Week 26 - Kosovo

I've had the best comps everrr  - love this crazy Chilean 

(everrr=also Motrat Cheshire dhe Zollinger of course hehe) 

bukë e kripë e një zemër të bardhë ♫

Mirëdita Ju, qysh po kaloni? 

Happy P-day ;)

As you saw from a couple pics, we have a new apt! So good thing I'm training because that means an extra hour of comp. study which means an extra hour in our cozy and spacious new place with a sweet view. (I love living downtown in this cool city, I love our balcony.) ☼ 

Anyways...

this past week was great of course, because I'm in Prishtinë, as a missionary, but rejection after rejection got me thinking more about what I can do to strengthen this area and branch and make a difference (rather than just pass time "serving" here) and just got me thinking about what the heck I can do to be a more effective missionary and be able to share this gospel message that's helped me in so many ways. Forget baptisms or numbers, I'm saying just listen, give it a chance. If people would only open their hearts and let themselves believe. My trainee and I (she's AMAZING, by the way.. did I mention?) had similar thoughts on the matter which led to some amazing discussions..defining faith, testimonies, purpose of missions, and LIFE of course etc., ya know. I think that's my favorite part of serving with a companion.. besides all the laughs and stories (& let's be real, patience-building experiences..jk, not with this one!) etc., learning from each-other is such a blessing. "When the way you look at things changes, the things you look at change." All about the perspective, right?

Had some miracle moments while tracting and met some great people who we're excited to follow up on, and also weeded out some not-as-interested potentials and I'm constantly reminded of how much our members here sacrifice and they are just amazing and such examples.

I love my mission. Yes, I love this city and the streets and cafes and cozy apt. we live in and fun friends we meet and activities we get to help with and perfect weather etc. but mostly I love the chance to testify of Jesus Christ and his gospel because teaching solidifies what you know and even better, seeing this message impact people is what really makes it so great. 

3Nefi 11: 37-38 (repeat for emphasis) and 41! Simple and to-the-point. 

(37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.

41 Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth.)

Love ya guys! Ju uroj një javë e bukur, fare. 

<3 Motra Rajlli :) 

ps looks like you liked the package hehe nice blog post shoutout and motra ariza got tons of email from family friends haha so thanks for getting her some penpals ;) 

 made this house a home :) hah lemme tell ya, looks a lot different than when the elders left it.. 

hahah not fast enough 

 

 huge thanks to everyone who ever wrote me a card because they brighten my day every time I glance at this wall :) 

hahah our friends at albi market lent us a cart to move some stuff.. got some weird looks in the elevator lol

so cool right?! check out these languages! the Arabic one's my fave. (good thing people here love reading books of scripture in Arabic.. worth a try right?)

 explored the inside of this abandoned orthodox church last p-day.. motra ariza and i trade off picking what we do on p-day and that's what she chose! 

cool old buildings=flashback to all the castles we went to in England and Deutschland 

and end of p-day, aboutta go teach fhe which was soo fun aka got to belt out "let it go" w 6-yo A 

we love all the Kafes... yeah our work here is emotionally and physically exhausting, but with 50cent herbal tea at nice cafes with perfect weather it's hard to complain! 

 besa! our friend/potential investigator, came to conf. w her boyfriend who is here with the army, and an awesome member here, brother G, (who is also here with the US army) invites them to church and activities 

 haha we bought RayBans for 1 euro! and the next day we were told we're not allowed to wear sunglasses? oh well, #souvenir #notknockoff 

 SWEET view from tracting (elevator was broken.. 8 flights of stairs=leg workout) 

 

check out this cool (sketchy, broken) elevator

 and of course had a little photoshoot 

 

this graffiti says "the Albanian religion is...ISLAM" 

Week 25 - Kosovo

 a xhami a day keeps the missionaries away..

 white handbook: page 41, paragraph 1 

("Respect the culture, customs, traditions, religious beliefs and practices, and sacred sites in the area where you serve. Do not proselyte at or near the houses of worship of other faiths.")

  me çikat elbasanit! 

from my exchange w sister pierce who is being trained by sis davis in gjakove. she is soo good at the language wow! and she totally read my blog haha so special shoutout to her ;)  

 oh these are old haha but Kosovo Pridee! one day they'll make it in the world cup and I will have an excuse to wear all this:) ps like our nice apt.? we're moving in less than a week because getting a SENIOR COUPLE <3 gonna have parents :) <3 and they're moving into our place 

 more Prizren....

look it's me and my hubby in 50yrs <3 

 she's a cutie, and nice view right?! Prizreni <3 

merica <3 

Urime dita e Përgatitjes

Miredita Familja. <3 I hope you got my usual 47358902938 pics mom, happy Monday ;)

Si keni kalu?? Doing so great here në Kosovë. Even with the usual cancelled lessons and fikëd phone calls and cancelled baptismal dates, it's hard to get discouraged when the weather is perfect and every day there are incredible new people we bump into and mention the gospel to.

I love tracting. We've been doing a lot more of knocking on doors this transfer, and it's great because then we know where people live if they ignore our calls, and we're also more likely to get on-the-spot lessons! We had two awesome ones. Kind, interested, ready-to-accept-the gospel people. One was an older lady who was leaving to Maqedoni for the weekend and eagerly took a Libri i Mormonit to read on the bus ride and we'll discuss what she's read when she's back in-town tomorrow. 

We also got invited in by a sweet teen girl Josh's age (she was so cute and smart! totally wanna set them up and she speaks perfect English, and German) and her mom who spoke Deutsch and loved chatting it with me because she lived near Stuttgart (! <3) for 13 years but the house we visited them in was just a relative's and they said they're super busy and live on the outskirts of the city (not a problem for us! give us an address, we'll be there..) so we couldn't get a return appt. w them but they were awesome.

And one day we went to a completely new side of town and met 3 1st-yr college girls studying architecture, which was my comp's 1st major, and they were Muslim but very open to discuss (Plan of Salvation, fave to talk about, and Book of Mormon) so I'm excited to see where things go with them.

Also some investigators from last transfer who love the church but are chatty and distracted so it's hard to focus on a lesson, but they're so sweet, we came to their apt. and they invited four friends and we taught Plani i Shpetimit and they LOVED it, esp. the fact that there are 3 kingdoms, not just heaven and hell like they were taught but more middle ground, and we went back later to teach a roommate who was out of town the first time and one of the girls remembered what she'd learned so kinda helped us teach, so cool. They're amazing and LOVE the gospel and everything we teach them so far.. just a few big lifestyle changes and they may be the future of Prishtina's relief society. :) We'll go over word of wisdom and law of chastity soon... 

F, who's been on bap. date for a while but always soo busy w work so teaching her is a rare and slow process.. yesterday met with her after church and turns out coffee is a big problem. To put ourselves in her shoes a little, Motra Ariza had the great idea to give up something this week i.e. soda for her (she LOVES her soda..) and I'm not gonna snack at night (something I want to avoid anyways so not as much of a sacrifice for me oops).. the elders thought I should eat meat to truly empathize/ do hard things lolol nope.

Yeah, so many miracles this past week, WOW. This transfer's been amazing. It just keeps getting better, I swear. Oh and also soo fun visiting Bondstill and talking to some cool U.S. soldiers there (thought of you dad!! same uniform/workout clothes) and some of them came and ate with us and we invited one nice very Christian guy to our institute lesson us sisters were teaching, but he had to leave early.

Something we've been doing as a companionship is talking to EVERYONE and handing out our #sepseaijeton cards to everyone that passes us ha and it's awesome and forces us to get out of our comfort zones/not be shy/not care what anyone thinks and it's been cool to see the reactions and interest of people we wouldn't expect. Ya never know! 

Also, thanks SO MUCH for every little note/email/ words of encouragement and love.. y'all have no idea what a boost it is to be reminded that I have support and prayers back home, because sometimes the people I meet here are a little less eager to make me feel good about my efforts. :) So really, faleminderit, secili!! (Thanks, everyone!)

JU DUA, KLM <3 <3 <3 <3 

Motra Rajlli ;) 

oh and been reading through the New Testament and there's soo much good stuff but a couple verses I especially liked and took note of are : Matthew 6:34~ take ye therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof and also  Jesus preaching/reminding; they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick (Luke 5:31 but also beginning of Matthew) 

  best part about wearing pants=handstands 4 dayz 

 zone leaders lol 

 when in Rome... 

jumping pics! where's juliana when I need her ;)   /    & m.a. in ferizaj again

  and my city! shpia e bukur <3 

isn't this place amazing? my pics don't do the beautiful downtown justice. why does everyone wanna get out of Kosovo? It's so cool here. 

we love finding cozy cafes and bringing our books to squeeze in some extra studies (and CHAT) while sipping caj mali 

M. Ariza in Ferizaj

 

 Ferizaj!  /  my baby! ;)

 I guess in Chile the missionaries call it "killing" a building when they've knocked on every door, so our motto is KILL PRISHTINA (=knock on every door.. ) 

 ha soo tired but we are still enjoying the st patty's day package :) and do i look like eliza or what these days?? so weird. maybe it's the hair? 

 

motra wasn't as excited about 5am email time