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  

Week 25 - Package from Kosovo, plus FHE

 Look what came in the mail! (She sent the small flat-rate box with Elder McGrath, who just finished his mission and carried the package home with him, then mailed it from Utah. Thanks, Elder McGrath!!)

 We love Madi's caricatures of the fam! 

 A chocolate bar with crackers on it (it was delicious)

oh cool you got it yay! did you like the meat-flavored chips? they didn't fit so i had a member eat half the bag so i could still send em (or maybe i wanted a snack and was craving some hamburger...) what were your guys' fave treats out of those? and yeah i sent it with elder mcgrath from kaysville who was going home! you're welcome!

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 FHE at the Teli's!

 Thanks to the Teli's for sending all these photos and for taking such good care of our missionaries!

Madi loves their 8-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son

Week 24 - Kosovo

 Here is a chance to make someone's day: Madi's sweet companion from Chile is named Motra Ariza. She would be so happy to get any mail written in Spanish or English. According to Madi: PLEASE write to her bc she doesn't get a lot of mail and hardly has any support from her family, and she would TOTALLY appreciate it :) love you! 

You can type her a letter on DearElder.com for free and it will be printed out and delivered to her (just type "Sister B. Ariza" in the "Adriatic South Mission") or send a postcard (no letters accepted this way) with USA postage to: 

Motra Ariza

Adriatic South Mission

P.O. Box 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

 such an amazing view right?! explored old castle ruins at the top and some girls from Elbasan (Albania) were with us and one is waiting for her mission call, they're so nice <3 

 the p-day trip I'd been dreaming of! haha

btw scary near-death encounter on the ride home but no worries we made it home safely SHYQYR whew 

missed Easter week because of transfers so extended the holiday and baked for members/investigators:) btw baking is SO EASY when I'm not trying to substitute eggs/sugar/flour/oil etc. hahaha good thing my comp samples and makes sure they taste good #teamwork 

and Chilean breakfast=avacado toast? my faveee and we drink so much herbal tea yes

probz the best meal I had since being here in Kosove, yum (couscous&grilled veggies, and the brown sauce is the same stuff they put on spaetzle in Deutschland!) 

and been cooking so sorry, gonna pull an Isaac and send you food pics because yum and btw these curry-flavored noodles and veggies reminded me of something my Russian host mom would make me #CafeLarisa ;) 

our kitchen counter looks like a Word of Wisdom pamphlet ;) ah eating clean these days, feel soo much better.. I feel like myself again ;) ya it was cool to try (more than try..) all the Kosovo carbs and candy but so ready to stick with veggies 24/7 again, esp. when they have such great produce around here! 

pranvera është këtu më në fund shyqyr sa bukur

Hey guys! (not in the mtc anymore so I can say that lol.)

Just another incredible week here in Kosovë! 

And not a lot of time to talk about some miracles that happened because spent the day in Prizren! (Look it up and you'll be fascinated at all the Muslim fun facts i.e. as many mosques as church buildings in Utah) It is gorgeous and I'm a little disappointed missionaries were taken out of there a while back because I would love to serve there.

It's been beautiful out, which means everyone is outside and when the weather's perfect people are happier and more open-minded when it comes to religious discussion.. ya there's def. a correlation there. 

So besides falling in love with Kosovo some more, we had some great lessons and new investigators! Conference was great.. wish I could say I understand krejt but I loved it and can't wait to re-read those talks. We're so lucky to have these inspired leaders right? Keepin' us up-to-date (aka reminding us that God's laws are constant) and just reminding us what our priorities are/should be! And I loved motab.. I've gained a deep love for hymns since bein out here and that's what I jam out to. When they sang "Come unto Jesus", my fave hymn, def. a highlight and I love "consider the lilies", reminds me of when you would have it playing Sunday mornings dad!

Aw man wish I could detail cool experiences I had but outta time so I'll write you a handwritten letter sometime this week if I can find a second. 

I love you all lots! Really, thanks for everything. Kalofsit bukur edhe mos harroni sa Dashuri Perëndia ka per ju.. për ne. Ju duam shumë Zemrat.

<3 Motra Rajlli :) 

here's some from the past couple wks

~nene Z saying bye to Prishtine

~"pregnant pics" w sis. Davis hahah before driving down to Tirane to pick up our babies (trainees)! 

at least he's in church right? stumbled in for conference and completely passed out/hungover.... actually he was a referral (roma street musician) we gave to the elders... they said an earlier lesson with him when he was sober went great but idk if they're still meeting w him after this.. took a little effort to get him out of the church once conf. was over.. he was completely sprawled out on the floor.. our RS's bf (investigator) came.. 1st time in church, we made sure to explain to him that usually everyone is coherent and sitting up lol 

here's some more of my babe of a comp for Isaac ;) 

we both love trading/sharing clothes, it's the best.. free shopping ;)