Happy Monday

Hi everyone!!
Another week in Albania, sometimes I just look around and then realize I am in Albania, like this place I didn't even know existed, but I am really happy to be here. Everyone is so nice and it is so fun to get to know a new culture. The people are amazing. I hope everyone gets the chance to meet them one day!

This week was really fun, we were teaching this lady the restoration and mid sentence she stops me and says you look just like my nephew. So, if you are wondering how I look now after being gone for a few months, you can just picture an Albanian man and you will be pretty close.

Okay another thing, our investigators birthday was this week so we brought over a little cake to her house. Instead of just accepting the cake because it was her birthday she gave us so much Turkish delight (some weird dessert, very popular here) to take home.

It was a good week! Grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here. Just remember to love everyone, you never know what they are going through! I love all of you!

Motra Butters

Qef (fun)

This week was really busy. We had midway training and zone conference. I am halfway through my training transfer, so crazy how fast time goes here. Both were really good!! Got to see everyone from the MTC so that was the best to catch up with them!

Hey, we went to someone's farm again, someone we are teaching they are the best!! I feel like they are my grandparents. We went to do service, but it turned into them giving us gifts and feeding us, so yeah it turned into them serving us. They gave us these huge cement vases we don't really know what to do with them cause there is no way we can take them with us, but they also gave us a cement hand, so I will for sure take that with me!

Albanians are just so nice and giving and they will always give you something little when you are at their house, mostly food. Which is good, until you are so full and each lesson gives you like a full meal. On Friday every single lesson we went to gave us so much food. The first one gave us a bag of fruit and chocolate, the next one cake and byrek (a traditional food here it's like pie dough with tons of layers and spinach and cheese in the center), then the last one gave us pizza, honey, and corn bread. They are so sweet, but it was so much food, haha.

Had a young women's activity and painted our nails, aw it was so fun. The young women here are so cute, there's not very many, but they are all so sweet and it is so fun to get to know them. They all call me Motra gjalpe (Haha gjalpe means butter in Albania and they think it's so funny). So yeah, my last name is taken pretty literally here, haha.

This week was good, I found this scripture when I was reading for come follow me, it's so good and so true!
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Don't forget how much God loves you! Love you all so much!! 

WOW another week

This week was good, went by really fast! I think every week gets a little faster. We taught the word of wisdom to the family and we were explaining, that you cant smoke. The husband smokes so much, but right when we told him that he would have to stop before he got baptized he got all his cigarettes and lighter and stuff and threw them out the window. Haha it was so funny everyone in the house was clapping and cheering. He is really so ready for the gospel and has so much faith.

Okay we went to look for a less active family and we asked a women in the neighborhood where it said she lived, (random fact: Albanians don't have addresses) pretty soon the whole neighborhood was looking for this family with us. Everyone was pointing us places, we didn't end up finding her, but we found some other people who want us to come back, so that's good!

We locked ourselves out of our apartment so that was an experience. Luckily the landlord is really nice so right when we called her, she got the key for us, so it actually turned out fine.

We are teaching this cute couple and they come to every activity and are so interested its incredible. It was so unreal though, in our second lesson we invited them to read and pray about the book of mormon to see if it's true and they were like "oh yeah we already did that and we know it's true" aw made me so happy and it is so true! So grateful for the book of mormon.

The language is good it's getting a lot easier to understand people, but still takes a lot of focus when I am listening to them. My brain feels fried by the end of the conversation. I am so grateful to be here! Such an amazing place! Love all of you, hope your week is amazing!

Love you, sister butters

Here's my apartment:

Madi's Bed is this one on the left side of this picture.

Earth Shaking Events

Okay soo two really exciting things happened this week! The first we had a baptism! Aw it was so incredible, he is so awesome and has been working a few weeks to stop smoking and finally did it, so it was such a miracle. The spirit was so strong and you could just feel the power in that room. Such an amazing experience to see someone get baptized.

The second thing that happened was an EARTHQUAKE!! We were sitting in our house and everything started to shake. I have never been in a earthquake before so at first I was kind of nervous, but I have always wanted to experience an earthquake and it was so crazy. Just the whole building is shaking it's the weirdest feeling ever. Luckily it wasn't that big, just a little shake for probably 10 seconds. After everyone was outside there houses talking about it.

Other than that we worked on a farm, and it was a lot easier than last time we just picked flowers. They dry the flowers and then make dye and medicine with it. So we picked flowers for a while and that was fun.

So thought for this week is don't ever forget your potential in Heavenly Father's eyes. If you ever get discouraged just remember how much you mean to him. Love you all so much, and I am so grateful to have so many amazing people in my life.

Love, sister Butters 

Extra Pictures!!

Crepe picture from 7/22

3 months

Almost been out for three months, crazy how time is on a mission, it's really speeding up!

On monday the cutest thing happened, there is this member family who has barely anything and the branch president had the elders go and buy food for them and we took it over to them and it was the sweetest moment ever! Aw it made me so happy they were so happy. Some people here have barely anything, its so unreal to see that all they need is the gospel and they are so full of joy in their harder circumstances.

We got kicked out of a restaurant this week. I guess the owner does not like missionaries. So he said something to us, not like I could really understand it, but you can tell by the way he was talking he wanted us out of there and he was not about to serve us. Haha it was kind of awkward, but like that's what missions are about right? Got to have some rejection!

Aw we are teaching this sweet lady, seriously she's like a little angel, aw I love her! We taught her how to pray and it is crazy to realize how amazing prayer is! It's something I totally take for granted because I have known it all my life. When she understood that she could say whatever she wants and she can talk to God at any time in her life, her face lit up with so much joy and it made me so happy. Aww we really all are children of God and he is just waiting to talk to us. So grateful for that! So fun to be able to teach people about all the amazing things that are just so common to me.

Albania is great the people are great! Hope everything is going incredible! Love you all very much, make this week the best!

Love you all,
Sister Butters

Another Week

Okay, another week in beautiful Albania, understanding is slowly improving, I mostly just agree to the things people are saying to me and it has work pretty well. Until I agree to something I shouldn't have, but so far it has only happened once and I made it okay. They grill corn here and so many people are selling it on the streets and it is so good. It is kind of like popcorn, it is way good.

So we have this one investigator and he believes everything, but he says he won't get baptized until he sees a vision. We read Alma 32 with him, really good chapter and somehow he related everything to why he should receive a vision. So didn't go as planned we will see what he decides. Also during it his wife kept bringing us so many random foods. She brought us a bowl of jam, so actually its normal to just eat jam here. She just kept bringing more and more random little things. It was so sweet.

We teach english twice a week and luckily I teach the advance class, so I can talk in english. A very big plus. It also helps me learn more Albanian.

We hiked to the top of this one mountain and it is really pretty it overlooks all of Korçë. The city here is so cool, because it is not very big and that makes it nice because everything is really close.

Everyone here is seriously so loving and so amazing. They don't care who you are, they just love you no matter what. I love that and I am learning so much from them, I am truly so blessed to be here! Aw love you all very much!

Love, Sister Butters