October 28, 2013

Ce Faci!

This WEEK!
I don't even know where to start. Before I left on my mission, I have to admit I might have thought mission life could be mundane and maybe repetitive. Wrong. I don't think I've ever had such great adventures since coming out here. This week was no different.
On Friday, we went with two of the Elders to a little (And I mean LITTLE) town called Sintana. It was about 30 minute train ride. We went to visit two children who were living there with their aunt and uncle. These children's parents had been baptized, but are currently living in Portugal for work. They asked that someone from the church just go out there to make sure they were doing okay.
So, we get off the train into this little town, and the uncle meets us at the train station on his bike. We follow him back to his little house which was about a 45 minute walk outside of this little town. We were on the outskirts of the outskirts. It was crazy. It was like Romania from the 1800's. I'll attach a couple pictures so you can see your yourselves!
So finally we get to their tiny home, and we tried talking to the kids for a bit, but B ( the uncle) insisted on giving us some kind of hour long Pentecostal sermon. No matter what we said or did, we couldn't bring the conversation back to how the kids were doing. Finally, he stops and says "Well we better go to the train station. The last train out of here leaves at 7:00." It was 6:15. We were going to head back to the train station we came from. But B told us he there was a closer one. On the way there we got stared down worse than ever before, (and reasonably so) and 3 or 4 dogs came running toward us along the way.And they were not friendly. The elders had to scare them off. So as if this wasn't scary enough, the sun had just set and we arrived at this little empty white shack with 3 walls. It was obviously not a train station. Apparently we were supposed to wait there and then jump on the side of the tracks when a train came and perhaps it would stop for us. The trains came... and left. We waited there for about an hour It took us a while but we finally made our way back to the actual train station. Luckily there was a train that went back to Arad not long after we made it there :) It was a great night!
This week we also had a couple great lessons. We also got bunged a little, but that's alright:)
Sora Adams and I had a wonderful lesson the other day with a lady we met in the park, as well as with a lady we met today while we were searching for a members house.
Oh! and this week also seemed to have the theme of "Tithing" to it. Sora Adams were contacting in the park on Tuesday and this young man stopped us to specifically ask how our church does tithing. We explained, and then he gave us his number to give to the elders. The next day we had a lesson with a less active member. We decided to go over a conference talk with her, and picked "The Widow's of Heaven" by Bednar. She then told us that she needed to hear these things. She said she hadn't been coming to church because she hadn't been payin g her tithing and she was ashamed. We talked with her about it for a bit, and she's going to try to make some changes. She also came back to church last Sunday!
This week we feel like we've been guiding to a lot of the right things at the right times in the right places without even knowing it. It has been filled with miracles and tender mercies.
Sora Adams also pointed out to me yesterday that on Friday I'll be hitting my 6 month mark! I can hardly believe that. Mission life goes by SO fast. Too fast. I feel like I just left the MTC last week!
I love you all and I hope you have a happy Halloween!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Ps- If you haven't read "His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox, we would highly recommend it:) And if you have, it's a great time to read it again!! 

October 14, 2013

Salut!!

We saw transfer board on Saturday, and I'm staying in Arad!!! That was a surprise. We have 6 in our district, and 3 are leaving.My lovely companion, Sora Stewart is going to Constansa. We thought for sure I'd leave, or at least we thought Sora Stewart and I would stay together for another transfer here. But nope! I'll be serving with Sora Adams. She's up in Cluj right now serving with Sora DeRuvo actually. I'm going to miss Sora Stewart so much, but I'm excited to serve with Sora Adams too. I am happy to be staying in Arad with this little branch a little longer. 

So, tomorrow we're leaving for Bucharest again! We're taking the night train again and we'll be there early Wednesday morning. And then we'll catch the next night train back at 11:30 Wednesday night. I seriously love this mission. It's such an adventure. 

This week we had a few lessons, we held English classes, and deep cleaned the church. But mostly, we did a whole heck of a lot of contacting, and we had SO much success. We've gained like 5 solid potential investigators. 

I'll just tell you about one of our new potential investigators and how we found him. After church yesterday, Sora Stewart and I were walking home from church, and we were talking... I don't even remember what we were talking about, but we were speaking in English. Then we heard this man from behind us ask "You speak English?" We talked to him for a bit, and this man had lived in London for a while, and is planning on going back next month. We kept walking and talking with him, and we started talking about the gospel. He'd told us he was baptized into another church, but that he felt he'd messed somethings up in his life and had no way to fix them and that he didn't stand approved with God anymore. We assured him that everything can be made right through Christ. I wish you all could have seen his face when we talked to him about the power of the atonement. He is so anxious to feel clean again. We got his information and gave it to the elders.  The elders are having a lesson with him tonight! Everyday I become more grateful that I've been taught these things from an early age. 

Salut!!

We saw transfer board on Saturday, and I'm staying in Arad!!! That was a surprise. We have 6 in our district, and 3 are leaving.My lovely companion, Sora Stewart is going to Constansa. We thought for sure I'd leave, or at least we thought Sora Stewart and I would stay together for another transfer here. But nope! I'll be serving with Sora Adams. She's up in Cluj right now serving with Sora DeRuvo actually. I'm going to miss Sora Stewart so much, but I'm excited to serve with Sora Adams too. I am happy to be staying in Arad with this little branch a little longer. 

So, tomorrow we're leaving for Bucharest again! We're taking the night train again and we'll be there early Wednesday morning. And then we'll catch the next night train back at 11:30 Wednesday night. I seriously love this mission. It's such an adventure. 

This week we had a few lessons, we held English classes, and deep cleaned the church. But mostly, we did a whole heck of a lot of contacting, and we had SO much success. We've gained like 5 solid potential investigators. 

I'll just tell you about one of our new potential investigators and how we found him. After church yesterday, Sora Stewart and I were walking home from church, and we were talking... I don't even remember what we were talking about, but we were speaking in English. Then we heard this man from behind us ask "You speak English?" We talked to him for a bit, and this man had lived in London for a while, and is planning on going back next month. We kept walking and talking with him, and we started talking about the gospel. He'd told us he was baptized into another church, but that he felt he'd messed somethings up in his life and had no way to fix them and that he didn't stand approved with God anymore. We assured him that everything can be made right through Christ. I wish you all could have seen his face when we talked to him about the power of the atonement. He is so anxious to feel clean again. Everyday I become more grateful to know what I know. My heart breaks for the people here who think once they've done something wrong, it's over. There are so many people we meet who are looking for forgiveness, but don't know how to find it. I am so grateful to know that we never have to carry our burdens alone, and that we always will have a chance to start over once we are willing to take the steps to begin. The Elders have a lesson tonight with this man, and they're looking forward to it:)

We also did chalk contacting again this week. I'm going to miss chalk contacting so much once it gets to cold to do it anymore. It is such a good way to find people. They're always so curious as to what we're all doing and ask so many questions. I LOVE IT.

I love my mission, I love my companions, I love Romanian food, and I LOVE ALL OF YOU!

Have a wonderful week!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sora Ralls

October 7, 2013

SALUT!

Alright, let's talk about conference! Wasn't it awesome? I'm actually trying to listen to the afternoon sessions right now. They do conference weekend a little differently here in Arad. On Saturday, the branch members and the missionaries met up at the church at 7:00 pm to watch the first session. Then, on Sunday, we all met at the church at 5:00 pm to have a two hour long sacrament meeting and then we all watched the Sunday morning session together. So I haven't been able to watch the afternoon sessions at all until right now! So yes, conference so far has been awesome. There's never been a better time to be a missionary, or a member missionary!

This week has been super great. On Wednesday, we had an exchange with the coordinating sisters. I went with Sora Polatis. We did a little bit of contacting, and we had two lessons. One with Cristina, for mission prep (she's the member who's about to leave for France!) and one with Elvira and her mother, Simona. We had a lesson of prophets, just to make sure they were understanding from our last lesson, and also so that perhaps they'd be a little more enticed to come to the church for conference. They didn't come, unfortunately, but things are still going well! 

We also had a couple lessons with Anca. That's going well too. She tells us that she really only lets us teach her because we teach her English, but seriously, I think we're slowing getting somewhere with her. Last time we met with her she told us she started reading the pamphlets we'd given her. prrrooogreess. 

The Elders here just got their investigator to commit to a baptism date. They're super excited about it. The only thing is is that the date the investigator agreed to commit to is in May of next year. Haha. They're thinking and hoping that it will happen a little sooner though:) Their investigator's name is Irinel, and he found the church while he was serving in the military in Iraq.

Sometimes I think things are progressing so slowly here. But then I realize; Oh my heck. I'm in Arad, Romania, and I'm going to church. With other members. Of all places! There's a branch in Arad Romania! The work. It's definitely moving. 

So this morning, we all went to LIPOVA for Pday. Talk about adventure! Lipova is a little town that's about an hour train ride out of Arad. We pulled into this ity bity town and then walked about an hour to get to the Lipova fortress. And then we took a pretty steep hike for about 30 minutes. And then we were there! I'll include some pictures:) My gosh, it was so so so cool. There was no one else up there but us. We climbed around, and took lots of pictures:)

Transfer board comes out on Friday!!! This one is particularly exciting for me because I'm the most likely to be transfered out of our district. it's very bittersweet. I LOVE. This district I'm in. And I LOVE Sora Stewart. We all have so much fun together! But I've been here at least a transfer or 2 longer than anyone else here. So, I might be bouncin out pretty soon. If I go, It will be exciting. But if I stay, I'll be super happy too. WIN WIN!

I love you all so much!! Thank you for  your examples and your prayers!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxox

Love,

Sora Ralls

September 23, 2013

Buna Buna!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! I think I actually do have the best family and friends in the world. My birthday here was seriously, awesome. The entire morning was just filled with phone calls from missionaries I've served around, and others who sang "La Mults Ani" to Sora Stewart and me. That song's been stuck in our head since. Then we did some chalk contacting with some of our district.  I love chalk contacting so much. It's the best because people are so curious as to what we're drawing so they come to US.  Later that evening we got permission from President Hill to go out to dinner with our district. The Assistants also came because they were on an exchange with the Zone leaders. It was a party! The elders also gave me "The Birthday Tie". It was honor because I'm the only sister to ever receive it. I even got to add my name to the back of it and everything. I'll add the picture:)  I'm going to have to figure out a creative way to wear it I guess....

This week we also got to move into our NEW APARTMENT! no more falling ceiling, no more roaches, no more sparky outlets... score. We're loving it. It's a super nice apartment too. Everything is brand new! We're loving it.

Hey, I remembered to bring my notes from Elder Powell's talk at district conference on the Book of Mormon! So basically his talk was on the truthfulness of of the Book of Mormon. He talked about some studies that had been done to prove it was a fares, but how each one of these studies ended up proving it was more true than false. He shared some interesting things that I'd never realized or even knew before, and now I'll share them with you!

-Okay- So he pulled out some specific verses like 1 Nephi 2:4.  "And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness" the word "and" is used more than 10 times in this verse. Which was a common in Hebrew.

-In 1 Nephi 2:6, The verse mentions a "river of water"  Why river of water? Because they had dry, waterless rivers in Israel. They called those types of rivers.... Wadus or something like that. Joseph Smith... he probably had no idea.

-Alma 2:34 

"And thus he cleared the ground, or rather the bank, which was on the west of the river Sidon, throwing the bodies of the Lamanites who had been slain into the waters of Sidon, that thereby his people might have room to cross and contend with the Lamanites and the Amlicites on the west side of the river Sidon."- Elder Powell pointed out that the words "or rather" were used here to correct a mistake in writing by Alma. You can't really erase what you've written on plates so you correct your self with terms like "or  rather" If it was Joseph Smith writing this book, he could have just erased this mistake, and started over more easily.

Okay so those were just a few of the many many many awesome neat things he shared with us:)

I'm running out of time and I still have to email, President Hill so I better run! I love you all so much! Thank you so much for everything you do! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

Sora Ralls

September 16, 2013

Buna Buna!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes!! That was so great to see:) 

This week has been seriously awesome. We've done a lot of traveling this week and it's been so neat. First, on Tuesday we went back to Timisoara for Zone training. That was pretty fun. But we had to leave a little early because we had a lesson back in Arad. 

Then just yesterday we got to go up to Oradea for the Romanian district conference! Oradea was SO beautiful. That place is more Hungarian than it is Romanian. Everything was so gorgeous. And clean. And classy.  The conference was seriously amazing. It covered Cluj, Oradea, Arad,and  Timisora . We went down for the Saturday session on Saturday night, and stayed through Sunday Afternoon. 

During the Saturday afternoon session Elder Powell (one of the Senior missionaries here) gave like the neatest talk about the Book of Mormon. I meant to bring the notes I took so I could share them with you in this email, but I forgot them:( I'll bring 'em next time though. He shared some really neat things about the Book of Mormon that never even occurred to  me before. (this is your teaser for next weeks letter) :) But seriously, the conference was amazing and Oradea was beautiful. I also got to see Sora DeRuvo and Sora Hebden again! I loved it.

So this week we finally FINALLY got a hold of one of our potential investigators, Tamara. When we called she told us she was in the hospital. So, we asked if we could visit here there. She said yes, so we went to the hospital. We couldn't find her, so we called her again, but unfortunately neither Sora Stewart or I could understand what she was saying ... Romanian is hard enough to understand in person. So we just hung up and told her we'd call her back. Then we just panicked for a minute. Okay, so then immediately this guy turns the corner of the hospital. And he spoke English! He agreed to talk to her for us and then he explained where she was. Turns out she was in a tiny sub woman's hospital on the other side of town. So finally, we get there. She's in a room with 5 other patients and her friend. Tamara was so happy to see us! And so were the other women in the hospital! We were actually able to teach all of them. It was amazing. All of them wanted a Book of Mormon at the end. We only brought two, so we had to go back the next day with more. We're going back to the hospital tomorrow. Being a missionary is awesome.

Other than that and a couple lessons with Anca,and the Costros we've just done a lot of contacting. Contacting, contacting, contacting. We've actually had a lot of success with our English contacting this week. A lot of people told us they'd be there. We're hoping for a much bigger english class this   transfer! Things are lookin gooooood!

I love you all so so so so much! Have a wonderful week!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Sora Ralls

September 9, 2013

Buna Buna!

Alrrriiighht so I'm officially no longer a greeny! I'm a full fledged missionary now. 

On Tuesday we took a night train to Bucharest. My gosh those things are so crazy. There were no more first class rooms left so we had to share with the Elders again. That's a fun time. We just ate bananas and Milka bars and played Taboo. 

We got to Buch at 5:30 Wednesday morning. My gosh that was Such a looooonggg day.  But it's always so much fun to be there and see all the other missionaries who've come down for transfers. I met my new lovely companion, Sora Stewart. She's from Las Vegas and she's super funny. She actually kind of reminds me of Kiley a little bit. She laughs just like her too! Saying good bye to Sora DeRuvo was super hard. My gosh, I love her so much. I was blessed with seriously, the perfect trainer. Our train that night left at 12:00 midnight. 

So, Thursday afternoon we met with 2 of the members of the branch. Sora Florita fed us lunch, and for the first time her husband was home and willing to talk with us. He's not a member. He really actually probably said like 5 words to us total. But he said he would come to church this Sunday! 

Then we met with Cristina. Cristina is the one we have mission prep classes with. She leaves for her mission to France in about month and a half.

Friday and Saturday were pretty much all contacting. We actually ran into a lady we contacted a few weeks earlier when I was on an exchange with one of the Coordinating sisters.. She welcomed us so warmly to sit with her. We talked with her for about 20 minutes before she had to leave. She invited us to come talk to her again this Thursday.

Hey, hopefully next week we'll be able to move into our new apartment! it's almost finished actually! It's so great. Sora DeRuvo and I actually got to pick out the colors of the walls. We're super excited to move in! We need to move in soon too. The ceiling in our bathroom is starting to fall down on us. haha:)

Sora Stewart and I are super excited for this next week. We've been able to get a hold of some of our potential investigators we haven't been able to talk to in a long time. We have pretty much our entire week already planned filled with appointments!  

If anyone of you hasn't read the talk "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" . (A BYU devotional) I highl, highly suggest you read it this week! I've read it a few times already this week. I can't get over how great it is.  

I love  you all so much! Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

Love love love,

Sora Ralls

August 13, 2013

More pictures....