Transfer #3

Hey everyone!

So, I honestly can't believe I'm already into my third transfer.. It's really weird to think that I've been out on a mission for about 8 months now. I've learned so much though! 

Church in 3rd ward. The landlord lives on the floor.

So, when President told me that I would be moving areas I was so surprised. I did not expect it at all..  Plus everyone always talked about how 3rd ward is the hardest area in Tirana and how it's just really slow. So, that was not exciting to me.. But let me tell you guys, I am SO happy here. Oh my gosh. This last week has been incredible. I absolutely love my companion. Her name is Sister Coleman, she's from Provo. Get this y'all, her name is Sarah Jane! So, SJ-squared is just taking over Tirana 3rd ward. 

But seriously.. I love working with Sister Coleman. This is her 2nd transfer, so she's one transfer behind me.. But I've already learned a ton from her. She's great! We had so much success this past week. Together, we found 2 investigators that are seriously SO solid. One of them is Sandra and she is amazing. She came to our English course and we showed the Restoration video and she was just so intrigued as we watched it. She's 23, and she's adorable! She's super bubbly and smiley and everything. The next English course we taught about the Book of Mormon and we gave her one and she was so grateful, she said she was going to ask for one after the class ended! We invited her to start reading it and the next day she was already on 1 Nephi 6, and she had a lot of questions and things. Oh my goodness you guys, I adore her. She came to a baptism with us on Saturday and that was really great. She's on a baptismal date for the 1st of November! 

The people here in 3rd ward are seriously incredible. I already love them so much.. I've already adopted the name of "Motra Barbie" once again. Albanian's really struggle with Vermunt for whatever reason. But we have a little "mini" missionary with us. Her name is Sindi and she's 10 years old. She helps us with lessons like everyday and she is just amazing. She has a whole notebook of her favourite scriptures with her and has already read Preach My Gospel haha. She reminds me so much of Brooklyn, she's a sassy little thing. I love her! 

I was really sad to leave 4th ward though. One of the 'less actives' that we worked with was Brisi Beleshi, and she honestly is one of my favourite people here in Albania. She speaks English perfectly so we always just taught her in English and stuff, she's seriously amazing. She's so fun! We got to be such good friends. I'm still in Tirana which is good so I can see her occasionally but she texted me this week after she had a bad day and she said that she's never gotten closer to a sister missionary and stuff and that honestly just made me feel so good.. The last few weeks in 4th were pretty rough for me so it was nice to know that some good things came from my time there.

One of the members from 4th ward, Xhexi has a totally PINK room! and the cutest pink phone ever!

So, I'm sure all of you are interested about my health. Things have definitely been worse! So that's good. I've still got a decent amount of pain which is really frustrating. I still get really nauseous on the daily.. Also annoying. But, this past week I was literally in the hospital 5 out of the 7 days. It was RETARDED. So, we went the first day to book an appointment for the next day and I had an ultrasound, and everything appeared to be normal and fine.. and then the next day we went to see about me getting an MRI but it would have taken too long so we booked it for the next day.. But funny thing about that, the lady at the desk was like "yeah, you should pay for the MRI today because we have a deal.. they're 50% for today." I laughed so hard. I was like.. sweet, half price MRI! Score! So.. we went in the next day to have that done, and so I'm back there and they're sticking needles in me and stuff (can I just say how much I loathe needles.. ugh) anyway, the lady goes away and then comes back and she's like.. so.. the electric company turned of the power.. So we're just running on generators. Yeah. Albania for the win.. the company turned of the power.. at the HOSPITAL. Haha, what even.. Anyway, so the ladies were like "come back tomorrow at 8 before the people at the electric company get up and get to work." It was so funny.. So yep.. the next day, we were back AGAIN. It was basically a sick joke. 

Good news, my MRI was all good (as expected), I really didn't want to have one. But better to be safe than sorry I guess. I hated it, it was super scary and stupid but now I have tons of cool pictures of my brain. So that's kinda cool. 

General Conference hasn't been translated into Albanian yet so we'll be watching it here next week. But we just downloaded the sessions and we'll listen to them in our apartment! I'm really excited, it sounds like there was some good stuff. How lucky are we to have a prophet? I love President Monson so much.

Seriously you guys, I'm so happy right now. I'm so excited, I really think that Sister Coleman and I can do great things. I can't explain how grateful I am to have the opportunity to work with someone that has desire and drive that go along with mine. It's such a huge blessing and I'm so grateful. Good things are going to happen, I feel it!

Sister Kokol left me this week, she went home :9 Seriously one of the best people I have ever met.

So.. something I've been doing recently is at night when I pray before going to bed I only say a gratitude prayer. Meaning, I don't ask for anything.. I only give thanks for the things that I have or things that happened throughout the day. I can promise you that it has changed my attitude so much. There are seriously endless amounts of things to thank the Lord for. I have never recognized so clearly how truly blessed I am and all of the amazing things that I have in my life. It has been such an eye-opening experience and I seriously invite all of you to try doing the same thing. Dedicate one prayer a day to simply thanking Heavenly Father for things. I promise you that a greater light will come into your lives and you will have a greater understanding of His love for you. 

I love Albania so much and I'm so grateful for the blessing and opportunity that it is for me to serve here. I'm so blessed. 

I miss you!

Sister Vermunt 

p.s, I was in a store today and saw a part of Taylor Swift's new music video.. What even is that?!? .. It does not please me. 

Have a great week!