Sunt Bacauana!

This week we were really trying to find a lot of members on the less active list.  When we headed to one home of an Elderly woman she was home!! That in and of it self is rare as most inactive members here in Romanian are just plain missing or moved to another part of the European Union, usually Italy. When we knocked on the door she didn't recognize who we were because she had never seen sister missionaries before in her life.  We were there with the senior couple and she had also never met a senior couple in her life.  but when she recognized us as the missionaries she welcomed us into her home and we sat and had a lovley talk with her. Her name is Georgetta and I love this woman!! She is confinded to the house due to some back problems and to be honest I think she was one of the people who feel in between the cracks and was lost for years. She had not seen a missionary in her home since 2011 and had restored back to the Orthodox church because the priest from that church will come and bless the sacrament in her home if she pays for it.  As we talked with her about the Book of Mormon and the doctrines of the church she started to remember what she felt when she first heard about it and she asked us, "Why are you bringing these feelings and questions about my beliefs back into my heart again?" It was really interesting to see her reaction to feeling the spirit from us. She told us as we left that we had brought the same spirit with us that the Elders had so many years before.  I am really excited to work with her and bring her back to the love and light of the gospel.  She is going to let us do some service in her Garden.  When I told her we could help she scoffed at Sora Draper and I and said, "But you are so delicate!" Haha!!! I quickly explained that I grew up 'La Tara' in the country as a good hardworking farm girl.

This week we also tried to meet up with another kind family that I have taught before whoa re currently inactive.  I have called them several times over the past few transfers ad they haven't been calling back also we decided to give it one more go. This time when I called she answered!!!! But she didn't say a word.  It was kind of creepy to know she was breathing on the other side of the phone while I introduced myself and waited for a response. It was kinda creepy.   I really hope and pray for this family to have a soft heart and the courage to come back to church.

This Sunday was an amazing experience! Seriously, amazing.  I had been studying in Ether 12 about faith these verses:

 15 Behold, it was the faith of Ammon‍ and his brethren which wrought‍ so great a miracle among the Lamanites.
 16 Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles‍ wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.
 18 And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.
And the idea just smacked me in the face with a rail road tie that in order to be like Ammon and bring miracles among the people here in Bacau I really needed to show my faith more.  So I went into the other room and knelt down and I prayed with as much faith as I could muster to help bring the miracle here in Bacau. Then I went about my week and worked hard.

On Sunday we had President Ivory the mission president come down to Bacau for the first time since he has been here.  We usually have about 13-14 people at church and this Sunday we had THIRTY-SIX (36) people at church!!! 5 of whom were investigators of Sora Draper and I, I have never had so many investigators at church before. It was incredible.  We didn't have enough chairs or room to fit everyone into our very small chapel.  I was so happy:) And as we were sitting there in this squishy little room listening to President Ivory speak I felt the spirit bring back to memory my prayer and I head the response, "here is the beginning of the Bacau miracle."  Tears came to my eyes and I turned to the only deacon in our branch, 13 year old Catalin who reminds me of Dalan and I said smiling, "Look!! I am crying!!" He looked at me all confused and said, "Why?" The gospel here cannot be stopped.  This branch is going to grow very fast in the next little while here.  I am so grateful to have been a part of serving here.  I have loved every part of it.  Well family I love you!! sorry I didn't send out an e-mail last week... here is a big one to make up for it.

-Sora Long

In the park with Andreea!

Andreea and Alexandra, some of my favorite people.

Midnight Slujba!

This week was the Orthodox Easter and man what a blast!!! I had so much fun talking to people on the streets and at their door steps this week.  All of them would ask if I believed Christ had been resurrected and I responded by saying,  "Sigur ca da!"

I had the opportunity to attend the Easter midnight mass here at the Orthodox Cathedral which is the biggest Cathedral in all of Romania.  We waited outside of the church and at midnight the bells tolled and priest came out from the two churches that we were sandwiched in between, singing "Hristos a Înviat," and the whole crowd would reply, "Adevarat a Înviat." The Priest were carrying huge torches and lit candles as they passed.  The flame from the torches was passed through the crowd candle by candle.  They say the flame traveled all the way from Jerusalem, but I doubt the authenticity of that claim.  But it is cool to think the flame came all the way from the church in Jerusalem which is believed to have been built on the place where Chirst was crucified.  I had this little candle lit in my hand by my friendly neighborhood Romanian and I listen to the priest read from the New Testament about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Every now and then he would inject a , "Hristos a Inviat" And we would all reply, "Adevarat a Inviat." I have some really cool videos and pictures from the ceremony, but it will have to wait until I come home:) I have soo many pictures from my mission it is ridiculous!!! Be excited.  Anyways, I love you all! Until next week.

-Sora Long

 

Easter is special in Romania!!!

Walking through the grave yard near an Orthodox Church.

So as you all know this past week was Easter. But here in Romania they have 2 Easters.  One for the Catholic church and one for the Orthodox church.  Catholic was yesterday and Orthodox will be next week.  This holiday here is as big as Christmas at home. Last Sunday was the Catholic Palm Sunday.  Celebrating the day that Christ came into the town of Jerusalem on a donkey and the people greeted him and laid palm leaves on his path so he would not half to walk on the ground. The Catholics had a gigantic procession down the center of town that we watched from our apartment. The lead was a few men bearing a giant cross and holding torches.  Then followed the priest who were saying prayers and singing over speakers.  Then the people marched behind them and sang their responses to the priests.  It was quite something.

 

I am super excited for this weekends Easter holiday. Hopefully we will get to attend a Orthodox service.  I will tell you more about what they do for traditions next week.

 

We had one member, who I love to death!! Sora Dragomir introduced us to one of her long life time friends.  Sora Dragomir was the first member in Bacau and it is amazing that she decided to introduce the missionaries to her friend.  We got their for the lesson and it went really well.  I am really excited to be teaching this new investigator:) There were not enough chairs to sit in her house so she sat on the floor which obviously caused her a lot of pain, so I offered to sit on the floor instead and as I started to squat she literally screamed, high pitched loud and long NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! :) Apparently sitting down on the floor at someone's house is a big no-no.

 

I have not been able to watch all of General Conference yet. Only the Relief Society and the Priesthood and the Saturday morning. The rest of it I watched either in Romanian or haven't seen it yet.  We will probably finish that up tonight. But I feel like I have been watching conference for a day and a half straight!! I am so excited 3 new temples!!! WOOOTOTOOTOT!!!! It is also Dalan's Birthday this week!!! I love my little brother!! It is crazy to think I have been out on my mission so long I have officially missed being present at every one of my immediate families birthdays.... Almost a year out!! Love you Dal Bear!

-Sora Long

 

My district has swag

Bah cohhhhhhhhh !!!

 I am in the city of Bacau, pronounced Bah cohhhhhhhhh It is the funnest city name to say!!!  It is literally famous for nothing, except that it has the biggest Romanian Orthodox church in all of Romania as its center for some odd reason. Also there is a poet name George Bacovia, he is pretty famous as well. I study for about 4 hours a day from the approved missionary library and I love long walks down the middle of creepy ally ways in order to find those children of God who need to hear His message.

The church is true! I love being a missionary!

 Every day here in Romania is one awesome adventure after the other. One random miracle this week that happened was my companion got suuuuuper sick pneumonia (that is not the miracle)  We were 5 hours away from our city for a Zone meeting and exchanges on the 3rd day of being in the city we finally headed back to Bacau. On the morning we left to get to our train the people refused to sell us tickets for the train as we had arrived at the Gara to close to departure time.  So we waited until the next train, in the time we returned to the apartment and I went back with Sora Wright in Galati, taught a lesson and helped prepare book of Mormons for an English spiritual thought. It was really strange because if we hadn't of missed our train that lesson would have never happened. It went really well and the spirit was very strong.

The Bacau it is a series of two trains and we finally got on ours at about 3 in the afternoon. On the first train we were put into a cabin with 4 other people and they just grilled me about our church.  I mean super fast, ridiculous Romanian!! One was a professor of music and spoke like a professor of Romanian.  The only reason I could understand them was because of the spirit.  The only time I struggled was when we went through a tunnel and it was like the reception to your cell phone goes bad when you go through a tunnel, my understanding went out the window.  They asked me why all of a sudden I couldn't understand and I said, "Daca nu pot sa o vad gura ta, deci nu pot sa va intelege." If I can't see your mouth, then I cannot understand you. They were laughing so hard at that response. They asked me who were some famous Mormons and the only person we could think of was Kathrine Heigl, they knew who that was and all nodded their heads. (I need a list of famous Mormon people!!) We got this new gift from Zone Conference this week it is something called a video flyer. ... Maybe you can google it.... But it is just a tiny little screen the size of a phone with a Mormon message loaded onto it in Romanian.  We are suppose to get Ipads, but as the expected arrival date has come and passed 4 months ago, I think we will make due with these little miracles:) They are literally so cute!!! We showed the train full of people the video and they loved it!! There hearts were immediately softened by the spirit of our message.

In the little town of Mararesti, which is the city we missed our train in once and stayed in -4c degree weather, we were standing next to an information sign and a man came up to us and asked us where we were from.  He was so incredibly kind and helped us double check to make sure we would get on the right train.  Come to find out he is Protestant living in the city of Suceava.  He was very interested in why we had come to Romania to teach about our church.  We taught him about prophets and he was very interested in the idea that they would be gathering together and speaking to the whole world!!! So we invited him to listen to general conference online and he accepted the commitment.

When we finally got to our last train we were a little tired and as we dragged ourselves through the train we passed empty seat after empty seat and we heard a small voice pip up from behind a book in English, "Would you like to sit here?" We sat next to this girl, Irina, who was the most prepared person I have ever met before.  As we talked with her I had the strongest feeling in my heart that she was one of the people that we were sent all the way to Romania to find and teach.  And we were prompted to teach her the restoration as crazy as that sounds, so we did.  At the end of discussing about the restoration in ENGLISH, which was so weird by the way... I shared something we call her "My Story" they "Why" as to why I came on a mission and why I know this church to be true.  It was really powerful and I had little baby tears trying to get out of my eyes. As we left the train she stood up and gave us both the biggest hug and said, " I have been inspired by your story of how you found out who you are,  that is what I want to do, find out who I am." She lives in Denmark unfortunately... But the cool part (The miracle I mentioned earlier) about this was when my companion was teaching she was completely 100% healed in the duration of the lesson, but as soon as we got off the train the racking cough along with the fever and headache were back in full swing.

 Every single one of these people that we contacted and taught these gospel lessons to lived about 1 1/2 at the closest away from any city with missionaries in it.  It is so weird to be in a country where that is the case!! This week was really cool!! I am so grateful to be here!! I love you all!

-Sora Long

 

Family Picture!! From the left, Elder Steed, Sora Gee, Elder McArthur, Elder Whitaker, Me, Sora Draper.

 

 

Elevator Selfie. #dope

Sora Selfie! Sora Wyatt, Sora Gee, Sora Sayre, Sora Armstrong, Sora Draper, Me!

More Sisters!

More friends. 

Am fost o sora pentru mama mea, si acum sunt o sora pentru dumnevoastra

It is becoming harder and harder to write about what I did every week!! I don't really know why...

But this week was amazing!! I just got back from the town of Barlad today.  We went with the senior couple Elder and Sister Soelberg to deliver some laptops to an orphanage over there.  When we got there we played some "night game" games with 12 kids ages 15-24.  They were so surprised when we got there and my companion and I opened our mouths and introduced ourselves in Romanian.  Usually they have a bunch of volunteers that go to that orphanage but they are from Utah and cannot speak Romanian. When I looked at the walls they had pictures of icons on the wall and right next to them were small Simon Dewy paintings or other Mormon artist depictions of Christ that I knew they had gotten from Utah somehow!! So we played, and talked and they were really great kids!! They headed off to school and the director of this center asked us if we wanted to see another children's center for younger children. So we headed over to the equivalent of a battered woman's shelter in Romania and it was amazing.  We meant the kids over there and walked into each class room and every teacher stood up and tried to talk to us in English and once we responded in Romanian they were so shocked!! The kids really loved seeing us just for a few minutes.  I really think that young children can recognize the light that as missionaries we carry with us.  It was heart breaking to see these children who were brought up in such hard circumstances, but also it filled me with hope because these places were places of refuge for these children and women.  There was one mother I met with three children ages 4, 2 and 1. The one year old walked right up to me and grabbed my finger and would not let go.  Just walked with me as I toured the floor of the shelter. Her mother followed close behind and, to her surprise, I spoke with her in Romanian and got to know her a little bit.  

This week we have been battling the gossip here in the branch.  I was assigned to give a talk in an attempt to address the need to respect one another in the branch. I have worked on this talk for a good 2 weeks and I was able to get up and hardly look at any of my notes and somehow speak with power as I taught the simple principles that we are all children of God.  I started my talk with a little word play.  In Romanian Sora means, nurse, and sister:

"this week my mother had an operation, usually I am her Sora (nurse) but this time I am in Romania to act as your Sora (sister/nurse)"

By the end of it the spirit was so strong, and all the woman in the branch were in tears as well as I.  The spirit works in really strange ways and I honestly think that it was the best talk I have ever participated in.  One woman came up to me and told me thank you and that I had really pierced her in her heart and I said to her, "Nu a fost eu, a fost spiritual Domnului." (It wasn't me, it was the spirit) I used a lot of quotes from everywhere, but one talk I used is one of my favorites Walk in the Light by Henery B. Erying. He closing quote was only some of what I shared:

"When you walk in the light, you will feel at that moment some of the warmth and the happiness that will finally be yours when you are welcomed home again with the hundreds and perhaps thousands of others whom you will bring with you, who have walked in the light because you did."

It was a really great moment.  I really hope that it pays off and the gossip ring will be rooted out of Bacau. This talk is one of my absolute favorites, whenever I get discouraged or find time to listen to a conference talk, this is the go-t for me.  I will tell you why.

It seems like almost a year ago (because in truth it was almost a year ago) that I had first come into Romania and had found myself struggling to know why I was here in this strange land.  I was in a small bus speeding at a deathly pace towards the city of Bucarest watching out the windows as thousands of sunflowers growing over rolling hills passed by.  I had put my head phones in and left my gaze in the blur of yellow to listen to this talk by Henery B. Eyring.  I had been questioning in my prayers what my purpose was in coming on this mission, more specifically in this land, and I heard his words speak these simple words and they struck me to my heart and I knew that these words were written for me in this moment of my life:

"You know from the scriptures revealed by God through prophets that there was a rebellion in the spirit world when the plan for our journey was offered to us. Those who rebelled did not want to accept and to depend upon a Savior nor run any risk that they might not return again to Heavenly Father. Every one of you was among the brave, the faithful, and the true in that conflict. You accepted the Savior and the plan for this journey to return to the joy of our Heavenly Father’s presence.You are remarkable, even among those who chose right in the contest in the spirit world. You qualified to come into mortality and to make this journey at a time when the gospel of Jesus Christ was on the earth. And among the billions of Heavenly Father’s children now living, you were privileged to find the gospel of Jesus Christ and His true Church. Even more than that, the fact that you are listening tonight means that you have chosen to make the journey of life walking in the light.
But the spirit who led the rebellion in the world before still opposes the plan and wants you to be miserable. He wants you never to find your way home again. That enemy of your soul knows you and your goodness. He knows that if he can turn you away from walking in the light, he can both capture you and stop you from helping others along the journey. He knows how good you are and your power to teach and influence hundreds of Heavenly Father’s children in this life—and thousands over the generations that will follow your path. If he can get you to wander away from the light on your journey, he can do harm and bring misery to many.
The fact that you are listening now is evidence that God recognizes your great importance and that you have chosen to walk in the light He offers you...
 I testify to you that you have been one of the valiant ones to reach the point where you now are in this journey of life. Just as you are marked as a target by the enemy of righteousness, you have been protected and watched over by your Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. They know you. They know all of the forces and individuals around you. They know what is ahead of you. And so They know which of the choices you make, which of the desires you decide to satisfy, and which of the circumstances around you will make the most difference in keeping you walking in the light. I testify that by the Spirit of Christ and by the Holy Ghost, you may walk confidently in whatever difficulties will come. Because you are so valuable, some of your trials may be severe. You need never be discouraged or afraid. The way through difficulties has always been prepared for you, and you will find it if you exercise faith."

 I knew at that moment that my calling here in Romania would be hard, harder than I ever thought. But I had something of great value to deliver to my fellow brothers and sisters who had all been at the beginning brave, faithful defenders of the truth before this life.  I was sent here to remind them of who they were children of God. Teaching that concept to all I come in contact with has been the most fulfilling occupation of my life.  I love this gospel and I am grateful for it. I love you all so much!! And I pray for you often every day.  The work is moving forward in Romania, more rapidly than ever before. And I am so grateful to be serving these great and remarkable people who need only be reminded of the light they once followed.

 

 

 

Bye Sora Merkley!

This week I said goodbye to my great companion Sora Merkely who is right now headed home on an airplane to Utah!!! I send my love with her to all of you at home:) I received a new companion who is freakishly enough... exactly like me.  In every creepy way possible. She and I share the same love in television shows, I mean I am talking about my secret favorite movies are her secret favorite movies, the works.  The same people all the way, seriously.

So we reorganized the apartment, got her to unpack, and we have walked over this whole city 3 times contacting people on the street for English class.  This is a really exciting time to be serving in Bacau because this city is about to see some major changes and I a excited to see them be implemented.

This week we were hunting for a part member family who has been inactive on our list for awhile. When we finally arrived at their door we were on the outskirts of the city and were surrounded by small broken down villas.  We arrived at Str. Serbaneste nr. 51 and knocked on the gate.  A broken old gypsy woman slowly answered the door hold a heavy ring of keys around her neck.  A skinny starving dog with a broken paw at her skirt. As I asked her where her grandchildren were she broke into tears and told us they had all moved to Italy and left her here alone in Romania.  She cried at the gate and talked about how she prayed for them.  My companion and I the night before had practiced teaching the concept of prayer so I handed her the pamphlet and she taught her how to pray.  This woman invited us into her very humble home and pulled out a giant bible that was newly bound in cardboard and a trash bag.  It was very humbling to talk to this woman who had obviously had such a hard life.  We left her with a prayer and a message of Gods love for her. She begged us to stay for a cup of coffee or some milk but we had to go. As we walked down the street she yelled after us, "Cand va veniti la mine dinou?" When will you come to me again? It was heart breaking really. I told her we would come again if we had time.  It was sad to see a fellow sister of mine in such a state of distress and hardship.  It was a tender mercy that we were able to give her a message of comfort.

I love you all and I wish you the best!!  

-Sora Long

A picture of the woman's Bible.

My little trainee asleep on the train, 5 hours until Bacau!

Zone Conference in Chișnău

I feel like I start every single one of my e-mails with, "This weeks was so awesome!!" But really this week was so awesome:)

We headed down to the Zone Conference in Chișnău on Tuesday with the new Senior Couple here in Bacau.  What a road trip!! We made it all the way to the capitol of another country without the use of a map or GPS. It was about 6 hours drive in total if you include the wait on the boarder. The senior couple hadn't even previously google mapped anything to prepare for the trip.  Everytime we thought we were on the wrong street they would roll down the window and in Romanian ask, "Chișnău va rog?" Chișnău please? And the innocent bystander would point in the direction we needed to go.  

 

When we got to Chișnău we arrived just in time to participate is the Family Home Evening activity which was a mean game of musical chairs in which the losers had to take a spoonful of really nasty baby food.  There were kids spiting out the stuff and gagging at the taste of the Moldovan baby foods. Some of the flavors included broccoli, Meat with heart, and meat with liver.  The last boy who got out was awarded a really special treat by having a combination of all of the flavors.  He ran out of the room almost spiting it back up.  It was pretty bad.  Luckily we were a little to late to join the ranks of the musical chairs.

 

Zone conference was amazing!! It was all about obedience and the fact the we as missionaries and members here in Romania and Moldova hold the future of the church here in our hands.  The mission is growing exponentially. It is really cool to be here at this time and see it in person.  Just in Chișnău alone we had a total of 600 new English student enroll in our last transfer.  In the tiny city of Bacau we had our first real English class with the new enrollment of 20 students!! It looks incredibly small in comparison to Moldova, but yes it was a big step for our area here. 

 

I found out this week that I will be a training a new missionary!! Woot Woot!!! I am so excited!! I have been working on my language this last transfer soooo much and thanks to Sora Merkley it really has gotten a lot better, the better to hear my own mistakes. So I am headed down to Bucaresti tomorrow to attend a trainers meeting, apparently part of that is going on a run with the mission president and everyone else who is a whole lot healthier than I am... seeew .... we will see how that goes!!! 

 

I am also losing a companion this week!! I am super sad!! Sora Merkley will be headed home to Vernal, Utah next week after touring the country of Romania with here parents. As a final tribute to one of my favorite companions (They are all my favorite) I would just ike to say how thankful I am to her and to all she taught me.  The number one thing I think I learned from her is how to slow down and live in the now instead of the future.  She has one of the strongest testimonies, and I love that about her.  

Anyways I love you all !!! The church is true, promise.  I am a witness to the miracle that the change of the gospel brings to so many.  I am so grateful to be a witness of that.  For one thing, I have become a pretty good branch pianist, and that in and of itself is a miracle. 

 

Sora Long

 

 

Andreea, Sora Merkley and I at our last Vikings excursion for lunch.

 

Sora Merkley and I standing in front of the Chapel in Chishanau before Zone Conference.