23 martie 2015 - Ce să zic?

Wow. I know I didn't really send out an email last week, but I feel like I have WAY more than two weeks worth of things to update you on.... Welp. Let's just jump right in then.  :) First things first, I GOT MY EXTENSION APPROVED! Whooooooo! So that means instead of being released mid-August, my new, official release date is September 29th. I can't even believe I've only got six months left of my mission. But I'm stoked that I get to stay here a bit longer.  :) Sora Honey and I are still here rocking it in București. We're pretty sure Sora Honey has mono. Hahaha. She is SO exhausted all the time. So we'll be taking her to the doctor's this week to get her blood tested. So that's fun. We started English this week. Sora Honey and I are teaching advanced class again, so we're excited to stay with those students and build those friendships. Okay now that I think about it, I really don't have THAT much to report on. Haha. I guess I got ahead of myself. Missionary life is weird because we do SO much.....but none of it is super exciting if you're not actually a missionary. Anyway, I do have one thing that's really big and cool and I want to tell you all about it! So, I've been talking with Mom & Dad about how they do their English classes in the Samara mission. In Romania and Moldova, we do two English classes a week with a spiritual thought at the end....but in Samara they do a "Gospel Discussions in English" class. So they teach English simply by teaching the gospel. It's risky, but definitely gets to the point and weeds out the students who simply don't want to talk religion. Anyway, they sent me the manual and we're "test-running" it so that we can report back to our Mission President to see if it could work here in București! We're still doing English classes...but in addition we offer a "Gospel Discussions Class," all in English, for our students so they can practice their English! Not only does it help to just listen to English, but it helps to speak it. (Obviously.) The first day of our normal English class, we told our students about it and EVERY SINGLE ONE registered for it. This week we had our first class and it was SO awesome! We got five new investigators in one day.....all of them being genuinely interested in the gospel. AND a less-active member came! At the end of the lesson we went around and asked everyone to share a blessing that Heavenly Father has given them in their lives.....and this less-active member said, "I'm grateful that my father brought me to this church in 1994 when I was a little girl. I'm grateful that my father cared enough to raise me in this religion, but also my father in Heaven allowed us to find it." IT WAS SO FREAKING COOL. We're super excited to continue working with our class. WHooooooooooooooOOoOoOoOo. Okay. I'm done. Life is good.  :)

PROFITE DE ZILE.

Sora Schwab

Now photographs! This first one is of some missionaries in our zone doing music contacting in Unirii Park this past week. Way fun!

This one is when a bunch of missionaries here in București who have all served in Cluj-Napoca (the first city I served in, in Romania) went to lunch this week at Ikea with a member from the branch in Cluj! Sora Honey, Sora Tanner and I were the "Three Blind Mice" when we served in a trio together and we found stuffed mice... Hahah.

This is of some graffiti we found this week. "Isus vine" translates to "Jesus comes." He does! He loves us and will return for His own!!!

The one is of Sora Honey and I in front of Casa Poporului this morning....selfie-style. We went with the other sisters in our district and it was great!

These next photographs are of some of the photography from the exhibit inside of Casa Poporului. Incredible! It made me miss taking photos. But these were some of my favorites. :)

First is "Harmony." I love this one.

This is "SFF03," which really means nothing. But I love this photograph. It tells such a story! 

And last but not least.....my personal favorite, "Another Bike in the Wall." A lovely photograph and great shout out to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall."