GEZUAR Dita e Baballarëve!! June 19, 2017

GEZUAR Dita e Baballarëve!!

Perhaps the most essential of a father's work is to turn the hearts of his children to their Heavenly Father - D Todd Christofferson

CELEBRATING 25 years of missionaries in Albania!!!

So we had a concert event and definitely the best part was seeing the collage of missionaries throughout these 25 years. It was really cool to see that these people love their missionaries. In 1992 four missionaries came into the country of Albania. Elder Worthlin was among those first four and he came back to speak. He received a reassignment while he had been serving in Germany for a year. When those first missionaries came, only some of the pamphlets and books were in the albanian language. In 1999 the Book of Mormon was translated into Albanian. And now we have missionaries in Shkodër, Durrës, Tirana, Berat, Pogradec, Korça, Elbasan, Vlora, Fier, and Kosovo. It's crazy to be in a mission that is relatively new. Fillim i mbarë :)

I met a cute old couple and the man said that he saw something about our church on tv (huge surprise because people here don't know who we are) so I didn't really believe him until he said that the guy on tv said that you will know them by their white shirt and ties. ah yep that's us haha. It's good that people are beginning to see who we are, and we are trying to show them. 

Summer things:

When you run across Tirana because you are late for a family home evening with a member family and you get there and there is sweat dripping down your face...and good old Albania, kisses on the cheek. well that's embarrassing...ah tirana. Sa i madh je ti. (it's a himn) [How Great Thou Art]

We had a lesson in Relief Society about eternal marriage. Because it is a blessing so big (haha such a big blessing) to have an eternal family, meaning that families are not together "until death" but forever even after death, it is hard to find. So the teacher asked us, the sister missionaries, to share what it is like to grow up in a family that is sealed in the temple for eternity. Well I will tell you what it's like. It's totally normal for me.

But about a year ago, my family and I had the opportunity to go to the temple and be sealed as a family for people who had passed away without that opportunity. As I sat there with my family, knowing that even after death, we will still be a family, wow. 

I know that there is life after death on earth. And that that life is with my family. We ran into a lady who's son passed away last year, and she is bitter and sad because she doesn't believe in a life after death. How sad is life without this crucial piece of hope. That death doesn't win. Family wins :) aww I love my family :)

Will ye also go away? June 12, 2017

A new missionary scripture:

John 6:66-68

66 ¶ From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

First of all-this hurts me. How sad is this? and like as a missionary we get to feel a little tiny bit of how it feels when people walk away. People walked away from Jesus. I imagine hurt honestly in Jesus's eyes as He asks this to His closest friends/followers-Are you going to leave me too? (listen to the Mortal Christ by Elder Holland because he describes this moment perfectly). And then Peter answers-to whom shall we go? 

Think about the double meaning. 1. we aren't going anywhere because no one else can save us. but of course the double 2. ok so I'm trying to work as hard as I can as a missionary here and I really am trying but Lord, to whom shall we go?

So I think I'm going to write this on the back of my nametag so it's always the question/response. I'm here, I'm never going to leave, please guide me.

LOVE my FAM so much. love you love you. have a good week :)

Tirana June 12, 2017

TIRANA. I'm in love with this city already. It's so big.PEOPLE. There are people all over, every time of the day (just a little thin at nani nani time). The later schedule is so good because there are seriously so many people out at 9-10 at night, it's crazy! EVERYWHERE. Ok so I dont know how big Tirana actually is but it's split up into 4 ward areas. We are in charge of two. Two areas! That means "we could take a bus and go for like an hour and still be in our area"-motra ollsen. AH. So different than Gjakova haha. HOT. Ok so definitely sunshine in my soul ;) We carry around 2L water bottles. It's hot. On foot, on bus. And it's even better on the bus because we're all hot and sweaty BUT we are all hot and sweaty TOGETHER! literally, stuck together! Another pair of shoes down...bummer.

Tender little mercies.

So I was studying the book of mormon, and I was reading in 3 Nefi about people who had seen all the signs come true about the coming of Jesus (like the star appearing) but then afterwards they began to forget the signs. It reminded me of that one scripture that said something like "how quick are people to forget the Lord" and I wanted to read it but I couldn't find it. I looked in the Bible dictionary and in True to the Faith to see if I could find it but didn't, so then I was just kinda flipping through the book and pop I opened to Helamani 12:2-3

2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people...sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies...doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.
3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

How sad is this?? A goal for me: to always Remember Him. I mean the word always is pretty often...but for a start-recognizing more "hand of the Lord" things in my life. One-that I just "randomly" flipped to that scripture that I wanted to find. hmm. If you read randomly backwards it actually spells remember Him. nope. hey but you get what I'm trying to say. Remember Him in your life so that you will never come to a point in life that you find that you have forgotten Him. 

Because He will never forget us.

"wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love."--Forget Me Not, Dieter F Uchtdorf

Also I'd add... and if you ever feel alone...come to albania and get on a bus. You don't even have to hold on to anything because the people on all sides of you, they got you. Hajde.

Motra Hegërd

When you forget that it's a holiday in America...oops. June 5, 2017

Ok leaving the çunë world behind in Gjakova whew. These last few days with all the çunë's I was just like ok couple more days of these and I'm free.

There's one that calls me sunshine...so Do të ik. Sunshine u fik. has a nice tingull to it.

oh so we are going to be sister training leaders in tirana. ah ma now I have to learn to be fluffy for real. haha jk but like i figured I could go throughout the mission without having to be an STL...it's ok. and this means that maybe I'm going to be close to the new Mission president. well that's cool. it seems like all the missionaries in tirana are connected with everything, unlike Gjakova that is missing out on everything haha. 

oh Elder Copeland was telling pres weidmann that we are good missionaries and what not and Pres Weidmann said : we are spreading them like yeast.

haha ok I don't quite understand what that means...but I'm going to be in the Tirana zone, Motra Xhons in the North zone, and Motra Saldanja in the South. They split us up and we will never see each other again DX 

ç'me bë

Transferred to Tirana June 5, 2017

TRANSFERS!!

I am being transferred to Tirana! The big city. Just in time for the heat :) My companion is Motra Olsen. I'm super excited. I love Tirana. And there's soooo many people. And although I love this little branch in Gjakova, it will be nice in a normal ward again.

Ok so lovely weather here. One day I got totally sunburnt and then later that day-soaking wet in the rain. And we were walking about an hour to a lesson we had. Looked like wet rats probably, and this guy working a shop says wait just a second and then gave us a free umbrella! 

We tried to make these cookie things called Korabie for one of our investigators and we went over to give them some. And we left with pita (food)...literally these people cannot lose at giving things. We try and we get beat. 

Nani-Nani. "dead hours" are in the middle of the day when everyone is napping because it's hot outside. So instead of coming home at 9 each night, we come at 10 and have an hour in the day for a Nani-Nani to make up that sleep. Summer's coming. Humidity is kinda fun :)

Things I learned from Gjakova:

So thankful for this tripanionship that we have :) They pushed me. We pushed each other. Always a question of what can we do to work better, to be more obedient, to try to be more like Christ. There is always something that we can do to improve. And I love them. We not only grew a whole lot but we had fun at the same time. 

I learned to have fun on my mission. When I first got here it was the hardest week. It was hard. But then we worked hard. Then we started working for the people, not just because we have to. Then we started loving the work. I realized how to be a missionary (kind of. like not saying I know what I'm doing completely now, just that I understand it more now). An elder in the last mission conference commented that--you will know that you are doing what you should be doing as a missionary when you are happy. If you are not happy, you are doing it wrong.

Also applicable for life. If you are not happy. You are doing it wrong. Don't waste your time with things that won't make you happy.

 "O be wise. What can I say more?" Jacob 6:12 (my cousin just chose this scripture from the Book of Mormon that serves as kind of a motto for his mission). How sweet and simple. BE wise. BE happy.

Twinning

I forgot a cute thing that happened. so street contacting and this little nena gets off her bike and comes over to us, is like for some reason in looove with us. like little nena's sometimes do. then she's like well I don't know what my phone number is but I have it written at my house so come with me. "hajde me nënë" so we like followed/ran behind this nena on a bike to her house so she could give us her number. then she's like you come over anytime and you tell me what you want to eat and I'll feed you. ahhh nena's. nothing better.

also cute companions twining :)))) binjak​

so we went tracting and after our lesson with this family that had met with the missionaries before(when i recited the first vision the dad got up and came back with a restoration pamphlet and then he's like hey you're talking about this). what? so cool. and after the lesson he saw that our shoes and socks were drenched (rain woo) his wife gave all of us socks so we could walk home in style :) or to have warm feet

[Utah cousins -- can you see what they spelled?]

Gjakova Photos May 29, 2017

We asked a girl if she had heard about Adam and Eva and this was her response : those plants. one is called adam. and one is Eva. It is said that when you don't put them close together that the plants weep. 

oh zemër. also after we talked about where we go after this life on Earth she was like what? oh amazing. then we asked her what she believed about where we go. She said well I used to believe that we'd be reincarnated, but now I'm changing my mind. These are the lessons that I love. When people are seriously listening and are interested. Like whhhhat? do you really believe that? aww love her.

Ramazan. So it is really cool to be in this country of Kosove for Ramazan. As missionaries of another faith, the first day of Ramazan was a little hard. Knocking on the doors of the people who keep it, they were a little unreceptive...some really didn't understand why we would dare knock on their door... but hey it's cool to see the culture. Like we were driving home and we see this huge group gathered at the bakery. all waiting to buy bread so they can eat at the end of the day.