We got a text on Tuesday from Anxhelina (pronounced Angelina) that said that she wouldn't be getting baptized on Saturday, and that she was removing herself from the church. We were super sad, and wanted to meet with her later that day to talk about everything. She wouldn't answer our calls, so we called a member from the ward that had come to a bunch of Anxhelina's lessons. We told her what had happened, and asked if she would try to meet with her. The member was so upset that she didn't even want to meet with her. A little bit later, the member got onto the bus to go home from work, and who got onto the same bus a little bit later? Anxhelina! They had never seen each other on this bus before! The member went over to talk to her. We got a call a little bit later from the member, and she said that Anxhelina would meet with us later that night. We had a few more lessons, and planned on meeting with her afterwards. Satan was definitely trying his hardest to make sure we didn't meet with her. My foot started hurting so bad that I was limping, Sister Cheshire was sick, we had to wait at every intersection for awhile to be able to cross, we missed the bus by 3 seconds to get to one lesson, we were late to the lesson and ended up being there longer than the planned (the investigator talks a lot...), and finally met with Anxhelina and were only a little bit late. But then, the place we were supposed to meet in was so hot that we couldn't meet there. So we ended up going to a restaurant to talk. It was crazy. Once we got there, she told us that she figured out the problem, and the baptism was on! We were so happy!
So the baptism was on Saturday, and it was great. She was so happy and couldn't stop smiling (until we took the picture...apparently they don't smile in pictures?), but anyway, you could tell how happy and excited she was.
We also have been teaching other people/families, and it has gone really well. I am getting more comfortable with speaking, even though I'm nowhere near perfect.
It is hot and humid here, and we are basically dying every day. We walk everywhere, and take a bus every once in awhile. But a lot of times, it is faster to just walk. Saturday night, we had ward correlation at the church. The meeting ended at about 8:35, and we had to be home at 9. And our house is about 30 minutes away from the church, 25 is we walk fast. We were almost to the center of town, when we looked at the time, and only had 5 minutes left to make it home. So we had to run! We kept running, and were only a minute late, when we would have been close to 10 minutes late. We got to our apartment (on the 4th floor), and collapsed! We were completely exhausted. We knelt down for our prayer for planning, and we both had sweat literally dripping off our faces. So, ya it's pretty hot here, and is only going to get hotter in August...
Food wise, I tried Byrek this week, which was super good! I can't explain it, so you will just have to look it up. We also went out for pizza after zone training, and it was so good! This morning, I had a super good crescent with chocolate inside. I think it may have been nutella:) Nutella is huge here! We have a whole section of peanut butter in american grocery stores, and Albania is that way with nutella. It is fantastic. I just want to eat all of the food here, but if I did that, I would gain so much weight.
I think that's about it for this week. But have a fantastic week! I love hearing about what is going on at home, so write me if you want to! Thank you everyone for the support, and all those who are cheering me on! I love you!
Love,
Motra Bennett