Week 4 in Bacau- Phillipians 4:13 - Zone Conference trip to Moldova

Beautiful Sora Parr with her Gucci Glasses

So phillipians 4:13 is my favorite scripture (one of many).

It has been a theme for me while being out here.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me"

it is a whole different world here in Romania, and the experiences I am having I never thought I would have. 

It's not always easy but I love it anyways.

Sora and I just smile all day and do our best so that when we hit our pillows at night we know that we did EVERYTHING we could do that day. And when things get rough we know who is our strength. Christ.

Something that I think is amazing, when we go contacting we simply just talk to people then they end up pouring out their hearts to us. Then afterward they say "I don't even know why I told you that."  As missionaries we stick out SO much here, it's like a LED flashlight in the pitch black. I love Bacau so much. I am excited now that things are finally settled down a bit from opening up the area and traveling that we can finally get things started here :)

This week was quite the adventure!

Monday: after p-day was over our STL's came in that night for splits Tuesday.

Tuesday: We had our splits, I went with Sora Kelly, she is so sweet, It was a beautiful day and tons of people we out in the parks, so we did some park contacting, I think I found a favorite way of contacting now :) After they left we had English class, it was great, we had some great people show up. We had a lady who was so drunk, and we didn't realize it until she started rambling on and on, that was exciting. Good laugh :)

Wedndsday: Wednesday we cleaned the apartment that morning and packed our bags, got on a Maxi and left for Iasi. When we got to Iasi our District went to Pizza Hut again for pizza festival, always good :)

Thursday: we woke up early in Iasi, got on a Maxi taxi to head to Moldova! We had the whole maxi taxi rented out for just missionaries, that was fun :) We got to the boarder got stamps in the passport woot woot! We made it there just in time for Zone Conference to start up. zone conference was really good. I love this mission, it's hard, but we can do hard things. After conference we went to a place called Pizza Mania with everybody. (pizza again) That night we stayed in a hotel which was surprisingly super nice for Moldova! It was like a school trip haha.

Friday: Friday we went to the Moldovan piatas! It was so cool, they had one full of the "collectible things" I got some cool Russian stacking dolls, and a Moldovan bag.

Then the other one was more clothes. the elders were loving the "clicky belts". again we got pizza, this time at Andy's. it was so good.  We got back on a Maxi and headed for Iasi, As we crossed the boarder we had to let a guy look at our bags, elder libbert bought a pin in Moldova that was some Russian thing so they made him open his bag to search it, and they pulled out his INSANITY dvd's. The guard looked at it, looked at him, gave it back and we all busted up laughing! Insanity is still coming along great. :)

FUNNY STORY so, when we got back to Iasi all the elders got taxi's back to their appartments, and we were still trying to get one. I had my bag on and didn't want to hold it anymore. so as I was taking it off my name tag goes flying and it landed inside the SEWER DRAIN!!!! it's the only name tag I have right now since my other one got lost the first day here. So I needed it very badly. We had a ton of people gather around us telling us to call the police they can get it. But me being my dads daughter and having these awesome girls camp skills, I took my belt off, used a tiny elastic to tie my magnet on one end of the belt and then a chain of hair ties on the other end so it would be long enough to reach. It took about 5 minutes of trying but guess who got her name tag back! THIS SORA!  haha it was so funny, we had people clapping for us and I was happy to be a missionary again ;)

Saturday: we woke up early to take a Maxi back to Bacau, our elders were on it and it ended up leaving 15 minutes early!! so we ended up being on different busses, our ride back was the typical maxi taxi ride. We were seated in the very back of the bus because it was all full, and then this HUGE guy come and sits in the middle of me and another old man, he was basically sitting on me the entire ride. but we made it back :) it's so funny these experiences we just laugh at them.  We went straight to English class and that went great, a mom and her daughter came together and were super sweet, they want to learn more about or purpose and about the Book Of Mormon, so we are excited to start meeting with them :)

SUNDAY: Sundays here are always a fun day. Sacrament was really good, three members had talks and I could understand a lot of what they were saying. Relief society started out super great, but in the middle of it this drunk man walked in our door and is just tripping everywhere in the room, a member walked him back to the elders and it took a while but they eventually got him out the door. That made everybody a little crazy, but after he left we said a prayer to invite the spirit back. But that just made me so grateful for the Spirit and how important it is, you can definitely feel a difference in lessons if you allow the spirit to be there.

Then sunday night we went Explore contacting with the elders for a few hours, then the Belcius had us over for dinner again. they are always so much fun to visit, Amazing family :)

I love Bacau and I am loving my mission so much. I am so grateful for the Scriptures and how by reading them each morning can just set the tone of our day.

I love you all and am so grateful for the support you all show me.

Have a great week :)

Sora Parr

In Piatsa 

We have such a fun district we always have fun together.

MTC Soras in Moldova at Zone Conference

Hotel in Moldova

Sora Parker and I    <3 her

 Piatsa Shopping!  cool hats

Sora Parker, Polatis, Stapley and Me - Shopping in Moldova

STL's getting ready to go contacting

Cute picture of Sora Parr and Stapley

I have been waiting to see her in one of these hats.  I LOVE IT SORA PARR!

The Wolf Hat...love it :)

What does the Fox say? haha :)

Cute Sora Stapley and Parr 

Missionary Tag in the Gutter

Oh no what will we do?

Way to go Sora Parr you got it out - Smart Girl :)

We Matched Today with Stripes :)  Contacting in Bacau

You can just tell these two Soras have SO much fun together!  :)

Street in Bacau

View from apartment

Bacau 

View of Bacau

District Contacting

Love my District

Sora Stapley and Sora Parr - we love both of them so much.  Thank you Sora Stapley for training our sweet Maegan.  She sure does love you.

Loved this picture 

You are Glowing Sora Parr!  We love you!

This is for you Elder Hoskins :)

In the Maxi Taxi on our way to Iasi 

Breakfast in Moldova at our hotel.  Cookies for Breakfast :)

View out my hotel in Moldova

The Golden Arches are here :)

We love our new glasses :)

The following is a story that her companion shared in her email home.  It was a story shared at Zone Conference.  As I read it, I had to add it.  Hope that is ok Sora Stapley. :)

We were told this really cool story about how the Savior went to a man and gave him a job to push a really large, tall, heavy rock.

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down; his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: "you have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't moved." Thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

Satan said, "Why kill yourself over this?" "Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough." That's what he planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push.

And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have.Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock."  

It seems it is pretty natural for us to think our job is bigger than it is. All that He asks us to do, however, is to be obedient, and to have faith in him. That when things are right, when the timing is His, that HE will move our figurative "rocks"!  I liked it a lot. It was a very good conference, I love meetings where I can feel edified.

This is from mom me :)

I know it makes me feel so good that Maegan has such a wonderful and loving companion training her.  I love Mondays and look forward to hearing all about her week.  I can tell she is growing more and more each day.  So proud of you Maegan. xoxo :)