So, I'm going to start out and apologize if this e-mail is totally lame because honestly.. I don't even know where this week went and I feel like nothing happened!! It's so weird.
As things become more familiar to me out here in Albania with the language and the area and things like that time has just really picked up.. missionary life doesn't seem weird anymore, it's just.. life. But, after last week being so rough, Sister Pitcher and I knew that something needed to change. So, in our weekly planning session last Friday we decided that before we placed any goals for our weekly key indicators we would pray about that number and ask the Lord if it was according to His will. It was a really neat experience for us as a companionship. There were some goals that we placed and I was like.. there's no way that's happening. But those ones were the goals that we made.. almost perfectly, some we even exceeded!! It was such a testament to me of the power of the Lord and the fact that this is HIS work and He all things can be done through dependence on Him.
Our work right now is kind of in the middle, it's not crazy fast but not slow either. I'm grateful for the investigators that we have. But things are a little stagnant at this point in time.. I'm looking forward to a fresh week to be able to really put my head down and work harder. I know that the Lord gives us our difficulties every now and again so that we might more fully depend on Him and seek His direction. We definitely humble ourselves when we realize this work is impossible to do without His help every day. Our recently baptized investigator, File, is doing amazing! She came to an area broadcast for the Relief Society and she just LOVED it. She's doing so great and now we're teaching her son and her other daughter wants to get baptized as well! I know that as we teach people as families it is such a blessing because they can strengthen one another and really be examples to each other. It's our goal that our converts can one day go to the temple and make those sacred covenants with their families and be sealed together for eternity. Nothing would bring me more joy than to see that with the people I've worked with.
I went on an exchange this week with our STL's. Sister Boettinger came down to 4th ward with me and Sister Pitcher went up to 1st ward. Sister Boettinger is from Kitchner, Ontario so it was fun to have another little Canadian with me. We went out to a farm and went to do "service". Which actually turned into us standing around.. waiting to have something to do and then being fed lunch. I was really hoping to be able to milk the cow.. But what do you do. Anyway.. this house has TONS of flies.. Seriously, I've never seen more flies in my life. I don't even know. But, she fed us lunch.. Which was soup, some chicken and some cake. So nice.. but.. kinda scary.. and guess what.. the next night. I was sick. Like, so sick.. So, I went to church on Sunday and one of the Elders was like.. "You look awful." I seriously was a whole other level of pale. Pretty ridiculous. But, yeah.. so all of Sunday we stayed in the house and I wished for death. But, the Elders came over at the end of the night and gave me a blessing. I'm actually not feeling nauseous today.. Just really sore from throwing up so much. Was it the food from the farm.. I'd like to say no.. But I'm not gonna rule it out. Haha. Man..
So, I mentioned a little while ago that I've been on this kick about changing and about character and things like that. I really want to develop into the person Heavenly Father needs me to be. I'm still studying that a lot and trying to be aware of the weaknesses of my character that I need to enhance. I've really enjoyed the things that I've learned.. But my friend James Clark sent me an e-mail this week and he said something that really hit me. He said, "we weren't called to this service because of what we have been or what we are. We are called because of what we will become." I think that the more that we all consider that we have the potential to become so much more than we currently are, we enable ourselves to progress at an accelerated rate and we allow the Lord to shape us in ways that can only be done through His divine power. I've learned that it's our personal responsibility to humble ourselves and invite the Lord into our hearts and give ourselves over to Him. I found this quote in a Book of Mormon manual, and it said "If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be." I know that this is true with each and every one of us and that our potentials extend beyond our understanding, it's our choice to become better.
I love you all and I hope that this week is a great one for all of you! Enjoy the snow. It's starting to cool down here and I could not be more grateful for that.
With love from Tirana,
Sister Vermunt
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