Romania, 22 Aug 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hello everybody,
I have no idea what my travel plans are, they don't send them to me, they send them to you guys. As far as I know I will be leaving sometime Tuesday morning (the 30th) from here, and that's it. I guess if all else fails I'll call you from the airport and you can come get me.
This week was crazy. We finally got the ward to schedule an activity for last Saturday and we took time to hand out invitations to all of the members that live in Brasov (there are a lot more that live in the surrounding small cities that we couldn't go to), but it actually turned out to be the missionaries that planned and hosted the activity. We did the same activities that I did for the activity in Ploiesti back when I was there because everyone loved it, but here it turned out to be a disaster.
The games were all about working together to accomplish things, but nobody wanted to work together and when I would tell them what to do they would say, "why?" Everyone except for the youth and the branch president got frustrated and angry and didn't want to participate. I told them at the end that the activities were supposed to be for them to be united, but apparently they weren't. Half the group got left behind in the last activity. The branch president and the relief society president were the only ones who were super disappointed like us. Everyone else just went home upset. Maybe it was a humbling experience for them though, when they saw that there were obvious problems in their branch.
So, the next day, Sunday, I was supposed to speak in church and I had already planned to talk about forgiveness, so I taught them, yea, I did preach unto them. I told the story of the 'frozen turkey' from one of President Hinckley's talks and the story of the 'cream' and then read a few places where we are commanded to forgive all men. When I was speaking the congregation was dead silent. I kept it pretty short.
The person who talked after me was the new relief society president, Iuliana, who is a returned missionary. She served in England and then lived there for a while so she knows how things are supposed to go, and she gave a really good talk about healing and the atonement. Then someone from the district presidency talked about going to the temple. It went super well. Then Sunday School and Relief Society went super well and in relief society the room was actually full. So, even though the night before had been terrible, Sunday went super well. I think things will start to get a lot better here. People were super nice to each other and talked to us about helping the other members. They should just havce somebody speak bluntly about forgiveness every sunday, and maybe they will always be that way. The new relief society president gets a little stressed out about everything but she knows how to take care of everybody, so that's good.
One of the boys from a family that we're working with, Oni Nitu, came to church. He got there and his eyes were bloodshot and he said that he had just worked the night shift and hadn't slept for 36 hours but he had promised to come to church, so he came. It was cool, he said he really liked it too. He said this week too that he is starting to believe that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, when before he said that was the only thing he couldn't accept about our church. The sunday school president really liked him and had him bear his testimony about Jesus Christ during class, he did a good job too. Him and his mom could get baptized, but his mom is sick and can't come to church until they get a car. They are planning on getting a car, but they won't have enough money to do it for a couple more months. (They said actually said before that if we find a girl from our church for Oni to marry they will all join, but that's probably not the best reason, we'll make sure they get testimonies).
We picked up a former investigator a few weeks ago, one of the member's moms, named Elena. She seemed really cool, but then told us that she would be busy for the next few weeks taking care of her grandkids so we wouldn't really be able to come. We were sad, but then we realized that the grandkids that were staying at her house were the kids of the member, and one of them is turning eight in September and is taking the lessons from the elders. We told the elders to involve Elena in the lessons, and get her progressing as well. Apparently she is doing awesome, and the little boy they're teaching, Raul, is super smart and good as well. Elena said that she wants to be baptized and that she has stopped drinking coffee (which is the only thing that kept her from getting baptized a year ago). They are just going to wait to talk to her husband. He will probably be all for it though. He had brain surgery a few years ago and four elders went and gave him a blessing in the hospital (because his daughter was a member) and he was healed, so he knows that it's true. I'm sad that we didn't get to keep working with them, but it turned out to be super convenient that the elders were teaching Raul and could keep teaching them too. They might all be baptized on the same day after Raul's birthday in September.
If I don't get the chance to email you next Monday I'll see you all next week.
Love,
Sora Jay
I have no idea what my travel plans are, they don't send them to me, they send them to you guys. As far as I know I will be leaving sometime Tuesday morning (the 30th) from here, and that's it. I guess if all else fails I'll call you from the airport and you can come get me.
This week was crazy. We finally got the ward to schedule an activity for last Saturday and we took time to hand out invitations to all of the members that live in Brasov (there are a lot more that live in the surrounding small cities that we couldn't go to), but it actually turned out to be the missionaries that planned and hosted the activity. We did the same activities that I did for the activity in Ploiesti back when I was there because everyone loved it, but here it turned out to be a disaster.
The games were all about working together to accomplish things, but nobody wanted to work together and when I would tell them what to do they would say, "why?" Everyone except for the youth and the branch president got frustrated and angry and didn't want to participate. I told them at the end that the activities were supposed to be for them to be united, but apparently they weren't. Half the group got left behind in the last activity. The branch president and the relief society president were the only ones who were super disappointed like us. Everyone else just went home upset. Maybe it was a humbling experience for them though, when they saw that there were obvious problems in their branch.
So, the next day, Sunday, I was supposed to speak in church and I had already planned to talk about forgiveness, so I taught them, yea, I did preach unto them. I told the story of the 'frozen turkey' from one of President Hinckley's talks and the story of the 'cream' and then read a few places where we are commanded to forgive all men. When I was speaking the congregation was dead silent. I kept it pretty short.
The person who talked after me was the new relief society president, Iuliana, who is a returned missionary. She served in England and then lived there for a while so she knows how things are supposed to go, and she gave a really good talk about healing and the atonement. Then someone from the district presidency talked about going to the temple. It went super well. Then Sunday School and Relief Society went super well and in relief society the room was actually full. So, even though the night before had been terrible, Sunday went super well. I think things will start to get a lot better here. People were super nice to each other and talked to us about helping the other members. They should just havce somebody speak bluntly about forgiveness every sunday, and maybe they will always be that way. The new relief society president gets a little stressed out about everything but she knows how to take care of everybody, so that's good.
One of the boys from a family that we're working with, Oni Nitu, came to church. He got there and his eyes were bloodshot and he said that he had just worked the night shift and hadn't slept for 36 hours but he had promised to come to church, so he came. It was cool, he said he really liked it too. He said this week too that he is starting to believe that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, when before he said that was the only thing he couldn't accept about our church. The sunday school president really liked him and had him bear his testimony about Jesus Christ during class, he did a good job too. Him and his mom could get baptized, but his mom is sick and can't come to church until they get a car. They are planning on getting a car, but they won't have enough money to do it for a couple more months. (They said actually said before that if we find a girl from our church for Oni to marry they will all join, but that's probably not the best reason, we'll make sure they get testimonies).
We picked up a former investigator a few weeks ago, one of the member's moms, named Elena. She seemed really cool, but then told us that she would be busy for the next few weeks taking care of her grandkids so we wouldn't really be able to come. We were sad, but then we realized that the grandkids that were staying at her house were the kids of the member, and one of them is turning eight in September and is taking the lessons from the elders. We told the elders to involve Elena in the lessons, and get her progressing as well. Apparently she is doing awesome, and the little boy they're teaching, Raul, is super smart and good as well. Elena said that she wants to be baptized and that she has stopped drinking coffee (which is the only thing that kept her from getting baptized a year ago). They are just going to wait to talk to her husband. He will probably be all for it though. He had brain surgery a few years ago and four elders went and gave him a blessing in the hospital (because his daughter was a member) and he was healed, so he knows that it's true. I'm sad that we didn't get to keep working with them, but it turned out to be super convenient that the elders were teaching Raul and could keep teaching them too. They might all be baptized on the same day after Raul's birthday in September.
If I don't get the chance to email you next Monday I'll see you all next week.
Love,
Sora Jay
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