There is no place like Kosovo ♥

This week was amazing in every way. Kosovo is awesome and I am happy, healthy, and safe.:)  We met some amazing friends this week.

     First of all we met with this awesome lady who is in her 50's. She is spunky, loving and is an amazing mom to her three kids. We had fun meeting with her and talking about the Book of Mormon.   She loves the things we believe and the standards we have.  She accepted a return appointment and we are super excited to start working with her.

     Also, There is this woman named Ib who is super awesome and super interested in the Gospel. We had a first lesson with her that went great. She didn't have a lot of time but we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and explain our Purpose and talk about a few of our beliefs. She apparently loved it because she asked if we could meet at least three times a week and if she could bring her kids or her friends next time. She loved the church and the feeling there. She is solid and I have a really good feeling about her:) 

     This week we had an exchange so I got to go to Gjakova for a day and work with Sister Jackson over there. I was able to go with her to a lesson with her new investigators and they are amazing.  It's a large family and they love to talk, but the lesson was really awesome and It was just another witness to me that Heavenly Father prepares his children for the Gospel.  There really are people out there waiting and ready to receive those blessings in their lives. I had another witness like that again with the Elders recent convert who was baptized last week. (I sent some pictures with him last week. He's the one in white ;) heehee)  Anyways, he already had his first talk in church this week and he spoke as if he had been a member for years. It was amazing to hear how strong his testimony is already. The Gospel works miracles in each and every one of our lives:) It really does change people. I've seen it in my life and those I love. 

    There is such a wide range of personalities and people in this world.   Sometimes it just amazes me when I take a second to stop and think about how unique each and every one of us are.  I've met such a wide range of people and personalities in the year that I have been on my mission and it's been so fun for me. It's crazy that we can all be so different in every way, but yet so alike in purpose and the fact that we are all children of our Heavenly Father. I love this life that I live. :) Missionary work is great<3 

Love you all. Have an awesome week and a Happy Halloween:) 

"One more from Sister Fuller's birthday!"

"Mine and Sister Fullers relationship in a nutshell haha"

"#BLESSED"

"We went to Bonsteel to visit a member in the military and have a lesson with him.
It was like a step back into time...
We went into a store that had a ton of American food and anything you can imagine.  Everyone spoke English and Sister Fuller and I basically had panic attacks/culture shock.  Not ready for America yet haha it was fun, but I'm staying here forever.  Sorry ;)"
Oh yes.  She is just full of jokes... that I don't think are funny. 

"How many people can you fit in a van on the way to FUTBOL?" 

Families can be together forever! ♥

  This week in our English class we were having a class "debate" on English topics to help others practice their English.  Everyone was giving their perspective and points of view and nobody could come to an agreement. When It came time for the spiritual thought we were all able to agree... that Heavenly Father truly loves and knows each and everyone of us. No matter what the people believed in,the class or what their history of life is like, they were all able to agree and bare testimony on that one simple truth. GOD LOVES US. I know too that this is true and I was able to feel it even more strongly and personally this week.

     My heart goes out to my family. I just received news recently that my Grandpa passed away. My heart hurts, but is somehow full of love and gratitude at the same time.  I'm especially grateful that I've been taught since I was young the Plan  of Salvation.  I know that we will be able to see our loved ones again someday and that life doesn't end here. I didn't fully understand the Plan then and I know there are a lot of things I still don't know but this week the Plan has become a lot closer to my heart.   It's called the Plan of Happiness for a reason.  It's not because death is easy and losing our loved ones is happy, but the peace the plan brings and the hope and faith of seeing them again.

      Its a HUGE privilege to be able to teach people about this plan. After receiving news of my grandpa, all I wanted to do was talk to other people about Heavenly Fathers Plan, because I can't imagine life without that knowledge. I feel so sorry for those that don't feel or know that this is true. 

      I cant express in words the love that I have for my family and the gratitude that I have to my Heavenly Father. I know that "Families can be together forever through Heavenly Fathers plan. I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can"

"Listening intently to conference"

"Elder Guyman loved all the talks too ;)"

"Our cute senior couple the Hydricks.  I ♥ them!"

"I love my Morina sisters so much!"

"Just bein cool"

"Happy birthday Sister Fuller!"

HEJJJ (Hello)

"Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?" 

Jeremiah 32:27

     An Elder shared this with us at Zone Training and I loved it so much I had to use it to start off my email. I can tell you right now that there is nothing too hard for the Lord.   There is nothing he cannot do. 

     This week was awesome. We were BLESSED by Heavenly Father and were able to get three new investigators! Someone asked me the other week what was my favorite part about being a missionary and I could honestly say that it was the people that I have met. Being a missionary is special because you get to see people in a different way than before. You really truly begin to see them as children of God instead of just people on the street.  Sometimes its hard because you feel so much love for them and you just want to help them and they don't except or fully understand.  Either way it's the most amazing thing ever.  I also have gotten to feel his love for me more strongly also.

     Our District Leader and Zone Leaders decided that we should all be given a blessing this week to start off the transfer right. It was another testimony to me of how well Heavenly Father knows each of us and what we need. I received an awesome blessing from the Elders and received the strength in the words I heard to keep me going. I know that it was Heavenly Father speaking directly to me and telling me the words I needed to hear.

     I've also had a lot of cool experiences with trying to understand and listen to the Spirit.  I've struggled at times at deciphering whether  Heavenly Father is trying to tell me something, or when it is just my own thoughts.  I've made it a goal to get better at it and act on the things that come to mind. We had a cool experience with it too. We were saying a prayer this week to know where we needed to go for proselyting and there was a specific street that came to my mind as we were praying. I took this too be a prompting so we went. I don't know the streets here very well yet, but I had remembered this specific street so we went there. It was further than I had realized but I felt that it was right as we were heading there. When we got around the area I had seen, there was a particular building that stood out to Sister Fuller and I so we went there.   The first door we knocked on opened and we had a lesson! The lady was very Muslim but was willing to listen to what we had to say before she shut the door. She may not have accepted a baptismal date or a return appointment, but we were able to bring her closer to her Savior by testifying to her and so I count it as a success. :) 

     I also finally got to watch a little bit of Conference this week and it was AMAZING! I love hearing the words of the Prophet and His Apostles. Its amazing how there are so many people around the world that can feel like a specific talk was just for them. To me it just shows us even more how aware Heavenly Father is of each of His children. 

     I love testifying to the people here that they indeed have a Savior who suffered and Died for them. I know without a doubt of this simple truth. He lives. and HE LOVES US SO MUCH. I cant deny it. ♥

"Adventures with Sister Fuller!"

"This is sweet Shyrete.  She made us some "Fli" today for lunch

"and this is Diart.  Don't let his cute innocent face foo you... He's crazy and full of energy...
ALWAYS..but I love it!"

"This is my companion ♥"

"Happy Birthday Elder Keck! (Yes that is Chicken Cordon Bleu)

"Here are all the Sisters in the Adriatic South Mission♥"

Love from Prishtina♥

So I have arrived safely in Kosovo :) We had a long drive Tuesday night and started working on Wednesday!   Prishtina is AMAZING. It's very different from Tirana Albania, but I love it already:) I've already met some amazing people here and I cant wait to serve around them. 

    The work here is different and the Church is pretty new here. (It's only been here for about 5 years) But the active members we have are AMAZING. They are super strong and have some awesome strong testimonies. We also have a couple people from the military in our ward and it's super fun! It's also been awesome working with Sister Fuller. We've always gotten along great since the MTC. We would do role plays together in the MTC and now we're doing the real thing together! Who would have thought??:)  Shes a great missionary and has the biggest heart so it has been great:) I'm kënaqin.

    We've already seen some awesome tender mercies from the Lord as always:) No matter where you are they will always be there. 

    I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. 

There was one night where me and Sister Fuller were coming home from a lesson on the other side of town. Apparently we can usually catch a bus at that time but every bus that came by was not the one we needed. Bus after bus, as the minutes passed. It was getting late too and we needed to get to the house.  We decided to call a taxi and waited some more. We were both getting pretty anxious and then I had a feeling we needed to say a prayer.  So right there we stopped and I talked to my Heavenly Father and the second I finished we looked up and there was the Taxi. I know that everything was falling through for a reason and I think the main reason was to test our faith so Heavenly Father could prove to us again that he DOES answer our prayers. 

    Yesterday we had another awesome experience with prayer also. We had planned for a lesson but unfortunately that fell through.  We decided to go see this lady that we had met on the stairs of our apartment. She had told us to come over any time but when we tried calling her phone it didn't go through so we decided we would go tracting in our own building until we came across her house. haha We had a pretty good idea about which floor she was on (either the one above us or below) so we tried the one below us first. We got to that floor and I felt the need to say a prayer because there was no way we were going to find them without Heavenly Fathers help. I began to say the prayer and after I said the words "Heavenly Father, We need thy help" in that very second the woman walked out of her apartment. I don't know why but she came out.. AT THAT VERY SECOND. She was ecstatic to see us and invited us in and we had a lesson with her and another 6 of her family members. 

     Another cool thing about yesterday: We had a lesson with this new lady in our ward. She is from America and is here teaching English for a year. She doesn't know Albanian but luckily we know English;) Anyway, she seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to life in a foreign country.  We had set a plan to go and visit her this week, but as we were saying another prayer we had a prompting that we needed to go see her that night, so we did. We went over not really having a perfect well put together lesson planned but decided the Spirit would lead the lesson and it did 100%. We shared experiences.  Sister Fuller and I talked about the lesson after and how we could literally see a difference in the way she had looked after the lesson.  I don't think we had realized how bad she needed the lesson or how bad we did.  But I do  know it was supposed to be at that exact time. We even ran into her today and she stopped and told us how much she really needed that lesson and how much more at peace she felt with things after. 

     The work here is different here in Prishtina.  Like I said, it is a little more difficult to get lessons and investigators because the people just have a different mentality.  So this week was spent doing a lot more proselyting than I'm used to. Sister Fuller and I had both decided that we need to do more for Heavenly Father if we want those miracles he has promised us.  So we made a list of things we could do to push even harder to be better. We made some sacrifices and I know that those miracles and tender mercies we witnessed this week were a result of it. 

I know that he sees us, he loves us, and he cares for us. I know that this work is HIS. 

D&C 64:33

"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great" 

I love being a missionary:) I am happy, I am healthy, and I am safe. I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week. 

PS:  Please read this talk. you wont regret it. I read it this week and felt that I needed to share it:) 

Tung

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/d-todd-christofferson_give-us-this-day-our-daily-bread/

"KOSOVOOOO ♥"

"My new apartment"

"Role plays with Sister Fuller"

"Smoothies in the morning"

"I love my companion!"

"Sister Fuller ♥"

"See that little spec?? That's me! :)"

"This is a library!"

"Bye bye Sis Z :/ i love you"

"Our cute ward member ♥ I love her already"

"One of the sisters left a guitar here so I pretended to know how to play it."

"Elders.  Meet our Zone Leaders and District Leader"