POLICE!!!

Buna, buna, buna,

It has been a full week of running away from the police. doing a little bit of stalking and and preaching the gospel. Such a solid combination.

We had zone conference this week so we headed down to Bucuresti on our favorite 5:30  am train. We decided to race the elders to the train station so everyone got there with plenty of time to spare. The elders won but they cheated so it didn't count. Zone Conference was AMAZING!!!!! Sora Ivory shared with us this children's book called Pierre I care I think I think we have it at home but I am not sure if not GO BUY IT. It is about this boy who says I don't care to everything until he gets eaten by a lion and then he starts caring. Sora Ivory talked with us about apathy and how poisionious it is. I have never really relized this concept before but wow is it so true. When we care about what we are doing we do such a better job. Sora Ivory talked about Good Better Best and how abolut as we grow to care about who we are as people and the journey of growth that we are on we start to be our BEST. Apathy is such a dangerous trap of the advesary. Love is the greatest motivator of all and apathy is the absence of love. We each of "lions" in our own lives, we each have things that we don't care about, maybe because we are too scared to open up our hearts maybe it is because we have been hurt before and we don't want to start caring again or maybe we are scared of failure nothing is wore than failing at something we care so much about. BUT WE HAVE TO CARE!!!! We gotta open up our hearts, we gotta strive to be our best no matter the risks because that is who we are. We are children of God who LOVES all men perfectly we are here on earth because of LOVE. So if we lose that love if we stop to care. We get EATEN. We become selfish we lose our purpose and nothing is more frustrating than a journey without direction. When we strive to care about all those around us we strive to be our best for them. I wake up at 6:30 every morning because I CARE about these people, I study and plan and pray for guidance and direction because I CARE about these people. Missionary work has become so much easier and so much more worth it the more I start to care. My challenge to you my friends and family is to pick something you need to care more about and start to work at it, it could be temple attendance, scripture study, a relationship, school etc. Find a reason to care and let that caring turn into love and I promise that love will motivate you to do your very best and that is what our Father in Heaven expects of us.

Okay I have now stepped off my soap box. Story time, we decided this week that the members needed a nice reminder to read the Book of Mormon so we each made a dessert and met for district meeting to decide who and where to take it to. As we talked I realized I knew pretty much every single one of our members schedules, when they would be home, where they would be at certain times and when they most prefer us to visit them I was like wow I have been here awhile. We were sitting in district meeting and two people walked into the church I walked out and said "Buna" then I realized they both had these badges in their hands that said politia or police I was like uhhhhhh. They asked me if I spoke romanian and I said yes and they said we need to speak with you, at the point my mind whirred back to all of the posible things they could have to talk to us about. All of they places we had drawn in chalk, all of the people we had talked to, all of the blocs we had kind of entered without really having permission from anyone living there. All I said was about what? Then I was like actually here talk to the district leader. So he went out and started talking to them then he was like Sora Armstrong they need you and I was ready to jump out the window and run but I was like dang I can't leave my companion. So I start talking to them and it turns out a member who had been asked not to come to church a year ago had kidnapped her son and ran away with him so they were trying to find her and her ex husband told them she was a member of our church so they paid us a visit. I explained that the member had caused some major problems in the branch and did not have permission to come back here so we had never spoken to her and knew nothing about where she would be. They were kind of skeptical at first. The church is still new here in Romania and sometimes people do not quite understand that our sole purpose is simply to come to Christ through faith in him repentance baptism receiving the holy ghost and enduring to the end. The whole thing was resolved and the ended up finding her in Brasov so it all worked out.

Things are going so well in Constanta these members are incredible and miracles just keep on happening. I had an awesome conversation in english about families. I showed a picture of my family and they said wow you are all so happy. That segwayed into the fact that we are happy becuae of the gospel and I ended up getting to share the Book of Mormon with one of our cute english students. She dresses like Grandma I love it! 

Sorry fambam that is all I have time for this week but I love you guys and never forget to CARE!

Sora Armstrong

 

Our one year celebration dinner at this awesome restaurant. They gave us blankets because it was kinda chilly.