Romania 23 May 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011 by Sora Jay
Hey everybody,
I have a cool story to tell you. There is an investigator that the elders have been working with for the past few months that they just barely passed off to us (and I don't know why they waited so long because she is a young girl) named Andreea. We met with her for the first time last week and she said she had lots of questions to ask us, about being married in heaven, and becoming gods, etc. so we just told her to write them down and said we would answer them next time. She is a 'recent convert' in another church here so she says people don't really like the idea that she's meeting with missionaries from our church. I'm not sure what kind of church it is, it's probably one of those more obscure ones. But anyway, the second time we met with her was Saturday night, she asked us a question about the Holy Ghost and that was pretty much the only question that we addressed because then the conversation changed and she told us about how uncomfortable she was questioning her new religion because she said if she changes again then there will just be another church and she will change again and it won't be good. We just brought it back again and again to the fact that she had to ask God what she should do. Even though she still holds on to the doctrines from her church she really wants to follow God. The elders had invited her to church tons of times and she had never come because her other church is held at the same time so we planned on inviting her. During the conversation she stopped and said "Don't be upset!" We hadn't acted upset or said anything to indicate that we were, it was actually surprising that she said it. She said it a lot more times and we told her that we weren't mad, and that we would be friends even if she didn't join our church. I think it was the Holy Ghost that was making her feel bad when she said she wouldn't come to our church because she liked hers. In the end she decided that she would ask God and wait for a sign (like somebody texting her a scripture or telling her something that encouraged her to come to our church). She was really sincere. So this is what it came down to, if our church was the true one she would be there the next day, and if it wasn't, or if she became insincere she wouldn't be there.
So, the next day, Sunday, we went to the church and we were welcoming everybody and finally it was time to start and Andreea wasn't there. We sang, and took the sacrament, and the first speaker was just starting when she walked in (she might have been in the hall for a while too). When we asked her after Sacrament meeting what had happened she said that that night she got a text from one of her friends that had a scripture in it (her friends text her scriptures a lot so it wasn't unusual), and that was what got her to come. She actually told us later on though that all that the scripture said was something like "trust in God" and she felt like she should come to our church instead of go to hers. So she made it.
At church Sacrament meeting was good and then we were going to watch a little bit of General Conference but the DVD was lost. But, the BYU students were there and they were having a Sunday school lesson in English and Andreea speaks English so we just joined them. Those BYU students are saints. Andreea participated really well but asked probably two or three provocative questions that may have been intended to insult the students but they were super nice and gave good explanations. It was funny because we actually read the verses from the bible where it says that there will be no marriage in heaven and Andreea chuckled a little just waiting to hear what explanation we had for those verses but the teacher just briefly said that you have to be married the right way, and continued. The peer-pressure of all of the other students agreeing probably kept her from saying anything else. But, anyway, that lesson went super well. Once again I tell you, those BYU students are really saints.
That's all of Andreea's story, we will still have to work a bit with her to get to baptism, but hopefully we'll get there. This week a lot of people have been actually 'investigating' us. We have been meeting with a cool social worker lady, Lia, that we picked up from English classes and she really likes what we have to say about families and asked us all about our families. There is a former investigator Andra that we picked back up who wants to do a research report on us for one of her school projects. And we met with a professor (Profesoara Cristina Dascalu) who is maybe even the dean of her university who asked us tons of questions. When we gave her a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon she gave us an assignment as well to write a paper on communication (which is her specialty) related to our work as missionaries in foreign countries and said she would like to publish it in a scholarly journal. Plus if you remember back when that guy was making a documentary about us, he is back and has filmed the elders proselyting some more. So people really want to know what we're all about. Now we just have to get them to want to know what we believe, and follow our examples.
Love,
Sora Jay
I have a cool story to tell you. There is an investigator that the elders have been working with for the past few months that they just barely passed off to us (and I don't know why they waited so long because she is a young girl) named Andreea. We met with her for the first time last week and she said she had lots of questions to ask us, about being married in heaven, and becoming gods, etc. so we just told her to write them down and said we would answer them next time. She is a 'recent convert' in another church here so she says people don't really like the idea that she's meeting with missionaries from our church. I'm not sure what kind of church it is, it's probably one of those more obscure ones. But anyway, the second time we met with her was Saturday night, she asked us a question about the Holy Ghost and that was pretty much the only question that we addressed because then the conversation changed and she told us about how uncomfortable she was questioning her new religion because she said if she changes again then there will just be another church and she will change again and it won't be good. We just brought it back again and again to the fact that she had to ask God what she should do. Even though she still holds on to the doctrines from her church she really wants to follow God. The elders had invited her to church tons of times and she had never come because her other church is held at the same time so we planned on inviting her. During the conversation she stopped and said "Don't be upset!" We hadn't acted upset or said anything to indicate that we were, it was actually surprising that she said it. She said it a lot more times and we told her that we weren't mad, and that we would be friends even if she didn't join our church. I think it was the Holy Ghost that was making her feel bad when she said she wouldn't come to our church because she liked hers. In the end she decided that she would ask God and wait for a sign (like somebody texting her a scripture or telling her something that encouraged her to come to our church). She was really sincere. So this is what it came down to, if our church was the true one she would be there the next day, and if it wasn't, or if she became insincere she wouldn't be there.
So, the next day, Sunday, we went to the church and we were welcoming everybody and finally it was time to start and Andreea wasn't there. We sang, and took the sacrament, and the first speaker was just starting when she walked in (she might have been in the hall for a while too). When we asked her after Sacrament meeting what had happened she said that that night she got a text from one of her friends that had a scripture in it (her friends text her scriptures a lot so it wasn't unusual), and that was what got her to come. She actually told us later on though that all that the scripture said was something like "trust in God" and she felt like she should come to our church instead of go to hers. So she made it.
At church Sacrament meeting was good and then we were going to watch a little bit of General Conference but the DVD was lost. But, the BYU students were there and they were having a Sunday school lesson in English and Andreea speaks English so we just joined them. Those BYU students are saints. Andreea participated really well but asked probably two or three provocative questions that may have been intended to insult the students but they were super nice and gave good explanations. It was funny because we actually read the verses from the bible where it says that there will be no marriage in heaven and Andreea chuckled a little just waiting to hear what explanation we had for those verses but the teacher just briefly said that you have to be married the right way, and continued. The peer-pressure of all of the other students agreeing probably kept her from saying anything else. But, anyway, that lesson went super well. Once again I tell you, those BYU students are really saints.
That's all of Andreea's story, we will still have to work a bit with her to get to baptism, but hopefully we'll get there. This week a lot of people have been actually 'investigating' us. We have been meeting with a cool social worker lady, Lia, that we picked up from English classes and she really likes what we have to say about families and asked us all about our families. There is a former investigator Andra that we picked back up who wants to do a research report on us for one of her school projects. And we met with a professor (Profesoara Cristina Dascalu) who is maybe even the dean of her university who asked us tons of questions. When we gave her a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon she gave us an assignment as well to write a paper on communication (which is her specialty) related to our work as missionaries in foreign countries and said she would like to publish it in a scholarly journal. Plus if you remember back when that guy was making a documentary about us, he is back and has filmed the elders proselyting some more. So people really want to know what we're all about. Now we just have to get them to want to know what we believe, and follow our examples.
Love,
Sora Jay
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