these two are amaazing <3
oh and this scarf is from (and hand-crocheted by!) L
Gëzuar ditën e verës! pijëd a çaj mali with our awesome friends L and J (mother and daughter)
darka kosovare haha (they're actually from Peja! ya represent)
and just in cased you missed my food+scenery pics ;)
Hej, gëzuar ditën e verës!! GëZUAR
Amazing week, so much I could try to tell you about but there's no way I'd do any of it justice. So let me just say that God is our heavenly father who loves us so much and blesses us and sent his son Jesus Christ to make it possible for us to repent of our sins (aleluja!) and His hand guides our lives, especially when it comes to the ever-important work of salvation aka punë misionare... I am so grateful to be one of his set-apart servants, esp. here in Lushnjë because this place is so great <3 (and never a dull moment..!) My comp. has been sick :/ but between telling her "të shkuara" and drinking tylohot we still managed to have wonderful lessons and cool testifying experiences shyqyr.
I've been reading through Doctrine & Covenants (cover-to-cover, mënëfund, më mirë vonë se kurrë eh?) which of course is a spiritually uplifting experience, and of course I love the powerful missionary verses, such as 28:16 & 29:4.
Yesterday was a bittersweet lesson with the S family, the ones who live half an hour away on top of a hill in a little stone shack with a tarp roof, who get so excited to pray and read together, but unfortunately haven't been in church, so although they're making great progress with their personal reading, we told them we won't be able to keep going over there until they do their part and come to church on Sunday. Turns out, the oldest brother, L, who has been in church before, came all the way to Lushnjë but wasn't able to find our church bldg. and didn't have lek on his phone to call us.. anyways he and the two other "progressing" (not key-indicator-wise, but testimony-wise) boys, V and F promised us they'll be there next week.
Anyways, this family is amazing, first of all because of their sweet and sincere prayers and the fact that the ones who know how to read, read form Libri i Mormonit every day and mark their favorite parts,, but also because they're just so kind and loving and selfless! Typical incomparable Albanian generosity. They had more wildflower bouquets for us, as well as piles of presents- little knick-knacks and old jewelry they'd wrapped up with paper and yarn and were so excited for us to open.. Man, those kids have my heart. And their parents are amazing. Very supportive and understand well.. it's just such an unfortunate situation to live so far away with a weak economic situation.
But back inside the city, where we are really focusing our efforts, the work is going very well, and it is so rewarding to see our branch improving and thriving. L is still awesome, and her brother still won't "allow" her to get baptized til she's 18. So pray for him to soften his heart. Our members are amazing, and their examples of sacrifice and dutiful service are gonna stick with me for the rest of my life.
I hope you all have a chance to see the new Easter video! You'll feel the spirit more if you watch it in Albanian: NdiqeniAtë.mormon.org
E di se është #përshkaktëtij dhe #sepseaijeton që mund ta #ndjekimatë dhe gjejmë një jetë të re #aleluja
JU PëRQAFOJ
<3 Madi
oh some more cool things we had this past week were Book of Mormon club which we started,to read together and discuss and BRING FRIENDS and,being a sister missionary I baked cookies,so everyone's eager to bring their friends next week lol. Also out in the villages they love to know our first names which we learned to avoid sharing because then that's all we're referred to as, but yesterday going to the S's, walking the dirt path up to their house, one of the kids called out (thick Albanian accent patjetër), "Meddy Wrillyy! erdhi" haha one of the highlights of my mission.
Oh and coolest lesson ever haha, at the Jeshili's.. the elders were with us because there was a slight change of plans so we made sure to incorporate them in our lesson and ended up having them act out the story of the brother of Jared/ the Lord's finger touching the stones, while E read the story from the picture reader. It was a hit, the kids absolutely loved it, always fun when you make the scriptures come to life. We're thinking of acting out Ammon or Abinadi next time..jk. And our branch choir is doing well, we have way more men, the first time I've seen a 5:1 male:female ratio in a church choir lol but it's great!
Sis Bennett is so great! (exchange)
We decorated an empty cigarette box with pictures of Christ and rolled up pieces of paper with motivational scriptures written on them for our friend, L, who is working on stopping duhan completely
Sis Peters has been sick, which means plenty of cooking (and extra lang. study <3) time yay
and walked past a little performance ke bashkia (little girls dressed up as flowers dancing to the latest Albanian radio hits)
brought the elders to a lesson and also brought along a less-active guy who was great help and hopefully was the first of many lessons he'll help the missionaries (elders) with. best way to remind someone of their own conversion is to have them bear testimony
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