RomanianReport: April 28, 2014 - Te pup! (pronounced like poop)

Te pup! Te pup is the cute little tradition that Europeans do when they greet someone and kiss each other on both cheeks. It's pronounced like poop and as I've found out....you always kiss the right cheek first. Multiple times I've gone to the left and it's so awkward and weird and I can't explain myself because that person speaks Romanian and just....always go to the right first!!

Okay, anyway. This week was incredible! Whoo! Sora Tanner and I have been working our missionary butts off and it finally started paying off this week. (Not that missionary work wasn't rewarding before, but now we're just seeing the results.) This past week I've been studying faith in Jesus Christ and HIS timing. I didn't understand how we could be working so hard and not be achieving many results. But we humbled ourselves and put it into the Lord's hands...promising Him that we would work as hard as we could and trust in His timing. We have since been blessed with a golden investigator! Her name is Maria Pop. She is the cutest little lady and so interested in the gospel! She was never married, all she had was her brother and niece. But her brother died from something medical and shortly after her neice killed herself. The Orthodox church tried to make her pay money to do the services for their deaths and she knew that wasn't God's church. She's been searching for us ever since. (Even if she didn't know it.) She came to church with us yesterday and is progressing beautifully. Please keep her in your prayers! The Militaru family is so awesome. We had an incredible lesson this week about eternal families. The only reason their family hasn't been baptised yet is because the father won't give his consent. But he came to church last week for the first time in years....AND he was so interactive with us during the lesson. He expressed His love for his family and was incredibly nice to us. I have recieved multiple promptings to keep working with this family, but slowly...and not pushing baptism on them. We think this is the key to their conversion. We want to move really slowly and get to know them and their needs. I just know they'll get baptised! We have so many lessons with potentials and new investigators these coming weeks and like I said, we're really starting to see results in our work. But we know it's all from God! I promise that if we're patient and have faith in God's timing, He will bless us!! I love this gospel. God knows each and every one of us. He is so aware of you.

In other news, we went paintballing this morning! It was so stinking fun. I've never been paintballing before..it was SO COOL. The guy who took us helped us go all out. We went to like a forest and got dressed in camo and it was so fun. AH. I'm still freaking out about it. I attached one last photo of us afterwards.

Well friends, I hope this email finds all of you well. Send me updates of your lives! Love you! The church is true!!

PROFITE DE ZILE.

-Sora Schwab

Sister Yepora, the wife of the Branch President, at our Easter hunt last week.

Six person selfie at the Midnight Mass we went to for Paste last week. This is my incredible district!

The procession at the end of the Mass last week. Hundreds of people walking through the streets behind the Priest. Pretty interesting!

Just a taste of how beautiful Cluj is right now. All of the flowers are blooming and it is just SO BEAUTIFUL. There are lilacs everywhere. They always remind me of Mom! (Shout out to Mom.)

Traditional Romanian eggs for Paste. They dye them with leaves and most of them are red to represent the blood of Christ. It's an awesome tradition here!

Me in a plant fort? Haha. I don't know. We do service at the botanical gardens every week and it's super fun!

Just beautiful. I love this city!

One of my favorite graffiti art pieces. There is graffiti eeeeeeeverywhere in Cluj...and a lot of it is really cool. It adds such an artsy aspect to the city and it makes Cluj that much cooler! It reads, "It's better to loose yourself in the wild than to be without the wild." I love Romania!