A Christmas Story

The following is an experience from Sora Griffith in Moldova. She and her companion, Sora Rappleye had the opportunity of accompanying the Jacobs (our Humanitarian couple in Moldova) to a village in the northern part of the country to deliver much needed supplies. Sora Griffith wrote home and told her mom about this experience. Her mom shared it with a friend who then told a story about a little girl adopted from a village in Moldova. The story is simple but very touching and exemplifies the meaning of Christmas. By permission of Sora Griffith we share it with you:

Hi, all,

I just got my email from my daughter this morning, and she had an experience that had me blubbering. She is serving in the Romania Bucharest Mission, and is serving right now in the tiny country of Moldova, just east of Romania. Their primary language is Russian, but the Romanian language is also spoken. I wanted to share my daughter's experience with all of you. Anyone who has participated in preparing humanitarian packages will appreciate this:

"On Wednesday we went to the far north of Moldova with the Jacobs,
who are Humanitarian Aid missionaries. Basically I think that we were there to be the "Face" of the church. To smile and to talk to people because the Jacobs don't know Romanian and we do. We left our apartment at about 5:30 a.m. and headed up to Edineti first. It is pretty far north in Moldova and it was already freezing in Chisinau, snowing and really windy. But I will tell you something, I have lived in Rexburg, and I have NEVER, NEVER been so cold in my life. It was so cold it hurt to be outside. We met with the representatives of about 6 different charity organizations that the church was donating packages too.
It was so sweet because we had packages of blankets and hygiene kits from wards and stakes back at home. I'm sure that it was from some relief society or young women's group in Kansas or something and they will never know how we feel!

lt is in the middle of a small town giving these blankets and kits to
charity organizations from villages in north of Moldova. They were
from little tiny villages where they are so underdeveloped there
isn't even the possibility of heating because there are no gas lines.
No plumbing. NO money. Seriously, in circumstances nobody in Paso
Robles could even understand. It was outside near the place where they
were storing the boxes of goods, and then we watched them pack the
boxes of stuff into old beat up vans and trucks. I got all teary eyed
when they started explaining who these things were going to be going
to. You can't imagine how big of a difference these things make, and
how GRATEFUL, and HUMBLE these people are. The leaders of the
organizations are just as poor and humble as the people they are
donating to. They just have big hearts and want to help. I was
grateful to see everything that I did. There are really so many less
fortunate than me, and also what the church does all over the world with Humanitarian aid. People just don't know what buying 10 things of toothpaste at the store and dropping it off at the church does for some child 1/2 way across the world. But from now on, I am going to tell them because I KNOW. We make a difference!"

Kathy Griffith (mom of Sora Griffith)

Subject: Re: Romania/Moldova experience

Dear Kathy,

A great letter from your daughter, what an experience for her. We happen to have a family in our stake who adopted a girl from Moldova a little over two years ago. After the mother abandoned her the grandfather didn't want to put her in an orphanage, but because of his poverty he also knew it would be a struggle to raise her finacially and if something should happen to him she would end up in an orphanage anyway. He dearly loved his beautiful little granddaughter and wanted her to have a better life so he decided to try and have her adopted by a family in a 'more developed nation'. In the meantime the wife of the 'adopting' family had been having promtings (even though her children were almost raised) that they should adopt a child from an 'Eastern Block' Country. They had many discouraging experiences through-out the process, but kept feeling the promptings to continue. Three days after the little girl's grandfather submitted the papers they were contacted by the adoption agency and two weeks later were on a plane to Moldova.

Last night our stake put on a beautiful Christmas program in conjunction with our Nativity Festival. As part of the program the little girl from Moldova rang a bell as the 'angel Annya' during a narration of 'Annya and the Silver Bell' afterwards the choir director had her come forward with her American family and shared her real life story. She stood there beaming, dressed in white and surrounded by her new family as she was greeted by thunderous applause.

Now after hearing you daughter's letter it gives me a greater understanding of the Grandfather's sacrifice. Thanks for sharing - I think at this time of year we need to be reminded of how much we do have and how much more we need to share.

Cara Svedi

Santa Rosa CA