38th Pday Email from Albania!

Dear Precious Gems,

I just want to testify right off saying that as a mouthpiece for our Lord and Savior, He loves you. I feel it with every fiber of my being. He loves you and is always thinking about you and is aware of you in all you face.

This week was just full of peace for me. In so many ways than one. That the work that we put forth every single day to do all we can to follow the Savior and bring others on the journey towards their Savior is not our work. It is the Work of The Lord. Through the spirit I have seriously learned that. Which then followed the feeling of peace. Our Savior is fully aware of us. I can't fully express this, but I am gaining a deeper witness of it everyday as I teach others through the spirit of the great gift that has been made for each person on this earth that has lived, lives today, and will live from Jesus Christ.

It is the great Atonement! I describe it our investigators as an analogy:

Imagine a gift that is wrapped up all beautiful with a bow and all and imagine the Savior talking with you and asks for your name. You tell him it and he looks at his list. He smiles and sees your name. He then hands it to you and expresses how long he has waited to give this gift to you. Because he has paid the price for this precious gift specifically to you and your needs. That gift is the gift of the Atonement. 

As I express this analogy to the people we teach, I clarify that the gift was made for them and no one else. No one person's Atonement is the same. When he paid the price for your gift, he did it one person at a time. It is the same with how he works with us. It is done one on one.

A goal I have made for this transfer is to learn more about the Atonement and all that Christ has done for me and the people we teach every single day.

So an amazing miracle happen this week. One of our sweet investigators got baptized this week! The best part, her whole family came to her baptism. Man! If I could even express the testimony she gave as if you were there, it could not be done. All I can say is that as she went up there she talked to us before hand and even told Sister O and I, that she had no idea as to what to say. We just simply told her to share what she knows about the savior. Well, she went up there and after a minute into her talking the spirit that filled the room was like you got hit by a brick wall. Her testimony bore witness to me of many things. 

First, that simple testimony is SUPER POWERFUL!

Second, age doesn't matter to measure your spiritual growth.

Third, that each person has spiritual gifts that are needed on the earth at times set by our Heavenly Father.

And forth, that she has a HUGE role to play in the coming of our Lord and Savior for the generation that will one day meet him!

As missionaries, we discussed this afterward and it was something we all felt. She is seriously one of the great elect that we were supposed to find. I know that she was sent to her family to lead them to their Lord and Savior. I know fully well that Satan is aware of her and he will send all that he can her way to tear her down. But from this knowledge I have gained peace knowing that the Lord is aware of her and will be watching over her.

A cool story we had with another investigator this week was: we were going to her house and saw that we had unexpectedly missed her call and so we tried to call her but she didn't answer, so we hurried over and got to her house. She answered the door and we came on inside right away and asked her if everything was okay. After we sat down, she then said that she was having a bad day. We asked her why and she just said she was just upset at life in general and didn't even go to work for that long because she just couldn't deal with life that day. 

We apologized to her that we missed her call from before and asked if there was any reason in specific. She then told us simply, "Oh it was nothing. I just was feeling really upset and decided to read in the Book of Mormon and after awhile was just wanting your guys to come over right away so I could feel better."

That really touched my heart. She is gaining her own conversion because she recognizes the difference and the impact it is making in her life.

Another amazing experience was with Mission Conference this week. During the Question and Answer Session of the Conference I really began to understand my Savior more than I have ever before. Like something new clicked. Our Lord and Savior is EVERYTHING! He is the one who told our Father in Heaven, to send him to suffer the pains of this world. He is the one that created this world and all that is on it. He is the love and light of the world.

HE IS EVERYTHING! I then wondered how does he then become our everything in our lives and is our center? BY MAKING HIM OUR EVERYTHING!!!

I know that the Lord has given us the tools to make him our everything as we follow the commandments of God. And by follow, I mean ALL of them. Reading about him, praying in his name, and partaking of his atonement through the sacrament each time, are the foundation to having him become our everything.

I love my Savior and the peace that he gives me every single day as the world becomes more dark and becoming more a world of lies and a world of Satan. I know without a doubt that we are where we are called to shine the Light of Christ to all those that come into our path to have their become their EVERYTHING!!

Motra Bezas

A rainy day...

With Sister Z at a training!

A reunion with our previous district

37th Pday Email from Albania

Dear Loved Ones,

First off, Happy Father's Day.

Second, It is official...  I don't have lice anymore... But as of this morning... My companion does... again. haha #opposition

Third, Sister O gave her first talk in church this week. It was seriously amazing! The spirit was throughout it. I knew that was what the Lord wanted her to teach them at that time.

Now on to this week was... WOW it was just full of light, knowledge, and truth for me. I testify that the scriptures are seriously the word of God. I love them with all my heart. This week I really getting into the chapters of Alma where there was a lot of war and before when I have ever read this section of Alma, it really hadn't connected with me until this week.

I over and over again I felt my spirit was being taught of the spirit of God. Like a private teacher and their student. I have learned so much this week of the times that we live in and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. And that along with the Bible it testifies of the Love Jesus Has for me by the words or wisdom that is given throughout the Book of Mormon. And the stories that are placed there that we have as templates as to have the best lives that we can have here on the Earth that Jesus Christ has created for us. Everything we see, hear, feel, taste, and touch, come from our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Like the song:

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,

Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,

That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

How blessed are we!! He has blessed us more than we can fully comprehend all that has been to us through our Savior's Atonement. 

This week so much happened in peoples' progressions in coming unto Christ. The first was with our amazing investigator. She had her baptismal interview and passed. When we reviewed with her the questions a few days before, the spirit that was with her as she spoke her answers...I remember that when it came to one question, she started off with good points and then there was a point in her response, the room grew dead silent and the spirit that came in seriously took our breath away. It was amazing.

 After she finished she looked at us with her sweet glow and asked for the next question that it took us a moment to be able to speak again. The spirit was just so powerful to her response. I know that the Lord needs her for this time. That she will prepare the generations that will prepare for the Lord's return. Man, the spirit that radiates with this girl, I know that her role that she has to play on the earth is HUGE. What a great we are living in! Seeing the works of the Lord all around us.

So one I want to express fully gratitude to my Savior is for another investigator. Her story is such a blessing in my life. One of the families here referred her to the Elders during a lesson, which they then passed off to us due to her being a girl. We have been teaching her pretty often and this week had met with her everyday this week together with the family. I seriously can't fully describe the love I have grown for this woman. She is seriously one of the elect! It honestly feels like it is a big discussion with the spirit sitting with us in our lessons.

It just boggles my mind in someways the people I have met, that I didn't know them before I came on my mission. 

I actually was thinking about it this week. I remember we were in a lesson with her and I was asking, "Why? Why Heavenly Father did we not find her sooner?" As I thought deeply about this, the thought came into my mind:

"Because, it was time for her to be found. Her time is NOW! Not before, not later, but NOW! There is no coincidence that she is now taking the lessons. With the experiences she has received and the principles she was taught by that family, she was ready NOW."

I know that the Lord knows us. Inside and out! He knows what we can and cannot handle. He suffered and died so all that we go through, he is able to go there and understand every ounce we feel and every ounce we suffer and every ounce we joy we can muster. He is there. 

As I have been reading the latest General Conference issue, I have learned that as we are here, we are never alone. Our Father in Heaven gave us a solid unit that we can go to for support and that is our families. It is part of the Plan of Joy and Happiness that Heavenly Father has created for us. BECAUSE HE LOVES US! He LOVES SO MUCH. I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO EXPRESS HIS PASSION HE HAS FOR US TO SUCCEED AND TO ONE DAY RETURN TO LIVE WITH HIM. BECAUSE WE ARE HIS AND WE HAVE A UNIQUE ROLE TO PLAY. THAT IS WHY WE WERE SAVED FOR THIS TIME. LIKE IN SOMEWAYS WITH THAT ONE INVESTIGATOR, OUR TIME IS NOW. NOT BEFORE. NOT LATER. BUT NOW!

Thank you for all that you and keep being lights to those searching for it in the darkness.

Motra Bezas

36th Pday Email from Albania!

Dear Loved Ones,

As I begin to write this to you, I feel an overwhelming sense of joy, love, and excitement for this work. I love missionary work! I seriously have been blessed tremendously that I cannot even begin to express the miracles I have experienced this week.

The first thing I want to express my witness of how the Lord works in His own timing and that we need to do all that we can to rely on him. Meaning having full faith and trust in Jesus Christ. This week we were blessed with seven new children of God who have desires of coming unto Christ and gaining a deeper relationship with Him. 

Two I want to talk about are from a young man. He has been coming to church now for a long time. Recently though we had come to find out that his sister who had been coming to church was not a member and that she and her mom wanted to take the lessons.

Can I just say that this family is just AMAZING! They have dates for the 25th and I seriously am so grateful for their sweet spirits. They are gifts to this world and I am so privileged to know them. The girl has such a sweet testimony. I just almost cry every time we go to teach them. The most amazing thing about them is they both came to church!!! The joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I am seeing is giving greater happiness to this family and will one day go to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity.

Another we met was on the street at a fruit stand. Let me tell you up front that this girl was seriously just amazing. She has so much knowledge for the bible it was crazy. She kept referencing sections and asking questions as the meaning and what we believe for our church. 

I remember we kept inviting her to meet us again and she kept just ignoring it and would ask another question. Well, time goes by (like 2 days) we go street contacting and we bump into her. I knew right then that God needed us to keep talking and inviting her to learn more about his church. She asked if we found a reference to a question she had the day before and that is when I asked her if we could meet the next day for us to explain.

Well, she actually agreed. I was not in that town though the day Sister O and Sister C met with her because I was in another area for an exchange. Well, long story short, from what I heard, we came to the conclusion she is just not satisfied with her religion. She is thirsty for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. I know the Lord kept putting us in her path because He knew she was a little harder to open up to. But I know that as she learns more, her heart will open and began to expand with a greater love than she has now.

An amazing story that happened was with an active member. We taught her about gratitude but after we closed the lesson I looked at her and just felt I needed to ask her who were all the members in her family that were baptized. When I asked her, she told me her siblings were but her parents weren't interested. 

The weirdest thing happened next. I just remembered the spirit working through me testifying to her that one day they will be baptized and will go together as a family to the temple because of their examples of standing for the standards of the church. Her parents will recognize the change even more in their lives. I could see that in her eyes, something really hit her about what I said and I knew that what I testified was true and would come true, if they did their part.

My exchange with Sister J was one of the biggest lessons I learned this week. There was so many small little lessons I learned with in this exchange but one of the biggest things I learned was you seriously CANNOT WORK WITHOUT THE SPIRIT AND SOME SERIOUS PRAYER! This is the Lord's work. An example with this was with our last lesson of the day. The lady was having LOADS of trials and I mean loads of them! 

But I just remember that we were talking about Prophets and testifying of them, she kept looking like something else was going on in her eyes. Later in the lesson she looked at me and said, "your words have sunk deep into my heart." This honestly was not expected and later Sister Jackson and I were heading back to the home, she pointed out that the spirit was seriously teaching that lesson because there was something else she was learning inside and it wasn't prophets.

AHHH! I just love missionary work.

This week I had a unique experience... I turned 20. This was a time it really gave me the opportunity to look back over the past year and see the changes I have made and the spiritual growth I have gained from my Father in Heaven. I honestly can say that the person I am today is not the person I was a year ago. I mean it is me still, but with a deep witness about who I am and my importance in the Lord's work. 

It really hit me finally. A spark. A spark for missionary work. A spark of life. A spark of a new day to serve the Lord with all my heart. I beginning to understand that no single missionary is perfect, but the work of the Lord is WITH the spirit. He loves us and as we teach testify testify teach, we grow a deeper knowledge of the work we are embarked on. I know God lives and that He loves us. 

Remember that we matter to him even with all our imperfections!

Motra Bezas

Motra Bezas got to see her previous mission companion

when Sister C's traveling choir came to Motra B's area!

Seeing Motra Z!

And Motra B's companion got to see one of her MTC buddies!

Elder A nearing the end of his mission and "borrowing" her camera :0)

Several happy smiles from the missionaries

So fun to see her previous companion, Sister C

Another beautiful Albanian sunset

Oh, the experiences with that lice comb!

Olaf came all the way from the states to say hi! :)

 On an exchange with some wonderful women

35th Pday Email from Albania!

Wow. This week was nothing how we had even planned on happening this week. It was such a witness to me that the Lord truly knows what is best for each of us. Not that I was thinking He didn't. It was just a reminder and a witness that He knows what we exactly need. AHH. I am just so blessed that the Lord has trust in me to teach His children with my companion. I know that the Lord has called us together because there are those that only that we can only reach.

A great lesson I learned this week was with opposition. We made a companionship goal to contact this week and do an hour of street contacting a day or while walking down the road talking with people. Well, we had only received one new investigator for this week but it felt that even though we did all that we could, we just felt that we had not received success of finding the goal we had set. Well, the weekend hit and we received many referrals from members of the ward. WOW! What a blessing. God saw the effort we put in and knew that we were ready for these because during this week a lot of our investigators and other lessons that we had planned canceled on us and those we stopped by couldn't meet as well. So we were able to have lots of opportunities to talk with people and because we did so, God saw our desires of wanting to bring others to Christ.

The one new investigator we received this week was an amazing lesson I learned from Sister O. The new person was an investigator that had gotten really close and then felt like she'd dropped off the planet. We called her awhile back for a fireside and she came. We then have been trying to have a lesson with her and this week we were finally able to. Oh my goodness! She is such a sweet daughter of God. I seriously can't even describe the sweetness of this girl. She seriously is just a breath of sweet kindness. Well, the thing that happen in this lesson that was such an amazing lesson was this: we were coming near the end of the lesson and Sister O, guided by the spirit, asked her. 

"You are amazing and you are seriously so close to being baptized. Do you still have a desire to come unto Christ by being baptized into His church?"

As she asked that, I felt the spirit really was there as I turned to the woman. She said that she did still have a really great desire to be baptized but just wasn't sure when. We said we all would both ponder and pray about it and come together for our next lesson and discuss the date. The fact that her desire is still there, shows that we should NEVER EVER give up on those on their journey towards Christ. Some take longer to come Christ. I know that I am still on my journey everyday and that I am so grateful for the patience that my Lord and Savior has in me as I make my way towards him.

Another amazing experience was something we learned from Zone Training. The biggest thing I learned was that there is THE ONE that the Lord needs us to find. No matter if it be people on the street, investigators, less actives, active members, companions, and or even ourselves. There is always at least one that needs you to find and uplift them. Well, right away that evening on Friday, we saw how finding the one, brought great joy to us.

The first was as we went to visit a recent convert, she had canceled on us and so we were on our way back and as we walked back a lady stopped us and asked, " Hey are you missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?" We were surprised that she knew the whole title for our church and walked over to her and said yes. We asked if she was a member. She said yes. We asked for how long she was a member for. She said for two years. We grew really surprised and asked why she had not been coming to church. She said that she had work every day from 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. We asked if could meet and she said of course and so we got her number. That was just a blessing in disguise.

The piece that came into play was that we felt we should go visit another recent convert who had not been coming to church recently. As we were heading to her house, we ended up finding her on the road along the way. We asked if we could come by and do a lesson with her. She said she couldn't at the time and so we planned for another day that weekend. So after she left, we kept walking and got a call from another lesson we had planned for the next day, called and told us we couldn't meet and so as we finished the call. Then the woman shows up again and says that her plans changed and that she could meet right now. 

For her lesson we sang Be Still My Soul and talked about how the Lord loves us and how we need not worry what we go through because he is there. Something that my mother taught me is that one of the fastest ways we can receive the spirit into our lives is through singing hymns. I testified to this sweet woman that we are in deep NEED of his spirit in our lives. We can't do this life without him. Like the iron rod (his word). We need to be strong and hold fast to that rod as we do all that God ask us to do and we will receive strength to keep holding on. Satan on the other hand wants us to think we can do this life without God's help which is a completely LIE! It is seriously a pathetic joke that we can even think we can do this life without our father in heaven's help.

So an amazing trial I faced this week was I found out on the 5th of June I have lice again. :) This time I was pretty upset at first and then over time very humorous. I remember telling myself, "Okay, God still needs me to learn things from this Trial." But I have been taking this American stuff for it and I have not found them for two days. Sister O has been really sick with a cold this week and is beginning to recover.

Many other experiences that I faced this week of seeing the love people have for their Savior Jesus Christ and wanting His coming to be soon so they can return to live with God again. I know that the phrase it says in Be Still My Soul, 

"....Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord.

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past

All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last..."

I know that the day will come that the Savior will return and that when this day will come because it will come it will be a great and glorious day and that all we face now, will just be blessing and that the burdens we have been holding will one day be lifted by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is just up to us to take use of it before that great and glorious day.

Motra Bezas

Motra Bezas took this picture and then asked us:

"Can you see the butterfly? like noticing the awesome blessings in life."

She and her companion found matching pens!

Her district before two elders got transferred

Drinking some medicine to try to stave off a cold

A scene from Albania

The beautiful Albanian sunset