January 15, 2014

Hello from beautiful Brasov!

The picture below is Centru. Where we spend most of our contacting hours... I  have never been anywhere more beautiful in my entire life!

I feel like I am an entirely different mission over here! In Craiova our branch had  two people in it. Church was only 2 hours long, and done in one room. Here...

We have a chapel.

It felt so strange to have church in a chapel again. I loved it though, of course!

The branch here isn't very big. On Sunday I counted about 15 people. So it's about the size of the branch in Arad. They have a chapel though, because there used to be about 70 members here. A lot of them moved away though after Romania became part of the European Union. Though thet branch is small, the members are  super involved. Our ward mission leader Marius is always calling all of us to see what he can help us with, or if he can join us for lessons. 

My new colega, Sora Bray is Perfect. She graduated from Dartmouth last year, and she's in her third transfer now. We can hardly believe we've only been together for a week becasue we're practically already best friends.  

Our district is on fire. This is probably the most determined and enthused district I've served in yet, and I am loving it. There are six of us here, and one of our elders is brand new. It's so fun watching him eat all the different Romanian foods... Sora Bray and I find a new  Romanian treat for him every few days because we like to watch him eat them.  Last time is was Pufulets.

This week has been super busy, and super wonderful. On Wednesday we left Craiova, and went to Buc. We were there just for about 45 minutes thought because our train back to Brasov left really soon after we got in. We got to Brasov around 10:00 that night.

On Thursday We drove out to a little sot about 2 hours out of Brasov with Elder and Sister Powell (having a senior couple with us is AMAZING. The Powell's are INCREDIBLE. ).

We met with a couple families there who aren't able to attend church very often due to how far away they live and their lack of transport. They were all so strong though, and shared their testimonies with us. Even though they've been unable to attend church, they live the gospel 100%. You can tell from the moment you walk in their small homes.

Friday We had our first district meeting and did a lot of contacting for our English classes and did our first Brasov weekly planning.  It took a lot longer than anticipacipated, but we finally finished, and now I know all about the memebrs and investigators here.

Saturday we went and visited Elena in Feldioara. Feldioara a small small small sot 30 minutes from Brasov. We actually have a small group of members our there. So she doesn't need to travel too far to get to church which is nice.  Elena has two 4 year old granddaughters and a husband who live with her in their small little home. Feldioara looks like something I'd read about in a National Geographic. It looks like very little has changed in the last 100 years.

Sunday I got to meet the whole branch, and I LOVE THEM. They are all incredible. The Primary teacher wasn't there last Sunday so Sora Bray and I were asked to teach both hours of Primary.  Neither one of us had done it before... and now we had to teach it in Romanian.  We talked about Baptizm of course... because we can talk about that all day in Romanian if we wanted to :)

We also had them do an activity where we blind folded them and set up obsticals throught the class room as they guided each other to the other side. We were trying to teach them how the Holy Ghost can work with us... some got it, some purposly tried to run others into the walls. It is so great to be in a branch with a primary. :)

After the Brasov branch finished, we drove out with the Powell's to the Feldioada group and had church there. An elderly woman just randomly walked in because she was interested and I sat next to her. Part way though Sacrament meeting, she fell forward and was about to fall off her chair as I reached down real quick to grab her and pull her back up.... I was so scared.... I thought she passed out.. She just fell asleep... thank goodness.

Monday we had a lesson with a mother and daughter... who happen to live two doors down from us which is amazing. It was our first lesson with them, and we first talked to them on Saturday. They are both AMAZING. The daughter is 10, and the mother is probably about 30 something.

Saturday night we had a lesson in Feldioada again with a husband and wife who live out there. They were hilarious, and the wife was making little bugs our of coffee beans when we came over. She tried to explain. But we're still not exactly sure why. There were hundreds of them.

Tuesday we spent the whole day in Sibiu, which is GORGEOUS. It's a lot like Brasov, but a little smaller.

Long story short, Brasov is perfect, and I am thrilled to be here! I am so grateful to be so busy with lessons and members here. It's fantastic.

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

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

Sora Ralls

January 6, 2014- New Year and New Places

Buna Buna!

Transfers came, and I'm heading to the beautiful city of Brașov (brä-shôv')!

I did not expect this at all. It's always  hard to say goodbye to cities and companions, but I am also really so excited. My new companion is Sora Bray. She's a newer missionary, and is in her 2nd transfer right now. She's 22 or 23 ( I can't remember!)  :) I've met her a few times before, and she's really great. And Sora Smith is being sent to Timisoara! She's excited too :) 

This week was great! It was probably one of our most successful week's we've had since coming to Craiova. We had another really great lesson with Alina and Madalina. Those two girls are amazing! In our last lesson with them, they were a little confused about prophets and authority (normal!), so we spent our last lesson with them mainly focusing on that. So it was a good recap on the restoration. I'm going to miss those two so much. Oh! We also gave them starbursts at the end of our last lesson with them. It was so funny to watch them eat them, because they don't have them here. They loved'em!

We also did a lot of hospital contacting again this week. Ahhh it works so well. We went yesterday for the last time, and it was my favorite time yet. We got the phone numbers of some really amazing families,  and the new  Craiova sisters will be meeting with them soon! I will admit, I'm a little jealous that I don't get to stay and meet with them!

As we were walking out of the hospital last night, we looked over into one of the rooms we visited, and through the window we could see a mother reading her son the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we'd given her.  We loved it.

Oh! New years eve here was AMAZING. President Hill gave everyone in the mission permission to stay out and watch the fireworks (can you believe it?!).  They do New Year's right here. EVERYONE is lighting fireworks. And not the little kind either!  Our district went up to the top of an 8 story apartment bloc and watched fireworks go off... they were EVERYWHERE. And the sky was filled with floating lanterns. Ahhh it was incredible!!!! It didn't even feel like real life.
I am so grateful for this chance I've had to serve here in Craiova. I'm going to miss it so much. The few members we've had here have been incredible. They have some of the strongest testimonies I've ever seen. Obviously it's hard for them to be the only members in the city, but they've learned to entirely rely on the Lord entirely for their strength and devotion.
Well, we're going finish packing up tonight, and we'll be heading to Bucarest  on Wednesday Morning and I'll be in Brasov by Wednesday night :) 
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

Love., Sora Ralls

December 30, 2013

Is it really possible for anyone to look this happy all of the time? Oh, yes.....

December 25th- Christmas Day!

Sending LOVE from her family.....

December 16, 2013 Buna Buna!

Good news, everyone! They sell Philadelphia cream cheese here mixed with Milka Chocolate! We just found it while we were grocery shopping today!

In other good, (and probably even better!) news, we had a very successful week! We're still investigator-less, but not for long! We found 3 people who we will be meeting with this week, and we were able to meet up with a woman here who's been inactive for quite a while now!

The first woman we'll be meeting with is named Janina. We found her when we were contacting in a very humble looking apartment block. She came to her door, and we shared a message about the Book of Mormon. She seemed so interested! So we asked her if we could leave it with her, and return later to talk more about it. When we asked this she said "But how? I have no money to buy it.". When we explained it was free, she was so happy!

Our other 2 investigators came from our English class. We have all the student fill out questionnaires at the beginning and one of the questions on the questioner is " Are you interested in learning more about the church?" and these two girls, who are  21 and 23 checked yes!

We talked with them a little bit last week, and they are excited to meet with us! But I think we're even more excited to meet with them :)

As for the inactive woman we met with, her name is Illeana, and she is amazing. We came to the door, and immedietly she welcomed us in. We brought her some Christmas cookies and a Christmas message. We also discussed a little bit about why she hadn't been coming to church. Things have been hard for her and she's been having money and health issues. She didn't come to church last Sunday, but she did invite us to come back! She'll be coming back to church soon, we're sure of it :)

We had a couple of great English classes this week. We love our advanced English class a lot. We did an activity on Saturday where we had each member of the class draw a candy bar out of a hat and then they had to stand up and try to give a 1 to 2 minute speech on why their candy bar was better than everyone elses . 

Oh! On Sunday I got to translate for the first time! It was from Romanian to English so it wasn't too hard. We had someone visiting from the US, and I got to translate the Elder's Sunday school lesson. So that was fun!

And that's our week! Things are going great over here! Thank you so much for your support and prayers! I know that's a huge part of why we had success this week!

I love you so much!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Sora Ralls

December 9, 2013

Buna Buna!

This week has been soooo busy and so crazy. We've loved it!

Tuesday and Wednesday we did mainly contacting. Because we've been whitewashed in, we don't have much else to do, other than contact. It's strange having 0 investigators. Let's be real, we like contacting, but we really miss teaching! People in the West were also more willing to talk with us and let us come into their homes than they are here. Things are just quicker and busier here. 

The small branch though is absolutely amazing. The Spooners are some of the best people I've ever met... oh and they know Aunt Vivian! Which is super cool. 

On Thursday night, we took a train to Bucharest for Zone training and the zone Christmas party. It was so so so much fun! We did a tie/ scarf exchange (white elephant style), and we watched a picture slideshow. They also fed us a Christmas lunch that included ROOT BEER. Okay, that was awesome. The new mission president was also announced! His name is President Ivory, and he's the president of Ivory homes in Utah.... Sound familiar? He's very young, and he has a little son who will be living with them here. We're all really excited, and naturally a little anxious. President Hill read us a little letter from President Ivory, in which he told us that he'd talked with President Uctdorf who said that the brethren believe that Romania and Moldova are currently at a "tipping point" and that the work that's done here and now is crucial.
So after the conference we stayed in Bucharest for another, and left back to Craiova early in the morning. We had the branch Christmas party at 2:00 and made it to Craiova with 15 minutes to spare. It was only Fratele and Sora Radulescu, the Spooners and the missionaries at the Christmas party, but it was still great :) Unfortunately, we couldn't get a hold of a single less active member, or get any of our potentials to come.

Tomorrow we start English classes again! We're looking forward to that. Sora Smith and I will be teaching advanced English this transfer. Tomorrow the Spooners are also taking us out to eat. President and Sora Spooner are leaving back to America this week and won't be back until sometime in January. So we'll have a good time trying to figure out how to keep the branch going without them :)

It's insane to be serving in such a small little branch. I love it though because we are the ones who get to see the work progress from the bottom up. I can honestly  say that I really believe the church will flourish here someday. And I can say that because I'm watching the foundation be laid everyday!
Craiova is the best. My companion is the best.  Missions are the best. You guys are the best.

I love you all so so so much!

Have a wonderful week!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Sora Ralls

December 2, 2013

Hello from Craiova!

It feels like forever since I last emailed home! I don't even know where to start. 

We went to Bucharest on Wednesday and we got to see all of our mission friends again! We didn't stay long though because the train to Craiova left around 5:00 pm. That's the earliest I've ever had to leave from transfers!

But we got into Craiova around 9:00 pm, and out elders were there to meet us at the train station. They even made us "Welcome to Craiova!" signs. It was awesome.

Our Apartment here is AWESOME. It's definitely older, but it's so cute and homey. The Elders put up Christmas lights inside our apartment for us. AND it has two bathrooms. so we can't complain!

Our Thanksgiving was super, but it didn't turn out how we planned. We'd planned on cooking a dinner together at the church, but the lock on our door broke when we'd come home to start cooking that evening... so we called the Elders, and they came over to try and help. They couldn't get it open, so we called the landlord but he was out of town!!! So, we spent a good portion of the evening looking for a locksmith. HA! we never found one. but eventually the Elders just forced the door open... it was awesome. Afterwards we just ended up drinking hot chocolate at the church. It wasn't how we'd planned... but I really did love Thanksgiving :) It absolutely made me grateful for an awesome mission district!

On Friday, we met the Spooners. The Spooners are AMAZING!!! Aunt Vivian knows them!  They're from Michigan, and President Spooner is the manager of the Ford plant here. He also makes sure the little branch here functions. We went to their apartment, and they had dinner for us. Being in their home felt like AMERICA.  They even had ranch dressing for us! I haven't' seen ranch since the MTC.

Sunday was super cool. Since there are only 4 branch members we all got to go up and share our testimony. MAN IT WAS AWESOME. The church here is tiny. It's only 3 rooms... oh and half of the building is a club... Club Ludi. Ha ha:) Church here also only lasts 2 hours... since there aren't enough people to split into Relief Society and Priesthood. 

It seriously is such a blessing to be here in Craiova. One of the first things the Spooners and the other branch members told us is that they've been praying specifically to have sisters in Craiova for years, and that they were thrilled to have us. It makes me think of how many people all over the world are having their prayers for missionaries answered during this wave of missionary work. I feel so blessed to be a part of it!

Let's seeeee what else....

Sora Smith is amazing! I love her so much. She's so funny, and she loves to tell stories. Her birthday was 2 days ago! So that was fun. We all went out and got Chinese food to celebrate!

OH I almost forgot! We found a new Investigator! Her name is Dorina. We met her at a branch activity... what's interesting about serving here is that the branch is much smaller than Arad's, but  the branch activities have SO many more people that come. So, we met Dorina at the branch activity. She even came to church on Sunday! But about half way through Sacrament meeting she turned to me and said "I want to leave." So, I ended up walking her out.She just said she had other stuff to do, but we're meeting with her again on Friday!

So, basically Craiova is just awesome. Everything here is just awesome.

I'll attach some pictures of the city and apartment!

I love you all!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Sora Ralls