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
Heart,
Sora Long
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