Romania 31 Jan 2010
Monday, January 31, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hello again everybody,
Sounds like things are going good there. This week is trasfers, and I've just found out that I am getting transferred to a city called Iasi (yash) which is like the Salt Lake City of Orthodoxism in Romania. It should be fun. The companion that I am going to replace is actually a Romanian, so I am a little nervous about filling her place, especially because the members there probably all love her because she can communicate well with them. I'm sure it will be fine though.
It has been pretty cold this week. It snowed a little and there is ice all over the sidewalks and streets. People have been pulling their little kids around outside with those little sleds with the metal 'ski' things on the bottom because it works perfectly on the ice. My companion slipped and fell down once on the ice, but I haven't fallen down yet. We always wear sweaters and coats and gloves and hats, and the investigators and members actually get mad at you and tell you that you'll get sick if you don't. One time one of the elders used their own reasoning against them; there was a kid that was going to leave church early but it is always super hot in the church so he was a little sweaty and Elder Ott told him that if he went outside when he was sweaty he would get sick, so he decided to stay for the rest of church.
I don't remember what exactly I told you about Alin, one of our investigators, in our last email, but we have set a baptismal date with him now. We told him to pray and so he started to pray every night and ask to know if the church is true. I was on splits with him and a member girl, Luiza, at their house teaching their family (and all of their neighbors) and afterward he told us that he had prayed really sincerely. He said that in the morning he woke up and had tears in his eyes. He said that it hadn't ever happened to him before, and all the time that he was telling us he was grinning. He asked us if it was a response to his prayer, and we told him that God knows how to talk to him and that if he considered it to be a response it probably was one. He seemed really happy when he was telling us. I think that he already knew that it is true and it made him really happy to have some sort of physical evidence. He said that he will get baptized the Saturday after this one, but that we have to be the ones to ask his mom. We know her and have taught her and she will probably definitely say yes, so he'll get baptized soon. In fact his mom might want to get baptized with him.
Ever since we have found Alin he has been giving us referrals, either getting us to talk to his friends or the people who live around him, even though he is a really shy kid. I think that the sisters actually asked him to be baptized when they taught the first lesson and he said he would once he found out it was true. When he came to church on Sunday today he came early and when he left he walked with us for a while and said that when he is at church time goes by really quickly, and that he feels really good. He said that he felt the best that he has ever felt when he was at church today. (Which kind of made me feel bad because I had kind of a crappy day at church because my companion and I still don't get along really well). He said that something 'pulls' him to go to church now.
He is from a gypsy family and he lives in a really crappy bloc that was assigned to his family by the government. I though that they just lived there because they were able to get in there and hook up a wire to have a light bulb, but his mom told us that the government gave them that place. I was shocked that the government would give anybody such a crappy place to live in, it's a really terrible place to live.
Their housing is really open (and the door to their room is broken by Alin's dad who is an alcoholic) so all of his neighbors who are equally poor and humble come in and listen to us teach whenever we come over. When I went there on splits with the member girl she seemed really nervous as more and more people started coming into the room, but she did a really good job answering questions and explaining things, and I tied things back into the lesson so that we could keep on subject.
Anyway, it's interesting to relate that experience to one that we had with an English student recently. We met with a girl after English and taught her the restoration lesson and she understood everything really well and followed the logic and everything. She understood perfectly at the end of the lesson that she just had to ask and she would get a response and know whether or not it was true, and said that she had actually gotten responses in the past when she had prayed about things. She understood everything perfectly, but didn't have an actual desire to do anything about it. Whereas Alin and his family didn't understand everything perfectly the first time we explained it, but as soon as Alin understood he really had a desire to know. It doesn't matter what kind of a person you are, you just have to be willing.
Recently I have been wondering about why some people receive special help to join the church (they will have a dream or something that prompts them to keep going) and other people don't and eventually disappear, and I noticed that a lot of the people who have special experiences are the ones that have something really valuable that they can do for the church, or eventually end up doing something really valuable for the church like being a branch president or a missionary. Sora Ausen's dad had a special experience and joined the church and now he has two kids on missions, and I think that all of the people in the district presidencies in Romania all have intense conversion experiences. So when we were working with Alin and we saw how many people he talked to about the church and how much of a help he would be to us, and how good of an example he would be to the other members, we prayed that he would have a converting experience because he would be very valuable to the church. He was definitely prepared beforehand, and he definitely seems to have had his experience because he is so happy and wants to be baptized, and when we set a baptismal date for him he said "And then after that I can go out contacting with you guys?" (We told him he could go contacting with the elders).
He's one of those awesome investigators who will become an awesome member just like the girl in Tom's city. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be here for his baptism, or to help the rest of his family (and his siblings that live in the orphanage) get baptized too, but he will be a sweet member.
Love,
Sora Jay
Sounds like things are going good there. This week is trasfers, and I've just found out that I am getting transferred to a city called Iasi (yash) which is like the Salt Lake City of Orthodoxism in Romania. It should be fun. The companion that I am going to replace is actually a Romanian, so I am a little nervous about filling her place, especially because the members there probably all love her because she can communicate well with them. I'm sure it will be fine though.
It has been pretty cold this week. It snowed a little and there is ice all over the sidewalks and streets. People have been pulling their little kids around outside with those little sleds with the metal 'ski' things on the bottom because it works perfectly on the ice. My companion slipped and fell down once on the ice, but I haven't fallen down yet. We always wear sweaters and coats and gloves and hats, and the investigators and members actually get mad at you and tell you that you'll get sick if you don't. One time one of the elders used their own reasoning against them; there was a kid that was going to leave church early but it is always super hot in the church so he was a little sweaty and Elder Ott told him that if he went outside when he was sweaty he would get sick, so he decided to stay for the rest of church.
I don't remember what exactly I told you about Alin, one of our investigators, in our last email, but we have set a baptismal date with him now. We told him to pray and so he started to pray every night and ask to know if the church is true. I was on splits with him and a member girl, Luiza, at their house teaching their family (and all of their neighbors) and afterward he told us that he had prayed really sincerely. He said that in the morning he woke up and had tears in his eyes. He said that it hadn't ever happened to him before, and all the time that he was telling us he was grinning. He asked us if it was a response to his prayer, and we told him that God knows how to talk to him and that if he considered it to be a response it probably was one. He seemed really happy when he was telling us. I think that he already knew that it is true and it made him really happy to have some sort of physical evidence. He said that he will get baptized the Saturday after this one, but that we have to be the ones to ask his mom. We know her and have taught her and she will probably definitely say yes, so he'll get baptized soon. In fact his mom might want to get baptized with him.
Ever since we have found Alin he has been giving us referrals, either getting us to talk to his friends or the people who live around him, even though he is a really shy kid. I think that the sisters actually asked him to be baptized when they taught the first lesson and he said he would once he found out it was true. When he came to church on Sunday today he came early and when he left he walked with us for a while and said that when he is at church time goes by really quickly, and that he feels really good. He said that he felt the best that he has ever felt when he was at church today. (Which kind of made me feel bad because I had kind of a crappy day at church because my companion and I still don't get along really well). He said that something 'pulls' him to go to church now.
He is from a gypsy family and he lives in a really crappy bloc that was assigned to his family by the government. I though that they just lived there because they were able to get in there and hook up a wire to have a light bulb, but his mom told us that the government gave them that place. I was shocked that the government would give anybody such a crappy place to live in, it's a really terrible place to live.
Their housing is really open (and the door to their room is broken by Alin's dad who is an alcoholic) so all of his neighbors who are equally poor and humble come in and listen to us teach whenever we come over. When I went there on splits with the member girl she seemed really nervous as more and more people started coming into the room, but she did a really good job answering questions and explaining things, and I tied things back into the lesson so that we could keep on subject.
Anyway, it's interesting to relate that experience to one that we had with an English student recently. We met with a girl after English and taught her the restoration lesson and she understood everything really well and followed the logic and everything. She understood perfectly at the end of the lesson that she just had to ask and she would get a response and know whether or not it was true, and said that she had actually gotten responses in the past when she had prayed about things. She understood everything perfectly, but didn't have an actual desire to do anything about it. Whereas Alin and his family didn't understand everything perfectly the first time we explained it, but as soon as Alin understood he really had a desire to know. It doesn't matter what kind of a person you are, you just have to be willing.
Recently I have been wondering about why some people receive special help to join the church (they will have a dream or something that prompts them to keep going) and other people don't and eventually disappear, and I noticed that a lot of the people who have special experiences are the ones that have something really valuable that they can do for the church, or eventually end up doing something really valuable for the church like being a branch president or a missionary. Sora Ausen's dad had a special experience and joined the church and now he has two kids on missions, and I think that all of the people in the district presidencies in Romania all have intense conversion experiences. So when we were working with Alin and we saw how many people he talked to about the church and how much of a help he would be to us, and how good of an example he would be to the other members, we prayed that he would have a converting experience because he would be very valuable to the church. He was definitely prepared beforehand, and he definitely seems to have had his experience because he is so happy and wants to be baptized, and when we set a baptismal date for him he said "And then after that I can go out contacting with you guys?" (We told him he could go contacting with the elders).
He's one of those awesome investigators who will become an awesome member just like the girl in Tom's city. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be here for his baptism, or to help the rest of his family (and his siblings that live in the orphanage) get baptized too, but he will be a sweet member.
Love,
Sora Jay
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