Pictures from the home land!

I feel like I owe the blog itself an apology.  I am sorry blog.  I am sorry that A- Katy hasnt sent a TON of email home as of late that has been really appropriate for blog posting and B- Anything that has been sent home has been slipping through the cracks of this scatter brained mom of three.  Sorry.

Moving forward- I have a couple of awesome things to share!  We have an awesome email and then we have pictures.  Feel free to email Katy at kathryn.macdonald@myldsmail.net or snail mail is always appreciated.  She loves pictures so feel free to email her or mail her some pictures!  Keep in mind that they have to be small if you email them.  Her inbox is TINY.  Seriously- like 12 MB an email.  Nuff rambling- enjoy all the Sora Macdonald goodness!

"Buna ziua from Romania!

This week was the most amazing week! Flori got baptized this week and it was absolutely incredible. It was really stressful during the week trying to coordinate with the branch and the mission leader who was out of town but by Friday night everything was taken care of and when I woke up on Saturday I was just feeling so light and refreshed and so excited to be able to be there with Flori. I woke up earlier than usual to make brownies and iron the baptismal clothes and a couple other things and I just danced around the apartment the happiest I've ever been. I'm learning how grateful I really am for my trials because I don't really think I could feel this happy and recognize how great the blessings are that are being poured out on us without my struggles. And the best is when I feel like I'm really reaching my potential and really fulfilling the Lord's will. I feel like trying to describe a mission is just repeating a million cliches. But they are all true. It has changed who I am and who I want to be. 

This week we were preparing to meet with a couple of less actives and we were just talking about what the gospel brings into our lives and I really looked at my life before I was committed in the gospel and actually wanted to keep all the standards and actually progress toward the temple and eventually my mission. In my mind when I look at the time before I made my relationship with God the center of my life, I feel like I was just passing through days. Fun days, boring days, nothing days and in my mind a lot of things happened but I don't see the significance and I don't feel the purpose in that time of my life. Days were just days in my life. But now, after about 3 years that I've been wanting to make Christ the center of my life, I feel.. like I see where I fit into eternity. 

The gospel is always giving back, through scripture study, the power of prayer, general conference the blessings of keeping the commandments, and with all that all that I feel like I've learned, I see that everyday was helping me to become the person that I am today--every mistake and every prayer. I feel like I can see the way that God sees me and the way that He sees those around me. I just love you, my family so much! I hope that you can know that no matter what you do or whatever it is that makes us different, I love you so much. I promise that I will try so much harder to serve you better when I come home. 

With all that has changed me, even when it seems like no one wants to talk to us, it is so peaceful to remember that the Lord has changed ME--stubborn, wandering, rebellious ME, and it is enough to enrich my faith in the life changing nature of this church. I with that I could convey what a privilege it has been to be able to work with Flori leading up to her baptism. I don't even know where to begin with how it all went. The speakers gave wonderful talks and the spirit was thick in the air, after the mission leader told everyone to go to the font, Flori ran back there and I had to run to keep up to get her towel. I couldn't see into the font very well because she wanted to get in as fast as she could. 

It was all in a rush it felt like and you feel like there should be fireworks of the spirit or something go off when they go into the water but it wasn't until I saw her in the dressing room that I realized what it all meant. I don't know if I had ever seen anyone the way that she looked. There were tears in her eyes and her eyes were so bright. She just hugged me, told me thank you and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She just looks different, like there's this light around her. I don't think the change could have been so apparent if so much of her faith wasn't put into it... She really trusted and understood that she could be born again and be free of whatever she felt holding her back before then. I have realized how incredibly blessed I was to be witness to one of the 5 things we have to do to return back to our heavenly father (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End). The 'enduring to the end' part of the gospel of Jesus Christ really just consists of doing the first 2 principles: 'faith' and 'repentance' again and again but the difference after baptism is that you are really reborn again and are able to feel that every single week from the Sacrament for the rest of your life as you continue to repent and learn and strive to have faith and show faith in Jesus Christ. The being "reborn again" part sounds so insufficient. I am so grateful for the sacrament and for this really sacred experience. 
Ah, I just love Romania and my mission. Do good things. Remember to pray and I'll write next week :)
Love, Katy/Sora Macdonald/Kathryn etc. "

Companion love

11 year old investigator

Crazy elders

Baptism day!

Transfer time!!

Dear Friends and Family,

So I guess here's the gist about my life right now. I'm leaving the nest of Iasi, my home, and being thrust out into the cruel and cold world.... okay, I'm really just going to Ploiesti. But we have a chapel there! And everyone says that it is the strongest branch in Romania. That will be a good change but it is really hard to leave Iasi. I've learned so much here. I learned to actually speak Romanian and how to be a missionary here. And how to keep going even when... it is pretty discouraging. 

I haven't really talked about it in a while because the opposition is really great here. I didn't realize how great until I was in my 2nd transfer and one things after another happened with our investigators and with trying to have lessons with anyone at all really. I think I cried more in my second transfer than I probably ever have in a 6 week period of time. I loved our investigators so much and they just... weren't progressing. They just keep letting one thing get in the way because of the cultural around them and their family and one thing after another. To put this in perspective. Everyone in Romania is essentially Orthodox  And because of the blindness that Romanian was under for so long under communism and when they finally got to worship again, something happened where all the generations from about 45 years old up think that everyone in the world was born Orthodox and that it is a sin to change religions. 

It is a whole other world here that you didn't really know that people could be so closed off from the world. Most young people aren't that way because of the generation gap but as a result of the Orthodox belief here that are kind of.. zealous and.. some people might call backwards,  they only see religion in general, the bible and other scripture as backwards and zealous  But not everyone is like that. People who get out of Romania have the chance to see the world differently and they are more open. But... it's hard. And it's hard not to be resentful about the Orthodox church. It just doesn't have to be the way that people think it is. I meet so many wonderful Christ like people who are really actively Orthodox and they tell me that they trust what their priest says because they have to but they would never trust their priest because there is so much corruption in the church here and you see the priests riding home in their BMW's past the guy who digs through the garbage every day. It's just not right. 

And There is so much poverty here. I was in utter shock when I got her. And the kids on the streets begging... It's enough to get you down. Especially when they isn't really anything that we can do. But the other day, in the face of all this I feel like I really saw things clearly why there is so much against us building God's kingdom here. We were walking home from a meeting one night a couple weeks ago and we ran into one of our investigators who we had a lesson with earlier that day. She knows that they book of Mormon is true but is having a hard time committing because of her family situation. And then an investigator who I love the most in the world, who I taught from the second week I was in the country until about a month ago, comes by too (she had randomly stopped taking our calls and not calling us back. We basically just lost her.) I was so happy to see her, Sorina. She smiles at us and then starts off with, "I know what you do in your temples!" And... imagine the worst possible scenario, and that was it. She starts going off about some video of the temple that her friend had showed her with all this negative and really incorrect things. She starts describing all the things and I have no idea what to do. 

So meanwhile, our other investigator is so confused and my companion is trying to get Sorina to stop and I'm just standing there ready to cry, watching the investigator who I really just love more than anyone in Romanian, say the most terrible things about the most sacred things in my heart. She left quickly, and didn't say much else to either of us. Then our other investigator starts getting upset and we could do was tell her that we would explain what we could when we met next. She agreed but hesitantly. We walked away in shock of what had just happened. I'm really about to cry. Satan has his hold so strong here! I just kept thinking that again and again but then I realized something. I thought back to 2 Nephi 2, where God tells us that there must be opposition in all things and they would be for our good. I had intellectually understood that but as I walked away from Sorina, with a silent prayer in my heart, asking "Why??? Why?" I felt so strongly, and finally understand, this was all apart of the plan from beginning. Not that there would be wickedness to pull us down, but that there would always be advocates for God to fight against it. 

To fight against it with truth, with the simple love of God in our hearts. That's what our purpose is here and if I just give up and close my heart to my investigators again because I'm afraid I will get hurt, I'm not being the advocate for God that he wants me to be. I'm not fighting the opposition. There is darkness and lies so that the light and truth can burn even brighter and testify to every heart here in Romania that Jesus is the Christ and that His gospel will never leave us again. I'm so grateful for this truth that I received and for how much that I've learned here in Iasi and on my mission. It is the best decision that I ever made coming on a mission. Even if it has already been one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I'm so grateful for the privileged that I have to wear Christ's name and proclaim His gospel to anyone that will listen. Even if it's only in 3  or 4 lessons a week, I get to be an advocate for the literal Kingdom of God. How great is my calling!!
Well until next week, thank you so much for all your support, love and prayers. I feel them all.
Love, Sora Macdonald

It's picture time!

Make shift Christmas tree with pictures of all the family

on the street just a couple minutes from our apartment,
during the Christmas season. Amazing!

me and the comp on Christmas day at dinner at Sora Lidia's house

Elder Slembowski

the member who made your socks!! (Kristen and Josh got handmade socks for Christmas)

...because I am ridiculous and no, you shouldn't put this one on the blog--okay do what you want

Me with my Elders and a member, Andreea for New Years Eve. Yes, I absolutely love my Elders. They are ridiculous and Hilarious. Left- Elder Slembowski, Cox, Friel, me and Andreea