I believe in Christ!

 I can't see my life without the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Tonight's institute has brought back to me a lot of memories and testimonies that i gained. I TRULY love the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all my heart!!! The struggles that we go through it's a true battle for each one of us. Well, my mission was a battle for two sides. One was to invite others to Christ and the other one was to perfect myself and be more Christlike. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Tonight it was a flood of memories to me, where my desire to be even more obedient has become stronger, be more consecrated and devoted to the Gospel even higher, to preach the Gospel and be a good example and many other good desires that we should all have are ready to act. Ready to fight the adversary and be happy. I am fighting right now, either am i making the right decision or not i know that i am acting and fighting the man of God that is in me. To learn to rely on Heavenly Father hasn't been easy for me all these years but i am getting there. I think that i got more courage and confidence in myself than before, and that i have become stronger spiritually and emotionally.
 Coming from a very understanding family with loving parents, i think my life has been truly blessed by that and that i was able to meet the missionaries when i was 18, and receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. How wonderful is to know that there is a God that knows through what you are going through, He knows how you feel and how fast your heart is beating at the moment. He knows how much you are willing to give in order to help Him to bless others. He knows your truly desire to become better everyday. Don't give up He tells you and when you hear Him whispering through His spirit, you are embraced with His love and care. Look around and see who's been helping you, those are His angels, sent specifically for you! My heart is full of gratitude right now and i have no words to describe how i feel but i can tell you that my face is full of tears of being grateful and blessed at this moment. Never in my life has been easy but since i gained a strong testimony about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, my life has been the same, which i mean you never can run away from trials and tribulations but with the Gospel of Jesus Christ you can make it through tomorrow with a smile on your face and trusting the Lord, everything will be alright. And not only that, but also everything is happening is for own good and progression. We are the ones that make the decisions, we are the ones who make our own path. It's our choice to choose from the right and wrong, but sometimes we find it difficult to know what is right, i know for myself, beacuse i am right now in a situation like this, but i want to share this with you because it helps me to let it out there and find strength. I can't wait till next fast Sunday and come up there and bear my testimony, i want to do it now, i want to share with those that wont be able or cant't be there to hear it.
 I know that my Savior lives! I know that those early apostles went through a lot of persecution, as for Joseph Smith as well, and all the church members. Tonight at the institute i learned why the apostasy came in those time, and it went for so long. My understanding might not be fully complete and please forgive me if i am not saying everything right but i pray for the spirit and for you to understand what i mean. If you don't know what the word apostasy mean, look it up, it'll help you to understand even more. So, the church fell into apostasy because of the church members, rejecting the word of God, denying, being offended by the truth, embarrassed of what they have done and forgetting the gift of repentance, of choices that they made that brought them to misery and then blaming God for that, of many other things that lead those people to kill the apostles and reject them. Why are people so spiritually but even physically blind of what they see and especially hear. Wake up He says to us and we are still sleeping. I have gone so far not to give up but to keep fighting!
Remember by small and simple things!
"Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence  no traveler can return; a few more days and i go the way of all the earth. But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and i am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. And i desire that ye should remember to observe the statues and the judgement of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the begging." ~ 2 Nephi 1:14-16

These are some pictures of me leaving on my mission. It was Sunday April 1st, 2007. I know most thought it was a joke that i was leaving :) hahaha

      

 I cried a lot, so that's why my face is so read and white (:

 The future missionary wearing already two name-tags (:  

 At the airport, half of the branch came to say good bye, made it even harder for me to leave and cry more (:

 The same day i was sat apart as a full time missionary to serve in Russia, Moscow West. 

 The mission President, President and Sister Ashby 

The time has come and with you or not the Gospel shall be spread, but if you join it shall be merrier and your life can be truly and fully blessed. Remember who you are, you are the child of God, repent and come back to Him. Don't let the adversary to take over your life and especially your decisions, you can do better. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all my heart i leave this testimony with all of you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Beach Day in Chicago!

Well, we were supposed to have a beach day. BUT it RAINED! lol... It was a YSA activity and we kinda came late, like 45 min, i know right, and by the time everyone got there it started pouring so our beach day turned into another fun day but this time on a roof. I was way fun! Just have a peek at the pictures ;)))

NEW HEROES in town WATCH OUT!

The wind was pretty strong hahaha...good one Eden!

Amazing Casandra and i thought i was tough?! (:

 Wow Dante you are the strongest and Eden you are the tinniest! haha

 Don't mess up with Eden ...                                                                             .... or Lauren! (:

 

BENIHANA

   It's been exactly two years since I worked as a live in nanny for the Sahgal family. Ricky(9) and Siya(6) are very fun and loving kids. I enjoyed taking care of them, but now the time came for me to move on and do something else in my life. Living with this wonderful family helped me to adopt to a new world, which i mean that Moldova is way different than US ;) I am going to miss them very much!
 Here we all went to celebrate my bday, on June 10th, which also was Ricky's and Siya's last day of school, and we celebrated their graduation. We had fun together and enjoyed a very good dinner at Benihana's. This is our official favorite place now :)

 Cute little Siya! 

My Mexican birthday party!

  I enjoy having friends over! When i am around great people i feel good and really happy :) Another reason to have friends over is to celebrate the day of your birth, which i did and mine is June 3rd, the best day of the YEAR! I had more fun than ever, dancing salsa with Geoff Miller ;) He is a great dancer by the way ;) mingling with my dear friends. So, we also had amazing food, you may see for yourself in the pictures that i put. We had karaoke, performed by our talented stars and you may recognize them in the video ;)
 My family makes a big deal about celebrating bdays and i love it cuz it brings us together and closer, special gifts we give to each other are love and forgiveness. As i was pondering about it, i can't remember what presents i would receive from them, but for sure i remember how much love they would give me and tell me how great i am ;) hahaha..well actually how blessed we are as a family! And it doesn't matter how bad we fought, me and my brother for example, i would always steal a hug and a kiss from him. Making him embarrassed in front of my friends. It's been 5 years in a row that i am celebrating my bday without my family, 2 years were on my mission, and 3 years here in the United Sates. This year has been very special to me, i had very close friends by my side and i am really grateful for this. I truly didn't feel so homesick, but i thought of being home. Well, my adventure just begins and here i come in this wonderful world where i have the chance to explore and meet new great people! Being happy should be the goal in our life!

Very creative desert table made by my best friend Iuliana Blakely :) Thank you my dear!

My new friends from Moldova :) Mariana si Iacob

Cheyenne you are the best! Thank you for making this delicious cake for me!!! 

By the way STRAWBERRIES are my favorite! 

Having a great time with my friends! ;) we actually posed like we were laughing sooo hard... hilarious :D  

Dancing salsa with Geoff Miller, great dancer!!!

DANIELLE brought me the cutest present ever ;) 

I had such a hard time blowing off the candles :) It was fun!

So yeah, i turned 25 (for the third time in a row :))) hahahaha

My beautiful Mexicans friends! Thank you all for the presents! I love the scarf Analy and Antonella! Thank you! Thank you Berenice and Rocio for the necklace and the earrings, i wore them the next Sunday for the Stake Conference ;) I matched them with my clothes, and of course i love the frame, actually i'm going to put this picture in that frame ;) Thanks guys!!! :))) 

Well, special thanks i give to my other best friend Cynthia Hernandez! 

This Tres Leches cake was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Two cakes on my bday, i am so LUCKY!!! :)))

Gracias amiga! 

Just in case you wonder what i was doing here ;) i made a wish! hmmm...no, i am not gonna share this one with you guys ;) It's a secret! and remember DREAMS come True!

The video actually will be later ;)

Delicious meal with great inspiration!

My dear friends, some of you know how much I enjoy cooking. Well, yesterday I felt inspired to share this recipe with all of you. It’s my own way to cook stuff so if you feel like changing or adding anything, you are more than welcome. 

   Food makes me happy and I needed some of that yesterday. Dear People, whenever you feel down try to find ways to stay positive, it’s not easy - I know for myself, but trust me, I know how blessed we are as we do this. Being positive in a time where it’s hard …is not easy! I know this because I have had to make decisions, like 5 of them in one time and also calm myself down.

We are not able to cope with everything by ourselves. That’s why the Savior has offered Himself to help us. I love the Gospel because I apply things I learn every single day of my life. My decision is to move forward and not backwards, dear friends!

  For me, there are certain things that keep me positive, such as cooking, cleaning…I know this might sound weird, but... hey we are all different and unique in the way we are ;), dancing is definitely one of my favorite things to do, and I can add more but I need to focus on my main goal which is the recipe ;)

 So, try to think what can you do to stay positive? The best way works when you find something new to do because the same thing doesn't always work. Just follow the spirit; remember to feel the spirit you must read the scriptures daily!!!

 

So, my recipe.

Today we are going to make “borsh”, if you need to know more info of what that is, then google it ;) …it’s a soup (more simple).

You’ll need:

4 medium potatoes

¾ of a green cabbage

1 onion

2 big carrots

1 beet (medium)

1 sp of salt/ 1 tsp of basil (at the end)

Tomato sauce or Italian Prego sauce (I didn’t have the other one so I used this, it turned out way good)

Some pork/beef/chicken/meat (one of them, not all ) ;)

So, first thing you do wash the meat, use your favorite one, I like pork so I used this one ;). Then put it in a pot with cold water to boil it on medium heat. Then when it starts boiling make sure you take the stuff from inside that looks like I don’t know what's it called in English "spuma" ..the blood ;) When it’s boiling you put one tsp of salt! That’s it.

Then you start to make the “prajitura”(the sauce for the soup).

 Dice the onion, saute it together with shredded carrots. Then shred the beet and add it in the pan when the onions and the carrots are ready. After 7 min or so add the tomato sauce, it might need some hot water to add, so you can decide if it does, ok.

The best taste of meat is when you boil it longer, like an hour or little less than that, you might need to add some water later before starting to put everything in.

 So, the next step is to cut the potatoes, don’t forget to peel them before that. Then cut the cabbage, add these 2 things after the meat is ready.

And after 10 min add the sauce you made. Set on low heat. Wait for another 15 or 20 min before it is done. Taste it a little bit and see if it has enough salt.

The food is served! ;) I love to eat this soup "borsh" with feta cheese and sour cream, it's the best. Hope you enjoy cooking this meal. Let me know guys how it turned out! I'd love to hear some feedback ;)

Bon appettie! ;)