Oh Familja Ime! Ç'bëni!? Më ka marrë malli për ju të gjithë! Ditë Falëndërimi ishte një kenaqësi! Ok, that's enough. I said, "Oh my family! What's up!? I miss you! Thanksgiving was a pleasure!" I got a good email this week! Siguroni vetët tuaj!
E Hënë- So Elder Jaunay and I have a bad habit of not being very well planned for P-day. At 6 p.m. every p-day, we resume our normal proselyting work, and recently, we've been a little rough at that! But last week we were blessed, and got to go to the home of a less active! And we played Uno and had a surprise very Albanian dinner, and by that I mean we had kos, which is yogurt, but more sour, some cabbage salad that was swimming in this oil/water mixture, french fries, which Shqiptar have at dinner like all the time, pastiçëri which is like this pasta thing with cheese that's kind of like lasagna, but not with the red sauce like lasagna, and qofte which is sausage! Whew. It was good. I actually didn't have any kos. It's too sour for me. We're looking forward to meeting with them some more! They're an awesome family :)
E Martë- We had district meeting, and filmed part of a skit we were making for our Thanksgiving party! It was about some of the funny stuff that has happened in our district, because we're all really new in Shqiperia still! We have 2 sisters and us in our district, and about 3 weeks ago, there used to be 3 sisters here. One was the trainer, and 2 brand new missionaries like me. Haha but 3 weeks ago, the trainer just got transfered because another sister finished her mission! The 2 brand new sisters were left to train each other! Ha! And then my trainer, Elder Jaunay is in his second transfer, making our district the most "new" district in the mission! Haha, so a lot of funny things can happen because of that! Also, I was studying family history and temples and I had this really cool thought. I wrote this in my planner, "This work isn't only for one person that will be baptized, but for her ancestors, her children, until eternity. Wow." It's true. Think about what kind of possibilities are opened up for work in the temple if one person is baptized. Hundreds or thousands of people now have a greater likelihood of receiving the restored gospel, or of receiving the essential ordinances needed to enter the Celestial Kingdom. How incredible is that!? It was a cool thought to have. It encouraged me to talk to more people and work harder, because there's a whole lot of people on the other side hoping that I will talk to their descendants. I know it. Also, that night, we went and watched the Restoration film with Aden's family, and it was sweet! His dad seems really interested, but his mom isn't too keen of the idea of having more lessons. We're hoping to teach the Plan of Salvation, and that his dad will be touched with the hope we can have in the Resurrection. Right now, he can't see out of his right eye, and he can't see very well out his left, so I was thinking it would be so cool to teach that his body will be restored to perfection in the life following. I'll let ya know what goes on with them this week!
E Mërkurë- We worked on our stinkin' video all day! Then we had dinner with Familja Pina, the first counselor in the bishopric here! They're so awesome! He loves joking around, and he even knows english! One thing you should know about Shqiptar is that they love teasing and joking around! Brother Pina is exactly like that. Awesome family. That morning during study however, I had a great study! I was in Alma 37:36-44. It was incredible, because, I have wanted to improve my prayers, and read the Book of Mormon more lately so that I can be inspired, and use the daily inspiration I receive from the Spirit in my missionary work! It talks about how the Book of Mormon is like the Liahona, because it simply and clearly leads to "eternal bliss." That's why i want to read the Book of Mormon every chance I get! I love the Book of Mormon. I told Claire before, that when I read the Book of Mormon in Shqip, it's like I'm reading it for the first time, because some words have different connotations for me than the translation from English, so I get a different insight on like the entire Book of Mormon! It's so cool. If you know another language, or even if you don't, try reading the Book of Mormon in another language, and I bet the same thing will happen!
E Enjtë (Ditë Falëndërimi "Falëminderit Day")- It was Elder Jaunay's first Thanksgiving! Ha! It was great! We ate a kind of classic Thanksgiving meal with turkey and mashed potatoes and peas, and stuffing, and corn, and carrots! It was awesome! And the whole mission was there, including Elder Gardiner my MTC companion, who I had really missed! It was great though! We watched our skit, and people liked it, and we also got to hear the departing testimonies of some missionaries, and we had a little presentation about the Christmas initiative! Have you heard about that yet? It's like last year's "Because He Lives" thing. This year is "Light the World." Here's the URL: https://www.mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world?play=hero I'm way excited for it! It's got an activity we can to each day leading up to Christmas to encourage us to share our light! I would challenge each of you also to watch that video, and listen to the feelings you have, and decide how you will share your light this year. I'm excited for it :) also, I got my package! Ah man, and I'm loving the Sour Patch Kids and fruit roll ups right now! I'm saving the other stuff for later! I read all your letters also, and they made me smile, laugh, cry, and love you all even more! Tell Grandma, especially, that I loved her letter, and I cried a little bit, and I will try to write her a letter also! I love you Grandma!
E Premtë/E Shtunë- There was a baptism in Durres of a girl from Shkoder which is about 45 minutes from Durrës, and it was incredible. It was the first one I've seen in my mission, and it was so cool to see one again after teaching about it. She came out of the water, and after a second, she was just incredibly happy! The Spirit was palpable in that room, and it was so cool to see the "end" result of missionary work!
E Dielë- So we've been doing more work with Less-Active members lately, because in Durrës, we have maybe 300+ members in the directory, and only about 70 are active! We're trying to get 800 as a stake before Christmas. We were searching for a family, and a cool thing happened. This is the message I sent to President Weidmann today: This week was great! We've been working hard to meet with some more families that are less active. We searched for maybe 4 hours for this one family, and we had an interesting experience at the end of our searching. We said a prayer, and immediately after, we asked a woman if she knew where their apartment building was, and she said, "That's my apartment building." My jaw dropped, and I felt like I was floating. It was incredible. The only thing is that it wasn't actually her building. She thought we said building 996, but we said 696. I was a little bit crushed. I felt so incredible the moment she said it was her building, and I almost couldn't believe what had happened, because it truly was a miracle. I felt a confirmation that miracles are real. They can happen. With the prayer of faith, miracles can happen. I felt it was true. I believed it. However, when she told us that it wasn't actually the correct building, I had this thought, "If it had been the correct building, you would have believed." And it was true. If it had been building 696, I would have definitely believed in miracles. It was not building 696, but I still felt a confirmation from the Spirit that miracles happen. For me, it was still worth it. I believe in miracles. I will exercise faith in my Heavenly Father, and I have faith that I will see more miracles in this work as I do so.\ I can testify that God will teach us the things He wants us to learn if we allow it, and seek to learn from all situations. Even though we searched for 4 hours, it wasn't fruitless.
Today was actually really different from most P-days! We woke up at 6 this morning and ran to the sea shore, and then waited to watch the sunrise! Which we didn't actually end up seeing. But it was raining lightly, and we were running in the rain and there was nobody outside, and it was still dark, and it was so beautiful! Haha but after that, we went and got Byrek and a croissant for breakfast, and it was so good. Anyways, fam. I love you all so much! I told Dad before that I feel like the things that should be happening to me as a missionary, and as a maturing adult are happening! I'm understanding people better, I feel like I'm growing closer to the Savior little by little, and I feel like I'm doing the Lord's work, and I love it :) Be sure to take pictures of you all! Also, how are Sister Kirby, Taya, and Sidney? Will you say hi to them for me, and let I'm know I miss 'em? Love you!
Elder Shnajdër
No comments:
Post a Comment