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!