Sorry mom, I tried, I figured you were at the gym. But don't pull anything funny! It was way nice to be able to talk to you dad, weird, but nice, it made my whole day. And I was told to make it super quick so thats okay don't feel bad.
This past week has been maddness! But I got my visa finally it just took 3 days of dumb tests, signing things and sitting in line forever. But its done and I am glad. As I mentioned before, I now have a new companion, and I love her to pieces! She is so fun! And I think she is going to help me a ton with the language because she is crazy serious about language study and I think with Sora Larsen I had language study maybe twice. And Sora Lovell is intense with how she wants to run it, so I'm excited about that. Its about time I figure out this language. She is from Las Vegas, and she is so funny, she knows a million card tricks and can shuffle like a mad man. Makes me wish I was from Vegas, I can't shuffle at all. AND she has watched Calamity Jane.... I've never met anyone else who has ever seen that! We decided that when we get home she's coming to our house and we are having a cheesey Doris Day party, so prep yourself mom!
So, Magda is doing so amazing. I keep waiting for something bad to happen and she keeps plugging along, being her amazing self. We moved her baptism to the 28th of June because she works on Sundays from 1:00p.m. until 9p.m. so we are doing it Saturday because she has Saturdays off. I'm so excited because I thought with Sora Larsen gone things would fall apart because Magda loves Sora Larsen, but she seems completely okay with it, just smiling all the time, which is a pretty unique thing to her. Doina, another investigator on the other hand is not doing so well with the loss of her favorite missionary. And I am no Sora Larsen, so we'll see how it goes.
Yesterday was the most amazing Sunday ever! The spirit was strong! Yesterday was an exceptionally good day to be a missionary!
Anyway, I gotta go. Love you all, and Happy Birthday Dad! (on Thursday),Nicole
P.S. did you get those e-mails Sora Larsen sent you?
Love Runs in a Circular Motion
Me and my Sistas!
Monday, June 16, 2008
6/9/2008
Hey are you getting my e-mails? You should probably let me know. Because I'll be totally bummed if you didn't get my last e-mail about Magda getting baptized on June 29. Anyway, this past week (the last week of my first transfer) was crazy (I am starting to think there is no such thing as a "normal" missionary week) Sora Ciocmata a Romanian serving her mission in Russia got kicked out of Russia and sent back here to work on visa stuff and she has been living with us because she is still a missionary and can't stay with her family. She is pretty much the coolest person I've ever met and has done wonders for my language skills which are still pathetically lacking, because she doesn't really speak English so when we go on exchanges with members I'm obviously spending the day with a Romanian either way, and she has taught me all this way interesting vorbe (like expressions) that Sora Larsen doesn't know and neither do the elders so I love pulling them out in conversations and frustrating everyone a little. Its pretty fantastic.
Last night we got our transfer call, I'm staying in Bucharest but getting a new comp, her name is Sora Lovell, I hear she's pretty fantastic, she was in the MTC with Sora Larsen. Sora Larsen is going to Timisoara and pretty much everyone from my district is out but me and Elder Patterson and Elder Platt. I'm way sad, I had such a great district.
Oh well. I'm sure this upcoming district will be awesome too. Well, I had better go. Happy Father's Day next Sunday Dad!Love you all a ton,
Nicole
Last night we got our transfer call, I'm staying in Bucharest but getting a new comp, her name is Sora Lovell, I hear she's pretty fantastic, she was in the MTC with Sora Larsen. Sora Larsen is going to Timisoara and pretty much everyone from my district is out but me and Elder Patterson and Elder Platt. I'm way sad, I had such a great district.
Oh well. I'm sure this upcoming district will be awesome too. Well, I had better go. Happy Father's Day next Sunday Dad!Love you all a ton,
Nicole
P.s. 6/2/2008
Okay, sorry I wasn't quite done, I wanted to tell you about the fact that apparently when you are in the only companionship of sisters in a Zone if something goes crazy in the Relief Society in one of the other cities in that zone you get to go to that city, and so Sora Larsen and myself went to Alexandria on Saturday. It was super fun and we got to meet the Matei's a really fameous member family in Romania. It was fun to be able to get out. Anyway the internet lady made us pre-pay and she's yelling at me.Love ya, maybe I'll just write a letter with more detail.
Nicole
Nicole
6/2/2008
!!!!!OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS! MAGDA IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!! This last week has been INSANE, in a fabulous way! Magda is so cute, we were super worried about her but when we finally got another lesson with Magda she was doing well, her life was still insane and super stressful so we were worried she wouldn't be willing to try to quit smoking again, but she had already started the quiting process before we talked about it again and now has officially been smoke free for 11 days! So, we met with her last Thursday and she brought this weird little Bible thing and said that her penticostal friend gave it to her to read and she went off about how it didn't make sense and how she loved the Book of Mormon because she feels like God talks to her through it (HELLO!) and so Sora Larsen was like, "So, what does that mean for your life?" and Magda said that she wanted to be BAPTIZED! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Last Sunday 3 new members were confirmed in Sacrement Meeting and she said that she felt so strongly that if she wants to be happy she would need the Holy Ghost. So, we set a date for June 29! Oh, my goodness she is so fabulous. So, Saturday we had a Book of Mormon activity where we gave 4 different groups a BoM with a highlighted story that they needed to act out and we invited Magda to come and she brough Alex her little boy and we were watching a group act out the Tree of Life vision and she was like "oh! I know this story, its Lehi's dream that Nephi prayed to know too, thats one of my favorites! About eating the fruit and wanting your family to eat too." We were a little surprised that she knew it so well, but figured its at the beginning of the book so whatever, but then a group acted out Ammon cutting of the arms and what not, and she knew that story well too! She is so crazy amazing!Oh, and we are now teaching 2 new investigating families. We found one family park contacting and whenever we go over there to tach them Fane, the father has someone new that he's gotten interested in the church! And older man, and his cousin and her family! And they all have kids and are such fun people, I hope these go really well, Mihaela his cousin is so cool, she keeps calling us and telling us stuff she likes about our reading assignments we give her, we just can't seem to move fast enough for her. But she didn't come to church yesterday, so I'm a bit worried. Oh well, I'll just have to pray some more.Its been such a fun week! I hope things keep moving along. This is the last week of the transfer so next Wednesday I'll have a new companion probably, its kinda sad, I'm pretty sure all of my district but me and Elder Patterson are getting transferred. Oh well, it'll be good.Anyway, tell everyone hi for me.Love lots,Nicole
Monday, June 9, 2008
5/26/2008
Hey,
I did e-mail you last week! I guess you didn't get it. I'll send this e-mail two different ways just in case somethings wrong. I did get the western union info but they wouldn't give me the money without better id so I'll have to have the office elders bring me my passport to me at zone conference on Thursday and pick up the money next Monday.
Anyway, life is going pretty well even though this last week was kinda lame, we had a lot of lame business to take care of and only got a chance to go into the blocks or go parck contacting once, so we haven't really met anyone new, except last night we met a couple who told us all this stuff about their life and how they were trying to have a baby, but its been hard and they don't understand why God would prevent them from having a baby when they are such good people, so we talked for a long while with them, and it was kinda nice because they aren't Romanian and don't speak Romanian so the talk was all in English. Last night was the first time I ever told anyone who didn't already know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, it was weird, but really good, I mean I've told people before in Romanian but thats different because Romanian is still kinda just weird sounds to me that I hope are actual words. We gave them the Book of Mormon and talked a lot about how to learn more about what God's purpose for all of us is. It was really cool because we were in a huge gorgeous park near a lake thing and it was just really peaceful and the Spirit was there and I could totally tell that they could feel it. I usually have to pray during lessons that they can feel what I am feeling, but I could just tell that they could feel it, language barrier and all.
Since you didn't get my last e-mail you didn't know that last Monday was ridiculous, we didn't even get a P-day because we were trapped in our apartment with a cleaning lady for 10 hours. So by Friday with the lame week we were having we were about ready to pull our hair out when we went to a Relief Society Talent Show for one of the Branches (Cotroceni) (since me and Sora Larsen are pretty lacking in the talent department we painted faces on our chins, put a blanket over our faces and lip-synced Akunah Matatah with Elder Hale, the ladies went crazy for it, they had never seen anything like it!) afterwards one of the branch families decided to cook all the missionaries that were there mici (don't worry about what that is)as a surprise so we had to stay and wait for them to finish cooking so the 6 of us and the daughter Camilia pulled out a volleyball and volleyed around the church grounds it was so much fun, and the mici was probably the best mici I have eaten. It was hilarious because the Church hired a gaurd for the grounds from 6:30p-6:30a and he was there and he pulled his car around and started blaring Abba! It was hilarious because this is a maybe, 25 year old guy! And we just danced around with the kids there and Elder Suckow the elder from Germany showed us how its done back where he comes from. It was good times, thats all I have to say. You aint't seen dancin 'til you've seen Romanian dancin!
Oh, and yesterday at church was exhausting, our typical 7 hours there has been extended to 8 because we now have a meeting with one of the branch presidents every Sunday at 8am. And yesterday was a joke, but I came down from R.S. a little frustrated with the first block of church and saw our dear little Magda coming to chruch! And since you apparently didn't get the last e-mail we were super worried about her because she started smoking again and hasn't been answering her phone since last Wed. and there she was all adorable dressed up coming to chruch without even having to be reminded! She made my whole day!
Anyway, that is that and I have to buy some groceries,
Love you lots!
Nicole
I did e-mail you last week! I guess you didn't get it. I'll send this e-mail two different ways just in case somethings wrong. I did get the western union info but they wouldn't give me the money without better id so I'll have to have the office elders bring me my passport to me at zone conference on Thursday and pick up the money next Monday.
Anyway, life is going pretty well even though this last week was kinda lame, we had a lot of lame business to take care of and only got a chance to go into the blocks or go parck contacting once, so we haven't really met anyone new, except last night we met a couple who told us all this stuff about their life and how they were trying to have a baby, but its been hard and they don't understand why God would prevent them from having a baby when they are such good people, so we talked for a long while with them, and it was kinda nice because they aren't Romanian and don't speak Romanian so the talk was all in English. Last night was the first time I ever told anyone who didn't already know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, it was weird, but really good, I mean I've told people before in Romanian but thats different because Romanian is still kinda just weird sounds to me that I hope are actual words. We gave them the Book of Mormon and talked a lot about how to learn more about what God's purpose for all of us is. It was really cool because we were in a huge gorgeous park near a lake thing and it was just really peaceful and the Spirit was there and I could totally tell that they could feel it. I usually have to pray during lessons that they can feel what I am feeling, but I could just tell that they could feel it, language barrier and all.
Since you didn't get my last e-mail you didn't know that last Monday was ridiculous, we didn't even get a P-day because we were trapped in our apartment with a cleaning lady for 10 hours. So by Friday with the lame week we were having we were about ready to pull our hair out when we went to a Relief Society Talent Show for one of the Branches (Cotroceni) (since me and Sora Larsen are pretty lacking in the talent department we painted faces on our chins, put a blanket over our faces and lip-synced Akunah Matatah with Elder Hale, the ladies went crazy for it, they had never seen anything like it!) afterwards one of the branch families decided to cook all the missionaries that were there mici (don't worry about what that is)as a surprise so we had to stay and wait for them to finish cooking so the 6 of us and the daughter Camilia pulled out a volleyball and volleyed around the church grounds it was so much fun, and the mici was probably the best mici I have eaten. It was hilarious because the Church hired a gaurd for the grounds from 6:30p-6:30a and he was there and he pulled his car around and started blaring Abba! It was hilarious because this is a maybe, 25 year old guy! And we just danced around with the kids there and Elder Suckow the elder from Germany showed us how its done back where he comes from. It was good times, thats all I have to say. You aint't seen dancin 'til you've seen Romanian dancin!
Oh, and yesterday at church was exhausting, our typical 7 hours there has been extended to 8 because we now have a meeting with one of the branch presidents every Sunday at 8am. And yesterday was a joke, but I came down from R.S. a little frustrated with the first block of church and saw our dear little Magda coming to chruch! And since you apparently didn't get the last e-mail we were super worried about her because she started smoking again and hasn't been answering her phone since last Wed. and there she was all adorable dressed up coming to chruch without even having to be reminded! She made my whole day!
Anyway, that is that and I have to buy some groceries,
Love you lots!
Nicole
5/20/2008
Sorry this e-mail took so long, I hope mom didn't call the office. Yesterday was ridiculous. At 7:30 am our landlord shows up and has a cleaning lady with him and says that she has to do general cleaning, and Sora Larsen tried to explain that we didn't need it because we clean our apartment, he said it was in the contract that twice a year a professional comes in. So, after some arguing Sora Larsen broke and agreed. The lady looked pretty sketchy so we didn't feel comfortable leaving, but we were starving and didn't have any food so we decided that we would take 10 minutes and run to the store and get something to eat, we get back and the landlord and his wife are there looking at a hole in a chair and freaking out and saying that our church is going to have to pay for a whole new set of furniture. After that we decided not to leave the lady alone, how long can it take to clean a clean 3 room apartment? Apparently 10 hours. We never left the apartment until well after 6 and were late for an appointment. It was lame.
Besides that, life is great. We have a few more investigators, 6 to be exact. We are a little worried about Magda, she's attempted to quit smoking twice and is at a point where she doesn't understand why just 2 cigerettes are bad. We're working on it. She wants to quit. We taught her the plan of salvation last night, we waited and waited until she could get her whole family there and her husband never showed and her two older kids decided that since dad wasn't there they didn't have to be either. She looked exhausted. I feel so sad for her. I felt so dumb because my part of the lesson was how this life is a blessing from God to prepare and repent to meet him, and right as I am starting Alex her 4 year old started going nuts and wrote all over his face with a pen, (which broke my focus and made it really hard for me not to laugh, but she did not think it was funny) and he started bouncing off the walls. So, she was yelling at him, and mind you she works the night shift at a bank (why a bank has a night shift I am not entirely sure) so she was out of it because she hadn't had a chance to sleep, but wanted us to come over before she went to work, poor lady was dangling on a string that was about to snap. And all i knew how to say was that life is a blessing even when its hard. She just looked at me, and Sora Larsen was laughing at me as soon as we left. It was sad.
Anyway on a funnier note, we had a combined branch activity on Friday, and I was just setting up chairs minding my business when this rather scary girl maybe a little older than me was walking around the church with Georgiana, a convert as of last Sunday, pretty much stuck to her,against her will, the girl (I'm not entirely sure what her name is) comes over to me and grabs my arm and tells me to come with her. Now, mind you she's about 8 inches shorter than me but remarkably strong my shoulder pinned under her arm and as we are walking around she is asking me about my family,I'm a little too frightened to be honest to really concentrate enough to understand, we come back around the church and this girl literally picks me up off the ground and sets me on a chair and tells me to sit there and then wispers something in my ear and the only word I understood was "crying"
and I'm like what the... and I look at Georgiana and she smiles at me and all of the sudden bursts into tears and starts talking to me, and all I catch is that her 21 year old friend died two days ago and she was a sinner and so God isn't going to love her anymore. It was intense.
Okay, maybe that isn't very funny, but the elders were laughing pretty hard, and did basically nothing to help. Good old elders. Anyway, things are going well, I still understand basically nothing, but I'm faking it better Ithink, sadly to say.
Anyway, Sorry I don't have any good stories from this week.
Love ya,
Nicole
Besides that, life is great. We have a few more investigators, 6 to be exact. We are a little worried about Magda, she's attempted to quit smoking twice and is at a point where she doesn't understand why just 2 cigerettes are bad. We're working on it. She wants to quit. We taught her the plan of salvation last night, we waited and waited until she could get her whole family there and her husband never showed and her two older kids decided that since dad wasn't there they didn't have to be either. She looked exhausted. I feel so sad for her. I felt so dumb because my part of the lesson was how this life is a blessing from God to prepare and repent to meet him, and right as I am starting Alex her 4 year old started going nuts and wrote all over his face with a pen, (which broke my focus and made it really hard for me not to laugh, but she did not think it was funny) and he started bouncing off the walls. So, she was yelling at him, and mind you she works the night shift at a bank (why a bank has a night shift I am not entirely sure) so she was out of it because she hadn't had a chance to sleep, but wanted us to come over before she went to work, poor lady was dangling on a string that was about to snap. And all i knew how to say was that life is a blessing even when its hard. She just looked at me, and Sora Larsen was laughing at me as soon as we left. It was sad.
Anyway on a funnier note, we had a combined branch activity on Friday, and I was just setting up chairs minding my business when this rather scary girl maybe a little older than me was walking around the church with Georgiana, a convert as of last Sunday, pretty much stuck to her,against her will, the girl (I'm not entirely sure what her name is) comes over to me and grabs my arm and tells me to come with her. Now, mind you she's about 8 inches shorter than me but remarkably strong my shoulder pinned under her arm and as we are walking around she is asking me about my family,I'm a little too frightened to be honest to really concentrate enough to understand, we come back around the church and this girl literally picks me up off the ground and sets me on a chair and tells me to sit there and then wispers something in my ear and the only word I understood was "crying"
and I'm like what the... and I look at Georgiana and she smiles at me and all of the sudden bursts into tears and starts talking to me, and all I catch is that her 21 year old friend died two days ago and she was a sinner and so God isn't going to love her anymore. It was intense.
Okay, maybe that isn't very funny, but the elders were laughing pretty hard, and did basically nothing to help. Good old elders. Anyway, things are going well, I still understand basically nothing, but I'm faking it better Ithink, sadly to say.
Anyway, Sorry I don't have any good stories from this week.
Love ya,
Nicole
5/5/2008
After a ridiculously long labor (26 hours and 28 minutes to be exact, one that included my wallet and umbrella being stolen by lame Frenchies, don't worry mom, it wasn't some dramatic mugging, I fell asleep on the airplane, my fault.) I was born on a crazy hot Romanian day to a Sora Kella Larsen, in the city of Bucharest! Thats right, Bucharest. Sectors 1,5 & 6! (which means about 7 hours of church every Sunday because we are the only sisters for 2 branches) After being completely disoriented and slightly delusional from jet lag I got settled into my sector 5 apartment, which is ridiculously nice, my jaw dropped when I saw it.
Anyway, on to stuff that matters. My companion is awesome. Everyone told me at transfer meeting that she is the best sister in the mission, and I can see why, she's dead serious about missionary work and I love it! Sora Larsen is super easy to get along with, luckily. I've had the most amazing week so far!
Tuesday when I first got here, I went with Sora Davidson and Sora Kiss-Maxim (who is Romanian) block knocking(door to door) and street contacting, and that was madness, but awesome. A lot of people refused to answer the door because it was Easter (2 days before) It made the sisters so mad, but it made me laugh. We could hear the t.v. on in one apartment and people talking to each other and when we knocked it went all silent inside and no one came to the door and Sora Davidson started yelling at them that she knew they were home and that they should answer the door, then they would yell back, "no, its Easter" and she would yell, "Jesus would answer the door!" I seriously almost fell on the ground laughing, it was hilarious (to me anyway), but the other missionaries I guess are so sick of Easter being people's excuse for not talking to them that they just get mad. Anyway, I thought it was a good time.
Then Wednesday we went Street Boarding which is where we have a big board thing with church pictures and stuff and some missionaries singing hymns and we street contact people. It was fun, and I learned that I don't mind stopping people in the street but when they say something back I can never understand, so I am pretty much useless, good thing my comp is amazing at the language.
Thursday, my first coherent day we taught 4 less active lessons, which I thought went somewhat well (considering I got basically nothing that was said I could be wrong I think I now know less Romanian now than I did weeks ago, I understand nothing, but I speak alright... strange, you'd think they'd be the same level but nope). Friday we were supposed to meet with a lot of people, but we got blown off by all of them, so we ended up painting a wall... long boring story there, luckily I didn't ruin my clothes I was so paranoid, I'm sure I looked totally awkward trying to keep my body as far away from the paint brush as I could.
Saturday was awesome! Okay, so I guess a couple of weeks ago Sora Larsen and her companion met a woman on the bus named Magda and she had her 4 year old son Alexandru with her and she seemed somewhat interested and so the sisters asked for her # and she was like, "Oh, I don't know what it is, give me yours and I'll call you later." so they did, expecting nothing because thats a lame excuse. But Wednesday she called! So we went to visit her but she wasn't there so we were way bummed. Then She called us the next day and was like, "how come you never came to see me?" We explained that we did and found out we had the wrong address, so she gave us directions and said to come over right now because she was home. So, we met with her and she was awesome! She has three kids and a husband who was way nice, and she has been searching for the right church to join. she was born orthodox, but didn't like the churches, said they were too dark and scary for God to want to be there, and then she met with J.W.'s for 6 months and was almost baptized with them, showed up to her baptism date and saw how they did baptisms, and she said she could feel that it was wrong and snuck out the back door! Hahahaha! I loved that! So, she seemed to like what we said and invited us to come back next Saturday. Her husband seemed to be somewhat interested but didn't want to show it, he kept walking in and out of the room, and standing near the door, and occasionally nodded at things, but was super quiet. I felt bad, because it could have been such a great lesson, but her 4 year old son was insane (super crazy cute) and all over the place. So he was a big distraction, but we're now prepared for that.
Anyway, sorry that was such a long e-mail, church was intense, I met a lot of people that I don't remember their names and could understand nothing of what they said. But thats okay, I will.... hopefully one day.
Anyway, things are great! Have a fabulous week! And Mom Happy Mothers Day!
Love you all a ridiculous amount!
~Nicole
P.S. those curious where the older district is: Smith & Hale- Buc, Anderson & Ertel- Oradea, Colliar- Sibiu, Cannon-Ploiest, Poulsen-Constanta, Foote (now Elder Brian)-Galati, and Rakozy- Arad.
P.S.S. Oh, yeah mothers day! my phone # is 0753.058.809, but I will try and call around 8 in the morning, because my comps dad is a bishop and will be at church from 7a.m. to like 3 p.m. so she is waking up at 4 Mon. morn to call. so I will just call you in the afternoon after church is out, so hopefully around 8a.m.... don't be mad if its a little later. (it was either that or 9 pm your time) Just remember I'm in church from 8:30 until like 3 here. So that was the only option. Love ya!
Anyway, on to stuff that matters. My companion is awesome. Everyone told me at transfer meeting that she is the best sister in the mission, and I can see why, she's dead serious about missionary work and I love it! Sora Larsen is super easy to get along with, luckily. I've had the most amazing week so far!
Tuesday when I first got here, I went with Sora Davidson and Sora Kiss-Maxim (who is Romanian) block knocking(door to door) and street contacting, and that was madness, but awesome. A lot of people refused to answer the door because it was Easter (2 days before) It made the sisters so mad, but it made me laugh. We could hear the t.v. on in one apartment and people talking to each other and when we knocked it went all silent inside and no one came to the door and Sora Davidson started yelling at them that she knew they were home and that they should answer the door, then they would yell back, "no, its Easter" and she would yell, "Jesus would answer the door!" I seriously almost fell on the ground laughing, it was hilarious (to me anyway), but the other missionaries I guess are so sick of Easter being people's excuse for not talking to them that they just get mad. Anyway, I thought it was a good time.
Then Wednesday we went Street Boarding which is where we have a big board thing with church pictures and stuff and some missionaries singing hymns and we street contact people. It was fun, and I learned that I don't mind stopping people in the street but when they say something back I can never understand, so I am pretty much useless, good thing my comp is amazing at the language.
Thursday, my first coherent day we taught 4 less active lessons, which I thought went somewhat well (considering I got basically nothing that was said I could be wrong I think I now know less Romanian now than I did weeks ago, I understand nothing, but I speak alright... strange, you'd think they'd be the same level but nope). Friday we were supposed to meet with a lot of people, but we got blown off by all of them, so we ended up painting a wall... long boring story there, luckily I didn't ruin my clothes I was so paranoid, I'm sure I looked totally awkward trying to keep my body as far away from the paint brush as I could.
Saturday was awesome! Okay, so I guess a couple of weeks ago Sora Larsen and her companion met a woman on the bus named Magda and she had her 4 year old son Alexandru with her and she seemed somewhat interested and so the sisters asked for her # and she was like, "Oh, I don't know what it is, give me yours and I'll call you later." so they did, expecting nothing because thats a lame excuse. But Wednesday she called! So we went to visit her but she wasn't there so we were way bummed. Then She called us the next day and was like, "how come you never came to see me?" We explained that we did and found out we had the wrong address, so she gave us directions and said to come over right now because she was home. So, we met with her and she was awesome! She has three kids and a husband who was way nice, and she has been searching for the right church to join. she was born orthodox, but didn't like the churches, said they were too dark and scary for God to want to be there, and then she met with J.W.'s for 6 months and was almost baptized with them, showed up to her baptism date and saw how they did baptisms, and she said she could feel that it was wrong and snuck out the back door! Hahahaha! I loved that! So, she seemed to like what we said and invited us to come back next Saturday. Her husband seemed to be somewhat interested but didn't want to show it, he kept walking in and out of the room, and standing near the door, and occasionally nodded at things, but was super quiet. I felt bad, because it could have been such a great lesson, but her 4 year old son was insane (super crazy cute) and all over the place. So he was a big distraction, but we're now prepared for that.
Anyway, sorry that was such a long e-mail, church was intense, I met a lot of people that I don't remember their names and could understand nothing of what they said. But thats okay, I will.... hopefully one day.
Anyway, things are great! Have a fabulous week! And Mom Happy Mothers Day!
Love you all a ridiculous amount!
~Nicole
P.S. those curious where the older district is: Smith & Hale- Buc, Anderson & Ertel- Oradea, Colliar- Sibiu, Cannon-Ploiest, Poulsen-Constanta, Foote (now Elder Brian)-Galati, and Rakozy- Arad.
P.S.S. Oh, yeah mothers day! my phone # is 0753.058.809, but I will try and call around 8 in the morning, because my comps dad is a bishop and will be at church from 7a.m. to like 3 p.m. so she is waking up at 4 Mon. morn to call. so I will just call you in the afternoon after church is out, so hopefully around 8a.m.... don't be mad if its a little later. (it was either that or 9 pm your time) Just remember I'm in church from 8:30 until like 3 here. So that was the only option. Love ya!
4/24/2008
Hey family!
So as you know I got my flight plans, and no I don't think I need anything beyond maybe a couple pairs of nylons. Other than that I'm good.
So, not a whole lot has happened this week... does anything ever? I got my flight plans which made me incredibly happy! Saturday was Fratele McKeeth's last day teaching us, he's moving to Chicago for the summer for work or something. So, we've had a jumble of random teachers this week, but its been fun. They are just teaching us random things like how to call people names... productive missionary things like that :) but yeah.
Elder Gerald N. Lund (the work and the glory guy) came and talked to us this past Tuesday about all the ways the Book of Mormon HAS to be true as proven by worldly methods... weird but good. (who knew that a general authority would be super concerned about telling us facts rather than going over the typical testimony... but whatever). Some of the facts were interesting. Did you know that it takes a trained translator with computers and libraries of help and teams of professionals to turn out 1 and a half pages of traslated documents a day? Joseph Smith averaged 9 pages a day, with no education or help. Did you know that the word "and" in English is typically only used once a sentence MAYBE twice. In Hebrew their word for and is typically used 3-5 times a sentence, in the Book of Mormon the word "and" is used an average of 3 times a sentence, proving that it was originally written in a different language than English.
Writing-typing, a new technology that is used to identify a writer by their writing pattern analyzed the BOM and discovered that over 30 different writers of various education levels wrote it. Then when compared to letters and discourses written in the early days of the church, none of the 30 people who wrote the BOM matched the writing styles of Jospeh Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, or Martin Harris.
There was a bunch of other cool facts about how the Book of Mormon is legit that came from attempts to scientifically disprove it. Gotta love how no matter what people do, the Book of Mormon is still true.
Anyway, life here is same old same old... and I am so so so happy to leave on Monday and finally get to doin' what I cam to do!
Sorry the e-mail is so lame,
Love ya all!
Nicole
So as you know I got my flight plans, and no I don't think I need anything beyond maybe a couple pairs of nylons. Other than that I'm good.
So, not a whole lot has happened this week... does anything ever? I got my flight plans which made me incredibly happy! Saturday was Fratele McKeeth's last day teaching us, he's moving to Chicago for the summer for work or something. So, we've had a jumble of random teachers this week, but its been fun. They are just teaching us random things like how to call people names... productive missionary things like that :) but yeah.
Elder Gerald N. Lund (the work and the glory guy) came and talked to us this past Tuesday about all the ways the Book of Mormon HAS to be true as proven by worldly methods... weird but good. (who knew that a general authority would be super concerned about telling us facts rather than going over the typical testimony... but whatever). Some of the facts were interesting. Did you know that it takes a trained translator with computers and libraries of help and teams of professionals to turn out 1 and a half pages of traslated documents a day? Joseph Smith averaged 9 pages a day, with no education or help. Did you know that the word "and" in English is typically only used once a sentence MAYBE twice. In Hebrew their word for and is typically used 3-5 times a sentence, in the Book of Mormon the word "and" is used an average of 3 times a sentence, proving that it was originally written in a different language than English.
Writing-typing, a new technology that is used to identify a writer by their writing pattern analyzed the BOM and discovered that over 30 different writers of various education levels wrote it. Then when compared to letters and discourses written in the early days of the church, none of the 30 people who wrote the BOM matched the writing styles of Jospeh Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, or Martin Harris.
There was a bunch of other cool facts about how the Book of Mormon is legit that came from attempts to scientifically disprove it. Gotta love how no matter what people do, the Book of Mormon is still true.
Anyway, life here is same old same old... and I am so so so happy to leave on Monday and finally get to doin' what I cam to do!
Sorry the e-mail is so lame,
Love ya all!
Nicole
4/17/2008
Hello! I hope the vacation went fabulously. I am doing well, super excited to leave in 11 days! Wahoo!
Well, I don't have a tone of time but I thought I would say that this past week was pretty good. My roommates for how crazy they are super early in the morning, they are really hilarious every other moment. They are funny sisters. So, I am officially a solo sister now, my companion left yesterday morning for Salt Lake, you should go see if you can track her down, maybe dad could pretend to be deaf and request an ASL tour guide, that would highten your chances of finding her. (to 1 in 3 instead of 1 in 150).
Next Monday the English sisters will leave and I will be completely alone in the Zone until Wednesday then we get two new sisters... but they are deaf.... so I don't really know how communication will go in that respect. But it should be interesting.
So, Sunday Sister Thompson of the General Relief Society Presidency came and talked to all the sisters for our relief society class. It was awsome, she is hilarious, she told us crazy stories from her mission to Germany! It was great. I think that is one thing I will miss for sure about the MTC, there is always someone cool from the church here. Also Tuesday we had Bishop Edgley (I think thats his name, or something like it.) from the presiding bishopric came, which was awsome as well. He talked to us about using the Spirit to teach, because with out it we are nothing.
I am so so glad I am on a mission. I haven't even gotten to the mission part of my mission but I already feel like I've grown a ton from all the things I have learned. The person I was before the mission feels really long ago, in a good way. The Church is so ridiculously true!
Love you all!
Sora Nicole Shepard
Well, I don't have a tone of time but I thought I would say that this past week was pretty good. My roommates for how crazy they are super early in the morning, they are really hilarious every other moment. They are funny sisters. So, I am officially a solo sister now, my companion left yesterday morning for Salt Lake, you should go see if you can track her down, maybe dad could pretend to be deaf and request an ASL tour guide, that would highten your chances of finding her. (to 1 in 3 instead of 1 in 150).
Next Monday the English sisters will leave and I will be completely alone in the Zone until Wednesday then we get two new sisters... but they are deaf.... so I don't really know how communication will go in that respect. But it should be interesting.
So, Sunday Sister Thompson of the General Relief Society Presidency came and talked to all the sisters for our relief society class. It was awsome, she is hilarious, she told us crazy stories from her mission to Germany! It was great. I think that is one thing I will miss for sure about the MTC, there is always someone cool from the church here. Also Tuesday we had Bishop Edgley (I think thats his name, or something like it.) from the presiding bishopric came, which was awsome as well. He talked to us about using the Spirit to teach, because with out it we are nothing.
I am so so glad I am on a mission. I haven't even gotten to the mission part of my mission but I already feel like I've grown a ton from all the things I have learned. The person I was before the mission feels really long ago, in a good way. The Church is so ridiculously true!
Love you all!
Sora Nicole Shepard
4/10/2008
Hello family. I don't know if you are still in California or not, I kinda hope you are home because I sent pictures to y'all last Saturday. But thats ok, I hope Cali was fun and warm.
Life here is so same old same old. I taught in Romanian for the second time on Monday... it didn't go so well, mostly because I don't always know what the investigator is saying to me, so when they asked me why Joseph Smith didn't know which church to join, because they didn't think that was a question to worry about, I didn't hear it and went on with the lesson and Elder Bailey and Elder Barclay who understand and speak considerably better than I freaked out after. Now I am prepping to teach lesson 2 in Romanian (the Plan of Happiness), and I seriously hope I do better this time.
I can't belive its already Thursday the 10th because I leave in 20 days! Time just flies here. I didn't think it would go by so fast. But I guess if every minute of everyday is planned out for you than it would. I can't believe I only have 16 and 1/2 months left. Time is crazy. My whole life I thought about my 18 month mission and what not, but it doesn't consist of 18 months for very long. Time ticks away far too fast.
So, I thought general conference was fabulous! I loved when the choir sang "Called to Serve" it made me cry. I know I am supposed to be on a mission and the Lord shows that to me all the time. I thought the whole first presidency did amazing! And Elder Bednar's talk about prayer was so good. And I thought when Elder Nelson was talking about how salvation was a personal matter but exaltation was a family matter that he really made me think about something I had never really considered before.
Now I will go off on a tangent about Elder Nelson... :) So, Elder Nelson is one of my teacher's grandpa (Fratele Irion). And I guess (maybe I mentioned this) it was Elder Nelson that dedicated Romania for missionary work and in the dedicatory prayer he said that one day Romania would be the the Church's central location in Eastern Europe and that one day Saints will flood Romania and that there will be TEMPLES there (more than one)! Pretty fantastic huh?! I guess a couple years ago the church requested that the mission president (President Hansen, the one who spoke in the fireside) buy land so that they may one day build a temple on it. It isn't dedicated ground yet or anything, but there is a large section of land in Bucureşti (Bucharest) for a temple (and that info came straight from Pres. Hansen himself). I just think that is so cool! There is only a little over 2,000 Mormons in Romania at the moment, but there is over 5,000 Romanian memebers worldwide. Most I guess don't stay in Romania if they can help it, so the Church is trying to get them to stay put so that a temple in Romania is reasonable. Anyway, I just thought that was so cool.
So we had Elder Woods from the 70 come speak to us on Tues. and he was talking about how the proof that Jesus was the Christ was the Ressurection and that the proof that He will come again is that His true church would fill the world, and that therefore we missionaries are proof that Christ would come again! I just felt so amazing when he said that. Especially with knowing how important Romania is to the Church, I feel really priviledged to be able to have the honor of serving in Romania! Even if the language is insane :) !
Well, times up and I gotta run!
Love you all tons!
Love,
Sora Nicole Shepard!
Life here is so same old same old. I taught in Romanian for the second time on Monday... it didn't go so well, mostly because I don't always know what the investigator is saying to me, so when they asked me why Joseph Smith didn't know which church to join, because they didn't think that was a question to worry about, I didn't hear it and went on with the lesson and Elder Bailey and Elder Barclay who understand and speak considerably better than I freaked out after. Now I am prepping to teach lesson 2 in Romanian (the Plan of Happiness), and I seriously hope I do better this time.
I can't belive its already Thursday the 10th because I leave in 20 days! Time just flies here. I didn't think it would go by so fast. But I guess if every minute of everyday is planned out for you than it would. I can't believe I only have 16 and 1/2 months left. Time is crazy. My whole life I thought about my 18 month mission and what not, but it doesn't consist of 18 months for very long. Time ticks away far too fast.
So, I thought general conference was fabulous! I loved when the choir sang "Called to Serve" it made me cry. I know I am supposed to be on a mission and the Lord shows that to me all the time. I thought the whole first presidency did amazing! And Elder Bednar's talk about prayer was so good. And I thought when Elder Nelson was talking about how salvation was a personal matter but exaltation was a family matter that he really made me think about something I had never really considered before.
Now I will go off on a tangent about Elder Nelson... :) So, Elder Nelson is one of my teacher's grandpa (Fratele Irion). And I guess (maybe I mentioned this) it was Elder Nelson that dedicated Romania for missionary work and in the dedicatory prayer he said that one day Romania would be the the Church's central location in Eastern Europe and that one day Saints will flood Romania and that there will be TEMPLES there (more than one)! Pretty fantastic huh?! I guess a couple years ago the church requested that the mission president (President Hansen, the one who spoke in the fireside) buy land so that they may one day build a temple on it. It isn't dedicated ground yet or anything, but there is a large section of land in Bucureşti (Bucharest) for a temple (and that info came straight from Pres. Hansen himself). I just think that is so cool! There is only a little over 2,000 Mormons in Romania at the moment, but there is over 5,000 Romanian memebers worldwide. Most I guess don't stay in Romania if they can help it, so the Church is trying to get them to stay put so that a temple in Romania is reasonable. Anyway, I just thought that was so cool.
So we had Elder Woods from the 70 come speak to us on Tues. and he was talking about how the proof that Jesus was the Christ was the Ressurection and that the proof that He will come again is that His true church would fill the world, and that therefore we missionaries are proof that Christ would come again! I just felt so amazing when he said that. Especially with knowing how important Romania is to the Church, I feel really priviledged to be able to have the honor of serving in Romania! Even if the language is insane :) !
Well, times up and I gotta run!
Love you all tons!
Love,
Sora Nicole Shepard!
4/3/2008
Dear Family,
Greetings from the M.T.C. yet again! Always... Anyway, things are fine here, General Conference is coming up which is exciting because that means I get Saturday off for language class! I am lame I know, but it gets to be a bit much at times. Thinking in Romanian literally gives me a headache.
I wish something had happened this week that I would be happy to write home about, but life is pretty basic here. Not much to report. Um, Elder Nash of the 70 came on Tuesday for the devotional, he did a good job, but I didn't really come out of it inspired or feeling like I had new perspective. But its okay because general conference is coming therefore I will have my uplifting moments for the week. Pres. Hansen that used to be Distric B (whatever that means) of the M.T.C.'s president spoke to us on Sunday, but I pretty much heard the whole talk over the time I have been here because he used to be the mission president in Romania back before Pres. Ashbey, so he would always show up to my distric meetings on Sundays (which is like our Sunday School) and talk with the 3 of us about how fantasic Romania is. But I guess he got called to be in the new temple something or other for the Sweden temple, Sweden is where he served his mission back in the day.
Um, oh, as other news, my companion, Sister Shawcross, got a letter from her mission pres. at temple Square and he wants her on April 16 instead of April 28. So I don't really know what they are going to do with me companion wise, I'll be pretty annoyed if they make me move into another room 2 weeks before I leave, but I guess it wouldn't be horrible to have to pack a bit ahead of time. Speaking of packing, the weight limit is 50 pounds per suitcase... lets all pray for a miracle... all the other sisters that left for Romania, their suitcases were either exactly 50 pounds or like 48.3 or something, so I am hoping I have the same thing happen to me, but I slightly doubt it considering mine weighed a ton before. Its kinda like a Miscack, Some-other biblical guy, and Abindigo who knew that God could save them from the firey furness but they just didn't know if He would, so they said either way they still wouldn't bow down to the false god. I know God could make my suitcases light, I just don't know if He would :).. Anyway, yeah.
I went to print off my pictures but they aren't done yet, so lets hope they are done by Saturday, because I heard a rumor going around that they let us write on Saturday for conference, that way I can send them home.
Anyway, I don't really have anything else to write.
Love you all tons!
~ Sora Nicole!
Oh, PS. just for the record, it was my idea to reclaim the flag. Its not about being a person who "steals" its about restoring something to the rightful owner... you know justice and all :)
Greetings from the M.T.C. yet again! Always... Anyway, things are fine here, General Conference is coming up which is exciting because that means I get Saturday off for language class! I am lame I know, but it gets to be a bit much at times. Thinking in Romanian literally gives me a headache.
I wish something had happened this week that I would be happy to write home about, but life is pretty basic here. Not much to report. Um, Elder Nash of the 70 came on Tuesday for the devotional, he did a good job, but I didn't really come out of it inspired or feeling like I had new perspective. But its okay because general conference is coming therefore I will have my uplifting moments for the week. Pres. Hansen that used to be Distric B (whatever that means) of the M.T.C.'s president spoke to us on Sunday, but I pretty much heard the whole talk over the time I have been here because he used to be the mission president in Romania back before Pres. Ashbey, so he would always show up to my distric meetings on Sundays (which is like our Sunday School) and talk with the 3 of us about how fantasic Romania is. But I guess he got called to be in the new temple something or other for the Sweden temple, Sweden is where he served his mission back in the day.
Um, oh, as other news, my companion, Sister Shawcross, got a letter from her mission pres. at temple Square and he wants her on April 16 instead of April 28. So I don't really know what they are going to do with me companion wise, I'll be pretty annoyed if they make me move into another room 2 weeks before I leave, but I guess it wouldn't be horrible to have to pack a bit ahead of time. Speaking of packing, the weight limit is 50 pounds per suitcase... lets all pray for a miracle... all the other sisters that left for Romania, their suitcases were either exactly 50 pounds or like 48.3 or something, so I am hoping I have the same thing happen to me, but I slightly doubt it considering mine weighed a ton before. Its kinda like a Miscack, Some-other biblical guy, and Abindigo who knew that God could save them from the firey furness but they just didn't know if He would, so they said either way they still wouldn't bow down to the false god. I know God could make my suitcases light, I just don't know if He would :).. Anyway, yeah.
I went to print off my pictures but they aren't done yet, so lets hope they are done by Saturday, because I heard a rumor going around that they let us write on Saturday for conference, that way I can send them home.
Anyway, I don't really have anything else to write.
Love you all tons!
~ Sora Nicole!
Oh, PS. just for the record, it was my idea to reclaim the flag. Its not about being a person who "steals" its about restoring something to the rightful owner... you know justice and all :)
3/27/2008
I hope you all had a fabulous Easter and thank you very much for the package, I loved it!
So, this week was a little less eventful than last week, but thats okay. I don't remember if I told you about the flag... I will tell you now either way. So, a couple years ago an elder brought a Romanian Flag to the MTC and had his roommates going to Romania sign it. About two transfers later the Spanish speaking elders stole it and used it to sign... why they would want to sign a Romanian flag I will never know, but they did. Anyway it stayed with the spaniards for the last couple years and when me and the elders found out about it (because my teacher Fratele Irion was one of the original signers) we were infuriated that they would steal it, so in a feat of daring and a little stupidity we stole it back! It is currently in my room and I am proud to say that I was the first Sora to ever sign it! It may not sound like much but I assure you that we have officially gone down in Romanian MTC history!
Lets, see... on a more spiritual note (since I am a missionary) we had a really good devotional this week, Elder W. Douglas Shumway of the 70 came and talked to us about what it takes to be a great missionary and how we should let the mission forever change us into better people. And he said something that almost all the speakers say to us twice a week every week which was "this mission is not your mission, this mission belongs to the Lord." but then he went on to explain it in a way that made that statement mean something to me. He said that I in part caused Christ to bleed from every pore because of my sins and pains in my life and so these 18 months are precious little that I could give back to Him. And that just made me think for a minute about how true that is. I remember people telling me that a mission was me showing my gratitude to Christ for His sacrifice and I kept thinking how a mission just didn't seem like enough of a tolken of gratitude, and then Elder Shumway talked about how that was why we have to let the mission change us into better people, how we need to come back better people then who we were when we left, and that we can't come back and be hypocrites. And I thought how true that was. I am so glad that I have been given this opportunity to go to Romania, and even if I don't effect anyone or anything there if I come back better and maintain a desire to do good, then I am still showing Christ how much I love Him and how grateful I really am for His sacrifice! Missions are so cool! And I haven't even got to the good part yet.
Anyway, that was my thought for today... and incase you were wondering about the title of Hristos Învaţat! that I gave to my e-mail, I will explain it. In the Romanian culture at Easter time (from Easter and until 40 days after) instead of saying "Bună ziua" which means "hello, good day" they say "Hristos Învaţat!" which means "Christ has resurrected!" and then in response you say "Adevărat! Învaţat!" which means "its true, He has resurrected!" I just think that is so cool. In Romania they have such a deep focus on Christ at Easter time, so much more so than in America. I just think that is so impressive. I guess thats what you get when church isn't seperate from state :)
Anywho... time is up, I love you and Paşte Fericit! (Happy Easter... Late).
Love,
Nicole
So, this week was a little less eventful than last week, but thats okay. I don't remember if I told you about the flag... I will tell you now either way. So, a couple years ago an elder brought a Romanian Flag to the MTC and had his roommates going to Romania sign it. About two transfers later the Spanish speaking elders stole it and used it to sign... why they would want to sign a Romanian flag I will never know, but they did. Anyway it stayed with the spaniards for the last couple years and when me and the elders found out about it (because my teacher Fratele Irion was one of the original signers) we were infuriated that they would steal it, so in a feat of daring and a little stupidity we stole it back! It is currently in my room and I am proud to say that I was the first Sora to ever sign it! It may not sound like much but I assure you that we have officially gone down in Romanian MTC history!
Lets, see... on a more spiritual note (since I am a missionary) we had a really good devotional this week, Elder W. Douglas Shumway of the 70 came and talked to us about what it takes to be a great missionary and how we should let the mission forever change us into better people. And he said something that almost all the speakers say to us twice a week every week which was "this mission is not your mission, this mission belongs to the Lord." but then he went on to explain it in a way that made that statement mean something to me. He said that I in part caused Christ to bleed from every pore because of my sins and pains in my life and so these 18 months are precious little that I could give back to Him. And that just made me think for a minute about how true that is. I remember people telling me that a mission was me showing my gratitude to Christ for His sacrifice and I kept thinking how a mission just didn't seem like enough of a tolken of gratitude, and then Elder Shumway talked about how that was why we have to let the mission change us into better people, how we need to come back better people then who we were when we left, and that we can't come back and be hypocrites. And I thought how true that was. I am so glad that I have been given this opportunity to go to Romania, and even if I don't effect anyone or anything there if I come back better and maintain a desire to do good, then I am still showing Christ how much I love Him and how grateful I really am for His sacrifice! Missions are so cool! And I haven't even got to the good part yet.
Anyway, that was my thought for today... and incase you were wondering about the title of Hristos Învaţat! that I gave to my e-mail, I will explain it. In the Romanian culture at Easter time (from Easter and until 40 days after) instead of saying "Bună ziua" which means "hello, good day" they say "Hristos Învaţat!" which means "Christ has resurrected!" and then in response you say "Adevărat! Învaţat!" which means "its true, He has resurrected!" I just think that is so cool. In Romania they have such a deep focus on Christ at Easter time, so much more so than in America. I just think that is so impressive. I guess thats what you get when church isn't seperate from state :)
Anywho... time is up, I love you and Paşte Fericit! (Happy Easter... Late).
Love,
Nicole
3/20/2008
Hey! I have had the most amazing week so far! So I have a couple stories I want to share, and I hope I have the time I need.
I wrote in a letter I believe last week about Elder Barclay injuring his thumb playing volleyball? Anyway, he did, and we had to take him to the doctor because a few days later it was still huge and puffy so the MTC doctor was worried and sent him to a hand specialist. The hand specialist freaked out and said that he tore the ligement in his thumb and that the muscle went in the place where the ligement belongs and so he needed major surgery to open up his hand pull out the muscle, re-attach the ligement and replace the muscle, and that the surgery would require 10 weeks of recovery and rehab. So, we were worried because that would have held us all back an extra FOUR weeks. (because remember how there is just 3 of us.) Well, the doctor wanted us to come back the following Monday for an MRI so he could plan exactly what would be needed for the surgery and then schedule it as soon as possible. So, all of us were obviously a little distressed because 12 weeks in the MTC is a little much. So, Elder Hale (who happened to be the one who inflicted the injury) gave Elder Barclay a blessing Saturday night, then Elders Barclay and Bailey fasted on Sunday and we all prayed and prayed that the will of the Lord would prevail and that if we were meant to stay 12 weeks we would do it, but if He wanted us to go on time we asked that He heal Elder Barclay's hand. Well, Monday came along and he had the MRI and we went back Tuesday afternoon to findo out what was to be done and the doctor was like, "I don't know how this is even possible, but there is nothing wrong with your hand anymore." Yep, the ligement "magically" mended, moved back to where it belonged and the muscle was laying on top of it like it was supposed to. Its a MIRACLE! That was seriously the most amazing thing ever! It totally floored the doctor too. So, as far as we know we are still leaving April 28th!
Also... so all the other Romania missionaries left Monday and so now it is just me the the two elders left until like April 9th (or whatever is a Wednesday) its kinda lonely and sad singing in Romanian just the 3 of us. And now its just me and Sister Shawcross in our room. Sometimes its really frustrating not to have anyone to really study with at night, but I am sure that things worked out this way for a reason. Good thing I like my companion.
Anyway for the other story, I wanted to tell you about my last experience in the TRC (teaching resource center). We were working on lesson two, the Plan of Salvation, and we splitted up parts between the three of us and so we only really studied our own parts, mine was our earth life and how the Savior died for our sins. But Moday came around (which is our TRC day) and we got there and there were 3 volunteers because they are used to having a gigantic group, but since the other group left, there is just us 3, so Fratele (bro.) McKeeth made us teach individually. And he gave me the real Romanian, as opposed to the RM's. I totally butchard the language part, but Viorica was understanding. But then we got to the teaching part, and I wasn't sure how well I did, because I was teaching in English and she barely speaks it. But then we went back to class and Fratele McKeeth gave us feedback on our lessons. He started with what we could work on and he told me that I needed to work on asking better, more soul searching questions, (which in my defense is hard to do with someone who doesn't really understand the questions to begin with, so I simplified. but its not really an excuse because there will be a language barrier when I get there) but then when he gave me positive feedback, he said that I was amazing and that he could tell that I really cared about the investigator and that I really wanted to understand where she was coming from, and that is such an important thing to have when working with Romanians. And he said he could feel how much I cared about her through the screen (he watchs from a hidden camera). And he said my lesson was so awesome that he didn't want to turn the channel to watch the other two because he was so into the lesson! Yeah! It made me feel so good about myself, because its hard to get much positive out of Fratele McKeeth. His praise is always well earned. He told me that even though people may not always understand what it is that I am trying to say that I will be a great missionary anyway because they will sense my sincerety. So, that was pretty fantastic. It was the first time I think I did well with the lesson, and all on only studying 2 of the 6 parts! But yeah it was amazing!
Well, I have to go because time is running out. I love you all! I hope you have fun on the family vaction without me... :)
Love,
Nicole
PS. don't just e-mail me, its depressing to not get letters!
PSS. Have a HAPPY EASTER!
I wrote in a letter I believe last week about Elder Barclay injuring his thumb playing volleyball? Anyway, he did, and we had to take him to the doctor because a few days later it was still huge and puffy so the MTC doctor was worried and sent him to a hand specialist. The hand specialist freaked out and said that he tore the ligement in his thumb and that the muscle went in the place where the ligement belongs and so he needed major surgery to open up his hand pull out the muscle, re-attach the ligement and replace the muscle, and that the surgery would require 10 weeks of recovery and rehab. So, we were worried because that would have held us all back an extra FOUR weeks. (because remember how there is just 3 of us.) Well, the doctor wanted us to come back the following Monday for an MRI so he could plan exactly what would be needed for the surgery and then schedule it as soon as possible. So, all of us were obviously a little distressed because 12 weeks in the MTC is a little much. So, Elder Hale (who happened to be the one who inflicted the injury) gave Elder Barclay a blessing Saturday night, then Elders Barclay and Bailey fasted on Sunday and we all prayed and prayed that the will of the Lord would prevail and that if we were meant to stay 12 weeks we would do it, but if He wanted us to go on time we asked that He heal Elder Barclay's hand. Well, Monday came along and he had the MRI and we went back Tuesday afternoon to findo out what was to be done and the doctor was like, "I don't know how this is even possible, but there is nothing wrong with your hand anymore." Yep, the ligement "magically" mended, moved back to where it belonged and the muscle was laying on top of it like it was supposed to. Its a MIRACLE! That was seriously the most amazing thing ever! It totally floored the doctor too. So, as far as we know we are still leaving April 28th!
Also... so all the other Romania missionaries left Monday and so now it is just me the the two elders left until like April 9th (or whatever is a Wednesday) its kinda lonely and sad singing in Romanian just the 3 of us. And now its just me and Sister Shawcross in our room. Sometimes its really frustrating not to have anyone to really study with at night, but I am sure that things worked out this way for a reason. Good thing I like my companion.
Anyway for the other story, I wanted to tell you about my last experience in the TRC (teaching resource center). We were working on lesson two, the Plan of Salvation, and we splitted up parts between the three of us and so we only really studied our own parts, mine was our earth life and how the Savior died for our sins. But Moday came around (which is our TRC day) and we got there and there were 3 volunteers because they are used to having a gigantic group, but since the other group left, there is just us 3, so Fratele (bro.) McKeeth made us teach individually. And he gave me the real Romanian, as opposed to the RM's. I totally butchard the language part, but Viorica was understanding. But then we got to the teaching part, and I wasn't sure how well I did, because I was teaching in English and she barely speaks it. But then we went back to class and Fratele McKeeth gave us feedback on our lessons. He started with what we could work on and he told me that I needed to work on asking better, more soul searching questions, (which in my defense is hard to do with someone who doesn't really understand the questions to begin with, so I simplified. but its not really an excuse because there will be a language barrier when I get there) but then when he gave me positive feedback, he said that I was amazing and that he could tell that I really cared about the investigator and that I really wanted to understand where she was coming from, and that is such an important thing to have when working with Romanians. And he said he could feel how much I cared about her through the screen (he watchs from a hidden camera). And he said my lesson was so awesome that he didn't want to turn the channel to watch the other two because he was so into the lesson! Yeah! It made me feel so good about myself, because its hard to get much positive out of Fratele McKeeth. His praise is always well earned. He told me that even though people may not always understand what it is that I am trying to say that I will be a great missionary anyway because they will sense my sincerety. So, that was pretty fantastic. It was the first time I think I did well with the lesson, and all on only studying 2 of the 6 parts! But yeah it was amazing!
Well, I have to go because time is running out. I love you all! I hope you have fun on the family vaction without me... :)
Love,
Nicole
PS. don't just e-mail me, its depressing to not get letters!
PSS. Have a HAPPY EASTER!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Mission Addresses
MTC Address: (February 27- May 1)
Sister Nicole Ellen Shepard
Romania Bucharest Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT. 84604
Pouch Mail: (May 2008- September 2009)
Sister Nicole Ellen Shepard
Romania Bucharest Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT. 84130-0150
If you want to write but actually WRITING, addressing, and stamping a letter is just too much work for you, then you can go to www.dearelder.com click on write a letter, choose the Romania Bucharest Mission and fill out the info and type up a letter and they will mail it to me for you for FREE! Thats right, no 41 cent charge, its completely FREE.
And if you are feeling particularly generous you can send a package to me:
Nicole Ellen Shepard
Sos. Pipera Nr. 41 Et. 7
Sector 2, COD: 014254
Bucuresti, Romania
Sister Nicole Ellen Shepard
Romania Bucharest Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT. 84604
Pouch Mail: (May 2008- September 2009)
Sister Nicole Ellen Shepard
Romania Bucharest Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT. 84130-0150
If you want to write but actually WRITING, addressing, and stamping a letter is just too much work for you, then you can go to www.dearelder.com click on write a letter, choose the Romania Bucharest Mission and fill out the info and type up a letter and they will mail it to me for you for FREE! Thats right, no 41 cent charge, its completely FREE.
And if you are feeling particularly generous you can send a package to me:
Nicole Ellen Shepard
Sos. Pipera Nr. 41 Et. 7
Sector 2, COD: 014254
Bucuresti, Romania
Monday, February 18, 2008
Where Mission Calls Come From- Heavenly Father... duh...
So, I was wondering this myself; "where do apostles come up with mission calls?" We know they are inspired but sometimes we just wonder... especially me because when I got my call to Romania I was like, "did they just see that I've been there and just decided to send me back because thats lame if they did." So I struggled a bit at first because I wanted my call to be personalized and inspired not logical, because logical is lame.
Well, the other day I was talking to my old young women's president Dana Geddes and she told me that a few years ago she was asked to do an interview with (at the time Elder, now )President Eyring back in the day when he was in charge of the missionary stuff. She was invited to sit in while he trained (then Elder) President Uctdorf and Elder Bednar on how to decide where it is that a future missionary should go. He started off by showing them around the building the work is done in. Starting where the maps are, I guess they have all these maps where they keep physical documentation of where missions and missionaries are. This is the place where they first organize what mission needs are and when missionaries are coming and going within their missions. This information is processed into a computer.
Now as for where the Apostles come in. 2-4 apostles on any given day go through a special temple session and then go into individual areas with individual computers where missionary candidates photos come up along with info like health issues, family's missions, ancestry, etc. and then they decide. Now Dana told me that when Pres. Eyring was training the new apostles of the time he asked one where a particular candidate on the screen should go and they responded, "I think.." at that Pres. Eyring cut him off and said, "No, you cannot think, you need to FEEL, and not choose a place you feel that they will GO, but feel where they will COME HOME FROM." After feeling the country or city that the candidate will come home from they choose from the possible missions within or including that country or city. And what is miraculous is that when they go into the information about that particular mission there is always an opening in that mission for the right gender within the next four months that matches up perfectly with MTC required times! And thats how it is done. Pres. Eyring said that usually the process took no longer than a few minutes!
I just found that so fascinating!
Well, the other day I was talking to my old young women's president Dana Geddes and she told me that a few years ago she was asked to do an interview with (at the time Elder, now )President Eyring back in the day when he was in charge of the missionary stuff. She was invited to sit in while he trained (then Elder) President Uctdorf and Elder Bednar on how to decide where it is that a future missionary should go. He started off by showing them around the building the work is done in. Starting where the maps are, I guess they have all these maps where they keep physical documentation of where missions and missionaries are. This is the place where they first organize what mission needs are and when missionaries are coming and going within their missions. This information is processed into a computer.
Now as for where the Apostles come in. 2-4 apostles on any given day go through a special temple session and then go into individual areas with individual computers where missionary candidates photos come up along with info like health issues, family's missions, ancestry, etc. and then they decide. Now Dana told me that when Pres. Eyring was training the new apostles of the time he asked one where a particular candidate on the screen should go and they responded, "I think.." at that Pres. Eyring cut him off and said, "No, you cannot think, you need to FEEL, and not choose a place you feel that they will GO, but feel where they will COME HOME FROM." After feeling the country or city that the candidate will come home from they choose from the possible missions within or including that country or city. And what is miraculous is that when they go into the information about that particular mission there is always an opening in that mission for the right gender within the next four months that matches up perfectly with MTC required times! And thats how it is done. Pres. Eyring said that usually the process took no longer than a few minutes!
I just found that so fascinating!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
I will miss President Hinckley!
I am so excited to be on the brink of President Thomas S. Monson's presidency and am grateful that I am permitted to live during his time as prophet. But alas I will miss my dear President Hinckley. He always said something that illuminated a situation for me and gave me much needed perspective, as well as uplifting me when I was feeling down about something. One of his quotes which got me through many a hard day while working with twelve to fourteen year old girls (which isn't always cake) and here is that quote that always gave me perspective of what I was working towards: "When you save a girl, you save generations. She will grow and strengthen in righteousness; she will marry in the House of the Lord. She will teach her children the ways of truth, they will walk in her paths and will similarly teach their children. Wonderful grandmothers will be there to lend encouragement. I see this as the one bright shining hope in the world that is marching towards self-destruction. We plead with you to give encouragement and help in every possible way to the women and girls of your stakes and wards. They need your leadership and counsel. Help them in everyway you can." He was a beautiful supporter of women and people in general and I will always love him for his insight and advice.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Its Here!
Sister Shepard,
You are hereby called as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Romania Bucharest Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.
You should report to the Missionary Training Center at Provo, Utah on Wednesday, 27 February 2008. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Romanian Language.
well, there you go!
Monday, January 14, 2008
A hopeful whahoo!
So, today my bishop called me and asked me if I had received my call today in the mail and I was confused and said no, I had not because its Monday and they don't come on Mondays, they usually come on Wednesdays. Then he told me he checked online and it said that it was mailed out on Friday... So hopefully my call will arrive tomorrow!!! Cross your fingers!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Proverbs 3:5-6
So, I still have not received my call and its be a surprisingly heart breaking experience so far. Today was my 21st birthday and I had to pick out gifts that had nothing to do with a mission and it was so hard for me. I didn't want any of the things I bought, all I really want is my call so I can get my stuff and go. I am so ready for this mission! I want to go out there and work for the Lord. But I have to hold up my faith and try to see why its taking so long.
But I guess when I originally anticipated leaving on the 16th of January (which I will be lucky if I get my call by then) is quite a bit off of what it will actually be (my guess is sometime in March) is the difference in companions, my time in different areas, meeting people and maybe even the mission as a whole. So, I try to remain positive and keep my faith where it belongs.
But I guess when I originally anticipated leaving on the 16th of January (which I will be lucky if I get my call by then) is quite a bit off of what it will actually be (my guess is sometime in March) is the difference in companions, my time in different areas, meeting people and maybe even the mission as a whole. So, I try to remain positive and keep my faith where it belongs.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Just Thinking
So, I am still waiting for my call to come (I am still hoping for this Wednesday!) and my birthday is this Friday and I have just been thinking about how great life is and how blessed I truly am. The Lord has supplied me with so many amazing blessings and opportunities that shape me into what I can become and when I think of this monumental fact I think that my heart may explode.
I am so everlastingly grateful to God for my life, even the lessons in patience and the frustrating trials He so wisely bestows upon me. Because even when I know that I am being tested and I don't think life is fair I realize that He loves me so much and only wants whats best for me, and my trials really aren't so bad. The other night I was laying in bed and the wind outside was whipping intensely at my house and I could hear the patio furniture blowing over and tree branches breaking, and I thought how profoundly blessed I am to have my beautiful house to protect me from the elements. In that moment my mind wandered to place in Romania I visited summers ago. I met a family up in the hills of Sibiu, Romania who lived in a run down shack that consisted of two and a half walls, livestock and chickens wandered in and out of the flee ridden lace blankets that served as substitute for missing walls and door. I remember thinking in the muggy heat how terrible that situation must be with the rain and the flies and the sun beating down in on them in their place of "refuge" from the outside. But the other night as the wind roared and the sleet and snow poured upon my house I thought for the first time what it would be like for them in that moment. I thought of the 6 month old baby, the 2 year old, and the 7 year old, living in the squalor, were they still there? Were they even alive? Was their foremost thought of simply not freezing to death? I couldn't believe my life and the blessings I had been given and could not be more thankful to God for His tender care of my basic needs and felt wholly unworthy.
Life if beautiful, I hope to always remember that.
I am so everlastingly grateful to God for my life, even the lessons in patience and the frustrating trials He so wisely bestows upon me. Because even when I know that I am being tested and I don't think life is fair I realize that He loves me so much and only wants whats best for me, and my trials really aren't so bad. The other night I was laying in bed and the wind outside was whipping intensely at my house and I could hear the patio furniture blowing over and tree branches breaking, and I thought how profoundly blessed I am to have my beautiful house to protect me from the elements. In that moment my mind wandered to place in Romania I visited summers ago. I met a family up in the hills of Sibiu, Romania who lived in a run down shack that consisted of two and a half walls, livestock and chickens wandered in and out of the flee ridden lace blankets that served as substitute for missing walls and door. I remember thinking in the muggy heat how terrible that situation must be with the rain and the flies and the sun beating down in on them in their place of "refuge" from the outside. But the other night as the wind roared and the sleet and snow poured upon my house I thought for the first time what it would be like for them in that moment. I thought of the 6 month old baby, the 2 year old, and the 7 year old, living in the squalor, were they still there? Were they even alive? Was their foremost thought of simply not freezing to death? I couldn't believe my life and the blessings I had been given and could not be more thankful to God for His tender care of my basic needs and felt wholly unworthy.
Life if beautiful, I hope to always remember that.
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