It's been quite the splendid week out here in Kosovo!! We've
been busy, busy, busy, and I have been happy, happy, happy. We had a huge party
for Easter on Saturday and it was so fun. There was lots of singing (or
attempts at singing), testimonies, games, dancing, and eggs. The weather is
starting to warm up a bit and we had a BEAUTIFUL Easter Sunday singing songs in
the streets and meeting people everywhere (they are always outside).
CULTURE SHOCKS FOR THE WEEK:
1. Alrighty so Easter traditions here don't really exist
because well, they are almost all Muslim. However, they do color eggs but they
do it WAYYY more symbolically. They dye all of their eggs plain colors and they
dye most of their eggs dark red to symbolize the blood of Christ! But they
don't even really believe in Christ so that's odd....
2. Kosovo and Albania are like one of the biggest coffee
places in the world. There are coffee shops literally on every corner. Out of
tradition though when they like you they just want to take you to "drink a
coffee" so we often times meet at coffee shops hehe.
3. They do not have American foods here HOWEVER we are in
the only place that has REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUPS. What a blessing.
For the laughs:
1. This week we went to visit this pregnant woman at the
hospital who was in the emergency wing because she was having her baby. First
of all, the hospital is very sketchy and I 10/10 do not recommend. So anyways,
we arrived at the hospital and couldn't find this woman anywhere so we asked a
nurse if she could help us. After about 20 minutes of searching she called
someone to help her. After about 5 minutes on the phone she just looked up and
said, "Um yeah. She ran away. " Oh man.... only in Kosovo *shakes
head*
2. Okay so this week we were teaching English course and we
were going over nature words such as tree, flower, dirt, etc,. I wrote up the
word 'bush' and no one in the room could pronounce it correctly it was soo
funny. Finally, after what seemed like 5 min of attempts I said, " Bush.
Like President Bush. You guys have a statue of him?" Suddenly, everyone
was like, "OOOOOHhhhhhh you mean bush!!!" and they totally said it
correctly it was so stinking funny. Man, do they love America here.
3. Our branch president here is simply one of the funniest
people I have ever met. His name is President Teli and he is awesome. First of
all, I can't friend him on Facebook because he has too many followers HAHAHA.
He like totally buys his followers or something he has maxed out on the amount
of friends he can have it's hilarious. Hahah but he said he likes me enough to
unfriend someone and add me. What an honor.
Spiritual:
1. The Elders had this investigator named Teuta who came to
church but afterwards, said she didn't feel like reading or praying to find out
the truth for herself. The Elders told us we could meet with her to see if we
could reach her in a different way. We met up and had the most amazing lesson
and afterwards she said that she would read!!! She also kept telling us how
what we said was exactly what she needed it was so cute. So then this week she
went to her family's house in Gjakova (another city) and she ACTUALLY WENT TO
CHURCH ON HER OWN!! At church she met the senior couple serving there and since
they both know German they were able to meet together and eat dinner together
and she said she has never felt so loved by so many people in different places.
It was so cool to see how many different people, in different places, played a
role in helping Teuta develop her faith!! Ahh how cool.
2. At church this week pretty much everyone was out of town
lol. There were like maybe 10 people at church but it was still so beautiful.
There were 2 members from the military who came to church and it was so powerful.
They were in their military clothes with their guns and stuff passing the
sacrament and I just had so much respect for those officers making the effort
to go to church. Wow.
3. There is this member in our branch who is a rockstar. Her
testimony is rock solid and she is just so cool. However, her home life is
almost unbearable. Her parents one time caught her reading The Book of Mormon
and they physically abused her. She can only make it to church every once in
awhile so that her parents don't know. We have to be very careful not to get
involved in anything because it can be very dangerous. However, this girl is
the biggest example to me. She constantly is finding ways to read, pray, and
worship on her own and she's even preparing to serve a mission once she can
finally leave home. The dedication she has to her Savior is so miraculous. My
testimony grows each and everyday because of these humble disciples of Christ
who are serving throughout these nations.
LOVE YOU ALL KEEP SMILING OKAY!!!!
Love, Motra Sëtën
Adriatic South Mission
P.O. Box 2984
Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta
Qendra ALPAS
Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14
Tirana, Albania
Us and our friend Klaudia who is so awesome, Cutie Dalfina
and me painting eggs, beautiful Kosovo, some members we're teaching, me and
Elsa!!!!! (p.s. sorry they're probably all out of order lol)
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