Jay Family Missionaries

Hey everybody,

Ed, it doesn't take too long to get used to your country. By the end
of your first transfer you definitely will be. I remember coming to
Bucarest from the airport when I first flew into the country and
seeing how different it was, but when I came back here for transfers I
realized that I didn't think anything of it, and all of the
differences that I had noticed at first didn't stand out to me
anymore.
I think it took me about three weeks to stop noticing how tiny and
crappy the cobblestone streets were, and how ugly and dirty the blocs
were. And also how small the cars are. I also got used to using
water filters really fast too. I'll probably be super shocked when I
get back to Utah.

This week I tasted some nonalcoholic beer at an investigators house.
It was super disgusting.

I went to Zone Leader Council this week. They usually invite a couple
of sisters to attend so that we know what's going on, and because we
have no other opportunity of going since we won't ever be Zone
Leaders. I realized that the elders really look up to us as sisters.
One Zone had a week where they got only two new investigators for the
whole zone and when asked what happened they said that that was the
week that the sisters were in Bucarest for training. It's kind of
crazy to see that our mission is led by a bunch of 20 year old kids.
But just like that one guy once said "The work goes on, not because of
the missionaries, but in spite of them." I have realized that tons of
times on my mission.
Sometimes I thought that a better missionary would come into my area
after me and fix the things that I did wrong or have the strengths
that I lacked, but I realized that there is no missionary that can do
that, (especially since I know all of the sisters) so I just had to
try to develop the strengths necessary and do the best that I could to
be exactly the missionary that was needed.

This week we had a cool miracle, we had a lesson right after studied
in the morning and we taught the Restoration lesson to them and
invited them to get baptized. The husband said "I was already
baptized orthodox when I was a baby; do I have to get baptized again?"
Nothing else came to me so I just said, "Yes."
He replied, "When?"
So I set him and his wife up to be baptized on the 30th of this month.
After that we went to go teach a girl that we met at church, Ramona.
An inactive member had come back to church and brought them with him.
We had met with her once before so this time we gave her a baptismal
invitation too, for the 30th as well. She said, "Do you think that I
will be ready that soon?" And, again, I didn't have anything else to
say except "Yes." So we set her up to be baptized on the 30th.
After that we were heading out to the blocs, I think, when the Zone
leaders called us and asked us if we had just given a baptismal date
to a young girl. As it turns out, Elder Ritz who used to be here in
bucarest was here again on exchanges and he had taught her family
before so they decided to try stopping by their house. The family was
home and they were in the middle of a great lesson when Ramona came
home and announced that she was getting baptized on the 30th. The
elders were probably horrified, because they didn't know what church
she was getting baptized in, but they asked her who the missionaries
were and she said that one had curly blond hair so they knew it was
us. Anyway, when the rest of the family heard that she was getting
baptized they wanted to get baptized too, so the elders set up with
them for the 30th as well.
It gets better. We had set up to meet with this family on Friday at
5, but when we showed up they said they were busy getting ready to
head out to the country so we weren't able to visit them, and we
figured they wouldn't be able to be here for District Conference on
Sunday either. But, as we were there wating for District Conference
to start they all walked in! We visited them later on Sunday and they
told us that they had come back last night so that they could be here
for church. Plus, since the buses and stuff weren't running as they
normally would (there was a Marathon on Sunday) they knew that they
were going to be late, so they took a taxi to make sure that they got
there. They don't have a lot of money but they were willing to make
that sacrifice to get to the district conference. And they told us
the meeting was awesome and that they felt great during and after. If
they keep this up they will definitely get baptized on the 30th.
So we got six baptismal dates that day. We gave the first two to the
missionaries on the other side of Bucarest because they live closer to
the other branch, but we are still working with the other family.

Cool things have been happening, especially when my companion and I
are united in our desire to achieve the goal of 200 baptisms for this
year. It's really hard to see any miracles if either one of the
missionaries in the companionship is unwilling, or even just not
really wanting to see them. Sometimes I when I could tell that my
companion was in a bad mood I would try to tell some jokes or some
funny stories so that she could be happy again.

Okay, that's it for this week.

Love,
Sora Jay

P.S. Thanks for the birthday list!

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