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