Romania 11 April 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hello everybody,
Well, I have lots of time to write today. I'm glad everything went well at Tim's wedding.
That picture Mom sent with a bunch of the grandkids is cool, I think I'll print it off and stick it in my little album.
Everything is going pretty normal here. Everybody here keeps telling me that the Orthodox Easter and the Catholic Easter will be on the same day, the 24th. We have permission to go to midnight 'slujba' and stay out 'til 1:30am.
There were a lot of people at church last Sunday. I had to play the hymns again, so I got to sit up front and look at how full the chapel was. Most of the members here are pretty pessimistic about growth, one of them told me that she has been a member for more than ten years and there have only ever been about 15 'regulars' at a time, but there's more than that right now. There are at least two members here who have been baptized without telling their families and it's super lame. They are really hard to work with because they live in constant fear of their families finding out they are members. There is one member though whose brother just recently got baptized and he is really optimistic. He said that in two years the branch in Iasi will be the biggest branch in Romania. That's what we need all of the members to be like.
I was reading in 'Our Heritage' and there is a part where they talk about having all of the members in the world in one small building, but knowing that it would someday be a thousand times bigger. It's probably more like a million times bigger now. Maybe I will translate that part and share it with some of the members.
Radu Stoica, who left to the Preston MTC said in his letter to his family that there is only one district in that MTC and that there are only 12 missionaries in the district. I was really surprised. It's kind of sad that it's such a small MTC, because one of the cool things about being in the MTC was that there were so many of us missionaries and you could always find someone different to talk to.
It hailed yesterday when we were walking to some blocs to knock them. I've never seen it do that here before. It was weird soft hail though, not like in Utah where it hurts to be hit by it.
There is a girl, Dana, that we met with this week who Sora Puckett and I talked to probably our first week together here in Iasi. She set up with us once back then, but then cancelled and didn't answer her phone after that. We tried her again last week and she answered and set up with us. She said that the reason why she hadn't been answering was because she was in a mental hospital. When we met with her she told us she had tried to kill herself. It was kind of intense. We told her not to and taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She said she had no reason to live and we said maybe she could help other people with her life. She seemed to think that was lame and said, "So I should live my life for other people?" and we said "That's what The Savior did, and he told us to follow his example," and she got that look on her face like a little lightbulb just turned on. It was cool to see her perspective change. Hopefully she will keep meeting with us and come to church.
I was reading in the bible and I noticed the word "purposed" used as a past tense verb. Everybody always reads it as 'proposed' but I looked in some dictionaries and it's not the same. When I asked my English class if they had any questions about English and they said "No," I told them "Even I have questions about English!" and explained to them a little bit. They thought it was pretty funny.
I would also like to know when mothers' day is.
Love,
Sora Jay
Well, I have lots of time to write today. I'm glad everything went well at Tim's wedding.
That picture Mom sent with a bunch of the grandkids is cool, I think I'll print it off and stick it in my little album.
Everything is going pretty normal here. Everybody here keeps telling me that the Orthodox Easter and the Catholic Easter will be on the same day, the 24th. We have permission to go to midnight 'slujba' and stay out 'til 1:30am.
There were a lot of people at church last Sunday. I had to play the hymns again, so I got to sit up front and look at how full the chapel was. Most of the members here are pretty pessimistic about growth, one of them told me that she has been a member for more than ten years and there have only ever been about 15 'regulars' at a time, but there's more than that right now. There are at least two members here who have been baptized without telling their families and it's super lame. They are really hard to work with because they live in constant fear of their families finding out they are members. There is one member though whose brother just recently got baptized and he is really optimistic. He said that in two years the branch in Iasi will be the biggest branch in Romania. That's what we need all of the members to be like.
I was reading in 'Our Heritage' and there is a part where they talk about having all of the members in the world in one small building, but knowing that it would someday be a thousand times bigger. It's probably more like a million times bigger now. Maybe I will translate that part and share it with some of the members.
Radu Stoica, who left to the Preston MTC said in his letter to his family that there is only one district in that MTC and that there are only 12 missionaries in the district. I was really surprised. It's kind of sad that it's such a small MTC, because one of the cool things about being in the MTC was that there were so many of us missionaries and you could always find someone different to talk to.
It hailed yesterday when we were walking to some blocs to knock them. I've never seen it do that here before. It was weird soft hail though, not like in Utah where it hurts to be hit by it.
There is a girl, Dana, that we met with this week who Sora Puckett and I talked to probably our first week together here in Iasi. She set up with us once back then, but then cancelled and didn't answer her phone after that. We tried her again last week and she answered and set up with us. She said that the reason why she hadn't been answering was because she was in a mental hospital. When we met with her she told us she had tried to kill herself. It was kind of intense. We told her not to and taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She said she had no reason to live and we said maybe she could help other people with her life. She seemed to think that was lame and said, "So I should live my life for other people?" and we said "That's what The Savior did, and he told us to follow his example," and she got that look on her face like a little lightbulb just turned on. It was cool to see her perspective change. Hopefully she will keep meeting with us and come to church.
I was reading in the bible and I noticed the word "purposed" used as a past tense verb. Everybody always reads it as 'proposed' but I looked in some dictionaries and it's not the same. When I asked my English class if they had any questions about English and they said "No," I told them "Even I have questions about English!" and explained to them a little bit. They thought it was pretty funny.
I would also like to know when mothers' day is.
Love,
Sora Jay
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