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 :)