"make the fountain pure and all will be pure"

Family,

Good morning, afternoon, evening! Whatever time of day it is on that side of the world. I hope you all had a wonderful, splendid Easter! It's such a beautiful time of the year. Rebirth. It's been on my mind a lot this week as I've watched the sun come out and give life to the trees and flowers. It's beautiful. Just like the Savior does for us. He gives us life and beauty in our lives, The Orthodox calander hasn't celebrated Easter yet and won't until May 5th, so the Easter traditions won't start happening here for another few weeks, but I've thought a lot this week about the resurrection of our Savior and the meaning that this event has given my life. It's been neat to sit and reflect on His resurrection and the days leading up to it. I appreciated all of your insights in your emails. You are all so humble. I love reading the words of your testimonies of Jesus Christ. It makes my heart so happy to know that my family has a testimony of Him and are living your lives in a such a way that would allow the light of Christ to shine through in your words and emails. Are you all getting sick of me expressing how grateful I am for each of you and your emails? Because that probably won't stop anytime soon :)

This week. It was beautiful. We were able to meet with all of our investigators and invite 8 of them to be baptized. We didn't get any "yes's" but we also didn't get any "no's". All of them said they wanted to know for themselves before taking a step that they knew was a big step in their lives. I am so grateful that none of them are taking it lightly and recognize the importance of taking that step toward baptism and want to be truly converted before taking that step. We are doing all we can to help them through that conversion process and praying that their hearts will receive and accept the spirit and it's promptings.

The other day we were on a maxi taxi.... wait, have I explained what maxi taxi's are yet? Oh goodness, I am going to take this time to explain a maxi taxi before going on with this story. So basically, a maxi taxi, which is the main mode of transportation here in Moldova, is a large van with about 12 seats in it that drives a route around the city and picks up and drops off passangers along that route. You stand at the side of the street, look for the route number that you need, wave your arm for them to stop, pay them 3 Moldovan Lei (about 30 cents) and tell them when to drop you off. You're lucky to get a seat, most of the time you're standing at the front of the maxi taxi.... face against the windshield and getting really close and comfortable with everyone around you, and holding on to any type of stable object so that you don't fall every time the maxi taxi stops and goes. Think of the Night Bus on Harry Potter. Remember in the third book? That is what a maxi taxi is like! It's so exciting! Don't worry, although crazy, the drivers here are very good and know what they're doing. I've never seen one accident, surprisingly.

Okay, on with the story.. We were on a maxi taxi and a lady asked me to sit down next to her (I usually just stand so that if someone comes in they can take the empty seat) so I sat down next to her and started talking to her. She asked what we were doing here and where we were from, the usual questions. She had her two beautiful children with her who were playing with Sora Peterson while I was talking to her. She was so excited to talk to us, it was almost shocking. Embarassing as it is to admit, it caught me off guard. Before I had the chance to ask for her number, she pulled out her phone and asks if we can exchange numbers. I told her probably not... Kidding. Of course, I said yes and received her number. As we exchanged numbers she explained that she felt like she needed to talk with us more. The light in her eyes as she said this made my heart happy. Unexplainably. Less than an hour later we got a call from Veronica, that is her name, and she wanted to meet up that day. Sadly, we had lessons that night and couldn't meet that soon, but set up for th next morning. We met her in the park with her children and walked and talked about families and the restoration. She loved our focus on families and admitted that she wasn't really active in the Orthodox religion as her mother was, because she felt there should be a bigger focus on the home and families. We extended a baptismal invitation and she told us she would like to learn more, but didn't say no. We hope to continue to meet with her. Whether it's planting a seed, harvesting, or both, good things will come from us talking to her that day on the maxi taxi.

A few weeks ago, I quoted the scripture Proverbs 23:7 "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" and Nathan suggested the most beautiful talk to read called "As a Man Thinketh". This essay is changing my life. The scripture itself is something I have strong testimony of. I know that the things we think on and focus on, expand. Our thoughts and the desires in our hearts truly do effect our outside world. Our outside world is a manifestation of our thoughts and desires.

"Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood so lang as they propogate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and corrupt body. Thought is the fountain of action, life, and manifestation; make the fountain pure and all will be pure."

So much truth and power in that. I decided to do a scripture study on "purity" and found some beautiful scriptures. It's been very enligtening. The first was in Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of Heaven." Philipians 4:8 "Whatsover things are pure... think on these things." Timothy 1:5 "Charity out of a pure heart." These all got my mind thinking about the purity of my heart. But the scripture that "hit me the hardest" for lack of a better term is Titus 1:15 "Unto the pure are all things pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." Exactly what that essay had said. So, my goal is to figure out how I develope a pure heart, pure thoughts, pure intentions, pure desires as to create a pure life.

I am excited for what this transfer will bring. I am striving to be an example to those around me and hope that through that example they will see the joy that comes from obedience. It really does fill my heart with so much happiness at the end of each night reflecting on my day and knowing that I was who the Lord would have me be, even just that for one day. Not perfect, but always striving and resolving to be better tomorrow than I was today. It's a good feeling.

We're in the works of getting my visa here in Moldova so that I can stay longer than the 90 days, As far as I've heard, a Romanian sister has never gotten to stay in Moldova more than 2 transfers. I would be thrilled if I got to stay a little longer. I hope it all works out. However, all things according to God's will, of course. Whether I stay or go, I will be where He wants me to be. I can't lose!

Sora Peterson is an amazing missionary. I can already tell she will be such a force for good in missionary work. We have been busy this week with lessons and haven't had much time to contact, but I am excited to take her out contacting this week to meet the wonderful people of Moldova and to search for the people who are out there and ready to hear the gospel. I know they are there and I'm determined to do all I can to find them.

And this is one of the beautiful orthodox churches. So gorgeous. I love this country. 

Yes, another one of me and the girls, Mihaela, Katea, and Valeria.