Hello Family,
We picked olives this week, it was super cool, one of the coolest things we’ve done. We used sticks to hit the olives out of the tree. Elder Waters was super excited to try hitting the tree with a stick. Olive tree groves are everywhere here.
My brother, Parker, got married yesterday, still not too happy about missing that. I wore a yellow skirt and a blue shirt (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) with my Ukrainian amber necklace.
The ysa coordinators for central Europe came from Germany and we had district meeting with them. When we arrived I was handed a package. Then Elder Waters said “Hey I can read this”! He couldn’t actually read Ukrainian but he could read the Cyrillic letters. It was a package from Parker and Lera, I got super excited! But then I had to wait until after district meeting to open it…aaaaaah. So after district meeting I opened it and it is filled, literally with chocolate. So much chocolate, there is an adorable pumpkin filled with chocolate and a turtle with big eyes. So after the meeting I’m holding my package, and my scriptures, and my Albanian scriptures and then I see Roi standing at the bottom of the stairs. She is leaving for Italy and told me she wouldn’t have time to come to Vlore before she left. But, she had totally planned with Elder Waters to surprise me before she left. I had to put everything down to give her a hug!
We were invited to lunch with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. It was his son’s birthday and he invited the missionaries. We met at the church and got in the back seat of the makine (car). I’m looking out the window and wondering “where in the world are we going”? We were on the back highway to Fier. We get there and there is a really beautiful restaurant, in the middle of nowhere. We had eel, it was actually really good, it tasted kind of like fish, but a little different. Elder Waters was from New Zealand so he said they eat it all the time, he was excited.
We had a baptism on Friday. I love Hillary so much she is one of my most favorite people. She had waited a year to be baptized, then on the day of her baptism no one could come. The bishop couldn’t come or the first counselor, or the second counselor, or the elders quorum presidency, or the high priests….all busy, so Elder Waters presided over the baptism. We didn’t have keys for the chapel so we met upstairs in the institute room. But the Spirit was so strong. I was sitting next to her and she was all dressed in white and we were singing “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” I thought this is just a “perfect moment of perfectness” it can’t get better than this. She couldn’t stop smiling. I am just lucky that I was one of the missionaries to teach her and be with her when she was baptized, for some reason God allowed Sister Peters and me to be a part of it I was blessed to be there. A year ago Elder Outsen found her street contacting. Now a year later he was transferred back to this same area and he was able to baptize her. I was stressed because she had waited a year to be baptized and nothing was going right, the bishop wasn’t there, we couldn’t get into the chapel. But none of that mattered at all. The only thing that mattered was that she was getting baptized and she was so happy! Then Sunday morning I was stressed again because she was supposed to be confirmed in Sacrament meeting and she was late, but she was there in time for the confirmation.
We all went bowling for a YSA activity. It was super fun. Most of the people that came didn’t know how to bowl.
I love you all to Gallifrey and back!!
Love,
Motra Xhohansën
We picked olives this week, it was super cool, one of the coolest things we’ve done. We used sticks to hit the olives out of the tree. Elder Waters was super excited to try hitting the tree with a stick. Olive tree groves are everywhere here.
My brother, Parker, got married yesterday, still not too happy about missing that. I wore a yellow skirt and a blue shirt (the colors of the Ukrainian flag) with my Ukrainian amber necklace.
The ysa coordinators for central Europe came from Germany and we had district meeting with them. When we arrived I was handed a package. Then Elder Waters said “Hey I can read this”! He couldn’t actually read Ukrainian but he could read the Cyrillic letters. It was a package from Parker and Lera, I got super excited! But then I had to wait until after district meeting to open it…aaaaaah. So after district meeting I opened it and it is filled, literally with chocolate. So much chocolate, there is an adorable pumpkin filled with chocolate and a turtle with big eyes. So after the meeting I’m holding my package, and my scriptures, and my Albanian scriptures and then I see Roi standing at the bottom of the stairs. She is leaving for Italy and told me she wouldn’t have time to come to Vlore before she left. But, she had totally planned with Elder Waters to surprise me before she left. I had to put everything down to give her a hug!
We were invited to lunch with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. It was his son’s birthday and he invited the missionaries. We met at the church and got in the back seat of the makine (car). I’m looking out the window and wondering “where in the world are we going”? We were on the back highway to Fier. We get there and there is a really beautiful restaurant, in the middle of nowhere. We had eel, it was actually really good, it tasted kind of like fish, but a little different. Elder Waters was from New Zealand so he said they eat it all the time, he was excited.
We had a baptism on Friday. I love Hillary so much she is one of my most favorite people. She had waited a year to be baptized, then on the day of her baptism no one could come. The bishop couldn’t come or the first counselor, or the second counselor, or the elders quorum presidency, or the high priests….all busy, so Elder Waters presided over the baptism. We didn’t have keys for the chapel so we met upstairs in the institute room. But the Spirit was so strong. I was sitting next to her and she was all dressed in white and we were singing “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” I thought this is just a “perfect moment of perfectness” it can’t get better than this. She couldn’t stop smiling. I am just lucky that I was one of the missionaries to teach her and be with her when she was baptized, for some reason God allowed Sister Peters and me to be a part of it I was blessed to be there. A year ago Elder Outsen found her street contacting. Now a year later he was transferred back to this same area and he was able to baptize her. I was stressed because she had waited a year to be baptized and nothing was going right, the bishop wasn’t there, we couldn’t get into the chapel. But none of that mattered at all. The only thing that mattered was that she was getting baptized and she was so happy! Then Sunday morning I was stressed again because she was supposed to be confirmed in Sacrament meeting and she was late, but she was there in time for the confirmation.
We all went bowling for a YSA activity. It was super fun. Most of the people that came didn’t know how to bowl.
I love you all to Gallifrey and back!!
Love,
Motra Xhohansën