Romania 6 June 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hey everybody,
It has gotten really hot here now, and I have a few mosquito bites on my legs from teaching people in the park. We persuaded our landlord to come over and put some screens on our windows so we can open them and not roast to death at night. It's too hot to even have sheets on me at night anymore. But I found out today that I'm getting transferred to Brasov this week. I'll probably be there until the end of my mission since I only have two transfers left. I wanted to stay here, because it's dumb to move missionaries around so much because then you lose all of the knowledge about the branch and the city. People get forgotten and lost.
We are now required to constantly have our passports and 100 dollars cash on us at all times in little pouches that you wear under your clothes. We have to always have the number for the American Embassy too. It might make us even more likely to be robbed or lose our passports if all the missionaries are going to be taking them around everywhere all the time. Oh well.
On Tuesday night the elders called us and said that on Wednesday we would be moving the location of the church. The branch president from Ploiesti (whose job it is to take care of all the church buildings here and in the surrounding countries) called them and said that we were moving in. So, on Wednesday morning we went and packed up everything in the church. The BYU students showed up eventually and helped and there was one other member and one investigator. I don't know where all the other members were. They all knew we were moving though. They showed up for the unpacking in the new church so that they could explore and see how nice it is. President Ene, the one from Ploiesti, drove one of the mission vans up here to iasi and that's what we used to get all the stuff over to the new chapel on strada ipsilanti. It wasn't that far. The new building is really nice and has three floors for the church and on the fourth floor the missionaries will live. I think they are going to have the sisters live there. I wouldn't really want to live there. The members would bug you all the time. But, I don't have to live there anyway because I'm going to Brasov. So, it took us about two days to move everything, but we were still able to meet with some of our investigators and show them where it was while we were in the moving process.
On Sunday on of our investigators invited us to go to her church. I probably would have said no, but Sora Mullen said yes. I've never agreed to go to any other churches except for Orthodox churches on P-days and Easter, because there's just no point. Investigators only try to get you to come because they think they can convert you. But, we said yes, so we went to her church. I figured I would still be able to learn something because it is a place where they talk about God, but it actually just sucked. If I wasn't a member of this church I wouldn't be a member of any church. I felt the spirit more at the orthodox church than at that one, and the preacher said some pretty outrageous/blasphemous things. We talked to him afterward and he said he had read the Book of Mormon, and he said he wanted to teach us something from the Bible. Sora Mullen pulled out her Bible and he saw that it was marked and read, and then he said the only problem with our church is that we don't believe that Christ is our Savior. I laughed and said, "Yeah we do." I was going to tell him that he obviously didn't read the Book of Mormon but I think he didn't like the way that I laughed when he said we didn't believe in Christ because he cut the conversation short and left to talk to somebody else. Our investigator asked us afterward how we liked it and Sora Mullen said she liked it and that it was fun (there was a lot of singing and clapping). I just didn't answer. She asked us what we learned and the only thing that I could say was that he put a few interesting questions for our consideration and that the answers to all of those questions are found in the Book of Mormon. I don't think I learned anything else because they didn't really teach any doctrines. He just asked some questions like "Why didn't God stop Adam and Eve from eating the fruit," and "Where did Satan come from," and then told us all over and over that we need to find Jesus. He didn't even tell the congregation how to do it though. I don't understand how our investigator managed to come to our church and not be converted because you feel the spirit so strong there every time and the things they teach all make sense. Anyway, I used to be curious about other churches and want to go see what they are like, but after that I don't think so. The closest thing I can compare it to is a boyscout pow-wow, where it's really boring and you don't learn anything, but you begin and end with a prayer (no offense to boy scouts).
The investigator who came to help us move the church is from our English class. His name is Col. He has a baptismal date now for the 25 of June. We told him that transfers were coming up and that we might be leaving, and he said he would be sad if we left because we (the sisters) were his first teachers. Just in the English class though, we invited him to come to church and the elders started teaching him. I'm sad that I'll miss his baptism, I always get transferred out just before people get baptized.
I think moving into a new chapel has got the members all pumped to do missionary work. None of our investigators came this week but there were a few nonmembers there that members had brought. There has been a big push recently from the Eastern European Presidency to try to get members to bring people to church too. For the month of June every week the members are supposed to be inviting people, nonmembers or less-actives, to come to church. The branch president read the letter from them that had a cool story about one of them going to a district conference and the building was only half full. He told them that if they would all just invite someone to the next district conference the room would be full. when the next district conference came around, the room was full. We do actually have a lot of Romanian members, it's just that about half of them left the country when Romania joined the European Union, so that they could find jobs in other countries. Mostly to places with latin-based languages like Italy and Spain. Lots of people say you don't even have to study Italian to be able to get by there if you speak Romanian.
I'm getting kind of tired of being a missionary, because for the past six months I haven't had companions that I can really work well with. Ever since I was made senior companion I have had to drag my companions around, and now I am really tired of it. None of them speak Romanian, they are all really irresponsible, hardly any of them keep the simple rules like getting up on time and exercising, and if I am not watching the clock, or saying we need to call people, or pulling my companion out the door to go contact people, no one is. So I've been getting really, really tired and sick of it. Especially the last six months while I have had companions that I haven't gotten along as well with. I have to work so hard at keeping things peaceful and letting things go that I no longer have the energy to make sure we are doing everything else.
That's probably what missionary work will always be like though, I guess. It will never be perfect. I just wish it could be a little bit better.
Love,
Sora Jay
It has gotten really hot here now, and I have a few mosquito bites on my legs from teaching people in the park. We persuaded our landlord to come over and put some screens on our windows so we can open them and not roast to death at night. It's too hot to even have sheets on me at night anymore. But I found out today that I'm getting transferred to Brasov this week. I'll probably be there until the end of my mission since I only have two transfers left. I wanted to stay here, because it's dumb to move missionaries around so much because then you lose all of the knowledge about the branch and the city. People get forgotten and lost.
We are now required to constantly have our passports and 100 dollars cash on us at all times in little pouches that you wear under your clothes. We have to always have the number for the American Embassy too. It might make us even more likely to be robbed or lose our passports if all the missionaries are going to be taking them around everywhere all the time. Oh well.
On Tuesday night the elders called us and said that on Wednesday we would be moving the location of the church. The branch president from Ploiesti (whose job it is to take care of all the church buildings here and in the surrounding countries) called them and said that we were moving in. So, on Wednesday morning we went and packed up everything in the church. The BYU students showed up eventually and helped and there was one other member and one investigator. I don't know where all the other members were. They all knew we were moving though. They showed up for the unpacking in the new church so that they could explore and see how nice it is. President Ene, the one from Ploiesti, drove one of the mission vans up here to iasi and that's what we used to get all the stuff over to the new chapel on strada ipsilanti. It wasn't that far. The new building is really nice and has three floors for the church and on the fourth floor the missionaries will live. I think they are going to have the sisters live there. I wouldn't really want to live there. The members would bug you all the time. But, I don't have to live there anyway because I'm going to Brasov. So, it took us about two days to move everything, but we were still able to meet with some of our investigators and show them where it was while we were in the moving process.
On Sunday on of our investigators invited us to go to her church. I probably would have said no, but Sora Mullen said yes. I've never agreed to go to any other churches except for Orthodox churches on P-days and Easter, because there's just no point. Investigators only try to get you to come because they think they can convert you. But, we said yes, so we went to her church. I figured I would still be able to learn something because it is a place where they talk about God, but it actually just sucked. If I wasn't a member of this church I wouldn't be a member of any church. I felt the spirit more at the orthodox church than at that one, and the preacher said some pretty outrageous/blasphemous things. We talked to him afterward and he said he had read the Book of Mormon, and he said he wanted to teach us something from the Bible. Sora Mullen pulled out her Bible and he saw that it was marked and read, and then he said the only problem with our church is that we don't believe that Christ is our Savior. I laughed and said, "Yeah we do." I was going to tell him that he obviously didn't read the Book of Mormon but I think he didn't like the way that I laughed when he said we didn't believe in Christ because he cut the conversation short and left to talk to somebody else. Our investigator asked us afterward how we liked it and Sora Mullen said she liked it and that it was fun (there was a lot of singing and clapping). I just didn't answer. She asked us what we learned and the only thing that I could say was that he put a few interesting questions for our consideration and that the answers to all of those questions are found in the Book of Mormon. I don't think I learned anything else because they didn't really teach any doctrines. He just asked some questions like "Why didn't God stop Adam and Eve from eating the fruit," and "Where did Satan come from," and then told us all over and over that we need to find Jesus. He didn't even tell the congregation how to do it though. I don't understand how our investigator managed to come to our church and not be converted because you feel the spirit so strong there every time and the things they teach all make sense. Anyway, I used to be curious about other churches and want to go see what they are like, but after that I don't think so. The closest thing I can compare it to is a boyscout pow-wow, where it's really boring and you don't learn anything, but you begin and end with a prayer (no offense to boy scouts).
The investigator who came to help us move the church is from our English class. His name is Col. He has a baptismal date now for the 25 of June. We told him that transfers were coming up and that we might be leaving, and he said he would be sad if we left because we (the sisters) were his first teachers. Just in the English class though, we invited him to come to church and the elders started teaching him. I'm sad that I'll miss his baptism, I always get transferred out just before people get baptized.
I think moving into a new chapel has got the members all pumped to do missionary work. None of our investigators came this week but there were a few nonmembers there that members had brought. There has been a big push recently from the Eastern European Presidency to try to get members to bring people to church too. For the month of June every week the members are supposed to be inviting people, nonmembers or less-actives, to come to church. The branch president read the letter from them that had a cool story about one of them going to a district conference and the building was only half full. He told them that if they would all just invite someone to the next district conference the room would be full. when the next district conference came around, the room was full. We do actually have a lot of Romanian members, it's just that about half of them left the country when Romania joined the European Union, so that they could find jobs in other countries. Mostly to places with latin-based languages like Italy and Spain. Lots of people say you don't even have to study Italian to be able to get by there if you speak Romanian.
I'm getting kind of tired of being a missionary, because for the past six months I haven't had companions that I can really work well with. Ever since I was made senior companion I have had to drag my companions around, and now I am really tired of it. None of them speak Romanian, they are all really irresponsible, hardly any of them keep the simple rules like getting up on time and exercising, and if I am not watching the clock, or saying we need to call people, or pulling my companion out the door to go contact people, no one is. So I've been getting really, really tired and sick of it. Especially the last six months while I have had companions that I haven't gotten along as well with. I have to work so hard at keeping things peaceful and letting things go that I no longer have the energy to make sure we are doing everything else.
That's probably what missionary work will always be like though, I guess. It will never be perfect. I just wish it could be a little bit better.
Love,
Sora Jay
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