ducks, sacrament talks and rain...

Well, it's been a good week. Tough, but good. Our key indicators took a dip this week. But ever since I started accounting to the Lord nightly for my efforts, it has been much easier to prevent discouragement. We had set up two member-present lessons with reliable investigators one night, but they both fell through. And of course I wish they didn't, but I knew we'd done our best. We showed up with the member but it just didn’t work out. I told Heavenly Father about it, admitted I was disappointed, but felt no smaller in His eyes. I try to remember to promise Him that I won't give up, because a pretty powerful encouragement comes because I know that He won't either. But that being said, I am loving it here in Arad. Well, I'm actually in Timisoara right now for pday but I love it over in Arad:) Transfers are this week and all four of us in Arad are staying for at least another six weeks. Which we are all happy about. We all get along really well and it's nice knowing that that's one thing we won't have to worry about for the next six weeks. I love our elders here and of course, I love Sora Remsberg. Seriously, we have so much fun together. We laugh way too much and we are always finding fun ways to contact people. We make it a game. This week was a bingo chart with the Elders. Sadly, I think we lost. There are seriously no black people here. That was the last person I needed to contact to get a bingo and we couldn't find one anywhere. Oh well. It was fun and we got some cool potentials from it. We'll see how that goes.

It's been a rainy week here, which has kind of been nice. It's been a little cooler -also nice. However, on the day where it was super rainy and no one was outside, we stayed inside and went through the member book and organized it and called all the less actives in the branch and set up a few lessons. It was good to go through it and find out about the members in the branch.

While going through it we found two girls (ages 13&15) that were baptized a few years ago that one of my teachers in the MTC told me about and so I was so excited to call them and meet with them, so we called the number we had for them and actually set up a lesson with their dad who isn't a member. We went and taught him and he is so cool. Rozi and Adela (his daughters) were there too and they are the sweetest girls. Rozi is basically the mom of that family. They have a LOT of kids and she had dropped out of school to take care of all of them. They've been la tara (out of the city) all summer so she hasn't been able to come to church but she has such a solid testimony and her prayers are so tender. I love her.

So the relief society president here is incredible. Her name is Sora Mogos and she was sealed to her husband about 10 years ago, but since then, he has gone completely inactive and is against anything to do with the church. Which has been SO hard on Sora Mogos because she is so strong and said that when he was branch president the branch just flourished and he was such a strong member. And now he barely allows her to go to church let alone meet with the missionaries. However, last week he agreed to meet with us missionaries and said we could come over. So the four of us went over and met with him and it was so amazing. The spirit was so strong. Sora Mogos said that she is seeing miracles with his progress. They read the scriptures the other night as a couple and they prayed together (and he said the prayer:) She is so happy. Everytime we see her she is just so thrilled and ecstatic on the progress Fratele Mogos is making. He is such an amazing man. I hope and pray that he will continue to make progress toward coming back to church.

So, saturday night, I'm sitting in my apartment doing weekly planning with Sora Remsberg (it's about 7pm) and I get a call from Elder Harrison and he says sorry for the late notice but either me or Sora Remsberg have been asked to speak in church the next day... my heart dropped and I knew I needed to just do it. So... we stopped weekly planning and I stayed up all night writing my talk into Romanian. I was sooo nervous, but I think it turned out pretty well. Who knew I could give a 15 minute talk in a language I hardly know??? I was super relived to be done with it though. However, I'm going to just go ahead and prepare another talk right now so that the next time I'm asked 12 hours before, I will be prepared and I never have to experience that same feeling again.

We went and visit taught a member who lives la tara (out of the city) who, every sunday, rides her bike to the train station, takes a train into arad, then takes a tram to the church, and walks to the building and does the same thing to get home. She literally has to sell things throughout the week to have enough money to buy train tickets to and from church. (seriously, none of the members have an excuse not to come to church if she can make it every week). I admire so much her dedication and sacrifice she makes so we decided to talk to her about sacrifices and the blessings of sacrifice. As we were talking to her about her sacrifice to come to church and that it doesn't go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father she just looked at us and said "But it's not a sacrifice. I owe that to Him. It isn't a sacrifice when the blessings I get for going are so great." I seriously wish I could take her to every less active visit that we have. I truly look up to her. This lady has nothing and sacrifices everything to get to church every week. I love her.

I could go on and on about the members in the branch here. They are incredible. So are the less actives... they have a testimony... they just need reminding of the blessings of the gospel and the importance of the commandments. If they understood the importance.. they wouldn't be less active. So we're doing everything we can to remind them and teach them of the importance of it. But sometimes, it's a little hard. But I guess we can't really expect it to be easy.

My love for the scriptures is growing every single day. Seriously, how did I not recognize it before now?? The scriptures are amazing. (Do I sound like a missionary right now or what? haha)

I talked to Sora Ewell the other day. It was so good to hear her voice and talk to her for a few minutes. I miss her so much. She is doing well. She got a new comp this week because he trainer went home a week early because of an injury. She was set to go home at the end of this transfer anyway. But she seems to be doing well. She is an amazing missionary. I love her.

Time is up. Dang it. Internet minutes go by way faster than contacting minutes.

I love you,

Sora Cook

 

Sora Remsberg and I with Rozi:)

Last week was charity week in our zone and we got to serve people in our district... so Sora Remsberg and I carved a watermelon for Elder Harrison and Elder Myers. We combined our names and theirs and put Cookberg loves Myson. And then on the inside of the letters we put things we love about them. It was cheesy but so much fun. Haha. by the way, the watermelon here is phenomenal!!

boboaca with the boboaca (boboaca means baby duck... what they call "greenies" here)

week 5 in Romania:) and I'm still loving it!

Ceau family!

How is everyone? Thank you for the emails. Sounds like all is well on the home front with the exception of a psycho man in Colorado. How sad.

Things are going okay here. Casian has fallen off the face of the earth. Breaks my heart. We can't get ahold of him. We know he started a new job and because he doesn't have credit on his phone, he can't call us back, and we don't know that he would call us back even if he could. It's so hard. Keep him in your prayers.

I was reading in Alma 37 and in verse 7 it says "by very small means the Lord bringeth about the salvation of many souls. It brought a lot of comfort to me realizing that even though we aren't seeing miracles right now and we feel like the work isn't progressing here in Arad, we are doing everything we can and I know that this scripture is true and through the very small means will come the salvation of many souls. Although comforting, it doesn't make it easier.

We are working a lot with less actives. I have come to love them all so much and I know their testimony is still there.. they just need a little encouragement. What President Hinkley said about every convert needing a friend, a responsibility and nurturing of the good word of God is so true and I feel like that has been lacking in a lot of the new members brought into the branch. Of course we'll still work to find investigators, and we ask for referrals from everyone, but we all feel pretty strongly about working with the less actives and building the branch more. There are so many members of the branch here in Arad and only a handful of them are active. I've made it my personal goal to change that.

I'm sorry if this is a little depressing. Not my intent. I am still loving it here, of course! It's just been a tough week. However, it has cooled down a lot temperature wise! I'm actually wearing a cardigan and scarf today! It's quite cold. I love it.

Transfers are next week. Sora Remsberg and I are trying to weasel our way down to Bucaresti so we can get out of Arad and socialize with all the other missionaries for a day. We'll make it work:)

I love you all so much. I hope all continues to go well. Happy 24th of July. Light some cool fireworks for me.

Va pup,
Sora Cook

One month in Romania... CHECK!

Hey ya'll,

Thank you for your wonderful emails. I sure do love reading what is going on at home and about the people I love most! It sounds like all is well and that the reunion, although a little hectic, turned out to be fun. It made me a little homesick thinking about going sliding at classic with all the family. Basically, that is the first thing I think of when I think of my childhood. I love thinking about the summers when Mari and I went to work with dad every day and just swam all day long. You would think that we would have gotten sick of it after a while, but I absolutely loved it. Seriously, why can't life just be like that all the time?? Swimming all day every day and eating ice cream sandwiches...

I guess I can't complain though. Although I'm definitely not eating ice cream sandwiches and definitely not swimming all day every day ... I get to have a different kind of fun here.

Speaking of.. we had exchanges this week and I got to go to Timisoara for 2 1/2 days. Oh my goodness... it is SO beautiful there. So different than Arad, I feel like, but so so beautiful. The mall there.... HUGE! Seriously, I can't even think of a mall in the United States that compares. I love Romania. haha. But seriously, we got to meet so many amazing people there and had a few amazing experiences.

The first day there, we were walking out of a lesson we had with a member and said hello to a lady we walked by (but we said it wrong and hurried and corrected ourselves) and she knew right off we weren't from Romania.. So she stopped us and talked to us. (she spoke english quite well) and asked us what we were doing here and why at age 22, when most girls are sitting at the pool or going shopping or partying, we were out sacrificing our time to talk about Christ. When she asked why I just told her that I wanted so badly for everyone to feel the same happiness from the gospel of Jesus Christ that I feel. And after I said that she said "I want that too. I think God made it so we would meet today." I agreed with her and she began to cry expressing how lonely she was and how much she just wanted to feel happy again. We asked if we could come share with her about the gospel that has blessed our lives and she agreed. I wish so bad I could have been there for that lesson, because Sora Hosking said it was incredible. She has agreed to come to church. I love her so much. Her name is Livia. As we were walking away that day on the street, she said "Now, I can't promise that I'll become apart of your church... but I'm willing to listen." I love how open she was to just listen to us. That is all we ask people to do.

The other neat experience we had was when we were at the train station going back to Arad and we missed our train, and then we missed the Maxi Taxi, but we quickly realized exactly why we missed our train as soon as we sat down on the stairs next to a single mom holding her 4 month old baby... Her name is Ioana. Apparently, Sora Hosking has met her before in the park and asked her how she was doing and if she had read from the book they had given her and she smiled and pulled it out and said she had it with her but she hadn't started reading it. We got to share a little bit of a message of comfort with her. (she was so sad and so hopeless.) She told us she just felt abandoned. We shared John 14:18 with her that says that God will not leave us comfortless. But in the romanian bible it translates to God will not leave us orphan..... (also the Greek translation) and we told her that we knew that God loved her and if we rely on Him He will NEVER leave us to be an orphan and that we will always have a place in his family. We set up a time to meet with her the next day and I so wish I could have been there for that also. I haven't talked to the sisters yet to see how it went, but as we walked away, she smiled the sweetest smile and said she couldn't wait to meet with us again and she loved the feeling she felt while we talked to her.

My heart just hurts for these people and wants so badly for them to feel the comfort and peace that comes from the gospel. I pray for them as well as so many others that we meet every single day. It is crazy how much I love them.

Also, when we were at the train station, we met a christian group that takes care of children from unstable homes and they go on a camp every summer.... They were so adorable. I fell in love with these children. (I will post pictures). As we were leaving they hugged me and asked us to go on their train with them... I so wish I could have. (this is actually why we missed our train in the first place, because I was playing with the kids.. Wups.) Anyway, they are beautiful.

I'm not sure what else to say. Yesterday was one of the Elders birthdays so today Sora R and I planned this big pictures scavenger hunt throughout all of Centru (downtown Arad) and some of the missionaries for Timisoara came up for it and then we'll go to the park and eat the amazing peanut butter rice crispy treats that we made and play badmitton. It is going to be a blast. Pretty much, I love my district here in Arad. Elder Myers and Elder Harrison are amazing and of course Sora Remsberg is fantastic. We all get along so well. It makes it so much fun. Love it.

As always, I'm sure I'm leaving out a ton, but that about sums up what I feel like happened this week.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Thank you all for your emails. I loved them.

Be good.
Va pup,
Sora Cook

The picture of me on the bench with the old people are the people that live in our apartment bloc.. they always sit outside of the apartment. I feel like they are my grandparents. They always give us advice and ask us about our days. It's so cute.

The other ones are of me and the kids at the train station and then of Sora Remsberg and I after sports night. The sunsets here are beautiful. (I promise I actually get ready every day... my hair just usually ends up in a pony tail or a braid...)



we love sports night every friday night

 

Our cute neighbors




 

Things are heating up...

...quite literally. It has been a hot week!! The tripple digit temperatures weren't bad in Austin because when I was outside, I was at the pool...but the triple digit temps here are not as fun. When the Romanian people are complaining, you know it's bad. They said this is the hottest it has been here in a long time and these are the dog days... aka canicula. However, it could be worse and I'm grateful that it's not.

We have sister exchanges this thursday and I get to go to Timisoara for the day with Sora Hoskings. I'm pretty excited. I've heard TImi is beautiful and I love Sora Hoskings... so it should be a fun adventure:) I'm excited, however, it's kind of a bummer that it takes an entire day out of actual missionary work just to travel back and forth. Oh well. Who knows, maybe there will be someone super prepared on the train ride. (Did I tell you my cool experience on the trainride to Lipova last monday?) I sat next to this man and he started talking to us (and by us, I mean Sora Remsberg) and she left the compartment to go socialize with the other missionaries, so I just pulled out my Book of Mormon and started reading and he saw and started to ask me about it. I was terrified to talk to him without my crutch (Sora Remsberg) there, but I said what little I could about the book and it's origins and asked if he wanted my copy of the Book of Mormon and he graciously accepted and said he would read. Such a neat experience.

Last week, I mentioned how we ran into a kid on the street and invited him to church and he showed up and LOVED it. Well, on the 4th of July we had a little BBQ and invited him to come and then afterwards have a lesson with the Walquists (the senior couple) and him. The BBQ was great... Loved the american food and cake and home-made rootbeer without dry ice (coolest thing ever). And the lesson afterward was even better. We sat down and asked him about church and he told us how he knew it was true and why there weren't more people at church and asked how he could get more people there because he knew it was true. We told him that's exactly why we're here... to share with people the message of the truth. And he asked how he could help... and we suggested that maybe we share that message with him first and then he can share it with other people. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the restoration and how just like Joseph Smith had his prayers answered and found the truth through prayer, we can too.. and afterward, he asked, "So do I need to pray about the church to know if it's true?" A little shocked, we both nodded and said da. And he told us he didn't know how and that he had never prayed before. So we taught him how to pray and he asked if we wanted him to pray right now... once again, a little shocked, we nodded our head and said da. So we knelt down and he prayed and in his prayer he said "God, I know these things are true. Help me to know more and to learn more about this church." It was so beautiful. As I wiped away tears, we threw out a soft baptismal committment and asked him if he found out these things were true, if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized... and he just looked at us and said "When?" So we set his baptismal date for July 21st and told him we woulc continue to meet with him to teach him more about the gospel and prepare him to be baptized. When we explained that baptism was a big committment and that we make big promises with God to live according to His commandments, he said "I can do that. I already live that way anyway so I might as well make a promise to live this way." Hopefully he understands the importance of baptism and that it is not the last step. That is something we plan on stressing in our lesson with him tomorrow. He didn't come to church yesterday, which broke my heart. But when we called him and asked where he was, he said he had to work and that he isn't avoiding us. (He can't make calls on his phone he can only receive calls. Kind of annoying.) But it was good to hear that he wasn't avoiding us and that he wants to meet tomorrow.

I feel like he is such a good example of someone who is so prepared. All he needed was someone to point him in the right direction. He hardly needs to be taught. I feel how precious he is and how much Heavenly Father loves him. It's such a cool experience to witness firsthand. I have been praying for him super hard. I know that this is where Satan steps in and tries to interfere. I hope and pray that doesn't happen, but I don't think it will.

The work is giong well. We are meeting with a lot of the less actives and have seen a lot more of them at church the last few weeks. Still working with a few of the families. They are such good people and such strong families with strong testimonies. If only they didn't come up with every excuse in the book not to come to church.

Yesterday, Sora Remsberg asked me one of the ways that my testimony has grown the most from my mission so far and I realized it is my love for the scriptures. Before the mission, I truly am not sure if I ever "feasted upon the word" like I do now. I get more out of one verse now than I did out of entire chapters before my mission. And that is just because my desires have changed. Before it was almost like I read my scriptures just to be able to say that I read them. It was just one more thing on my checklist. But now, I truly seek to understand them and it is a privledge the time that I have to read the words and to learn from them. This week, I remembered a verse that I found when I was reading in 1Nephi 15. In this chapter Lamen and Lemuel are frustrated because they don't understand the words of their father and I love in verse 8 after expressing that they don't understand the meanings of the things their father spoke, Nephi's response in verse 8 is so simple and so beautiful. He says, "Have ye inquired of the Lord?" I love this for a few reasons. One being that Nephi had just inquired of the Lord the meanings of Lehi's words and received a marvelous revelation. It would have been so easy for him to tell Lamen and Lemuel exactly what the things meant that Lehi spoke of, but instead, he desired for them to receive that revelation for themselves. I think of how often we are so willing to tell people what we know or what we think we know. We for some reason, want to try and prove ourselves or prove that we know more than them. When really, we should do what Nephi did and rather than tell them everything we think they should or shouldn't do, we should advise them to ask the Lord for the answers and seek to understand through Him and counsil with Him. The other thing that I learned from that one verse is that when we are trying to find answers, it is so easy to go to everyone around us, seeking opinions and seeking advice but I have learned that our first source of knowledge or answers, should always be our Heavenly Father. And maybe after we've prayed about it, He will guide us to certain people to seek advice from and receive an answer in that way, but reguardless, our first source of knowledge or understanding should always be the Lord.

Anyway, I hope ya'll had a wonderful 4th of July. God bless America. I'm sorry this isn't longer and more detailed about my life here on my mission. I feel like it would take hours to write about all my experiences. It's so hard to pick and choose which I will share with you. I love you all.

Oh, yesterday, we went chalk contacting in the park. SO MUCH FUN! We just draw the plan of salvation on the sidewalk and as people stop, we talk to them about it. It was a lot more effective than I anticipated. I'll post pictures. It was a blast.

Happy birthday to Maggie. I'm sorry I forgot to say it last monday! I felt awful. Tell her I love her SO much and that I hope she had the best dang birthday in the world.

Miss you all. Hope all is well. Thank you so much for all those who emailed me. I loved them so much!! I'm sorry I can't write you all idividually. I wish I had time.

Va iubesc,
Sora Cook

Our friends by the river...

This one time, in Arad...

Good afternoon family... I guess for you, good morning!!

I never know where to start these emails because it seems like it has been years since I last wrote you just because of how much happens in a week! It's crazy. But I guess I will start with today. It was wonderful... and SO exhausting. Our entire zone jumped on a train super early this morning and headed to Lipova which is about an hour outside Arad and we walked and hiked up to this old castle that really is just a bunch of walls still standing... It was really cool though. So as all of you were still all nustled up in your cribs, I was out walking and hiking in the 110 degree sun. It was awesome! I think I just loved socializing with the other missionaries. The train ride to Lipova, although was pretty unbearable, was not as bad as our 11 hour sleeper train from Bucaresti to Arad (which was nothing like the Harry Potter trains, by the way). However, it was definitely a new experience! I loved it:) All 11 hours (with no air conditioning) of it!!

This week has been exciting and discouraging. We've had like 7 cancelled appointments, but we have 4 new investigators:) All from contacting and bloc knocking. We love contacting! One of them isn't quite an investigator yet...  but he will be:) We ran into him on the street and started talking to him and invited him to church and he showed up yesterday and afterwards, he said he loved it and he already knew the church was true! We haven't even met with him yet... He got along really well with our relief society president and we plan on taking her to our lesson with him this week.

Also, remember how I told you about that lady that Sora Ewell and I taught a lesson to in the park on our first day here?? Sora Ewell called me the other day and it turns out she has been coming to church and he grandpa is now investigating also. How amazing is that?! I love it. Her name is Monica. She is 21 or 22. We seriously walked away from teaching her knowing that we were supposed to talk to her and that sooner or later, she would someday be baptized. I had no idea how soon though:)

Our branch here in Arad is awesome. I love the members here. They met yesterday an hour before church just to sing hymns together. And they went back and forth between two hymns... Lead Kindly Light and Onward Christian Soldiers. They loved both of them and sang them both with more power and conviction than the tab choir could have ...all 12 of them. It was so cool. However, if I don't hear those two songs for a while, I won't be disappointed.

This week we visited one of the less active members named Florita and she is beautiful. I will attach a picture of her in this email. She has terminal cancer and has already outlived well past what the doctors expected. But every time we go over there, she cooks us lunch and makes sure we are well fed and taken care of. I'm pretty sure she is my new grandma. I love visiting with her. I couldn't tell you what the food was that she served us this week... Lamb, I think. And milk... straight from the cow. I could only drink it one sip at a time, but more than that made me gag a bit. But I drank it... all gone. And I ate the mysery food... all gone. I know, bless my heart, right?:) I love her though. She is so patient with me with the language and just wants to help me as much as possible. And as we leave, she tells us to be sure to drink lots of water and to have a glass of milk for dinner and to eat lots of vegtables. I told you... she is my new grandma. I love it.

Sounds like the fires in Utah are pretty wicked. Yikes. I will definitely keep those affected and the firefighters in my prayers. So sad. I remember last year when I was living in Austin and just being so close to those affected by the Bastrop fires... it was heartbreaking hearing the stories. I'm glad that our family has yet to be affected an will pray that that will continue to be the case. (Is that seflish of me?)

Alright, family. I love you. I hope you are all doing more than fine!! Thank you for those who emailed me this week. Your words were very much needed. I appreciate them. and Jerrica, I knew it was a boy from day one:) Congratulations!! I can't wait to meet him! Should I just start calling him 'Jack' right now like I did with Lance?? Love you baby Jack.

I'm not sure what else to write, but usually right after emailing, I think of about a million things I wanted to say. Dang it. Hopefully that doesn't happen this time.

Va iubesc fuarte mult,
Sora Cook

lingo:
bloc knocking: going into bloc's, or apartments, and knocking every single door! 

Sora Florita

Lipova