HELLO, GOODBYE, AMERICA AND JESUS, HAJDENI!!!

Wowzers this week was nuts! So many fun and crazy things happened it was quite a blast. We had exchanges, walked a TON (the buses still don't work), made some spicy tacos with members (they weren't actually spicy cuz that doesn't really exist here), and we got a transfer call! Sister Long is leaving to my last area, Korça, and I am so sad but so excited for her. We have been together so long it will be a hard split. I LOVE THAT GIRL. We also met the family of our friend getting baptized and it was AMAZING. To add to an amazing week, WE FINALLY HAD CHURCH YAYAY. IT WAS SO HAPPY AND EXCITING EVEN THOUGH ONLY LIKE 16 PEOPLE CAME! 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. We have entered into the month of QERSHOR which means it is the season of QERSHI (cherries). There are cherries everywhere and they are so scrumptious! Everyone gives them to us for free all the they are so nice! 

2. Albanians are very smart when it comes to using natural resources! They are like wizards! They can make any kind of concotion mixture that can heal you, cure you, or basically help you in every way. 

3. It is really hard to guess the ages of people here! Often times the younger boys have beards and facial hair and it is so hard to distiguish their ages. The girls are sooo hard to guess too. 

FUNNIES: 

1. This week we were looking for the home of one of our cute members. Albanians don't have addresses and their apartment buildings rarely have numbers. If they do have numbers, they change often or they have multiple apartment numbers. It honestly baffles me. Anyways, as we were wandering around lost in random streets a big group of 15 kids (ranging from ages 5-11) found us! They all came running up to us and were touching my hair and wanted to hold hands and be best friends. They were so stinking cute! They told us the 4 english words they knew (which were hello, goodbye, America, and Jesus) and then they asked us what we were looking for. We told them we were looking for Bedrije and they immediately knew where she lived! "Hajdeni!" They said! (That means come on!) So we walked through the crazy neighborhoods and hidden dirt paths and found her apartment on the 2nd floor!! The kids started banging and knocking on the door soo loud and our member came to the door laughing because of the 15 other house guests we brought with us! They are so smart hehe and we had so much fun! 

2. This week we had exchanges with some other sisters and it was a blast! We had a lesson out in the sun and it was so nice to be able to meet another person outside! During our lesson the sun was shining on us and it was great! It was SO great that I got a tan line in the shape of my braid on my back haha. My tan lines are coming out absolutely wonderful here. From farmers tans, teva tans, and braid tans, I am getting my fair share of weird and awesome tan lines:) 

3. Sister Long and I have been serving together for over 6 months now and we are the best of friends! The funniest part is that we seriously act like an old senior couple and it is hilarious. We find joy in buying basil plants together, makin dinner, and talking each other up/motivating one another. In fact, our biggest disagreement we have had has been whether or not to put the fruits and vegetables or the dairy products in the drawer in the fridge HAHA. (FYI I won that one because come on.... who puts dairy products in the big vegetable drawer?). This week we didn't have water for a few days so she had to wash my hair for me! Hahaha she is the absolute best. I don't know what I will do without her!! 

SPIRITUAL WONDERFULNESS: 

This week we have seen many of the people we are teaching change dramatically. The wife of one of our friends said that she could feel the difference the gospel had on her family. She said that there was more love, more time spent together, more hope, and that the spirit was there. She noticed the change!!! She noticed that the gospel truly does bless families. Together, as a family, they have found the joy and peace that comes from living the gosel. It is real, and it comes! This change and refinement happens when we focus on the Atonement of Jezu Krishtit and allow It to heal us. Elder Holland said, "However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines." This is so true. It is never to late to bring hope to your life, peace to your family, and joy in your journey. He knows the way because He is the way. The gospel truly does our families and brings blessings of protection, love, and joy. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR MY SAVIOR. Don't forget to count your blessings and name them one by one!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. CATCH YOU NEXT WEEK <3 

Love, Motra Sëtën 

Pics: 

1. Awesome don't pee sign.

2. Exchanges w my FAV Sister Silver 

3. Impressive double chins 

4. Goodbye to the strict 

5. I ate frog legs!!!! 

6. Me w another turtle 

7. Ancient ruins from BEFORE CHRIST 

8. Ancient monastery from the 13th century 

HEART ATTACK (JUNE 1, 2020)

WHAT IS COOKIN GOOD LOOKINS? This week was super fantastic! I hope you are all just doing fine and dandy this summer morning. Cootos to those who read my novel emails each week. I love you all! This week I said some goodbyes to my cute sisters from my mtc group who are heading home! I still have a few weeks left here WOOHOO I AM SO LUCKY. We are especially lucky because people have started inviting us over for meals and wowzers I have missed that interaction (and the food of course) SOO MUCH. It was so great! 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. I may have mentioned this before... but Albanians don't have dryers!! We hang dry everything! This will lead to a good story down below:) 

2. Albanians usually don't have bathtubs. If they do, they are SO TINY HAHA. They are made for hobbits I think. 

3. They make a lot of natural flower juices and çaj teas!! They are super scrumptious. My favorites are the rose flavored ones! Right from the petal! 

GOOFS AND GIGGLES: 

1. This week I may or may not have exploded our washing machine. I put a load of white laundry in there and it was making quite a racket but I didn't think anything of it. Well, the next time I went to go check on my laundry I found an entire bathroom FLOODED. HAHA. I don't quite know what happened other than I was forced to basically swim to get my clothes out of the broken machine. Eveything was SOAKED HAHA. So I spent a good long while wringing out all my clothes and had to end up washing everything by hand which was quite fun but not something I want to do again. I was super wet too from wringing out my clothes you would have thought I took a bath. Haha it was so messy!!!!! I am getting used to this "no dryer" thing though. I love when my clothes dry like cardboard!!!!! 

2. One of the elders got a spikeball net for Christmas and he let us borrow it so that we could practice. We are having a tournament soon so I started to train Sister Long. We set the net up in one of the rooms and are getting pretty professional. Sister Long has never played before but she is gonna WRECK HAVOC when we let her loose!!! We are so pumped. Our downstairs neighbors kind of hate us but the people at the park LOVE US because we are quite the entertainment to say the least. Spikeball is absolutely not a thing in Albania so we get the best looks when we play!!! 

3. Since we aren't TOTALLY free yet we decided to surprise some of our older members by "heart attacking" them! We took another member with us and we had a blast! She had never heard of "heart attacking" before and she LOVED IT SO MUCH. Then the funniest thing happened! As we were writing the notes and taping them to one of the doors this guy started talking to us and encouraging us saying it looked good! When we turned around we came to find out that he was the husband of one of our members! Haha he is awesome. He was very concerned that the hearts we were putting on the door would make men want to steal his cute lil wife's heart. He said, "Enough hearts! All the men in the neighborhood are going to want to steal her from me!" He said he won't tell her though so that is good:) Another funny moment happened when we went to a different house and they OPENED THE DOOR as we were taping the hearts on! They didn't see us because they got called back inside and shut the door! Haha it was SO FUNNY AND TERRIFYING. I love being like a spy! 

MENDIMI SHPIRTËROR: 

Recently, we have been teaching and helping one of our new friends. She has been struggling to forgive herself for her past sins so repentance and forgiveness have been a major topic for both our studies and our lessons. 

I have learned this, we are NEVER out of reach from the Savior's loving arms and His Atonement. No sin is too grievous for us to seek repentance and forgiveness. We can always come back. We can always return to Him. His arms are always open. It is never too late. Repentance is ALWAYS an option! 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "When we are lost, we can “come to ourselves,” but we may not always be able to “find ourselves,” and, worlds without end, we cannot “save ourselves.” Only the Father and His Only Begotten Son can do that. Salvation is in Them only. So we pray that They will help us, that They will “come out” to meet and embrace us and bring us into the feast They have prepared.They will do this! The scriptures are replete with the promise that God’s grace is sufficient." 

We make mistakes every single day. Don't run from Him, run to Him! Sometimes we are so ashamed of ourselves that we think Jesus is too but he is not. He stands waiting to embrace us and help us continue along. His path is always lit for us. When you have repented and entered back on the path that leads unto eternal life, forgive yourself and forget the parts that hurt! The Savior's Atonement will heal you! I have experienced this in my own life and I know that as you study the Atonement every day you will see its power in your life! <3 LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!! 

Love, Motra Sëtën 

Pics: 

1. Some Albanian food! (Lentil soup, bread, crab/egg fried stuff, german salads, and some yummy sauces) 

2. ME AND MY CUTE COMP HIKIN

3. Heart attack!!!

4. Our friend photo shopped our photo onto a different photo 

5. Spikeball champs!!! 

3 BIRDS, 1 GOAT, AND A DIRT ROAD :) (MAY 25TH,2020)

This week was GROOVY. We got word that the first phase of going back to church might start this week! Exciting!! We had so much fun this week and have even been able to meet a few people in person! SO FUN. We also were finally able to hike around a little bit!! AMAZING!!! I AM LIVING IN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. 

 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. Albanian's don't eat steak!!! They are super scared they are gonna get sick! Albania "steak" is NOT the same as American steak that is for sure. 

2. Typically, Albanians have to grocery shop daily to keep their foods fresh and also because they don't make enough money to buy things in bulk! 

3. ALBANIA IS SO HUMID. It is like you are just always wet from either sweat or humidity haha love that. 

FUNNIES: 

1. This week Sister Long got a bad infection thing in her eyeball and so she woke up one day and she couldn't see at all!! Her eye was swollen shut and she had all this yellow gross stuff coming out it was kinda freaky!!!! We washed it out and she iced it with some good ol frozen asparagus in a sock (I helped with that). In all reality this isn't a super funny story but if you could just see how big Sister Long's eye was I think you might laugh too hahah. That thing was as big as Texas! Also she is okay so that is good.

2. Whenever we go to buy food it always takes us about 1hr 30 min because we are teaching the people that sell us our fruits and bread! It is so fun!! Our cute fruit friend is super awesome. One day this week the streets FLOODED with rain and it was pouring. We stopped at his little shop to quickly grab some veggies and he was standing there in shorts and a short sleeved shirt with a summer vest thing and flip flops! This was hilarious because Albanians are still wearing long sleeve shirts even though it is literally in the 90s PLUS they are afraid of rain and they are always over prepared. Hahaha we joked with him and gave him a funny look about his outfit and he started laughing and told us that he made a big mistake and would just have to go swimming hehe. Then he made us some natural peach juice!! He always treats us so good he is the best <33 

3. The birds are attacking us!! We like to study out on our small balcony that we have and the birds try to steal our things!! Hahah they also often times scare the living daylights out of me because these birds are not scared of us so they fly right up next to us! It is terrifying! Also, everytime we open our windows they TRY TO FLY INSIDE. Thankfully they haven't gotten trapped inside for too long yet but oh man I am slowly developing a fear of birds I think. 

SPIRITUAL TIME: 

In Albanian the word "shteg" means path! However, it does not mean your nice straight paved ashphalt road. A "shteg" is more like a rough dirt road that you would find on some kind of adventure. I love this because in 2 Nephi 31 it uses this word shteg in the place of the word path. That is because life truly is an adventure:) 

18 And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. 20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

In this life the path isn't always easy. There are bumps and ditches and curves and turns and the road gets hard. Sometimes we don't know what is to come next and what the future holds. What is around the next corner? How will we know what to do and where to go? How do we know which path is right? Thankfully, we have a Savior who walked this road before and walks with us every step of the way. He never leaves our side and he lights up the path making it easier to see as we press forward and feast on His words. Keep pressing forward and keep progressing on he covenant path. Your work is not done here.This is the shteg of happiness so find joy in the journey despite all the bumps. This is the path that will lead us to eternal life!!! ENJOY IT. I love you!!!!!!!!! Have the most wonderful week!! 

Love, Motra Sëtën

Adriatic South Mission

P.O. Box 2984

Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 

Qendra ALPAS

Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14

Tirana, Albania

PICS: 

1. Us and Uendi! We finally met up! 

2. Cool rock!!!

3. Unë jam Motra Sëtën:) 

4. Pretty view 

5. Me & my "eternal companion" 

6. GOAT 

7. An adventure path!!! 

VIDEOGRAPHERS & DEAD FLIES!!! (MAY 18TH 2020)

HI !! This week was AWESOME POSSUM!!! We had a devotional with Brother John Bytheway and it was wonderful! It was through technology and we had such a great time talking with him! We also were blessed to eat lunch with President and Sister Anderson! They invited us over with some of the other missionaries and feasted together it was so fun! We have seen SOOO MANY MIRACLES THIS WEEK. We now have 3 friends waiting to be baptized and 2 that are working on choosing dates! How exciting!!! The work of the Lord is HASTENING. 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. Albanian water is superrrr bad. A filter is wanted and necessary if you can't buy water!! Just fyi. 

2. When Albanians hang up on the phone they say about 30 goodbyes before ending the call it is so cute! It usually includes a mixture of god bless you, bye, see ya later, goodbye, goodnight, health, goodbye spirit, oh little heart, oh great spirit, god protect you, etc. 

3. Summer in Albania is HOTHOTHOT. I was in Kosovo last year so I haven't experienced this heat and WOWZERS. It gets so hot that Albanians are still wearing long sleeve shirts in 90° weather because they KNOW it gets worse. 

FUNNIES: 

1. One night this week we got home later at night! We turned on the lights to the kitchen and there were all these crumbs or something on the table it was kinda weird. Well, we looked closer and came to find out that they were NOT in fact crumbs. They were DEAD FLYS. And they were everywhere!!! We have no idea where they came from or why they only happened to die where we eat our food but that was super interesting hahaha. 

2. Speaking of nasty things, this week I got SUPER sick. I was not doin so hot! I threw up and had no idea why I got so sick all of the sudden! Well it turns out that our water filter hadn't been changed for awhile... when I say awhile I mean like a VERY long time hahaa. It was completely black and that was ALL going in my system. OOF! That was rough! 

3. This week we had to make some videos for the missionary department. They have been interested to know how we have been doing during quarantine in this part of the world! Well, let me tell you, making videos is scary enough let alone when awesome people are going to watch them. I practiced my hello 8373018 times and still didn't perfect it!!!!! I ended up settling with "hi" and that was it. Hahaha filming was such a funny experience with Sister Long. WE ARE SO BAD AT TECHNOLOGY BUT WE ARE LEARNING:) 

THE GOOD STUFF: 

There are so many unknowns that come in life. So many things in life change and alter our plans and we don't always plan on those things. In fact, it seems as if most things we can't plan! However, I feel as if sometimes the best things in life have come unplanned. They come in the right moments and we are able to grow from each and every one of our experiences. Although everything doesn't always go to plan, there are some things that we can ALWAYS do. One of those things is preparing ourselves. If we prepare ourselves spiritually, regardless of the situation, we can grow and become better people. If we prepare ourselves against the adversary we will be stronger and it will be easier to say no. If we prepare for the Lord's coming we will find joy in the journey and receive blessings for our righteousness. God is more concerned with our growth than with our comfort because he knows the best plan for us and can help us reach our potential. Sometimes it is a lot easier said than done. There are times we feel very far from God for no reason. We can sometimes feel like we are always falling just a little bit short. BUT, Brigham Young said, "The closer you get to God, the more you'll realize you aren't as far as you thought". This thought itswonderful! As we draw nearer to our Father in Heaven we can learn WHO he is and we can learn WHO we are! We find purpose and peace in this life. I love you all so much! Have a FANTASTIC WEEK!!! 

Love, Motra Sëtën

Adriatic South Mission

P.O. Box 2984

Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 

Qendra ALPAS

Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14

Tirana, Albania

FIESTA FIASCOS (MAY 11TH, 2020)

Okokok this week was absolutely wonderfully hysterical. We have had so many amazing experiences and were able to WALK OUTSIDE for quite some time. It was SO COOL. It is the simple things that matter <3 Don't forget that!!! 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. The Albanian language is freaking hard to learn but weirdly enough they don't have tons of different words! For example, the word "kungull" means squash, pumpkin, zucchini, or any other remotely green vegetable thing. 

2. Summer time means it is time to bike!!!!! There are so many bikers out and about it is so great! 

3. Uhh.. this week our neighbors entire balcony was just covered in bread sitting out in the sun! It was already cooked though so we were kinda confused. 

FUNNIES: 

1. Okay this was the funniest thing ever. On Tuesday we were absolutely ecstatic to have a FIESTA for CINCO DE MAYO. We were soooo excited. Things have been closed for so long but they have started to allow take-out food so we thought we would order some mexican food from this ghetto restaurant close by. We could only order over the computer however, so we asked the elders if they would order it for us because we didn't have access to a computer. After an hour of struggling to order ghetto mexican food online the order finally went through and we were excited because at this point it was 2 in the afternoon and we were starving!! When the food delivery guy came we left the house really fast to get our food!! When we came back we realized something... WE HAD THE WRONG KEYS. They were the keys to our old house not our new one. Hhaha it was so bad!! To add some good detail to this story we looked like absolute hooligans. Sister Long didn't bring shoes because she didn't think she would need them and I was wearing socks and sandals and we looked like a HOT MESS. It was super hot so the humidity also made us look like absolute gems. We called the mission office to see if they had an extra key. They did! So we dropped off our fiesta in front of our door (praying it wouldn't get stolen) and then we walked about 30 min to the mission office (looking like complete idiots without our Book of Mormons, shoes, or dignity) and then we walked back home. When we put the key into the lock what happened.... IT DIDN'T WORK. At this point we were so hot and sweaty and miserable but also laughing hysterically about our luck. Sister Long didn't bring her phone and my phone was holding out a good 10% so we quickly called our landlord and made about 10 other calls to 3 seperate people with no success because none of them had spare keys. Finally, we found out that our landlord MIGHT have a key but that he couldn't check for another hour. At this point we had been locked out for 3 hours with barely any battery left and no one on the streets to talk to! We decided this was the prime moment to have a fiesta. So we sat on the stairs eating our sad sad mexican food. ALBANIAN MEXICAN IS NOT GOOD HAHAHA. Between the soggy red rubber churros, the thick gooey and rubber brick of cheese on the enchilada, and the taco on the side of my sour cream it was quite a treat. THIS WAS FINE DINING PEOPLE. Thankfully, the landlord came with a spare key and we made it back safely back into our home with no intention of ever celebrating cinco de mayo or eating Albanian mexican food again. 

2. This week we were blessed to be able to meet with one of our MIRACLES and have a lesson IN PERSON. Technically, we aren't supposed to do that but the work of the Lord must go on. We had an absolutely beautiful lesson outside at the park! About halfway through the lesson while Sister Long was sharing a scripture this random lady came and ripped the Book of Mormon out of Sister Long's hands and went and sat down on the bench next to us to read it! That was the oddest thing HAHA. We were pretty shocked but that was dang funny. Once we finished our lesson we went over to her and had another lesson  what a weird and awesome miracle. 

SPIRITUAL: 

If you aren't going to read this section of my email you can at least take away this lesson: THERE IS POWER IN A NAME AND IN A THANK YOU. 

Many miracles have happened this week, as they often do in the work of the Lord! Two of our miracles came from getting to know our local fruit stand friend and the baker! 1) Last week we were buying some fruit (Albania has the BEST fruit) and we began conversation with our new friend who owns the fruit stand! We thanked him for his kindness and asked him his name. We quickly formed a great relationship and talked to him several times that week. This week he asked us why we were in Albania and we soon found out that we are both believers in Jesus Christ. This led us to sharing with him the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. We shared our testimonies and were inspired to invite him to read it and he eagerly accepted. WHAT A MIRACLE. 2) Earlier this week at the bakery the worker wasn't in the best mood. She seemed bothered and annoyed and absolutely did NOT want to talk to us. After buying our bread, we thanked her sincerely AND SHE SMILED. That was step one. The next day we returned and she still wasn't very happy. While she was cutting our bread I felt inspired to ask her name! She was hesitant and confused but told us her name is Elona. As we were leaving we said, "Thank you Elona!!!!!" And her smile returned, but this time a little brighter! Two days later we went back to the bakery (yes, okay... we love bread) and because I am the way I am I walked in saying, "GOODMORNINGGGGGG ELONAAAAA!!!!!!!!". OH BOY WAS HER SMILE SO BIG. She immediately started talking to us and asking us questions and opening up and truly became our friend! We love Elona! This was a miracle!! 

The reason I share these stories is because there is power in names. Learning the names of those around us and USING them is a simple way to show some love. It shows that you care! It shows that you remember them! It shows that you want to get to know them! Our Savior, Jesus Christ, had many names. All of his names point to His divine being! When we pray we end in the name of JESUS CHRIST and show our love and respect for Him by doing so. He also knows each and everyone of us by name. THAT IS SO POWERFUL. I encourage you all to think about those who serve you. Learn the name of the cashier who sells you your diet coke! Learn the name of the temple worker who guides you through. Learn the names of your neighbors! Learn the name of the waiter/waitress who serves you your food. Learn the names of the new kid/family/or employee. You will start to love and appreciate them once you learn their names and thank them sincerely. After all, we could all use another friend and spread some cheer. As you begin to use their names their lives will be a little brighter!! LOVE YOUUU SOO MUCH! 

Pics:

1. A mexican... fiesta? 

2. Me with a picture of a door that represents one of my fav bands woot woot

3. Me & Long trying to take a good picture HAHA. #Ilovewind

4. The bread? 

5. ALBANIAN SUNSETS ARE MAGICAL 

6. Pretty Albania 

7. Hiking friends 

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU HAH

Well howdy folks!!! HAPPY MAY. This week has been PACKED like a can of sardines with lots of interaction with the other missionaries and some of our friends! It has been a hoot! We had transfers, did some singing together for this project a member has going on, and we had mega zone conference with the whole mission! Mega zone conference wasn't anything too new because we have continued to skype each other daily for doctrinal studies with President Anderson! But it has been a wonderful week full of many many miracles. Not to mention that the SUN IS SHINING AND THINGS ARE LITTLE BY LITTLE OPENING UP IN THE CITY WOO HOO!! 

Culture Shocks: 

1. Albanians often take pride in the cleanliness of their houses because they mop like daily. This is interesting to me because they are definitely not the cleanest people... 

2. Mopeds are super popular here! I swear everyone drives one of those things. 

3. You know you are in Albania when you are in the middle of the city yet your neighbors roosters still wake you up at 5:30 AM ;) 

WONDERFUL & FUNNY LIFE THINGS: 

1. This week we saved a turtle!! It was "turtlly" awesome. Heheh. He was just crossing the road and almost got hit by a car but we saved him and he is doing better now. I love the random animals we see crossing the road here . I've seen goats, cows, chickens (we know what happens when they cross the road), turtles, dogs, cats, porcupines, and many more wonderful lil creatures. How fun!! 

2. We moved into our new house this week and I made a mistake. There were these tablets that looked like vitamins and since we don't have vitamins here I was stoked! I totally ate it and immediately my mouth began to start foaming uncontrollably and I couldn't stop hiccuping or sneezing for a solid 30 minutes HAHAHA. My belly was doing flip-flops and having a freaking hayday! It turns out that one of those tablets was actually one of those caffeinated fizzy things that go in your drink but let me tell ya, those things require like 2 liters of water but instead it just had my saliva and it tried to kill me!! Sister Long couldn't stop laughing at me hahaha not to mention that she decided that she will never ever be giving me caffeine after later experiences that night!!! 

3. Today we threw an Japanese fiesta in honor of quatro de mayo or "may the fourth be with you" otherwise known as "katër maj". It was such a good day!! We ordered over 60$ worth of sushi HAHAHA IT WAS SO MUCH AND SO GOOD. I hope you all do some festing today!! 

THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL: 

I LOVE THE GOSPEL. I LOVE MY HEAVENLY FATHER. I just want to testify of our Father in Heaven. He is real!!! He is OUR Father! And he loves us oh so dearly. It sunk deep in my heart this week that we all are truly sons and daughters of God. What a divine concept. We have unlimited and divine potential to become inheritors of His kingdom. We have divine spirits that were created in the premortal life. He knows us down to our very cores and loves us more than we can even fathom. We don't live aimlessly, not knowing where we have been or where we are headed! Likewise, Heavenly Father didn't create the earth and is now preoccupied unable to hear or answer our prayers. How devestated he must be when we don't trust Him enough to look unto Him in our moments of distress. He created us simply so that we could have joy and He, in turn, helps us find joy EVERYDAY. Some of the happiest times on my mission have come when I have noticed the change in those people who begin to understand that they truly are a beloved son or daughter of God. Understanding this eternal truth inspires, motivates, encourages, and changes our very human nature. Some of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon say, "12 And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true.13 And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" (Alma 5) I encourage you all to ask yourselves these questions and strive to seek out God in your everyday life. He speaks to us. He hears us! And we MUST hear him! What does your relationship with God look like? Or do you even have one? If you don't know where to start you can simply kneel down and thank Him for the many things you have been blessed with. A prayer of gratitude can lead to many miracles. I believe in a loving God of many miracles. Believe in Him as He believes in you!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. HAVE A FANTASTIC, WONDERFUL, SUPER DUPER WEEK! 

Love, Motra Sëtën

Adriatic South Mission

P.O. Box 2984

Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 

Qendra ALPAS

Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14

Tirana, Albania

Pics: 

1. Pretty sunsets <33

2.FRUIT

3. Shqiperia 4lyfe 

4.TURTLE 

5. Oldie pic with some good friends!! 

6. More fruit!!! 

Moving, miracles, and mothering!!!

What an AMAZING week. There are truly so many miracles surrounding us I couldn't be happier. We are currently working with 4 WONDERFUL individuals who all have expressed their desires to be baptized. 2 of them are from part-member families and 2 of them are new people we found:) WHAT A BLESSING. The work of the Lord continues! Hurrah! We also received transfer calls this week! Sister Long and I will be staying together. That is LEGENDARY. By the end of this transfer we will have been together 7 months! How exciting! However, we are moving to a NEW apartment so we are stoked. 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. Albanian stoplights are on the wrong side of the road. If you are ever curious what color the light is we usually have to stick our heads out the car window:) 

2. Cars, motorcycles, and bikes like to park wherever they want! Especially in the middle of the sidewalks 

3. The weekends are for old people!! We are unallowed to leave our houses on the weekends so that all the older people can get out and walk around! 

FUNNY THINGS: 

1. Just to preface, Albania is fairly new to the whole church thing. Most of Albania and Kosovo consist of branches and groups but there are also a few wards. They have such strong testimonies but oh boy do they sure say hilarious things. We had a Sunday lesson with one of the groups (soon to become a branch woot woot) and they were cracking me up. They talked about how not being able to meet for the sacrament was extremely inconvinient so they suggested different ideas. The ideas included drive-thru sacrament, mailing the sacrament, and dropping off the sacrament at a central location as a free for all. Thankfully, they did not settle on these ideas hahahah. Oh man I love them so much. 

2. We are thrilled that we are moving houses this next transfer because suddenly lots of spiders and other creatures have been appearing EVERYWHERE. Either the Lord blessed my eyeballs so that I never saw them before, or it is a GREAT time to move. I think nature is also upset with me because I AM KILLING ALL OF OUR PLANTS. I honestly have no idea why I can't be a plant mother but it is not one of my talents. I will say that mothering books have helped me a lot though lol.

3. Since we are moving and no one is coming into our new apartment we decided to cook up a huge feast with all of our different food that we didn't want to transport. The idea was absolutely perfect. The presentation.... HAHA slightly less than perfect. We had all four of our stove burners on cooking completely different things. It was a circus and Sister Long and I couldn't stop laughing because literally everything went wrong. We thought we could multitask while cooking but hahah NO. On the stove we had rice that was bubbling water over and it was getting everywhere!! Not to mention that the bottom layer was completely burnt HAHA. While that catastrophe was happening we were attempting to "sauté" onions and some other things. Well, let's just say we have now learned what the term means to "sauté" *palm to face*. The mixture of weird ingredients plus my wacko shaking of the pan was quite the sight to see. Meanwhile, we had a tiny pot (we don't have many kitchen appliances hehe) that was simmering some chicken but it was hilarious because the chicken didn't fit in the pot and so it looked SOO BAD. Hahaha then on top of that we had another bowl that was heating up chickpeas so we could make hummus!! Well, the chickpeas started exploding and we were covered in remnants of attempted hawaiian haystacks and hummus. Just for kicks and giggles I have to add the fact that our fridge also began leaking which left water all over the place HAHA. I learned two things here. #1 We are disasters in the kitchen #2 WE MAKE THE BEST HAWAIIAN HAYSTACKS EVER HAHA. They were so good!!! 

SPIRITUAL TIME: 

My mind has wandered a lot to the topic of sacrifice this week. Some of the best lessons I have learned about sacrifice have come from my parents. They never cease to impress me with their sacrifices. They consistently sacrifice their time, talents, and energy for the Lord, our family, and others. I look up to them so much!! We are faced with choices everyday that determine our future, both in this life and the next. As we prioritize our lives and and live in harmony with God's instructions and direction we will be able to see his hand more clearly each day. From the Lectures on Faith it says, "Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, never 

has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation." Our Savior is the perfect exemplifier of sacrifice. However, our part is much easier than that compared to Jesus Christ. He simply asks us to come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits (3 Nephi 9:20) and be willing to love and serve him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength (D&C 59: 5-8). We are not perfect, but we can continually strive for perfection through our daily sacrifices. As you sacrifice your precious time to read your scriptures, pray, do family history work, pay tithing, serve, do missionary work, fast, encourage friends, study, and choose the things of the Lord you will be both temporally and eternally blessed. I am a witness to the miracles that come from sacrifice. I am so thankful for our Savior's great and infinite sacrifice. I love him! AND I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK <3 Big hugs to you all!!!! 

Love, Motra Sëtën

Adriatic South Mission

P.O. Box 2984

Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 

Qendra ALPAS

Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14

Tirana, Albania

Pics: 

1. The strict 

2. Video calls!!

3. A celebration of birth 

4. An oldie but a goodie ft my pal Elder Mene