1 Month Down

I have officially been in the MTC for a month! Nailing it!! It's been an amazing adventure to be here. I'm so happy. :) I love it! I love my mission. It's unreal. 

And that's me and my LIM. (Libri I Mormonit) I read it out loud every night and its getting easier and easier, so that's a good thing. 

Tell me/send me pictures of Mack's baby!! I wanna hear everything! Thank you to my wonderful family that sends me letters throughout the week, it seriously makes me so so so so so so happy. 

I'm grateful for you all. 

This week has been wonderful, and I'm so grateful for the experiences that I have. I have so much faith in this gospel, I can't even explain it to you. It's amazing. I'm gonna try and focus my thoughts haha they're kind of everywhere. And knowing you only have 1 hour to e-mail is scary. Haha, it's like a time bomb. I don't like it. 

This week we got new Fin's. The sisters are so cute and I love them. They're so nice. It'll be way fun to be getting to know them in the last little while that I'm here. Also, I see Etienne on the daily, he's chill. He totally fits in with the missionary life. He's awesome. 

These are the new Sisars and Sister Feil and I. They're all so nice

This week I have felt the Lord's hand in my life. He has answered my prayers in SO many ways. We got a new Branch President who is AMAZING. I met with him this past week and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It made me feel so good. 

I'm feeling a little more confident with the language, I talk in lessons, I can have conversations with my fellow Elders and teachers, and as a read the Book of Mormon in Albanian, I realize that I recognize/ know many words. So that's nice. 

I had a really cool experience this week. We were teaching our "investigator", and our goal was to commit her to read/pray each night individually. So, as we were teaching her about the Plan of Salvation we were leading up to that commitment. In my heart though, I felt like I needed to ask her to pray about being baptized and since I didn't know exactly how to say that, I was about to look it up in my book and as I started to do that, my companion Elder Myers asks her EXACTLY what I was thinking. That was not my own thought, that was the Spirit telling us what this person was ready for. We both had the same prompting. I'm so grateful that we were both able to recognize and act upon it. It was a huge blessing, and I'm so grateful that the Spirit is with us so that we can feel those things that we need to feel. 

So, on Sunday I had to give a talk.. and here at the MTC they announce during the meeting who will be speaking (Mom's worst nightmare) and it was on the Spirit. And I was actually so happy to be able to give this talk because this is something I feel so strongly about. I rely on the Spirit every single day. I'm pretty sure I say like 20 prayers a day and in each one I pray that the Spirit will be with me because I KNOW that the Spirit is what will lead to my success, and that it will comfort me in the hardest of times. I bear witness that having the Spirit as your constant companion will bring you so much joy and you will get so much more out of life when you live in such a way that it will always be with you. 

As I've received answers to my sincere prayers, I am so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father. He knows each one of us individually, in the most specific ways. As I pray about other people, I feel His love for each of them and I hope that all of you can feel that love as well. If any of you feel as though you are insignificant or unknown, I challenge you to kneel down and pray to Heavenly Father and simply ask him.. "Do you even know me? Do you know where I am, what I'm doing or what I want? Heavenly Father, do you love me?" I promise that if you genuinely seek an answer He will give it to you. I know He will. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." 

I hope that everyone is happy and well, it's absolutely beautiful weather here. I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm still in Utah.. As far as I'm concerned I'm in a jail somewhere. Haha, we call it Spirit prison.. because that's literally what it is. But, it's the best!!!! I'm getting so excited to get out to Albania and meet those people that the Lord has sent me to find.

Te Dua family!!!! 

The sisars decorated our doors because they rock and we're the bomb. :) 

I love it because "shume mire" means very good but they didn't know to spell it. I love it. It's awesome. 

Motra Say Jay