Buna Family and Friends,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Well, for a couple items...I mean, Sora Hickman Business, Mom here is Sora Mullen's email. Meghan Mullenmeghanmullen@msn.com. She is home now so you can just send her my regular email. I had one of the members in Cluj tell me that she loved reading my emails. PS Sora Mullen I love you and miss you so stinking MUCH! Girl. Thanks SO much for the clothes they are all REAL POTRIVIT (fitting)!! I love them and I love you!!!! PS have you or did you meet Cars?
Also Mom I got your Christmas package on Friday. Thank you! Shanda and Preston THANK you SO SO SO SO much for all the wonderful gifts. I am having a blast. My favorite is the stories. I look forward to reading them. I cry in just about every one of them. I love them, so thank you. Kari and Ed, thank you for the presents. Kari I have already opened up all your gifts. I love them and the clothes were so great! So, thank you all for taking care of me over this Christmas season.
Well, what a week! I'll start backwards. Sunday...actually was really interesting. Its been a while since I've had a drama filled Sunday. I thought I was beginning to miss it and then after yesterday I am very grateful that I only have them every so often. So, Elder McFadden made an announcement that the district center would be changed to Oradea. Right now it is Arad and has been for a long time. SO, he went to sustain the idea and then we had a few who disagreed...well that took Elder McFadden by surprise. Oh, did I mention that one of them was the Branch President and also the previous Branch President. OH MAN I LOVE ROMANIA!!!!!! haha Well, Elder McFadden, who was actually just acting as the messenger because the District President was at a wedding in Bucharest, proceeded to explain that when there is a disagreement that they will discuss things after sacrament meeting. Well, as Sacrament ended not only did the 3 that disagreed with the proposal meet with Elder McFadden, but about 15 more people decided to change their sustaining vote. Poor Elder McFadden got eaten alive...well not really, but he doesn't speak Romanian so they were going back and forth and it was quite the PARTY. You could feel the contention. I jumped up and said lets sing some songs. It helped, but it kept coming up in every lesson. No, worries though it keeps things fresh. It was a VERY LARGE tender mercy that we had 0 investigators. Usually, I would never say that, but I was really grateful yesterday. Later that night we went to a beautiful Christmas program for a less active Andra. She is in High School so it was like a high school choir program, but they really had some great talent. Oh, and I had my first and last drink of alcohol...I thought it was grape juice and I was real thirsty, so I took a huge couple of gulps...SO NASTY the worst stuff I have ever tasted. I think I sent a picture home with me frowning and pointing to a glass...that's the wine. ha ha
Saturday, we had English and then we went to run in a little race down town. We got a lot of pictures taken and we (all the missionaries) were wearing our name tags. So, hopefully people get to see it. It was a 3K, but it really ended up being about a 2.4K. haha Thanks to my nifty Nike+ipod (thank you Camille and Foote). It was fun and some of the members ran too.
Friday, we had our big missionary Christmas party. They combined the Arad and Sibiu Zones. Super Fun, we had a ties and scarf exchange. We played games. The McFadden's cooked up a FABULOUS meal. We had a great slide show that was put together by Sora Hill and the office Elders. It was marvelous and then we ended with a nice testimony meeting.
Thursday, was a crazy busy day full of lessons. The Brasov sisters Sora Henrie and Sora Bulloch (she is new, she was in Sister Cottam's group) came to stay with us. We had a great lesson with Angi, Meli and Petre. They said that we will have to talk more after the first of the year about their baptism. They said that it would just work better for them. Adam said the same thing, so we are just trying to have patience and work with them.
Monday, through Wednesday are a blur now. Obviously nothing OUTRAGES happened because I can't remember.
I LOVE Christmas. We are so excited for this week. We have been preparing a beautiful lesson about Christ and His birth that we want to share with the members, our investigators and for all those that we visit. Including songs and scriptures. We are very excited. I have been studying a lot about Him. I am very Thankful for Him. We agreed with the McFadden's that we are going to make pizza on Christmas Eve, just like we do!!!!! Then go caroling to a large number of the members. Then Sunday I get to call you! Well actually Skype. I wanted to ask if you had conference Skype? If you don't know what that means ask Foote. I ask because the McFadden's do and so we could have more of the siblings on the conversation if we want. Oh man I CAN'T wait. Dad could you please email the McFaddens your Skype info. I have it but just in case. Then we will have them email you about what time you will get a call from me.
I want you all to know how much I love you. Cars, thank you so much for the email and for the song...I love it and I've been listening to it over and over again today while I've been emailing. You all are so wonderful. I hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas! Also, I encourage all of you to look for those in need and think about how you can help them.
Va iubesc fuarte mult,
Sora Hickman
