Happy New Year!!  This week has been crazy!  But hey I got to talk to my family which was awesome. Plus Sanda is going to be baptized next Sunday!  We are so excited for her.  She is so ready and this will be such a huge blessing for her.  Iulia is doing great. She is having a hard time since her husband lost his job, but they are trying to remain hopeful.  She loves that the gospel can bring her that hope.  Roxana is progressing and doing great.  It is so awesome to see her learn about God and Jesus from the basics.  She is so open to learning it, it is just new to her.  I really admire her for learning and wanting to learn it all.  

I am just so inspired by the people here.  They are amazing.  I learn so much from them and they make me want to be a better person.  I know that God loves them just like how I know He loves me.  I see that everyday in the little blessings that are all around me.  So this year I wish all of you love and a renewed sense that God knows each of us individually.  He loves us and is always there for us.  We just need to turn towards him.  I love you all.  La Multi Ani!

Love, 

Sora Krissy Hall

PS- Congrats to Jacob for (as I hear it) a successful return home talk!  Welcome Home!

Craciun Fericit!!  Merry Christmas!
 I hope that you all are able to be with people you love as you remember the birth of our Savior.  I just love that I have the opportunity to be here in Romania for a 2nd Christmas.  The branch here is so loving and have been fighting to have us come over so they can feed us ha.  It is so sweet.  The holiday here is much more centered on the children and doing things for them.  It is so sweet.  I love Romania!  I am so excited to call tomorrow and see how the family is doing.  I can't believe this is my last call home.  Time flies so fast and I just love how much I have learned over the last year or so.  For Christmas this year we have been told we can watch two films (and just to explain how awesome our mission is, The Hobbit [Hobbitul] has been approved).  We are all so excited and just love all those that are so supportive to us.  Oh we also have a new senior couple, the Cooks.  They are awesome and I am so excited to have them here.  Well I have to write some others.  But know that I love you all and my thoughts and prayers are with all those I love this holiday season (in Romania and in the rest of the world).  Christ lives and loves us all so much.  Remember that as you enjoy this time with you loved ones :)

Love
Sora Krissy Hall

This week went crazy fast.  We just got back from Bucharest and the Christmas Zone Conference.  It was so much fun and I got some pretty scarves :)  We also got to see the slideshow of all of the pictures that missionaries sent in from the past year.  It made me miss a lot of the people that have already gone home.  But it was good.  Got to talk to a lot of people and meet some new people.  It was a lot of fun, but I am exhausted from it ha. 

As far as our investigators.  Iulia is doing amazing!  We started reading with her from the Book of Mormon (from the beginning) and she is getting it!  She is feeling the joy from the gospel and knowing that what she is doing is right.  We are still working on smoking but, it is going great.  She is amazing!  We also played with her kids as they taught us some Romanian kid games and we taught them ring around the rosie.  It was so much fun.  Sanda is just amazing as well.  She is so prepared and just wants to be baptized.  It is hard because we have to say no because she needs to stop smoking first.  But she is getting there.  At this point her baptism will be the week after Christmas.  She just loves the church and the members are doing a great job at making her feel included.  She even has a part in the Christmas program on Saturday.  It is wonderful!

I feel like I am so blessed to be here right now!  I am finally able to see how the gospel really changes people and the way they carry themselves.  I can see how much happier both Sanda and Iulia are as we teach them more about Jesus Christ.  It is beautiful.  It just makes me more grateful that I am able to help in some way.  I know that I am supposed to be here right now, with Sora Jones and teaching these people.  They are wonderful people.  Sora Jones and I are loving working together as we try to keep each other strong until the end.  Time is ticking and we want to give it our best.  We just love it!

Well, I love you all!  I hope you all have a great week.  Merry Christmas next week and remember why we have this time to celebrate. 

Love,

Sora Hall

PS- Thank you so much to the Downey 1st Ward Relief Society for their Christmas package!  I really appreciated it.  I love you all and miss you all.  See you all soon :)

 Also, Congratulations to David Woodruff on your marriage.  I am so excited for you!

Christmas lights in Ploiesti, Romania

Dog with a chicken's foot in it's mouth... lol

We got our first snow today!  Winter is officially here and so the missionary work is about to change, at least the type or method of work is about to change.  We will soon be heading into Blocs (apartments) and seeing who we can find there instead of going to parks ha.  I am so excited.  This week we had transfers.  I am now with Sora Jones for her last transfer.  I love her!  She is so much fun and we are both working hard.  We are helping our two investigators that are most ready to be baptized to quit smoking (Iulia and Sanda).  They are doing great.  They love the gospel and what it teaches and are willing to do anything to feel the Spirit of God more fully in their lives.  It is so exciting to see this.  I feel so blessed to be able to be here and to feel like I am actually helping people come unto Christ and to share in His loving Atonement.  It is awesome.  That is what we have been working on the most this week. 

Other than that I got to see the lovely, little Sora Bulloch this week and have a most wonderful 2 hour conversation with her at transfers ha.  I love that girl.  We were both just so happy afterwards and just love being together.  I sadly missed seeing Sora Stark before she headed up to Cluj though, so that was sad.  But I will see her soon anyways. 

Crazy story: So I feel like the first couple of days of the transfer the most crazy things happy.  So on our first full day in Ploiesti we were headed to Iulia's for a lesson and to get her to stop smoking- set up her plan.  On the way we drove through Bereasca (a slightly poorer part of town), when a man throw a giant rock at the back window of the bus.  It thankfully didnt break it.  But the bus driver stopped and yelled and then we sat there for a bit.  I wasn't about to get off the bus, but it was kind of crazy.  I assured Sora Jones that was not normal ha.  Then later that night we were on another bus when a fight started.  We moved up to get out of the way and then got off to avoid it ha.  Oh life as a missionary ha. 

But really it has been a great week.  I am so excited for this transfer and for all it holds.  I love all of you and miss you all a ton.  Have a great week! 

Love,

Sora Krissy Hall

PS- Alicia- I got your letter this week!  Thank you so much!  I love you!

view from apartment of Beauty shop across the street using

 Girl Scout symbol...lol

View from my apartment window in Ploiesti, Romania

Thank you to everyone for all their prayers this week!  I heard from a few people that my mom posted something on my Facebook about my health.  So thank you to all for your concern.  I really appreciate it and I have felt your love this week.  This week was crazy.  We have a good amount of lessons and slept a lot.  I feel so much better now so I am grateful for that.  We also found out transfers this week!  I am going to be staying here in Ploiesti and I will be serving with Sora Jones for her last transfer.  She makes the 4th that I have helped kill (served with/been with right before they go home).  I feel like some are called to train and help those coming in.  My calling must be to kill ha.  I'm not really sure why, but I am excited about staying.  At this rate I might just stay here until I go home.  I would love that though.  I love the people here so much and things are just exploding right now.  On Sunday, Fratele (Brother) Predescu came up to me and asked if we would teach his sister who had been coming to church since before I got here.  She wants to be baptized on the 15th and didn't realize that she needed lessons in order to do so.  So tonight is our first lesson with her.  We are so excited and feel like it is such a blessing.  Also Saturday was Romania Day (also Elder Cunningham's Birthday, so happy birthday to him).  It was amazing to see how much everyone loves their country here.  Romania at times reminds me of 1950s US.  They get so excited about little kiddy rides and they love little carnival type things.  Plus some things they do just remind me of something I would see in an I Love Lucy episode or in Back to the Future.  It is great.  I love it.  They had fireworks Saturday night and everyone came out to see.  I had never seen that many people on the street before.  Plus EVERYONE was smiling!  That doesn't happen a ton here.  It was so sweet to see. It was such a great day!

Other than that things are going well.  I feel like I am really fulfilling my purpose here to bring others to Christ.  What a great feeling that is!  I love our investigators and all I learn from them.  They are such amazing people!  I can't wait to see what this next transfer holds! 

I hope you have a great week and thank you again for all your love and support!

Love
Sora Krissy Hall

This just in. . . being sick on a mission isn't that much fun.  I am now on antibiotics and have been out for the count for about 4 days now.  Whatever I had moved into my lungs and now I have a lovely tightness in my chest.  I would love to say that the drugs are working, but to be honest, I don't know if I am feeling any better since being on them.  But I still have a couple more days to go.  So here's hoping :)

Other than that, life is moving on.  I have one more week left of this transfer.  We find out where we go next transfer this week.  I am excited to see what will happen.  I could leave but I could also stay another transfer.  We will have to wait to see.

Also, we had 4 investigators at church yesterday which was awesome!  Plus 2 brought their families (either kids or husband).  We felt so blessed especially since I have been out for the last few days. 

Earlier this week we had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators.  She asked if we had ever heard of the Mayans and their temples.  She then started in on some conspiracy stories about aliens and crystal skulls.  She asked if we had heard of it.  I said yes, because I have indeed seen Indiana Jones 4 :)  Then she went on to Reptilian people and how they are disguised as our leaders.  I had also heard of this due to various Doctor Who episodes.  We decided to teach about the Plan of Salvation as a way to explain why life is hard-- instead of blaming it on our Reptilian leaders (even if it would be a lot easier ha).  After going over the Plan of Salvation she said it made a lot more sense.  It was a great lesson and one of those times where I felt like I was supposed to be there.  That the hours I have spent watching Indiana Jones and Doctor Who actually paid off.  It helped me connect with someone else.  Yay for nerdiness!! :)

We also had Zone Conference this week.  So I got to see the lovely Sora Stark.  It was so much fun to be with her, especially because I didn't feel well.  By Wed my voice was gone and the elders (mainly Elder Knapp) enjoyed hearing me talk- or attempt to.  The conference was great and I got to bring some of Elder Ekins' famous chocolate cake home, which was even more wonderful!  We had Elder Kerr from the 70 and his wife come.  I learned a lot.  It was also such a comfort to see all my friends

That was pretty much my week.  Kind of boring at the end, but still good. Hopefully next week will be even better. 

Thank you to all for your love and support.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (which we did celebrate here as a district).  Love you all!!

Sora Krissy Hall

first load moving, essentials- xmas tree, shoes and laundry

What a week!  I can't believe that I got everything done that needed to get done.  First off, I was sick, got better, then got sick again.  But what can you do.  So I am trying to get as much sleep as I can while still getting all the work done that I need to.  Also, thanks for the emails this week, esp, Rach and Richard.  I really appreciate them. 

So this week we moved apartments (we are now closer to Centru, which means we are closer to the church which is awesome!), we got 6 new investigators, got creeped on a bit, I ate brain and just had a lovely time.  So we are now teaching a ton of people which is so cool.  We have 2 families and some young adults.  I feel so blessed.  I can't wait to see where this goes.  I love teaching.  Then when we went over to Tania's (one of my fav people here) she fed me pig brain.  It tasted like eggs, but still kind of make my stomach hate me later ha.  Oh so cool story about the creepers ha.  So we were on the bus heading out to Bereasca and there were a few guys that were just being. . .well guys ha.  Then this one guy told them not to mess with us.  Apparently he had met with missionaries 10 years ago and had a really good opinion of us.  He made the guys promise they wouldn't touch us or bother us.  It was such a blessing and just helped me realize that sometimes things we do now will have an influence or effect on people a lot later.  I couldn't be more grateful for those missionaries and they probably have no idea what impact they had.  It was great.  I am definitely a lot more attentive about how I am coming off to others. 

So this week was awesome!  We are so blessed.  We had some harder times, but the good definitely out weighed the bad.  I feel so blessed to be here and I am so excited to be heading to Buc this week for Zone Conference.  It will be a lot of fun.  I can't wait to see Sora Stark and the other missionaries I love there.

Anyways, I don't know what else to say.  Oh, I guess I can say Happy Thanksgiving!!  I hope everyone has so much fun with their loved ones this year.  Take care and know that I love you and miss you all.  Also- Thanksgiving marks my 1 year in the country mark!  Super excited about that one.  Remember to look for the blessings in your life this week (and always ha). 

Love you all,

Sora Krissy Hall

PS- Congrats to Amaris on her mission call!  That is so exciting!  You will have so much fun and learn so much!