Monday, September 26, 2016

Daniela's Baptism and Hair Dying



Don't worry, my hair was not the hair that got dyed!  

Daniela and Me - Baptism Day
So Daniela's baptism was this Saturday and it was awesome :) We were a little worried that Elder Jensen might have to awkwardly, try to baptize her on his knees; in like two feet of water because our ward clerk was insistent that the baptismal font would only take an hour to fill up. (It actually takes like 2 1/2).
Elder Jensen, Daniela, and Me - Baptism Day



Our District at Daniela's Baptism




Me, Sora Jerez (on Skype), Daniela and Sora Savoie at Daniela's Baptism


So we ended up starting a half hour late and the font was filling,literally, as she walked into it. But it all turned out okay! Sora Jerez got to Skype in for it, so that was awesome :) Daniela was so happy and her testimony afterward was beautiful. Elder Broberg confirmed her on Sunday :)

Our District (In black and white)
Other things that happened this week: 

We dyed Sora Savoie's hair from quite blonde to dark brown. It was quite fun. I can now say I have dyed someone's hair on my mission. :)

Me and Sora Savoie with her new color
We excitedly bought this huge thing of peanut butter from a store that had it for "America week". (and by huge I mean like normal American sized). They also had maple syrup on their America week sign; which we laughed about for a while. The peanut butter ended up being not very good, so that was sad. Oh well! I'm still eating it.... 

Eating Pancakes at Daniela's



We went to Daniela's every morning this week to read The Book of Mormon with her and one morning she made us pancakes :) 
No - It's my Pancake!  (Daniela & Sora Savoie)
We made lemon bars for Daniela's baptism, but we don't have any measuring cups (because they don't exist here in Romania...how do people cook???). so they turned out super bad!  We just threw them away and brought Nutella for Daniela's clatite (they are like crepes) instead. 

We all shared our "Joseph Smith stories" (how we came to know the church is true) in District meeting this week in Romanian and it was super cool to hear everyone's. The spirit was incredibly strong. It was cool because we have three very young missionaries and three older missionaries in our district, but you felt the spirit just as strongly with the missionaries that could share their story very easily and fluently, as you did with the ones that stumbled more with their words (me being one of them ha ha). 

Also cool stuff from the Elders. They called us Saturday night after we had gotten home from cleaning the church building with them. They told us that it had taken them forever to get home and had to wait for a bus that never came. Then had taken two different taxis and so on; only to get home and find they had lost their keys somewhere. I felt so bad for them! After they were done explaining the situation, the thought to ask them if they had prayed popped into my head. So I did. They said they hadn't thought of that yet and they would go try that right then. They called back 5 minutes later and said that they got off on a random floor in their building and knelt down to pray. As Elder Jensen knelt down to prayer he felt something in one of his pockets. He quickly checked it and it was the keys! He swears that he checked that pocket several times before that. So super cool :)  

Anyway I love you all! Have a great week :) 

Love,

Sora Vann

I need a hat like this!  Thanks Elder Wilkes
It's a little too big.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Learning to Listen to the Spirit




This week we finished teaching Daniela the lessons, and she had her baptismal interview Saturday; so she is already to go :) She is so excited and can't wait and we are so excited for her as well! Our second to last lesson with her we talked about Family History work. We go to show her familysearch.org and she already has an account, filled in some family, AND has family history indexing downloaded on her computer! Seriously, could she be anymore amazing??? Nope. 

We also had an amazing lesson with a member in our branch. We went over to her house and everything was crazy and a mess and you could tell she was feeling very overwhelmed, frustrated, and alone. We tried helping her the best we could. Before we left, Sora Savoie felt like we need to share Alma 7:11-13 with her. 

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless, the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

It was exactly what she needed. As she read it, tears streamed down her face and the spirit entered the room so strongly. The feeling in the room quickly went from craziness to peace and calm. It was amazing. We testified to her that Christ knows what she is going through right now and because of that she never has to feel alone. It was an amazing lesson! 

Other fun story of the week. We went to visit a different member who lives an hour outside of Brasov via Maxi Taxi (maxi taxis are awesome, sketchy little vans with a bunch of seats in them that travel farther distances than buses). After getting there, we get a call from this member saying that she wasn't home. We laughed about it because it was better than being upset about it and turned around and took the next maxi taxi back to Brasov. I guess that's what you get when you pray for patience ha-ha. But that morning when we had been planning our lesson for this member everything we talked about didn't seem right and we couldn't really come up with a lesson. I felt like we shouldn't go, but I chalked that up to me not wanting to travel out to Sfantul Gheorge that day. Well, I learned my lesson! Next time I'm going to just listen to the spirit, even if what it is telling me doesn't make all that much sense! 

 Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures for this week that I can get to...I’m super sorry! But I love you all!
Have a great week! :) 
Love,

Sora Vann  

Monday, September 12, 2016

I met President Uchtdorf!


My new companion - Sora Savoie and I at the Mission Conference
So . . . yeah, super awesome! He was here from Monday through Wednesday! Most of the missionaries in Romania didn't get to meet him till Wednesday though. Wednesday and Thursday we had our mission conference which was awesome!  Wednesday we all went down to Bucuresti  (Bucharest) and President Uchtdorf spoke to just
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
the missionaries. He spoke for probably an hour and I just took so many notes! One of the biggest things he talked about was, that we are all children of Heavenly Father. We are all divinely special and are loved so much! The other thing he talked about a lot, was just sticking to basic core beliefs; sticking to the basic and simple gospel of Christ. It really was so amazing and we all got to shake his hand and talk to him a little bit!


Sora Savoie, Elder Jensen, and I 

Reunion of my MTC companions at the Mission Conference
Also, because of mission conference, I got to see all of my old companions again! It was so amazing! I love all of them so much! We also got to go to a beautiful castle, eat really yummy food, and be spiritual uplifted :) (there's lots of pictures.)



Daniela and I on our hike today
Selfie Time on our Hike - Sora Savoie and I
Other amazing news, Daniela moved up her baptismal date! She is getting baptized September 24 (I know it's next week!) We couldn't be more excited for her! She is so ready and her mom is even coming down from Switzerland because she knows how important this is for her! Her mom even said she has noticed an amazing change in Daniela. We were talking to her about everything and she said she has never been as happy as she is now :) It's amazing how much the gospel blesses peoples lives! It's been so wonderful to be able to see that on such an up close and personal level! I love Daniela so much and I am so happy for her :) 
Beautiful trail and waterfall on our hike.


We went on an awesome hike this morning,but it pretty much took the whole day! I will be sending many pictures from that as well :) Anyway I hope you all have a great week! 
I love you lots! 

Love
 Sora Vann
Daniela, Elder Jensen, and I on our Hike
Beautiful Trees from our hike today





Monday, September 5, 2016

Bubble Popping Crazy

At the train station before Sora Jerez left  ( Sora Jerez, Sora Savioe, and Me)













Being in the trio for three days with my new companion and my old companion was so super weird! But I had to say goodbye to Sora Jerez on Wednesday and I cried like a baby!  My new companion, Sora Savoie, has been super supportive with everything, so that is amazing. And don't worry, I got pictures before the crying started. 
Sora Jerez and I before she left

This week has just been super crazy with getting Sora Jerez off and then Sora Savoie getting all moved in and getting the apartment cleaned and such. A small apartment with three sisters; one is moving out and one who is moving in,  is absolute craziness! It's been pretty weird having to get used to a new companion but Sora Savoie is super awesome! She is a lot different than Sora Jerez ,but they are both amazing, hard working missionaries.  We did have some awesome lessons with Daniella this week and she is progressing so much! We taught her word of wisdom this week ,and she said that only problem she had with it was black tea. We talked a little bit about it and she said that she will give it up to see how Heavenly Father will bless her because of it. She is so awesome.  

Our little group in Centru before Sora Jerez left

Picture that pretty much sums up our (Elders Jensen, Wilkes, & Broberg)
I also finally got my visa this week! Woohoo I can finally stay here for the next 18 months! The picture even turned out not that bad! 
















Again, I don't really have any good stories from this week. Maybe next week! 
 I love you all! 
Love 
Sora Vann

Picnic with Daniella (Elder Broberg, Wilkes, Sora Savioe, and Me)
Elder Broberg, Wilkes, Me, Sora Savioe and Daniella - Great Mac and Cheese)



 Okay so I totally forgot to write about this (my bad) but we had an awesome picnic with Daniella and the elders at the church (the other ones where there but they didn't make the pictures). It was super fun and the food was really yummy because Daniella is an amazing cook! She made this really amazing homemade mac and cheese! Oh how I have missed mac and cheese! and there was other yummy foods too. The last picture is actually from last week. We went to the Mirons (who are members) and had a cook out at their house. Also super fun!

Cook-out with the Mirons