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

Life is Good

Buna Dimineata Friends and Fam!!!

Life is good here in Chisinau. Lots happened this week, haha but every time I email I forget it all. 

Our investigator Virginia was baptized!!! She is this cute mom of two little girls and I love her and am so happy for her! Her husband Ghenadie was able to perform the baptism which was awesome and they are they cutest little family! Love them. :)

We had zone conference this past week which was fun. It was fun to see Elder Cloward from the MTC and all the other elders in the two other moldovian cities. Also it was very fun to see President and Sister Hettinger again, they are the best. I learned a lot. 

It's so fun, the sister missionaries have started a young women's program here! We had an activity last week where we watched Mormon messages and learned how to make brownie balls (so good) and I think we are having another activity this week decorating journals. The girls are so sweet and it is so fun to have enough youth to have young womens! Probably more than half of the girls are actually investigators who come every week and are super solid. Super fun :)

It's kind of weird to think I'm one of four sister missionaries in this entire country. All of us are here in Chisinau and we are able to go contacting or go to lunch with them all the time.

This week was pretty good! Sora Dusenberry have a goal to "forget English." We try to SYL (speak in Romanian as much as possible) any time we are out of the apartment. It actually makes everything so much easier cause then you are already in the habit of speaking and thinking in Romanian. 

Life is good here! I love you all and I hope you are all great!!

Cu drag,

Sora Ebert

Pics

1) Bonus Points if you can find my name in Russian

2) Me with cute Vica (Virginia's daughter)

3) Virginia's baptism :)

Hello From Mini-Russia

Buna Ziua friends and family!!!

I have made it safe and sound to the mission and am serving in Chisinau, Moldova (pronounced keesh-i-now) with my amazing trainer Sora Dusenberry! Love her!! I was not expecting to be sent to Moldova first I'll be honest but I'm so happy to be here. Moldova is kind of like one part western Europe, one part third world country (cause it is one) and one part Russia. 

So far I have tried quail eggs, sarmale (soooo good), Russian Snickers bars, and many other Ukrainian or Russian foods. Also they have the best sandwiches on the best best best bread for less than one dollar here. Awesome. Also my personal groceries here cost less that 10 dollars per week, which is great. :)

The language is coming along, we have sticky notes all over the apartment with vocab right now and I am starting a big notebook for new words. The problem is though, people here speak with a huge Moldovan accent and then throw in a bunch of random Russian words. To be honest, half the time I can't even tell what language they are speaking haha. But I'm definitely grateful for the Gift of Tongues! Maybe I'll be able to speak a little Russian by Christmas! 

Church is kind of funny. The electricity goes off every ten minutes or so, so that in the middle of sacrament meeting the lights go off and a loud beeping noise starts. But you get used to it. Also we are assigned to the Russian speaking branch (we actually attend both Romanian and Russian services) and all of Russian sunday school is spent by these old Russian ladies standing up and yelling at each other over something about the devil. Idk I don't speak Russian.

Guys the work is on fire here in Moldova! Everyone is talking about how  something is happening, the church is growing, and we are seeing miracles! We have set some pretty high goals for this next transfer but with hard work, faith and God's help I know that He will help us achieve them!!

I love you all! I wish I could explain everything about Moldova, but it wouldn't do it justice. This kind of feels like it's the most insane thing I've ever done but it's also the most fun I've every had. Every day is a blast. I love Moldova, I love the cute old ladies, I love our investigators, I love love love my awesome trainer and I love everything I am doing here!

Cu drag,

Sora Ebert

Three Days Until the Real Mission

Hello Friends and Family!!

Basically, this whole week was just our district becoming more and more excited to get to Romania and everything else becoming harder and harder to concentrate on. We leave Monday morning at 4:20 and don't get to Romania until 1 PM (Romania time) on Tuesday. So I think I'll have like 15 hours of time to read the Cartea Lui Mormon and PMG. Life of a missionary :) But guys I'm so excited to get there and meet the people and see the country and eat the food and learn more of the language!

I just want everyone to understand that when we say we are going to Romania, we are not going to a city in Italy. Especially when we say we are speaking Romanian. They actually speak Italian in Italy believe it or not. Haha I can't believe how many people here get confused between Rome and Romania, it's pretty funny.

Ok, the highlight of this week was on Monday when we had the opportunity to skype a member of the church in Ias, Romania!! Her name is Lidia and she is this cute cute old lady who lives alone in this small house with cute purple floral walls and a floral print refrigerator (that was all we could see haha). Anyways it was so fun to actually teach someone from Romania (not just skyping returned missionaries living in Orem). It was so fun, she was so fun to talk to, and was so nice to speak Romanian so slowly for us. :) She told us that she goes into surgery this next week and when we said we were sorry for her, she said, "Don't be sorry, be glad because the surgery is making me better!" Anyways I hope that someday I can be as cute and kind and optimistic as Lidia, cause she is awesome and made our week!

The Provo temple finally reopened! I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to go this morning, especially since it's the last time that I will go for the next 18 months. I love love love going to the temple, and I also love eating breakfast at the cafeteria haha! Super yummy omelets. 

I miss you all! I hope all is well! I can't wait to tell you all about Romania next week!! So excited!!

Numai bine,

Sora Ebert

Pictures: 

The Italian missionaries found a wearable Romanian flag for us? 

We took one last photo with our whole zone before the Italians left

We learned in a fishbowl this week!

Hello and buna seara friends and family!!

To be honest, not too much happened this week. Time is flying faster and faster- we hopefully get our flight plans tonight!! Ahh we are so sad to leave all our teachers and friends in a week, but also so incredibly excited to meet the people of Romania and get to work! Our teachers tell us everyday how amazing Romania is, so I'm so ready to go and finally eat delicious food! (I will miss the brownies here though). 

One major update on the MTC though is that they are hosting open houses! Right now it's just for BYU and MTC employees and their friends and families, but right after I leave the public one opens up. Basically it's thousands of people each afternoon and evening walking past our classroom and watching us learn as they tour the campus. Our classroom is made of beautiful windows, so we make jokes about "Please, do not tap on glass. It startles the missionaries." Or, "Please, do not feed the missionaries." Haha but it's so fun to see all these cute families come through and the new campus is so beautiful, I'm so glad they get to see it! 

No one knows, why, but this week they have had us move classrooms twice. So some mornings we come to class and there's a notice to move all of our stuff out of our desks and hike to the other side of the building until we are told to move again. Super weird and unusual, but quite the adventure. 

My teacher Brother Brundage told us about Romanian history this past week! One day he was talking about the revolution. Literally Romania had a revolution only like 25 years ago, and everyone there fought in the revolution or at least totally remembers it. Guys this is not just a minor upset. Like 25 years ago people were being dragged into the streets and killed, or hiding in bathtubs from the fighting! Crazy stuff. Most people think the government now is better than communism was, though it's still super corrupt. But don't worry!! Romania is super safe now and I'm so excited to talk to all the people that remember what it was like under communism and what it was like to overthrow the government! Super cool!

Also, you guys should all look up the Romanian anthem with English subtitles, it's super funny. It makes the Romanians seem like war hungry barbarians or something. (Which they aren't, I promise).

Guys I'm so sorry but I don't have pictures again!! Honestly, I don't know what I could take pictures of in the MTC that is all that interesting, and I never have my camera on me. But I promise, once I am in Europe in a week and a half I will take so many beautiful pictures of all the awesome buildings and parks and people and food and everything!! 

I love you all, and I miss you tons! Life is so good here, I love it. I know that I am doing God's work and that He is helping me- I feel His love every day! I hope you all are well; you are in my prayers!

Cu drag multe,

Sora Ebert

Never say foot to a Romanian

Buna ziua friends and family!!!

This week flew by; I feel like I was emailing you guys yesterday!! We hit our MTC halfway mark on Wednesday-- less than 3 weeks to go now!! Ahh I love it here but to be honest, I'm so excited to get out into the field and meet the people of Romania! 

Also I heard that this last week was both free slurpee day and free Chick-Fil-A; I hope all of you ate enough for me, I really missed out. They do give us Chick-Fil-A once a week here though, so I guess that makes it ok. No 7-11 though. 

Our investigator Daniel is hilarious. He is one of our teachers acting as a teenager he taught in Romania, and definitely has some lit times. He never stops talking about his funny life, and our first lesson went 20 minutes of him talking super fast before we had two seconds to share a sentence on the Cartea Lui Mormon. Then he ushered us out "cause he had no more time." He asked me about how I go to the U and my companions go to BYU, and I started talking about how Utah football is the best. Anyways, the word "foot" is a very offensive Romanian swear word, so you can imagine how that went. He honestly wouldn't stop laughing at us for the rest of the lesson, and he loves to make fun of the missionaries. But it was hilarious. 

Our zone got to host the new missionaries this week and it was super fun! We all forgot sunblock and got burned, but it actually was way fun, and I'm glad I got to do it. I was so sad for all the crying moms, but so so so excited for the new missionaries; they are going to do such great things.

Update on the language: In Romanian we learned that if a word sounds weird, you change it. If you don't like the word order of a sentence, you can just switch it almost any way you want. Also if you don't want to say a word, take it out of the sentence. There are a million Romanian words for one English word, and one Romanian word for a million English words. It is hard but so fun, and the point of the language is to sound pretty, and I love it. I know the Gift of Tongues is real. We pray so hard all day every day for help with the language, and study so hard during every moment, and God is helping us! I am amazed at how quickly the language is coming, it is so awesome.

I hope all of you are well! I think about you everyday, and love you all!

Cu drag,

Sora Ebert

 Sister Quibley is so cute and loves to draw all of us on the board, so we took a pic

Elder Cloward's younger sister made us all Romanian flag bracelets!! So cute!

Our picture to commemorate our halfway point. The romanian flag is the one in the far right corner

Olympus High reunion!! This is maybe 10% of the Oly population at the MTC, I see people here all the time