Christmas in Romania!

We actually went over to a Romanian's house for a bit of Christmas. It was really cool. She didn't make traditional Romanian food, but she fed us in a traditional way - lots and lots of food. It was great. We ate soup first, some meatloaf sort of thing, cauliflower and pickles, couscous, and of course a whole bunch of dessert. It was nice to get to know her better. Most of my contact with her has been random service or a battle of who gave treats to the other one last. She says she likes us, and likes being around us, because she feels good. I'll tell you something, the spirit is real and I am glowing with it. It makes people feel good. Now, if only they would realize that they can feel like that all the time if they truly come to Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Also, it was fun to speak with my family over Skype. Isn't technology great? We can Skype people all over the place. I remember huddling around one phone, putting it on speaker, then giving up because it was impossible to hear. I'm sure it was even crazy back in the day when that wasn't possible. What did they do when people didn't have telephones? No talking what-so-ever I suppose, only letters. We've come a long way since then, and technology just helps the church spread even faster and better. Use it. Go create a mormon.org profile. Help share truth with the world. We had 12 missionaries in one apartment at once. It was actually really cool that we were able to come together and enjoy each other's good company.

Traditional Dance in Centru

Love you like Jesus!

Merry Christmas!

Sora Heim

My first talk

It's CHRISTMAS EVE! So great. We had a Christmas party for the ward, which was awesome. We ate sarmale (cabbage rolls), bread (naturally), mashed potatoes, and some pretty delicious desserts. There were songs, Santa (Mos Craciun), and people enjoying celebrating the birth of Christ. In all, it was a pretty amazing day.

I gave my first talk last Sunday, the 16^th.  I prayed and prayed and did my pondering thing. I like to think, and I decided, the Spirit was telling me to talk about charity… one of my favorite topics. 

What I really wanted to discuss was how great charity is. Forget about the ten commandments and all the rules. When it comes down to it, what really matters is what kind of love you have. Remember what Christ said, the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love everyone else. Brilliant! Why are those so important, and why didn't He really say any other commandments? If we really want to be like Christ or like Heavenly Father we have to have unselfish love, or charity. Everything they have done, do, or will do is for us. When Christ was baptized, he needed fulfilled the commandment to be an example for us. Or, more simply, showing us what a perfect life looks like.

The most important characteristic Christ or God possess is charity, and if we truly want to be like them, we need it too. All other things will follow: honesty, faith, knowledge, diligence, etc. Thus, charity is the most important and trumps all other Christ-like characteristics. It's the simplest response with the hardest answer. It's easy to say all we need to have is charity, but, it's hard to have charity. Loving people who you don't like, who are mean to you, or who are just awful people is hard. But, you have to do your best to have Christ-like love. That includes finding ways to do little things and big things for others. Little things may not seem to make a very big difference, but it's the little things that we usually remember - they are more personal. If we do everything out of love, our lives will be better because we are able to find true happiness. It's a pretty amazing thing. I love it!

Spiritual Magnets

I finally have an example story! This lady followed us to church. She saw us carrying our Books of Mormon and decided she wanted to go to church where we were going. So we talked to her. She said she would come to our Christmas party.

Hope all goes well. Sometimes I wish missionary work was always like that. Very seldom does someone ask me about the book I am holding or my name tag, though, it has happened. This time was cooler though, because the lady followed us to church. I like to think it's my spirit (more specifically the Spirit of Lord) that pulled her in like a magnet.

It doesn't really feel like I've been on a mission for 5 months because 2 of that was in the MTC.  I have a new companion also.. Sister Schuld. She is a convert of about 3 years. Her dad was in the service, so they moved around a lot, most recently, she lived in Virginia.  She even attended some dances at SVU while I was there.

Christmas Wishes

The importance of service and missionary work:
A question.

Who is our example? That's an easy one. It is Christ. Not very difficult to know. He came to the world and provided a perfect example for us in all things, including how to obtain salvation, but that's another story.

I focus on is His ability to serve. That's all he did. And then, when people came to Him and asked Him questions, He was there to invite them to follow Him. Well, how annoying is it when someone talks to you on the street about religion. Pretty annoying in my opinion, and I have to do it. A better way and more Christlike way of missionary work is through service. When we are true selfless examples of Christ we not only help make a good name for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but we also live up to what Christ expects of us. "Be ye therefore perfect"; "Come, follow me..."

Christ never missed an opportunity to serve. That's what I want to do in Romania, as a representative of Christ especially. We know that through our selfless acts of love we are serving God. This love spreads like a ripple in a pond. If you serve God, giving of yourself, He has promised He will return the favor to you. That's how He works. We show our faith, follow Christ's example, keep the commandments, and we are blessed. Enough said.

It is Christmas time. Do some service. Give some money. Help a brother or sister out. But, not just at this time of the year....all year. Commandments are lifestyle choices, not seasonal choices.

La Multi Ani Romania! and Gollum

La Multi Ani Romania! On December 1st we celebrated the unification of Romania. It was very different from Independence Day in the USA, but I liked it still. Here is a little history of THE GREAT UNION DAY. Romania celebrates the unification of 1918 during the reign of King Ferdinand I. Romania - made of Moldova and Wallachia at the time- was united with Transylvania, Crisana, Banat and the Maramures (Romania almost doubled its territory with this unification.) In 1940, after the war and the Molotov-Ribentrop pact, Moldova (Basarabi) and Bucovina went to the Soviet Union, Calrilaterarea went to Bulgaria, and the North of Transylvania went to Hungary.  In 1947, the Paris Peace Treaty re-established Romania's sovereign rights over Transylvania. This morning, we went to a military parade, which is usual for this holiday. It was so serious and quiet and all the military stuff in the parade was cool.

I especially liked visiting the City Center, Piata Libertatii. There are a whole bunch of small cabins set up which are selling food, trinkets, Romania stuff, and decorations for Christmas. There are lights everywhere, and they had an all-day concert. It was pretty awesome. They also had a firework show, which was really good, except they didn't have music, like we have when we watch them on July 4th on the Palouse. But it was fun to watch. All and all, it was great day. I am not sure though if they were celebrating just the Romanian unification, or the start of Christmas season. Maybe it was both.  Might as well just combine everything, right? In other words, economize.

We also learned how to use these crazy stilts. In Romania, they are called piciorange, stemmed from the word for leg. It was brilliant! They were really hard for me to get use to. Each one weighed 16 lbs (I think that's right.) I couldn't keep them straight very well. (Apparently, I walk funny, so now I have something I need to fix.) They were really fun. I felt like a dinosaur, but who wouldn't? Well, maybe most people wouldn't feel like that, but I definitely did. We also had to take this picture next to 'Gollum'. That was a must!! Whoah I just realized the Hobbit comes out this next coming week. That is going to be so cool. Everyone better go see it for me!