So a lot of interesting things happened this week...except not really. It was mostly just a normal week. We have a member that translates for us. We will call her A (I want to keep the people I am with safe so I won’t use their names) She literally is amazing. She translated “Jesus the Christ” into Albanian. Only one super exciting thing happened this week. On Friday afternoon we got a call from the AP's saying that the two of us would be going to Durres to participate in a missionary weekend conference. The conference was for young Albanian adults who are thinking about going on missions. They were there from Friday to Sunday, but we were just there on Saturday. We took them tracting and street contacting and to do some lessons. It made me really nervous because I was the senior companion and I was supposed to teach this Albanian how to be a missionary. I was first assigned to be with a girl from Vlore. We went street contacting and she was really nervous to talk to anyone so I was basically doing all of it myself and I realized that I actually speak more Albanian than I thought I did. Then I was with A and a different girl from Vlore. They were a lot more confident, but we went knocking on doors and it was super stressful. Then I had a lesson with an investigator, she has been taught all the lessons and we didn't know what to teach her. I was with a girl that knew her though because she was from Durres. Then we had a lesson at a member's house and the girl I was with was really nervous so I did most of the talking. The member lady said that I speak the best Albanian she's ever heard from a missionary who has been here less than three months. I said thank you politely, but in my head I was doing fist pumps and screaming "Oh YA!!" Anyway, then we went home from Durres and slept really well. We were basically dead because we walked probably 10 miles to and from the church for lessons and contacting and stuff.
On Sunday Sister Zollinger went up to play the piano so I had to mingle with people, but I didn't know what to say. I was talking to this 9 year old girl. Then, I went to talk to Elder Guymon, but he was talking to someone and so I was just waiting there. Anyway, this guy in our ward: I'm not going to tell you his name, but we call him Prince and his last name because he looks like he could be a prince in a Disney movie and he wears these awesome colorful sweaters all the time, came up and started talking to me. Well, it was awkward because he makes me really nervous because he just recently got back from his mission to Manchester, I think he is a better missionary than me. So he startled me and then started talking to me in Albanian and I was just like...ummm what?? Anyway, then I had no idea what to say so he switched to English and I was still super tired from walking like 20 miles the day before so I was super confused and started saying really stupid sounding things. He just started laughing at me. Sister Zollinger usually saves me in awkward situations, but she was playing prelude for sacrament so I just had a super awkward conversation with Prince. I said a bunch of stupid things. We are supposed to teach the FHE class for institute tonight and I think that he is going to be there and it is making me super stressed. Everyone in this country just thinks I'm insane I swear...
We only have one investigator right now. She's good, but she works a lot so we can't meet with her very often. She was supposed to get baptized this week, but we are going to have to move her date. I haven't had to speak in church yet, but the bishop asked us last Sunday to introduce ourselves this week, but then he never asked us to do it during church yesterday so we think he forgot.
Today we went bowling and it was super fun. They put my name as Fringo on the bowling sheet thing. I was like: really? Then we got extra dark chocolate gelato after and it was SOOOO good. We also got souflaqe today, I love souflaqe!! It is super awesome. It's like a gyro with french fries in it and we went to this Ukrainian sweets store, but I didn't know what to get so I didn't get anything. I thought that it was just a Ukrainian store so I was hoping to get spetana. (I don't know how to spell that) but it was just desserts. We also printed our fan charts at the mission office today and laminated them so we can use them for FHE tonight. We have to end pday early today so we can be to FHE on time. We are teaching about family history tonight. We got them in color and then we also did the pedigree chart with pictures on it and stuff.
In answer to your questions: We have enough water usually. We shop at the grocery store for food, but we have mostly been eating out because we don't have a fridge. We usually just eat lunch because we get a 2 hour break for lunch. We got our fridge fixed today so hopefully it works. We also still don't have a working microwave though, and we bought a toaster. We have a washer in our apartment. We don't usually spend a lot of time studying the language. I write down questions and we go over them at the end of the day, but we usually count just talking in Albanian as language study. The weather is starting to warm up a lot.
I also have the greatest phrase ever that I learned from one of my temporary companions: afer deti afer mbreti. It basically just means close to the sea close to the king, but the understanding is that life is better close to the sea. The girl who taught it to me is from Vlore which is a coastal city. I like it a lot because that's how I feel in San Diego.
Pergjithmone and gjithmone and gjithmone. (forever and always and always).
Love,
Motra Xhohansen
On Sunday Sister Zollinger went up to play the piano so I had to mingle with people, but I didn't know what to say. I was talking to this 9 year old girl. Then, I went to talk to Elder Guymon, but he was talking to someone and so I was just waiting there. Anyway, this guy in our ward: I'm not going to tell you his name, but we call him Prince and his last name because he looks like he could be a prince in a Disney movie and he wears these awesome colorful sweaters all the time, came up and started talking to me. Well, it was awkward because he makes me really nervous because he just recently got back from his mission to Manchester, I think he is a better missionary than me. So he startled me and then started talking to me in Albanian and I was just like...ummm what?? Anyway, then I had no idea what to say so he switched to English and I was still super tired from walking like 20 miles the day before so I was super confused and started saying really stupid sounding things. He just started laughing at me. Sister Zollinger usually saves me in awkward situations, but she was playing prelude for sacrament so I just had a super awkward conversation with Prince. I said a bunch of stupid things. We are supposed to teach the FHE class for institute tonight and I think that he is going to be there and it is making me super stressed. Everyone in this country just thinks I'm insane I swear...
We only have one investigator right now. She's good, but she works a lot so we can't meet with her very often. She was supposed to get baptized this week, but we are going to have to move her date. I haven't had to speak in church yet, but the bishop asked us last Sunday to introduce ourselves this week, but then he never asked us to do it during church yesterday so we think he forgot.
Today we went bowling and it was super fun. They put my name as Fringo on the bowling sheet thing. I was like: really? Then we got extra dark chocolate gelato after and it was SOOOO good. We also got souflaqe today, I love souflaqe!! It is super awesome. It's like a gyro with french fries in it and we went to this Ukrainian sweets store, but I didn't know what to get so I didn't get anything. I thought that it was just a Ukrainian store so I was hoping to get spetana. (I don't know how to spell that) but it was just desserts. We also printed our fan charts at the mission office today and laminated them so we can use them for FHE tonight. We have to end pday early today so we can be to FHE on time. We are teaching about family history tonight. We got them in color and then we also did the pedigree chart with pictures on it and stuff.
In answer to your questions: We have enough water usually. We shop at the grocery store for food, but we have mostly been eating out because we don't have a fridge. We usually just eat lunch because we get a 2 hour break for lunch. We got our fridge fixed today so hopefully it works. We also still don't have a working microwave though, and we bought a toaster. We have a washer in our apartment. We don't usually spend a lot of time studying the language. I write down questions and we go over them at the end of the day, but we usually count just talking in Albanian as language study. The weather is starting to warm up a lot.
I also have the greatest phrase ever that I learned from one of my temporary companions: afer deti afer mbreti. It basically just means close to the sea close to the king, but the understanding is that life is better close to the sea. The girl who taught it to me is from Vlore which is a coastal city. I like it a lot because that's how I feel in San Diego.
Pergjithmone and gjithmone and gjithmone. (forever and always and always).
Love,
Motra Xhohansen