So a lot happened this week, but I'll try and relay it as I've experienced it.
On Wednesday we had Sister Training at the mission home in Albania, so me and Sister Schofield left Tuesday afternoon via bus and slept in Prishtina, Kosovo for the night. It was about two hours away. I remember we were in a huge rush for one reason or another when we were packing and trying to get our money exchanged for Euros before we left, so I crammed everything into my normal shoulder bag and just brought one slim Book of Mormon instead of my quad. Nothing really eventful happened on that bus ride other than having one of the guys who stamped our passports say to us, "Don't use 'фала', for 'thank you' here! It's a Serbian word, and they hate Serbs!" He told us the Albanian one to use, which I promptly forgot but made sure to speak English to everyone after that. Once we were in Kosovo we took our stuff to the Jones', the senior couple here who are from Logan. They lived right next to their church there, and it is crazy how jealous I was of their church building! Me and Sister Schofield went to a Thai restaurant there and split some curry. It was delicious and the owner gave us a discount because she loves the missionaries so much, and because the ones who serve in Kosovo eat there a lot. In Macedonia I feel like the only people who know the missionaries that well are the taxi drivers. Anyway, then we went back to the church building and I talked to some members who said they always hang out there, and my companion played ping pong with one of them. On that trip I heard more than one of them describe it as their "second home". I grabbed some Albanian pass along cards, just in case. Luckily, the zone leaders were allowed to drive us to the bus station at the crack of too-early-to-be-awake and the bus ride there took about four hours.
So, I finally got to see our mission office/mission home. It was so comforting to see the church's name displayed on those few buildings between the two countries. The Andersons are the senior couple/people who work in the office there. Sister Anderson took us to "the dungeon" where they have a bunch of church materials in whatsoever language your heart desires, unless what your heart desires is Macedonian. I stocked up on a few German Book of Mormons and took a Spanish one too, just in case. I had run into a guy from Switzerland in Skopje one night and realized how much my German has declined and mourned that I had nothing to give him other than the church's website.
The Sister Training was really, really great. I felt the Spirit as soon as the others came in the room and we were all talking. I even saw the two who I had met at the MTC by the vending machine one night. We went into a type of conference room and Sister Ford gave most of the presentation. She is a really good speaker and talked about enduring to the end, and doing what we tell our investigators to do all the time by having faith. Here are some memorable quotes from her:
"Would the Lord send you here to fail? Or because He thought it would be easy for you? The Lord sent you here because He trusts you. He knew it would be hard, but He knew you could do it!"
"Instead of thinking, 'Why me?' I want you to say, 'Try me.'"
She said something like we should never be anyone other than who we really are, that when they were called to this mission she thought about all the other mission president wives she had known and how they all seemed so perfect and she felt unlike them. But God didn't call them to this mission, He called her.
She gave a really great analogy about holding a glass of water out with your arm extended, and that it didn't matter about the weight of the glass, but how long you could hold it. She said that as long as we came back every day to the glass, we weren't failing as long as we were trying.
She bore her testimony, shared some good experiences, and had a wonderful sense of humor. She's definitely someone I look up to, someone I can relate to, and someone who answered my prayers. Then President Ford talked to us about the growth of the Adriatic South Mission, particularly in Kosovo. He talked about all the political strife in the country, excuse me, in the area's past and how the church had already spread so much just in the few years it's been there.
He really talked up us Macedonians! "When transfer calls come in next month, what are our Sisters in Macedonia going to do?"
"We could switch beds," Sister Schofield called out. There were some parts where we read scriptures, but they were all from D&C so I felt a bit sheepish with just my Book of Mormon.
The training only lasted three hours, but I decided it was so worth the six hours of travel each way. It just made me feel so good, and it was great being able to see some of my Sisters/sisters. We all ate together upstairs afterward, and some of the missionaries were telling me about the culture in Albania. "Everything they say is so vehement, like it's never just, 'no' it's 'nononononono'. And when I write home every week sometimes I start it out, 'Hey!Hellohihowareyouhow'
While waiting for the bus back to Prishtina, we ran into another American, Trent from Georgia, with a backpack and a beard, who was spending the year traveling the world with a nondenominational Christian group. He was very happy to run into "friends" (meaning as Christians). When we boarded to go back I remembered the single English Book of Mormon I had packed and gave it to him as we got off. I asked him if he knew anything about it and he said, "Very little, but I am interested."
I heard the missionaries lovingly refer to Albania as "the Mexico of Europe", so ''Mexico" must be Albanian for "beautiful, green oasis". The bus ride there had been dark and I had been mostly sleeping. The ride back was so beautiful. So many mountains. Small ones covered in trees, like the Appalachians, and huge steep mountains capped with ice with sharp angles. Lakes with green water.
Alma 30:44,"...yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."
I'm going again on Friday for Zone Training (?) so I'll bring my camera then. We slept in Prishtina again with the Jones, the nicest people in the world, and got back Thursday.
The elders' investigator got baptized!!!!!!!! He told the elders beforehand, "Just down in the water, and then up. No holding me down like, 'Ha ha ha!" Elder Gierisch was the one to do it, and he gave it in Macedonian. The new member may have swam around a bit afterwards, and all the missionaries stifled our laughter. At the baptismal service, an actual Macedonian member gave a talk about baptism. It was so empowering to hear, he being so new himself. One of our investigators attended, which was awesome. To celebrate afterwards all the missionaries went to a traditional Macedonian restaurant. I don't know why they waited to take our order because they told us they only make one thing. We were each given about six sausages and shared two baskets of some type of bread, and ate everything with these green peppers that they only have here, onion, and some red spice. My nose was running and I was sweating halfway through it. It was delicious.
The Fords were there yesterday when our new member received the Holy Ghost, which was also done by Elder Gierisch in Macedonian. I was so happy for him. Partway through church the daughter of the investigator who just had the baby showed up with her friend. She's 12 and the friend is 9. I was a bit concerned that they came by themselves and so after we taught Primary, the lesson was "Heavenly Father watches over me", I said to Gordana that I wanted to walk them home. "It's not very far, she knows the way. She's twelve," she said to me. I still felt uneasy (I guess I have seen more American newspaper headlines than her), so I noted that it was still raining and said that they didn't have umbrellas. Long story short, when we arrived at their home the mother was in serious need of medical attention. We called the elders and told them to come with a taxi to take her to the hospital. While we were waiting we prayed with her and then she was given a blessing right before we took her. I seriously wondered if she was going to die. The whole ordeal, the time that we were with her, lasted about two hours. She really did need all six of us. She later said she had been calling her friends for hours for help and no one had come. As of ten minutes ago, I heard from Elder Krajnc that she is in the hospital, recovering.
Later that night I heard secondhand that Elder Gierisch had had the idea to walk the girls home too, but he ignored it because he thought it would seem weird, two men asking to walk two little girls home. Lately I have been praying to help me recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. This week, and even as I just write this email, affirms to me that I am following it even when I don't recognize it. I've been told a million times before that it's different for every person, I just never considered it this way. Heavenly Father does watch over us, temporally and spiritually. I am trying, thus, I am not failing. I am exactly where God wants to be, at this time. I know that as we "do the small things" as Sister Schofield likes to say, that as we live the gospel and strive to draw closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by studying the scriptures, praying, working for the good that is in this world, giving charity, following the words of those with authority from God, that He will bless us with abundance. "He loves you!" as Sister Ford said. Matthew 6:8, "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Sister Riddle
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