July 19, 2010 in Romania
Monday, July 19, 2010 by Sora Jay
Hey everybody,
How is everything going? Some of you guys I haven't heard from in a while, so I wonder if everything is okay during those few moments that I have to think about things besides missionary work.
One day this week we were going from door to door knocking at people's houses and we knocked on this one lady's door and I don't remember how we started the approach but we started talking to her. The door approach went a little like this: we introduced a little message (I don't remember what) and asked if we could have a few minutes to share it; then the lady told us that she was orthodox, so we said "Great, then you believe in God, and in the Bible, and the Bible is written by prophets, so you believe in prophets just like us." And then we told her that there is a prophet on earth today, and she stepped back and looked at us incredulously and said "Are you joking?"
We both said "No" and we kind of stood there for a second and then said "Do you want us to tell you about him?" And she invited us in to talk to her and we gave her a restoration lesson a Book of Mormon and some commitments.
It was really cool to find someone who grasped the 'profoundness' of our message. We knock on hundreds of people's doors every week and they are always like "yeah, yeah, sure" or they just don't listen at all, but seeing this lady's response even made me realize how cool it is that we have the knowledge that we do.
Here in Galati we spend most of our time looking for people because there were no investigators when I got here, because one of the sisters before had 'health problems' and it was her last transfer. Fortunately, my companion Sora Hupp is willing to work hard and we are outside all day long looking for people.
I was thinking one day that it's a good thing that God is a lot more patient than me because I would have destroyed this city already because everybody is wicked and set in their ways...and then I realIzed that this city is currently being destroyed by flooding. So I thought about that for a while.
There are areas in this city where the missionaries are not allowed to go becuase it's too dangerous.
People actually do listen to us though, we just have to persuade them to a lot of the time. Some people just let us right in though; one day this week some young people let us in and we taught a lessons to like ten people who were sitting in the courtyard. I thought about how earlier on in my mission I might have been nervous being in front of so many people, but now I don't really care. We try so hard to get people to listen to us that when they are willing to listen we talk to anyone and everyone.
We have been able to find a few new investigators this past week though, and someone came to sacrament meeting.
The branch here is pretty small, and the previous missionaries in this area have set sort of a low standard. There was one member who wanted us to hold her little boy and help her carry him home which would have taken an hour. For Sora Hupp it was really hard to say no, because she had done it before, and the member kept telling us that she wouldn't get us in trouble for it or tell anyone and that she couldn't do it without us. I just told her that I couldn't because it was against mission rules. She kept trying to persuade us but eventually she got distracted and we just left. It's too bad that there aren't any members who could help her because I believe her when she says she needs help, but as missionaries we can't and that's just the way it is.
Sometimes when we are asked to do certain things to be obedient we don't always understand why or we feel that there are exceptions, but whenever we are obedient, no matter what comes of it, it will be "accounted unto [us] as righteousness", just like the Nephites who kept the Law of Moses. The Branch President here has asked us to help people to have the faith to pay their tithing so that they can recieve the blessings. It's one of those things that we just need to do out of obedience without trying to come up with reasons and excuses. But we also know that we will recieve blessings from doing so, both temporally and spiritually, so it makes it worth it anyway. It's like what President Hinkley said "Do what is right, no matter the consequences."
Well, that's my little missionary moment for this week's email. Except I guess that the whole email is a missionary moment.
I wish there were members out here like you guys to be good examples and teachers for everyone else.
Well, I'm running out of time. I just have one question for you guys. Everybody here, and mostly everybody in all of Europe I think, has a big pock-kind of scar on their left arm and I found out that it is from the TB vaccine. In America I think the doctors hate the TB vaccine, so I am curious to know why if it seems to have been embraced by Europe. I'm sticking with the Americans but I am curious. So, let me know.
Love,
Sora Jay
How is everything going? Some of you guys I haven't heard from in a while, so I wonder if everything is okay during those few moments that I have to think about things besides missionary work.
One day this week we were going from door to door knocking at people's houses and we knocked on this one lady's door and I don't remember how we started the approach but we started talking to her. The door approach went a little like this: we introduced a little message (I don't remember what) and asked if we could have a few minutes to share it; then the lady told us that she was orthodox, so we said "Great, then you believe in God, and in the Bible, and the Bible is written by prophets, so you believe in prophets just like us." And then we told her that there is a prophet on earth today, and she stepped back and looked at us incredulously and said "Are you joking?"
We both said "No" and we kind of stood there for a second and then said "Do you want us to tell you about him?" And she invited us in to talk to her and we gave her a restoration lesson a Book of Mormon and some commitments.
It was really cool to find someone who grasped the 'profoundness' of our message. We knock on hundreds of people's doors every week and they are always like "yeah, yeah, sure" or they just don't listen at all, but seeing this lady's response even made me realize how cool it is that we have the knowledge that we do.
Here in Galati we spend most of our time looking for people because there were no investigators when I got here, because one of the sisters before had 'health problems' and it was her last transfer. Fortunately, my companion Sora Hupp is willing to work hard and we are outside all day long looking for people.
I was thinking one day that it's a good thing that God is a lot more patient than me because I would have destroyed this city already because everybody is wicked and set in their ways...and then I realIzed that this city is currently being destroyed by flooding. So I thought about that for a while.
There are areas in this city where the missionaries are not allowed to go becuase it's too dangerous.
People actually do listen to us though, we just have to persuade them to a lot of the time. Some people just let us right in though; one day this week some young people let us in and we taught a lessons to like ten people who were sitting in the courtyard. I thought about how earlier on in my mission I might have been nervous being in front of so many people, but now I don't really care. We try so hard to get people to listen to us that when they are willing to listen we talk to anyone and everyone.
We have been able to find a few new investigators this past week though, and someone came to sacrament meeting.
The branch here is pretty small, and the previous missionaries in this area have set sort of a low standard. There was one member who wanted us to hold her little boy and help her carry him home which would have taken an hour. For Sora Hupp it was really hard to say no, because she had done it before, and the member kept telling us that she wouldn't get us in trouble for it or tell anyone and that she couldn't do it without us. I just told her that I couldn't because it was against mission rules. She kept trying to persuade us but eventually she got distracted and we just left. It's too bad that there aren't any members who could help her because I believe her when she says she needs help, but as missionaries we can't and that's just the way it is.
Sometimes when we are asked to do certain things to be obedient we don't always understand why or we feel that there are exceptions, but whenever we are obedient, no matter what comes of it, it will be "accounted unto [us] as righteousness", just like the Nephites who kept the Law of Moses. The Branch President here has asked us to help people to have the faith to pay their tithing so that they can recieve the blessings. It's one of those things that we just need to do out of obedience without trying to come up with reasons and excuses. But we also know that we will recieve blessings from doing so, both temporally and spiritually, so it makes it worth it anyway. It's like what President Hinkley said "Do what is right, no matter the consequences."
Well, that's my little missionary moment for this week's email. Except I guess that the whole email is a missionary moment.
I wish there were members out here like you guys to be good examples and teachers for everyone else.
Well, I'm running out of time. I just have one question for you guys. Everybody here, and mostly everybody in all of Europe I think, has a big pock-kind of scar on their left arm and I found out that it is from the TB vaccine. In America I think the doctors hate the TB vaccine, so I am curious to know why if it seems to have been embraced by Europe. I'm sticking with the Americans but I am curious. So, let me know.
Love,
Sora Jay
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