The Best Thanksgiving Ever!! November 24, 2014

Ok!! So it has been 1 and a half weeks since I wrote! A lot has happened.

We got a new senior couple! And they are really really really awesome!! I am so grateful for them and the sacrifice that they have made to come out here on a mission.  They really do make a difference in the branch.  For instance this week was Thanksgiving and they spent a whole week prepping for it going from store to store and finding all of the American ingredients like pumpkins and Turkeys which are very slim and far between. They also have been cooking pies and other food for the last 3 days!!! Me=grateful for the Senior couple.

One thing we see here is people hanging their rugs out the window and shaking them like crazy! So we got it into our heads that we really needed to clean our rug.  Except that our rug was a little larger than you would think.... By the time we had our 8x10 rug hanging outside our window and we were trying to beat it with our broom handle. We were laughing so hard we almost had no strength to keep holding it!!! It was soooo heavy! We soon realized it was too heavy to actually pull it back inside our apartment and we were stuck holding a rug outside our window for 40 minutes.  We finally rolled it back in after much tugging and pulling and laughing.

We had one investigator that we love!!! I absolutely love her!! But she is not progressing and flat out told us one day that we were mistaken and wrong and that all religions were correct and when she gave the closing prayer she asked to bless the poor naive girls who know nothing about life or religion and help them have more understanding that what she thought was the correct way to think.  So it was sad but we had to stop teaching her, so we left her a Liahona (Ensign) conference edition.  We called to invite her to the baptisms and when she picked up the phone she immediately said, "GIRLS!! I am so glad you called me.  I have been reading this magazine you gave me and it is amazing.  I feel so good when I read it and everything that is in it is true!" It was really cool:) We met with her and she had so many questions.  One for instance was who we were before this life? I love it when people ask that question.  So we will see where that goes. 

This last week we had 2 baptisms!!! Which is crazy awesome.  I have been here in Romania for 6 months now and these were the first two baptisms I have witnessed and it was a little miracle for us to witness these baptisms. 

As you will be able to see from the pictures, there is literally a huge pool that we baptize people in.  It took 2-3 hours to set up, 6 hours to fill up and it was cold! So we boiled water all day for both baptism and dumped it in there, but I don't know if that made a difference.  One member told me what a disaster it was that the water was cold. I replied by saying, well my mom was baptized in Japan in a tub of ice water, outside while it was snowing, she was okay:) The water was a lot warmer than that.

 

 

My favorite part of both baptisms was not the actual baptism.  It was the testimony that both of these amazing converts gave after they were baptized.  Perez had a lot of friends come to his baptism and he flat out invited all of them to be baptized over the pulpit. Daniela had written her testimony before her baptism but once she took it up to the pulpit she just shared what was in her heart.. The spirit was so strong!! It is so amazing to see the change of heart that the gospel brings.  Especially with our own investigators.  Daniela is perfect.  A rock could have taught her and she would have known what was said was true.  But I am so grateful to be that rock.  I am not  a perfect teacher but hearing her say in her testimony, "I know this church is true" and "I hope that Constanta will have a temple so that I can go." (She has been praying for a temple in her prayers every time she meets with us.  She also sends us little text messages telling us that  she is praying for a temple.)

The church is true!! I am loving my mission.  This last week alone we doubled the amount of lessons we had mission wide. That is crazy!! It is fun to be in a mission that is starting to pick up speed.  We were promised by Elder Kearon of the 70 that we would see miracles here in Romania and I have been witness to many of them.  This Thanksgiving I am so grateful to be serving here! I am grateful for my family and the amazing opportunity that I had to grow up in a  gospel centered home. I am grateful for my mothers ol' rotten potato recipe that I didn't get to eat this year because the cheese in Romania is a little ... different to say the least... so it wasn't worth trying to make. 

I heard about Dallin Hunt passing away this week and I would like to send out my sincere condolences to the family.  This news broke my heart. I know that this gospel is true and that there is a plan of redemption, and I am so grateful for it.  My prayers are with the Hunt family who are absolutely an amazing example of love and perseverance.  I love you all! 

Heart, 

Sora Long

 

Sora Sayre and I found a really awesome Piata this week and got ourselves some Russian hat made from polar fox fur in Brasov. 

Thanksgiving dinner!

 

More baptism photos:

So  when we were filling up the font it sprung a leak!!!! I hurriedly took out some of my gum and shoved it in the hole.  Orbit fresh really works wonders in a pickle.  It held for 3 days straight!!

These are our dogs here in Constanta.  For the last 6 months of my life they have dutifully walked us home and kept us safe every night. One of them is named pokey because he pokes his nose wherever he can, he had just poked me in the bum when this picture was taken.