A Literal and Spiritual Feast: It's a Win-Win!

Hey there family and friends!

It has been a great week, and we have been working hard and having a blast while doing missionary work here in Sibiu!(: 

We had an AMAZING lesson last night with one of our investigators - Claudia, and the senior couple, the browns. We had an amazing dinner at their house with her, and it turned into one of the most spiritual, unifying lessons that I have had on my mission thus far. We were able to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ - and the Spirit was so powerful. It was so great to have a Sunday meal together - it truly does just bring you like so much joy just to be together ya know? plus like good food? Then its a win-win(: I know that it made such a difference for Claudia as well. She is going to pray about setting a date this week - so we will keep you posted!

This week we are headed to CLUJ for zone conference! and I am SO STOKED to be headed back to my home city!!(: haha it will be great - I will be sure to let you know how it goes(: 

I hope that you have the best of weeks, and totally let me know if there is ever anything that I can do for you! Sure love you guys!

Sora Armstrong(:

Missionary Leadership Council in Bucharest

My Own "Fourth Floor - Last Door" Experience

Hey there Family and Friends!(:

What a crazy couple of weeks! First of all I am SO excited to say that I am staying here in the amazing city of SIBIU! It truly is SO gorgeous and I feel so blessed to be staying here with these amazing people.

We have been seeing so many different miracles this past week - and it has been so cool to see how obedience, diligence, and hard work have such an enormous connection and relation to each other ya know? My new companion (Sora Gubar) and I have been block knocking a lot this past week because it has been super cold here - and so that has been quite the adventure! You truly never know what lies behind each door ya know? haha. 

But for example, we met one of the COOLEST guys ever this past week who lived on the "Fourth Floor - at the Last Door" ( just like President Uchtdorfs last General Conference talk! #hanice) His name is "Ioan" and he is missing his right leg and lives by himself - but spends the whole day reading. So we gave him a book of Mormon and we are going to back to go see him tomorrow to see how he liked it! He said he would read so we'll see what ends up happening!

This week we are going to strive to set a baptismal date with a wonderful 22 year old girl named Claudia. She is amazing. She has attended church twice, has read several chapters in the book of Mormon (and highlighted many verses in specific colors according to how she felt) and just is so receptive to the love and peace of the Spirit. She would be such a positive influence for the branch and is just so full of light and joy! Super cool girl(: So be sure to keep her in your prayers!

Yesterday we had a super fun in the cool town of Sighisoara - which is the town where Vlad Dracul, the famous "Dracula" was born haha. We were so stoked to see his house and all that - and when we walked in..well. it wasn't what we expected hahaha - but got us all in the halloween type spirit(; haha

Sure love you guys! I hope that you have a great week - 

Sora Armstrong(:

Sora Gubar and I(:

Us with Eugen!(:

We went to Sighisoara this week for P-day(: an AMAZING cute little town where "dracula" was born haha(: 

Dracula was in Dracula's house hahaha(: so we took a selfie with him. 

Last Transfer - Staying in Sibiu

(Only received pictures this week! Alyssa is staying in Sibiu and has a new companion from the Ukraine).

A Romanian cemetery

Us with Eugen(: a member from the branch here

The mountains of Sibiu have SNOW!!!(: 

We all ordered the largest pizza in Sibiu - it was awesome (: #hanice

One of the largest Orthodox churches here(:

Eugen is a UTE fan - heck yes!!(: hahaha - the conversion continues(; hehe jk

Big Companionship Goals - 100 people in One Week!

Hey there!(: 

Sorry for the super short email this week once again - but it was truly such a good week and I am so excited for this upcoming one!

The past few days we were in Bucharest for MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) and it was amazing! We had a great time and we learned so so much about how to get the mission going with finding. Our mission received the challenge 2 years ago from President Kearon to be teaching 7 lessons a week per companionship, and finding 2 new investigators per week. We have been achieving the lessons goal, and have even reached 8 lessons a week per companionship - but we are still needing to work on finding new people. It was so cool because we talked about why that is so important, and it lead a lot to the subject of agency. That truly is such an amazing and special gift that is such an important part of Gods plan. 

So this upcoming week Sora Chandler and I are going to strive to talk to over 100 people together. AH!(: It will be awesome(: And we are going to try to not only just talk to them, but have a meaningful conversation with them. 

We are going to be showing the movie, meet the mormons this upcoming Saturday and we are on the mission to invite the ENTIRE city of Sibiu haha(: To come and hear about this!(: Its the last week of this transfer - and so we are going to try and give it all we got! I love Sora Chandler so so much and we have had an amazing past 5 weeks together -we have truly become such great friends and we have worked hard to push each other to be the best missionaries and people we can be. 

I sure love you guys! We will see if I will be staying here in Sibiu for my last transfer or not on Saturday - and I will be sure to let you know Monday! 

Have a great week!(: 

Sora Armstrong

Serving Up MIci Burgers at the Branch BBQ - Not a fan!

Hey there!(: 

This week was quite the week - full of all sorts of adventures here in Sibiu haha(: 

To start it all off we had a big huge branch BBQ on Saturday night which actually turned out really well! We had about 20 people there, including the 6 missionaries which is a pretty good record for Sibiu!(: 4 investigators came too which was awesome!(: The Relief Society made scripture bags #hanice and then the men were all downstairs cooking. They made some french fries and stuffed cheese mushrooms and Mici hamburgers. If you don't know what mici is - its like a Romanian sausage that is basically the meat AND parts of a pig, cow, and lamb all mixed together. nasty. So they made that meat into hamburgers haha it was so gross. but they all loved it. And to make things even more disgusting, after church yesterday there was extra mici from the night before, and we have no microwave, so for Priesthood they were all eating cold mici hamburgers haha #gross

So anyways! A lot of our lessons fell through this week unfortunately - but we were able to go contacting a lot which was pretty fun(: Sibiu is FINALLY getting some cold weather and so we are so excited to not be dying in the heat anymore haha(: 

This week I met a WAY cool family from New Zealand who are actually living in Brasov and came to Sibiu for a quick visit. They had the coolest accents ever!(: haha. But anyways - they were such open, happy, and bright people who just were so excited to hear more! It was so cool because after a week of just trying and trying - we finally found an amazing family! A tender mercy for sure(: 

Sure love you guys! Have a great week!

Sora Armstrong(: 

Hidden Gems: The Mansion of the Gypsy King!

Hey there family and friends(: 

Sorry for the super short email this week - not too much happened, but great things are in store this upcoming one(: 

My cute companion totally got the stomach flu pretty bad this week, so we were inside for a couple of days while she was recovering. And it was actually good because we were able to go through the area book and really try to find new people and older people who we could work with and teach ya know? We are really struggling with finding people right now, but we are hoping and praying that this week we will see miracles(: and new faces(: 

Other than that - we were able to go to one of the COOLEST castles today in Hunedoara!(: SO fun - I seriously cannot express how much I love this country and these people, they are truly just  hidden gems(: 

Have a great week(: sure love you all!

Sora Armstrong(: 

The Hunedoara Castle!(: 

THEE mansion of the GYPSY KING! We finally found it!! hahaha(:

long live the queen……

What a week....castles in Brasov, reunited with my MTC group and a visit from President Uchtdorf!

Hey there Family and Friends(: 

This week has truly been a week full of miracles and full of amazing blessings!

It all started by us taking a awesome 6 hour train to Bucharest haha #yes and staying the night with two amazing Soras there - one of them being my old MTC companion Sora Padgett!(: I love her SO much, we have both grown and changed so much on the mission, and she is truly one of my dear, dear friends! It was so good to see her!

Then on Wednesday morning - we all gathered at the chapel in Bucharest and got to hear from President Uchtdort and President Kearon and shake their hands. It was an experience I will never forget! President Uchtdorf was SO kind, and truly took his time to talk to each and everyone of us, as where we were from, etc. You could just totally feel his sincere love for each and every one of us ya know?

They both shared amazing messages about how we need to share the importance that we are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father - that this is a message of LOVE that this world has a need of hearing. It was amazing to hear the inspired council that was given for us missionaries to hasten the work here in Romania. He told us to study, study, and study Preach my Gospel always (as missionaries and back home), and that throughout the rest of our lives we should read the Joseph Smith History at least once a month. 

He told us the importance of sharing our talents, and he told us again and again how much we are loved<3 He made many references to airplanes, shared his wifes conversion story, and bore testimony again and again of the prophets sincere love for the members of the church. 

Probably my favorite part though of everything that he said was that if we ever get discouraged - that we need to remember that there are SO many prayers that are being offered on our behalf. That the members all across the world and in many temples are praying for us to have success in the Lords work. He said that when factoring in all the time zones - we are literally being prayed for 24/7...what a huge blessing is that??? 

It was such a powerful realization to me about the power and love that comes with prayer - I truly cannot even describe how much those prayers mean to me, how much I have felt them change me and change this work here. 

After hearing from them - we took a bus up to Brasov to see the beautiful castle Peles, and then we took the bus to another castle to have dinner - it was BEAUTIFUL! and SO good to see everyone and just have a great time(: 

The next day we had a great devotional by a member of the 70 named Elder Boom - He is a ROCKSTAR! It was SO cool to hear from him and his wife - they had many great ideas of how we can find more people here - to help the church grow. 

It was such a great conference - and such a great week! one that truly had such an impact on me and on my testimony(: 

I sure love you all -and I hope that you'll all have a fantastic week,

Sora Armstrong(: 

Me and my cute companion!!(: 

The castle Peles!!(

Most of the Soras in the Mission(: 

Sora Chandler and I!(:

MTC group reunited!!(: Over a year later!