Beauty and the Thief

We went to Oradea and Cluj this week. Oradea is one of my favorite cities in this entire mission. It has a lot of Hungarian influence and it is cleaner and just different than the rest of the country. My other favorite is Chisinau.

My companion and I were hit on by another OLD guy. A middle-aged taxi driver.

TAXI DRIVER

Where are you from?

SORAS

We are Americans...missionaries for our Church.

TAXI DRIVER

Blah blah blah ... (something about churches) ...What state are you from.

SORAS

I'm from Washington. I'm from Utah.

TAXI DRIVER

Utah? There are a lot of Mormons there. They have a lot of wives.

SORAS

Well, we are Mormon and that isn't true.

TAXI DRIVER

Of course it is! Heck ... yes it is! I saw it on the TV.

SORAS

You have two Mormons sitting here telling you that you cannot be a member of our church if you have more than one wife.

TAXI DRIVER

But they are there, right?

SORAS

Yes, but they are not members of our church.

TAXI DRIVER

Ok. Who would you say you look more alike? Your father or your mother?

SORA HEIM

My mother, I guess.

TAXI DRIVER

How old is she?

SORA HEIM

Nearly sixty.

TAXI DRIVER

Oh, that's too old. If she was closer to forty ... blahblahblah.

SORAS

Oh...great. Hehe. Awkward Pause.

TAXI DRIVER

You are very beautiful.

SORA HEIM

Thanks.

TAXI DRIVER

Your father is a thief. ...  Do you know why?

SORA HEIM

No.

TAXI DRIVER

Because, he stole all the stars in the sky and put them in your eyes.

SORA HEIM

Wow, that's interesting. Good thing we are almost to the train station. Thank you very much for the ride. You should go to this site and watch this video. It will show you more about what we actually believe.

There were some more exchanges, but that is the gist of it. It was funny.

The Case of the Lost Keys

The morning started out normal. We arrived to sacrament meeting, happy and on time. We had taught our lesson in Relief Society about missionary work and were waiting at the bus stop to go home for lunch, when we were invited to go to the hospital and visit a member there. "Of course!" I said.

After a ridiculous tram ride that lasted at least an hour and a half and some more time on a bus, we finally made it across the city to the hospital. We visited and had a great time. In the metro station on our way home I reached into my pocket and felt nothing. 

"Sora? Do you have the keys?" I asked. Why would my companion have the keys, I thought, still hopeful. Her negative response came regardless. Then all stress broke out. Where could they be? I had no idea what happened to them. The elders went to the church to check for us. No one had any spares. We went to the church to wait for another set of elders to check their apartment. The proprietor is out of the country. We hadn't eaten.  The proprietor didn't have any extra keys, how could we get a new set? After a long day and some helpful elders, we arrived at the point when we had to go for the evening. 

"Well, why don't we just go home and see. Perhaps something will happen. If not, we can go to the other sisters' apartment for the night." After some trials getting there, we arrived at our building and said a final prayer that Heavenly Father would help us get inside and find the keys. We were in luck. Someone exited the building, so we were able to get in. You know what happened next? Heavenly Father put our keys in our lock for us! --insert winky smile-- There they were when we got off the elevator, waiting for us. He's so great! He can truly do all things. 

Of course before we locked ourselves in and called it good, we checked all the rooms and hiding places to make sure some stalker/burglar/murderer didn't sneak in there. But, we were all good. A day of miracles.

God truly is great. Lesson learned. Prayers of thanks said.

Love you like Jesus

Sora Heim

Time flies

I have only two transfers left in Romania. Where did the time go? Does anyone know? I feel like I just woke up and my whole mission is gone! How weird is that? I have only three months left! Holy moly. It makes me want to work harder. I hope I don't blow a flat tire and have to sit on the side of the track during the final laps. That would be lame. Things are great though.

This week I learned that security guards do not mind if you do something beautiful in chalk in a park, but you cannot put mormon.org underneath it. I guess it's disturbing -- Disturbingly righteous! I erased it like a good person.  At least people can read the beautiful message I wrote and maybe they will try to find out more about it.

If anyone is going on a mission or knows someone going on a mission, I have some advice. Buy a digital sound recorder so you can record conversations, journal entries, talks, or your companion when they don't know so you will have something funny and completely, naturally them. I might have done that. Oops.

Also, everyone likes no-bake cookies, so learn how to make them well. Not too dry, just enough peanut butter. Bring some recipes with you.

Conference Weekend

So what did everyone think of General Conference? Pretty great, right? Did anyone make any goals to do some member missionary work? I did. I love how much missionary work is being stressed. We need to share the joy of the Gospel with as many people as we possibly can. This is the final leg of the race of life people! Do you want our brothers and sisters to go on without feeling the happiness that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings? What an exciting time to be alive!

This week I etched something deeper into my soul. The power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ can fix anything and everything. Everyone needs its edifying warmth, even if they don't realize it. In the moment when an honest seeker desires to be more Christ-like, or realizes how lost or confused they have been, they can feel Christ's loving embrace when they turn to Him. I'm talking about ANYONE, even missionaries -- even me.  It's not like I need to be cast in prison, but I know I'm not perfect. The point is, Christ will lift all of us up.

Love you like Jesus