Holyyyyy guacamole it is almost CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I hope you
all had a rockin' week! This week was pretty crazy for us out here. I found out
that I am being transferred to Tirana, the capital of Albania!! I am going to
be companions with a newer missionary named Sister Long:) We are going to be
"whitewashing" an area in Tirana and are going to be the only area
with just sisters! Crazy! I'm not worried about getting lost though... I mean
you all know me... I'm a rockstar with my directions;) It has been hard saying
goodbye to the wonderful people in Korça. In such a short time we have seen
CRAZY MIRACLES, had tons of baptisms, and made lasting relationships. Saying
goodbyes are so hard :'( However, I AM SO EXCITED. There are so many more
adventures to come.
Culture Shocks:
1. On Christmas Eve Albanians have this cool tradition where
they will go from door to door and drop off little treats for people :) THEY
LOVE IT.
2. When we ask people what religion they are they usually
tell us that they are both Muslim and Orthodox (meaning that their mom and dad
are different religions). Religion and nationality often get mixed up
here.
3. Albanians are terrified of water. They are afraid of
swimming and sometimes even baptism. Also fun fact: they call ice skating
"skiing on ice".
FUNNY THINGS:
1. This week we decided to paint these pumpkins and use them
as decorations. We couldn't find any paint anywhere! One day we were cleaning
our apartment and found some wall paint! We set up a good little area and then
went crazy painting these pumpkins. As I went to wash the paint off my hands I
wasn't paying attention and then BOOM my entire hands and arms were COVERED in
paint. The paint just spread its way over my hands and made them GLOWING WHITE
HAHA. I tried scrubbing them for like 30 minutes and it never came off it only
got worse lol. We tried using lemon juice and all other sorts of concoctions
but I spent the night covered in white wall paint. Finally, we found out an
Albanian tip. USE OLIVE OIL. The olive oil helped me out in just 10
minutes:)
2. The people of Korça sure have unique traditions when it
comes to food. This week we really wanted to try one of the most popular foods
here... goat head!!! Yummmmmmyyyyyy.The photo is attached below... let's just
say that I was not expecting a literal goat head on the plate. Goat brains are
so scrumptious (not).
3. We had the FUNNEST Saturday ever! It started with us
playing soccer with a bunch of our cute friends. I love learning Albanian
futbol slang it is awesome. All the cute little boys made fun of me because I
was a girl until my team kicked their butts 8-2 ;) After playing soccer we were
going to have a fun service activity by giving people free hot chocolate in the
road! We went to go make the hot chocolate and realized that we had no way to
transport the hot chocolate over to the designated spot... hahaha we spilled it
EVERYWHERE. It was still awesome though. TONS of people came over and we met
TONS of new people! I even met people that live in my new area!!! What a
miracle. Our service project then turned into a dance party which surely made
for a fun time and got lots of people excited for the Christmas party they will
have this week:) #dancecontacting
Spiritual Thought:
I am so thankful for the amazing people I have met in Korça
and for their love and examples that they are for me. They have taught me so
much! It is so amazing how much they have learned in such little time. I have
come to learn a big concept in my life. When we follow our Savior we cannot
fall. No matter how smart, how tall, how old, or how much money we have we are
all the same, and we are all learning!! Constantly! We are promised that as we
continue to follow the example of our Savior that we can have even MORE
blessings, even MORE happiness, and even MORE miracles; but, sometimes it is
easy to fall back into the world. Satan is smart, and he knows how to get us!!
I picture it like this... Satan doesn't tell us to jump off cliffs because that
would be too obvious! We would never do that. However, Satan will place slides,
and hills, and other things in our path that will slowly but surely get us off
the path if we are not careful. We can all continue on the road that leads to
our Heavenly Father when we do the small and simple things each day:) Jesus
Christ has showed us the way. As we constantly learn, live, and walk as Christ
did we will find him. I love my Savior. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I love you
all!!!! Be happy and find Christ in CHRIST-MAS and have a fan-freaking-tastic
week!!!!<3
Love,
Motra Sëtën
Adriatic
South Mission
P.O.
Box 2984
Bulevardi
Gjergj Fishta
Qendra
ALPAS
Shkalla
NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14
Tirana,
Albania
Pics: HOT CHOCOLATE GANG, futbol friends (2), goat head,
cute hat that Elder Linton gave us for Christmas, my cute friend Edmond, cute
fam I will miss very much
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