worse than the time of Ceaușescu

 Ok sorry this is coming to you late I know you all missed my weekly emails and were worried, pday got changed to Wednesday this week! Had a long week so here's what happened! Also this email will be so crazy long so honestly just look at the photos 

Monday we had a lesson with our cute new friend Ana, she is 17 and adorable and she loved the Book of Mormon and that she got her own copy! so adorable. Tuesday President and Sora Fowler came to visit Timișoara! But before they got here we had this lesson that we went to the church for and the lady kept telling us she was coming but she never did so our weekly planning kept getting pushed back haha. Gotta love it. Also some good dinner and English class!

Wednesday was a crazy day. We had so many lessons planned and they almost all fell through. So we went finding a lot and we were able to set up a few lessons for that evening. We had one in a mall haha which was funny but this lady was so cute so it was worth it. We also met one of our friends in her college dorm room which was so wild and honestly some weird flashbacks of college life and dorm life. Let's just say I'm grateful my dorm was not an old commie bloc. But the lesson was good and she was so interested in how we sing at church, so we had to explain that it isn't quite what she thinks since we don't sing quite the same as other churches do hahah but she was excited for church! 

Ok thursday was actually the crazy day. We had some meetings in the morning and then 4 lessons. We had some really good ones over the phone and some really good ones in person as well. One of them was with our Loredana who is so amazing and one with our friend Felicia who is so perfect and probably could accept a baptismal date really soon. She also works with a pro-life group here in Romania, talk about an angel of a person. We also met a lady while in a park who told us about some of her crazy medical problems and honestly I didn't understand all of it but based off what I did understand I am glad I did not understand more lol. People really be telling missionaries everything haha. 

Friday was a pretty good day. We had quite a few lessons and they were super cool. We are helping one of our friends understand God's love for her so we spent some time going over that. We also taught someone basically the whole restoration on the street and it was so fun. Her and her daughter were so cute and so excited to come to church and meet with us again. Big miracle. Until the next day they texted us telling us they didn't want to talk anymore :// so that wasn't fun, the stuff online about the church really ops missionaries hard core. But we were also able to meet with our friend Cristina and she is so cool. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and how we have this book and she was so cool and excited to meet up again. Super awesome. Also met some cool new people, got to visit our new member! and called Loredana, really top tier day. Also over heard someone on the bus complaining about how there is no ac and it 100 degrees outside and she says "mai rău decât timpul lui Ceaușescu" which means "worse than the time of Ceausescu (the romanian communist leader)" and it gave my comp and I quite a laugh that apparently no ac is worse than communism

Saturday was chill. Started off with my comp and I having to sing for our missionwide zoom call and as you all know, I am not a singer so I told my comp she had to carry us. But then halfway through the song she starts laughing and I had to keep singing solo and then she laughed more because I'm tone deaf and can't sing lol so I looked at her in the middle of the song and said " sora I can't sing this alone, you have to sing with me" and we fumbled through the rest of the song super embarrassing and super humbling, maybe I won't get asked to sing again though haha but it was pretty basic besides that! It was so hot, like over 100 (or over 41 Celsius as my Canadian comp likes to say) but we had games night and our cute new friend Pernilla came!

Sunday was odd haha. After a week of over 100 weather it POURED rain but one of our friends pernilla came to church! She is only 13 but we met her and her mom on a bench and her mom wasn't super interested but she was and she came and I hope she liked it, it is different than other churches so it's always a little hard for our friends. We also have a special zone confernece in cluj this transfer but it meant a 5 hour bus on Sunday to get there haha and that was about it. 

Monday was zone conference and it was so good. They talked a lot about questions on my mind and things I had been studying so I enjoyed it and knew it was an answer to my questions and prayers. We also had some mini exchanges and went member finding. We got let into a bloc by some family (not a member) and we sat down and chatted about the Book of Mormon but they did not really vibe with it and didn't think that women could preach the Gospel...? But we left on good note, shared the gospel, left a visting card and got free coke so win I guess, and then Tuesday we volunteered as a zone at dog shelter (I picked the weeds, something I'm good at and doesn't overly involve the dogs lol) and we took a 9 hour train back to timi getting in past midnight, rip and walking 30 minutes back to the apartament at 12:30 bc no busses were running lol rip

Ok I was reading a talk but President Holland called "motions of a hidden fire" and in the talk he talks about how when Christ comes again He needs to be able to recognize us, not just as some name on a sheet in some church record but as a committed, faithful disciple. In which if we are faithful committed, covenant keeping disciples we will also know Christ more intimately. Because imagine if we were to get to the end of this life just for Christ to say "you never knew me" - like c'mon after a life like this no one wants to hear that. It made me think of another talk by Sister Runia where she talks about how she wants a relationship with the one that knows her best, Jesus Christ. Christ knows us, He knows are trials, our strengths, our degree of difficulty as Sister Runia puts it. If we are able to not just be casual disciples but to truly know Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father think of how sweet the reunion will be after this life. When we meet with those who know us best and who we have a personal relationship with. It made me think of this story I heard before my mission that goes something like this, A man, at the end of his life makes it to judgement day. He walks into a room and someone starts asking him about his life and his relationship with the Savior. This man gets asked "what do you know about Jesus Christ?" to which he says "I know he established His church on earth like we read in the Bible" he gets "what else?" and replies " well I know He suffered for us and died for us and His church was restored through Joseph Smith" then he gets asked "ok well what else do you know? Who is Jesus Christ?" and replies " I already told you He established His church, He died for us, He atoned for us, isn't that enough to make it past this gate and get to heaven" and the judge tells him " sure go on right ahead" and the man leaves the room, the next man comes in to be judged and immediately before the judge can say a single word, the man falls at His feet and says. "Oh Lord, I am so happy to see you". No casual discipleship here. It makes me want a personal relationship with the one who understands my degree of difficulty and understands all my mistakes, embarrassments, humbling moments, shortcomings, efforts and all I put in even when I fall so so short. Jesus Christ wants us to know Him personally and have that strong relationship for that beautiful reunion in Heaven some day. 

Sorry for the super long thoughts, I know this might be the longest email yet but it was full good week! I love you all!! Please you for Luiza, our friend on date, her family and schedule are making it hard to meet right now so we haven't met with her recently, pray for her!

Love sami