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