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