On to new things

Our little Leya is doing great.
She was just transferred from her first area, Cluj, to Bucharest. She had  got to take another 10 hour Harry Potter train ride to get there.
 It is very evident in her e-mails, the love she feels for the people of Cluj and she will miss them greatly. While serving there she needed to work on her ability to speak and read the language. So she was then asked to go to the park and ask some girls if it would be alright if she read to them, in Romania and they could help her when she messed up. There were some giggles exchanged between the two girls she was reading with but in the end she ended up with their numbers and it was a success.
She is very excited for the chance to move on to her next area and get to meet the people of Bucharest now. She is going to be super busy getting her and her companions new apartment set up because they are newest sister missionaries in that area.
Being in a country so different from home and getting to know the people there one on one has left her feeling very thankful for not only the way she grew up but the country she is from. She shares, "these people telling me about growing up starving and starting work at 4am just to try to raise a family..."   ... ive never been so grateful to be born in a free country."

Now that she is serving in her new area, she will be able to get mail once a week (if there is any there). So get those letters out there! You can also send her Dear Elders again (www.dearelder.com mission Romania/Moldova), which she will receive once a week as well.

 This picture will be displayed at the Mountain View ward on her missionary plaque! 

Nice to see Sister Johnson still has her great sense of humour.

                                 Before leaving Cluj ---^

Cluj

Got a nice long email from Sister Johnson a couple of days ago. Her travels were full of missionary experiences and she was able to get to know some family details of a couple individuals incase she serves in their area. 

She spent the first bit of her time with her mission president and his wife (it sounds like they are pretty awesome and from the letter I received from them, it's pretty obvious that they are just as fond of her.) 

For anyone who had concerns or questions about the food she would be eating over there, you can rest assured that it is "so freaking amazing!!" and a special note for Curtis Leishman to "calm down because I got recipes." 

The highlight of getting her visa papers finished was that she got to eat McDonalds after. 

She is currently serving with her companion, Sora Drotar, who grew up in Arizona but speaks fluent Romanian. 

She rode a train for 10 hours to get to the city she is serving in, Cluj. She calls it a "Harry Potter" train, so you know she loved every minute of it. 

She sent a voice clip of her speaking in Romanian, of course we have no idea what she is saying but it sounds like she is starting to get the hang of it. But states "Not knowing the language has its advantages...

 "Me: "take this"(religious material)

Person on bus: "I dont want it"

Me: "sorry i dont understan"d, take this"

Person on bus: "k fine"

hahahahahah Works everytime !!!!!"

She is loving what she is doing and where she is at. Thank you for all the love, support and prayers sent her way. 

 Leya refers to these to girls as her "Godmothers." They let her shower, eat and sleep after her long journey. 

 10 hours on the Harry Potter Train

The next step

Well our sister missionary was able to touch base with home today. It was the last time we will be able to hear from her (besides letters/e-mails) until Mother's Day. She has finished at the MTC and is currently on her adventure travelling to Romania.

A couple of her highlights from the MTC was the Romania Counsel General came to one of their classes to meet the Elders & Sisters that were called to serve in Romania. It was the first time that had happened before so all Elders/Sisters were setting the standard for all future Romanian missionaries. Her exact words were, "AHHHHHHH it's crazy!"

Her and her companion were also selected to teach the new missionary orientation on how to begin teaching. Although she was nervous to teach in front of 60 new missionaries it went "amazing!!"
 You can really tell the growth and change she is experiencing already. She sent me an email saying she was able to clean the temple, and loved it.

She was able to meet with Elder Bednar.

In every letter it is very obvious that she is enjoying herself, she is excited to serve, a tad nervous but overall happy and thrilled with the decision she has made.

She held the record for the most amount of letters received at the MTC. So let's keep her in the top numbers and continue to mail/e-mail her as much as possible. All Facebook comments/msg made are sent to her in a weekly email as well, so post & comment away! She loves hearing from everyone. 

An MTC Update

I finally was able to hear from our sister missionary!
She says, "The language is kill me…I literally passed out for like 2 hours after." But ends with, "life is good."
Although she didn't go into much detail, she did manage to send some pictures. And they do say that pictures are worth a thousand words.
She says not to worry, she sent some snail mail that has all the good info, but emailing them would make getting a letter way less exciting me.
 Getting mail was one of Leyas favourite things, and that is more true now than ever before. If you have a spare minute send her a Dear Elder. Go to www.dearelder.com on the right hand side select the "Provo MTC (Free)" and "Write a letter." These will be printed off and hand delivered to her the following day at noon. She loves getting these and says it makes the week go by faster. You can also sent her a hand written letter, which I will post the address for soon.

Familiar Faces

Not to much to post just yet on our sister missionary but it is comforting to see that she has some familiar faces around her.

M.T.C

This blog is set up to help Leya keep in contact with everyone while she serves her mission. Although I'm sure everyone, herself included, wishes there were time for personalized, individual letters every week, she just doesn't have enough hours to do so. Please check back here weekly for updates on how our missionary is doing. Any quick comments can be posted here or e-mailed to sister.johnson94@gmail.com  to be included in a weekly "blog response" letter I will be sending to her.

Sister Johnson left Lethbridge airport Tuesday November 20th at approximately 1:30pm and entered the M.T.C the next day. For those of you following who may be unaware,  M.T.C stands for Mission Training Centre and is located in Utah. Here she will receive her mission "training" and attended classes on speaking Romanian. She is expected to arrive in Romania around January 6, 2014.

I don't currently have her mailing address on me but I will post a second time this week as soon as I get to were it is so you can all get mailing her.

(Apologies to the un-cutness of the blog...Experiences some technical difficulties. Will spunk it up soon)

Sister Johnson waiting to board her plane to start her journey.