Lots of photos Dec. 19, 2016

P.U.S.H.

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained, that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.

This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun ·up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might.

Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out feeling that his whole day has been spent in vain. Since the man was showing signs of discouragement the adversary decide to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it." Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

"Why kill yourself over this?” he thought. I will just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be enough." And that is what he planned to do, until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord" he said, I've labored long and hard in Your service, putting all my strength to do that which You've asked. Yet, after all this time, I haven't even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What's wrong? Why am I failing?"

"MY friend, when I asked you to serve Me – you accepted.

I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength - which you've done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me - with your strength spent, thinking that you've failed. But is that really so?"

"Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscular. Your back sinew is mighty. Your hands a callused from the constant pressure; and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you've grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you’ve done.

I, my friend, will now move the rock.”

My mission president sent this to us in his email and I remember back in seminary when we were taught this story by being told to try to do an impossible task. Some things seem impossible...like when I think that we have 300 members here in Durres, about 50 on average come to church, and maybe 10 others we have phone numbers or addresses where we can contact them. Yes sometimes it feels like there is no way we will be able to contact all the members. BUT drop by drop. avash avash. We "randomly" met members almost every day that we had no contact for before. One girl was with her friend who was interested in english course and she's like oh and I'm baptized...oh...nice to meet you. Another time we were going to do tracting and Klaudia was with us and said hey how bout that pëllatë over there? so we went and she's like hey those girls are members. We talked to them and they were on their way to their grandmothers house, and invited us. We ended up doing a lesson with their whole family, and they are super excited to come to the Christmas activity on Saturday.

Oh and Motra Risk's cute mom and stake sent us 12 days of Christmas :) Wow we are so lucky! And the lights at the church are so amazing. (so amazing that a couple of the brothers stay over night so that people don't come and steal them)

GEZUAR KRISHTLINDJE! Matthew 2:8 Go and search diligently or the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

Let's forget that it was Herod that said this because if it were sincere-I love this scripture. First we have to search for Christ in our lives and after we have found Him in our hearts we can share the word with everyone that they may also come to Him. WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM.

Seek Him. The First Christmas Gift. The Reason for the Season. A Child is Born.

Motra Hagërd





Our old district pic.




and that's B she is hilarious. love her!



new district. with Motra Risk from Palm Springs/Indio and Elder Kaks from NewCastle, England (luckily we can understand him a little better than Elder zhonej)




we hosted a fancy service thing and look at those ordervs...nuk e di fare how to spell that [hors d'oeuvres]





Pics of our beautiful city

Gifts waiting under the tree

WOW my first pair of nëna socks!!!!!! made by a real shqiptarë

She had no idea I was taking pics. Completely candid. Motra Risk on the phone...

Durres for Christmas Dec. 12, 2016

Transfers! I get to stay in Durres for Christmas!! Oh I'm so glad because we have heard of all the celebrations that happens in Durres. So Motra Dikorsi is going to Tirana and my new companion is...Motra Risk! I've heard she likes to bake so I mean it'll be perfect.

Light the World initiative: I'm sure for one of the days it says to give a pen to someone in need...

So I let a lady borrow my pen, and she just took it and walked away. An hour later we saw her with it...inside a water bottle along with another pen...ah interesting...

We had a lesson with a cute old lady-FB. After the prayer she starts crying and then apologizes and says she doesn't know why she is crying. Then one of her friends comes over and joins. Then later another one comes over. So what was a lesson with one turned into a whole party of nena's. Normally this would be impossible to do a lesson (Albanians talk a lot. nena's talk more) but they were all interested and listening. One-FM-took the Book of Mormon and immediately started reading it and marking pages to read later. And this morning FB called us-Called us. What? When are we meeting?? Oh man yes of course we can meet. I love it! 

So last week we street contacted into a man-F- who said he does not believe in God but he was interested in watching the film about Christ. So we had a lesson with him. For a little background, he is a college philosophy teacher, so he has very strong opinions. At the very beginning when we were explaining why we are here, to help people come unto Christ because we all have a need for Him. He immediately said "so you think that I have the need of Christ in my life?". I responded boldly "in fact, yes you do. We all do". I think I found that throughout the lesson the difference between responding with bold aggressiveness and lovingly bold. It was a really cool lesson. I never got mad. We just listened and then testified. We could tell that he could feel something because he would stop and listen and you could just tell. How cool is it that someone who has never had that in his life could start feeling it now?? We asked him to read a scripture and he said no because he's afraid that then he will become a member. Ha you know you can only hope to be so lucky. :)

Yes we all have the need for Jesus Christ in our lives. How lucky our we that He will always be there for us.

Motra Hagërd

Center of Durres

Fisher of fish

a statue at Vollga

More Christmas and photos Dec. 5, 2016

Noel i Pare
Becca sent the music not the video but this was easier to upload.

My planner

The view from outside my apartment

Member families

the biggest and best meal i have had--that is byrek. and it is a stinkin amazing byrek. now this is a good pic to explain the amounts of food...

Po vjen Krishtlindje!!!! Dec. 5, 2016

Po vjen Krishtlindje!!!! [Here comes Christmas!]  It's cold. There are lights. We have a tree. And I have an Albanian Christmas song in my head. I love it! And if you have not seen the Light the World video, watch it now. It has no words spoken. It doesn't need them. Look for ways we can be the light of the world like Christ. We may not be able to raise people from the dead like He did, but we can raise people up with simple acts of service. I love that message. 

Read Serve by Carl Cook.

So our mission challenge for the start of the Light of the World days was to do some kind of service. I'm so thankful we had that challenge because then we looked and we found a place where they have lunches for the elderly every Friday. We went and decorated their Christmas tree, and then set out the food. We barely did anything, but it was another lesson to me - there are always ways that we can serve. We just didn't know it was here before.

This film is such a great tool. It would be even better if people were more used to Christmas...we told someone about the film perfect for Christmas and they responded "ya 25 December"...um yes that would be the date of Christmas haha.

Ok so last week we prayed to find that apartment 696 to find family Baka and we didn't find it. No we didn't find it last Sunday, but yesterday the miracle came. So the elders were looking for less active family houses and they found a pallat 696. They got so excited so they started taking pictures with it. Then this guy asked them who they were. They introduced themselves and then asked him what his name was. He said Hoxhi-normal but then the elders were like wait Hoxhi Baka?! Yes they had not only found the pallat ,but "randomly" the father happened to meet them there. Miracles. Prayers are answered. Sometimes they just take a little time. My favorite attribute that I'm always working on-PATIENCE. Love it.

Motra Hagërd

Pics Nov 28, 2016

Us trying to take a functional district pic...and me and the motra. and the poor little preschool that prob gives them nightmares

When half the elders in the mission get stuck in an elevator for an hour on Thanksgiving

First talk in Albanian Nov 28, 2016

If you copy this into translate.google.com, you will get the main idea, although it does not translate some things very well.

Mirëmengjes motra dhe vëllezër. Shpresoj se me anë të Shpirtit ne mund të mësojmë së bashku si të përmirësohemi si misionaret. Kur pagëzohemi ne marrim mbi vete emrin e Krishtit, jo si një target tamam por që ne do të qendrojmë si dëshmitare të Tij gjithmonë. Ne kemi lumturi për shkak të njohurisë që e kemi. Një mesazh i mrekullueshëm që ne kemi është mesazhi i Rivendosjes së Ungjilit të Jezu Krishtit, kur njerëzit iu dhanë dritëm pas shumë kohe në errësirë. Ata nuk e dinin të vërtetën dhe nuk munda t'a dinin të vërtetën sepse nuk ishte në tokë. Pas vdekjes së Jezu Krishtit, mësimet e Tij ishin humbur por për shkak të Jozef Smithit, e kemi të vërtetën tani. Ne nuk duhet të jemi në errësirë akoma. Ne e dimë se Kisha e Jezu Krishtit është këtu në tokë prap dhe e dimë kë ne duhet t'a ndjekim. Jezu Krishti është shembulli i përsosur, i cili ne mund t'a ndjekim nëse ne duam të bëhemi misionaret si Ai. Unë e dua të flas për si ne mund të dimë si t'a bëjmë punën misionare sipas mësimeve ose ungjilit të Jezu Krishtit. Ne kemi pesë hapa të ungjilit të Jezu Krishtit. Së pari është besimi. Gjithmonë ne duhet të ecim përpara në besim dhe unë e di se nganjëherë është e vështirë edhe ne kemi frikë t'a shpërndajmë ungillin me njerëz. Frika dhe besimi nuk mund të jenë së bashku. Nëse ne kemi besim ne nuk mund të kemi frikë sepse ne e dimë se ne jemi me Jezu Krishtin. Nga një himnë më e prefëruar për mua, Sa i Fortë një Themel, ajo thotë- Ti mos u frikëso, mos bjer në dëshpërim, se jam Zoti yt dhe të vij unë në ndihmë. Të forcoj, të ndihmoj-. Sa i fortë një themel që e kemi. Në 2 Nefi 3:21 Zoti thotë- Për shkak të besimit të tyre, fjalët e tyre do të dalin nga goja ime te vëllezërit e tyre...dhe dobësinë e fjalëve të tyre unë do t'a bëj të fortë në besimin e tyre-. Pra po patëm besim, Ai do të na i japë fjalët. Ky është premtim-që kur ne ushtrojmë besim dhe i hapim gojat tona, Ai do të na ndihmojë për të shpërndarë fjalët e Tij me miqtë tanë. Parimi dytë i ungjillit është pendimi. Një kuptim i pendimit është të ndryshosh dëshirat tona. Në 1 Nefi 8:12 thotë-Dhe ndërsa po haja frutin e saj, ai m'a mbushi shpirtin tim me një gëzim jashtëzakonisht të madh, prandaj fillova të dëshiroja që familja ime të hante nga ai gjithashtu, se e dija që ishte i dëshirueshëm mbi çdo frut tjetër-. Fruti në këtë tregim është dashuria e Perëndisë. Dhe Nefi kishte atë dëshirë që familja e tij do t'i kishin frutat ose dashurinë e Perëndisë gjithashtu, por në këtë varg thotë se ai hëngri frutin edhe u mbush me gëzim edhe pastaj ai filloi të kishte një dëshirë për njerëzit e tjerë t'a hanë frutin. Pra ne nuk do të kemi dëshirë për të shpërndarë ungjillin nëse ne nuk kemi ngrënë për vetat tona. Po mësuam mësimet e Krishtit dhe po lexuam dhe po studiuam ato ne do të marrim dëshirë për t'a bërë punën misionare. Parimi tretë-pagëzimi-kur ne premtuam se ne do të ishim dëshmitaret për Jezu Krishtin edhe parimi katërt-Fryma e Shenjtë. Ne e kemi marrë dhuratën e Frymës së Shenjtë kur u pagëzuam. Me anë të Frymës së Shenjtë ne do t'i jepem fjalët dhe do t'a dimë çfarë të themi. Po ndoqëm Shpirtin ne mund të jemi duart e Perëndisë këtu në tokë. Shpirti mund të na thotë që ne mendojmë për diçka e vogël. çdo herë që ne mendojmë për diçka ne mund t'a bëjmë edhe ne mendojmë se mund të jetë Shpirti, po, është Shpirti dhe ne duhet t'a bëjmë atë. Hap i fundit- të durojmë deri në fund. Gjithmonë ne duhet të përpiqemi të jemi misionaret. Në 3 Nefi 5:13-Unë jam një dishepull i Jezu Krishtit, Birit të Perëndisë. Unë u thirra prej Tij të njoftoj fjalët e Tij mes popullit të Tij, që ata të mund të kenë jetë të përjetshme-. Ky është qëllimi. Le të punojmë së bashku që ne mund t'a sjellim njerëz tek jeta e përjetshme.

Being Thankful for Every Miracle Nov 28, 2016

Had a mission conference for Thanksgiving :) And we had to make a skit for it...The food was good. And of course always good to see everyone in the mission. Then the next day we put our Christmas tree up! And the "fireworks" have started. So we heard a huge boom and a bunch of çun's [I think that translates as mischievous boys] come around the corner, we walk around the corner and this hole is smoking...Let the fireworks/bombs begin haha Merry Christmas! Speaking of Christmas, thank you so much Sister Farrell and the mom for letters :D 

Being Thankful for Every Miracle. 

On Sunday we had been looking for a less active family's house with the elders, and after an hour we gathered back together and said a prayer. Immediately after a prayer this lady walked by, and we asked her if she knew where pillati 696 was--yes that's my pillatë...all of our faces dropped WHAT wow ok...when she got there the sweet little nëna was like yep here's my pillatë 996...wait 996 not 696?...yep...

Even When It Doesn't Seem Like One.

Well prayer still works don't worry, maybe Heavenly Father was just sending the message that even prayer can't change a nena from being a nena :) haha no but for real it is hard sometimes to know that He is listening when it doesn't seem like we are receiving answers. But today we were talking about how a lot of people have seen huge miracles and still forget. We forget. We are human. So I am just fine with the small reminders every day. When we start to think that He doesn't listen or doesn't answer, we just have to look harder. 

Sometimes with disappointments it seems like I should be frustrated and tired of it all, but you know I'm so happy. Why? Literally our goal here is to change people's lives, to let them be happy-it's like being Santa Claus, Babagjyshji. And again-Christmas is coming. 

If you haven't watched the Christmas initiative video, Light the World,   Do It! Take the example of Christ and let's actually apply it to our lives. He is the Light of the World. We are the Light of the World. What an amazing message.

Motra Hagërd

Noah and the Arc Nov 21, 2016

So the storm came and covered the Earth with the floods, but at the end God sent a rainbow. I think this is the theme of this week. It seems like every day where everything falls through and we feel completely kotë [pointless], we always seem to find a rainbow at the end of the day. And at the end of the day. I literally mean that. Could it have come earlier? Ya but then it wouldn't be that big of a present I guess.

We have spent a lot of hours trying to find less active members. So I think I've said stuff about addresses here before...like some say "near the stadium"...the stadium is surrounded by a good 40 apartment buildings. So yes changing our focus to finding less actives means that we probably don't need to run as hard during exercise because 5 hours a day of walking all around Durres because asking Shqiptarë's which have absolutely no idea but tell us where to go anyway turns it into a whole journey. 

So last Monday night nobody could meet with us so we could only try to find people at night when Albanians are like why are you outside so late...We finally got a hold of one of our investigators and she said she could meet at 8 so we went to her store and waited...and waited...and Randomly these two girls come by, we start introducing ourselves, and the older one says wow I am so happy to learn more about Christ. So yes after feeling like we hadn't done anything that day we found those girls. And it gets better because literally in lessons with them she just says "yes we need to read scriptures but not just read, we have to feast upon the scriptures and then act on them"...um...të lumtë të goja [mom comment: I don't know this translation?? Bravo mouth?]  Wow let me read you the scripture you just basically quoted. 2 Ne 32:3. They have the most umpf I've seen in any investigator (and probably a lot of our members) when she reads and when she prays.

 

Ok I wish you could meet some of the sweet old ladies here <3 oh ok so Motra Gj is a cute little lady in our ward, and after church she just came up to me and told me that she was ready to come to a lesson with us. Like wow usually we take the young ones with us to lessons, but it was so cool that she just came straight to me-ready to help. So when we had a lesson with some less active members, we called her to come with us-ended up being perfect because they were friends. After our lesson as we were walking with Motra Gj she's like "you won't believe what happened this morning-so I was walking out the door humming Në mëngjes kur dhomën ti le, lutjen a e the? ['Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?] and I dropped my bag and hurried to say my prayer because I had forgotten. Oh brother she's just the cutest sweetest little nëna.

 

Gave my first talk on Sunday and had a full hour and a half to write it. S'ka gjë [no matter], the Spirit covered for me I hope :) At least everyone was attentive-that's what happens when you have a theks Amerikan [American accent]. But one cool thing for the language this week-One of our senior missionary couples came to Durres and we were at the church doing a lesson with some of the young women. The Elder asked me to introduce them because he doesn't speak Albanian. So I told him their names and that they were sisters, and one cousin, two were members, one was not...only then did I realize that the whole time I had been speaking in Albanian haha oops so much of a help I am.

Look for the rainbows :) but don't forget to play in the rain. Yes the rain-bow is the bow on the box but the rain is the gift-am I right?

Motra Hagërd

Oh I forgot this cute little sms we got from a lady after we sent out our investigator nightly scripture text and yes it was in english exactly like this: 

what a lovely moment hearing your sounds of your fingers writing me such a moment, such words! happy dreams!

aw how nice...haha

All missionaries safe and accounted for. Nov 14, 2016

So on Tuesday we took Motra Uilli to Tirana for the transfer. The road from Durres to Tirana is an hour long drive, if that. 1 hour. So it had rained a lot the night before. The streets were flooded, but we started our trip to Tirana.

The adventure begins.

I guess there had been an accident so we were redirected off the freeway to a side street. We went along that side street for about an hour, until we saw lots of makinë's [cars] turning around so we did too and retracted that one hour the other way. Then when we got back it was still not open on the freeway...so we turned around again and started our trip over basically. At one point we had been stopped behind a truck for probably 30 minutes and of course there are those cars that pass on the made up lanes around us...until this nice man told us to pass the truck...because it had been parked, the driver not even inside...Anyway the adventure started when we saw a waterfall. Wow rushing water out of a store parking lot into the field below. And all of a sudden we were driving in water. Our poor little makinë was in it up to half of the tire. Finally after 6 hours we made it to the mission office in Tirana. Hopefully the video works so you can see what happened. Ha it was an adventure. And because we had no phone (we lost it on Monday), we had no contact with anyone. But because we lost the phone, we got the lovely opportunity to totally start fresh, no contacts, no trainer...

This was our main street in Durres. The pot hole in the center made like a little cute fountain thing-adorable.

My first day ever with only one companion:

I feel like we were definitely given comfort because we were kind of feeling like- ok I can't understand them that well, but we can do this. All we have to do is testify. Oh and of course take members with us to lessons.

What we learned:

Do not try to find one of the investigators houses on foot when you don't know where you are and there are no lights on the streets. We went back another day with the makinë. And when we got there the apartment building was locked and we of course didn't have her number...so did we turn around and go home? no of course not. Two crazy Americans just started shouting her name and trying to hit her door with corn cobs...Hey but it worked. She came out and she shouted down her number for us. Determination works haha

Po vjen dimur (winter is coming). Wow I had no idea that Albania was going to be so windy. The day we decided we were going to go walk to the fshat [village] to find less active members, Albania decided to pour and wow the wind. Wind was never such a big problem when I didn't have to wear a skirt. But after a couple hours of walking and fixing our umbrellas that kept breaking, we found two of the less active members houses. Goal accomplished. We have a goal to have 800 people in church by the end of the year (in the whole mission, so Albanian, Kosovo, and Macedonia) so we are really hoping that we can bring them back. Let them know that we miss them. One of the families came to church on Sunday :) I think a lot of people just need to know that they are needed.

I drove for the first time in Albania this week. Wow crazy people haha no worries though.

So I think the overall theme for this week was comfort. It is amazing that sometimes in uncomfortable or dangerous situations I feel safe. I know that we are in God's hands. Sometimes I don't understand what people are saying but I know that if I testify of Jesus Christ, it will be what they need to hear. Everyone needs to know that they are loved. Everyone needs to know that they have a Savior. We are in His hands :) 

Motra Hagërd

So they celebrate New Year more than Christmas, I think. Everyone makes baklava it sounds like. We have a recipe from this one pudding one of our members made. It was pretty good. Other than that I don't know. The main foods are: fasule, pilaf, spec te mbushura (stuffed peppers)!! so good mmm stuffed with pilaf and meat, pasticeri (noodle thing with egg).

Weddings are huge here. Like they wear their traditional clothes, popullore music is huge, dancing. Hoping to learn some dances.

This is spelled in Albanian pronounciation for a song so that the Albanians could pronounce it in English:  [This is in English, just spelled in Albanian.  Try to say it out loud.]

dhë Holli Gost iz ë speshëll frend. Ju kent si him bat ju ken hir him. If ju lisën hi ken help ju uen ju nid tu mejk e çojs tu nou uat tu du. Hi uill olluejs bi dher if ju ar skerd or nërvëz or hepi. Hi ken help ju uith enithing. Dhë onlli thing ju hev tu du iz lisën. Hi uill gajd ju olluejs.

Futbol again. Got to see Motra Suko again and Elder Benson. Now I've seen the whole district since being separated.