Dear family and everyone,
This may very well be my last weekly email of my mission. At least my last regular weekly email. Next Monday I'll be in Bucharest having my end-of-mission interview and ending mission stuff. Then I'll be off on an airplane! Crazy!
This week we got kicked our of someone's apartment, did missionary work at the local car dealership, spoke at that conference I was telling you about, went la tara (the countryside), had a few lessons about the Plan of Salvation, saw baby pictures, and ate a lot of sfinti (these special sweet-bread pasteries that people make for March 9, a special Orthodox holiday after Martisor).
So, we got kicked out of someone's apartment right after we were knocking a block and a man and his mother let us in. We were going to start a lesson with a prayer when he said, 'what, you don't cover your heads? Out with you right now!' Ok, yep. We took a trip to Toyota Iasi to follow up on a referral from a lady we talked to in the maxi taxi last week. We gave him a family proclamation and had no idea if he would be interested. He probably wasn't, but at least we tried, and we had a good talk with the taxi driver.
We finally had a lesson with Mckayla's family! And her mom is more awesome than I ever would have imagined. So it turned out really well because we were waiting at the church and Mckayla didn't show up to her lesson. (yeah, I know, that part doesn't sound good, but wait a minute...) But because she didn't show up, we called her. It turned out that she left her phone at home by accident and her mom answered. We said, hey, we've been wanting to meet you, when can we come over? And she agreed to have a visit the next evening! Woohoo! So we made it out there with a maxi taxi. I haven't been in some little sat (countyside town) for a while and I missed it a lot, so it felt really good. And Mckayla met us at the stop and walked with us to her house - a really modest house with your "outhouse" outside instead of indoor plumbing. But her mom was saying that she was happy with it, so why should she buy anything more expensive? And their house has a good atmosphere, and they just seemed to have a good home life. We met her mom and her siblings. Her mom is AWESOME - first of all, she and Mckayla are super similar in their mannerisms. Her mom is super animated and has the same huge smile that Mckayla has. What makes her mom really amazing is that she's not very rich or educated (she's taking classes to finish up high school before because she didn't get to before), but because of the way God has been working in her life, it's made her extremely smart and perceptive. Right now she is also working and doing volunteer work, which is remarkable because few people here are able to do that. She said that she's seen in her life that when she seeks wisdom and patience instead of money, God has blessed her with enough of what she needs of all those other things. And it was apparent that He really has. I LOVED this because I know exactly how she feels because God has worked that way in my life too. I think one of the greatest motivating powers to do good is gratitude. If I could put one word on it, that's why I came out to Romania before and acting on gratitude has brought basically some of the greatest blessings in my life.
Anyway, she is really really cool and she and her family would be such amazing members. She also knows the Bible very well. We weren't sure exactly where she was at, so we started with something for the kids about the Plan of Salvation but then she said, hey, this is nice, but I want to know where this Mormon thing came from. So we taught her about the Restoration. And she was really thinking about it well. When we talked about the apostasy she was really thinking and she said, "I think a good example of what you're saying about apostasy is the Orthodox church because the core of it is good, but there were so many pagan traditions added." Yes, exactly!!:) And she loved that Joseph Smith had prayed for wisdom because she did too. And at the end she said, making a quick assessment. Yes, I think this could be true. I'll read about it. I really really hope we can meet with her again this week and I really hope that this is the time for her in her life where she can gain a testimony of it. God has prepared her in so many ways.
So Saturday, in that conference I was mentioning a while back, we gave our presentation about the church to a conference hall of about 100 professors and academics. Ok, so there were about 10 people. But it went really well. The time went really fast. All we had time for was to introduce ourselves a bit and tell them a little bit about the Restoration, which comprises basically what I casually tell people on the street just about every day for my whole mission. But they all seemed to really like it. They were impressed with my Romanian, and one of the ladies with the fact that I volunteered here before with children. And there was one couple who was smiling at us the whole time and a man who came up and asked a few questions afterwards. So it was cool.:)
Well, I had some other interesting insights this week, but I'm out of time, so have to save those for in person. I only have 1 WEEK LEFT!!! Yes, crazy. And it's going to be a great one. I have big plans!
Sora Moulton
Sora Moulton
Monday, March 11, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
March 4 Spring is here and the end is near
Hi Family!
The 1st of March is a holiday here in Romania - Martisor - in celebrating the first of spring, and fittingly, it was the most beautiful day of the week. I didn't even need a coat, and there were TONS of people outside selling and buying things at little shops and the city was popping! I didn't think I would catch such a warm day before finishing my mission, so I was super excited, and it opened up a whole realm of possibilities, including my unfulfilled contacting fantasy of spontaneously telling scripture stories in a park to small children.:) Not sure if that one will happen or not, but we'll see. We did have a really good lesson with our English student Dana and her daughter. We told them the story of Lehi's family. They also have a super cute 3-year-old who was tumbling over the whole room while we were trying to give the lesson.:)
The beginning of this week was full of contacting miracle experiences, and it felt SO good! While we were knocking at this block on Monday night, an older lady answered and said that her husband had passed away and was buried a few days earlier. Yes, she figured death wasn't the end. But we were able to tell her that yes, we know she will see her husband again, and after we talked she looked happier. :) Then we were on the first floor and this guy that was standing in the front entry-way to the block said hey, what are you doing? And we were able to go over there and talk to him about God and give him a pamphlet. Then later we were knocking another block and this girl answered and said she didn't believe in God. But I said something about that God loves her and her countenance changed a little bit and she gave us her number and said we could meet a different time (and then didn't show to our lesson later in the week, but that's beside the point). Anyway, this is all like normal stuff, but I was really grateful that God blessed us with those experiences and to have His Spirit to guide us.
Then we did contacting in Bacau too, because last time we were there for zone training we just zipped in and zipped out and so I really wanted to stay longer this time and plan time for contacting. And it went really well!:) We had 2 referrals to give the elders there.
So the beginning of the week was super great and I was trying to be the best trainer I could and give Sora Fletcher a lot of good experiences and good opportunities to stretch herself. Wednesday I started to feel a cold coming on and I'm like "I'm not getting sick in the last 3 weeks of my mission!" Well, yes, I suppose I've learned by now that there is opposition in all things. So we went to bed early for a few nights and I pumped a ton of vitamin C into my system with tablets and oranges and fizzy drinks. And I'm doing ok, but still not completely better. So pray for me as I do battle with the cold. That threw me off a little bit, but things are better now. We didn't have many lessons this week, but we did have the pretty-much-miracle of Lucy - a recent convert who doesn't come to church regularly and is hard to get a hold of - letting us in her house for a lesson! She was much more open with us at her house than at the church and she and her husband told us all about their love story and how they got married and how they felt God's hand in their lives. It was super good.:)
Oh, oh, and we had a really good member present lesson with Michelle and Sora Lindsey. And then one of Michelle's friends ended up coming later after we left because she wanted to come to our lesson and Michelle hadn't updated her on our lesson time. We had someone else unexpectedly wanting to come to one of our lessons! Whoa! That is so cool. She came to church with Michelle! Hopefully she'll be able to come with Michelle to our lesson this week.
Spiritual quote of the week: see "Learning with our Hearts" by Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, last general conference http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/learning-with-our-hearts?lang=eng - last paragraph. Read this when you have some spiritual hunger and you will find it really profound. I love the last sentence, "Verily our conversion unto Him is rewarded with our healing."
I have 2 weeks left. 2 weeks! Kind of crazy. Actually it was more crazy when yesterday as we were trying to set up lessons for next week, Elder Taylor (one of the assistants) calls and says, hey, do you know when the maxi taxi leaves for Chisinau? And I'm like no, who's going to Chisinau? And he said, you are. We're having sister exchanges this next week starting on Tuesday until Thursday. And I say, we're what??! Here I am with 2 weeks left of my mission, training Sora Fletcher who's been here for just 1 week and speaks only a few words of the language and is getting a new companion in 2 weeks when I leave, and we would have spent most of next week out of the city with different companions instead of being here training. I was willing to be completely obedient if it was an inspired decision, but it was sounding a little bit crazy. Elder Taylor called back and I talked to Sora Hill. So now we're not doing sister exchanges and the world is safe again.:)
cu drag, Sora Moulton (Alicia)
The 1st of March is a holiday here in Romania - Martisor - in celebrating the first of spring, and fittingly, it was the most beautiful day of the week. I didn't even need a coat, and there were TONS of people outside selling and buying things at little shops and the city was popping! I didn't think I would catch such a warm day before finishing my mission, so I was super excited, and it opened up a whole realm of possibilities, including my unfulfilled contacting fantasy of spontaneously telling scripture stories in a park to small children.:) Not sure if that one will happen or not, but we'll see. We did have a really good lesson with our English student Dana and her daughter. We told them the story of Lehi's family. They also have a super cute 3-year-old who was tumbling over the whole room while we were trying to give the lesson.:)
The beginning of this week was full of contacting miracle experiences, and it felt SO good! While we were knocking at this block on Monday night, an older lady answered and said that her husband had passed away and was buried a few days earlier. Yes, she figured death wasn't the end. But we were able to tell her that yes, we know she will see her husband again, and after we talked she looked happier. :) Then we were on the first floor and this guy that was standing in the front entry-way to the block said hey, what are you doing? And we were able to go over there and talk to him about God and give him a pamphlet. Then later we were knocking another block and this girl answered and said she didn't believe in God. But I said something about that God loves her and her countenance changed a little bit and she gave us her number and said we could meet a different time (and then didn't show to our lesson later in the week, but that's beside the point). Anyway, this is all like normal stuff, but I was really grateful that God blessed us with those experiences and to have His Spirit to guide us.
Then we did contacting in Bacau too, because last time we were there for zone training we just zipped in and zipped out and so I really wanted to stay longer this time and plan time for contacting. And it went really well!:) We had 2 referrals to give the elders there.
So the beginning of the week was super great and I was trying to be the best trainer I could and give Sora Fletcher a lot of good experiences and good opportunities to stretch herself. Wednesday I started to feel a cold coming on and I'm like "I'm not getting sick in the last 3 weeks of my mission!" Well, yes, I suppose I've learned by now that there is opposition in all things. So we went to bed early for a few nights and I pumped a ton of vitamin C into my system with tablets and oranges and fizzy drinks. And I'm doing ok, but still not completely better. So pray for me as I do battle with the cold. That threw me off a little bit, but things are better now. We didn't have many lessons this week, but we did have the pretty-much-miracle of Lucy - a recent convert who doesn't come to church regularly and is hard to get a hold of - letting us in her house for a lesson! She was much more open with us at her house than at the church and she and her husband told us all about their love story and how they got married and how they felt God's hand in their lives. It was super good.:)
Oh, oh, and we had a really good member present lesson with Michelle and Sora Lindsey. And then one of Michelle's friends ended up coming later after we left because she wanted to come to our lesson and Michelle hadn't updated her on our lesson time. We had someone else unexpectedly wanting to come to one of our lessons! Whoa! That is so cool. She came to church with Michelle! Hopefully she'll be able to come with Michelle to our lesson this week.
Spiritual quote of the week: see "Learning with our Hearts" by Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, last general conference http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/learning-with-our-hearts?lang=eng - last paragraph. Read this when you have some spiritual hunger and you will find it really profound. I love the last sentence, "Verily our conversion unto Him is rewarded with our healing."
I have 2 weeks left. 2 weeks! Kind of crazy. Actually it was more crazy when yesterday as we were trying to set up lessons for next week, Elder Taylor (one of the assistants) calls and says, hey, do you know when the maxi taxi leaves for Chisinau? And I'm like no, who's going to Chisinau? And he said, you are. We're having sister exchanges this next week starting on Tuesday until Thursday. And I say, we're what??! Here I am with 2 weeks left of my mission, training Sora Fletcher who's been here for just 1 week and speaks only a few words of the language and is getting a new companion in 2 weeks when I leave, and we would have spent most of next week out of the city with different companions instead of being here training. I was willing to be completely obedient if it was an inspired decision, but it was sounding a little bit crazy. Elder Taylor called back and I talked to Sora Hill. So now we're not doing sister exchanges and the world is safe again.:)
cu drag, Sora Moulton (Alicia)
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
February 24: Training Diaries entry1
Hi family and friends!
Jacob 5:62 "Wherefore, let us go to and labor with our might this last time, for behold, the end draweth nigh, and this is the last time that I shall prune my vineyard." D&C 43:28 "Wherefore, labor ye, labor ye in my vineyard for the last time -- for the last time call upon the inhabitants of the earth." ... So, the new installment of cute Romania sister missionaries arrived and I now have 3 weeks to pack into my little boboaca's brain everything she needs to know about Iasi and our investigators plus a year and a half's-worth of knowledge about Romania and missionary work! Plus get her fluent in Romanian. Just a few days in, it's going pretty well. :) My companion, Sora Fletcher is really wonderful and I'm way excited to be serving with her.
We got back to Iasi after transfers on Friday after a sleeper train and have rested and done a lot of planning. We had a really good lesson with Danica on Saturday. She is a less-active member who I met once when I was out here before, and is really humble and has a really strong testimony. She was actually found by the BYU girls, a few years before I was here. She was in the hospital with her son , and it was a really difficult time for her. Then she met the BYU girls and they taught her how to pray and it made a really big impression on her. Later she came to church and was baptized.:) We had a lesson with her and her FAMILY - her 3 cute kids. And it was SO refreshing! I LOVE teaching kids and haven't had a lesson with kids for a few months previous to that lesson.
A few things I've thought about a lot this week - one, it's so important to read the scriptures, pray, etc, with an open heart. It's harder to receive answers when our minds are cluttered or we don't know what we're searching for. I had a lot of troubling things on my mind on Saturday morning but I said a really fervent, sincere prayer and I tried to piece out what was bothering me and what questions from that I would want the Lord to answer. And then I started studying the scriptures and I somehow found this chapter in D&C and it was exactly the answer to my concerns and what I needed. And through that I felt the Spirit really strong and it had an incredibly calming and healing effect on me. This kind of thing has happened to me many times in my life. But sometimes it's harder to get there and find those answers when my mind is cluttered. We had two really good telephone calls - with two investigators since getting back from Bucuresti. One was our investigator who just has a hard time listening to us and applying the gospel to her life. But we caught her in a moment and I asked her if I could read her a scripture and what question she would have for God. She said, well, I was thinking life's so unfair and does it really matter what we do in life? Can everyone just do what they want or is there really one path we need to take in life? And then I was talking to Gabriela and she has been searching the Book of Mormon, but only as comparing it to the Bible and it became clear that she doesn't understand the Holy Ghost. I was really super glad that a few weeks ago when preparing for our Bible class I had searched our verses in the Bible about how we need to seek the Holy Ghost in our study and I gave her a few of those to read. It is so important to seek the Spirit, and when we do, prepare ourselves so we will be open to receive Him and invite Him in.
That reminds me too - remember that crazy lesson that we had with Gabriela a few weeks ago but the Spirit guided us and finally it turned out ok? Well, I was thinking too about how that morning I was thinking about how the time I have left in my mission is short and I prayed to know what I could do to be a better missionary that day. Something popped in my mind, something that took a little bit of courage for me, but I followed through on it. After that I felt a greater strength, which I think helped me to have greater strength later that day for a few other things and our lesson with Gabriela. It's really true that the more we follow the Spirit and do things that are right, the greater strength that we have to continue to do what is right and resist temptation.
Oh, I forgot to say last week that there was a family baptized in Bacau! which was really cool because there hasn't been a baptism there for a year and a half! There hadn't been a baptism there for so long that they didn't even have a basin for baptisms there anymore and so the office elders had to drive up with the Bacau elders over here to Iasi to borrow ours! Woohoo! But mission accomplished and there was a mom and two kids baptized!
Love you! Have a great week! I have 3 last awesome ones ahead of me! :)
Sora Moulton (Alicia)
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Feb 19 Bible class and Transfers
Hi everyone!
All of our investigators were kind of in a pauza (break) this week. Monica was still sick and Lisabel was still busy with her job. And we did have a good lesson with Maria, but she was getting a little bit overwhelmed, so we are taking it slower with her now. But, we do what we can. We had the Bible study class! Which didn't have a great turn-out, but hey, 2 people (plus 2 members and elders) is better than nothing! ha ha. I'm still really glad we did it. The two that came really liked it. One was a random civilian who wanted to learn something new, and the other one was one of our English students. He is really cool and is actually interested in the gospel! He has studied the Bible for years, but he is really humble. He's been reading the Book of Mormon too and loves it. He has been searching for the true church! We're having Elder Slemboski and Elder Whitehead teach him and Sora Macdonald and I are way excited about it.
I learned a few things this week. First,Valerica is the name of a woman, but Valerică is the name of a man. I discovered this fact when Sora Macdonald and I were trying to set up lessons with a few of our English students who wrote on their sign-up sheets that they were interested in knowing more about the church. I was talking to Valerica on the phone, and her voice was kind of low for a woman, but not low-low. The name was Valerica. I've never heard that before for a man. And she was happy to come early to English for a lesson. Then Saturday comes around and Valerică shows up, definetly a man. . . . We're having the zone leaders teach him.
Other news in my life is that I found out that for my last transfer I am TRAINING!!:) I'm super excited!!! I have like sort of almost trained a few times with my mini missionaries and 2nd transfer companions, but never from the very beginning, and so I figured I never would, but now I get to. Yay! Sora Macdonald is getting transferred to Ploiesti, and she's really sad to leave Iasi, her first city, but she's excited, too, to have a new change and opportunities to grow. We're going down to Buc on Wednesday for a big huge zone conference with all the missionaries and then I'll be back with my new companion for my last transfer! woohoo!
Sora Moulton
All of our investigators were kind of in a pauza (break) this week. Monica was still sick and Lisabel was still busy with her job. And we did have a good lesson with Maria, but she was getting a little bit overwhelmed, so we are taking it slower with her now. But, we do what we can. We had the Bible study class! Which didn't have a great turn-out, but hey, 2 people (plus 2 members and elders) is better than nothing! ha ha. I'm still really glad we did it. The two that came really liked it. One was a random civilian who wanted to learn something new, and the other one was one of our English students. He is really cool and is actually interested in the gospel! He has studied the Bible for years, but he is really humble. He's been reading the Book of Mormon too and loves it. He has been searching for the true church! We're having Elder Slemboski and Elder Whitehead teach him and Sora Macdonald and I are way excited about it.
I learned a few things this week. First,Valerica is the name of a woman, but Valerică is the name of a man. I discovered this fact when Sora Macdonald and I were trying to set up lessons with a few of our English students who wrote on their sign-up sheets that they were interested in knowing more about the church. I was talking to Valerica on the phone, and her voice was kind of low for a woman, but not low-low. The name was Valerica. I've never heard that before for a man. And she was happy to come early to English for a lesson. Then Saturday comes around and Valerică shows up, definetly a man. . . . We're having the zone leaders teach him.
Other news in my life is that I found out that for my last transfer I am TRAINING!!:) I'm super excited!!! I have like sort of almost trained a few times with my mini missionaries and 2nd transfer companions, but never from the very beginning, and so I figured I never would, but now I get to. Yay! Sora Macdonald is getting transferred to Ploiesti, and she's really sad to leave Iasi, her first city, but she's excited, too, to have a new change and opportunities to grow. We're going down to Buc on Wednesday for a big huge zone conference with all the missionaries and then I'll be back with my new companion for my last transfer! woohoo!
Sora Moulton
Friday, February 1, 2013
Jan 28 A few missionary lessons and a surprise twist ending
Hi Family!
Seven weeks left of my mission and I lost my Romanian Bible (the one from all my mission with all my markings in it! I tried not to think about it too much as to not be completely devastated), the whiteboard that we write all our investigators on broke (we were trying to clean it and we accidentally scrubbed off the dry erase surface!), and the zipper on my winter boots broke. :( But, I will not be deterred!
So I am simply just trying to be a full missionary for this last time the best I can! Monday evening went really well for street contacting. I talked to one girl who I knew was an answer to my prayer even though she would not give me her number. She said she had been having questions about the purpose of life and she did take my pliant. Tuesday (first of all - I went to Bacau! - for zone training. I've been hearing about this city for most of my mission so I was super excited!). On the way to the gara to Bacau I had a good talk with a taxi driver and I gave him the little Bible verse cards that I made. (hey, taxi drivers say they are always busy, so at least they can read a verse) I had a good talk on the maxi taxi back with a girl who actually lived in Idaho for a summer. She knew a few members while she was there, so she was really open and we talked about the plan of salvation and all sorts of things! Then Wednesday was set up to be a super sweet day with 2 member-present lessons and another first lesson! Woohoo! Sora Macdonald and I were so excited! So the first lesson went really well. We met with Sora Genoveva first and went over to see Mihaela, who was an investigator for quite a while but 7 years ago, and agreed to meet with us again. She had met with the sisters a lot but had never been to church before. And it turns out that she was a nurse for years at the hospital I volunteered at, and actually caught a disease lately from one of the kids [I know, I'm lucky I didn't, right ;)]. The visit started out not fantastic but finally got to a really good place when Sora Macdonald bore her testimony and we talked about how the gospel could bless her life and she pulled out her old copy of the Book of Mormon and her countenance changed and she said she would come to church with us. Yay! We really like her.
And then our second lesson was with Monica - I love her, she is like the bright light of my mission right now.:) So, her uncle - who is in his early 20s and seems more like her cousin - is this super awesome member Mihai, who came back after being inactive and now is super excited about the gospel and is super active. And so he brought Monica with him to church last Sunday. She had come a few times before in the summer and said at first church seemed kind of boring to her, but now she likes it. She said she was reading in the Book of Mormon about the tree of life and where people from the great and spacious building were making fun of people that had fruit but people kept pressing on to the tree of life, and she decided that it would be a good idea in her life to hold to the rod. Awesome, right? This does not always happen. She has already prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true and said she would be baptized if she knows that it is. She and Mihai are just super nice positive people who like joking around and they are so great! :) So that was lesson number 2.
The rest of the week kind of peetered out, even though we tried. We had a good visit with Aurelia, a member, and practiced leading music with her and read with her from the scriptures and met her roommates! I knew her from when I was here before and she has really progressed a lot. Oh, we had a really good meeting with our branch mission leader Petru who's had a change of heart and now is really excited and energized about missionary work! He asked us to come with suggestions for missionary work - 3 for each missionary - which made it 18 total from our district (can you believe it?). Somehow we pulled our 18 suggestions and he was really humble and took them all! Thursday was some cool Romanian holiday where all the Romanian regions were united together and the signing was in Iasi, so that was cool. We could hear part of the concert from Piata Unirii from our apartment in the morning, and there were random Romanian dancers outside the university.
President Pitulan (the branch president) asked me on Saturday to give a talk on Sunday about visiting teaching and home teaching. That went really well. Mihaela didn't answer our calls on Saturday though (because we were going to come to church with her!), and she didn't come :( but at least we did our part. Oh, and I actually did get my Bible back!:) I lost it in Buc at transfers and I never thought I would get it back, but someone found it at the gara and the assistants brought it up this morning when they came with President and Sora Hill for interviews. I was SO happy.
And... the fruit fly infestation in our apartment finally died off! Hallelujah. Ok, it's been a good week.
I love you all! :)
love, Alicia
Seven weeks left of my mission and I lost my Romanian Bible (the one from all my mission with all my markings in it! I tried not to think about it too much as to not be completely devastated), the whiteboard that we write all our investigators on broke (we were trying to clean it and we accidentally scrubbed off the dry erase surface!), and the zipper on my winter boots broke. :( But, I will not be deterred!
So I am simply just trying to be a full missionary for this last time the best I can! Monday evening went really well for street contacting. I talked to one girl who I knew was an answer to my prayer even though she would not give me her number. She said she had been having questions about the purpose of life and she did take my pliant. Tuesday (first of all - I went to Bacau! - for zone training. I've been hearing about this city for most of my mission so I was super excited!). On the way to the gara to Bacau I had a good talk with a taxi driver and I gave him the little Bible verse cards that I made. (hey, taxi drivers say they are always busy, so at least they can read a verse) I had a good talk on the maxi taxi back with a girl who actually lived in Idaho for a summer. She knew a few members while she was there, so she was really open and we talked about the plan of salvation and all sorts of things! Then Wednesday was set up to be a super sweet day with 2 member-present lessons and another first lesson! Woohoo! Sora Macdonald and I were so excited! So the first lesson went really well. We met with Sora Genoveva first and went over to see Mihaela, who was an investigator for quite a while but 7 years ago, and agreed to meet with us again. She had met with the sisters a lot but had never been to church before. And it turns out that she was a nurse for years at the hospital I volunteered at, and actually caught a disease lately from one of the kids [I know, I'm lucky I didn't, right ;)]. The visit started out not fantastic but finally got to a really good place when Sora Macdonald bore her testimony and we talked about how the gospel could bless her life and she pulled out her old copy of the Book of Mormon and her countenance changed and she said she would come to church with us. Yay! We really like her.
And then our second lesson was with Monica - I love her, she is like the bright light of my mission right now.:) So, her uncle - who is in his early 20s and seems more like her cousin - is this super awesome member Mihai, who came back after being inactive and now is super excited about the gospel and is super active. And so he brought Monica with him to church last Sunday. She had come a few times before in the summer and said at first church seemed kind of boring to her, but now she likes it. She said she was reading in the Book of Mormon about the tree of life and where people from the great and spacious building were making fun of people that had fruit but people kept pressing on to the tree of life, and she decided that it would be a good idea in her life to hold to the rod. Awesome, right? This does not always happen. She has already prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true and said she would be baptized if she knows that it is. She and Mihai are just super nice positive people who like joking around and they are so great! :) So that was lesson number 2.
The rest of the week kind of peetered out, even though we tried. We had a good visit with Aurelia, a member, and practiced leading music with her and read with her from the scriptures and met her roommates! I knew her from when I was here before and she has really progressed a lot. Oh, we had a really good meeting with our branch mission leader Petru who's had a change of heart and now is really excited and energized about missionary work! He asked us to come with suggestions for missionary work - 3 for each missionary - which made it 18 total from our district (can you believe it?). Somehow we pulled our 18 suggestions and he was really humble and took them all! Thursday was some cool Romanian holiday where all the Romanian regions were united together and the signing was in Iasi, so that was cool. We could hear part of the concert from Piata Unirii from our apartment in the morning, and there were random Romanian dancers outside the university.
President Pitulan (the branch president) asked me on Saturday to give a talk on Sunday about visiting teaching and home teaching. That went really well. Mihaela didn't answer our calls on Saturday though (because we were going to come to church with her!), and she didn't come :( but at least we did our part. Oh, and I actually did get my Bible back!:) I lost it in Buc at transfers and I never thought I would get it back, but someone found it at the gara and the assistants brought it up this morning when they came with President and Sora Hill for interviews. I was SO happy.
And... the fruit fly infestation in our apartment finally died off! Hallelujah. Ok, it's been a good week.
I love you all! :)
love, Alicia
Monday, January 21, 2013
Jan 21 Iasi grup cel mai misto!
Iasi grup cel mai misto! Hey, this message is a shout-out to Robby, Rachel, Kinsey, Rhett, Michelle, Michelle, and Chelsea!
I just wanted to tell you all that I am back in Iasi – woohoo! - 4 years later, the same month that we left. So I walked past where the scala apartment was, and hala centrala. And Kinsey, I found the langosi place that we loved! And the lights in the city just barely turned on the day I got here! Sweet, right? The branch is meeting in a different villa but a lot of the same people are still there and a lot of them remembered me! Andreea Stoica just barely got back from her mission, and Radu is getting back in a few months. Aurelia and Florentina are still here. And Alexandra at FHE activities. Remember Sora Podaru? My first full day here, my companion Sora Macdonald and I went to visit her. And we took the tramvai one stop too far to Dancu. And I remembered it was the stop that we got off that first time when we were trying to find the Dancu apartment and wandered around for about a half and hour. Remember that Robby? Good times. ha ha. We tried not to repeat the experience this time. :) Oh, and last week we went to Chisinau for a zone conference, same time of the year as when we went before too! Remember how super freezing that day was in December when we walked around Chisinau and the big piata and found the belts with lighters? This time it was super sunny and snowy. And thank goodness we did NOT have any problems leaving the country and getting back into Romania. Although the trip over there took a super long time because we didn't make the first train so we took another train and then a maxi taxi and were traveling all night. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up so far. :) I'm super happy to be here and thinking about you all as I retrace steps!
cu drag, Sora Alicia Moulton
Jan 21
Buna family and friends! :)
Start of a new transfer here again in Iasi! I already really like our district. Our new additions are Elder Whitehead - a tall, positive, nice guy- and Elder McCombs - a shorter, blonde-haired, blue-eyed elder who's a really good missionary who just came from serving in Brasov (yay!). Add in Elder Slemboski and Elder Friel to Elder Whitehead - who are all about 6'4'', and they look like they are Elder McComb's bodyguards! So, this will be fun.
We have not had a lot of missionary work this week, but Sora Macdonald and I have done a lot of planning for the transfer and have some good lessons set up already (yay!). We did have a lesson with Gabriela, but she was super stressed this week. We made lots of plans to try to meet with her and some members this week, but we will see. Fratele Stoica's father died :( and so we didn't meet with them, but brought them flowers and a note and prayed for them a lot.
Love you all! :)
Start of a new transfer here again in Iasi! I already really like our district. Our new additions are Elder Whitehead - a tall, positive, nice guy- and Elder McCombs - a shorter, blonde-haired, blue-eyed elder who's a really good missionary who just came from serving in Brasov (yay!). Add in Elder Slemboski and Elder Friel to Elder Whitehead - who are all about 6'4'', and they look like they are Elder McComb's bodyguards! So, this will be fun.
We have not had a lot of missionary work this week, but Sora Macdonald and I have done a lot of planning for the transfer and have some good lessons set up already (yay!). We did have a lesson with Gabriela, but she was super stressed this week. We made lots of plans to try to meet with her and some members this week, but we will see. Fratele Stoica's father died :( and so we didn't meet with them, but brought them flowers and a note and prayed for them a lot.
Love you all! :)
Alicia
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