Week 34- "Yee haw"

We have had the best week ever! First of all we set the baptismal date with Madalina! She is one of those people who has just been prepared by God. The transition was not as smooth as we were hoping with her moving home and she ended up not being able to meet with the Elders at all, but she came back to Cluj this last week and we met up. She said she has prayed and knows that this is the one true church and that she wants to be baptized! She has talked to her family and they support her. The lesson was beautiful and what made it even more amazing was our sweet members Aurelia and Salvatore. They testified and talked about their experiences and most of all they just loved her so much. We could not have done it without them! She then came to church on Sunday and was enthusiastically nodding at during all of the talks and singing all of the hymns. She tells us that she feels so blessed to already have a part in the true church of God. We are praying for her and trying to work with her as much as we can in the next few weeks before she goes home. This is a miracle! I can't even express how grateful I am to have met her and to be able to see God working in her life. Other than that we have been continuing to work with Bogdana and some other new investigators. We have been implementing members in our lessons and in all stages of our work and it has been making such a difference! We have seen God working through the members and strengthening them as the help us. We also had our exchanges this week with Arad. Basically our trip to Arad consisted of crazy Babas, awesome miracles, lots of story telling, and peach cobbler. This week has been full and wonderful. With every day I feel my love and desire to serve these people grow. I know that God is working and that He has miracles in store for all these people. I pray for more opportunities to serve and to teach and He gives them. We have a great work to do here! And the joy that comes from doing this work is deeper than any other. I am so incredibly grateful that I have been called here to work in the gathering of Israel in this beautiful country. I am grateful that despite my weaknesses and mistakes God still chooses to work through me. I hope you have a wonderful week! I love you guys so much!

Love, Sora James

picture 1: boganas little girls gave us lots of drawings (also romanian pants for the win)

picture 2: going to arad

 

week 33

This week was so amazing! We have had many blessings and so many miracles. We have been working so hard this week in all aspects. Every day we have been contacting and finding new people like crazy! I know that Heavenly Father has been guiding us. One of the most amazing miracles happened last night. We like contacting every Sunday night at the Central Park because there are lots of young families and they are all usually pretty open to talk. So we started heading to the park but before we even got there it started raining. We were disappointed but decided we would find someone block knocking instead. We ended up meeting the coolest person ever! Her name is Zam and she is so prepared for the gospel. She is in her 20s and looking for a church. She lives in a block close to Center and literally lives on the fourth floor, last door. It was so amazing to find her especially when it hadn't been in our plan. I have learned again and again in my mission that the Lord will do His work. He leads us to where we need to be. We also have been continuing to work hard with our members. Every Sunday we try to talk to as many as we can about their families and friends and people that we can share the gospel with. Every person that they mention we treat as a sacred assignment and always follow up. I know that it is making a difference in our relationships with them and that they see that we take the work seriously. Another blessing that we had this week was with our investigator Bogdana. She is amazing!! We went over this week and it happened to be a day that she was home alone. We were able to really hear her feelings and answer some questions. The amazing thing was that she said that she wants to know if the church is true and she told us that she would find out by going and praying. She said that she knew that it would change everything if it is true. She then told us that she knows that she has to believe that it is true first and then she would get her answer to know. It was amazing that she was able to arrive at the answers for herself. The Spirit definitely spoke to her.  All in all we have worked hard and have seen so many blessings from God. We come home every day tired but so happy. I am so grateful to be a part of this work.

Week 32- Best week ever!

This week has been truly an amazing week! We have been blessed with many opportunities to testify and find others and share the gospel. The highlight of the week for me was Zone Conference. I felt very inspired by what we talked about and I have felt the spirit of this work in ways that I have never felt before. We talked about moving the work forward by working with our members. We came home from Zone Conference and called every active member and asked them if they would be willing to help us. We told them we had investigators that needed their testimonies. The reactions were amazing! We had people that we have always looked over saying that they would love nothing more than to be a part of our work. We asked people to let us know their schedules and we now have a spread sheet so that we can be sure that we don't have a lesson without a member present. The next day at church I was blessed to give a talk on missionary work and the members were excited! We had several people come up to us and ask us when they could help us! I know that the Lord is hastening His work in Cluj-Napoca and that the hearts of the people are being prepared. We have also seen blessings and miracles with our investigators. We had the opportunity to meet with Teodora this week and it was amazing! She is an old investigator of the sisters here and we decided to contact her again. She is an amazing girl and has strong faith in Jesus Christ. We are excited to meet with her and we feel strong that she will be ready! All around we have been very blessed and I know without a doubt that God is taking care of us and has a plan for us here in Cluj. My gospel study has been helping me a lot. I have seen myself in the scriptures a lot recently and I love to see that I am not alone in the things that I am doing. It helps me to have courage and faith always! I am so grateful to be a missionary and especially to be here at this time.

Love you all! Domnul sa va binecuvanteze!

Picture 1: Training it through the Romanian countryside

Picture 2: We made some friends along the way

Picture 3: Studying the good word 

Picture 4: walking to a less actives house in the prettiest city ever

Week 31- Ziua Americii!! La multi ani!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!! This week was super awesome! My new companion is amazing and has a ton of faith! We have been working hard and teaching everyone we see! I know that God is blessing us and is here with us! This week were able to go to Bogdana's house again and teach the Plan of Salvation. She was really touched when we spoke about how we all have a mission here on earth and that we need to be ready so that we can find it and fulfill it. Her daughters were so cute and kept asking us if they could pray with us agian. Bogdana told us that she fills something different when we are there and asked us to keep coming. We were also able to work with our members a lot this week, including our sweet Ramona. She is such a light and an example. It is such a testimony to me of the truth of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She is a changed person! I am so grateful to be a part of this work in spreading the truth to all of God's children here! I know that He truly does have a plan for each of us and that if we have faith, He will allow miracles to work in our lives. Don't ever forget that God loves you and that He is there for you! Have a great week!

Picture 1 Ramona and us 

Picture 2 Me and Florina and Raluca (and Bogdana and Sara in the background)

Picture 3 Just cheesing

Picture 4 Happy 4th

Picture 5 Cluj

Week 30- Dar cine este Mormon?

My new comp is the CUTEST ever! We have just been working hard and having so much fun already. This week we were able to meet with that family that we had found a month or so ago and it was so cool! Bogdana had just had a baby and there was a really sweet spirit in the home. We gathered the family and taught them all how to pray. All of the little girls were so excited to learn. We also had some amazing lessons with Ana and Madalina. We taught Ana the Gospel of Christ and she really loved it. She told us that she wanted to be baptized but wanted to know for sure if the church was true first. We talked about how we can gain faith through action and she agreed and told us that she was going to start being more dedicated in reading the Book of Mormon. With Madalina we taught the Law of Chastity and it was also a wonderful lesson. She told us that she would live the law of chastity and even testified of why she knows that it is important! We are so happy for her! We are sad to see her go to Oradea for the summer but the missionaries there will continue the lessons with her. Other than that we had a few lessons with new investigators and have been continuing to work hard to find people! We have set a ton of goals and have an amazing vision for the people here in Cluj! The Lord is blessing us and guiding us!

I love you all have a beautiful week!

Picture 1: just studying away

Picture 2: lol 

Picture 3: mission conference from a while ago ​​

Week 29- home sweet home

Cluj is my home! This week has been really wonderful. Thanks to miracles and guidance from God we have been so busy! We have had lot's of lessons and amazing opportunities to find this week. We have still been working with all of our investigators and have been having a lot of new investigators. This week we met up with one of our investigators Madalina. She is so amazing! It was our second time meeting with her and already she has read all the way through 1 Nephi! We talked about baptism and she said that although she wasn't prepared now, that she wants to be baptized. Right now she is praying about a date! This week we have also been able to do a lot of member work. We were able to meet with Ramona (the girl who was just baptized) which was so amazing! She has been very busy and overwhelmed with exams but was able to meet and have a lesson. She talked to us about being an example and a light to her family and to those around her. It was amazing to hear her testify of the power of keeping God's commandments. We helped her to understand that the progress that she has made and will continue to make is only possible through the true church of Jesus Christ and through His power. It was a powerful lesson. We have continued to find and contact at every moment possible and have been very blessed. It is amazing who you meet and what opportunities God gives you when you are always trying to find them. This week is transfers and I am staying here but my companion is leaving. I have been so grateful to serve with Sora Christensen. She has blessed me so much and taught me so many things. I am sad to see her go but I can't wait to start this next transfer! I know that there are many more miracles in store!! 

Love you all so much! Just know that God is here for you and loves you where you are! But know that He has plans for you to become more than you could imagine! Trust Him always!

Picture 1: an action shot of us walking to a lesson lol

Picture 2: our view from our apartment 

Picture 3: i love all the churches here

Week 28- Best week EVER

This week we have seen miracles! I know I say this every week but really this was a week of miracles. We had great lessons with some amazing people that have been prepared for the gospel. Among these lessons were Nicol and Ana. We met with a girl that we found almost a month ago but that hasn't been able to meet up. She was so open to the message of the gospel and has committed to find out if it is true. We also met with our investigator Ana and taught the Plan of Salvation. As we were teaching her it was as if we were seeing her remember what she already knew. She told us that she knew that she would receive a witness that it was true if she just keeps searching. She told us that she has read from the Book of Mormon. It was a beautiful lesson and we could feel her spirit. We also met with a lady in our branch Sora Handabuti and had a great lesson. She is the Family History Representative in our branch and doesn't really know how to do her calling so we met with her and talked about how to run the website and why family history work is so important. I think we could all feel the Spirit of Elijah as we talked about that amazing work. She is going to start a class every couple of weeks before sacrament meeting in which she will teach others how to do their family history work. She is amazing! We also had some amazing opportunities to testify and teach as we were finding. The thing that is bringing the most joy to me in this time in the work is just the work. We have been blessed with success in finding and in teaching and I am so so grateful that God has trusted us to teach His wonderful children here in Cluj. It has been amazing!! So amazing! I love being here and I love being a missionary.

Hope you all had a great week! Love you all!

Picture 1: just me so happy because life is so amazing and God is so good!

Picture 2: literally where I live whaat 

Week 27-

This week has been incredibly hot! We have been spending the days finding new investigators and trying not to get heat stroke!! We have seen lot's of miracles with God leading us to those who are prepared and helping us to know what to say and how to say it. We have continued to work with Boghi and Roxana and Familia Gurita and lots of others. We have been praying that we will be lead to God's elect and we have been! Thank you all for your prayers and support! We are seeing God's work progress because of all of your prayers! These people need those prayers! I love you all!

Picture 1: center

Picture 2: me and my comp and Boghi (cutest ever)

picture 3: center again (I cannot believe I live here)

My companion keeps taking pictures of me until I get mad! Haha!

Week 26- Stuck in Bucharest

This week was amazing! We had an amazing conference in Bucharest with Elder De Feo! I had the amazing opportunity to have a personal interview with him! It was so amazing and I learned so much! That night we were running late to catch our train and we got lost alone in Buch ahah! We ended up chasing down the train carrying huge boxes of Books of Mormon and we were not fast enough! We missed it and ended up getting stuck in Bucharest! It actually ended up being great though because we were able to do a lot of contacting and things while we were there. It ended up being a crazy week but really great! Our investigators are doing really well and the work is looking good here in Romania! I love you all have a great week!!

Picture 1: The grossest fruit I have ever tasted 

Picture 2: The main park in Center <3

Week 25- Love you all!

I have no time today! I love you all!! Missionary life is the best!!!

Week 24- Miracles and Cluj Days

This was an amazing week! I have been thinking a lot about God's elect and about how they are here in Cluj just looking for this message. They are all around us and it is our job to listen as God directs us where to find them. This week we were out finding a less active member and we hadn't had any success. We had gotten lost several times and when we finally found the street, the block wasn't there. I was feeling bad that we had wasted time but then I realized that we were trying our best to do God's work and that we hadn't given up. I told Sora Christensen that even if we couldn't see it that God had been and still was guiding us. In that moment, we were walking past a house and we saw a family. We got a very strong prompting that we needed to talk to them so we turned around and started sharing our message. We ended up sharing a Book of Mormon with them and have since been back to visit them again. I know that if we hadn't been there at that time we would have missed that opportunity and that if I had continued focusing on the bad and not having trust in God we might have missed that spiritual prompting. This was such an important lesson to me and I am so so grateful that we didn't turn back and that we were blessed to meet this family. 

Some of our other blessings this week were also incredible miracles. We were able to contact an investigator after more than a week of not hearing from her and she said she wants to keep meeting with us. We also had several amazing miracles as we talked to people on the streets. We met one girl yesterday who was so excited to see us. She told us that her friend had told her about us and that she wanted to meet us and talk to us. Every day we have so many miracles and experiences. 

One scripture that I have been thinking about lately is D&C 42:49-51 "He who hath the faith to see shall see. He who hath the faith to hear shall hear. The lame who hath the faith to leap shall leap." I have the faith that we can all leap through the help of Christ! God is helping us so much and nothing is impossible for Him. Thank you for your love and support!

Picture 1: Our branch family.

Picture 2: Some cute girls we met

Picture 3: Cluj

Picture 4: Cluj