He is risen! I know I'm late on Easter, but it's still true! Haha. Sorry for emailing late this week. Easter, or Paste(pronounced Pasht), is a huge holiday in Romania and everything shuts down. So here is my belated letter of the week!
We started teaching English classes this week....and if there's anything that teaching English has taught me, it's that I really don't know Romanian. Hahah. I have to study my part for what I'm going to teach just so I can say what the English word means in Romanian. It's like I'm in the class myself, but for the wrong language! Haha. I did my first exchange this week with one of our Sister Training Leaders. It was great!...I had my first "get ridiculously lost in Cluj" experience and it had to happen some time, right? I didn't see that we passed our stop to get off and we just stayed on the bus. That day our focus had been contacting and talking to everyone! So we figured the bus would just go in a huge loop and we'd get back home eventually! But one of the bus officials asked to see Sora Tobler, the STL I was on exchange with, to give him her bus pass and she gave him the 4-ride pass we had bought her that morning. Anyway, she had stamped it wrong and the guy kicked us off the bus. He then proceeded to make her pay a bunch of money, which we watched him put into his wallet... We were very lost and Sora Tobler couldn't stop crying. So I grabbed us a taxi and told him to take us to the mall down the street from my apartment. It turns out we were like twenty minutes away... Haha. Oops! What an adventure. ;) Speaking of adventures and first experiences... I've officially had my first sketchy medical experience here in Romania. I woke up Thursday morning with some horrible pains below my stomach. I called Sora Hill, the mission President's wife, and she told me to get a urine test. (Excuse my language) We went to the doctor's office to get the test and the nurses tried to take my blood like six times. Hahaha. Anyway the results were negative. But the next day the pain got way worse and so we went to an actual doctor. She had me get an ultrasound..but when she pressed on my bladder I started crying because it hurt so bad. She laughed and said she didn't need an ultrasound to tell me that I had a UTI. She gave me some anti-biotics and I'm totally fine now. We had a big branch lunch on Saturday for Paste and it was great! The missionaries and I sang a special musical number and set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids. It was a lot of work because we set up and took down the whole lunch but it was definitely worth it. That night we went to the Midnight Mass for the Orthodox church. It was definitely interesting and I enjoyed learning more about the culture and religion of the country I'm living in! We all brought candles and the priest gave us "the flame of Christ," which was really just fire. Pfffft. If you get your candle home without the flame going out, you have good luck for the rest of the year! (Side note: I am the only missionary who got home with their flame. Haha.) The next day was Easter and it was beautiful! The sun was out and it was so incredible to focus on Christ and his Resurrection. Christ lives!! I am so happy to know that He lives and through His Resurrection that we will all live again. If you haven't gotten a chance to watch it, look up the #BecauseOfHim video on YouTube. It's incredible... We had dinner with a member that night and she made us some classic Romanian dish and it was to die for. Yesterday since everything was closed and it was P-Day, President Hill let us watch a movie! The Elders in my district all voted for Frozen instead of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, (What pansies...) So we ended up watching that. Now we're back to preaching the gospel! Whoo!!
I'm sorry I was so so brief and random in this letter, but we have such little time to write! I know this gospel is true... It has helped me so much in my life. Jesus Christ truly does live. He lives for you...and He lives for me. The Resurrection and Atonement were and are the greatest gift anyone has ever given anyone ever! If we have that knowledge in our lives, I know we can be so much happier. Jesus Christ wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us... Do you have a personal relationship with Him?
I love this gospel, I love this work and I love being a missionary! Until next time!
Hoorah for Israel!
-Sora Schwab
Are more letters going to be posted soon? thanks
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