Week 75 - erdhi behari

haha look at the gospel light shining form our faces.. glowing countenances

this is my awesome new comp Sis Maxfield! she's so great

Sister Petersx2!! 

J and L made an the cutest and tastiest dinner for Sisters Peters

traded shoes with T 

this pack of dogs made sure we were awake by 6:30am the other morning..

walked 30min along the freeway to get to the airport last p-day, here's the view from one of the overpasses

elders were a little cozy on the drive back from Tirana thanks to multiple huge suitcases

Mirëdita, e dashur familja ime.

How is everything goin over there in the deep south? Things are pretty much the same over here (as over there, now that I think about it) - a general conservative, God-fearing mentality among the people (but not necessarily super fond of mormons or keeping commandments/changing lifestyle according to belief), also lots of fried food, and warm weather/mosquitoes.

This past week with Sis. Maxfield was awesomee! Running all over the place, always having a million people to check up on and make sure they're reading/not smoking/feel loved/are reminded to come to church/understand how to find answers to their questions etc...very exhausting and draining, but as a missionary that's kind of been my goal (wear myself out teaching and testifying and talking to everyone) so I can't complain. Honestly feel so blessed to be serving in this incredible area. 

So sister Maxfield speaks Macedonian (she's been in Skopje the past 6 months), but as of this past week she's adding Albanian to her list. But despite her great greetings, she of course isn't able to chat fluently so I get to translate for her in every lesson, which I actually really enjoy and it's super good language practice all day. Also she speaks German and as I mentioned we started a new German course (once a week, as well as English once a week still) as an attempt to get some new friends in church and in our teaching pool. We've had cool experiences getting to know great potentials on the street as we invited everyone to that. Also we try to SYL auf Deutsch when we're outside, so we don't seem as American.. or if we don't want anyone to understand a quick confidential comment lol.

Conference was cool! For the first time, they translated/broadcasted live, so for us it was 6pm Saturday and Sunday, which was definitely unusual, not going to church Sunday morning... Saturday night we had a decent turnout but were all squeezed into a side room/ closet because that's where the computer was, so good branch bonding I guess haha.. if you can get through two hours of conference on poor internet connection/buffering in a tiny room, sharing chairs while trying to focus on the words of the prophets, you can get through anything right? :) It was super great though, I loved it and Sunday night we spread out to the sacrament hall and the broadcast ran smoothly shyqyr. Dad, I thought of you while listening to Elder Christofferson testify of lessons learned from his exemplary dad. I loved President Uchtdorf's inspired words, especially the quote he shared. Above all, I enjoyed feeling the spirit testify to me and answer questions I'd had on my mind.

Oh and the Jeshili fam's goat Roza had a baby, it's soo cute.

J and L who were baptized last week are doing amazing, they are both so awesome and I'm super grateful for them and everything they teach me, as well as just their friendship and faithful examples. And J's mom, L, is super awesome, progressing (reading, attending conf., praying sincerely), and we've met some super cool "potential friends" (already friends lol, potential investigators but we call them friends these days..) who I'm excited to follow up on this week and see how they like the message of the restoration. Unplanned finding opps are everywhere, I testify to that.

D&C 109:4 <3

LOVE YOU!

me dashuri, Motra Rajlli

And shout-out to the incredible Morina sisters, Gjyle and Vaide from Prishtina who had the opportunity to attend general conference (Eliza did you see them!?..) and the temple in Salt Lake. Amazing. I can't believe it.!! Made me so happy to hear about. Ju dua, Motrat e mia :)

And IsaacandSandra's announcement is perfect! "to love another person is to see the face of God" I've esp. learned that to be true out here on my mission.

yes, those are German Kurs fliers! yay finally, sis Maxfield taught in German and I translated everything she said to Albanian, it was so fun and we've met super cool people (who will learn more about the gospel from us) as we've invited people everywhere to attend!