Toamna a venit, si iarna vine

Hello friends and fam!!

Update: it's starting to get cold here in Moldova, and it's going to soon be much much colder. Chisinau is the coldest place in the mission I could have been called to serve in, just in time for winter! But it's chill lol (get it, chill...hahaha) we bought some pretty warm scarves and hats for the upcoming months. Ahh I love love love European clothes. Definitely ordering off of Zara once I get home.

Not a ton happened this week. One advice I have for you all is: if you set up a meeting with the cute amazing sister missionaries, lol show up. But we have been meeting a lot with this cute cute cute girl named Lidia. She actually is moving to Massachusetts with a green card in April, and meets with us to learn English as well. Two things I love that she has said to us: 1) "Everytime I come to this church I am just so so happy!" 2) When I asked her conversationally what she did that day, "I read the Book of Mormon. I couldn't stop reading it!"

Love her. And I want so badly for her to be baptized! That happiness that she feels in the church building can be with her always!

Umm embarrassing moment to share, cause I know you all love those lol: We have activity nights for the youth and investigators every friday night, and this week it was minute to win it type games. In this order I 1) tripped over the table in front of literally everyone 2) was chosen to try to blow the biggest bubble gum bubble, but those who know me know that I honestly absolutely cannot blow bubble gum bubbles. and 3) During the egg toss smashed an egg all down our investigators shirt. But it all worked out cause our team won in the end.

General Conference was amazing! I was able to watch two sessions in English, and two sessions in Romanian. The internet was down for a bit and there was a chance we would have to watch the entire thing in Russian, would have been a great way to learn limba Rusa I guess. Anyways, I thought the whole thing was incredible. I loved the messages on Relying with your whole being on God! It is so true, especially here on the mission. We are so weak without Him, but through Him we can be made strong! Love that!

I love and miss you all! Hope all is well!

 O zi buna,

Sora Ebert

Pics: we hiked to the hill where Moldova was dedicated for missionary work by Elder Ballard

Also I saw this guy giving haircuts on the side of the street and was really tempted to try it

Week of Straight Miracles

Well Friends and Fam, this has been a good one.

This week started out a little rough, with zero progressing investigators, zero baptismal dates, zero investigators at church, many rejections, and very few promising contacts. But we prayed (a lot) for more faith, more energy, more contacts, and more investigators, and our prayers were answered! The very next day, we worked so hard talking to everyone with a crazy amount of faith. By the end of the day, we had 4 promising contacts, 7 referrals (we normally get 2 a week- never 7 a day!) and 2 english students asking to learn more about our church! It was crazy and we could feel the difference in our energy and faith. The difference was we didn't just pray and expect something to happen. We prayed, and the acted! We worked so hard, and the God helped us! We are so excited because this next week is crazy busy running from lesson to lesson! Our goal is to get 6 new investigators this week! 

I don't know if anyone remembers Ivan and Olea? Ivan is a less active member and his wife is orthodox and was very against the church. We have been serving her and loving her the past couple of weeks, and on Saturday she told us that she wouldn't have an issue with Ivan taking her kids to church! HUGE STEP for her! She even said that maybe sometime she would come at some point! The key is love and service my friends!!

We had Zone Conference this past week and it was awesome! I loved it and learned so much. Honestly President and Sora Hettinger are so amazing! We learned about spiritually finding. If we don't know where to go, or who to talk to, why are we struggling alone? We need to just ask the one person who knows everything, and He will give us the answer. If at any point in life we need an answer, and we don't ask God first, then we are limiting ourselves. It was an awesome conference, and I can't wait till next transfer. 

Crazy moment of the week: the pipes broke in the church the day before district conference (like stake conf) and all missionaries spent quite a bit of time mopping up 5 inches of water before it could drip down into the chapel. Oops!

Anyways friends this week I learned a lot! I wish I had a funny story to share, but spiritual ones are 10 times better! I love you all and hope everything is going great back home in America! 

Love, 

Sora Ebert

1) Fall is here! I wore my rain boots and tights today, and I'm not sure how to feel

2) Biking for pday

Nu Vorbesc Limba Romana Apparently

Hellooo Friends and Fam! 

I hope everyone is doing well. I hear America is going through a bit of a tough one with all the hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. I hope all of you are doing alright, especially cute little Henry and Sam in Miami!

If anyone would like an update on my language and pronunciation skills here's a story for you: We were contacting on the street yet again, and this mom walks by with her daughter. In my profound Romanian, I tried to tell her that the little girl is super cute, and she looks at me really confused and says, "Nu vorbesc limba engleza, scuzi." It was pretty awkward. Apparently when I speak Romanian to a Romanian they think I'm speaking English lol.

One funny thing I am learning about Chisinau is that they will put their celebrations and random events above the functionality of the city haha. Literally every week they will shut down their biggest street running through the entire city, and hold a huge event. One week it was a concert, the next it was a chalk throwing festival, two days ago they had traditional flag dances, and yesterday they held a professional wrestling/karate/weird fighting competitions. It's super fun to watch as we are walking by, but I think it is funny bc all the bus routes are messed up for the day, cars can't get through, and then the next day is spent taking down the stage. But it's a party here in Chisinau.

Iulia got her mission call! She is this cute cute member who has waited for months due to medical stuff, but she finally opened her call in sacrament on Sunday. She is going to Birmingham, England. Maybe she will be comps with Sister Knight? Ahh I am so excited for her, she will be amazing! It is so exciting for us missionaries here to see the church growing enough that it is sending its own missionaries out into the field! I know that this is God's work and that it is progressing faster and faster than ever before! 

Sad news of the week: Sora Ebert's fav pen ran out of ink and we are currently in mourning. 

Fun news of the week: We are starting a children's english class this week! It has been a lot of work to put the curriculum together, so we are so excited to start teaching! Hopefully this way we will be able to find some awesome families who are interested in the gospel.

The work is going great here, and Sora Dusenberry and I are working hard. I love you all back at home and I pray for you every day! :)

Cu drag mult,

Sora Ebert

Pics:

Sora D and I were looking for this less active member in this super old creepy block on the 11th floor, and then all the lights turned off. So glad we had a flashlight lol for the long walk down the stairs.

Iulia's call opening!

Our zone's creative contacting for the week: If you can guess how many ties are on Elder Soloviov, you win a free book! ;)

Marturii Lui Lehova

Buna Buna Buna Friends and Fam!!!

Well my friends I must say I can now check being contacted by the Jehovah's Witnesses off my bucket list. They came to our door on Tuesday. Super nice older ladies. To be honest that run in made us 10 minutes late getting out the door in the morning (well I guess technically we were in the doorway) but their video they showed us was very interesting. I kept waiting for them to notice our name tags but they never did. Maybe we need bigger tags lol. We didn't really know how to handle it, so now we have several JW pamphlets and business cards in our apartment, and they say they will come back next week. It was only a matter of time though...we see the JWs every day here on the streets, and the Mormons have become good friends with them. In fact sometimes we contact right next to them- respectfully of course. :)

Good news: President has been really stressing creative contacting here in the mission this next transfer, and the Chisinau Zone is so ready for that! We ordered new street banners, we are going to carol in the winter, some elder had some idea about using popping balloons or something, and we are going to contact the pants off of Chisinau these next few months. SO excited!! Honestly contacting as a Zone is so effective and so fun and brings so much energy! (even if sometimes we look ridiculous). 

MIRACLES: One super cool experience this week for Sora D and I was meeting Tania and her family! We were going and trying to find all the less actives on the branch list (it's honestly like a detective/scavenger hunt type thing here...Somehow people, and even houses, disappear off the face of the planet) and we were looking for one lady who lived in the far outskirts of the Botanica sector. We asked everyone how to get to this one neighborhood and no one knew. Just before we were going to give up, we find the developer who apparently built that area on the opposite side of the city who was going in that direction. Wow crazy coincidence. Then...we literally walked forever and couldn't find the right street. Literally right when we were going to turn around, we found it. Then...we found the house but no one seemed to be home. We were going to leave a note, but just before we left, Tania came out!! She said she was one of the first members here to be baptized in Chisinau, and she hasn't been to church with her three kids in years. But she misses church!! She says church brought her so much happiness and that she wants to come back! So we will be working with her and we are so excited! Anyways, I know that God helped us find her, and that we were able to meet her because we had faith and didn't give up! So many moments we were going to turn back, but then MIRACLES! Super cool, and we are very excited. :)

Low point of the week: I got pooped on by a bird for the first time in my life. Had to happen at some point.

High point of the week: WE FOUND MOLDOVAN COSTCO!!! It's called Metro and we now have a membership card (it was free yay). Honestly though it's a gold mine and so much cheaper to buy things in bulk. To be honest it's more like Costco, SuperTarget, and HomeDepot all combined in one.

Anyways this email is very long, but this week was very exciting. I love you all and I love hearing from you! I hope you all are safe with the hurricanes going on and such. And if anyone would like to update me on the Utes this football season, I would be forever grateful.

With Love,

Sora Ebert

Very sorry, I forgot to take pics this week. But we took this cool photo of our street board while contacting (just so you know, we moved to a place with more people to contact lol)

First Transfer Down, 11 More to Go

Buuuuna Friends and Fam!

Well this week has been a fast one, time is beginning to fly. I feel like I emailed you all two days ago! I can't believe transfers have come already. Sadly Sora Nemelka and 3 of the elders are leaving Chisinau, and I will miss them all, but I hear some amazing missionaries are coming in after them!! Super excited to continue training with Sora Dusenberry this next transfer and to continue serving with the most amazing people ever!

We did lots and lots of service this past week, mostly for members of the branch. On Wednesday however we did a huge Zone service project where we fixed up a community volleyball court where we hold weekly volleyball nights for members and investigators!! (I have learned that my volleyball skills are severely lacking compared to some of these other missionaries, oops). It was fun, Sora D and I painted some benches and had blue paint all over us for days. 

Also, this past Sunday was awesome!!! Honestly I looked around during the Russian branch sacrament meeting, and there was not an empty seat!! SO awesome! There must have been almost as many investigators as members there! There is this less active member, Ivan, who we have been working with these past few weeks. His wife is pretty strongly Orthodox, and is against the church, so he hasn't come since they have been married. But they just had a brand new 1 week old bebelus, and we have been taking them dinner, treats, notes, etc. and on Sunday Ivan and three of his kids walked in the door of sacrament meeting!! Sora D and I were so happy and so excited to see them! Definitely a highlight of the week. I know that because we reached out to be kind and invite them to church, they were able to come and feel the spirit! I hope you all are doing your best to look for those who could use an invitation to church, because sometimes that's all it takes, and it's honestly the best.

Life is so so good here and I feel the spirit every single day! (Also the kitchen bug situation is solved yay!) I miss you all and I hope all is well! I pray for you all every day! Let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you!

Love,

Sora Ebert

Many Slightly Gross Adventures

Salut Friends and Fam!!

This week was awesome; we have met many cool people and have started teaching more which is great! Also all the investigators that leave for the summer and coming back! So we are excited for these next couple of weeks!

I have definitely grown a tougher skin dealing with gross situations this week lol. First of all our friend who is a member invited us to her apartment to help with repairs. We went over and it was the most chaotic scene I've ever seen (lol poetic). She didn't have a fridge, so all this food that should be kept cold was just left open on the table everywhere, with flies all over it. She fed us watermelon, and poor Sora Dusenberry tasted it and it definitely was rotten. We also politely refused the tea served in suspicious really dirty mugs. And all at the same time we had these two cats who looks like they definitely had some sickly disease were running all around us. We did as much "repairing" as we could and go out of there quick.

Secondly, we were so sad this week, because our kitchen got some kind of bug infestation. We spent 3 hours this morning going through all of our cupboards, throwing almost everything away and spraying everything with like bleach or something. Anyways, I guess now we can go on a spice rack shopping spree. It was pretty gross and I really hope I haven't been eating bugs for the past month.

Haha I'm sorry for this gross update, this week had been super fun other wise. Yesterday was Moldova Day!!! They basically have a huge concert in the center of the city with traditional music during the day and normal (?) music at night. And fireworks! It's super fun, they have all these markets selling traditional Moldovan things, and all these families are out in the parks all day celebrating with icecream and picnics, etc.

Quote of the week: "The greater your faith, the stronger your character; increased character enhances your ability to exercise even greater faith." -Richard G Scott

I love you all! We are having so much fun here in Chisinau and working super hard! 

Sora Ebert

PS I forgot: one highlight of the week was someone gave us Kraft Mac and cheese and it was so American and tasted heavenly. :) Don't take American food for granted haha

Moldovan Emergency Room

Hello Friends and Family!

Well for the first half of this week I spent many hours reading Jesus the Christ, listening to the MoTab and cleaning the apartment because poor Sora Dusenberry was sick! We aren't really sure what it was, but she's better now. However, on Tuesday she wasn't doing so great so we got to go to the hospital! Let me just say I am really grateful that they send us missionaries to the private hospitals here, because it's super similar to America and the doctors are great as far as I know. Sora D told me a bunch about the healthcare system here. It's honestly so sad, and the whole system is so corrupt. Basically a patient may come in with a headaches or something and they will be told that they are going to die if they don't have surgery or something. For example, there's this cute 17 year old girl who comes to the Russian branch and she recently had her ovaries removed and is currently undergoing chemo and radiation, though there really doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her, and we are all pretty sure the doctors have been lying to her in order to get more money. It's so so so sad and happens all the time here. But don't worry!! That doesn't happen at the hospital we go to luckily!

On a happier note, we've had a great time contacting less actives this week! There is a long list of members here in Chisinau, and only a percentage of them are coming to church, so this week we made some cookies and bought some flowers for some of them! Basically here in Chisinau, everyone lives in these huge apartment blocks, and almost all of them are super old, super creepy, and super dark, all left over from communism 30 years ago. Plus they smell super weird.Yesterday we went up this old creaky elevator for 17 floors with it sounding like it was going to break any second. But we had fun and it's definitely an adventure.

Also I wanted to say that the people here are so nice and I love them all, and some of them are hilarious. We are friends with Ecaterina, this old member in the ward who every morning and night she calls us to pray with her. Plus every time we see her she asks to pray with us. Some days we end up praying with her 3 or 4 times, and it's awesome she's the sweetest. Plus you can never have too many prayers!

I love you all! I hope all is well!

Sora Ebert

Pics:

1) poor Sora Dusie, glad she's doing alright

2) Cathedral Park, literally we spent countless hours here each week

3) this is our branch building and I forgot if I've already sent it to you guys! But the church rents out this cute villa and it's my favorite