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."