18 Months in the Adriatic: Week 64

and this awesome and sweet investigator L cut my hair! She wasn't too impressed with what I'd done myself ha. Also that was a very interesting almost-lesson.. testifying about the Book of Mormon in the hair salon.. straining to hear each-other over the sound of hair dryers.. I'll tell you more about that one sometime lol....

This fruit couple was soo cool when we stopped and taught them a thorough Restoration lesson and found out they'd been friends with a senior missionary couple yrs before, and their son was best friends with our 1st counselor and used to always carry his Libri i Momonit with him etc.. but now they're just not interested.. :(

yum I loove the markets here....

Kisha e Jezu Krishtit e shenjtorëve të ditëve të mëvonshme
Hi! ç'KEMI

As usual, our investigator pool changes up quite a bit week-to-week! We aim for daily contact to get everyone progressing towards baptism with our guidance and support, but unfortunately, others' schedules and priorities are a little different than ours. But, that's alright because when we have more time to meet new people, that's that many more people whose lives will be forever changed.

We had some neat/ chill "real-life" lessons. One was at a hair salon with L.. we'd set up an appointment for 5 on Monday.. since we're on P-day schedule that's when our P-day ends, and she told us to meet her (we'd agreed to meet for a lesson) at her salon she works at so we went and chatted about if she'd read while she finished up her client's hair and basically we tried to get our restoration lesson happening but she insisted on touching up my hair I'd chopped off myself so I agreed as long as we still had our lesson after! And if we only talked about church things while she did my hair hahah so basically testified of the restoration as she gave me layers but once she finished she didn't have time for a full lesson since there were people waiting but we squeezed in a nice prayer and 5-min discussion before we left.. didn't count it as a lesson but definitely a step in the right direction and now she "owes" us ha and she is super sweet and for some reason it didn't feel like a frustrating waste of time, but we felt like we gained more of a friendship/ trust with her, and we really did have a great gospel conversation as she chopped away. Still, we prefer getting to people's houses or bringing them up to the church, but in a situation you can't be too picky...

Speaking of which we're still goin strong with the roadside lessons and we've gotten some really great new investigators from the sunflower seed nene I mentioned last week. It's really sad because they're a tiny bit darker skinned (but with bright blue eyes, exotic beautiful, and the little girl looks like a little Indian princess) but a different lady (another nene) we'd met and befriended on the street saw us going to their house and said some terrible racist things and we stayed calm and tried not to act offended and she told us never to talk to her again since we're friends with them... what happened to we're all children of God, and we all have immense personal worth/ divine nature?

Also met with these awesome, sweet, American girls here with Peace Corp (so cool what they're doing btw! And not too different from us, minus the whole religious aspect; we're all trying to serve and make a difference in Albanians' lives) and after chatting throughout dinner, answering questions aka clearing up misconceptions and explaining mormon rumors, we ended up teaching a full-blown restoration lesson and information overload because we ended up mentioning pretty much everything we believe in and stand for, they just had great questions, and anyways one reason that was such a meaningful lesson for me was because I was able to see just how much I've grown in my faith and testimony; a couple years ago if I were in that same situation with friends peppering me with questions about my faith I can guarantee I would not have answered as clearly/ confidently. So that's one huge reason I'm so grateful for my mission; testimony growth and lifelong personal conversion. Two things that are shaping my life forever and I'm so grateful to have figured out what is true and to know for myself without any doubt that I believe these things and am not afraid to tell the world, and act accordingly.

Also I got sick and didn't eat for a day (we stayed in, lame, after an awesome baptism in the morning w the Elders' GOLDEN investigator/recent convert) because my stomach was eating itself so hopefully that helped me get rid of some unwanted (and seemingly unavoidable!) sister missionary pounds. As long as it's not a parasite haha.

Oh man gotta go but want to end with Alma 13:22 (through the end if you'd like to continue reading!) because powerful missionary scriptures! Not trying to call myself an angel haha. ;)

Love you! I dare you to bring up the church with someone new every day this upcoming week! I can assure you that's what I'll be doing ;)

Gjithë të mirat!

<3 lotsa luv, Motra Rajlli :)

this member is so cute and we got her started on Personal Progress! new life goal, complete Perparim Personale ne Shqip (maybe I can get an honor shiqiponja instead of the honor bee? haha)

and had an exchange with my former comp Motra Illajesen.. but instead of tearin it up in Vlore like we'd planned she got suuper sick (and stayed in bed) while I got a free p-day....