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!