23 January 2012

Buna Ziua!

How are you all? Thank you for all your letters and your prayers. I feel them helping me everyday.

This last week was a mixture of everything. We had a lot of dropped lessons, but we met some really awesome people that we are starting to teach. The best part is that we had 3 investigators come to church and 4 less actives come! We forget how important and how much we learn just from coming to church and partaking of the sacrament. There is a spirit there that cannot come from any lesson that we teach. More importantly we recognize that Christ's atonement and our baptismal covenants need to be placed in the center of our lives. As we do this, our priorities will be placed in order, balance will come into our lives, and God will bless us with the blessings he is just waiting to give us.

So I just have a small thought to share with you all today. I was reading from Elder Oaks conference talk on Sunday of this last conference. In part of it he talks of how he was talking with a less active sister that had started coming back to church. To give her encouragement he told her after all Christ has done for us it is very little for us to serve him and come to church each week. They ladies response shocked him. She responded "What has Christ done for me?" When I read that my jaw literally dropped. As I pondered that question I thought about all that Christ has done for me. It is an endless list of blessings, trials, lessons, opportunities, and people that have been placed in my life because he loves me. May we always remember to take time our of our busy days to remember that "tender mercies" that God places in our lives. He is mindful of us. He loves us. He wants to bless us. He knows us perfectly and individually. I know that through Christ's atonement we find joy that cannot be found anywhere else. I know that Christ is ready to bless us, we just need to follow him.

Psalms 145:9 "The lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works."

Va Iubesc,

Sora Remsberg

16 January 2012

Buna Ziua!

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. They time is just flying by and I can't believe I am already 22. I feel so much older. Just kidding. It was a fun day. We had 2 awesome lessons and we had sign ups for english. I love when english classes start up because they bring a whole new group of potential investigators. English is fun because our students get to see us and know us on a different level when we teach english. They come to english to learn from Americans, but we invite them in the hopes that our spiritual thoughts will prick their hearts and they will have a desire to learn more. After our day was over, we ran to the store and bought a little cake to celebrate. My companion was super cute and sang to me and we enjoyed the rest of our studies.
So this week was not too busy, but was very successful. We are finding new ways to find new investigators and we are learning more and more to rely on the spirit to be present in our lessons.

We are teaching a 22 year old and she had us over for lunch this last week. After we ate, we went onto LDS.org and to mormon.org. I cannot explain the spirit that came from those websites. After about 30 minutes of playing around, she was very curious and wanted to watch more. The church has gone to remarkable lengths to provide our advancing technological society with fabulous online resources. I would encourage everyone to recommend friends and family to watch these sites and to listen to the words or our modern day apostles and prophets.

I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has once again showed us his love for us and has called a prophet to lead and guide us in these tumultuous times. We knew life was not going to be easy when we chose to follow God's plan, but we knew it was going to be worth it because we will receive so much more after this life. May we all remember to let our confidence wax strong, that we may face the trials and adversity of our day with faith and with hope. For we have faith in Jesus Christ, but we find hope through his atonement.

Va Iubesc,

Sora Remsberg

9 January 2012

Buna Ziua!

Ce Faceti?

P-day is here again. This last week has been a little crazy. We had transfers, which means that Sora Schifirnet and I took a sleeper train down to Buc Tuesday night and got in Wednesday Morning. I got my visa. I am officially allowed to be in the country.

I am back in Iasi with my new companion, Sora Komar. It is a lot of responsibility to be a trainer, but I am humbled by the trust that the Lord and my mission president has placed in me to train her. It is so fun to see how far I have come and grown in the last 3 months and can only wait to see much I will grow in the coming months. Sora Komar is full of fire and ready to make miracles here in Iasi, which is exactly what we need. We have a couple solid investigators and we are trying to help them progress towards baptism. We had 2 very good lessons that got me thinking about the power and gift of the Holy Ghost.

Before baptism we have occasionally promptings and feelings of the Holy Ghost. He helps us know the truthfulness of things. We can feel it when we are doing the right things. When we are serving others, when we are surrounded by family, when we read the scriptures. However, it is only after the confirmation of the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the proper Priesthood authority that we have the promise from Heavenly Father that we will have his spirit to be with us at all times. It is through this gift of the Holy Ghost that we can be clean from all sin and guilt that come from mortal life. What a phenomenal gift. I can't tell you how much my testimony of the importance of being worthy of the Holy Ghost has grown. As we go throughout our day, as we continue to move forward with our crazy lives, we must always be conscious of our decisions and make sure that they are what are going to benefit us for the eternities. This is what the holy ghost does for us. He helps us be confident in our right decisions and helps us correct the wrong ones.

I am thankful to a heavenly father that has given me this gift. Not only the gift of the Holy Ghost, but the opportunity to serve him for 18 months. I have so much to learn, but I know through Christ, we can do anything.

Va Iubesc,

Sora Remsberg

La Multi Ani!

La Multi Ani!

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed yourself. I know my companion and I did. We went to be promptly at 9:30. I know, such party animals. It was a nice day though and I am excited for 2012 and all the opportunities it will bring.

This last week was quite slow. All of our progressing investigators are (la tara) which means they have left the city. We are excited for them to return and to push full speed ahead.

I read a couple verses from 2 Corinthians 5:6-7 that I wanted to share with you as the new year is now here.

"6. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7. "For we walk by faith, not by sight.)"

As we experience our time on earth we make decisions every minute of every day. The new year is upon us and we get to decide what we want to do better and what we want to change. The important thing is to realize we need to make those decisions based on faith. We need to place our focus on those things of eternal worth. As we are away from our Heavenly Father he has given us the tools to succeed; families, scriptures, prophets, apostles, and the gift of the holy ghost which comes through the decision to be baptized and confirmed by someone holding the authority of God.

This last week I found I am going to be training a new missionary. Talk about a shocker. As I read this verse I knew it would be okay. The Lord is with us all the time. He strengthens us in our weakest moments and has confidence in us ever when we might not. I am excited for the opportunity to train and it will be a wonderful experience for us both as we grow and learn together through the best work on the earth, missionary work.

I love you,

Sora Remsberg