19th pday email from Albania

Hello Everyone,

This week I learned a lot. About myself and about the Lord's hand in each person's life and how much He LOVES US. I am so grateful the opportunities that Father in Heaven has given while I've been here on my mission everyday. This last week I went on two exchanges.

One with Sister M and one with Sister F. Both of these sisters are amazing daughters of God and I was SO tremendously privileged to serve them and what they bring to this mission and the people they come in contact and testify to.

While I was with Motra M, I really saw with more of an open eye of how the gift of tongues has been working in my life. Since she is Albanian and doesn't know much English, we went full Speak Your Language. I saw how much the Lord has helped me. More than 6 months ago I wouldn't have been able to converse, plan, and teach in Albanian.

Sure I am not perfect, and I made plenty of mistakes while talking with her. But she helped me through them and helped me to become better as a missionary. With Sister F, I learned so much with her. She is everything that a missionary should be. She tries so hard. I look up to her in every way. She is a great model to build upon.

A couple of amazing things happened this week. One, one of our investigators again prayed in a lesson we had with her this week. She had started to pray with saying, "Our Father in Heaven, we are so blessed to be aware of your existence. While so many don't..." After that, she went silent. We waited for a long time in silence, eyes closed, for her to continue.

A few moments went by until she finally asked one of us to finish the prayer because she couldn't finish it. We both opened our eyes, Sister C and I. She gave me the go ahead to say it.

As I finished the prayer, I really felt the love He has for this woman who is learning so much about Jesus. This was just a witness that Prayer is a power and brings us closer to our Father in Heaven. That is why Satan tries so hard with each of us to not pray. It was this case with this wonderful woman.

Well, the next lesson we ended up having with her we were following up with her on baptism. She said that she wants this for herself. We then started to discuss a date, so her date is for the 28th of March. Sister C couldn't believe what just happened. This woman is just one of many examples that there are those that are moving in the direction of their Savior. I am so grateful I get to be a witness of this at work with so many.

I had another experience I had with God's love for His children. When I was on my exchange with Sister F, we visited a less active. We planned on a lesson with her on the small section of Faith in Jesus Christ from the lesson The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hadn't realized that Faith in Jesus Christ could be something that might not come so easily to others. As missionaries we are always exercising Faith in Jesus Christ and seeing the fruit of it come into our lives. Well, as we taught her, she expressed that she felt that God was not in her life at this moment. It was so heartbreaking because at that moment, the spirit came in so strongly than I have ever felt before. I received a witness that He loves this woman.

I have to express love and gratitude for my WONDERFUL companion, Sister C. She is SO golden. Every lesson that we have, she puts her full effort into and tries her best to learn and progress in the language. I have already seen multiple witnesses that her role in this mission is of great importance. That there are specific people she needs to teach and to touch.

I've seen her down the road the leadership positions she will have. She has been prepared and is constantly preparing for what Heavenly Father has in store for her. I feel that it is this way with everyone. It is just up to us to do all that we can with each experience that we have and learn from them and take that knowledge and use it in our lives how Heavenly Father would have us use it.

This week was Sister C's first two exchanges: one in another person's area and one here in our area by herself with an Albanian. OH. MY. GOODNESS. SHE ROCKED IT!!!! I am so blessed to learn from her example. I know she is in my life for this reason and for many others that I don't fully comprehend at this time.

Okay, I am realizing how big this letter is becoming and so I will wrap this up with a few last things. We had a lesson with another woman..... IN HER NEW HOUSE! The hand of the Lord was throughout it. While we were there and as she showed us the house, there was such a peace. It felt right. It was another witness that He is aware of what is going on with her.

Another fast story. We went to another individual's home for a lesson and her youngest son was in the lesson. Normally he has not been that friendly to us as missionaries. But that day, he served us a small treat. Even after he served us our sliced apples he cut up for us, he came back a few minutes later with ANOTHER sliced apple. He had such excitement as he put in on the table.

That was so sweet and kind of him. I think that with us teaching the lessons to his mom, his heart is softening to us. He even stayed in the lesson and even thought he wasn't participating, you could tell he was actually listening to what we were teaching her.

I love this gospel. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without Him and what He has done for us, we would have no beacon of hope to follow in the world full of darkness. Jesus Christ is EVERYTHING and we are HIS. No matter what lies that Satan tries to get us to believe, we are THE LORD'S and we are of GREAT WORTH!

Until next time, keep pressing forward and DON'T GIVE UP!

Motra Bezas

Really bad raining and flooding in eastern Europe -

and in Motra Bezas's case, the strong storm broke her missionary companion's umbrella!