Tuesday, February 19, 2013

5 vjetori i Pavarësisë Kosova ---- Feb. 18th


 It has been a great week here in Kosova!  This week I found a great quote while studying the Old Testament. Elder Harold B. Lee reminded us that a certain amount of spiritual preparation is necessary before we can receive divine communications. He said, "The Lord will bring us His blessings to that extent that we have diligence in keeping his commandments. Each of you, in other words, must stand on your own feet if you will receive the great blessings which the Almighty has in store for you... Stand upon your own feet, so the Lord can speak to you. In humility be prepared to say with Paul,'Lord, what wilt thou have me do?' And with dauntless courage say with the boy Samuel 'speak,Lord, thy servant heareth.' Be humble, be prayerful and the Lord will take you by the and, as it were, and give you answer to your prayers." 

This week I have thought a lot about how I can be more humble? How I can allow my Father in Heaven to help me change and progress to become a better person everyday, and How I can love others more to help them do the same. It's been a great week. 

Last Sunday a new girl from the Army base came to church. The soldiers there are really doing a lot of missionary work. A few are return missionaries and they are often bringing non-members whenever they can come. It really is amazing. Anyway, last week they brought a girl who is really interested and has lots of questions! Her name is Rebecca and she is from California. We got permission to go to the base (about an hour from Prishtina) and teach her and I can't even wait! Who would have thought I would come all the way to Kosovo just to teach a girl from California. ha. She is really great and came again to church yesterday. She has really good questions and thoughts. I'm excited for her. 
 

Yesterday also was the Independence Day for Kosovo! 5 years. We had a big party for it on Friday that was really fun. Heather in a letter asked me how the people here feel like they are apart of the world. Well... Kosovar people don't really like their blue and yellow flag, they say that America just wanted them to have that flag. They all say the Albanian flag is their flag. All over the city they have Kosovo, Albanian, and American flags hanging for the big day. Kosovars would like to be apart of Albania still, but the Serbian people (which is not very many, just little cities and groups of people) want to be apart of Serbia still I would think. So they don't really even consider themselves a Kosovo nation yet. I think someday they will rise up and be proud to be Kosovar and not want to be apart of something else, but who knows. It's pretty interesting, especially because Kosovo is so much more advanced than Albania in like every way... It seems kinda crazy to me. Anyway, at the party we did lots of fun things, but at the end we had a fun dance party. The Jones's chose fun old songs and waltzed, and swing danced together. All the people there loved it and laughed alot! The people here want to treat each other with more respect and equality as families (than the muslims and traditions seem to be here) and so they all really admire the Jones's and want to be like them. ha. We also taught them some line dances, I did my first "bunny hop", and the Mokaraina.  It was fun. 

People here also dress really nice everyday. Even if they are just going down the street to get some groceries they normally will get all dressed up to go out. I really admire this about this people, and it makes me want to be more determined to dress nicely daily as well. I think it is important that we dress nice. I'm grateful for wonderful parents that have taught me this my whole life, and have always given me really nice things to wear and have always so I could. I hope I can do the same for my kids someday too. 


Love you all! Hope you all have a great week! 
Kalofshit Mirë
Motra Kristi Hoover

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