Romania, 8 August 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hey everybody,
We just got back from a fortress in a city next to Brasov. We thought it was going to be a castle but it was just an old fort, (made by Germans?). I have a lot of pictures, but I think I'll be back soon enough to just show them to you then.
This week a lot of interesting things happened. Yesterday when we were contacting in the park a guy stopped us and told us that every day for the past three days missionaries had stopped him, each from a different church, and talked to him about God. He stopped us because the drunk guy next to him wanted a pliant. We talked to him for a while and he told us that no one in Romania would want to listen to us, at least not the old people. He dared Sora Bedebone to give a pliant to some girls walking past and she got up and gave one to him. Then we gave him a pliant and told him to give it to someone, we walked around the park for a little while and found a girl for him to give it to. As we walked around we gave other people pliants and he was super surprised that people actually took them from us. Young people always tell us that we're going to have to wait for the generations that lived through communism to die, and then we'll have success. It's a little sadistic, but maybe a little true. It was an interesting experience to find someone who immediately wanted to help us proselyte. I don't even remember what we taught him, I know that it wasn't very much. The sad thing is that he's moving to Germany this week, so he won't get to meet with the missionaries much before he leaves.
Last night we were heading out to find some former investigators and when we were on the bus three young guys that were drunk started talking to us. They got off the bus when we got off and one of them seemed to be talking coherently and was asking if he could meet with someone to talk about God. He asked us a lot of questions about what we believe, etc. and said he was baptized orthodox and then baptist. We tried to just get their numbers and leave because they were drunk, but the one who was the most there said he wouldn't give us his number unless we could ask him a question about religion that he didn't know the answer to. We had already talked about the Plan of Salvation, so I couldn't ask him any of the questions like "what is the purpose of life," and so on, but we had just talked about the Ten Commandments so I asked him "Why do you break the commandments?" But he had an answer and his answer was "Why not?" So I took a second and tried to get an 'inspired question'. I thought for a minute about what I had been thinking about recently and I asked him, "What does it mean to be humble?"
He was utterly confounded. It was the perfect question; humility is probably one of the only things that a young guy drinking on the street with his friends and harassing some sister missionaries could not possibly claim to understand or even accurately describe (because he literally had no experience with it). He muttered off a few possible answers but agreed that none of them were good. He admitted, "that's a really hard question," and then he gave us his phone number so that we could help him talk to somebody about God. As they were leaving I told them not to go do anything else stupid that night, and to go home instead, but they went anyway.
On Sunday there was a wedding at the church of two young members. They have both been inactive for a while... because they have a baby, but maybe now that they're married they will come to church again. The members asked us what we usually do for weddings at our church and neither of us had any idea because people usually get married at the temple, and I think I've only ever been to one wedding (one of our cousins) outside of the temple and that was a long time ago. Anyway, the talked to some members in Italy that they knew and planned out the church part of the wedding. They had to go get married at the city building beforehand anyway, the religious part is just for fun I guess. So, after church ended they set up some flowers and stuff in the chapel and a few people came and they had a wedding where a member from the district presidency gave some advice about marriage and read some scriptures and from The Family Proc and then had them say some vows that they had each planned and exchange rings. It was pretty short, and seemed really unplanned, but it was nice. We said hi to the bride before they left, maybe we will be able to work with her.
We dropped Ifrim, the old guy investigator. He said that for the time being he is going to choose his girlfriend over God. And I'm pretty sure he said that actual phrase. We already told him a billion times that he didn't have to dump her to get baptized, he just had to keep the law of chastity. It was sad, but he wasn't ready. I think that someday he will be.
I had a really hard time staying awake in that lesson for some reason. Usually I never have problems during lessons.
On Saturday we were at the church cleaning (because the mission president asked the missionaries to take care of it here) and afterward we went over to McDonald's because it's close by. When we went in there somebody yelled "Sora!" Not very loud, because I didn't actually hear, but suddenly my companion turned and walked toward them. It was the family of a sister missionary that had come back to visit, Sora Owen. She had finished her mission last December and was bringing her family on a tour. We ate our food and went back to the church (because we were supposed to prepare some songs for the wedding that they decided not to do in the end) and we let her family in. They stayed until about eight, and a few members came to come see them. We just contacted outside. When they were leaving they asked how the contacting was going. We just kind of stood there. Then one of her brothers who had just got back from a mission in Russia said, "You're talking to a lot of people, and that's what matters."
We have been doing a lot of contacting recenlty (because we lost all of our investigators) and we haven't really been getting anything from it. For the elders it is the same. Everyone is getting pretty frustrated except for me. I lived in Iasi for three transfers. But the rest of them are younger missionaries (I think fifth transfer and down). Plus, I guess I have something to look forward to in a few weeks, so I'm happy anyway.
Our English class failed miserably. A ton of cool young people came to the first class, but the older ladies that always come were there and they really ruined everything. Only two of the non-regular baba club came to the next class. I think we're going to have to cancel it and not tell when we're starting it again to try to get the babas to stop coming. I told Sora Bedebone we're just going to have to bother them so much about joining the church that they get annoyed and never want to come back, or just get baptized.
About three weeks ago a guy came to church, Ovidiu, because he found us on the internet and wanted to investigate our church. He has been meeting with the elders. Yesterday another guy came to church because he found us on the internet. He is a young guy named Antonius, and he was watching a documentary on youtube and it mentioned Mormons (I think the documentary was about food storage because he talked about "storing seed"). He said he looked more into mormons and realized that his lifestyle is exactly the way that ours is, so he decided to come investigate the church. I've never had that happen before in my mission, let alone twice in three weeks. It's really cool. I told my district we must be doing something right. Now we just need some girls to come to church on their own so that we can teach them.
Love,
Sora Jay
P.S. Can somebody schedule me a dentist appointment? And prepare the dentist by telling him that I've been living in Romania for a year and a half. I'm pretty sure I have a few cavities.
We just got back from a fortress in a city next to Brasov. We thought it was going to be a castle but it was just an old fort, (made by Germans?). I have a lot of pictures, but I think I'll be back soon enough to just show them to you then.
This week a lot of interesting things happened. Yesterday when we were contacting in the park a guy stopped us and told us that every day for the past three days missionaries had stopped him, each from a different church, and talked to him about God. He stopped us because the drunk guy next to him wanted a pliant. We talked to him for a while and he told us that no one in Romania would want to listen to us, at least not the old people. He dared Sora Bedebone to give a pliant to some girls walking past and she got up and gave one to him. Then we gave him a pliant and told him to give it to someone, we walked around the park for a little while and found a girl for him to give it to. As we walked around we gave other people pliants and he was super surprised that people actually took them from us. Young people always tell us that we're going to have to wait for the generations that lived through communism to die, and then we'll have success. It's a little sadistic, but maybe a little true. It was an interesting experience to find someone who immediately wanted to help us proselyte. I don't even remember what we taught him, I know that it wasn't very much. The sad thing is that he's moving to Germany this week, so he won't get to meet with the missionaries much before he leaves.
Last night we were heading out to find some former investigators and when we were on the bus three young guys that were drunk started talking to us. They got off the bus when we got off and one of them seemed to be talking coherently and was asking if he could meet with someone to talk about God. He asked us a lot of questions about what we believe, etc. and said he was baptized orthodox and then baptist. We tried to just get their numbers and leave because they were drunk, but the one who was the most there said he wouldn't give us his number unless we could ask him a question about religion that he didn't know the answer to. We had already talked about the Plan of Salvation, so I couldn't ask him any of the questions like "what is the purpose of life," and so on, but we had just talked about the Ten Commandments so I asked him "Why do you break the commandments?" But he had an answer and his answer was "Why not?" So I took a second and tried to get an 'inspired question'. I thought for a minute about what I had been thinking about recently and I asked him, "What does it mean to be humble?"
He was utterly confounded. It was the perfect question; humility is probably one of the only things that a young guy drinking on the street with his friends and harassing some sister missionaries could not possibly claim to understand or even accurately describe (because he literally had no experience with it). He muttered off a few possible answers but agreed that none of them were good. He admitted, "that's a really hard question," and then he gave us his phone number so that we could help him talk to somebody about God. As they were leaving I told them not to go do anything else stupid that night, and to go home instead, but they went anyway.
On Sunday there was a wedding at the church of two young members. They have both been inactive for a while... because they have a baby, but maybe now that they're married they will come to church again. The members asked us what we usually do for weddings at our church and neither of us had any idea because people usually get married at the temple, and I think I've only ever been to one wedding (one of our cousins) outside of the temple and that was a long time ago. Anyway, the talked to some members in Italy that they knew and planned out the church part of the wedding. They had to go get married at the city building beforehand anyway, the religious part is just for fun I guess. So, after church ended they set up some flowers and stuff in the chapel and a few people came and they had a wedding where a member from the district presidency gave some advice about marriage and read some scriptures and from The Family Proc and then had them say some vows that they had each planned and exchange rings. It was pretty short, and seemed really unplanned, but it was nice. We said hi to the bride before they left, maybe we will be able to work with her.
We dropped Ifrim, the old guy investigator. He said that for the time being he is going to choose his girlfriend over God. And I'm pretty sure he said that actual phrase. We already told him a billion times that he didn't have to dump her to get baptized, he just had to keep the law of chastity. It was sad, but he wasn't ready. I think that someday he will be.
I had a really hard time staying awake in that lesson for some reason. Usually I never have problems during lessons.
On Saturday we were at the church cleaning (because the mission president asked the missionaries to take care of it here) and afterward we went over to McDonald's because it's close by. When we went in there somebody yelled "Sora!" Not very loud, because I didn't actually hear, but suddenly my companion turned and walked toward them. It was the family of a sister missionary that had come back to visit, Sora Owen. She had finished her mission last December and was bringing her family on a tour. We ate our food and went back to the church (because we were supposed to prepare some songs for the wedding that they decided not to do in the end) and we let her family in. They stayed until about eight, and a few members came to come see them. We just contacted outside. When they were leaving they asked how the contacting was going. We just kind of stood there. Then one of her brothers who had just got back from a mission in Russia said, "You're talking to a lot of people, and that's what matters."
We have been doing a lot of contacting recenlty (because we lost all of our investigators) and we haven't really been getting anything from it. For the elders it is the same. Everyone is getting pretty frustrated except for me. I lived in Iasi for three transfers. But the rest of them are younger missionaries (I think fifth transfer and down). Plus, I guess I have something to look forward to in a few weeks, so I'm happy anyway.
Our English class failed miserably. A ton of cool young people came to the first class, but the older ladies that always come were there and they really ruined everything. Only two of the non-regular baba club came to the next class. I think we're going to have to cancel it and not tell when we're starting it again to try to get the babas to stop coming. I told Sora Bedebone we're just going to have to bother them so much about joining the church that they get annoyed and never want to come back, or just get baptized.
About three weeks ago a guy came to church, Ovidiu, because he found us on the internet and wanted to investigate our church. He has been meeting with the elders. Yesterday another guy came to church because he found us on the internet. He is a young guy named Antonius, and he was watching a documentary on youtube and it mentioned Mormons (I think the documentary was about food storage because he talked about "storing seed"). He said he looked more into mormons and realized that his lifestyle is exactly the way that ours is, so he decided to come investigate the church. I've never had that happen before in my mission, let alone twice in three weeks. It's really cool. I told my district we must be doing something right. Now we just need some girls to come to church on their own so that we can teach them.
Love,
Sora Jay
P.S. Can somebody schedule me a dentist appointment? And prepare the dentist by telling him that I've been living in Romania for a year and a half. I'm pretty sure I have a few cavities.
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