Living the Word of Wisdom March 27, 2017

So we were in a lesson with a family that let us in while we were tracting. I thought the mom said something about lemon tea as she told the daughter to make something for us so I was like ok nothing to worry about. But then the daughter brings us this Turkish Tea which we can't drink. As she set it down I'm like whispering and making eye contact with Motra Xhons [Sister Jones] like what do we do? Like I was nervous. What do we do? So we like avoid it for a little while...then the son asked if it would bother us if he smokes, so thankfully the subject of the Word of Wisdom was brought up and we were able to explain why we don't drink certain things...and actually one of those things is this tea...but they were totally ok with it. whew. This same family had us back over on Saturday and she fed us pita AND apple juice. They probably went out and bought that for us. So grateful for people who respect you and your standards. AND when we said we had to go home they said no please stay a little longer. What? I don't know why anyone would want to hang out with some girls who barely speak their language. Little do they know they don't actually like our company-but the Spirit. Ah if only they could recognize it too.

SUMMER-No more tights!!! Wow so free! And so white...anyway...the weather is so great and sunny, and then all of a sudden at the end of the day Sunday it starts raining...so we are in all summer clothes and all of a sudden it's cold again...We grabbed jackets and then drove out to find a pëllatë to tract, which is an apartment building, but instead we decided to tract a row of houses. We also made a goal that we would teach the Restoration at every door. So at this one house we are standing there at the door which has no cover so it's raining down on us while Motra Saldanja quotes the first vision. This was definitely my favorite 2 hours of tracting I've ever done. Ya know when we just start teaching, people are less likely to say ok well I'm busy. I was surprised that by the end of the row of houses we had taught 4 full Restoration lessons. All on the front porch. That way people actually have a good idea what they are saying po or jo to [yes or no]. 

Princ i Paqes! The new Easter film! The only way that we can enjoy our peace is because of Christ, the Prince of Peace. As I was thinking about the peace and Jesus Christ's life, ya know I don't think He got very much of it at all. Always offering peace to others when they didn't exactly let Him have any peace. I am so grateful that He never sought out His own peace because He knew that His work on Earth was so that we might have peace. Even when He desperately needed it, He said Thy will be done. He gave up His peace for ours. Go watch the new Easter film, Prince of Peace :)     [It will be available next week.  I'll post a link then.]

Motra Hegërd

 yes burnt a little bit of my hand there...

and Vlora's fam

HEY no tights ma!

Thy Will Be Done Mar. 20, 2017

Hey so I went to pick up my 2 companions and only came back with one. Sister Xhons had to stay in Tirana for a couple days. And then on the way back to Kosove I definitely missed the turn and took a 40 min detour. woo that's such a me thing to do...but now we have all 3 of us.

So at first I was like oh yay..a trio...again...BUT I have realized really how wonderful it is that we have a trio here because that means that we can have one sister at the branch activites with Sister Copeland (a senior missionary) and the two others can be doing finding! It's like we have double time woo!! Watch out Gjakova!

I have also learned to appreciate the whole testifying of what each other says because we did exchanges with some members. I was with a young girl that didn't really want to talk (totally understand like I would definitely be like na you're the missionary you got this ha if i was her) but it was like being alone...thank goodness i have 2 companions. whew. never alone.

X I think the hardest thing out here is to realize that life is going on without me back at home. X

"Thy will be done, o Lord not mine whether in brightest day or darkest night, and give me strength to carry on, whatever comes, thy will be done.

and though i walk on paths unknown...I know I'll never be alone. This is my song, Thy will be done. Though I dont always understand what Thou hast willed, what Thou hast planned, I'll leave it all inside Thy hands and trust Thy will until we meet again." Thy Will Be Done 2017 mutual theme songs.

"How grateful I am personally that our Savior taught we should conclude our most urgent, deeply felt prayers, when we ask for that which is of utmost importance to us, with “Thy will be done” (Matt. 26:42)"
Trust in the Lord-Richard G Scott

I think I'm going to start implementing this in my most earnest prayers. The final words-but I know you know better. Yes I definitely would like something else, that would be nice, but don't give me what I want, give me what I need.

Motra Hegërd

Memories

Motra Gjoni!!!! The nëna that has my heart and gave me that lace thing "so that I would always remember Motra Gjoni" oh my heart :'(

also i accidently put 5000 lekë in the wash so that's it drying

Best Lesson Ever Mar. 13, 2017

The best lesson I have experienced on my mission: So we are talking about how this boy Joseph Smith had a question and that he was reading in the bible to figure out which church was true--and then her husband asked us if we wanted more juice so we got a little distracted--and Ajkuna was like "wait keep explaining, what happens?"...she was like wide eyed listening so intently so we continued to share Joseph's experience. Then she comments "wow you young girls look like angels to me idk why" And then we start talking about the book of mormon and how this is the way we can find out what is true, if we read it. Ok and this is what she says "Ok I'm going to promise you right now, it may be a couple days, a week, or a month Idk but I promise you that I have to read this book from beginning to finish." and she probably said that 3 more times...This was the first lesson where I didn't feel like I was trying to keep someone interested, to convince them why they need to read this book. She seriously wanted to know. I'm so excited to go back to see what she has read. 

Ok and here's another cool part, how we found this couple: 3 weeks ago on Sunday we were coming home from lunch at the Copeland's house in the car with the elders and we were going to go tracting and elders asked where they should drop us off, and I said you pick, and we'll go there. So then they drove us out to like fshatë area way out of the city and we had 40 min to go tracting. We were walking down the little road and there was a guy on his bike coming our way, and we were like ok goal-get this guy to stop his bike. Wow he did and we got his number. And 3 weeks later we go to his home and have this lesson with him and his wife. bukur fortë

TRANSFERS

Staying in Gjakova but 3 times a charm...3rd time being in a 3-o so Motra Saldanja and Motra Xhonz are coming up to Gjakova with me.

Motra Hegërd

Mission Conference

We Can Just Help Mar. 8, 2017

Went back to Albanian for two days and ate about 4 meals for lunch...good old albania...We had stake and mission conference. 

So the missionaries in Tirana where we were staying for conference play frisbee for exercise in the mornings so we played. but we didn't bring any running shoes so we rolled up in the best fshatarë class: boots and high socks...so at least I had an excuse when I fell 4 times.

Careful what you whisper for...so we were contacting in the road and a lot of guys in makinë's were like staring and ya know we do the usual wave hi yes we are foreign we know. And after a couple I was like well why don't you like stop and talk to us...and that makinë literally flipped a U and pulled up and told us to get in haha um na buuut hey we are missionaries...nice.

So we started to talking to this guy who was Catholic in the street and he said that it is wrong to have prophets because we are all equal. Yes we are all equal and the prophet is not higher or better than us, he just has a different calling. He is called as a prophet of God. Jesus taught us that He did not come to the earth to be served but to serve. This is how leaders should be. So prophets are not here to be served but to serve us. And also we can try to exemplify that. Try thinking to how to serve others instead of "what can you do for me?" And then we don't have to worry about wait what do I get before we help, we can just help. Easy.

Love

Motra Hegërd

Trying to make rice krispy treats when you're not in kansas anymore...

and here is the dictionary you got me for christmas

How many ways can you eat an egg? we only tried 5. good variety of breakfast huh

Hey, We Love Questions Feb. 27, 2017

So this sign reminds me of Kori's favorite scripture 2 Nephi 9:34...

So we made a dessert for lunch and left it in the kitchen at church...the kitchen door was left unlocked for like 5 min after church...2/3 of the dessert was eaten...oh albanians...

So this has never happened before but we went to go tracting and the FIRST door they let us in and we had a lesson. Then we went back to that building and met another guy Enver from Germany so he said that he doesn't understand Albanian that well...well dang because I don't stinkin speak German...but we had a lesson with him and he is so cool. He had so many ideas and questions. I love when people have questions. Seriously people are scared of asking questions now for some reason, in school and basically everywhere, but when you understand like why we have questions and that people just want to help you find the answer, questions are the only way you are ever going to learn anything.

Moral of the email: ask questions. holy cow don't be afraid. just ask questions. President Howard W. Hunter explained: “I have sympathy for young men and young women when honest doubts enter their minds and they engage in the great conflict of resolving doubts. These doubts can be resolved, if they have an honest desire to know the truth, by exercising moral, spiritual, and mental effort. They will emerge from the conflict into a firmer, stronger, larger faith because of the struggle. They have gone from a simple, trusting faith, through doubt and conflict, into a solid substantial faith which ripens into testimony”

Ask your parents, ask the missionaries (hey we love questions), and ask God. Prayer just takes a little humility and faith. just do it.

We have a friend Vera who comes to every lesson with questions. Not only questions but she has searched for answers first then tells us and then asks us what we believe. She is so amazing and we went over to her house for lunch and her dad said don't waste your time on me but you are welcome. Well you know we are always going to talk about Christ so... :) 

Motra Hegërd

It Mattered to This One Feb. 20, 2017

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2006/08/noteworthy-service?lang=eng

Hey so this is an article of a lady named Liz and it's in Gjakova (that's where I am). And one of our members (Vlora Hajdari) here met Liz when she was a kid in one of the refugee camps. V told us her whole story. In the camp she didn't like or want to talk with any of the other kids. Liz noticed it and asked if she could talk to her. Vlora was against it, she didn't want to talk to anyone, but finally she sat down and Liz asked about her family, Vlora said that her mom didn't love her or want her and that nobody loved her. Liz told her that of course her mom loved her but that also God does. You are always loved. Vlora didn't want to hear any of it and left. But when her life got harder, after a couple years, she started really seeking out God, trying out lots of different faiths. After 12 years of meeting Liz in the refugee camp, Vlora got baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Liz noticed one of the many kids in a camp and cared enough to talk to her. She cared enough to tell someone that didn't want to listen, that she was loved. Honestly sometimes I don't even realize how precious that simple message is to people who have never heard it or seriously considered it before. Wait are you telling me that there is a god? and that He would care about me? We can live with our families forever after this life? Death is not the end? I can see them again after they have died? Ya there's a lot of problems, everyone has them, but can you see how much hope we bring. I can only hope that people realize that, and to talk to everyone and their dog about it so they can decide for themselves if they want it or not. 

No matter what you’re going through, you can find “a perfect brightness of 

hope” through the gospel.

Motra Hegërd

Snow

The fail cake we made.

Talk to Someone Random This Week Feb 13, 2017

ya know it's been hard for me to write home about miracles and here's why: so like I look back on the miracles that happened and now that a week has passed and the result of the miracle turns out they actually aren't interested at all...so then I feel like well bummer, you'd think when you see little miracles that they should really turn out to be successes...for example: we met a family street contacting and they actually said yes to meeting! Then we had a lesson and they were like ya we don't know a lot about Jesus could you teach us? ! yes I think we can! And it was a really good lesson about Jesus Christ. This was a little miracle. Then the next day when we called them if they were coming to church they said no we can't meet every again.

Just because afterwards wasn't what I would have wanted, that little miracle lifted my spirits that day so it counts. You got to have to learn to live for the little miracles each day or you are going to be searching for the end of the miracle- the success that you think is success- for your whole mission/life. That lesson with that family about Christ-it was still a great lesson where we had the opportunity to share what Christ has done for us with people that didn't know. Now they know more. The little miracle still stands.

Oh hey and met someone for the first time on my mission that knew who Mormons are. He was like hey you're Mormons, you don't like coffee huh? Yes that's us! like wow. I wonder what it would be like to talk to people who knew what Mormons are. 

When we talk to people in the road I have kinda discovered that the more love filled and happy you are they kind of respond back with it. You don't have to be on a mission to say hi to people and see their cute little smiles back. Talk to random people. I so wish that I made friends or at least tried to talk to people that I was around in normal life because it really makes life less lonely and more warm and fuzzy :)

SO- 1. let the little miracles live 2. talk to someone random this week *and I promise I will too :)

Motra Hegërd

Gjakova Feb 6, 2017

oh another gjakova fun fact. that sign that has duct tape covering the letters is because it is in serbian and so the kosovars cover it up. deep stuff wow.