Before beginning our mission to Romania and Moldova on July 1st, Sister Ivory and I had the opportunity to receive training from each member of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Several of their messages were answers to our prayers as to how we should organize and lead this amazing Romania Moldova Mission. We will share many of these lessons with you over the next few months.

At the seminar we were reminded of the Success Formula in Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel.

Vision + Inspired Goals + Planning + Work & Accountability

= SUCCESS

The vision for Romania and Moldova is clear to anyone who reads the dedicatory prayers of these two countries. Yes there will be struggles but the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will prevail. Elder Nelson blessed Romania – “Let this nation become a great citadel of spiritual strength and a beacon of light to neighboring nations.” Elder Ballard said that in Moldova the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will “penetrate their hearts and minds.”

In the near future we will make several inspired goals as we meet and consult with our wonderful Church leaders in Romania and Moldova. However, as missionaries we are prepared right now to share our mission statement and purpose:

We Will Be the Most Positive Mission on the Planet!

We invite all (investigators, less-active members and active members) to have a positive view about God,

about oneself and about the world....

Our faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ causes us to make

positive changes in our lives and in the lives of others.

...After we repent and help others

repent, we serve with full purpose of heart and leave bad habits behind.

...We believe in the promises of our

apostles to the people of Romania and Moldova:

We have “creative courage to come unto Christ,” which means we are full of hope and we are not afraid to try

new things.We will receive “wisdom, vision and

power to build the Church…that stakes may be organized.”

...Together, we will influence positive

change and we will find great happiness as we help build Christ’s

restored Church in Romania and Moldova.

Please reference Elder Russell M. Nelson’s dedicatory prayer for Romania and Elder M. Russell Ballard’s dedicatory prayer for Moldova.

We believe that it is our responsibility to share a fresh and positive view with all of the members in Romania and Moldova. As missionaries we can have an immediate impact on the culture of the branches where we serve. At the mission presidents seminar, President Monson challenged us to “see people as they can become.” We are here to lift, inspire and assist in any way possible. We cannot join any negative conversations. Let us see challenges as opportunities, let’s not focus on investigators’ or members’ faults, let’s instead focus on their best qualities and their potential. Let us share the “peaceable things” with all of our brothers and sisters. When we express gratitude and positive sentiments, we invite the spirit so that we can then bear a powerful witness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Success Formula

THE FIRST EDITION

By President Ivory

The Ivory family with the Doru family and Brother Chirila. During the first three weeks of July all of the Ivory kids (except Emily who is serving a mission to San Fernando, CA) joined President and Sister Ivory in visiting the missionaries in all six zones and held member meetings in each district.

THE ROMANIA MOLDOVA MISSION STATEMENT

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A wave of excitement has swept across the mission since the end of June as the missionaries have welcomed President and Sister Ivory to lead the work in Romania and Moldova. Many changes are taking place. We often tend to think of change negatively, giving the word itself an unpleasant connotation. However, sharing with the missionaries the instructions President Ivory received from the First Presidency he encouraged us all – by his own words – to “embrace the new”, a valuable thought for all of us to remember and to apply to our daily work. Most missionaries would agree that the biggest change introduced has been the balanced approach to missionary work, about which much excitement has risen.

The balanced approach to missionary work helps us efficiently build up the Lord’s church by equally using our time on the three important parts of our missionary labors; strengthening both active and less-active membership as well as helping investigators to accept the restored Gospel. There are some things that we need to remember as we begin to apply this approach in our missionary efforts.

Preach My Gospel reminds us: “,The ideal situation is when members invite others to be taught and are present for the teaching” (PMG, p. 160). Our work experiences will be meaningful for both missionaries and the members as we help them feel the spirit and enthusiasm of missionary work by teaching them the simple and beautiful principles of the Gospel; by sharing our testimonies, by asking if we can do anything to offer our help to them or to anyone else they know and by reminding them of their missionary responsibilities. However, the members of the church are naturally very different; there are active and less-active members, some of them have been to the temple whereas others have not, others are preparing to go on missions or to serve in different callings etc. Therefore the question might arise, what would be the most meaningful message we could take to a member during a visit. We will know this when

A Fresh And Balanced StartBy Elder Hokkanen

Elders Lex, Montoya, Reed and Hokkanen help us understand that 555 has double meaning. First Bucharest is currently celebrating its 555th year as a city. More importantly it represents our Mission’s Balanced Approach to doing missionary work. Each companionship should strive to always be helping and teaching 5 investigators, 5 less active members coming back to activity and 5 active members to progress to the next ordinance. Wow it is the year of 555!

we remind ourselves the meaning of building up the Lord’s church: first, we prayerfully try to identify what is the most important step a member needs to take in order to progress to the next ordinance of the Gospel, whether it is regularly coming to church, receiving the priesthood, going to the temple etc.

Then we prepare to teach and listen to the spirit. As we focus on these principles we will earn the trust of the members, be mutually strengthened and become the kind of missionaries to whom they will feel comfortable referring their friends to.

So as a mission we are now encouraged to visit our members more often and the mission has even removed the key indicators of hours proselyting and new potential investigators found. It might easily seem that we’re no longer emphasizing finding, although many of us like to refer to the mission as a “finding mission”. In fact, along with the new balanced approach, finding is emphasized even more than it has been in the past. Whenever we’re outside, we find. Every morning as we step outside we put on our missionary goggles; we look at and are aware of the people around us, we pray that we will identify

the receptive person and then we go for it.

We missionaries are excited to upgrade our working skills with the new approach, and for a good reason. It will make us more enthusiastic and happy. It’ll draw us closer to the spirit and help us to stretch to more meaningfulness and success in our labors. We can trust its effectiveness because we know it has been given by the Lord to our living prophet and his apostles. Truly, since the announcement of age change in October 2012, this is the greatest change in the history of the Church of missionary work.

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In the Romania Moldova Mission, where our primary responsibility and blessing seems to be introducing people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the very first time, it can sometimes

be hard to believe these people will progress toward baptism. And though their progression is mainly dependant on the Lord’s timetable and the investigator’s agency, I’m learning more and more everyday that our attitude and perspective as missionaries plays a major role in their conversion process. When I trained for the first time, I really wanted with all my heart for my perfect little trainee to walk away knowing that she would see success on every front of her mission, even baptisms. I would pray each night for the Lord to help her and

me see that people really are prepared

here and now to come unto our Savior.

In those two transfers we had together,

we were blessed to see five people make

those sacred covenants with Heavenly

Father. The Lord really showed us just

how ready these people are, and how

much they want to return to Him. It’s

important that we have faith, not in the

investigator themselves, but in the Lord

and that He will prepare them. I’m so

grateful that the Lord has helped us see

this.

New convert Carmen Vasile with her daughter Teodora was baptized on 12 July 2014 in Brasov. Sora Ralls, Sora Honey and the Bairs surround Sora Vasile with love.

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Believe!By Sora Ralls

Real Growth

Dominic Crisan, baptized 2 August 2014, surrounded by Elders French and Andersen and President and Sora Ivory. Dominic first discovered the Church in Padova Italy. He self-referred himself when he returned to his native Cluj.

Adrian Patu, baptized 1 August 2014, in Galați, with Elders Lenhart and De Luna. Adrian is a surgeon. This open-minded new convert has Jewish ancestry and was found street contacting. When he read the introduction to the Book of Mormon he was struck by the last paragraph, implying that if it is true Jesus Christ is The Savior to the world, Joseph Smith a Prophet and that The Lord’s Church as been restored to the earth again.

Nastia Bîlici, baptized 2 August 2014, with Elders Chapman and Temus, along with wonderful youth of the Balți Branch in Moldova. Nastia first came to English class and then sports night but the most profound experience came when she attended the baptism of Nastia Carosovkia. She was moved when she saw the light in the face of this newly baptized member.

Sora Marcela, baptized 26 July 2014, in Galați, with Soras Parker and Hovey and Elder De Luna. Every baptism represents a spiritual rebirth, a fresh shart and a renewed commitment to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Obedience is the first law of heaven and brings us direction and freedom. Especially on a mission it is important to live the higher law as taught by Jesus Christ (see Matthew 5; 3 Nephi 12). As servants of the Lord we are given special rules, principals and guidance through the white handbook which help us to be worthy for the spirit and have it guide us to do the marvelous work of salvation. In the Book of Mormon the Liahona was given to Lehi to help him find the right way to the Promised Land. We are given something similar to help us find the people that are prepared and ready to accept the Gospel in their lives.

In the book of Mormon we can read that “because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works.” (Alma 37:41) In the Bible dictionary it says “that strong faith is developed by obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ […] miracles often confirm one’s faith.” (Bible dictionary “faith”) miracles still happen and will increase as we try to be more obedient to the small an simple things.

“As you obey with a willing heart, you will show the Lord your love for him, earn trust and confidence

of the members and nonmembers, and qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.” This promise given from the first presidency is important to fully fulfill our purpose as missionaries and to become useful hands in the vineyard of the Lord with an eye single to His glory.

All of us know that there are good things in this world, some others are better and a few are even the best. With all the instructions we got from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve through President Ivory, we have all the tools we need to become the best missionaries we can be and to live up to our full potential. The decision and effort though is up to us and our commitment to accomplish the things we desire.

The Missionary Handbook is the guide that will help us reach our potential in spirituality and in the effectiveness of our work. In addition to these guidelines, we have the tailored and specified rules for our mission, the supplementary rules. The rule on the introduction page of the Missionary Handbook explains this principle very simply: “Follow these standards.” This has been proven to be true by some

missionaries from our mission in the past. Elder Rasmussen once shared this simple but meaningful insight: “If you’re not happy, you’re doing something wrong.”

However, we occasionally find ourselves in a situation in which we’re excited to do something but it seems there’s a rule that might prevent us from doing that. Sometimes we simply don’t know how a rule should be interpreted. If this is the case, we’re asked to put ourselves into the shoes of the First Presidency; think outside the box, why is that specific rule actually there? We are asked not to have our own laptops on our mission, but is it really what we are asked not to do? A missionary thinking about the principle of the rule understands that what we’re really asked to do is to stay away from inappropriate sites and from other dangers that would absolutely destroy our effectiveness and spirituality.

We don’t have to try to find loopholes or to be nitpickers. We have to think beyond the rule. Doing this will increase our capacity to adjust to mission life, to more fully enjoy the work we do and the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

Obedience Brings DirectionBy Elder Lex

Cheers to the color coordinated exercise cards! Missionaries who have been brave enough to experiment with the cards are reporting feeling better. Elder Brown who makes the best treats in the mission was heard to say something like, “ These exercises are helping me to get up and get going and to feel better about my day.”

The point of the exercise cards is to give you a work out you can do on your

own. You don’t have to go outside if it is too cold or too hot. All you have to do is pick your favorite warm up, cardio, leg, arm, core, and cool down exercise cards and you have a solid thirty- minute work out. Feel free to add your own exercises and change it up each morning. #getfitromania #youcandoit #itsfuntoworkout

Exercise Tip: When you are doing sit ups breathe out and push your back into the

floor as you lift your head and shoulders. This flattens the stomach muscles and relieves pressure on your lower back.

Exercising with EmmettBy Sister Ivory

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Comings and GoingsDeparting Missionaries

Sora Adams Elder Barney Sora Case Elder Cobabe Elder Conover Elder Covey

Elder Davis Sora Drotar Elder Farnworth Elder Mylar Sora Peterson Elder Preece

Elder Ralph Elder Reid Sora Stewart Elder & Sora Schwartz

Incoming Missionaries

Elder Allphin Elder Armitstead Elder Bateman Sora Black Elder Busche Elder Dunkley

Elder Evans Elder Everton Elder & Sora Flanders Elder Gunsav Elder Johnson Elder Newbern

Elder Robinson Elder Romig Elder Steed

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