Romanian Plumbing...Fun Times!

Hey there friends and family!

This week was honestly quite a long one, but all is well, we are doing great(:

We started off the week by having yet another great cultural experience with Romanian plumbing. We have a drain in the floor of our bathroom, where the bathtub, bathroom sink,and kitchen sink all drain too - and it ended up completely exploding hahaha. Green stuff and water was everywhere. We couldn't use the sinks or bathtub for days without water erupting all over the bathroom haha - so we poured some drain-o down, and a few hours later, the water still was clogged, but didn't come up out of the drain...it was draining somewhere else. Long story short, all the water that we used, and the neighbors above us used, ended up in the ceiling of our downstairs neighbor...ah poor guy. He came and shut off our water like 5 times and was SO mad haha, but eventually our landlady came to help us out, got the water problem fixed after a few days, and all was well. 

Also this week poor Sora Wyatt wasn't feeling too good, so we were inside for a few days, but we ended up getting all ready for zone conference that is going to happen here in Cluj later this week! Its going to be great!(: 

So after the drain fiasco and some medicine/rest for Sora wyatt - we had a great lesson with one of our hilarious eternal investigators named Edith haha ah I love this lady. She is SO awesome. (same lady who spoon fed me the stomach soup) haha(: Anyways, this week we went and talked about temples with her, but the whole time she was SO sad because the brand new white pan that she had bought, got discolored after she used it one time. I have never seen Edith more distraught. She looked near tears...and just stared at this poor pan for like 20 minutes straight without saying a word. Ah we felt so bad...so we ended up going to Cora (like a grocery store) and buying her the exact same pan haha. We tried to "doorbell ditch it" on her front door, but after like 10 tries, still nothing haha. we had her neighbor go down there and knock the door - and ah she was so happy! Ah I sure love her haha(: It was one of the main highlights of my mission for sure(: 

I hope you all have a great week this upcoming week! And if there is EVER anything I can do for any of you guys, like buying you a new pan(; let me know! Its great hearing from you(: 

Love you guys!

Sora Armstrong

The new pan for Edith!

Fun times from last transfers(: Me and some of my cute friends from my MTC group!!

Our Valentine's Dinner.....Romanian Stomach Soup

Hey there Family and Friends!(:

This week was super awesome, a lot of crazy and exciting things, but a lot of amazing things as well!

To start it all off, we went and visited our dear investigator named Edith. She's in her 60's and has been investigating the church for over 11 years now, and is just this dear dear sweet woman haha. Seriously love her so much(: Anyways, we headed over there and she made us lunch, and usually its super incredible Romanian Food....but she made us a surprise. Romanian Stomach Soup. Yep. I wish I was kidding. My stomach did not like having another stomach in it  AT ALL haha. Bless her heart. These people here literally use EVERY part of the cow, which ya know, is great haha but man it was different.

Later on in the week we went to visit this cute member, and she fed us some awesome Romanian Food as well, including Fat Soup. Literally. Just imagine clear broth with 5 or 6 white ball/potato looking things of Cow and Pig fat. Yep...I"ll just leave it at that haha.

All food experiences aside, we met with some really amazing people. We were able to meet with this AMAZING new investigator named Felicia. She is originally from Romania, but moved to Italy for work for 14 years, and then recently came back here. She is so awesome you guys. She moved back to Romania on a Friday, and came to church that same Sunday! That was about two weeks ago, and hadn't been able to met until this past Saturday, but we were finally able to sit down with her and talk about how she is, where she is at, etc. We also got in touch with the sister missionaries who taught her in Italy! One of the sisters who taught her is Sorella Anderson, who was in the MTC with me and my group at the same time! It was such a tender mercy because I had already had her email, and so we were able to obtain her teaching record. Turns out she has been taught most of the lessons except for a few of the commandments, and apparently had a baptismal date in Italy. We cannot wait to discuss it with her, and see how we can continue to help her progress!(: SO PUMPED!!

We didn't get to see Angel this week, but we were able to meet with Sebi and Ana, with the Iepures present! The branch president and his wife! It was great to see them strengthen their friendship, and as we watched the Restoration with all 4 of them, they all participated and added really good comments, including Ana. It was a highlight for SURE!!!(:

I sure hope that you guys had a great week, and that you will have one in continuare!(: Sure Love and miss you all!!(: 

Sora Armstrong 

Sora Wyatt always takes random pictures of me.....ha ha.....

...so then I take random photos of her...ha ha! 

So Many Sheep!!!

First off, a little bit of a downer, we couldn't meet with our investigators Sebi and Ana this week. They were also unable to come to church because Edward (Sebi's son)  made soccer finals so they were in Timisoara. haha he's a good dad(: BUT we were able to work super hard and meet with a lot of our other investigators which ended up working great(: 

We had the opportunity to meet with Angle a couple of times this week. He is SO awesome. Literally, amazes me every time we meet with him. We wanted to teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week but he ended up having some questions about the restoration that we went over instead so that was great. He seems to have a really great understanding for the Restoration now and accepts it readily. He keeps asking questions and then being like "Í'm sorry  I have so many questions but this is all new information to me!" And we are like "no no no fire away!" But it is so cool because he just accepts it as truth because of the spirit he feels from it. So cool. He is just super great. haha yep #rockstar

We have also been working with a less active family here who is actually from America, the Sheilt family. The mom is married to a convert to the church named Jason who is Hilarious haha, they have 2 kids Cora (9) and Carson (5) who are super cute and seem to have been taught the gospel basics pretty well at home. It is cool because Sora Shielt is always open to us sharing a message with the kids and wants them to know good principles. We have been working hard to try to build trust with them because they are just such a wonderful family and yesterday we ended up being able to go on a cool adventure with them for our preparation day. We went out to the country side to this little village called Rimetea and had lunch and hiked to this SUPER cool old castle ruins in Coltesti. It was so incredible! Really felt just super Romanian haha, there were fields of sheep and goats everywhere, and people washing their plates and things in the stream, it was awesome(:

it really was just such an amazing week. I am SO grateful for Romania, and for the chance to be here with these people and in this beautiful culture and language - its been such a huge blessing and I am grateful for every minute!!(:

Have a great week you guys!(:

Sora Armstrong

Exploring a castle in Coltesti Romania

Jamming out to Romanian Primary Songs (Nephi's Courage) haha

Me and my bud Carson(:

All the sheeps!

It's Raining....MIRACLES!

Hello everyone! 

This week was great here in Cluj! Been thinking a extra lot about Corina this week because she left for her job in England...but things are all good and she is going to be meeting with the missionaries there so it will all work out(: Also found out that I will be staying here in Cluj for another 6 weeks with Sora Wyatt! Super rare - but we are SO pumped!!!:) Can't wait for what's in store! (Also hit my 8th month mark this week and FREAKED out haha) (:

We started off by going on a fun Exchange this week!  We got to go to a city here called Oradea! It is so beautiful there! I loved it! :) I was with Sora Brinkman for my exchange and she is just one of the nicest people ever. We had a couple lessons with some great investigators of theirs, had a great language study and  ate lunch at this really cute investigators house. The investigator used to be a chef so the food was SO good! We taught her about prophets and Jesus Christ's ministry on earth, and it was so SO cool to hear the experiences that she has had with the Savior and how she has seen what a blessing the atonement is in her life. its so personal and unique to everyone - its amazing(:

A fun adventure that we had this week was visiting a family from our branch--the Kiss family (pronounced keesh)--they live in a little town just outside of Cluj called Floresti. In order to get out there you have to take 1 bus to the end of the line and then wait for another bus that comes about twice every hour so it is a little bit of a process getting out there. As we were walking to the bus stop it started to rain pretty hard and by the time the 2nd bus had come we were pretty soaked haha but we were determined to visit them! We got to Floresti and got off the bus, it was still raining and they live pretty far from the stop so we were walking along the road tramping through the mud and the rain. When we finally got there I am pretty sure they didn't even recognize us at first but it was a great lesson. They have 3 little kids so we brought my guitar and we all sang I am a Child of God together. Honestly SO awesome(: 

Yesterday we had 6 investigators in church again! It was super cool! 2 of them were Sebi and Ana ( I talked about them earlier)- they are just rockstars. We love them. Edith also came, she has been investigating the church for about 11 years now. She is a great lady but her progress has sort of halted because she wont take that next step to baptism even though she comes to church more frequently than some of the members. 

We also had a really cool miracle, there is a family in the branch named the Militaru family and they have been investigating about as long as Edith has. The whole branch knows and loves this family because there was a time in the past where the whole family would come to church together. In our coordination meeting before church we talked about how we could help them all start coming to church again because they have not come as a family in a really long time. The father is against his wife and 16 year old daughter being baptized so it is a bit of a hard situation. After the meeting we went downstairs and the Sacrament meeting started as usual but half way through the 2nd hymn the Militaru family walked in the door! It was so cool! After church we set up to meet with them this week so we are REALLY excited about that. 

Our last friend in church yesterday was also a sort of a little miracle. A lady walked in during the announcements that we had never seen before. She looked a little lost but we talked to her, found out her name was Felicia and she had been living in Rome for 14 years where she found the missionaries, but has now moved back to Cluj! The missionaries in Italy gave her our address and so there she was. The crazy thing is she just got here on Friday and yet she took a break from busy moving to come to church. She stayed for the investigator's class and was making great comments! We are so pumped to start meeting with her this week! Just some amazing miracles this week for sure(: 

I sure love all of ya'll! And I hope you have an AMAZING week!(: 

Sora Armstrong

Last District Pic with Elder Blaylock! (Look how well coordinated we are - District Unity!)

SOAKING WET after the HUGE rainstorm. 

From the Branch Christmas dinner - just something fun to see. That's Sarmale!