I hope everyone has had a good week and that it's starting to get slightly warmer in Canada. That's crazy. It hasn't got hot here yet, but I can tell you that I'm ALREADY absolutely dreading it. Ah, I'm terrified. I'm going to die.
This week has been kinda long for whatever reason, but it's super crazy to me that we're in the second half of May right now.. Like, what?! This week I got to go to Tirana and it was so great!! I was so excited. From the beginning of the transfer I was like, "Just make it until halfway through the transfer and then you get to see everyone from the MTC again." And that was this week, I got to Tirana and walked up the stairs of the mission home and one of the first people I saw was Elder Temple and I was SO excited. I've missed him so much!! So that was sweet to meet up with the Elders again. The Elders from Kosovo were late because their bus like broke down or something dumb, but when Elder Myers walked in I just wanted to like cry with excitement. I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw him again! I just wanted to tell him all of my stories. He's seriously one of the best people ever. After the meeting I was showing him my hair and how awful it was. And apparently up in Kosovo it's a lot more Americanized and stuff, I don't know but he was like, "I'll look around and see if I can find anything that will help you with your hair and I'll get it for you." Haha!! He's honestly the best.. I've never met anyone that has like genuinely cared for me and loved me like him! He's so freaking great. On hard days I'm like.. I just want to talk to Elder Myers. I'm just stoked for after the mission because I'm gonna convince him to come to BYU and we're just gonna be best buds forever. So, yeah.. Tuesday was so great.
As far as the work goes this week was a little bit rough. Ledi (Who is SO ready and SO solid) decided that she didn't feel like she knew enough to be baptized this week. Which is totally fine, but we know she has enough faith and we already have another date for her in a few weeks. She amazes me, seriously. Yesterday she didn't make it to church because she had to help her mom with work.. But we had a lesson with her and in her closing prayer she was asked Heavenly Father to forgive her for the fact that she couldn't receive the sacrament today and that she would make sure to be there next week. Honestly, I love listening to her pray because she geniuinely talks with God and you know it's directly from her heart. It's so amazing. Also, okay Vlore is super awesome and we have a BALLIN' ward mission leader and his name is Brother Prifti. He's just so great.. anyway, we have a family here and the only one who isn't baptized is the father and Brother Prifti is friends with him. So, we went over to teach him this week and we brought Brother Prifti and oh my goodness.. I love Albanians. We're teaching the Restoration and the Priesthood and stuff, and Brother Prifti was seriously like, "so yeah.. when you're baptized, you'll do this.. this.. and this.." Just so straight up and stuff. And Brother Mucaj was like, well I smoke like a cigarette a day, and Brother Prifti was straight up just like, come on. Just stop right now. You don't need it. We'll see you on Sunday. Haha, and well.. On Sunday we walk in and there's Brother Mucaj sitting by the Prifti family. So great. I so badly want to baptize the father so the whole family can go to the temple and be sealed :) They're so wonderful.
Yesterday we had interviews with President Ford and it was really good to talk with him and Sister Ford. I'm really sad that they're leaving so soon :( But, I'm really hoping that the new mission president is just as awesome.. We'll see. The interviews were pretty good, and after Sister Smith and I were talking about our interviews and she said that President Ford told her that when he was making the assignments for trainers, he was very much inspired that she was the trainer for me. This was super cool because, out of 20 or so sisters in the mission there was only one that was supposed to train me, and that was Sister Smith. This is very much the Lord's work and His hand is in every part of it.
One of the best things of this week was when we were walking to a recent converts house and we hear this like... loud almost opera-ish singing and we're like where is that coming from.. And most Albanians are borderline tone-deaf so, we were like what.. and all of a sudden we see this like 60 year old man come rolling down the hill on his bicycle and he's just givin 'er and I mean just belting it.. It was hysterical. We seriously laughed so hard. I love seeing happy people. So funny.
So, this week in Tirana we said goodbye to some of the senior couples. They'd been here for 18 months and they were just finishing their missions. As I was watching them, I'm already excited to serve a senior mission! Seriously.. I think it'd be SO great! Mom and Dad, I want you to go on one.. I've already decided you're doing it. Haha :) But seriously.. Senior couples don't get far enough credit.. Without them, mission areas just would not even function. They do so much! I think it'd be such an amazing experience. I seriously wanna serve like 8 missions and just go on a bunch of senior missions. So fun!
One thing that I've really been pondering this week is our relationship with our Savior. He's always there waiting for us to turn to Him and to come unto Him, but too often I think we decide that we only need the scriptures or we only need to pray diligently when we have trials or when we feel overwhelmed with our trials. It's during these times we become closer to Him, but when life gets easy again and we feel comfortable we stop placing emphasis on strengthening ourselves. I know how that's definitely how I was. The scriptures were great to help me during hard times, and I would always make time for them. I now realizet that having that strong relationship with Jesus Christ is something that should always be at the top of our priority list. Through times of happiness and through times of trouble. As I continue to work on His errand I realize that I truly need His love and His presence to abide with my every moment of the day.
I love and miss you all!
Motra Vermunt
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