sending love from ploiești!

Hey again! This week was good, a lot chiller than last week. 

On Tuesday we had so many good convos with people and taught parts of the restoration to a ton of people but no one was interested smh🤦‍♀️ but we tried our best! We also taught English and I was talking to this older couple and trying to teach them English and at first it was a little frustrating when I felt like I kept repeating myself and they weren't getting it. I realized that is literally me learning romanian. My comp repeats things and I can't remember, my mtc teachers probably felt that way #sorryromanianishard so that was humbling because I'm sure everyone who teaches me romanian felt that so I can't be upset haha but teaching English is always good, it was also my 3 months as a missionary!!

Wednesday was lit, we got 5 numbers! A new record for us. We had a lesson with an inactive member and she wanted us to come back and we said we would and she made us take out our schedule right there and plan a day haha. We also had a lesson with one friend and he said he wants to GET BAPTIZED!! with his daughter!! It was so hype. He is really accepting and it probably won't happen this transfer and he isn't officially on date but I'm so excited. He sees the goodness of the Gospel and is excited. It's been so good. 

Nothing special on Thursday, but Friday we went to a park to do our studies and it was fantastic. We sat out in the sun on fun chairs and read our Cartea Lui Mormons. It made me want to just sit down and read a book all day haha, then we decided those would be our p-day plans. It was so fun and nice. 

Saturday was the best day yet!!! We went to some lessons in the morning and they were amazing!! We had one lesson with a mom and her daughters. Last week we were walking down that street and these little girls ran up to us and asked for pamphlets and we gave them some and then went back a few days later with some coloring books and friend magazines and we met their mom and she said she would meet with us! So today we went over and taught her. We taught the whole restoration and then at the end my comp asked me to bear my testimony and I felt the impression to share about the Book of Mormon so I did and I fumbled it. I was stumbling and for some reason I couldn't get the words right but I felt the spirit so strong and almost cried. I could feel that she understood what I meant and what I was trying to say. It was actually an amazing feeling, THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL!! it was amazing! And she said she's gonna come to church! She didn't but I have hope for her! we also went to an inactive members house and had a lesson. She made us sing a hymn with her before we taught her, it was so cute. 

Sunday was normal! We had a member meal and it rained A LOT! so it was fun! 

Random other things : 

- some guy asked me if I was going to live in romania and I said maybe, then he said I need to find a handsome man and marry him and move here haha 

- the romanian people are so humble, the mom we taught offered us water and when we said yes she had her daughter run to the store to buy us water🥹 #tender 

- shaorma is my new favorite food - donor house is fr goated 

- had some really good member lessons!! 

- had some veryyyy weird lessons with some creepy men #sentthemtotheelderssofast 

Overall very (VERY) humbling week but so good! 

Spiritual thought: 

So lately I've been reading in the New Testament and first, it is amazing!! I have been loving studying it, it's been so good. I read the story of Peter walking on water and how he was sinking and he asked Jesus to save him and the word in the scriptures says that Jesus "immediately" grabbed him. I love use of that word and how Jesus is there right when we call on Him! One last thought (I have so many so #sorry) I had this week was about missions. Missions are hard, learning a new language is hard, being away from home is hard, among other things, but it is so good and SO FUN! It is so fulfilling to go and talk about Christ all day and to go and try to invite people to church and to share a message in a different language and know they can understand it because the power of God is real! I know there is a silver lining in all hard things if we look for it and no matter what trial we are going through there is happiness! 

love ya all! I love this Gospel, I love Romania and I love being a missionary!!

love sora schof 

pictures!!!!:)) 

1: 3 months! 

2: pretty sunrise in the morning on our run 

3: studying at the park 

4: late night dare bars 

5: sunset out of our apartment window (ploiesti is beautiful!!)

More pics

Made me think of Easton and smile

Fresh pressed grape juice.  It was delicious. 

I've been pressing some Romanina flowers in my Bible to make a bookmark 

Profi dog, like $1.25 and the bun goes all the way around

Mate drink for Easton and Lyndi

The sunset was amazing, This is the view outside my kitchen window.

Shaorma for pday

Studying in the park

Earth, wind, fire and rain...

Hi yet again! I feel like I'm always writing an email so sorry if you feel like you are always getting them!

This week was good! Started off on Monday with a chill p-day, we went thrifting and shopping it was fun! 

Then on Tuesday, all the normal things! Nothing too crazy! During weekly planning we set some pretty high goals for this transfer (crazy I'm already in my second transfer!), but me and sora Blanchard are gonna go crazy and become cracked missionaries. 

Wednesday was so lit. We got up and went morning finding and talked to a lot of people. We got 1 or 2 numbers so that was awesome! It's sometimes hard when we go and talk to nearly 100 people and only get a few people who are only kinda interested. But I know we are trying our best, I know that's how it is here. But then we went to McDonald's to get soda (and I got fries ofc) and do our media work! It's way more fun this way lol. We then just did our studies and were planning lessons since we were set to have 4 today! Then all but 1 fell through #sad but that's ok because that 1 lesson was so amazing. We had a member come and it was amazing!! We went to find some inactive members and it was actually so good. We found 1 and she wanted to come back to church. Her husband is kinda rude and weird but she wants to come back which is amazing, I know the Gospel will help her! We also met 2 little girls who kept asking us for pamphlets and we gave them one and we are going to go back and give them some coloring books! It was such a good day. 

Thursday we finally had my permis appointment! Which is just my visa appointment. We went and gave them all my info and got my picture taken for my card so that's lit, I'm almost legal in romania but then we just did some studies and some finding and packed for an exchange in Galați! 

On Friday we went to Galați again for an exchange. But Friday was actually the hardest day of my mission so far. And it wasn't because I was homesick, overwhelmed, couldn't speak or any of the normal things. But we went to a little village to help clean up some flooding. Romania had some massive storm last week and some villages near the Danube River got wrecked. We went to help clean up a little. We went to this house of this lady and it made me want to cry. I almost cried the whole day. It was heartbreaking. This storm wrecked everyone's house and there is almost no help. This lady we were helping had her whole house flooded and it's full of mud. Everything was ruined. We did all we could to help clean it up with what we had. We had straw brooms and buckets. We really needed a power washer, shot vac, and the water mover things (the things we use to clean out the garage family). It was heartbreaking how this one storm changed her entire life and how it will never be the same. The water got so high and ruined everything. The water line was taller than the lady. It was so hard to see that and to see this village be so damaged and have practically no way to get back to where it was no matter how hard these people work. It was so hard and sad, I just realized all my problems that seem so big and hard to handle are really nothing compared to what these people are going through. It was really humbling. It was so sad that that was all we could do. This one storm changed things forever for them. 

Saturday we went back to Ploiești! It was the 21st of September so naturally I had the earth, wind and fire song stuck in my head. It made me think of the Chuck episode where Big Mike claims he was in the band and his name was rain, hence the subject. Anyways it made me laugh when I thought of it haha. 

Saturday was pretty lowkey, we had games night and we invited a 10 year old girl from a part member family to come and she came! It was awesome

Sunday was cool! We had some friends show up to church which was awesome! We have a few members who are awesome and talked to them. The members know how much the church can bless lives and it's amazing to see. We went streeting too and met a really funny awesome lady! We gave her a book of mormon but she told us she can't read so we are going to go over and read it with her and teach her to read a little haha. It's sad, a lot of women in romania can't read, they used to not teach their girls to read and sometimes gypsy families still don't. It's sad, native romanian families and gypsys still do things very old schooled (like not teaching their girls to read or having someone buy their daughter to be their wife) and it's hard to see. 

But this lady seems awesome, I'm excited to meet with her. 

Random stories: 

- on Wednesday we got a response on facebook and someone wanted to learn more about the Book of mormon. We thought it was a lady (since it was a girls Facebook account) and she set the chat theme to a funny one with a bunch of kissy faces and when we called them it turns out it was her husband texting us and he was so weird so we got #catfished lol, he's the one who changed the chat theme....

-thinking of chuck all day on Saturday 

-trying so hard to speak romanian with the little girl and she did not understand me and probably thinks I'm so stupid lol 

-had a full convo with someone on the train by myself (my comp didn't talk during it) and the guy said my romanian was good!! So that was kinda lit, I actually had a conversation with someone and they complimented my romanian 

-went to bran castle on p day!! Aka Dracula's castle!! It was actually so cool 

Spiritual thought: 

I was reading in Ether lately and I read about when the brother of Jared brought the stones to God. It was literally all he could think to do. He brought pebbles to God and hoped that God could help make something out of them. My comp and I talked about this and she talked about how we need to bring all our pebbles to God. Our efforts as missionaires and just in life are so small compared to what God can do. They are just pebbles, but if we bring everything and all our effort to God, He will do something great. I've really learned on my mission that we can't do anything without the help of God. I know that even if all we have is pebbles but we give Him all of our pebbles, He'll make something great out of it. 

I love you all! I love my mission, love Romania and love my Savior💗

love sora schof 

pictures per usual :)

1: ice cream run before exchanges 

2: some after math of the flooding 

3: me outside Bran 

4: Bran castle!!

More Pics

The flooding results from the Eastern European Storms

Bran Castle

The coffin for dad

Favorite lunch takeaway

Flooding aftermath

There was a conference with all of the Mission Presidents kids from the Eastern European Missions. They had it in Romania this year and we met them all at church.