First Generation Baptism

Hey Everyone! 

This week was great! It's been beautiful here in Cluj, I honestly love it here..probably one of my favorite spots in the entire world(: 

So I turned 20 this week! AHHH! But honestly - it was a great day(: It turned out to be Elder nelsons birthday as well so we all went out to a fun dinner, and earlier that day we went to Adriana's and Stefan's house and they fed us SARMALE! One of my favorite things EVER!(: She is honestly the best - she made a homemade cake, gave me a beautiful silver bracelet, flowers, just like SO kind! I like totally started crying because I just felt so loved, and when you're surrounded by the people you love, what more can you ask for?(: ya know? 

Last week we had a baptism in our branch, and it was for a little boy named Razvan who is 9(: It was a really special baptism for our branch, because it was the first child to be baptized into our branch. The first generation of children in Romania. Everyone else who has been baptized into our branch has been a convert when they first met the missionaries with their families. Razvan was born into the church, and now was the first to be baptized. It was so exciting to see the Branch so happy and supportive. Of course, because we live in Romania, things had to be interesting though. Because our church is in a house, we don't have a baptismal font...we have a basin/pool thing that we had to set up the morning of, just like how Liviu's was(: We got to the church around 10:30 I believe and the Elders were already there trying to figure out the water system. Hahaha it took us all morning to figure out connecting hoses, trying to get warm water, filling buckets with hot water....when finally we figured out a way. By connecting a hose to the shower in the top floor of the house...and then feeding the hose out the window. #hanice. Luckily we had our investigator ANGEL there so he helped us out haha(: #yesss

We also went to the Botanical Gardens here in Cluj. We went with the Nelsons, and Felicia, and it was so pretty! Flowers EVERYWHERE. Cluj is seriously just gorgeous right now because there are trees and flowers everywhere you look. 

Transfers are this weekend and we are freaking out because we have no idea what is going to happen. Sora Falkenberg and I really want to stay together, but because I've been here for over 6 months we aren't sure what will happen..... AND Felicia's baptism is next weekend on the 30th (that's the for sure date because her friend from Italy is coming then), and so if I leave, I would miss her baptism by just a few days....but its okay! All that matters is that she is takin this next step ya know? 

The Nelsons, the Senior couple that moved to Cluj are SO SO great. We love them!! They help us out so much. They have been going to appointments with us, they have been helping us with our lessons, Sora Nelson is a fabulous cook and makes us homemade meals making us feel a little bit more at home. And Elder Nelson is hilarious(: He was in the Navy so he has been teaching me all the military sayings haha like "She walks she talks she's full of chalk." or like "Alpha, bravo, charlie..." They just crack me up and are such an addition to our branch here! A HUGE strength(: and great friends!(:

Felicia is doing great, and she is so prepared for her upcoming baptism. She just has such a testimony that this church is true and that it brings her so much happiness. Yesterday after church President Ivory and Sora Ivory skype called her because they speak Italian and we thought it would be a good idea to talk with them. She started crying telling President that she feels so loved here, and she feels like we are family. She told us she is so proud of us for being here in Romania, doing good things for the people. I just love her! 

Well, that's about it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I will keep you posted on what ends up happening(: 

Sora Armstrong

Us setting up the baptismal font with Angel in the back(:

Adriana surprised me with a big homemade cake! They didn't know how old I would be turning so they just stuck a huge candle in the middle haha(:

All of us at the botanical gardens(: With the cute Nelsons and amazing Felicia!(:

Our cute branch!!!(:

Me and the cute Sora Strader who I went on exchange with this week!(:

CLUJ!!!!(: The best city ever!!! In its great spring glory!(:

Happy 20th Birthday Sora Armstrong

Hey Everyone! 

Another quick, extremely busy week!(: One of the best(:

We flew into Bucharest this past week for MLC, and that was quite the adventure! We had to be at the airport at 5 am, and so we were super tired, but MLC was really great, our presentation went smoothly (even though we were freaking out because we had not a lot of time to prepare it haha), and it was fun to see some other missionaries. We flew back around 5 pm, and Sebi our investigator happened to be on the same flight as us! It was totally a blessing because we were trying to get a hold of him - and hey there he was! Just totally sittin on the same row as me haha(: and then givin us a ride home!(: #rockstar!

Saturday morning we started walking to English and it was a beautiful day out, we haven't had to wear tights or boots at all this week...in fact it has been summer weather here. However at the end of our English class it started to POUR. We had no jackets or anything, and we had an appointment at our investigator Felicia's house. So...we walked. The Elders let us borrow a umbrella, but the rain was coming down so hard we just got soaked. Haha and on the way, a car splashed us so hardcore. Something that I thought you only see in movies ya know? haha but nope...it just sped up and we got SOAKED #hanice So we showed up at Felicia's house looking like we had just taken a shower. She was so cute and made us change into PJs (haha mine had daisies all over...bless) and she made us delicious Italian food. Anyways, we asked her if she had thought about Baptism and she said she had been praying, and that she decided it was the right path in her life. YESSSS. However, she said she wanted to wait until she went back to Italy, so maybe in a few months. We were so excited she made this decision, but sad because she hadn't committed fully. She has a friend Cristiano (possibly future husband?), and she wants him to baptize her so she wants to wait until she goes back maybe this summer. She said she knows she wants to be baptized, but just not sure when.

SO, we called President yesterday and asked him what was the best thing to do. President Ivory speaks Italian, so we thought maybe we could skype him in for a lesson and he could talk to her about her thoughts and concerns and waiting to go back to Italy. President told us he would love to do that (he's the bomb.com), and that maybe he could even pay for a plane ticket for Cristiano to get here!!!! #YESSSS

THEN, last night we went over to her house to help her with computer things for work. We did that for maybe 20 minutes, and then started talking about gospel things, and we brought up the baptism date again. We told her what President Ivory told us about buying a plane ticket for Cristiano, and she broke down into tears right away and called him!! She was just overcome with gratitude and joy, telling us she knows she needs to take this step. She knows it is a good thing, and that it will bring her closer to god. SO SHE AGREED TO THE 23rd!!! I AM SO HAPPY! It's a hard feeling to describe, but knowing that someone you have been teaching, and you have been helping, has decided to take this step that will only bless their lives abundantly. I was just overcome with joy and love. I kind of got a glimpse of the love Heavenly Father has for his children, because my heart was so full. MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING IN CLUJ. 

Another blessing!! Sora Nelson and Elder Nelson, a senior couple that was serving in the office in Cluj, have been sent to serve in Cluj! I have never served around a Senior Couple yet, but I am so excited! They are so so sweet, and already have invited us and Felicia over to their house for dinner. They have offered to drive us to investigators houses, and to have district meeting at their house. They will be such a strength to the Branch, it is exactly what our Branch needs right now. They are just filled with light and love for everyone they talk to. 

Also - thank you so much for all of the B-day wishes!! 20 years old.....AHHHHH! hahaha it will be good(: Funny thing too is that it is also Elder Nelsons birthday today too! haha #yesss so we are all going to go out to dinner tonight(: They're seriously the best!

I sure love each and every one of you guys!(: Thanks for all you do - Have a great week!

Sora Armstrong 

Zone Leader Competition...Oh.So.Close!

Hey Family and Friends!(:

This.week.was.crazy...that is all.

Sora Armstrong

(Alyssa's April Fools Joke) 

Ok.... just kidding, although pretty sure this was the craziest week of my entire life! I honestly believe that I have never. ever. worked so hard haha.

So last week the Zone Leaders challenged us to a little competition, and the competition was to get the most lessons in a week, and to get the most referrals. Referrals meaning meeting someone new and getting their number. Needless to say it brought out the competitive side of us a little bit haha - Sora Falkenberg and I worked SO HARD. Unfortunately, we did not win....but we were so CLOSE! We had 18 lessons and 32 referrals, and they got 22 lessons and 31 referrals. Never have I had a crazier week in my life haha. 

To give you a bit of a comparison, the week before we had 9 lessons and 8 referrals, which is about pretty average in this mission. It's actually the mission goal to have 7 lessons a week and to get at least a number a day - but man we saw miracles. We got out of our house every morning at 10 am, and we didn't get home until 9:30 pm. We didn't have time to eat lunch or dinner because we were teaching lessons, or English, or out contacting people. Sometimes it takes an hour to get somewhere in the city, and so we would just talk to people on the go on the buses and the streets. We had Zone Conference, we gave our presentation,we got asked to give another one, we had interviews with President, we had exchanges, we had 6 sisters stay at our house, we had general conference, we had English classes. We ate dinner at 10 at night haha. To say the least it was the busiest week ever - but honestly, I have never felt better(: We just gave all our heart ya know?(:

And, what was so cool was that it was also the most miracle filled week ever. Last Sunday our district fasted together for our Branch, and the miracles were seen throughout the week. The Lord placed so many new people in our paths, and it was just the coolest! Everywhere we went Sora Falkenberg and I decided  we just needed to be bold and talk to people, and we were able to meet so many new cool people. So many people we met were willing to help us with the city, with our language, want to come to church, want to hear our message. And now, Sora Falkenberg and I know our potential. We know that if we work really hard, that our results can be a lot higher than what we have seen in the past. We know that if we are bold and put our trust in the Lord, he is going to help us every step along the way, because that is exactly what we saw every day last week! 

So Zone Conference was awesome last week! I always love Zone Conference because it's always fun to see other missionaries in the zone, and to hear President speak to us. We also had a guest speaker Walter Plumb. Basically, he is this super accomplished powerhouse of a man who lived in Vietnam, and now lives in Moldova and he gave us a really moving message on how to be bold and become more like Jesus Christ.

We had our talk/presentation that we had to give at zone conference and it went way well! It was supposed to be 20 minutes, we were running low on time so it got cut down to 15 minutes, and then we were really running out of time and so President asked us to cut it down to 10 minutes ha. It was on "What Faith Is"and how we could help missionaries become better disciples of Christ. We were so relieved that it was DONE!(: haha but THEN, we get a call on Wednesday Night, from the assistants, who said that President liked our presentation so much he wants us to give another one....this Wednesday at MLC!!(:

This Wednesday we have MLC in Bucharest, which is Missionary Leadership Training. So all of the Sister Training Leaders and all of the Zone Leaders will get together in Bucharest for a conference and training session. We have to present on "How to Make Sundays Game Days", basically how we can maximize our time on Sundays. Because we live so far West, we get to take a plane to Bucharest! #yesss It will be great(: 

We also had exchanges last week, and that was a blast! Basically we switch companions for a day with the sisters in our zone, and work with them on something we feel or they feel like they need work on. Like teaching lessons, or contacting more boldly, or both. I was with cute little Sister Yost who is serving in Sibiu right now...she is honestly such a ROCKSTAR!! Like - love her! Such a great day - she is training right now so we just talked about everything going on - and she is just killin it(: 

Well, there were a lot of miracles this week and it ended incredibly with General Conference! I hope you all got a chance to listen to Conference...and if you didn't, I challenge ya to listen to them(: The messages truly are inspired and are meant for you! 

I hope you all have a great week!

Sora Armstrong

BTW....we also invited Felicia again this week to be baptized, in a solid lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ with Sora Cioban.( a solid member friend) We feel really good about the date of April 23rd, and she still hasn't decided, but she said she will pray about it and we can talk about it. She is SO CLOSE! We were all just very bold with her, and the Spirit was so strong! She knows that its right, she prays, she came to general conference, she introduced herself to everyone in the branch and comes to every activity -ahhh. If you guys could keep her in your prayers that would be amazing!(:

Celebrating Easter...Romanian Style!

Hey there Family and Friends!!(:

I can't believe it's already Monday again. Things are going so well here! Missionary work is one of the best things in the entire world. It's definitely one of the hardest, but it's also so so amazing and so so worth it!!(:

We were able to meet with some incredible people - we started off by meeting with Felicia (finally) and talking a little bit about Easter and showing here the amazing video that the church came out with! (link is below if you haven't seen it - or if ya want to see it again(: ) Easter is such an amazing holiday, but its so interesting because people here celebrate it at different times depending on what religion you are. For example, the majority of the people here are Orthodox, and they don't celebrate until May 1st! The Jehovah Witnesses' already celebrated - and Catholics and ours was yesterday. 

So it was actually super cool, because here the traditions for Easter are SO fun and just full of culture! They hand paint their easter eggs - which turn out to be GORGEOUS! They also dye a TON of eggs just a deep deep red color, to symbolize Christ's blood and then apparently around Easter, you smash your red egg with another persons red egg. 

So Saturday night we were actually invited by Cristina - one of our new catholic investigators, to go to the Catholic Easter service that night. It was SO interesting! At like 8 at night, we went with our little tiny candles (it was all we had haha) and just stood in this HUGE Hungarian Catholic church! They all lit each others candles, and the entire huge Catholic church was just full of beautiful candle light! Kinda cool! Well, so while we were doing this waiting for Cristina, she gives us a call and tells us we are at the wrong church #ofcourse haha. So we head to the Romanian Catholic church (it was good we actually understood what was going on there haha) and it was PACKED! Here, people really only go to church on Easter and for Christmas - so it was just this HUGE room full of people and me and Sora Falkenberg with our little tiny candles(: haha it was great(: 

Around Easter there is always just such a beautiful spirit and a great time to remember about Christ - and share it with others!(: There has never been a better time to be a missionary! Share it with others - thats my challenge for you(; Have a great week!(:

https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah

(Here is the link in English)

https://www.mormon.org/ron/pa%C5%9Fte/aleluia

(and here it is in Romanian if you feel so inclined)

Love you guys!!

Sora Armstrong

It rained SO much this week.. it was FABULOUS!(: haha - it also snowed a couple times! #arewebackinutah??

The Hungarian church! (this is the inside of the big brown one from the previous pic)

When all the lights were off and we just had candlelight!

I was freakin out - I thought it was so cool(:

My companion and I at the Hungarian church. 

The packed Romanian church!

Our Wimpy candles. 

We also found a license plate that said STL and we freaked out haha(: 

NOTE: Sora Armstrong is currently serving as the STL - Senior Trainer Leader. 

Three New Investigators in One Week - Huge Miracle in Cluj!

Hey family and friends!!(:

Ah, this week was Great!(: We just really gave it our all and saw the Lord prepare a path for us in so many ways. We were able to find 3 new investigators this week which was such a huge miracle!! As a mission we have a goal to find over 2 new investigators a week which is usually pretty rough - but after just working hard and finding with gusto we met our goal this week(: We found a cute girl named Irina - about 30 years old by contacting on the bus just by complimenting her scarf and just laughing and offering to meet up to get to know the city more, we found a new friend(: We ended up meeting with her two days later, talking about her beliefs, her family, her home town, and just getting to know her, and invited her to church. What was so amazing is that she ended up being late, and she easily could have turned around and gone home, but she came for the last 20 minutes of the gospel principles class and stayed to talk afterwards! SO awesome!!(: 

We also received a new investigator from English class named Cristina - around her 50's who we are doing 30/30's with. She was actually so excited about the choir that we have, and wants to come and participate in that - but since yesterday was Palm Sunday she wasn't able to make it. She is hilarious though - just so spunky and full of energy all the time hahaha its great, I can't really describe her personality, but its great haha. She LOVES Elder Bateman so much so that just makes it even more funny haha(:

The last new investigator that we found this week was Juliana (30 years old)- who actually just walked right into church! haha so cool right? Sadly it was like 10 minutes after church had ended, but I ended up talking to her for over a hour about her spiritual search that she is on, how she feels truly so alone and doesn't know if she can truly repent and have a new life. She's a gypsy so the members weren't too thrilled haha - but hey, she was really cool and really sincere so we are super excited!

We also saw Sebi and Ana this week at church! Ah it was so so good, they stayed for the full two hours and in the gospel principles class that we had, both of them participated many times! It was incredible! Elder Bateman was teaching the class about a scripture in Alma that explains the Atonement - and Sebi raised his hand and started talking about another verse that he found in 1 or 2 Nephi when he was reading the other day that went along with that scripture. He tried to find it but didn't - but he told us he would bring his personal CLM next week and share it with us - and he then explained how the verse meant a lot to him, how he applied it, etc. You guys it was incredible!! Ana also said the closing prayer for the gospel principles class which was the first time that I have ever ever ever heard her pray! Ah I'm just so proud of them ya know??(: 

Also funny random story this week - haha we were walking to the church after visiting a less active, and ended up walking by this house where there was a guy working on his garden in his backyard. We said "Hello" as we were walking by, and he was like "Do you guys want some flowers?" hahahaha So random right? So we ended up talking to this guy, named Timi who was about 40? He actually lived in Chicago for about 11 years so spoke english incredibly well! haha he was great - and just like went and dug up 5 or 6 flowers from the ground, put them in a sack and gave them to us haha like what? It was great. So we ended up just planting them at the church because we live in a apartment - it all worked out haha(: 

Anyways I hope you guys have a great week! Know how much I love you and how grateful I am for each and every one of ya!!(:

Sora Armstrong(: 

(To explain the lock pic - theres a lock bridge here in Cluj where you write your name on a lock, lock it on the bridge, and then throw the key in the river(: Kinda like what they have in Paris. Sora Falkenberg and I gave it a try - haha it was great)

The lock bridge!!!(:

Planting the flowers from Timi!

Youngest STL (Sister Training Leader) Companionship in the Mission

Hi there family and friends!!

This week was a crazy, busy one - full of surprises and rain and lessons and things! But it was honestly one of the best!

Sora Falkenburg is seriously SO awesome! She is such a champ at just working as hard as she can every single day with the language, with talking to people, etc. She is truly so great!

This week we found out transfer boards! AHH! So I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, President Ivory had mentioned me training before the emergency transfer happened, but I was honestly just expecting that me and Sora Falkenburg would either just stay together for another one, or that I would get moved to another city. So when we found out transfer boards - saw that me and Sora Falkenberg are staying together - but that we are also going to be STLs/Sister Training Leaders for the west zone in our mission. AH! 

Truly truly - I had absolutely no clue what that meant or entailed in any way - and since Sora Falkenberg and I are the youngest STL companionship in the mission, we had no idea what to do haha! But honestly - we are so so excited. It will be a learning experience for sure, but I am looking forward to serving another transfer here in Cluj with these incredible people - and for really getting to know and help these sisters in our zone! It will be great!

Also kinda a sad week because Sora Armstrong (my trainer) Sora Koth, and Sora Trebas are all leaving this next week. Truly going to miss them like crazy - they were incredible examples and leaders not only for me, but for this mission! They truly made all the difference here and in the lives of those people who they came in contact with!

As for the rest of the week - we met with quite a few members and less actives, but probably the highlight for sure was Sunday. We have been working with this less active named Viorica for a while now, and she literally hasn't been to church in years. However, this week we challenged her again - and she actually agreed! We showed up to her house on sunday morning, and there she was all ready in her cute pink shirt and skirt - talking about how much she needs to bring for tithing and things. SO COOL! 

God seriously does work miracles! I will honestly never forget how when she walked into the church building with us, and how all the members got SO excited and just rushed to her and gave her a huge hug, gave her liahonas and lesson manuals, encouraged her to sit by them, etc. It was honestly, so incredible. 

I sure love you guys - keep praying for Felicia as we are going to try and challenge her again to set a date for baptism this week. will keep you posted! Sure love ya!

Sora Armstrong

Found a sign that actually said "Ärmstrong"!!!! #hanice

We found a field of huge huge pigs! haha

Us and the Elder's invesitggor (Costel) waving off Elder Seegmiller as he's headed to Alexandria! Romanian smiles haha(:

Ah...More Stomach Soup!

Hey there family and friends!!(:

What a crazy week it has been for sure!

To start it all off - we were actually in Brasov and Bucharest for a little bit. Sora Wyatt was transfered over there to the gorgeous city of Brasov, and from what I have heard - is doing so so well there! Thank you so much for including her in your prayers - she truly is such a rockstar!!

So we got back to Cluj late Wednesday night - and I arrived with the adorable Sora Falkenberg! She is so awesome! She's 22 from Canada - and has been here in Romania for about 4/5 months now! Ah, she is seriously so great - and speaks the language like a PRO! I have already learned so much from her, she is not afraid to be bold with these people and share our purpose - which is so so cool(: I know that we're going to have a blast for sure!

So this week we were able to meet with Felicia! Ah, she is so adorable! She is 45 years old, and is just so so prepared ya know? All four of us missionaries actualy met with her this week - and we taught the Restoration in a new way with some visual aids as kind of a review. She totally knew it all, and is just so senstive to the Spirit it is incredible! She had a poor headache so she wasn't feeling too good, but fed us "Italian Spaghetti"haha(: It was the BEST! So anyways - the lesson was going super super well, and we actually felt impressed to invite her to baptism. So we challenged her - and poor girl, with her headache and everything, and with looking for a job, she said that she hadn't had time to study the Book of Mormon so she wants to study and learn a bit more, and then we can talk about it. So we are actually going to invite her again this week, and try to establish a date...taking a act of faith that everything will work out ya know?(: So be sure to keep her in your prayers and I'll let ya know how it goes!

We were also able to meet up with the cute sisters from Sibiu, Sora Trebas and Sora Yost - two outstanding sister missionaries and dear friends! Sora Trebas is actually going home in like a week, with Sora Armstrong (my trainer) and Sora Koth (who I served with in Constanta). I am going to miss them for SURE!

Ah and then this week guess what happened again? More stomach soup. MORE! Ah it was...geat. haha again qujite the experience - excpect for this time, even better, we got to see HOW she made it. haha Edith is seriously the best, just cracks me up. It was her birthday, she turned 61, and she was just so so happy(: We actually watched the Restoration with her in Hungarian, and she loved it. We challenged her to baptism afterwards, and she got super upset actually. She has been investigating the church for over 14 years now, and named herself "sora simplatizana"or "sister investigator".....ah. So anyways, we got a big NO from her, but she wants to go to the temple this coming August to the temple dedication in Frieberg Germany! So we'll see - we'll keep working with her for sure! Ah, I just love her so much ya know? Its just hard when she knows that the church is true, but just doesn't want to change...

Thank you so much you guys for everything that you do - for your examples and support. I sure love you guys! Have a great week!

Some of the Valentines I made for my English class students (: With candy attatched too!

Us with the Sibiu sisters!!!(:

Edith and I on her 61st b-day!

Some of the Cow stomach that we ate…