I made it! Week 1 in Bacau Romania

I made it to ROMANIA!!

I can't believe that I am here and it is already p-day, it seems like time is already flying by so quick. This week has been so much fun. we left the MTC Monday at 4:30and arrived in Romania at 1:30 their time on Wednesday. The plane was HUGE!!

Ah Josh is going to the Netherlands! And Belgium! I can't believe it! I was just there last week, how cool is that.  We aren't that far away from each other either. :) We bought the yummiest cookie waffle things at the airport.  And he is going to learn Dutch.  So excited for him and Bowman to get to go on the same day to the MTC.

So the first few days are such a blur, but I will do my best to remember :)

After we arrived in Bucharest, we went to the mission office and had interviews with President Hill, and then with Sora Hill. They are both so great. Before we knew it the office elders took us to some office to register for our visas and all of that technical stuff.

We went to the spot, Cismigiu Park where our mission was dedicated and sang hymns then read the dedication prayer. After that we went to the Mission home just the 9 new Soras.  We ate some Mamaliga and Sarmele... that was yummy ;) 

 Cismigiu Park with President and Sister Hill.  The day they arrived in Romania

MTC District at Cismigui Park

That night we went and stayed with our Nashas. Mine was Sora Polatis and Sora Peterson, so much fun.

Our Nashas.  First night in Romania in Bucharest

In Bucharest - MTC group first new morning in Romania as we were heading back to the Hills to meet our new companions.

That next morning we got to find out who our companions were and drum roll.... I am being trained by Sora Stapley!! She is so great, Just love her. 

We are opening up Bacau to sisters!! We are so excited!

We have had such a funny week so far, Everything that could happen, happened.

Thursday morning we got to take a 5 hour train to Bacau, For the first hour we stood in the back with our luggage because our seats were clear up front and we didn't wanna leave our bags. While we were back there we got to talk to some people, they were really nice. :)

5 hour train ride to Bacau

My 1st Train Ticket :)

When we arrived our elders here picked us up and took us to our new apartment. It had nothing in it but 3 beds, a couch, and a table.  So that meant we got to go and shop for everything! That was quite the adventure, everything was Romanian so that was fun reading all the things at the store.

That night we only had our two blankets we each brought, and our heating system wasn't working so lets just say it was a very cold night! 

We bough some eggs, and peppers to make for breakfast that next morning. We have gotten very creative with our cooking here. I will have to start taking some pictures of what we create. It\s always pretty good.

Friday, we finished our house shopping, set everything up and got to unpack. It felt so good to have everything out of a suitcase. Funny story, so both sora and I are scared of spiders right? well in the other room at our apartment there was a huge stereo system. and as we were setting our house up we thought "hey, we could move this into the living room for our workouts." so half way into moving it all a cord was stuck up in the corner of the room, I go up to grab the cord and a HUGE spider was there staring at me! ok it wasn't that big but. it was a spider. So we both start screaming and I am sure you can picture the rest. Eventually charlottes web was no more. 

Cora (like Walmart) this is a picture I found on the internet.

So we went to cora (the store like Walmart) one last time finding a few last minute things. We were looking at salt and pepper shakers. they had these funny ones that have faces and different hats. well when Sora was holding one up I went to grab  it and I accidentally hit it out of her hands! it went flying and shattered all over the floor! we were both laughing so hard! the lady came and saw it, we helped her clean it up, and she said :no pay" so we didn't have to pay for it. it was like 87 cents, but so funny! and because of that we decided to buy two just like it so we can laugh every time we use our salt and pepper :)

Saturday, so I had our phone on Friday so on Saturday it was Soras turn to carry it. We came here to the internet Café to get a list off our emails from the office elders, and on our way to the store again, Sora accidentally dropped our phone. We put it back together not thinking anything of it. We were at Cora (the store) and had a question to ask the elders, so we get our phone out to call and it had a pin on it! we eventually locked it so we have had no phone for the past 2 days. ... so after we took a taxi home with tons of grocery bags we went to the canter of the city just down the street hoping that the Elders would find us eventually. 

We were eating Milka bars (some super yummy chocolate) and Sora asked "What should we do?" I gave the most missionary answer in the book "Lets head to the church! and pray" We both laughed and headed to the church. We found the phone in the office there and luckily found the elders phone number inside of a book, they were like 2 minutes away from the church already on their way to find us because we had a member appointment with us 4.  The member appointment was funny.! it was with a blind women and her deaf husband... don't ask me how that works, but they are the sweetest people ever!

Sunday! I love our little branch! they are so excited to have sisters in the area, they just loved us both so much. I got to bear my testimony, and it was in my broken Romanian, but they just smiled at me and all gave me hugs or tapped my shoulder once I sat down. They were cute and would help me with my pronunciation. The coolest thing, so they don't have anybody who plays the piano.. so I get to play piano each week! 

During planning Sora and I came up with 2 ideas for getting more members here. I am going to TEACH PIANO!!! they are so excited about that, they all want to know how, so I started to teach some yesterday. and then we are going to start up a CHOIR :) I am so excited about it, it will be so great and the people are all so excited too.

Our Branch in Bacau - They are so sweet I love them all!

After church we went block knocking. That's where we go to a block (like an apartment complex) and knock every single door.. So we went to one and it took about an hour and a half, we wanted to be home before dark so that was the only one we did. There was nobody there who was interested, but it was still so much fun. All the doors were like a box of chocolates..... you never know what you are going to get! hahaha... we think we are funny.

When we were heading back to our casa we were at a cross walk and this girl looked at me, so I said "Buena Seara" good evening, and she just stared like do I know you?! so sora caught on and we all started talking, she told us that she wanted to learn English, so we invited her to our English class this week, we got her name and number and so now we have a potential!! all by saying hello :) we were pretty proud of that :)

Monday P-Day Today

So it's only3:30 here, but so much has happened today already, this morning during study Sora and I were in a deep discussion and when we finished we look at the floor and there is water EVERYWHERE! We had our washing machine going and we forgot to put the hose into the sink.... yaah. so we quickly start mopping it up and trying to clean. We noticed there was a ton of water underneath the counter and that wasn't good, so I came up with the great idea of getting my blowdryer to try and blow it out the other side.... well that worked for about 30 seconds until my blowdryer caught on FIRE!!!  the whole house smells like smoke!! that was another time we were on the floor laughing. Then we left for lunch. since our district is just us and the elders we call it  a "dating district" we all went to the mall this morning and got some lunch, I got KFC :) the mall is so nice?! it has so many American stores, we have a lot by us which is cool. Mcdonalds too ;)

I get the big bed this week:)

Closet - looks portable haha!

Family Room

Kitchen and Washroom looks like :)

More of Kitchen

View to the ground from her apartment and had to add the blow dryer that started the fire :)

View from her apartment

A Pumelo - said they are so good!

Musli - it's a granola cereal, it's german said she loves it.  Rob said he ate it on his mission as well.

I am SO excited for this experience. I know that I am going to be working so hard, but I can see the field is white and just waiting for us. Sora and I will work so hard here in Bacau getting all of those who the Lord has prepared for us. I am so grateful for this gospel and for everything that I learn each day. I LOVE the book of Mormon. I started it over this week, and it is just amazing every time I read it I learn something new. and the coolest things is, whatever I read that day somehow relates to something during our day.

I love it here so much, I love my companion and all those I am serving. with.

I love it here and I love my companion.  Looks Yummy :)

I am so grateful for all of you and your support and example to me, it means so much <3

Love, Sora Parr <3<3 xoxo te iubesc!

I am going to add a few more things that she emailed to us with answer to our questions.

Where do you get to email from?

An internet cafe that is right across the street from our block.  It's smoeky dark and full of people playing video games and yelling random words in Romanian.  We pay 2 LEI AN HOUR to email. 

Do you feel safe where you are at?  Do you feel like the people are nice?  Do the elders live near you?  

They are nice yah. Uhm I feel safe by being a missionary. We live in centru, so we walk out of our apartment and there are beggers EVERYWHERE they come up to you ages 4-90 and just talk, it's sad but we just say no. The elders are like a half mile away.

We go to zone conference tomorrow in Yasi, so I get to see Sora parker and Robertson :)   We will take a Maxi Taxi to Yasi.

Are there pretty things around your area that you can see? Looks like there are some fun things.

yeah, we will go to them next p-day.

we will have fun together! it's nice its just us 4 so we can go places quick and that.  

Are you warm enough?  Are people there tall or short?  Have you seen any size 11 feet? 

haha yeah i am warm :)  I can get sooo much here! 

we have h and m

zara

Sephora

Mcdonalds haha

It is cold, a lot colder than buch, but i love it :) if you don't wear a scarf people tell you you need to it's funny!

hahahaha nobody has big feet!!! When people are tall we all  get looked at, it's funny. Sora isn't that much shorter, just like an inch or 2. so i don't stand out. :)

Foods you eat?

Musli- we are addicted to it! it is so yummy :)

our food we make is so interesting sometimes haha! we cooked rive(rice) last night, and it ended up being super soft like hashbrowns, so we sauted onions, pepers, and corn and cracked some eggs and it was like a yummy meal!

we make pancakes in the morning, we made tortillas the other night, and then we made this egg thing, where we fried some tomatoes, then cracked egg onto it, then toasted toast on the stove, and then it was like egg on a toast! it was good :) We are going to make some cinnamon rolls for the elders and our branch.