I'm in România
Buna Ziua from Romania!!
This last week has felt like a whole month or more! Time is so crazy sometimes! The amount of pages I have filled up in my journal this week has doubled since last week! The last time I talked to you was last Friday. Since then I finished up my time at the MTC which was packed full of devotionals, language study, packing and saying goodbyes. Saturday was our last day of official classes and it was so hard to say goodbye to our teacher! I have learned so much from them and will miss our classes together! Sunday was our last day with our Zone because some people started leaving early Monday morning. We also had some great devotionals Sunday that I learned a lot from! One was a recording from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about the importance of staying focused on your mission and when you come home from your mission, come home with no regrets! Come home knowing that you did everything you could and that you lived your life in a way that Christ was able to teach and serve His children through you.
We also had a devotional about what being meek means and how by striving to be more meek in your life you are able to become more like Christ! This talk was a recorded one by Elder David A. Bednar and is a great conference talk if you are ever looking for a random one to read! In this talk he shares that meekness is distinguished by righteousness, responsiveness, willing submissiveness and strong self-restraint. Meekness is strong, active, courageous, modest, and gracious. In Moroni 7:43-44 it says you must be meek to have faith and hope and to be acceptable before God. I loved these scriptures and they inspired me to be more Christlike and more meek in my life. I know that by striving to live these qualities it will not only improve my life and the joy that I feel each day but it will also give me the power to help influence and help others lives for good.
Monday and Tuesday were so packed full even without having classes. It was sad saying goodbye to the MTC! I have loved all the people that I have met there and have felt my Heavenly Father's love for me so much there was well!
Okay. . . Now for my big trip story!! haha
Wednesday morning we woke up at 4:15 to get all ready and we left the MTC by 5:30 in the morning. We took a bus to the train and then a train to the airport with all of our luggage!(which by the way was soooo heavy! haha I wish that I didn't need so much stuff!). My first flight left from SLC to Minnesota and was a 3 hour flight. My second flight was 8.5 hours and was from Minnesota to Amsterdam, and then my third flight was 3 hours and was from Amsterdam to Bucharest. When we arrived in Romania it was 12pm so we still had half a day til we could sleep! We met several missionaries and went to dinner with our Mission President! My first meal in Romania was Sarmale (which is meat and rice wrapped in pickled cabbage leaves; actually super good) and for dessert papanasi (which is a sweet cheese donut that is soooo good!)
We stayed in a little hotel room that night and literally as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out! 31 hours awake is too many hours awake for me!
The next day I got to meet my new companion. Her name is Sora Saunders and she is the sweetest! We have a lot in common! Even down to us studying the same thing for college! She wants to become a speech language pathologist too! We get along so well, which I am super grateful for! Friday night we took a sleeper train from Bucharest to Cluj, which is a 12 hour trip! Unfortunately, the train ride was super bumpy, noisy, and hot which led to another sleepless night! When we got to our apartment at 8am in the morning I was soooo tired! After getting unpacked and studies I took a little nap while Sora Saunders made lunch but I think that only made things worse! Luckily towards the end of the day I was feeling a lot better!
Sunday was such an amazing day! I love my little branch so much! There are about 25 people in my branch, half at church in person and half that join over zoom. There are three families with little kids which makes me so happy! They are all so cute and so friendly! I am super excited to get to know them better! Luckily a lot of them speak English so I was still able to communicate with them but I can't wait to be able to speak Romanian with them! I also bore my testimony in Romanian so that was fun but also terrifying! haha
Today has been a lot of fun! talking with family is always a blast and then we went to lunch at an authentic Romanian restaurant. And then just toured the city a little bit :) it has been lots of fun to site see! I don't have a lot of photos of România yet but come next week I will have much more to share!
Te iubesc și o zi bună!
Found the Romanian Flag at the MTC
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