Technical Difficulties

What does technology do for the world? Lots of things. It's the information age for a reason. We can quickly look up knowledge at the click of a button, or get to know someone the same way, contact someone on the other side of the world instantly, and even know what each other are doing every minute of every day if we so choose. But, you want to know what else it does after empowering us? It cripples us if it malfunctions. That is what I want to talk about. The crippling effects of technology.

We went to Bucuresti this week for a surprise mission conference. Everyone was there. We were also having a transfer day. This was a stupendous opportunity to see everyone and rejoice in success and support each other in trial. However, for the missionaries from Chisinau, this means our phones do not work in Romania. This wasn't too big of a problem but we forgot to call the Young Women's president before we crossed the border, oops. That, too, wasn't so bad, we would do it the next day when we came back. That night, while we were all waiting for our train and train tickets (20 minutes before the train left) we were told to buy our own! We couldn't. There was no time. It was not possible! We had 10 people needing to buy tickets. We also had all the luggage from the new missionaries and supplies from the office. Instead, we stayed the night and the next day in order to catch the next train. There is only 1 train a day that goes to Chisinau. It was fun and we definitely learned a lot, but the whole thing happened because of technology. We have only one phone that works in Romania (it belongs to the DL) and it was forgotten in Moldova. So, we couldn't be told that we needed to buy tickets, nor could we call anyone to find out if we needed to.

Once we got back to Moldova, we had to do some damage repair and figure out what was going on. It was like things were starting to fall apart and we had to fix some of our retaining walls. The lesson learned: technology cripples us from learning to act and plan without being able to contact each other 24/7. It's a double edged sword. I'm just annoyed that we don't just talk about our plans with each other in person. It's always seems to be, "I'll call you and we'll set it up." Why can't we just come to a consensus right there in person!

Happy Valentine's Day

 

  

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! A member of my English class said they only started celebrating Valentine's Day about 15 years ago. He asked when we started, where it came from, and when and where the US started celebrating it. I couldn't remember. I knew once upon a time. How many people can say they know that? I wish I could.

For Valentine's Day we made
valentines for everyone (almost.) It was really fun. I think something small like that really shows how much you care about someone and that they actually matter to you. Everyone needs a little bit of love in their life. It's so great we have a holiday to celebrate it. We also made over 200 sugar cookies. So many. People just like them. They don't really have sugar cookies or cookies like that here.We also taught the Young Women how to make them. They really enjoyed it. There's nothing like a bit of sugar cookie dough to help us have some good wholesome fun!

Also, Moldovans are unbelievably good at paper crafts. We gave our English class two half sheets of paper to make valentines and the stuff we got back was insane! The humanitarian missionaries, the Pinders, get to work with orphanages and boarding schools here. Their apartment is filled with amazing origami things. I've never seen anything like it! It's crazy! Maybe we should add paper folding to the educational curriculum in the US.

Love you like Jesus, 

Sora Heim

concerts in the mall

How cool is the new youth program in the church! I was blessed to be able to watch all the videos online. I think it is great. It is like Preach My Gospel in a way. Teaching should be based on Christ's example anyway. I think it is brilliant. What a fun time to be a youth in the church. Sunday school sounds way more entertaining and uplifting. The fact that it is suppose to be more incorporated into Young Men's and Young Women's is brilliant. I am love the new program and loving the opportunity I have to work with youth here in Moldova. It's so much fun!

We made valentines Saturday. This Friday we will be teaching them how to make sugar cookies. I am looking forward to future activities we will be able to do. It helps that when we teach English they are actually interested. I hope they like Sora Heim as much as Sora Heim likes them.

Chisinau's main transportation for us are the maxi taxis. These are vans that act as a taxi and pick 20+ people up on a set route. They can get pretty crowded at times and you can feel like you are a sardine. The other night we were in one with seat belts. There were also signs everywhere that said WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT. I've never seen that before. So ... I wore my seat belt.

mall concert in Chisinau, Moldova

We had a great opportunity to help out a young lady in the US this week. She had collected a BUNCH of stuff for the orphans here in Moldova.  We helped move it around and pack trucks to ship it around the country. It was great! We also had a chance to go to a cancer awareness concert and help there. Turns out some famous Moldovans randomly showed up and sang a couple songs. I didn't know who they were by name, but I can still say I saw them! It was great. There were also some American girls there from the Peace Corps that we were able to chat with a bit. Helping people is so great.

My Crazy Life

hill where dedicatory prayer was delivered for Moldova
 (Chisinau, Moldova)

What is there to say? Sometimes, so much happens I do not know what to talk about. Then, there are things I don't think people would be interested in. This is my dilemma. Moldova isn't a country on most people's lists of places to visit. It is a really cool place all the same: it is pretty; it has gorgeous parks; and, the culture is awesome. There is serious language confusion here, though. In a way, I'm happy this was not first area.  I understood Romanian a little but not well and it would have been very confusing to me.  I'm sure I would have had a crazy time trying understand the Romanian being spoken.

Yesterday, I thought about when the Tower of Babel was demolished by the hand of God.  The language of the people was confused and Moldova reminds me of this.  Moldova has two prominent languages: Russian and Romanian. Not everyone speaks Romanian and not everyone speaks Russian. There is also the Moldovan language, which sounds like Romanian with a Russian accent and a few random Russian words thrown in. (I've noticed there are many similar Russian words in Romanian.) A lot of people speak English, and some speak a few other languages. You really have to stop and figure out which language a person is speaking in order to communicate with them. I can imagine how it must have been when the language of the people was confused.

I'm finding I don't always understand which language people are speaking. Is that Romanian? Is it Russian?  Is it both?  They also switch from one language to another while speaking to you so you can go from wondering what they are saying to instantly understanding them. I never thought I would be begging people to talk to me in Romanian for clarification.  We can only teach English in Romanian and when not all our students speak Romanian there is a necessity for translation. It's a crazy life I am living right now.