DONKEY

Hii! How are all of you??
We are mostly out of quarantine here, so it has been an amazing week!

So we got to have church, finally!! Its so odd to be a missionary without church and wow it was so fun to have it again! We were wearing gloves, masks, and it was also only sacrament, but lots of people came. Everyone missed it lots, and it was so fun to meet the members!

I forgot how much fun teaching lessons in person is. But also creates lots of funny and weird experiences. So first one is we got to ride a donkey!! I have never laughed so hard! Also we taught this one lady who has cats all over her house, and graffiti on the walls. She fed us this one food and it was brown lump with cat hair matted in it. Honestly could've been cat poo, who knows. It was DISGUSTING! Made for a funny experience.

Last thing is to never forget that God has a plan and his plan is perfect even if it is hard to see, I promise it's there. You are all lights in my life!! Love youu

Love, Sister Butters

Back at it

Hey everyone, to switch things up, I am sending you my comps email, cause we are together 24/7,

sooo enjoy, love you all!!!

GOOD STUFF
Pogi is officially in the green zone which means we are allowed outside everyday until 9 now...so we are pretty much back to the normal missionary life here! Yay! President Anderson came this week for a priesthood training and told us we needed to fill up the font. That had us superrr stressed out especially because most of our interaction with people has only been through messaging. Later that day, we finally got to meet with the Mingo family!! When we got near their house they saw us outside of the window and screamed with excitement! They yelled, "Motrat" which means "the sisters". Then they ran out and gave us the BEST hugs it was so precious. They just ran into our arms and held us. AHHH I missed them! We went into the lesson assuming that they had forgotten everything we had taught them, but they remembered it all and were so excited to have a new baptisimal date. We invited them to keep praying and reading and to send us a message when they had completed them. To our surprise, we got the cutest videos of them reading and praying. Their muslim neighbors layed out their prayer rugs and sent a video of them praying as well. It was ADORABLE. Through this whole quarantine thing, I was really worried about all of the families that we hadn't been able to reach. As a companionship we would pray and pray for them to remember! I am grateful that Heavenly Father was watching out for the Mingos during this time and that He allowed them to remember what we had taught. He has a plan for them!

Before the quarantine we finally got a family to come to church 2 solid weeks in a row. It was a miracle!!! Anxhelina, the Mom, participated in one of our zoom calls on Sunday and then invited us to come to her house to do a lesson. Her mother in law, Xhuli, and her were home and he husband, Genti, was at work. We did a resoration lesson. Usually Anxhelina is super distracted and occupied with her two little girls and doesnt really participate in lessons. BUT THIS TIME she was so into it!! Xhuli was asking questions that clearly proved she had been reading the Book of Mormon, and they are SO excited to come to church on Sunday. IT FELT SO GOOD to be able to go out again and see everyone again!

RANDOM STUFF
We got invited to a surprise Birthday Party! We didnt know it was going to be a party, but when we got there we were shoved into a room with tons of little girls. We felt a little out of place, but it was cute! It's Albanian trafition that every five years you throw a party for someone's birthday. Geraldina was turning 15 so it was a big one. When she walked in she was soooo happy. Her teacher even came. It was cute.

There are two nënës named Dituria and Flutera that live outside of the senior couples old house. We have gotten really close with them since we pass by them multiple times a day. They sit down on the rock wall and knit little socks and hats. We started talking to them for a while and Flutera started showing us some bumps on her fingers that were hurting her so I told her I had an oil that could maybe help her out a little bit. I ran and grabbed the oil with some paper towels that she could use to wrap around her fingers and she was soooo happy. I came back about two hours later and she was still seated on the little rock wall. She motioned for me to come over and i could immediatly smell the oil so strongly. Coughing, she told me the oil was too strong. Half of it was gone from the container. Then she said she drank it. I kept my laughter in. I felt soooo bad. That poor nënë!!

SPIRITUAL STUFF
Now that this whole quarantine thing is almost over with here in Pogradec, I've been able to reflect on how grateful I am to be a missionary and to be doing the Lord's work. I am grateful for all the miracles that have taken place and for the opportunity I've had to see missionary work from a new perspective. I think when hard times come, or even just changes in life, our blindfolds are taken off and we begin to think about the things we wish we would have done better, or we begin adding up our regrets. The hard times sometimes allow us to see more clear what matters most. However, we should not need a natural disaster or other crisis to remind us of what matters most. The gospel and the Lord's Plan of Happiness and Salvation should be out reminders. What matters most is what lasts longest, and our families are worth eternity!! So, work on eternity!

Love you all,
Motra Mann 

good stuff!!

Hi, I hope all of you are doing amazing!

This week was really good, the restrictions are slowly getting more and more relaxed here in Albania, so we were able to have an in person lesson, which was awesome! It was with one of the members here, her daughter was also there, who isn't a member. The miracle of it, is we got to teach her daughter and if it wasn't for Corona virus she would've been at school in a different city. So there are a few positives to this virus, we just have to look a little harder to see them. 

This is with a lot of things in life, I found this scripture in d&c that I really liked, its D&C 78:19 " And he who receiveth ALL THINGS with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." It seems weird to be thankful for the trials and hard times in our life, but I think that as we receive everything with gratitude we can easily see the good in the bad, and we will be so blessed for it! I know that God loves us and his plan is perfect, so the trials are just for our benefit!

I love you all, have an amazing week! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you! 

Love, sister Butters

ONE YEAR!

I am in a new city called Pogradec and we are in a trio!! One of my comps is SISTER MANN we were in the MTC together, I love her! The other is SISTER BEZZANT and she went to lone peak and graduated with me, but we didn't know each other, we had to come to Albania to meet. I love both of them so much and it has been an awesome week!

We got to go to a members house for lunch and they just had a little new born baby and she was the cutest thing ever! We have been able to go out a little more here, because there are no cases in this city, so we are a little less restricted. Which has been nice and hopefully it continues to get better.

There is a lake here too so that is so fun!! Makes me want to boat so bad the water is so smooth.

Nobody forget that God is in charge and he knows us better than we know ourselves and he will always do what is best for us, so even when it doesn't seem like that, just trust him. Have an amazing week and know you are incredible!

Love, sister Butters