There and Back Again - An Albanian Tale: 18th pday email from Albania

Hello Everyone,

Wow. This week has been a week where my eyes have been opened up more to our Father in Heaven. He love us. He understands each of us and where we are in our progression in Life towards Him. And as soon as we humble ourselves and take that step of faith and rely on Him fully, He will be there to lead us, guide us, walk beside us, help us find the way, teach us all that we must do to live with Him someday while we make our progression through life. I saw this so much with our lessons we had this week.

The spirit was with us so strongly as we worked with our investigators. God knows them and understands where they are at. It is up to us as missionaries to work together with that spirit in unity and unity as a companionship. I am so grateful for Sister C and how hard she wants the spirit to be in our lessons as we teach. It makes all that difference to have that desire to want the Spirit in our lives and also in our lessons because when the Spirit does come, we truly are grateful for it and appreciate it.

The Spirit has been just teaching Sister C and I so many things this week. One of them was at the combined Zone Conferences. That was a spiritual feast in itself. I Learned so much. One of the main things I wanted to focus on was that Elder Austin said, "When we have an eye single to the Lord, we can one day see Him. It is up to us break down those walls that we have up or we have let others built up for us so we can't see the Savior at the this time. The Lord is waiting, calling your name, asking where you are."

I felt this really connected with one of our investigators we have in particular that we have been teaching. She is just purely amazing. This week we committed her to coming into the waters of baptism and make beautiful covenants with her Father in Heaven. She said that she would ponder this out and let us know soon.

Later this weekend we saw her and began talking with her and she said that she wanted to know what was needed for a person to be baptized. In Doctrine and Covenants 18:15-16, it talks about a joy that you can receive when you share the gospel with those you meet and teach. Well, when she asked this question, our hearts were filled to the brim and overflowing with this great joy. We simply told her that all a person needs is to have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God, that the Book of Mormon is true, and to keep the commitments we give her along with the commandments.

But we told her when we would meet next, we share more. Sister Cheshire and I have felt that she is making great progress. She even for the first time volunteered to say the closing prayer to one of our lessons we had with her this week. The SPIRIT poured into the room. God loves her. Her knowledge is amazing of what she believes. All she needs is the Gospel in her Life.

Something that we also did this week was a group street contacting activity where we had posters that said small simple truths. So as people walked past, they could read that truth and have that be a seed planted in their hearts. Ours was, "Perëndia Jeton" (God Lives). So even if people didn't stop to talk to us, that is something that will be with them for the rest of their lives. That God lives. Which is just the beginning to a new life for them and becoming like our Heavenly Father.

Another example of this we had was with another woman. We had a lesson with her and in the lesson I had the impression to ask how she met the missionaries. Even though in her record it said they met her in the park here. Well, the spirit was totally there because what she told us next, touched us completely. She said that she had her first contact with them even before that at an internet cafe. She saw their name tags and said that brought the biggest flowing of hope into her life with all the trials she was facing at the time. Later after bumping into more and more missionaries (God was preparing her ), when an elder set came up to her one day in a park to help carry her bags that is when her journey began.

I was reading in the Ensign this week and this article by David A. Bednar "Come and See" talk about why as missionaries we are here and why members of the church share this blessed gift we receive of the gospel.

"But our eagerness to declare this message is not merely the result of a sense of spiritual duty. Rather, our desire to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with you is a reflection of how important these truths are to us. I believe I can best describe why we are so forthright in seeking to explain our beliefs to you through an experience my wife and I had many years ago with two of our sons.

One evening Susan and I stood near a window in our home and watched two of our little boys playing outside. During the course of their adventures, the younger of the two boys was injured slightly in a small accident. We quickly recognized that he was not seriously hurt, and we decided not to provide immediate assistance. We wanted to observe and see if any of our family discussions about brotherly kindness had sunk in. What happened next was both interesting and instructive.

The older brother consoled and carefully helped the younger brother back into the house. Susan and I had positioned ourselves near the kitchen so we could see what next took place, and we were prepared to intervene immediately if additional bodily harm seemed likely or a serious accident was imminent.

The older brother dragged a chair to the kitchen sink. He climbed up on the chair, assisted his brother onto the chair, turned on the water, and proceeded to pour a large quantity of dishwashing soap onto the scratched arm of his little brother. He did his best to gently wash away the dirt. The reaction of the little brother to this procedure can only be described accurately using language from the holy scriptures: “And they shall have cause to howl, and weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth” (Mosiah 16:2). And did that little boy howl!

After the scrubbing was finished, the arm was carefully dried with a towel. Eventually the screaming stopped. The older brother next climbed up onto the kitchen counter, opened a cabinet, and found a new tube of medicated ointment. Though the scratches on his little brother were not large or extensive, the older brother applied almost all of the ointment in the tube to the entire injured arm. The screaming did not resume, as the little brother clearly liked the soothing effect of the ointment much more than he appreciated the cleansing effect of the dishwashing soap.

The older brother returned again to the cabinet in which he had found the ointment and located a new box of sterile bandages. He then unwrapped and put bandages all up and down his brother’s arm—from the wrist to the elbow. With the emergency resolved, and with soap bubbles, ointment, and wrappers all over the kitchen, the two little boys hopped down from the chair with bright smiles and happy faces.

What happened next is most important. The injured brother gathered up the remaining bandages and the almost empty tube of ointment, and he went back outside. He quickly sought out his friends and began to put ointment and bandages on their arms. Susan and I both were struck by the sincerity, enthusiasm, and rapidity of his response.

Why did that little boy do what he did? Please note that he immediately and intuitively wanted to give to his friends the very thing that had helped him when he was hurt. That little boy did not have to be urged, challenged, prompted, or goaded to act. His desire to share was the natural consequence of a most helpful and beneficial personal experience."

When I read this, it gave me another witness of why I am out here. This gospel has touched and shaped my life. I want to return the favor to my Lord and Savior and work along side of Him in His Vineyard here in Albania. I am so privileged that He trusts me enough with His people here. These people are His and I get to see everyday of the Love and Admiration He has for each and everyone of these people.

I love this gospel. I love it with every fiber of my being. It is the essence of hope. That through Jesus Christ and His atonement, I personally can start again everyday. That through Him and with Him, I can become more like Him and my Father in Heaven.

KNOW THIS: That your Savior LOVES LOVES LOVES YOU, _________ (fill your name here). He knows you and loves you with all of His heart. He has His arms around you. "Behold, and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. " (Doctrine and Covenants 88:126). Never Give Up. Cause He will Never Give Up On YOU!

Motra Bezas

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And here is another email she shared...these missionaries are doing a great work, and it is so beautiful. Most of these are youth who are 18-22 years old! So wonderful to see their focus and love for strangers they'd not known just months before!

This is another sister I was with in the mtc - Sister G. She is amazing and in the first paragraph I felt the spirit so strong. At the bottom I also sent her a response.

Her email:

Fam. this week was too good!

First of all, I need all of your help. Especially the wonderful women in my life. Both family and friends. So, sister muns and i have been called as the Young Women presidents here in this branch. Yep. It just keeps coming!! but we are so excited! Anyways. This branch doesn't have a YW program so they just told us that this YW program is ours to build. That we have to start from scratch and build it for the generations to come. Wow!!! Please. Give me some imput on how I can start and build this program. I know how YW works but I really don't know at the same time. I jsut got to enjoy it all these years :) all of the imput and information is welcomed. Aitäh! thank you!!

So this week we spent two days in Tallinn. It was so wonderful!! We had a conference with President and Sister Harding just for the Sisters one day and then for all of the new missionaries and Trainers the next day. Talk about spiritual throwdown! I was in heaven :)

We talked about how we all are truly Daughters of God and not some other dude. Sometimes that's a struggle here because there are so many sisters and elders. Almost half and half right now. And because in places like Pärnu, there's only one set of sisters and one set of elders. Makes it pretty easy to just be "another dude". But its true. We're not just other dudes, we are daughters of God and should act and be treated as such. Don't get me wrong though, the Elders treat us very well and they do respect us. I think we have the best elders in all of the world here in Estonia :) truth. Some quotes that I loved from the Sisters meeting were:

"when something isn't working, something needs to change."

"Learn to want what the Lord wants us to want" - pres. Eyring

"the key to happiness is to get the spirit and keep it!"

"What lack I?"

" you said 'I will be different' and you are"

I love these quotes and I am trying to really take them into my missionary work right now. I love the one about learning to want what the Lord wants us to want. I love that because what the Lord has in mind for us is faaarrr better than what we could ever ask for. In the moment, it seems unbearable or you just simply don't want to do it. But in the long run, oh the blessings that flow into your life! I love it. I sometimes imagine what His plan possible could be for me and it's just too great. I love my Savior :)

They also talked about be Lights to the nations. Oh how I want to be a light. I want to always carry the light of Christ with me and I am learning more and more each day of how I can do that. First, I need to truly be one with Christ. How special it is to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I get to wear His name on my chest every day! In the white handbook it says "you represent Christ in your area" wow. That is huge and such a great honor! I have the priviledge and responsibility of being Christs representative. I have a lot that have yet to work on to properly represent Christ like he deserves to be represented. I feel so special though.

The morning going to the new missionary and trainer meeting, we were in a taxi with 2 othe sisters. One being almost done with her mission and an estonain herself. I was in the front seat and so I talked to him. I love talking to people. We talked about his job and if he likes it, we talked about his family and boy, did he go off about that! I then asked him if he knew anything about family history.

Turns out he knows all about his mothers side but not about his fathers. I told him that family history is something we love doing and we would love to help him with it! he quickly accepted and made sure I wrote down his number right then and there. he also made sure I spelled his name right. Made a big deal about that. When we got out of the taxi, the estonian sister turned to me and said, "i'm not going to lie, when you started talking to him about family history i thought, 'what is she doing? he doesn't want to talk about that." but then he totally did and then he just wanted everything to do about it! It was so good for all of us in the car. I love that taxi driver.

We also had another miracle this week! After tracking for about and hour and having a meeting with a less active who just yelled at us the whole time pretty much, we had time left on our hands and didn't know what to do. So we prayed and asked for direction, we started walking forward and then felt like we needed to turn left. So we did and knocked on the houses there as we felt like we should do. After about 40 min, it was time to go home so we started back. On the way there, we stopped to talk to this woman, Linda, who knows all about the church. She wanted to come to church and then asked about how we teach english. We said yes and gave her everything we possibly could! It was so great. She is so prepared!!

I am just constantly seeing blessings in my life. This week I have tried so hard to focus on the good and just serve with my whole heart. I love missionary work. I love Estonia. I love my Savor most of all!

have the best week yet!!
xoxo, õde g

Motra Bezas's response:

Ode, GIRL. AS I READ THIS. I FELT THE SPIRIT COME INTO THE ENTIRE INTERNET KAFE HERE IN ALBANIA. GOD KNOWS YOU. YOU WERE PREORDAINED FOR THIS. I KNOW THIS WITH ALL MY HEART. YOU AND YOUR COMPANION HAD PROMISED BEFORE THIS LIFE TO BUILD THIS GROUP OF YW. I KNOW THAT GENERATIONS FROM NOW WILL BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR THIS GROUND WORK YOU ARE DOING NOW.

My advice is nothing big or flashy. It is simply to have the foundation for this yw's is Jesus Christ. That He died for each and everyone of us because we are of great worth. D&C 18:10. Use those young women values. Build each month around each value. As missionaries we are here to testify that there is a God. That He is our Father in Heaven and we are His children and that He loves us more than we can comprehend and that at this time we each come here with a purpose and that those values we embrace are the values that our Heavenly Father sees in us. It is just hard for us to see with our own eyes without the help of those around us to help. in this case you and your companion.

KNOW THAT SATAN IS GOING TO TRY HIS HARDEST TO GET YOU DOWN.

DONT LET HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOW THIS IS THE TIME TO PUSH FORWARD AND GIVE EVERYTHING YOU GOT. THE LORD KNOWS OF YOUR GREAT POWER. NOW THIS IS THE TIME, WITH THE LORD'S HELP, TO SEE YOU TRULY ARE. :D A BEACON OF LIGHT AND HOPE.

You are in my prayers. :D I love you girl!

(Ah, Motra Bezas - what a gift you are. And what a gift each of these young people are. A light to the world indeed.)

The beautiful baptism day for a man the elders had been teaching

Motra Bezas LOVES maps - and this is one in their apartment

Two of the adorable sisters in her district

With Motras R and B - Motra Bezas had found Motra R's sister's mission blog, long before Motra Bezas had decided to go on a mission, and then Motra R's. And then she gets called to the same mission! Truly a blessing from God and shows miracles are easy for Him.