The Final Post of Her Mission

Dear Precious Gems,

Time is a precious gift of God. It is through time that we can learn and grow. It is through time that we are able to see the Lord's hand in our lives and the lives of others. It is through time that that we can gain witness that our Savior lives and that he payed the price of our sins so that we can become clean and be able to live with him and God again. It is throughout time that we can reach out to others in service and gaining joy that is pure and is irreplaceable.

In the end I would say time is the key to truly be able to see through the process of time through God's eyes and how he sees things. I know and can testify that I have seen through his eyes throughout my mission. For those we taught, for the miracles that occurred, and for how his plan truly takes on a bigger picture than just in this life.

One of the many lessons I have gained throughout my mission is who we truly we are. WE ARE PRECIOUS SPIRITS. We matter so greatly so him. We each have a purpose and it is in this life we truly get to know who we truly are through Godly knowledge through revelation of the spirit. It is by the spirit that we gain the eyes to truly see.

One of the first commitments I received in the mission field is one that as missionaries that we keep with us always on a card and it is: "I will, with all my heart, dedicate my life to the Savior; He can then sanctify me and purify me so that I will know Him and SEE Him."

I testify that I have seen! HE LIVES! HE IS THERE!!! AS WE WALK THIS PATH OF LIFE, HE IS THERE AND IT IS BY HIM, THROUGH HIM, AND OF HIM THAT WE CAN RETURN TO LIVE WITH HIM AGAIN BECAUSE OF THE PRECIOUS GIFT HE GAVE OF THE ATONEMENT.

I know that as we strive to use his atonement everyday, we will come to know him better. We will gain confidence to approach the judgement bar of God and know without a shadow of a doubt who he is when we see him. But it is up to us and what we do today.

I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true and ONLY church on the earth that holds all the keys and authority of Christ's church he established in the beginning.  I testify Joseph Smith was called of God to be a prophet to restore Christ's church back to the earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is the TRUE word of God. It IS another witness of Jesus Christ. It speaks and breathes life into our lives.

One of my new favorite scriptures is in 3 Nephi 15:9...

"Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life."

It is only when we look to him that we gain life. True life! Which is joy in its purest form! 

I know that it is through our mistakes that we are able to stand back up again and gain the blessing of joy and comfort from the Savior as we come unto him. I testify that he takes care of us the moment we go unto him.

Like in Doctrine and Covenants 88:126...

"Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. Behold, and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen."

It simply starts with us humbling ourselves. Through the simple things like Prayer. Getting on our knees and pleading with our Father in Heaven. Asking for forgiveness and expressing the deepest feelings of our hearts of our gratitude of the things that the Lord has placed in our lives.

I testify that he is there. And whenever we doubt it, we can simply ask him and through studying the scriptures and then going unto him in prayer we can receive our answer...

" 7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

 8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

 9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me." (Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9)

The Gospel is the way to truly understand how to use this time that we have during this life to use it to best capacity. It is when we do this it become truly precious.

Of this I testify in the Name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Motra Bezas

Saying goodbye the previous week to so many beloved servants of God and friends 

that she's met in the field

(there are more pictures - I just can't get them to load!) 

We Are His Precious Sons and Daughters of God

Dear Precious Gems of God,

WOW! This week was full of life principles and eye opening moments through the spirit.

I testify that our Father in Heaven is a merciful one. He is one of patience. He is one of Love. He is one of perfect understanding. He is our Father Divine!!! AND WE ARE HIS PRECIOUS SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD!!!

We matter so much to him!!!

I can't fully express it enough!! This week as I gave my final testimony at Zone Conference, I felt the spirit guided me to talk about the Love our Father has for each of us individually and how we easily forget of our GREAT value to him and who we truly are in Heaven's Eyes. 

This is a life process to truly come to understand ourselves and our eternal value to our Father in Heaven. (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10... "... The worth of Souls Is Great In the Sight Of God....") And having it brought back to our remembrance through the spirit piece by piece in the Lord's timing. It is through this life and every experience we face that we start to realize our role here on the Earth in the Lord's Plan of Salvation to help bring all his children to return to him. Isn't that what Salvation truly means. Saving Souls. Precious Souls in the sight of God. And everything soul we bring unto him, how eternally grateful he is unto us for our efforts we gave. No matter how big or little your part was to play, you still brought them one step or many steps unto their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Then for the rest of your life, You are eternally blessed by him for your efforts. I know that my joy has never been more full than being in his service and that I get to proclaim his precious word to each child of God that comes into the path of me and my companion and that we are able to testify together of what we have come to know to be true through trial and effort, we saw the blessings that poured forth into our lives and still do to this day.

This week we had two beautiful experiences of meeting with three great elect souls. The first one was a really special girl. She is here studying for school here.... OH MY GOODNESS!! Being in her presence!!! I seriously hadn't felt so.... SO... Happy and Giddy and pure joy, than I felt with her all at once in a long time. I felt it throughout our whole visit as the spirit just POURED into the room.  I thought it was awesome to feel this way, but I was trying to discern why I was feeling this way with the spirit. But I felt it was more of my spirit was recognizing who she truly was by her spirit. 

The next day we had another experience similar with another new girl who brought her friend unexpectedly and felt the same way but it was more of a wise feel and the questions he gave that were so simple/deep and powerful. I felt my spirit something similar like it had done the day before but I couldn't figure out fully what it was. 

Later I was talking after that lesson with Sister D about it and it was so guided by the spirit that conversation. It hit me that we BOTH felt the same exact way. We felt the spirit opened our  eyes to see that the veil was VERY thin with those two meetings and that our spirits recognized who they truly were.

It was later I was pondering on it that the spirit opened my eyes see more that the feeling I had was my spirit reaching out and rejoicing in finding his valiant/royal souls.

I know that if we only could have the eyes to see who we truly are as our spirits, we would be overwhelmed by the love of God for the fact that he has surrounded us with His blessed spirit children.

That is why the first commandment is love and loving one another and that we should be merciful to all around us and forgive when others have done us wrong. That is when we gain the Chirstlike Attribute of Charity.

This week during our Zone Conference. I learned more the meaning of the phrase: Teach Repentence, Baptize Converts. 

The biggest message I got out of the conference is that we need throughout our whole missions here is that we need to follow what we teach. As we repent, we then become worthy to have the spirit with us. Because the true teacher and witness is the Spirit! 

As representatives of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are His mouthpieces as we teach and testify to each child of God. That is when His spirit comes in and confirms. IT IS THROUGH THE SPIRIT THAT HEARTS OF MEN ARE TOUCHED! 

THAT  is why the spirit is SO important. It is how the work goes forth. It is up to us to use our agency every day to be exactly obedient and be worthy and prepared to listen to the promptings of the spirit we will know what we need to say and what they need. Because it is our Father who knows us best.

I know that he Lives. Our Father in Heaven Lives. And because he lives, we then can know that we lived with him before this life... AS HIS SPIRIT CHILDREN! We are his! He loves us more than we can imagine and we have the wonderful opportunity to learn of him and his love for us through out this life as we read his words that he has preserved for us in our day now where Satan is trying his hardest to bring as many souls down as he can before Christ comes again.

I know that it is by him, through him, and of him we can do all things.

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. (Alma 26:12)

I love you all so much and thank you for all  you do. Just keep being awesome and know that the Lord is with you. ALWAYS!!!

Me Dashuri, 

Motra Bezas

The Hand of God

Dear Precious Gems,

This week was such a blessed week. Lots of opposition. But I saw the Hand of God throughout it and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I think that with every trial, struggle, fatigue, etc. come beautiful lessons to learn. We first learn who we truly are to our Father in Heaven. We are miraculous beings to our Father in Heaven. The second thing we learn about ourselves is that we are strong spirits and can do anything and everything that our Father has asked us to do. Like in 1 Nephi 17. AWESOME CHAPTER ABOUT FOLLOWING THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD!! But one of my favorite verses is 50... 

"If the Lord commanded me to do all things I could do them..."

I testify that I know that  this a simple message that is meant for our times now ESPECIALLY!!! I know that as we are constantly reading His words in the Book of Mormon and the Bible, we will gain exactly we need at that time for that specifically for us or for someone else that needs it. I know that as we are constantly relying on the Lord, we will never go astray. We are his and the moment we begin to get off track, he will guide through the spirit to get us back on the straight and narrow path before us that will lead us to our Father in Heaven.

Something that I learned from 1 Nephi 17 just yesterday as we were reading it with a recent convert was that God allows experiences and when we go to the Lord, He can teach us the simple truth that our father in heaven is God. He knows best for us and can do all things. We can't fully comprehend even Who he truly is. But that is what is so beautiful about this life. We get to know him even better.

Before this life, we lived with him as spirit children. We had a good relationship with Him. But we were just spirits. We couldn't fully have the deep relationship that we could gain with him unless we came here and gained a body. So physically we can learn everyday about him and the love that he has for us and gain witness of it. It is how we truly can recognize his sacrifice for us and we get to see through his eyes little by little everyday who we are but as well with all things.

I know that he is so desirous for us to learn the love he has for us and it is through getting to know the Savior through the atonement that we get to know our Father in Heaven. Because he is the perfect example.

I know he loves us and wants us to have success as we walk the path to return to him.

This week we had a baptism for a wonderful girl. SHE IS SUCH A STRONG SPIRIT. This wonderful young woman had come a long way and the journey was tough, but when the time came for her to be baptized, she had made the steps herself with her Savior. That was the most beautiful miracle this week.

The scripture that came to my mind during all of this was , "By small and simple things... great things are brought to pass..." I know this truly related to her.

And because of the small steps she took before through her months of learning the lessons, she was truly ready to receive the great opportunity to make a covenant with God through the waters of baptism and take upon her the name of her beloved Savior Jesus Christ.

I know that our Father is a merciful god. He is aware of us and all we go. All we have to do is to go unto him and we will see that He is always there with us.

I know He lives.

I love you all!

Motra Bezas

With a previous companion on an exchange - Motra Bezas sure loves her

Sampling some Albanian yummies!

A map of one of the locales...

Scenic pictures

With a terrific Albanian

 Some more scenic pictures

 Her hair is starting to go curly!

Some of the missionaries on their p-day activity

With another terrific Albanian

One additional picture of this country she has come to love so much

The Lord Has Called Us

Dear Precious Gems,

This week time is not on my side but the Lord is.

I know that the Lord has called us to be where we are at this time because there is a work for each of us to do. Because we matter. We are precious. Each and everyone of us. I know the Lord knows each and everyone of us and has great trust in us to accomplish his work. This week I saw the Lord's hand through many wonderful experiences.

One that I saw was in our MLC. President Weidmann gave us a commitment to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover... IN A MONTH! He then promised blessings and told us that this will bring miracles into our lives and the work. And that we would receive answers! 

I testify that as I heard the commitment to read the Book of Mormon I felt the Spirit witness every word that he spoke to us were coming from our Father in Heaven for us at this time. I know that the Lord is in dire need to talk WITH us. Especially now at this time in the world's history. There are things we can't understand right now at mere mortals... BUT THAT IS WHY WE HAVE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR BY OUR SIDE TO LEAD THE WAY THROUGH HIS SPIRIT. Our guide. Our protector.

As I have started this week to read, with this desire to follow the will of my Savior - what he wants of me at this time - I can testify the Spirit really has transformed my world and has already brought some of those promised blessings - they have already have been brought to pass during just this first week alone. I know the Lord is in the little details of our lives. All we have to do is simply be humble enough and rely on Him. From there, the adventures we take are probably some of  the hardest experiences that we will receive but that will be the most memorable experience we won't forget.

So my simple commitment for all of you this week is to see the blessings pour forth in each and everyone of your lives for yourselves. By reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover in a month. Starting today till the 11 of Feb. I can promise you that you will come to know your Lord and Savior better and gain a deeper testimony that will be undeniable that you know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. And that we matter.

Know that you all are amazing and thank you for all that you do. Keep being amazing!!

Motra Bezas

The Lord Loves His Children So Much

Dear Precious Gems,

The Lord loves His children so much. I saw it so much this week. I testify that the Lord is always looking out for us. ESPECIALLY when we think or believe that He is not there. HE IS THERE. He is reaching out to us every single day. It with the simple tools of prayer, scriptures, church, fasting, service, doing all that He asks of us that we can begin to access all that He has in store for us.

That is what the true meaning of blessings that he has planned for us. It is all in the Lord's timing when he needs us to receive something from him at that time. It is simply up to us to prepare the way for them to come into our lives. 

This week I learned a sweet and simple truth from a recent convert as we were teaching the lesson about Fasting. Something that this woman shared that was beautiful was about the blessing we receive from fasting, and that is we will come to know our Savior even better as we are praying and sacrificing only two meals to ask for help in one way or another. But we come to know him better!

It really taught me that we seriously begin to see Him when we give something that sometimes is big for us to be able to receive something even greater. I know that we each personally can testify that any time we have sacrificed something that was precious to us, no matter what it might have been, that we have been graciously blessed in return.

It is such a witness to me that our Father in Heaven loves us so greatly, He is so pleased with us the moment we are willing to give up something that is of such great value for something even greater that he has in store for us.

I know he lives. He is our Wonderful Heavenly Father. We are his children. And I know that He is THERE! ALWAYS!

Love, Motra Bezas

With a beloved Albanian sister-friend

Outside a fabric shop

Visiting a street of her beloved Albania

Seeing the Christmas lights on a very cold night

A sweet family fed the missionaries at a wedding place

Seeing some of her beloved sister companions and friends

In the evening in Albania

With Sister C, previous awesome companion

With Sister D, a beloved MTC companion, just before she flew home to the states

Saying hello to Sister J, another previous companion and friend!