Eating with Bears

I made it to Albania! It is so beautiful here, oh my gosh, it is incredible. the first day we got here we went street contacting and everyone is so nice, it also helps that I don't understand what they are saying most the time so, when they are rejecting us I have no clue. Our first night we went to dinner with our mission president and they had bears there! It was a very exciting dinner.

My trainer is Sister Bringhurst, she is incredible, she is from Highland! I can't believe we are from the same city and it took us both coming to Albania to meet. Albania is incredible, the people are so amazing.

The second day we went contacting and this sweet old lady invited us into her house and gave us a bowl of jam with a spoon and I thought maybe they just eat jam in Albania, so not questioning it, I ate an entire bowl of only jam. Then like 5 minutes later she gets up and goes and gets bread, after I had finished the whole bowl of jam. It was so funny. Comforting to know though, that they don't just eat jam. Speaking of food, the food here is sooo good, grateful for that. On Friday, we helped a man in the branch with his farming, very clear I have never farmed before that.It was really fun though, to learn the ways of farming.

Sunday they had me bare my testimony in church, it was scary, but it went good. Aw the members here are amazing. They really dedicate their lives to this gospel and Jesus Christ and it is so cool to see. Many of them walk from really far just to get to church, also many of them are the only ones in their family apart of the church. It is really humbling to see how much the gospel means to them. it is unreal here. I am so grateful to be here.

Love all of you so much! thank you for all the emails! Have an amazing week.

Note from Kari: So this is Sister Mann and Elder Cerepi. We actually met Elder Cerepi the very day we dropped Madi off at the MTC. He was going to the MTC from Albania learning Bulgarian to serve in Bulgaria. It was such a coincidence. As we were taking pics at the Provo Temple a senior couple (Sister Virginia Winegar) walked by and said, "where is your missionary going?" Madi answered, the Adriatic South Mission. The senior couple explained that they had just returned from their mission over there, told Madi how awesome her mission president and his wife are, and then told us that this young man was from Albania and they were dropping him off at the MTC. It was pretty neat. Out of all the missionaries going in, all the different drop off times and all the different missions, we would meet them. We didn't meet very many others that day, so we thought of it more as a tender mercy.