Mars vs Venus

There's a difference between Elders and Sisters. It's intriguing. We are like characters in a video game. Do you want a to play as a Sister or Elder? Elder or Sister?  Each of them have pros and cons. For example: Elders, for the most part, are fresh out of seminary and should have all those scripture masteries still floating around in their brains, but they lack the experience of the real world and all that living on your own entails and provides. Sisters on the other hand (including me) have been out of seminary for at least 3 years, college has taken time from memorizing and committing scriptures to memory (I can only remember some of those scripture masteries) but we have life experience. Those three years have added so much more understanding and ways that we can relate to our investigators. Both are good things; both are completely different. I guess we can't have both and throughout our missions each weakness will get stronger. Too bad we can't be companions with each other. It just shows how males and females really do complete one another in Heavenly Father's plan. That analogy doesn't really work, females aren't better at life experiences and males aren't better at knowing the scriptures, but that's alright, I just thought it was funny. The MTC makes stuff that isn't funny funny. See how I'm just rambling on about things now. 

Well, we should get out travel plans tomorrow, definitely by Saturday. What! I'm pretty much gone in a week! I had a realization yesterday when I was doing a teaching demo with Sora Whiting. I didn't say anything, I just listened to what she and Fratele Frandsen were saying. I can't do that in Romania. I can't use my senior companion as a crutch. I need to talk. I need to joke. I need to communicate with the people of Romania so I can learn the language and share what Heavenly Father wants me to share. I'm not going to be that companion who just sits there like a scared, little puppy, like a deer in the headlights, or like the wave of a tsunami looming over me and my life flashing before my eyes.

Good news about investigators though. Stephen is getting baptized on the 11th.  He is doing well though he still needs to talk to his parents. Hopefully, he did that when we meet with him tonight. Brady is doing fantastic. His wife is opening up, and he bought a ring. We can only hope she says 'yes' this time when he proposes. I asked him to start saving money so he would have it when she says yes. I hope she does. I want their family to be happy.  I know Christ can do that and their family can be together forever if they are able to get sealed in the temple.

Sora Lund & Sora Heim

As much as I love my fake investigators, I'm excited for the acceptance and rejection of real people in Romania. I know the gospel can help them and I'm ecstatic to bring glad tidings of great joy to all who hear the Word of God. Woot! Missions are awesome.

Love you Like Jesus!

HeyHeyHey

Two and a half more weeks. Ok, so this week was super eventful. So much fun stuff happened. Stephen agreed to be baptized, but he is worried about what his Orthodox parents will say. We are trying to help him understand that if he puts his faith in Christ all things are possible, and Christ helps his children accomplish his commandments. So YAY for us.

One of our teachers, Fratele Frandsen ripped his clacival out of his shoulder girdle in a motorcycle accident. That hurts. But, he still comes to class to teach us.

Let's see...Our Zone President told us our success is based on how many baptisms we get, and we shouldn't take no for an answer. Apparently, Romania also has only 1000 members and was under the Soviet Union (of course us cultured individuals know that Ceaucescu [spell check WIN] ruled Romania as it's own communist country, and that there are about 3000 members in Romania, but those statistics don't matter, and all those missionaries who have dedicated two years before us did absolutely nothing and failed their missions because they weren't baptizing thousands of people) ...breathe...

Tuesday was fun!

Neil L Anderson came and spoke to us for devotional. It was brilliant of course. He gave us 10 things that Prez Monson would have told us if he were there.Also, we sang Happy Birthday to Prez Monson (well, a picture of him anyway.) Speaking of his birthday, we convinced our teacher Saturday evening to listen to Prez Monson's birthday celebration broadcast. That was a great break.

I wrote all the names on paper Romanian Flags for the new district that arrived wednesday. 11 elders and 1 sister, Sora MacDonald. She is now technically companions with Syster Chesley, only because they need to have her with one other sister in the system, but we are more of a group of 4, since they can't really drop eachother off places, unless all the elders met somewhere to pick both of them up. She's pretty great, so hopefully I'll have good stories to tell. She did say she would go to the morning workout classes for sisters, which means I get to go running in the morning again.

The bookstore here also got a shipment of mini Preach My Gospels (English), so that's great. You can order them online too. I wish they would make Romanian ones.

This week we started teaching eachother's companionships as investigators, so that is cool. It's good practice to know what we should learn to say, and good ways to interact with investigators. It also helps us better understand who our investigators are and how they feel as they come to a knowledge of Christ. I think this is where converts have a great advantage over those who were born into the church. I think that's it, but that's not saying much.

Last night Sora MacDonald said somthing and I thought she was speaking another language besides English. I'm losing my mind!

An ordinary day

An ordinary day in the life of Sora Heim, in 10 minutes...

The soft faint sound of a fog horn pulls me from pancake skyscrapers dripping with syrup back to the emotionless darkness of my MTC room. So sad dreaming cannot continue forever. The Romanian I heard spoken over the wind fades from memory as I reach to turn off the alarm. It's another day at the MTC, and the mattress creaks as my mind turns to Heavenly Father, "Please, help me to have the spirit, so I may be enlightened and learn Romanian, so that I may teach those prepared for me..."

I can barely make out the shadows of furniture in the room, and I stumble to get dressed and pull on my fivefingers. The door knob's clicking thunders through the room and the hum of the vending machines readily enters. Reaching behind me I stop the door from slamming. The rhythm of the white jumprope is broken by sisters awaking and going into the communal bathroom. Some glance over to look at the soft tapping noise in the whirl of humming money traps.

Quickly, I snatch my soap and towel. "What is taking so long?" My heart rate jumps as more and more people look at my shifty stance wrapped in a dark green towel. Finally! relief as I turn the shower knob. Just time to soap down and I'm out of there. Without looking I reach for a skirt and a shirt. Makeup is so overrated. It will just have to stay where it is. Nametag. Card Key. Room Key. I'm ready.

Breakfast isn't so crowded. But, like usual, when we want to leave the dirty tray line will be stretching across the room. Errands to run, bathroom, we're only a couple minutes late for class. That glare from Fratele Sandberg is unwarranted. What? It's not my fault our schedules don't account for tavel time. Somethings gotta give. Then he just goes off for 40 minutes about what he did yesterday. I wonder if he realizes?

My heart is trying to beat through my chest as I stand facing Sora Lund moments before our teaching appointment. We say a quick prayer, then knock on the door. "Buna Ziua!" some hand shakes, "Ce mai faci?" I can't remember the words. I'm hot. My legs are shaking. My eyes are fixed staring off to the side of his face; I can't look at him. Some 'umms' litter my language. There's a glance toward Sora Lund and she begins talking. "Please, let him understand. Please, open his mind and heart. Let him feel thy love," I plead with God. It's over as soon as it began.

My pencil slowly jots notes about the lesson. Is that what he was saying? Now what? What does he need me to study? Is there even a point to starting? I think the Elders should be done soon. A quick look at my watch tells me it's only been a couple minutes. My head leans against the wall and I give a little whimper. Oh good, Fratele Sandberg is back. The pages scrape along as I flip open to the page in Preach My Gospel. There's some reading and teaching practice in broken Romanian of course, then he leaves. An hour of silence for personal study. I already studied the topics for our next lessons.  I'll just read on my own, woohoo! I hear some zippers and shuffling papers. Oh, it's the Elders. It must be time for lunch. I keep my head down, highlighting, underlining, and cross-referencing. "Are you ready Sora Heim?" "Ya, give me a second." My scriptures snap closed.

Oh look! The cafeteria has all my favorites: hamburgers, potato salad, cheesecake, tostados, and french fries. Maybe I'll get some salad. "Can I have one without meat?" Ew, that chicken looks gross, maybe I can get some soup? Why does everything have meat in it? Seriously, it's still food if there's no meat!!

Time to go to language study. What should I review today. I'll just read my grammar book, or maybe some flash cards.  Oh no! it's time for class. "Sora Lund, can we go to the bathroom?" She's got to hate me. I make her leave every 1-2 hours. There's something wrong with me. My hands are a little wet still, the door swings open and she looks at me, with a face of a thousand emotions, but mostly "can we go now?" The room is brighter since we left. There's Fratele Frandsen, that's why. His return missionary smile is lighting up the room. He's so happy all the time. I hope teaching our investigators doesn't take to long. I want to study some more Romanian.

My legs are fidgetting again. Time has slowed by 1/2. Romanian sounds are slugging through my ears. D-E_A-S-E-M-A-N-I-A. Ehh! Nails on a chalk board. I say the word in my head. De asemenea, no asemenia. Keep at it Elders. I'm not perfect either. I have a long way to go too.

DINNER! I'm not excited. I grab some fruit and carrots. It's gym in 20 minutes. Ugh, I feel like puking. I'm running and running around in a circle, up and down 3 flights of stairs and around again. STOP STARING AT ME! It's gym time. That means I want a work out. Some people's kids.

Shower. Dress. Apple! TALL. The TALL room smells like musk. It's hot.

Sora Lund and I turn to each other and reenact another dogfight. Someone always dies. Sora Heim! Stop getting distracted by the head phones that look like airforce headsets. The native speakers voices hit my tympanic membrances with monotonous tones. I switch to flashcards and listening to Mormon Tabernacle choir. It's sweet to me. I can't stand not listening to music. The Pioneer Day Celebration concert was like drinking water after a lon run. President Monson's Birthday concert is going to be great. Time jumped an hour and a half.

It's time for bed.
Bathroom.
Journal.
Pray.
Sleep.

Changing Teachers

Well, this week has been interesting. Tuesday Syster Chesley got a temporary Solo Sister companion, her name is Sister Landry from Mississippi and she is going to Norway this coming Tuesday. We went running this morning, so she's automatically awesome to me. It's weird not to meet up with Syster Chesley all the time though.

Wednesday our teacher Sora Petrisor left, she graduated and can no longer be our teacher. It was a very sad time, but we got to take pictures, and she gave us her love, which we returned with a signed copy of the Book of Mormon (Romanian) and some snacks. She said she would come in and visit us by volunteering at the TRC (training resource center.)

Speaking of which, this last teaching opportunity there, Monday, was not very helpful. It was the volunteers' last time, but we had two in the room at once, so as you can imagine they were just talking with eachother and making it super awkward. We have a new teacher though, Fratele Frandsen. He's only been back 4 months. That's pretty exciting. So, naturally we contacted a new investigator yesterday. His name is Stephen. He said we could come back Friday, but we left him with Cartea Lui Mormon and a reading assignment. I'm sad we won't see Sophie anymore. We were making great progress. She was reading, praying, and coming to church. Our last lesson she committed to be baptized and live the Law of Chastity. That was a weird lesson, because "the Holy Ghost" was present (meaning Fratele Frandsen was observing us). So I couldn't remember what to say, and it was weird that he was staring at us while we explained the importance of chastity. Braddy is doing really well too. He's  committed to be baptized, is coming to church, and he said he would marry his wife, but first he needs to convince her, since we can't teach her or his boys. But, they had an FHE and his sons liked the icecream after!

Also, GO USA!!! Show Japan who's BOSS!

 

Love you like Jesus! (that's what I say here at the MTC, because we have to keep it missionary appropriate.)

Hermione Granger

The days are long, and the weeks are short. It makes for fast moving, now that we've been here 3 weeks, but the days blend together, and I forget what is happening.

Sora Lund and I, as coordinating sisters, have now welcomed 2 new groups of missionaries. Weird.

The gym is finally open again, the floors were being redone. So now we have awesome Sisters only morning workouts to go to, and I can do a better workout by running up and down 3 flights of stairs. I think the highlight of the week is the celebrity that's showing up. It is Joseph Smith. Pretty sweet huh? It's the actor that played 14 yr old Jo Smith in the Joseph Smith movie. It plays constantly in the fitness center, so we think it would be funny to be next to him and ask, "Have you seen this movie? It's a great one. I love this part."  We are trying to find him to take pictures. Sora Lund suggests we ask if we can practice bearing our testimonis in Romanian to him. I'm hopeful we will get there. 

Our lessons are going well and getting better. The language is coming along, and Sora Lund is doing fantastic. Hopefully, my district and my companion aren't getting tired of me and annoyed. I was compared to Hermione Granger the other day, great compliment, but it was sarcastic. Elder Pischke mocked, "It's Levi-O-suh, NOT Levi-O-sah." It was funny, but it did hurt my feelings a little - not from being compared with Hermione, but he jokingly said I was mean in Romanian. I corrected that sentence too, he forgot to change the adjective to feminine. Then he said, "See! That's what I'm talking about!" I just looked at him and said it was just to help him. But, if he doesn't want my help then fine. I don't blame him for anything. It's a funny situation, and he's a great Elder. But, I'll stop.