Story Time!

Hello again from Iasi! First let me say that this will be a long post. I have so much to recount, so much to share. Consider yourselves warned :)

This week, oh where to start? I finally began work at St. Andrew's/Section 2! Section 2 is an orphanage, where the majority of kids have handicaps or disabilities, but apparently here they feel the term "orphanage" carries a derogatory tone, so we call it Section 2. Anyway, we finally went for the first time on Wednesday and were given a tour. On Thursday we began our work. It was wonderful to finally meet the kids, they are the reason I am here, and I feel so much overwhelming love for them. There have been BYU students working at Section 2 for almost ten years now, with the exception of the last 4 months because of some changes BYU was making. Long story short, I felt like a million bucks when th e kids greeted us with so much enthusiasm. There are four of us working there, and we are each assigned to a specific room where we will be working. But on the first day we were able to spend time in every room to get a feel for where we'd like to be placed permanently and let me tell you, that was a tough choice to make. There's "Isolation" where the babies are (and there are so many that two of the four of us will work there), then "Mickey Mouse" and finally "Bambi." That first day was so hard on me though, seeing any child with a handicap is difficult, and there's just no way to give every child the attention they need. But we do our best. I almost broke down a few times as I was working with the babies in isolation though. I was holding one little newborn who was screaming and while trying to comfort her, three others began t o cry too (which I think may have been my fault, I was singing to the little girl in my arms). I was trying to comfort them, cradling the girl in my arms while bending over the other cribs too, to give attention and soothing to the other babies and I felt such a weight. It was such a difficult thing for me, but I know that I'm no superwoman and so I did the best I could. And of course there's no need to dwell on the hard parts, that first day of work was w onderful :) After we all talked it was decided that I would work with the Bambi kids (the boys specifically), who are anywhere from around 15 months to 8 years old. These are actually the highest functioning kids in Section 2, and I'm so excited to really develop a relationship with these kids. Plus it really pushes me to work on my language skills even harder, because when a three year old comes to you and with a huge grin asks you a question or points to something, it's pretty humbling and embarrassing to have no idea what they are saying. I've got a few things up my sleeves though :) they understand when I say "Hai, la mine!" Come to me! or "Unde i gura, unde este ochii?" Where is your mouth? Where are your eyes? or even "Nu fii rau, hai, te rog dat mingea la mine" Don't be mean, hey please bring the ball to me. And they know what I'm saying! Woohoo! Sometimes I do pretty well and I'm always learning. It's going to be great!

Another fun adventure of the week. We learned how to make a traditional Romanian dish from Mihai called Ardei Impluti (Ar-day oom-ploots) or in other words, stuffed peppers! Man, they were so good! We got all of the ingredients together and went to the villa to use the kitchen there. Just getting the ingredients was an adventure. Ha as you can sort of see in the picture below, we didn't know how to get ground beef because the market where we can normally get it was already closed, so after struggling to communicate to the lady behind the counter that I wanted "normal ground vitel" ha..."Am o intrebare, voi aveti umm...normal....vitel?" we finally gave up and just bought some sausage looking stuff that was beef and pork. Abby and I are taking apart the sausages below :)

And here's Erika and Mihai working on the sauce...

Drum roll... the finished product! Ardei Imputi! Served with bread and sour cream. Good stuff.

And the last story for today... I hope I haven't put you to sleep quite yet! Last night (Saturday) Ally and I went out with Aurelia (our friend from the branch) and her friend Daniel. They took us on their own little tour of Iasi. Daniel has a car so we were able to go farther from our apartment than we ever have before. Part of that was a visit to Copou Parc, the largest park in the city. Once again I recognize how I am not a city person. My favorite thing about New York City? Central park! City life has been fun, and certainly an adventure, but oh how I love the trees and the natural beauty of the world. The park is seriously packed with trees, and all sorts of lovely things.

Here is a picture of Ally, Aurelia and I in front of a beautiful monument (just one of many).
P.S. Look how long my hair is getting!!!!!

After driving through the city some more (which is an adventure in itself...seriously), we drove up out of city onto one of the "mountains" cough...cough...surrounding Iasi and I had an experience I will never forget. Iasi is a religious center for so many people and it is surrounded by monasteries. This was one such monastery, and it absolutely took my breath away. The central building was surrounded by a stone wall and this...

Every once in a while as I'm walking on the street, going to pick up groceries or whatever else it hits me. I'm in Romania! In Europe... I'm halfway around the world in a place so different from home. WOAH. This was yet another one of those moments, and I finally think I truly understand the draw of Europe. Yes, you read correctly on the sign. Built in 1669, this entire place was the perfect example of the beauty in history.

The chanting and singing of the monks filled the air as we walked up to the central monastery. It was an incredible sight. This is where the pictures end, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but even the doorway is breathtaking!

As we walked inside I had chills cover my entire body. Really, words can hardly express the many emotions that filled me as we entered. You could feel the sense of reverence, you could feel that people had worshiped in this place for centuries. Every inch of the walls and ceilings were covered in cracked and fading fresco paintings of saints and so many other beautiful things. Being in that building and feeling the reverence there filled me once again with thoughts of my love of religion, and what it does for people. The other day in Section 2 we were lucky enough to see a baptism of the same little baby I wrote about earlier (I can't use her name, for confidentiality reasons). I was so excited to witness that, it was something I've never seen before. And though it was strange and new to me, it was beautiful to behold. You see, over time I've learned that I am really a very religious person. Worship in almost any form is something that I love and respect. I know for a fact that if I wasn't a member of the Latter-day Saints I would still be a Sunday church goer. Yet always I feel as I'm watching others worship in their way that there is something missing. This baby, this beautiful child was being baptized, but before that could happen they needed to "cast out the spirit of the devil" and did a series of chantings etc. to do so. Although I understand, it's incredible to see so clearly how the truth has been so misconstrued after centuries of apostasy. There are pieces, bits and pieces of the truth and every time I see this I'm so grateful to have a full knowledge of Christ's church. Needless to say this Romania experience so far has made me want to serve a mission more than anything ever has before. But, I digress.... :) The monastery was incredible and I absolutely loved it there. I really think I could have sat there for hours, in this place where so many sought to find God for so many years.

Well, that's it for today! I really could go on for so long about so many things, but those are the most important things I wanted to share today. I love and miss you all! Seriously...there are so many things I've taken for granted in my life, but I'm grateful to be learning and growing here.

Cu drag!