in the dedicatory blessing.  He told us that the future history of Romania lies in our hands and how we fulfill our callings as members here. He said that in order for the church to grow the members here would need to make sacrifices.  He ended with a powerful testimony. "Remain strong.  I testify that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives." It was super cool and even though no one understood most of it the spirit was super strong!! When he talked about sacrifices I could just see the different families and the hardships that they have and how if they just gave up something small to the lord (Such as tobacco or something) Their life would be better and their contribution to the church here that much stronger.  The people here really dedicate their whole lives to the gospel.  It isn't just a church it is a life style, and holy cow it is a real battle for these people.

At one point we were squeezing past some members one of which is blind.  She reached out to pat Sora Merkley on the back as she passed.  When she reached out to do the same to me, I was considerably taller and she patted my bum a good 4-5 times. It was great:) During the whole broad cast the little kids here in the branch were having a hard time paying attention so I pulled out some colored pencils and some paper and they got to work drawing stuff and every 2 minutes they would pop up and point to a new specific scribble on their paper and explain what it was in unidentifyable Romanian. So cute!!!

Here is a Selfie of us headin' home with Dan, he is cool!!

And a picture of the Balaseis She is blind and he is deaf.  Seriously so cute!! Yes she is the one who grabed my bum:)

Love you all!! Wish I could pat your bums!! But alas the bum pats will have to wait.

Just Dance Febuary 2, 2015

This week was super great!! We had a girls night and did nails and hair wraps with some girls from the branch.  We had an awesome branch family night this week where we did just dance as the activity and holy cow that was so fun!! The boys who are ages 9 and 12 were so shy at first to participate but by the end they were the ones most involved!! The Sister Training leaders came down for an exchange and we had a lot of fun.  Sora Wright fell asleep while we were studying so I had Sora Lee take a picture of me posing next to her.  We had a lesson with a really cool memebr this week, she was the first member in Bacau.  It was really lovely to listen to her story and to share a spiritual message.  We talked with her about Ammon and King Lamoni's father.  He meets the King of the Lammanites on the road for the first time in Alma 20:20 and they get into a fight and when Alma has him pinned to the ground the king begs for his life and promises half of his kingdom to Ammon if he just lets him live.  Later on in chapter 22 The king is taught about the gospel and the king says that he is willing to give his entire kingdom in order to know everything about God.  It was a super good lesson:)

Love ya!!!

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