Alo!
This week was super long, but it was super fun. We had my first lesson this week with a member of the branch who is preparing to go on a mission and we just introduced the basics of what a missionary calling is and bore our testimonies. I loved the member we taught! I love them! I know they are going to be an amazing missionary and I felt so happy I was finally able to share my testimony with someone and pray for what I should teach, and then teach it. I felt the spirit so strongly, and the spirit bore witness to me of how awesome this persons mission was going to be and I just smiled.
I also have kinda been assigned as the Relief Society pianist. And I suck.
I haven't played piano for almost 4 years now!! Isn't that crazy? And I have forgotten everything. So now I just need to practice more.
First Zone conference was this week and holy cow that was fun. We got on a 3 hours bus ride to Bucharest the night before and stayed with the same sisters I stayed with when I first got into Romania. When we got to the apartment building and rode the tiny clanky old elevator to the top the Sora's opened the door and there was Sister G and her companion staying the night at the same place and I was so excited!
Just to clarify a bit, Siste G is amazing. And I was so happy just to see a familiar face. As we got ready for the night she told me how everything was going in Ploiesti, which is well. That night I was so happy! I went to bed and slept well, woke up and we went to Zone conference.
President Ivory is seriously awesome. As he was teaching us during Zone conference I just felt that he really was called to lead us to do a great work.
I am not going to go over all the particulars of Zone conference because that would make my boring letter even more boring. But he told us that he talked to members of the quorum of the 12 during the mission president's weekend at the MTC and all of them had very positive hopes for Romania.
Elder Uchtdorf said that Romania was full of potential and "on the tipping point." So that gives me hope that the people in Romania will start wanting to hear the gospel and we can find those that God has prepared for us. The changes that President Ivory implemented are really exciting, and I am so grateful that Sora I is here as well. She has already helped me so much, and I am grateful for that.
After that we stayed in Buc for one more night and headed home the next day.
This week our English classes started SOOOO fun!! Sora R and I teach the advanced section aka the section that speaks the least amount of Romanian:) haha and one of the members Maria was my freakin' favorite. We spent the first little bit just talking and getting to know one another and she told us the answer to the question I have always been wondering, why are there so many strays in Romania? I mean you stand at the top of the street and you see 5 cats and 3-10 dogs. it is crazy! Apparently during communism everyone had a high fence and a guard dog. The Fences are still a thing, but after communism broke here the people left their homes to move to either different places in Romania or to simply leave for another country and they just left their huge gigantic dogs behind. So now about 20 years later we are surrounded in every city by the offspring of these gigantic guard dogs. Most of them are super super friendly here, but I have seriously not seen dogs this big ever before in my life. So there you go, two ways that communism effected Romania, gigantic dogs that look like the Grimm from Harry Potter and high fences everywhere.
I just have to insert this story for my little brother Dalan. The other day we were walking to the church when I saw the cutest little puppy ever!!! And it was a stray. it was small and black and had big loopy curls over its eyes and it looked at me and when I smiled it started wagging its tail. So I called it over and he just tried to jump up to me but he was so small he couldn't even reach my kneecap and I picked up the flea infested thing and turned to my companion and asked if I could keep him. She said no of course, missionaries cannot have dogs... And I put him down but he kept running around me, and he loved me and he followed us for a bit then we had to scare him away so he wouldn't get lost:) I have not seen him since, but seriously the cutest!!! cutest!! puppy ever!
Saturday we had our next English class and Sora R and I taught the spiritual thought. We decided to teach about praying with your own words since in Romania, they usually used memorized prayers. It went really well and I felt the spirit. And as I was talking the members of the class would yell out words to correct my Romanian, and they only said like 4 things. Which means my Romanian is getting pretty dang good;) Just kidding, I wish it was good.
Yesterday was great! Nothing really new, we are preparing for a Ziua Pionierilor, aka Pioneer day activity where we will talk about the history of the church in Romania so that should be a lot of fun. Sundays are my favorite because I get to talk to the members of the branch and get to know them better. They are hilarious! And so friendly. I even helped one woman with her family history a little bit which made me feel useful:)
Anyways, all in all everything is going great. I learned a lot from zone Conference that I think will really help us find more people here in Constanţa.
Love you!!!! Love you all!!
-Sora Long
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