Gëzuar Pashket!! ---- Apr 1st

In our mission here there are ping pong tables at every youth center or church for the members and investigators to play on.  The people here love Ping pong! They love practicing and having tournaments. I have gotten pretty good.  It really is amazing how many people here in Prishtina know about our church as the place with the ping pong table and how many people want to play. I I think a lot of people want to come in and play and prob. only half do that want to, but we have met a lot of people that way. Kinda fun.We have found alot of people from that table. So keep practicing so that maybe you will be a challenger on your mission someday. We often have tournament with everyone it's really fun.  

Just gazing out the window one morning watching the snow fall one day last week.

Pussy willows!! They have been blossoming... spring is coming!

Also something funny is that they call Easter- Pashket.. which is plural so translating back into English... Easters. ha. So Happy Easters!! This week has been amazing! It really has been so amazing to me how I am able to understand and speak this language. When the Lord gives us challenges and callings He also gives us many blessings!! I have already seen a lot of growth in myself and am so excited to continue to grow.

Since all the Ellis girls have been getting bunnies I wanted one too! Sister Jones made this for FHE last Monday. We also got to color eggs which was really fun. Something the people here don't do. I guess in Albania they color eggs, but they color them all red. I think it's apart of a different faith. Interesting. Notice also my face by my mouth. Ever since like the end of November I have had bad acne on the sides of my face on my chin. It has been so bad and I haven't understood why until just a few weeks ago I finally figured it out! It was revelation! I was saying goodbye to an investigator (kissing both cheeks a few times) and my face was extra sore that day and so it kinda hurt. I then realized that I have been having this on my face bad because of all the kissing with... hellos and goodbye's. Kinda funny. I've been trying to be more careful to not touch my face to others more and it has helped so much. It is almost all healed. I love it. Oh living in a different country with different cultures.

We have had some amazing lessons this week all focusing mainly on the Restoration... Faith! Prayer! Holy Ghost! The Savior! I have learned so much about these things since being a missionary and especially since being in Kosova. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to help others gain the most simple but most important things, like faith. Yesterday was such an amazing day for me. We had a wonderful Church here. I played thelittle electric keyboard/Organ for sacrament and It always amazes me the ability I can have when I need to have it. I really feel so blessed. Motra Forte and I sang a special musical number "I stand all Amazed" half in Albanian and half in English. It turned out really well I think. I LOVE MUSIC!! The talks also were so great! SO Powerful! I'm so grateful to be in Kosovo and see the faith here and truly testify and stand up for my Savior daily. In a country full of "Muslims", I love knowing that my Savior lives and that because He lives we all can live! I love being a missionary and learning SO much more about my Savior and how I can become more like Him daily.

This last week I read a conference talk about the sacrament and so I really tried to focus during the sacrament yesterday and just think of my Savior. I felt the spirit so strong...I even started to cry. My heart was so full the whole day. One of the members is in his 60's. He has tons of thick white hair (which reminds me of Grandpa Villella). He is so sweet and loves the true gospel so much. However, he has a really hard time with smoking... like lots of the people here. He quit to be baptized and had stopped for along time, but just couldn't totally stop with all the pressures here from his friends, etc. The Elders have been working with him often and this week he didn't smoke at all!! So because of the power of the Atonement and the Sacrament He was able to bless the sacrament yesterday. It was so special and he was so excited to be clean and worthy. I was so happy for him and so proud of him. I hope he will continue to be strong and keep himself always worthy to use his priesthood and perform special/sacred ordinances in the Lord's name with the Lord's special Priesthood power that he has given him. I hope that all of you are doing the same. Honoring and cherishing your priesthood. It's powerful and WOW so special.

We combined 2nd and 3rd hour and Elder Jones (the couple here). Taught about the Plan of  Salvation and how the Atonement is a very necessary and vital part of the plan. It was perfect for our members and investigators. We watched "finding faith in Christ" and I just couldn't not cry. I was sitting next to our investigator Dafina and in the end of the movie the father tells the son that's not sure if he can believe in Christ "you can believe, you can believe...etc." I felt the spirit so strong thinking of Dafina and just knowing how much I've prayed and striven to help her believe and find faith in Christ. To believe in this very Plan of Happiness that God has given us all. I put my arm around her and said " and you Dafina, you can believe!" She smiled back at me and then just after I just filled with the spirit so strong. I just started to cry. I couldn't help it. It was the most amazing feeling to KNOW that Christ is my Savior and know how wonderful it is and how true it is and just want her to know that same thing. To help her feel the love and happiness that I feel. It may take a long time for her to understand faith and the spirit. But I just know that someday she will and OH! that will be a beautiful day.

I'm so grateful for this wonderful experience to testify of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Who is the Son of God. I get to fight for Him here in a world full of God's children that are so lost and so without the knowledge of the truth. I pray for them all the time and I pray they will open their hearts to know and have the same many amazing blessings I have from this beautiful plan God has given us all. I'm so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer. I know He lives and that He loves me! I hope to become more and more like Him everyday of my whole life, to never give up, and to never stand down from the truth that I know and love!

I love you all! Hope you have another wonderful week! Continue being so strong and standing up for what you know is right! Share the gospel!  Even as a missionary it can be kinda tricky to share the gospel.  You should invite a neighbor friend and family that aren't LDS to baptisms. What a perfect way to explain the gospel! I loved that idea. We always hope our investigators will be able to see a baptism as part of the process of  learning the Gospel and feeling the spirit. Just another idea that doesn't come that often.  I have recognized how much more ahead younger kids are in understanding the gospel than I even was at their age. I feel that God really did save His very best for last. The children today are amazing. Here in Kosovo I am seeing the very beginnings of the gospel... the literal Pioneers and it is so fun to know, hear, and see the fruits of the gospel from generations of members at home and to see the beginnings here and KNOW that it will only grow and become stronger and stronger. Something that I can see that is hard for the people here to quite understand... They just have to believe us when we say it will grow! It truly is the most important thing in life to be a good example and stand alone in the tempting and challenging world today! Never give in I'd say! Always continue to follow the spirit, and God will bless you! Also I'd think that some others may need our courage, example of choosing the right, and strength to make the same good decision that we did.  I hope to have that same courage and strength everyday. Very christlike!

Today we went inside the Serbian Orthodox church here. We slipped in one side and got to see the inside. It was huge. Pretty cool.  Livin and lovin!

 
 Jam shumë mirënjohëse për këtë Ungjillin. O e di që është i vërtetë! edhe jam shumë e lumtur për të gjithe bekimet që unë kam në jeten time. Kam unë një familje e mrekullueshme!!! Unë e dua Prishtina dhe të gjithë njerezit që jane këtu gjithashtu!

Kalofshit mirë!!
Motra Kristi Hoover