February 24, 2014

I can't believe it's a new transfer already! Each one goes by  twice as fast as the one before it, I swear. It's weird. It's been another busy and adventurous week here in Brasov!

First of all.... Meet Sora Barrera!!!!!!

Sora Barrera is darling. She's 20 years old, and she was born in El Salvador. She moved to Maryland when she was 12, and just finished up her first year at BYU.

Training a brand new missionary has really put into perspective just how much I've adjusted to living here. For example, the other day, she asked me if I wanted ice in my glass... Ice.  I FORGOT ABOUT ICE IN DRINKS. That was a weird moment. Of course then we had to have that disappointing talk about how we have no ice. And how she'll probably not have ice for another year and a half. Sorry girl.

But really, Sora Barerra is doing great. And her fluency in Spanish makes the language learning process go a lot smoother :) 

So our week. On Tuesday, the day before transfers, Sora Bray and I taught the family of 13 out in Feldiora. The mother, Zica, agreed to a baptismal date of March 29th! We actually handed the family over to the elders now though so they are going to be taking care of them the rest of the way :)

Wednesday we went to Buc to go to the trainers meeting and pick up our new companions. Ahhh it was such a happy moment when they read off the trainers names and matched us to our new companions! Everyone was so happy and anxious.

Then we took our 3 and half hour train ride back to Brasov. Sora Barerra slept for most it :). She has been pretty jet lagged but she still keeps going! such a trooper! 

On Thursday we went contacting, and we got stopped by two women who pulled out their Bibles and tried to correct us on somethings. For a few minutes I was a little worried as to where things would go and how they would go, but we managed to find some common ground in our beliefs. We actually got their phone number, and they agreed to meet with us and discuss more.... I think we'll be bringing our ward mission leader to this one though :) We also had another lesson with Adriana and her family. Unfortunately Adriana wasn't there so we just taught Ion and Beatris. It went well though!

Saturday we went out to Feldioara and planned on having a lesson with Elena on temples. However, when we got there, we learned that her daughter Maria was staying with her there now for a little while. Not even 2 minutes after we arrived, Maria picked up the Book of Mormon and looked at us and said "I know  nothing about this Book. Tell me about it."   We had a lesson on the restoration right then.

She has lots of questions, but she's very open. She even came to church on Sunday and told us how much she liked it.  We just need to get her to pray about it now :)

I just want to say how amazing our recent convert Elena is. It's ;only been a couple weeks since her baptism, but already she's given us 3 new investigators. Not only that, but she comes to every lesson with us out in Feldioara. We love her so much.

So that's this week!

Speaking of the group in Feldioara, it's growing like crazy. In fact, they've asked that only one set of elders attend because there are not enough seats for all of them. 2 more Melchizedek priesthood holders, and then we can have a brand new branch! How cool is that? 

If any of you having any tips from when  you trained, or when you were being trained, that would be super awesome!

Thank you so much everything you do ! I love you all so much!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

Sora Ralls

February 10, 2014

Buna Buna!

Okay, first things first. ELENA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!

She was baptized on Saturday, and it was seriously one of the best days of my whole mission (obviously). 

The day started off super hectic and busy. We first had an early correlation meeting, then we had our English classes. During the closing spiritual thought at English classes, 2 of our Elders ran to McDonalds and brought us all back cheeseburgers to eat Super quickly. all 6 of us sat in a tiny tiney classroom eating as quickly as we could, as I also hurried to finish up the talk I was giving at her baptism. Elena came to the church at 1:00 to prepare for her baptism at 2:00.  When she arrived at the church, she looked so happy. She was so excited!

The first thing everyone did was gather around the font and take TONS of pictures :) 

We then went into the chapel, Sora Pavel (Elena's amazing fellowshipper) Spoke on Baptism, and I spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Afterwards we all walked over to the font. Sora Bray and I helped her find the steps and watched her walk down into the water. Ahhhhhh it was so happy!

After she'd gotten dried off, we asked her how she felt. She explained to us how her sould felt like it was "illuminated". 

In closing, we had President Mesco speak, and then Elena bore her sweet testimony.  Seriously, I'm still not over how awesome this day was.

After serving here for 9 months and not seeing a single person in any branch I've served in be baptized, I think I needed to be reminded that it actually DOES happen. Prepared people find the church, they do get baptized. Miracles happen. The church is true!

On Sunday in Feldioara, Elena recieved the Holy Ghost, and our tiny little room out there was filled. Literally, there was not a single open chair. Poor Sora Bray had to stay at the Piano the whole time. Elena is doing great. And we are so excited to see her this week!

Let's see what else happened this week....

We had a reallly great lesson with Adriana and her family. We watched the resoration DVD and talked about prophets. She told us at the end that she knows the church is true. She said she has "an instinct" and she just knows it. She says she's not quite ready to commit to a baptismal date, but she said she will as she feels more prepared. Brasov is booming!

We also had a branch talent show this week. All of us missionaries prepared a hymn to sing. We got there, and only about 7 people from the branch showed up, but it was a lot of fun :)

We got about half way through the song when one of the elders started laughing, which led to 2 elders laughing, and then all of us ended up losing it. Including the branch members. It was okay :)

Oh! We also had interviews with President Hill this week, and that was great! It's always good to see President and Sora Hill. President metioned to me in my interview that he'll be sending Sora Bray out and keeping me here. I'm glad to be staying, but I am going to miss Sora Bray so much!

I love you all so much! You're always in my prayers!!

xoxooxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Sora Ralls

And we ordered a pizza this week. Kind of awesome. 

February 3, 2014

Servus!

 What a crazy, busy, awesome week we had! This week  we literally witnessed a miracle. On Thursday Sora Stapley and Sora DeRuvo came for exchanges.  Sora Stapley and I had a lesson with Elena, our investigator who had a baptismal date for February 8th.  We had a lesson plan all ready, but as Sora Stapley and Elena were getting to know each other, it came up that the man that Elena has been calling her husband, is not actually, legally her husband. Sora Bray and I had been planning on teaching Elena the law of Chastity this week, thinking it wouldn't be a problem seeing as we thought she was married and everything. SO.  Sora Stapley and I did the chastity lesson right then and there, seeing as it was kind of urgent.

At the end, we explained to Elena that she could not be baptized without either marrying the man, or moving out. She looked at us and said "I'll get married.” She explained that she wouldn't have the money to marry him until later in the month. Then we talked with her about it a little more, and she told us she didn't actually love the man she'd been living with. He said he wasn't good to her and that she only lived with him out of absolute necessity. I've never left a lesson feeling that awful.  It just seemed like there was no way out, and we did not want her to marry this guy.

We called President Hill explained  that all we can do is teach her the standards, and let her make her decisions. So we just waited.

On Sunday, Sora Bray and I headed out to Feldiora  a little early so we could meet Elena at her home and walk with her to church.

We got there, and she was all ready with her little granddaughter Mirella.

We were just walked out her fence when she looked at us and said "I actually don't live here anymore. I just have to come back and get my things sometimes".

I. was. Shocked.

She explained that thanks to Elena Pavel, our member we've been bringing to Elena's lessons with us,  she'd found a tiny home she could live in for a year.

Elena was so happy. She was so happy. I will always remember that look on her face when she told us that she no longer lived there.

I am so amazed. I AM SO AMAZED. Elena had been living unhappily with this abusive man for 9 years, and now finally she had gotten out.

I absolutely went on trying to tell Elena how happy I was for her for maybe 5  minutes without making any sense. Note to self:Excitment makes Romanian much harder. 

Elena is amazing. I wish all of you could meet her.

I am also so grateful for our member Elena Pavel. Without her this would have not even been possible. Just another testament to the importance of members being involved in missionary work! This miralce never could've happend if she weren't involved.

 So now we're planning a baptism for February 8th again! We are so thrilled, but Elena is even  more so.

 Other than this, we've had some other great lessons with the family who lives in our block, A few others here in Brasov, and  with a family we're teaching in Secele.  We've also  been doing a good amount of block knocking this week, and we've actually had a lot of sucess! Unfortunetly, all but one of our new potential investigators is a guy, so the elders should hopefully be getting some new investigators this week :)

Tomorrow President is coming for interviews!

I LOVE  YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thank you for your prayers! They're working!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sora Ralls

Elena's twin granddaughters :) 

 Oh and today we spent some time at Bran Caslte :)

Knowing how much I love cats, my district got me this for my halfway mark :)#creepycat

4/6ths of the best district in the world