Buna Buna!!!
I made it to Romania!!! I still have to pinch myself sometimes, I can't believe I'm actually here!!
Anyways so here's a rundown on my adventures so far...
So on Tuesday (the day before we left), we get an email from the travel office just reminding us that we needed to meet at the office at 8:30 am to leave the next day. No big deal right? Other than we had originally been told we were meeting at 11:30?! So some elders went to go ask about it, and they found out our flights it changed. We were now going with the other elders in our district through Paris. How nice of them to give us a heads up. Lol.
So we meet at the travel office and get our flight info and well another surprise, we were flying to Bucharest not Budapest! The mission home and everything is in Budapest, so we weren't sure if the office just messed up, or if we would actually have someone waiting for us.
We went to the airport and everything went smoothly (even when we had to get all of our 20+ bags off the frontrunner in under 45 seconds), and my bags weren't overweight (miracles are real people)!
I then got my last Cafe Rio and Queso for a year and half, and got on the plane to Paris! The flight wasnt bad, I slept through a good amount of it and other than that just studied 😬
We then had a short layover in Paris and got on flight to Romania (I was literally passed out for the entirety of that one). We then got to Romania and were luckily expected to be at that Airport. The Ruckers meet us there and then we went and got dinner. We had a traditional Romanian meal, Sarmele (cabbage rolls) and for dessert we had popanaş (basically in-between a donut and a scone). It was foarte bine (very good)!!! We then stayed in a hotel for the night.
The next day we went to one of the Churches in Bucharest and all met with the President and did flimed a video with Sister Rucker. After we got our trainers and I got (pause for dramatic effect....) Sora Olsen!! Sora Olsen is a Rockstar! She has been out here for a little over a year and is so so good with the language. She teaches all the senior couples!! We were assigned to white wash (neither of us have ever been in the area) and reopen (they havent had sisters in the area since Decemberish) Craiova!! We are just a few hours west of Bucharest. But anyways we then had lunch, orientation, then went to where they dedicated the mission and read the dedictory prayer. And the we were off! Sora Olsen and I went back to the Church and met her friend Christina! Christina is so cool. She speaks very good English and loves the missionaries! (Not really a fan of church though). We then went with Sora Dabo and Sora Reynolds and their trainers to go get Luca. Luca is fooooooaaaaaaaaarrrrrrtttttttte bine. They are cuvurgi (soft pretzels) made fresh and filled with all sorts of fillings. I got one filled with ham and cheese, and one filled with Nutella. It's safe to say I'm addicted. Then we headed back to Sora Olsens old apartment (she has been Bucharest for the last 7 months), and we stayed the night there so we could go to a baptism the next day!
The next day the Bucharest sisters left at 6:30 for the church so Sora Olsen and I stopped and got Luca for them on the way over (and of course got some more for ourselves, because they don't have one in Craiova), and met them at the church. The baptism was cool and some of my MTC district was there as well so it was fun to see them one more time and meet a bunch of other missionaries there. After the baptism Sora Olsen and I (and two elders) hauled all our stuff to the train station and Sora Olsen and I set off for Craiova!
When we got to Craiova we were a little nervous about getting all our bags off, but it was miracle! All these older Romanian guys were so sweet and helped us get our stuff of the train. And luckily the elders in Craiova were right there after we got off the train to help us out as well.
The elders then took us to our apartment, and let's just say it had me in the first half. The outside of the building looked like it was a prison, and then we walked in and it was even worse. The halls and stairs were disgusting and I thought for sure our apartment was not going to look too nice. But to my surprise it is actually really really nice. Like really boujee. We have and extra half bathroom and two living rooms with nice couches. Crazy!!!
But we couldn't stay for long because we literally had no food so we rushed and headed to the store. We got food for dinner and Sunday and went home.
On Sunday it was so nice. We didn't have church until 1:00, so we did our studies ans got all of our stuff put away. Then we walked to church and got there around 12. We ate our lunch there and prepared for the meeting. The sacrament meeting went pretty well. We have a branch of 5 members so that was very different 😂I lead the music and it went ok. I thought I could do it, but I didn't realize how hard it is to lead when you literally dont know the words to the song. All good though. I had to give a testimony and I actually did a really good job!! The members told me it was beautiful and the I spoke pretty well. The only problem with sacrament meeting was this one nonmember lady and her two kids. One was a baby and it occupied most of her time, and the other is her daughter that probably is like 6 or so. Her daughter was very disruptive during the whole meeting. This one member family was trying to be patient with them but it didn't last. During Sunday School the disruption continued and finally the father of the mem ber family lost it and started yelling. It was so chaotic for me. I could tell he was angry the whole service but I didn't know why. And when he started yelling I literally did not know what he was saying in the slightest. And I also was sitting between him and the lady he was yelling at so from my perspective this guy I had just met was yelling angry jibberish right over top of me. It was so hard to keep a straight face. What was not funny though is then the lady argued back and then the member took his family and left. Our poor branch president (one of the elders) was just trying to keep the peace and settle everyone down. So that was eventful for sure.
After Sunday school us missionaries just chilled at the church, had district council, us sisters met with the STLs and then we did some contacting. My comp helped me write a script and then had me call a contact. (All in Romanian). It went pretty well! I might have accidentally told the lady that it was true that as long as we just love God that's all that matters, like going to church doesnt...but we have a call with her tomorrow so hopefully we can clear that up. But I did do the call basically by myself (other than my comp helping with some translation), so thats cool. We then went on a walk with our other member friend Leonard. He is awesome. He knows some English and tries to help me with Romanian. He also brought his dog Diana with us. It was so good, Diana likes to take her sweet time and Leonard kept on having to yell at her like "come on Diana, come on!" Then Diana would just waddle over just as slow as ever. Hilarious. We also took a picture with Diana. Super fun.
Today was good. We got a chance to meet with that member family that stormed out of church. We were there for like 2 hours, and they basically just talked to us and explained their concerns and shared stories. I of course only learned this all from my Comp, as I did understood next to nothing of what was said. They seem really sweet though. They give all the missionaries nicknames and I have officially be dubbed boboaca mică. Boboac and Bobaoca is what they call all the new missionaries here in our mission, so it just means little "freshman" or little new person basically. Super fun.
After that we walked around Craiova for a bit and got Shoarma. All the missionaries are obsessed with Shoarma. And for good reason. Basically it is this burrito thing. They like have those racks of meat that rotate around and roast, then they shave off the meat and put it in a tortilla like thing with whatever sauce and vegetables you want and fries. I am also officially addicted to Shoarma now.
But yeah sorry for the long email, but this week has been so eventful!! Ahhh. Needless to say I already love everything. The place, the people, my comp, the food! I excited to get to work this week!
Spiritual Thought:
2 Nephi 33:1
1 And now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men
So don't think I'm sharing this verse because I've been speaking well. Cause I haven't. But as I've been able to go church meetings in Romanian and even today listening to the conversation with the member family, I could feel the spirit so strong. Like today the wife was just talking and all of sudden what she said just felt different. I knew that she was bearing her testimony. I still didn't know what she was saying but I could feel the power of her words. I am grateful for the spirit and that it breaks through all barriers, even language.
Vă iubesc foarte mult!!!!!
Sora Hansen
