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.
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