Oh What A Week! --- Apr. 22nd

It was Motra Forte's Birthday last Sunday. I made her this sign to celebrate with Cookies after church and we had a really great day.

After seeing some of my nieces had a fun mask and makeover party,
Motra Forte and I found some masks at a store and had fun doing them one night.

I just had so many great photos I just had to share a few with you! Love you all so much. Hope you enjoy them. I sure did.

This week has been pretty crazy it feels like. It seriously went SOOO fast. I don't even know what happened. We had some really amazing lessons this week with our investigators. My sweet Aferdita just isn't ready however to make a decision and join. It is so hard to have patience sometimes and trust in God's timing, but I know He knows what is best and I guess it's just not yet. So Hard! With Dafina we had really amazing lessons. She has had an extra glow about her even the last few days and It makes me so happy to see her happy! We started using our embassy member Karyn from America in her lessons and it has really made a difference. She just wants to do what is right so bad and is sucking up every thought or idea that we come up with to help her feel the spirit and receive an answer for herself. This last week we had interviews with our mission president, which I love!, and he advised me to share the scripture in D&C 9:8... I think. We have to make decisions for ourselves after studying and pondering... then ask God if what we have decided is right or not. If it is right He has promised that we will know it is right. Something Dafina always says is "Will I know when I get an answer." We've always promised her she will know, but it can be quite difficult sometimes when the answer still isn't understood or received. She went home this weekend with this purpose in mind and we will meet with her in a few hours to see how it all went. I just really hope it went well. I just hope she can decide for herself that this is what she wants and then just realize for herself that if it's what she wants then she just needs to do it. I hope it goes well. Oh I hope! I really love these girls so much. Gotta keep finding more that are ready here. It's so hard sometimes. But I'll keep trying.

Also this week I had a cool experience with a few of our lessons. On Sunday we had the lesson about trials and why we have them and it helped me realize even more the blessings of trials in my life. As we have trials we are able to help others through hard things we have already gone through or help them find answers and help from Heavenly Father through any trial the same ways we have been able to. 

This last week with Dafina talking about the spirit I was able to bear my testimony and explain the feelings of having the spirit and not having the spirit for me. I realize that one of the blessings I received from my Freshman year roommate craziness was how it feels to totally not have the spirit present and how drastically different it is when you do have the spirit compared to when it is totally gone. I was able to express the feelings I had when I did not feel the spirit and compare them to the feelings I have when I do feel the spirit and when I feel it strong. It was really great even just for me to recognize that experience again. I'm grateful for the trials in my life. I know they have shaped me and built me up. I know they have made me a better person and helped me grow so much. But also have helped me recognize the happy, peace, and joy that comes from the spirit and the good. That is why we have bad and sad so we can also have good and joy! I believe in that.

This last week we also had some really fun things happen. We put on a talent show to try and encourage the members to bring new people to the church. Not very many New people came, but our English classes did. ha. It turned out really fun. I don't think people here do things like this very often, if at all. I loved it. We all danced Albanian traditional style at the end together. So great!

Then on Saturday we all went out to the Embassy and played Futbol together in a tennis court/soccer field. Oh it was the BEST!! I realized I haven't played soccer since July... and I've missed it. It was so fun to play with everyone and we had a great little lesson afterward with Valmira's little sister that came to play with us. YES! Little by little she will be a member also.

Yesterday at church it was a little bare, but really good. We had 3 soldiers come and they were ones that can't usually come. Their thoughts and comments were so perfect. I loved it. I guess they are all leaving the first of May, going home, and a new big group from Utah and another place are coming. Not sure if they will all still come to our branch or if they will just have their own church on the base, but we will see. It really is cool to be apart of it all.

The Old Turkish bath house.

Today we went and saw the Beautiful city of Prizren. Oh it was beautiful. (see pics). They have beautiful bridges and a big fortress on top of the hill that we walked up to and explored. Lots of Xhami's (mosques) in Prizren. They also have an old washing house there. We couldn't go in, but it was still cool to see. In the center of town they have a fountain that is pretty famous for Kosovo because if you drink from it you will have good health forever. We didn't drink from it, but did wash our hands. ha. That is something that is funny about Kosovo they have fountains all over and the water just runs all the time. Periodically people will go up to them and take a big drink, wash their face, etc. Kinda fun. It really was a great day today.

A cute old Albanian man resting in the street.

This week we gotta find some families!! We need families! We gotta find the people here that God has prepared to hear the Gospel. Who are ready to make changes and accept the Gospel into their lives. The ones that were chosen to lead this country to a better future. Not easy. But I pray we will. We need to.

Love you all so much. Thanks for all your love and support. Glad you're all doing well.
me dashuri,
Motra Kristi Hoover