9/25/23

 Bună bună!!

Highlights:

-Had a little meet up/lesson with a referral, her name is Irina and she also came to church so that was awesome!! 

-Am reușit!! (We succeeded!!) Here in order to get a visa here you need to pay a few taxes. When I was in training it took us forever to get them done, but we actually had no problems with Sora Barnett's!!

-Contacting in Center every night!!! It's lit!

-Met with the Branch President's wife, she's a nonmember, but we were able to talk with her and make bracelets!! She was so cool!! And it was great language study for me too!

-Gave a talk Sunday!!! It was lit!!! Didn't have time to write the last half so I just winged it, but I think it all turned out OK.

-The ladies of our branch just love us. It is so nice to have to 2 hours on Sunday where we're not hated on haha

-Sunday night we went to go contacting in center and on the way we ran into the Branch President and his mom, they were heading to this Hungarian days festival and they said we should come!! We went and another member was there, the elders found an inactive member and got his contact info, and one of our "friends" who has been coming to church was there too! Super cool! And they also were having a concert, we got to hear a Hungarian band sing Queen!! It was so awesome!! 

Not-so-Highlights:

-Lots of finding time + people who don't want to be bothered... let's goooo!!!

Funny: 

-So during my talk I was referencing stuff off my phone, towards the beginning I start getting texts. Our friend Irina was sending me corrections for my Romanian while I was speaking!!!! It was hilarious and I appreciate the help, just maybe not in the middle of my talk🙃

Gând Spiritual:

I used this quote in my talk and I absolutely love it! It is from Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf from his October 2014 talk. 

"God cares about you. He will listen, and He will answer your personal questions. The answers to your prayers will come in His own way and in His own time, and therefore, you need to learn to listen to His voice. God wants you to find your way back to Him, and the Savior is the way. God wants you to learn of His Son, Jesus Christ, and experience the profound peace and joy that come from following the path of divine discipleship"

It is just such a cool thought that an all powerful and all knowing God has this care for us. He has the care to answer our prayers and questions and concerns, to want us to talk to him. It is something we should never forget! 

Vă iubesc!!!

Sora Hansen

Cel mai rad oraș

 Bună Bună!!

Highlights:

-Street contacting in center (its gorgeous!!)

-My boboaca (new missionary) is awesome!! We get along great and have been working hard out here

-Best Burgers Ever!!

-Lunch at Sora Lidia's! She's the relief society president and the absolute sweetest! She made us this dish that is basically Lasnagna but instead of noodles there were sliced potatoes. It was so good!! Also it was Sora Barnett's first lesson!! She killed it (normal)

-Online lesson/meet up with a lady named Lavinia! She was awesome! 

-Fowler Family came to Arad!! The members if the branch were so excited!! And we had 27 in attendance Sunday!! (Record number for a sacrament meeting for me in Romania) We also had a little lunch after and I made buckeyes!! They were a hit! (All the old ladies made sure to come tell me how good they were) 

Not so highlights:

-Not having an area book (our planner and all our records) all week 

-Lots more walking here (good and bad) 

Funny:

-Had a second hour investigator lesson with an interesting guy. He knew the Bible super well and was having us read a bunch if verses, but the best part was as we read them he would interrupt us and say the verse because had it memorized. We were all trying not to laugh the whole lesson. 

Gând Spiritual:

Alma 34:32 

32) For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors

Vă iubesc!

Sora Hansen

Props to Romania Chivalry

Bună Bună!!! 

Alright this week has been crazy I swear I've felt every emotion known to man this week but it has been a good one!!

I said good bye to all of my friends in Craiova and it was sweet to see everyone but so hard to say bye 😥 I love the people of Craiova so much and I'm so grateful for the time I got to spend there!!!

So on Friday we headed to București, we stayed there overnight and in the morning I picked up my boboaca (greenie)!!! Her name is Sora Barnett and she is so sweet and so excited for the work! I am excited for our companionship and ready to blow up the work in Arad!!! 

Saturday night at 6 we started our voyage to Arad. I should've known what I was getting into when the office Elders handed me our tickets and said "Sorry these suck"

The first stint of the journey wasn't too bad. We were in a "Sleeper" train, so we had beds and plenty of room for our stuff. But then at 2:00 în the morning we had to get off our train and change to another. We got off ok (with much help for sure, we had 6 fairly heavy suit cases), and then waited for our next train, it was late (normal), but we got on ok. But then we go to our seats and I realize that our next train was a "night" train not a sleeper, which meant we had regular train seats and not beds. And on top of all of that we go to our seats and see a bunch of guys sitting in them, and two them sprawled out in sleeping bags. I went over to ask for our seats and most of the guys moved, but the two in the sleeping bags wouldn't budge. I was tired. I was stressed. And I wasn't about to have this battle with strangers at 3 in the morning. But luckily the Lord is good and also chivalry in Romania. Three or so guys in the train came to our rescue and almost forcibly ripped those two bums from our seats. 

So yeah then we tried to get as much sleep as possible (but not much) and then our train got in at 8 am. Church is at 10. So luckily our elders were nice enough to help us get our bags to our apartment and then we had to get ready speedy fast for church.

 

The branch here seems so fun!! The have a bunch of old ladies that just ate us up (phrase copyrighted by Sora Reynolds) 

We had a fun relief society and service!

The rest of Sunday we just tried to do some more chill activities because we were pretty tired, but we did do some street contacting and my trainee killed it!! Already doing amazing haha. I'm impressed for sure!

But that's it!! Arad is gorgeous but I'll have more to say about it next week!! 

Gând Spiritual:

"The Good Shepherd lovingly cares for all sheep of His fold, and we are His true undershepherds. Our privilege is to bear His love and to add our own love to friends and neighbors—feeding, tending, and nurturing them—as the Savior would have us do" 

This quote was quoted in the general conference talk (The Lord Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Minister By Elder Juan A. Uceda) we went over I'm Relief Society. 

I love that is says it is "our privilege to bear his love". I feel so lucky to have this gospel in my life and to have the opportunity to share it here in Romania! All those who know of the Saviors love have this privilege as well! How awesome is that?

Vă Iubesc!!! 

Sora Hansen

 

TRANSFERS

 Bună Bună!!! 

Highlights:

- English Class popped off!! We had 11 people show up (an all time record) and 9 of the 11 were new!!! We had a family come and we had some friends we've been taking too! We where able to have to classes!! It was so fun! 

- We served with the kids again, and at the beginning we all introduced ourselves and one thing we liked. I said I liked to play soccer and a group of boys went crazy. The whole time during our activities with them they wanted to play soccer with me. Finally after we were done we went back to the Church (and the place that hosts them) and set up a little 3v3 in the tiny cobblestone courtyard. It was so lit!! I was a little rusty for sure, but this is the first time I've gotten to play since I got here!! So fun!

- Thursday we had a fire District council and President and Sister Fowler came so that was a fun surprise!! 

- We also visited the Ions and had an awesome discussion about Faith!!

-On Friday we decided to switch it up a bit, we went service finding, we dressed up un service clothes and just went around trying to find service. We unfortunately weren't able to but we met a lot of cool people!! We then decided all go talk to people in our city center because they had a festival thing going on there. And then Ice cream at the end!! It was lit!

-Saturday we had transfer news!! Usually we get calls as companionships but President decided to switch it up and we all jumped on a Zoom call where they released the transfer board.

Anyways so my news... I will be training!! And I'm going to be moving to Arad!!! There haven't been sisters there for 6 months!! I am so so excited go and open it back up! 

- In the evening the Ions came to the Church and we made pies with them!! Sora Elena made meat and cheese pies Romanian style, and then we showed her how to make an American apple pie!! It was a so fun! 

- Also cool, our president asked us to strive make 70 contacts a day. This means we have to extend an invitation, get a referral, or teach a gospel truth to 70 people. I was a little worried about trying to make this goal but the Lord provides!! We hit 70+ almost every day this week!! So awesome!

Not-So-Highlights:

- Sunday was bittersweet. It was my last here in Craiova. I had to say goodbye to a few of the members already. It's just so crazy, I've been here for 6 months but it still feels like I just got here. I'm going to miss our members and friends here, but at the same time I'm so excited to serve somewhere new and meet new people!

Funny:

-This week we went block knocking and this guy was working outside one of the doors so we were able to teach him a little bit and leave a pamphlet. He was at the top of the block and then we were working our way down. And everything pretty open in the stairwells and stuff. After we left we could hear this guy getting questioned by like 5 different people about us, and we could hear them talking smack. It was lowkey hilarious. 

Gând Spiritual:

A quote from a talk I study this week, The Three Rs of Choice by President Monson

"Decisions are constantly before us. To make them wisely, courage is needed—the courage to say no, the courage to say yes. Decisions do determine destiny."

I feel like this is a good reminder for me as I go into the next transfer. It can be so easy to lost in the flow of things, but as we remember our goals and where we want to go, it can help us be sure to make the right decisions to reach that goal. 

Vă Iubesc pe voi toți!! 

Sora Hansen