CARVIN CUCUMBERS

Hello hello!! We are another week closer to Halloween and boy oh boy are we getting spooked and excited up here in Kosovo!! This week was SUPER awesome!! It is started to get chilly here so we love that! The weather here is quite a bit like Utah. I love it! 

CULTURE SHOCKS: 

1. Albanian's NEVER stop talking. You are lucky if you can get in a word sometimes hahah they are dang hilarious and oh so cute. My talkative personality helps me feel right at home ;) 

2. Here is a stereotype but Albanian's generally are not very creative... their drawings, dreams, and life goals are literally all the same. 

3. I keep getting asked this question so I will answer here for you all :) because they are typically very Muslim here there are tons of people who wear the coverings on their heads but typically those are the more "dedicated" persons so we typically don't teach them. They usually are more extremist if they are covered (except for their eye slits) or if the men have longer distinct beards. 

GOOFS, GIGGLES, AND OH NO

1. So this week I decided to make some scrumptious spicy tacos because why not. We made these tacos and I accidentally made them a little TOO spicy lol which wouldn't have been a problem if our water didn't turn off that day!! After we had started cooking our water turned off so we couldn't wash our hands from the spicy peppers and we didn't have much else to wash down our throats!! We were dying!! Hahaha we were running frozen berries all over our hands and lips to try and cool them down but nope. 

2. This week we had the opportunity to watch this awesome religion forum thing and it was awesome learning about the behind the scenes of major religions here in our mission! The forum was in Greece so we had it broad casted here but our wifi is really really bad so it kept cutting out! We were watching it with our cute senior couple from Austria, the Lerchners. For some reason every time the broadcast would cut out a swimsuit competition would show up on the screen as the "coming up next". He was getting so frustrated and yelling in German because half of our broadcast was learning about who was going to win Miss Kosovo's swimsuit competition. Hahaha jkjkjk. It was pretty funny to watch him though. 

3. So I mentioned above that Albanian's aren't that creative. Well this week I was teaching English Course and something happened where I had to actually teach English course by myself. So we were gonna have some fun. I was explaining about a "bucket list" and I have never seen more confused people in my life. I asked them for things they wanted to do before they died and they FREAKED OUT and were like WE DO NOT WANT TO DIE. That took some explaining hahah. I started writing a bunch of creative ideas of "bucket list" items and they thought I was absolutely crazy. What kind of crazy person jumps out of a plane???? When I asked them what their CRAZIEST dreams were before they died they said things like, "get married", "never go to the hospital", and "get a job" lol. They aren't very creative here. So time goes on class and I started explaining about the human body and all the different body parts. My cute friend in the class wanted to know the word for "butt" but I had no idea what she was saying because she was sooo quiet. So she comes up to the front of the class and says "THIS" AND SMACKS MY BUTT SO HARD. Hahaha wow. That is why we teach in 2s people ;) 

** Fun language mistake: I tried to explain carving pumpkins (kungull) to my english course friends. Little did I know that I was telling them to carve a trangull (cucumber) for about 15 min...

THE GOOD STUFF: 

There is something special about the way Christ loves. His love is never ending, all encompassing, and unbelievably perfect. I have seen this in my time here as a missionary in Kosovo. I have truly felt his love and seen his love through the actions of other people. These people have unconditional love here and are such good examples of showing their love. There are sometimes hard days but these members and friends I have made here take all the hard away. They are the definition of Christ-like love. Their love overwhelms you and surrounds you. They never fail to introduce themselves to new people, offer to help, reach out in love, invite friends, and express their gratitude for you. It is easy to say "we should have more Christ-like love!" and another thing to do it! We need to LOVE MORE. LOVE SOOOO MUCH MORE. LOVE WITH YOUR WHOLE HEARTS. When we love the way Christ loves we will BE SO HAPPY. As Moroni 7: 46 says, if you don't have charity you are nothing. SHOW SOME LOVE THIS WEEK. DO SOME SERVICE. THROW IN AN EXTRA HUG. You can never have too much love!!!! 

I love you all so much!! Pray for miracles and be happy this week!!! 

Love, Motra Sëtën

Adriatic South Mission

P.O. Box 2984

Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta 

Qendra ALPAS

Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14

Tirana, Albania

Photos: Me and my bestie girls, my best friend and his AMERICAN FLAG THAT HE BEGGED FOR, cute comp and punkins, cute friend and his first talk in sacrament meeting!