a mujna mu taku hala..??
(the subject is gheg for, "can we still
meet with you?".. in tosk it would be, "a mund të takohemi
akoma?"... oh speaking of email subjects, funny that I mentioned 'clean
eating' last week when tbh I've probz been the farthest from clean eating this
past wk with trying new Kosovo foods and slowly becoming not 100% strict vegan
but we'll see ha and def. still veggie. but just thought I should mention that
so I don't feel like a hypocrite hahah). Anywayzz
Mirë Dita, ç'arë
bona, Prindërit?
Së pari...(don't worry not tryna write it all
in Shqip), we have two new investigators!! In case ya don't realize what a big
deal this is for us, lemme tell you about our week up until Friday. :)
Ever since I'd been out (a week lol), EVERY
single lesson fell through, besides visits with ward members and recent
converts. It's uncommon for people to stop and talk to us, let alone give us
their numbers, let alone actually answer their phones when we call, let alone
have time to meet with us. This past week we had over ten lessons set up, with
new contacts from the Boulevard we find at every evening. Every. single. one.
cancelled on us or just never showed up, and it was discouraging and
frustrating. We were working hard; staying out in the freezing cold when
we were tempted to take breaks and go back to the church to warm up; ignoring
rude comments and creepy çuns ( çun=boy; guys here remind me of
wolves b/c they travel in packs and just stare with their beady little eyes)
and xhaxhis (=uncle, or old man...i.e. the other day one wouldn't let go of my
comp's hand instead of just shaking it, and pinched her cheek and tried to find
out where we live ew and when he went to shake my hand I pulled my hand away so
he was just holding my glove... but btw the Elders are usually close-by when
we're kontakt në rrugë at night so we feel pretty safe) and mostly just putting
so much effort into trying to meet people and share our message; it really is
exhausting emotionally as well as physically. We were both feeling a little
down, but at the same time things happened that showed us that our efforts were
not in vain; we are doing so much more good than we can see, and honestly we
never know how much a simple friendly conversation and encouraging
pass-along-card can do. Some more men we met on the street and referred to the
Elders turned out to be some quality investigators, and two of the men I had
met and referred were so excited about this church that they brought along
friends to their lessons, who seemed to be equally interested. We work a lot
with recent converts which I love; I think it is so important to build up the
branch we already have.
On Friday, during our marathon weekly-planning
sesh, Motra Zallënxhër and I reflected on our week and our efforts and decided
that we would be positive and upbeat and as hard-working as ever no matter what
(one complaint=hold your breath for 10s haha whatev works), and after this
resolution, we were especially friendly and happy while street contacting that
afternoon, and we met N & V! Two girls our age (18 & 20) who go to
school here in Pristina but live in another city. They had some time then and
there, so we ended up going up to the church and having an impromptu lesson, it
was great! They are Muslim, as usual, but V seemed very interested in what we
were teaching and offered a beautiful closing prayer (I said opening!), and N liked the
similarities with things she already believed in i.e. prayer is communicating
with God, definition of a prophet, etc. We gave them each a Book of Mormon and will meet again this
afternoon, so we'll see how that goes!
Meeting with these two sweet and sincere girls
was definitely the highlight of my week. We also had a referral from the
elders, S, come to church with us. She had spent a year in Cali as an exchange
student so she had lots of questions on common misconceptions i.e. plural
marriage, garments, etc. and she seemed bothered by the fact that
we separated for classes (relief society and priesthood) after
sacrament meeting b/c she is kind of a feminist so I gave her a copy of the
Family: Proclamation to the World before she had to leave in a hurry, but it
was awesome that she came to church, and had researched us (we gave her the
church's websites and explained to her that it is always best when researching
a religion, to read stuff written by people who actually belong to and believe
in it).
Some other highlights of my week were teaching
English course, which I love (it's pretty different than the immersion
kindergarten class I had in Russia
Oh and there are these sweet identical twin
girls our age who come to English class but are soo busy because of
school/exams/etc. (they're both studying music, and were surprised when I told
them my twin and I are studying different things and go to different schools
ha!) They are sweethearts and we hope to have a lesson with them if they can
ever make time! They loved seeing the pic. of me and Eliza (grad.
announcement).
We had zone conference, which was so fun, I
loved it. Actually I played piano for it, good thing I have about 4 go-to hymns
if anyone ever needs a pianist.. tryna add more to the list;) The zone leaders
are in our district and I really liked some of their advice, i.e. only speak
Shqip when we're outside, out of respect for the people as well as way good
practice for us, and also reminding us not to say that we are serving in a
"hard area", because every mission is hard (and I am sure that's
true, and also every mission has quality truth-seekers who are ready to be
taught now...no matter how Muslim they may say they are when we first meet)
and we got Thai food after, yum, and it was just really fun to talk to/meet the
missionaries from Gjakova and Maqedoni.
Well, I'm sure there are lots of other things
to mention but this'll do for now! Write me! ;) Love you! Read Alma
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