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
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