Kitchen Nightmares

 Bună Bună!!!

Highlights:

-New Year's Day party!!! Invited some of our friends and members to celebrate with us! One of our newer members and his wife (whose a nonmember) came!! I got to talk to them for a while and it was so fun! We also had Doina there showing us us her dance moves and that was lit haha.

-First full week of 1 only being in București and 2 only being with my companion. It was awesome.

-Wednesday we were to have two great lessons with our friends. Both of them asked us great questions, and are just so sincerely curious about our church. (A rarity in most of the lessons I've taught)

-Thursday district activity!!! We went to the Rom expo, which is a center for Ukrainian refugees and helped sort donations. Then we went to Hard Rock Cafe and I felt like I was transported to America for an hour. It was heaven. After a fabulous lunch we went back the church to do a language study while we boiled water. Then we loaded up and went to a park to hand out hot chocolate and book of Mormons. It was super fun!!!

-Dropped in to visit/minister to the old branch president and his wife! They shared with us some awesome experiences they just had at the temple.

-Had a member meal with a family from the US/England and it was absolutely divine. Rootbeer and Reeses??? Yeah enough said.

-Saturday the was a baptism in the other branch here so we got to go. It was so cool and the first baptism I've been to since my first day here. I just loved the spirit and recognizing what getting a baptism really means, and why we are always trying to help people reach it. 

Not-so-Highlights:

-We got bodied by food this week. One of our friends had us over for lunch and I at last had to face "Salată de Beouf". Picture potato salad with twice the Mayonnaise plus carrots, peas, pickles, and bell peppers. I was dying. Then when dropped in to visit the old Branch president he had just made pizza and wanted to give us some... I was staring down at the most massive loaded slice of pizza ever. He really threw in the whole kitchen cupboard. We had corn (traditional romanian thing so not too surprising), massive dried tomatoes, mushrooms, giant bell pepper slices, and whole green olives, (plus meat and cheese and sauce). Both times I thought to myself there is no way on earth I'm gonna be able to eat this. But prayer is real because I did and yeah, man I'm glad God listens to all of us, even picky eaters living in foreign countries.

Gând Spiritual:

Shared this quote this week and I really like it...

"If we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us. This is not to say that we should abandon hope or temper our goals. Never stop striving for the best that is within you. Never stop hoping for all of the righteous desires of your heart. But don’t close your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day’s ordinary moments that make up a rich, well-lived life." 

-Elder Uchtdorf 

In the new year it can be hard sometimes to focus on the now. We think of all the things we want to and be and all the plans we have. This isn't bad... but we can't forget to enjoy the now and the journey we're on. I also hit 11 months yesterday and every day it's more apparent that I don't have a lot of time left. I don't want to miss these small  moments I have left here serving the Lord.

Vă iubesc!!!

Sora Hansen

"The green bag mamaliga is 100x better" -Sora Stoica

Bună Bună!!!

Highlights:

- CHRISTMAS!!! It was an amazing day filled with missionaries, presents, food, football, friends, singing, laughing and fun!!! 

- The streets of București better watch out cause I'm officially legal to drive here!!!! 😎🚘

- Exchange with Sora Reeve!!! She is so awesome and was my STL last two transfers in Arad!! It was so fun to learn from her again!!! 

- Lunch at the Brînarus!! We had some fire Sarmele, cozonac (usually not good but it was homemade), and tiramisu. We also had some not so fire homemade sausage but I would rather not talk about that one (🐐+🐖=🤢🤮) I seriously love this family though and they make me laugh so hard every time we go over.

- Mini Exchange with Sora Eliason!! Went with Sora Fowler to exchange with the sisters in Panduri (the other branch in București). We had lunch at this super cool café and then went finding for a couple hours. It was a party for sure.

- Exchange with Sora Nunez!!! We went back up to Timișoara! Sora Nunez is so awesome and she was one of my first STLs. So the last time we went on an exchange, I was in training!! I just loved talking with her and getting her advice and learning from her. 

- We also contacted this super cool referral who had an amazing story in finding christ, and actually had the Book of Mormon recommended to her by her pastor. 🤷‍♀️ We a great discussion and some of her other family members were interested too!!

- Taught a lesson to this girl who is making a documentary on lds missionaries here in Romania, so she films all our discussions 😬 (its lowkey scary but at least I get to talk uninterrupted for once haha)

- Visited Sora Stoica!! This cute, older, fiesty member. Last week I didn't buy the right mamaliga (polenta) for our activity and she told me she was going to beat me 😶, but we're friends now after helped her cook it all. She is actually super sweet too though and made us an amazing meal. 

Not-So-Highlights:

- On the way back from Timișoara we bought 6 tickets so that we would have our entire sleeper train cabin to ourselves. But when we got on we realized that the lady had actually given us 3 for one cabin and 3 for another. Luckily though we stayed with this super nice couple from Arad. They were really interested in us and our missions. We were able to get their info, and I was able to tell then where the church is there!! 

Gând Spiritual: 

"Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not just one of many things we do. The Savior is the motivating power behind all that we do."

- Elder Uchtdorf 

I love this quote as we go into the new year. As I've been able to review this last year I've realized how true this statement can be. Obviously I've been a fulltime disciple of Christ for most of this year, but I know that this motivating power can be applied to anything and everything we do! As you go into this year I invite you to evaluate your motivations and align them with Christ. I know blessings will come and you will find more joy as you do this!!

Vă iubesc și La mulți ani!!!

Sora Hansen

 

O ce veste minunată!!

 Crăciun Fericit Tuturor!! 

Gonna keep it shorter, but still wanted to give a little update this week!!

-Had a mission conference in Timișoara this week!! It was so fun to see all my friends from all over the country!! 

-Train on the way back got delayed and we were stuck for a few hours, but luckily we had cards and a bunch of missionaries, so it wasn't too bad.

-Decorated the church with one of our oldest members and it was so cute

-Our choir actually did pretty good at church!

-Had a branch party/meal after church and it was super fun and yummy!!!

That's about it!! We have lots of plans today and I'm excited for all the fun!! 

Vă iubesc and Merry Christmas!!!

-Sora Hansen

Just Ballin

Bună Bună!!

Highlights: 

-Surprise party for Sora Reynolds last p-day!! It was full of rainbows, unicorns, ice skating and of course SUGAR! Super fun.

-Had dinner with the Oanas. No not a family. Two ladies, both named Oana. Ones a member and another is a friend we recently had to stop teaching. The two had never really talked before but became instant friends, and we are so happy!!

-Went to Ploiești this week with Sora Fowler! We visited the Sisters there, did a fire language study, visited a member who is like a crocheting pro, and headed out!! 

-This amazing American family, the Hyers, invited us over for dinner for Sora Reynolds' birthday. It was so gas, we had mexican food. (I literally miss mexican food so much). But the best part of the night was that they had also invited our friend Oana as well! We hadn't told them we met with her this week but the Lord is good! For our spiritual thought at the end, we decided to read Moroni 7. It was so amazing we went through the whole chapter, and shared our thoughts/comments and Oana probably shared the most! The spirit was so strong!

- Lesson with our friend Sara!! We started reading the Book of Mormon with her and this week went over chapters 1-3 in 1 Nephi. So many good thoughts, and I just love Sara she's such a light!

-Exchange in Brașov! I had a super fun time getting to know Sora Brown and learning from her (and got to hangout with my homie Sora Ballard)!! We had a packed day with visits and lessons and the cherry on top was that Brașov's games night is on Friday's and guess what they do????? They meet at a turf field and play soccer. I was literally in heaven. My lungs were definitely about to give out after like 2 minutes of playing, but it was so worth it. 

-We made a goal to amp up our games night here earlier in the week and decided to try out Human Foosball, It was a hit!!

Funny:

-Choir practice again Sunday. Let's just say we're a ragtag bunch. We have an american family of singers, our sweet member from Africa whose trying to carry the alto section (sometimes by basically screaming but it's all good), a handful of Romanian members who barely can sing the Romanian hymn, let alone the english one, and us missionaries who are trying our best (and sometimes that just means trying our best not to laugh) but hey you know I think our musical level exceeds that of a primary program, and they bring the spirit (but they are also a lot cuter than us so idk honestly they probably have us beat). But I'm excited for next week!

Gând Spiritual:

- "This call to be meek and lowly of heart—one of the few descriptions the Lord gave of Himself—that He was meek and lowly of heart—is a call to all of us as His disciples. If we can live this way, He says, we will find rest to our souls and we will discover that His yoke is easy, that His burden is light." 

Sister Patricia Holland

Sora Brown and I read this talk to prep for our exchange and I loved the insight she shared with me. She has been studying meekness, and what it actually means. We use the term so different now, but to be meek does not mean a lack of power, but to have great power and control over it. I love this definition with this thought, because becoming a follower of Christ does take away our power, but instead it helps us control it, which in the end gives us more power. 

Vă Iubesc și vă doresc un crăciunul atât de fericit!!!

Sora Hansen

 

Goons of Christmas Past (Or Misson past)

Bună Bună!!!

Highlights:

-Super fun sport p-day with all the Buc missionaries last week, then food at the mall and the Christmas market, can't complain. 

-First Tuesday meetings!!! We first had a meeting with our whole mission, and then with the trainers and their trainees. Then we had a meeting with the APs and Fowlers. Super cool!! Trying to plan some upcoming fun! Then we got ciorba (soup)!

-Hit up Galați this week!! And my girl SORA POST (my mtc comp). We went with Sora Fowler and did a little mini exchange there for a few hours. I actually exchanged with Sora Greer, and I was so excited to get to know her better because I've never served around her or really met her (most missionaries in my mission know each other because its not too big). Did some streeting, block knocking, got some cool tats from Sora Post, put her in a headlock and said goodbye! Super fun day!

-Got some snow this week!! It only stuck for like a day but it was perfect packing snow, so you already know had a snowball locked and loaded for Sora Reynolds. Our whole district actually happened to be at the church, so we had an epic snowball fight, 

-Met with our friend Sara! She is seriously the coolest. She is 17 and has already been taught all the lessons, but can't get baptized at the moment. We meet up with her to talk and share a spiritual thought. She also expressed interest in learning more about the prophets and stories from the Book of Mormon, so we are going to read it with her every week from start to finish and help her understand!! We are so excited!!

- Went over to the Brinarus and had some banger food. Fratele (brother) Brinaru is also hilarious and had us all cackling with his out-of-pocket comments. 

-Went on an Exchange with regina mea, Sora Reynolds. It was so fun to have a day with her. We went crazy finding and had fun reliving our time together as companions. (and normal we at way too many sweets) And visiting with her and Sora Post this week was like a mtc throwback! (Just missing Sora Dabsss but I'm sure we'll get around to seeing her!!)

-On our exchange we went to visit Sora Stoica!! She is so sweet and fed us sooo good!! She also told us all about her coming to the church and then wandered into many other stories including her tango dancing talent. 

-Went to a public speaking event that Sara is a part of. She wasn't able to make it but it was still so awesome!! There were young adults from all over the world who all spoke english. We read together a prompt, discussed it and then each group elected someone to go up and present the groups opinions. It was so cool! Everyone there was so open and we got lots of contacts!

-Had games night again!! Super fun!!

-Church was solid and we got drafted into the choir... we'll see how that goes haha. 

-SO MUCH LUCA!!! YESS!!!!

Not-so-Highlights:

-Had to work on ordering some church pass-along cards. The ordering system is so Romanian (Inefficient). It took several attempts and 4 hours and we thought we had it done. But then we ended up having to do more and it only took and hour and half that time haha. Hopefully everything works out. 

-Had a friend super excited to come to church and made plans on saturday to meet with them Sunday morning and walk together to church , but when we left the house early to go and meet them, they weren't there. Called and they then informed us they wouldn't make it. (CLASSIC) 

Gând Spiritual:

Listened to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional this week and I liked this quote from Sister Brownings talk

"God gives us the gift of remembrance so we do not forget the Giver, so that we come to feel His limitless love for us and learn to love Him in return."

I love how she talks about remembrance as a gift. Because it truly is. and it reminds me of the promise we make at baptism to "always remember Him". And while we may think that this is Jesus, because we should never forget what he, it is more for us. Because Heavenly Father and Jesus know that the more we remember and turn to them, the more they can bless us, and we can feel their love! So please remember them as you continue in Christmas festivities this week!!! 

Vă iubesc și Crăciun Fericit!!!

Sora Hansen

 

Whirlwind

 Bună Bună!!

Highlights:

- Last time teaching Sorin and his family in Arad. It was so sweet, and they were so sad to see me go, and I was so sad to leave them... ugghhhhhh. But they still were just so open to everything we taught and had so many good questions. And Sorin was so awesome he really wanted to make sure his kids understood what we were teaching and frequently checked in on them to see. 

-Train to București wasn't too bad, and we were able to get my bags through the subway here, so that was really nice.

-First day here Sora Barnett and I just tagged along with Sora Nunez and Sora Wolsey. It was fun! and then we also had the time to set up some lessons and things in Arad and do some contacting there.

-Departing missionary day was so fun! We helped out coordinating all their activities and got to visit with them. I think the part I enjoyed most about it though is that while we went and did everything with them, I realized how glad I was that I wasn't in their shoes and that I still have time here!! I love being a missionary so much!

-Next day was Ziua României. It is Romanians independence day, and lets just say they know how to party. Let's just say there was, cool presentations, testimonies, a grătar, hype music and a mosh pit with our mission president??? Let's just say it was a blast. Then we went and picked up the new boboci (new missionaries) from the airport. We had a traditional romanian dinner (sarmale, mamaliga and papanași) It was so good. We also had another dance party at the restaurant doing a traditional romanian dance. 

-Saturday we helped coordinating all the meetings with the boboci, and assigning them to their trainers. We then walked with them to the park and after got Luca!! I literally am so excited to eat an unearthly amount of Luca this transfer. Then we went to games night and it was so fun!! We had a couple friends there that just didn't seem to understand how the games worked, even after many explanations. But in the end it made for some good laughs so no worries. 

- Church on Sunday was also super fun! But just super different. So many people! I'm excited to get to know all of them. I also got see the Brînarus again. They are a couple from the Craiova branch (my training city). They actually go back and forth between the two branches and were so exctied to see me!! They also invited us over to their house Thursday!! So excited!

-We had a few meetings after church and then had only an hour and half for finding. Right now it is a goal in our mission to contact 70 people a day, so Sora Wolsey and I still wanted to try and make that happen. We went out metro (subway) finding and literally talked to every single person we saw. We ended up exceeding our goal, we contacted 86 people. After that we had 4 hours of meetings and headed home. 

-Found out that Sorin and his family made it to church in Arad and I am beyond excited for that!!! Please keep them in your prayers! I feel like they are so prepared.

Not-so-Highlights

-Leaving Arad, as excited as I was to come serve in Buc, saying goodbye to all our friends there was so hard. 

-Leaving my baby!! I know she is going to amazing but it was a sad goodbye!!

Funny/crazish/i dont even know:

- Friday night we were just getting in bed when the phone rings, because we forgot to tell our District Leader we were home safe. He told us that the other sisters hadn't answered, and he had called 5 times. We tried them too and nothing. We get on the phone with the APs and they call president. They asked us to go over and check on them. We uber over and are joking about how they are probably just asleep. We get to their door. No answer. We ring a few more times. No answer. We pound on the door, and hold down the doorbell for literally 2 minutes straight. No answer. Crap. We call back the APs and Pres and start lowkey freaking out, cause what are we supposed to do in they are lost in the massive city. Luckily about a minute or two later we hear the lock start moving and wooofh they were ok. Just woken out of a very deep sleep. 

-Walked into church and before anyone even said hi to me I got roasted by 3 babas (old ladies) for not wearing tights... my bad guys, I'll do better next week 🙈

Gând Spiritual:

"We can distinguish more clearly between divine discontent and the devil’s dissonance, between dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self. We need the first and must shun the second, remembering that when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon."

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell 

Read this talk this week and I this last line of this quote. I feel like I sometimes forget that the Lord is literally routing for us, He doesn't want to tear us down, in fact any correction given is always for our benefit. We wants us to succeed and is sitting their with a checklist just ready to point out every fault we have. His guidance is always full of love and there as encouragement. This is good to remember when correcting others, but equally important when correcting ourselves. 

Vă iubim!!

Sora Hansen