RomanianReport: Jul 28, 2014 - Echilibrul este cheia

Okay.... I'm starting my email with photographs today since I didn't have time to send them last week. Enjoy!

The sunflowers that we visited last week!

Sora Bird and I with the most adorable little kitten that we found a home for this week. Let me tell you....one of the biggest temptations of my entire mission to not take that little guy home with me. We named him ДВОЙКИ....which translates to Dueces in Russian. Hahaha.

The fort we made in our living room for the STLs visit.
Notice how we had to get creative and use the curtains...

Just another cat lady photo. Haha

Our exchange with the Sister Training Leaders. From left to right: Sora Bynum, Sora Bird, Sora Lee and me! We found another sunflower field on the way to Pelivan that we took photos with.

Just another one of the sunflowers. They are as big as your face!!

Me in the fermentation room at Cricova.

One of the halls in Cricova. Such a beautiful place!

Some of the oldest bottles of wine in Cricova, covered in dust.

Sora Bird, me and Elder Feil. We are the three Americans in our district of
four....so we jumped at the chance to take a photo repping America. Haha!

Sora Bird, my companion, and I at the world map in Cricova.

Sora Bird, Doina, our investigator's neice, and I.

This photo is of the Elders in our district's investigator, Cristi, and Sora Bird and I.
He's the newest addition to our fan club.

Okay, now that I've caught up on photographs.... I'll update you on my misisonary life. :) First things first....missionary work! I feel like so much has happened in this last week, but nothing that would really interest you unless you were in the Romania/Moldova mission... So I'll give you the short version. BALANCE IS KEY! So President Ivory has introduced a new policy that's going to help the missionaries with balancing missionary work. He wants us to get the same number of lessons with investigators, lessons with less-actives and lessons with members. We've been pretty down about our numbers...seeing we were already half way through the transfer and hadn't gotten a single investigator lesson. So we took a new determination to work harder than ever. We set our hopes high with a goal for 2-2-2, even though no one thought we could do it....seeing we've only gotten 0s. But I'm happy to report, that we got TWO lessons with investigators, TWO lessons with less-actives and TWO lessons with members. (Now this might not seem like a big deal to some of you who have served missions before, or even ones that happen to be in New Jersey right now.... But this is a HUGE deal for Orhei, Moldova. The branch is very small and it's very hard to meet with members. The less actives are running from us, and we don't even have addresses for a lot of them. And in a town with 3200 people, including the villages surrounding, the people here are not very receptive to Americans and their religion....and lessons with investigators are really hard to come by.) We are so excited! The work is just taking off. We've set goals for a balance of three this coming week and although we'll be breaking our backs to do it.....we think we can hit it. :) Keep us in your prayers!

We had exchanges this past week as well. The STL's came up from Iași and I went on a killer exchange with Sora Lee while Sora Bird did her exchange with Sora Bynum. We all headed out to Pelivan, one of the villages surrounding Orhei, and took a divide and conquer tactic to find less-actives. Sora Lee and I ended up contacting a lady and having a surprise investigator lesson while Sora Bird and Sora Bynum ended up having a killer less-active lesson with a lady who invited the missionaries to come back. Sora Lee and I couldn't find our less-actives, setting us back with just enough time to find a woman from the branch having an emotional break-down by the water well. We're currently working with her to help her through some challenges she's going through. Everything happens for a reason, folks.

We spent so much time trying to hit our numbers this last week....we didn't really have time to even think about doing anything else. But we took our P-day today to take a breather and visit a "must-see" here in Moldova. We were invited by our investigator, Carolina, to go to Cricova, which is the biggest winery & vineyard in the entire world. Carolina pulled out at the last minute, leaving us to go with her neice who lives in Chișinău.....our newest potential investigator. :) It was really cool!

There is my week in a nutshell! Transfers are this coming week. I'm hoping there is a miracle and Sora Bird and I stay in Orhei together....even though she'd be illegally in Moldova because she doesn't have a visa yet... KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS! I'll let you know the verdict in next weeks email. I'm hoping to stay in Moldova for another transfer!

Anyway, the church is true. Every single thing happens for a reason. God knows exactly what's happening in your life and he has an incredible plan for just you. This gospel amazing me more and more every day. I love being a missionary. Have a great week!

PROFITE DE ZILE.

-Sora Schwab

Okay... Sora Lee just sent me photos from the exchange that I really love.... So here's three more! Hahaha.