Romania August 16, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010 by Sora Jay
Hello again everyone,
I guess that because of the time difference I get Tom's and Ed's letters about a week after they write them but you guys get mine a few hours after I write them. And I guess that you guys at home usually write on Sundays so the info I get is pretty current, usually.
Anyway, I heard about Jensen and his little foot. I guess he won't have to have a cast anymore by the time I get back. I would be willing to go stay at the Booths house and help out, but I think I'll just stay here in Romania a bit longer. I told you about how we have been teaching primary, and we have to handle a bunch of little kids in a different language. I finally learned that you just have to do what their moms would do to get them to settle down, and that is to threaten them with beatings and yell at them in command form. It actually worked pretty well once I decided to try it. But then I decided to be nice to them anyway, because they can also easily be won over with treats.
We had a special district meeting this week about institute and the institute director for all of Romania came and talked to us and treated us to lunch. It took about three hours to determine that we are teaching a course called 'gospel productive life,' which I'm pretty sure isn't an accurate translation but that's what he called it in English and he never told us the name in Romanian.
He also told us that the church was more successful in Ukraine and Moldova because they had Russian influence over there; he said that Russian people know how to keep their commitments (when it's between two people because they don't want to get the government involved). He said that Romanian people don't keep their commitments until the government gets involved, and that's why people here progress and get baptized less frequently. So, Jesh and Pete, is this true about Russians? Because for us we have to tell someone to read and pray, and then go back and find out that they didn't read and pray so we read with them the chapter that we assigned them to show that we're serious about them keeping their commitments; and then maybe they will the next time we come back, or just come up with better excuses.
I got some dearelders from Mom this week, and I actually got them just a couple days after she had written them. Usually it takes weeks for them to get here because I have to wait until I have some sort of contact with the office elders in Bucharest. So, those of you who send stuff through dearelder, I probably will get it long after it was sent. I usually have sufficient time at emails to read everything I get and write back. You should still send stuff through dearelder.com for Ed though, because he doesn't have a lot of time.
It sounds like Ed has had a lot more fun at the MTC than I ever did. We did have friends all around the MTC though, mainly we were friends with the Italy, ASL, and tagalog districts. And with one spanish district that we eventually adopted one missionary from. She got sick and missed her departure date so we had to take her around with us.
When I was in the MTC I always cleaned my tray like you, Ed. The elders were pretty impressed sometimes because I could eat more food than they could.
Tom, I hope that you have time for language study every day, even if your companions are english speaking. You should at least read in the portuguese Book of Mormon every day to keep up what you've got.
I found a french Book of Mormon in our apartment and I could read a little bit from it, because of what I know from school and words that are similar to Romanian. Maybe we will be able to communicate a little bit when we're both back, and Ed too.
Well, I don't remember if I told you guys about how we knocked into a preot, which is an orthodox priest. Now our area is destroyed. People see us at the door and won't let us say anything, or even give them an English class flier. We think that the preot must have given his yearly sermon on the greatest sin: listening to missionaries from other churches. This one guy let us in to talk and then his wife came out and saw us and looked like she was ready to explode, like her husband had just let Satan into their courtyard. She must have been the religious one who went to church to find out how evil we are, and then her unreligious husband let us in the house. She went so crazy that Sora Hupp and I just laughed after we left. She freaked out. At least she didn't hit us or anything, or call the cops.
Well, I just got the transfer board and I'm getting transferred to Bucharest, so on Tuesday I'll take the train up there.
I started hating the people here because they are just sheep that follow everyone else and blidly obey the Orthodox traditions, but then when we were block-knocking we talked to a lady whose husband and son had recently died. I felt so bad for her that she had no hope or knowledge of what would happen or if she would ever see them again. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and scheduled to come back. People would be so much happier if they would listen and believe, we really are here to help them and bring them happiness, if they just take a moment to listen. It's cool that even though most of these people have had the gospel witheld from them because of the traditions and influences of the Orthodox church they will still get more and more chances from the missionaries in this world and in the next to hear and accept the truth.
I'll contact the librarian before I leave Tim.
Love,
Sora Jay
I guess that because of the time difference I get Tom's and Ed's letters about a week after they write them but you guys get mine a few hours after I write them. And I guess that you guys at home usually write on Sundays so the info I get is pretty current, usually.
Anyway, I heard about Jensen and his little foot. I guess he won't have to have a cast anymore by the time I get back. I would be willing to go stay at the Booths house and help out, but I think I'll just stay here in Romania a bit longer. I told you about how we have been teaching primary, and we have to handle a bunch of little kids in a different language. I finally learned that you just have to do what their moms would do to get them to settle down, and that is to threaten them with beatings and yell at them in command form. It actually worked pretty well once I decided to try it. But then I decided to be nice to them anyway, because they can also easily be won over with treats.
We had a special district meeting this week about institute and the institute director for all of Romania came and talked to us and treated us to lunch. It took about three hours to determine that we are teaching a course called 'gospel productive life,' which I'm pretty sure isn't an accurate translation but that's what he called it in English and he never told us the name in Romanian.
He also told us that the church was more successful in Ukraine and Moldova because they had Russian influence over there; he said that Russian people know how to keep their commitments (when it's between two people because they don't want to get the government involved). He said that Romanian people don't keep their commitments until the government gets involved, and that's why people here progress and get baptized less frequently. So, Jesh and Pete, is this true about Russians? Because for us we have to tell someone to read and pray, and then go back and find out that they didn't read and pray so we read with them the chapter that we assigned them to show that we're serious about them keeping their commitments; and then maybe they will the next time we come back, or just come up with better excuses.
I got some dearelders from Mom this week, and I actually got them just a couple days after she had written them. Usually it takes weeks for them to get here because I have to wait until I have some sort of contact with the office elders in Bucharest. So, those of you who send stuff through dearelder, I probably will get it long after it was sent. I usually have sufficient time at emails to read everything I get and write back. You should still send stuff through dearelder.com for Ed though, because he doesn't have a lot of time.
It sounds like Ed has had a lot more fun at the MTC than I ever did. We did have friends all around the MTC though, mainly we were friends with the Italy, ASL, and tagalog districts. And with one spanish district that we eventually adopted one missionary from. She got sick and missed her departure date so we had to take her around with us.
When I was in the MTC I always cleaned my tray like you, Ed. The elders were pretty impressed sometimes because I could eat more food than they could.
Tom, I hope that you have time for language study every day, even if your companions are english speaking. You should at least read in the portuguese Book of Mormon every day to keep up what you've got.
I found a french Book of Mormon in our apartment and I could read a little bit from it, because of what I know from school and words that are similar to Romanian. Maybe we will be able to communicate a little bit when we're both back, and Ed too.
Well, I don't remember if I told you guys about how we knocked into a preot, which is an orthodox priest. Now our area is destroyed. People see us at the door and won't let us say anything, or even give them an English class flier. We think that the preot must have given his yearly sermon on the greatest sin: listening to missionaries from other churches. This one guy let us in to talk and then his wife came out and saw us and looked like she was ready to explode, like her husband had just let Satan into their courtyard. She must have been the religious one who went to church to find out how evil we are, and then her unreligious husband let us in the house. She went so crazy that Sora Hupp and I just laughed after we left. She freaked out. At least she didn't hit us or anything, or call the cops.
Well, I just got the transfer board and I'm getting transferred to Bucharest, so on Tuesday I'll take the train up there.
I started hating the people here because they are just sheep that follow everyone else and blidly obey the Orthodox traditions, but then when we were block-knocking we talked to a lady whose husband and son had recently died. I felt so bad for her that she had no hope or knowledge of what would happen or if she would ever see them again. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and scheduled to come back. People would be so much happier if they would listen and believe, we really are here to help them and bring them happiness, if they just take a moment to listen. It's cool that even though most of these people have had the gospel witheld from them because of the traditions and influences of the Orthodox church they will still get more and more chances from the missionaries in this world and in the next to hear and accept the truth.
I'll contact the librarian before I leave Tim.
Love,
Sora Jay
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