Romania Feb 21, 2010
Monday, February 21, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hey everybody,
How's it going? For Valentine's Day we went to an FHE activity at the church and we had called all sorts of less-actives to come to it and the ones that said they would actually did, and they brought their friends. It was cool. The missionaries were used to judge a dance competition at the end of the activity, since we aren't allowed to dance. We didn't actually choose anybody in the end, though, because we had to leave to get home on time.
We have had some cool experiences this week. We were knocking in one bloc and a security guard came and told us that we weren't allowed to be knocking in there. We were really nice to him and told him that we didn't know that. He asked us why we were there and what we were doing and we told him. He actually seemed interested. I asked him if he would be allowed to take something and he accepted a pass-along card, even though he was on-duty at work and they're not supposed to take anything. I told him that they should put some sort of sign on the building so that we won't ever try knocking it again, and he pointed us in the direction of some blocs that he knew we would be okay knocking. Once we got into that bloc an awesome middle-aged couple let us in and we taught them. We went back to them again on Friday and they are still really cool. The husband is really outgoing, and he would be perfect to have as a member in this branch because everyone is really intraverted and shy and awkward.
Two of the members in this branch, a brother and a sister, are getting ready to go on their missions. Radu has already gotten his call to go to Scotland in April, and Andreea turned in her papers about five weeks ago and is waiting for them to come back. Maybe I will be able to be here for Radu's farewell.
There is already one other missionary out from this branch, Petru, who is on a mission in Spain. It's crazy that they will have so many missionaries when the branch is so small. There are only about 15 active members because the influence of the orthodox church is so strong in this city. Some member's families have put them into mental hospitals for joining the church, and one investigator disappears every once in a while when her parents send her in for counseling. It's crazy.
We had Zone Conference this week in a little city called Bacau. The Zone Conference focused mostly on us obeying small rules like getting up on time, doing morning exercises and having good personal and companionship studies. Our companionship doesn't have any problems with any of those things, because Sora Puckett was in the Army and I was in orchestra and college. So we both learned to discipline ourselves before coming out on our missions, I guess.
We did role-plays where we taught each other, just like we usually do, and President walked around and listened to us. I taught one of the senior couples in English and I taught one of the other sister companionships in Romanian, and in President's email he told me that he was impressed by my teaching skills. One of the sisters from my group told me that I speak Romanian really well. It was just happy all around.
I was able to speak in church on Sunday about keeping the Sabbath day holy. The branch president told me to prepare for ten minutes, but when I got there I realized that there were only two speakers and the other speaker's talk didn't last very long, so I was left with a lot of time and not a lot of material, so I just had to ramble for a while, and then we ended the meeting early. After the meeting a lot of the members told me that I speak really well, and some of them invited us to go over to their houses or told us that they had referrals from us. That's why it's good to speak in church as a missionary sometimes, because it can give the ward members confidence in you.
Recently I have witnesses a cool miracle. Even before my mission I had my shoulder that is permanently damaged from carrying a heavy backpack around all day every day (it's more like my upper spine I guess) and when I had my physical the doctor didn't think anything of it, but it always has hurt because I have to carry around contacting materials and stuff all day every day. So, a couple of weeks ago I asked for it to not hurt anymore so that I wouldn't be effected in my teaching and in my motivation to keep contacting, and it stopped hurting. It hasn't bothered me at all since then. I still carry around all sorts of heavy stuff still too. I even had to carry a heavy backpack to and from Zone Conference and I was still perfectly fine. It's cool.
This week a guy from Iasi has been asking to make a documentary about us missionaries here in Iasi. He interviewed some of us and he wants to go to P-day activities to see what we do. He wants to go film some of the missionaries in Craiova contacting there. It could be good publicity. He came to church yesterday to see what it was like, and he even participated in Sunday School, so I think he is a good guy and wont bash on us, so we will probably try to help him make a good documentary about us.
I don't have a ton of time to write today because I had to type up an essay and send it to President (that I was actually supposed to give to him my second transfer but that I thought was busywork so I procrastinated it). So that's it for now.
Love,
Sora Jay
How's it going? For Valentine's Day we went to an FHE activity at the church and we had called all sorts of less-actives to come to it and the ones that said they would actually did, and they brought their friends. It was cool. The missionaries were used to judge a dance competition at the end of the activity, since we aren't allowed to dance. We didn't actually choose anybody in the end, though, because we had to leave to get home on time.
We have had some cool experiences this week. We were knocking in one bloc and a security guard came and told us that we weren't allowed to be knocking in there. We were really nice to him and told him that we didn't know that. He asked us why we were there and what we were doing and we told him. He actually seemed interested. I asked him if he would be allowed to take something and he accepted a pass-along card, even though he was on-duty at work and they're not supposed to take anything. I told him that they should put some sort of sign on the building so that we won't ever try knocking it again, and he pointed us in the direction of some blocs that he knew we would be okay knocking. Once we got into that bloc an awesome middle-aged couple let us in and we taught them. We went back to them again on Friday and they are still really cool. The husband is really outgoing, and he would be perfect to have as a member in this branch because everyone is really intraverted and shy and awkward.
Two of the members in this branch, a brother and a sister, are getting ready to go on their missions. Radu has already gotten his call to go to Scotland in April, and Andreea turned in her papers about five weeks ago and is waiting for them to come back. Maybe I will be able to be here for Radu's farewell.
There is already one other missionary out from this branch, Petru, who is on a mission in Spain. It's crazy that they will have so many missionaries when the branch is so small. There are only about 15 active members because the influence of the orthodox church is so strong in this city. Some member's families have put them into mental hospitals for joining the church, and one investigator disappears every once in a while when her parents send her in for counseling. It's crazy.
We had Zone Conference this week in a little city called Bacau. The Zone Conference focused mostly on us obeying small rules like getting up on time, doing morning exercises and having good personal and companionship studies. Our companionship doesn't have any problems with any of those things, because Sora Puckett was in the Army and I was in orchestra and college. So we both learned to discipline ourselves before coming out on our missions, I guess.
We did role-plays where we taught each other, just like we usually do, and President walked around and listened to us. I taught one of the senior couples in English and I taught one of the other sister companionships in Romanian, and in President's email he told me that he was impressed by my teaching skills. One of the sisters from my group told me that I speak Romanian really well. It was just happy all around.
I was able to speak in church on Sunday about keeping the Sabbath day holy. The branch president told me to prepare for ten minutes, but when I got there I realized that there were only two speakers and the other speaker's talk didn't last very long, so I was left with a lot of time and not a lot of material, so I just had to ramble for a while, and then we ended the meeting early. After the meeting a lot of the members told me that I speak really well, and some of them invited us to go over to their houses or told us that they had referrals from us. That's why it's good to speak in church as a missionary sometimes, because it can give the ward members confidence in you.
Recently I have witnesses a cool miracle. Even before my mission I had my shoulder that is permanently damaged from carrying a heavy backpack around all day every day (it's more like my upper spine I guess) and when I had my physical the doctor didn't think anything of it, but it always has hurt because I have to carry around contacting materials and stuff all day every day. So, a couple of weeks ago I asked for it to not hurt anymore so that I wouldn't be effected in my teaching and in my motivation to keep contacting, and it stopped hurting. It hasn't bothered me at all since then. I still carry around all sorts of heavy stuff still too. I even had to carry a heavy backpack to and from Zone Conference and I was still perfectly fine. It's cool.
This week a guy from Iasi has been asking to make a documentary about us missionaries here in Iasi. He interviewed some of us and he wants to go to P-day activities to see what we do. He wants to go film some of the missionaries in Craiova contacting there. It could be good publicity. He came to church yesterday to see what it was like, and he even participated in Sunday School, so I think he is a good guy and wont bash on us, so we will probably try to help him make a good documentary about us.
I don't have a ton of time to write today because I had to type up an essay and send it to President (that I was actually supposed to give to him my second transfer but that I thought was busywork so I procrastinated it). So that's it for now.
Love,
Sora Jay
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