A few days ago, we went to teach them, and their dad was home. So he was in the lesson, and it was super frustrating. He is a great guy, and we love talking to him, but teaching him is different. We talked about 3 Nephi 18, where the Savior is talking about how we shouldn't judge others, when we ourselves aren't perfect. We shared that scripture, and they liked it when we read it. Then when we started talking about it, they tried to say everything they could to frustrate us. We stayed calm, and finished our lesson. We love them, and want to teach them, but we don't know how much of it is actually clicking. We will see how this next week goes.
There is a less active family in our ward that we love. We met with the mom and her two crazy little girls, and we laughed for a majority of the lesson.Her daughter was doing something crazy, and the mom said "It is a miracle that you are alive!" She was just hilarious and her kids are crazy! At one part of the lesson, her daughter was climbing through the window to the balcony, and the other daughter was on top of the fridge. People give us jam as a treat here. They will give us a tiny bowl, with homemade jam in it! So we were eating cherry jam, and the mom was showing us pictures on her phone. The 4 year old leaned over to look at the picture, and poured the coke in her hand all over her moms leg. The mom said something quick witted and hilarious, and the daughter snapped back with something just as funny. It was by far the funniest lesson I have been in! But we also had a good lesson with her about how we are all children of our Heavenly Father. We read D&C 50:40-46, and it was super good.
On Friday morning, I was doing my hair, and was in a hurry. I grabbed my curling iron, and noticed something was off. Then I felt the pain, and dropped my curling iron...I grabbed the wrong side of my curling iron, and burned my entire hand! I went to run it under cold water, and about the same time, Sister Cheshire came out of the bathroom after her shower. She looks over to see me by the sink in the kitchen, holding my hand under water, and only half of my hair was done. It was pretty interesting. But I burned the side of my pinky, tip of my ring finger, side of my middle finger, none of my pointer finger (because its already messed up, and I still don't use it much...If i had burned the tip of that finger, I probably would have cried), and all of my thumb down to the palm of my hand. But it is doing better now! Doesn't hurt, just looks like a bad burn! I couldn't use that hand all morning, and had to write my notes right handed, which wasn't too bad, since I had to do that about a year and a half ago anyway. But my notes were still messy and crazy.
We planned on meeting with one investigator on Saturday, and brought a member over to her house. She didn't answer the door, so we met with the member instead. Motra Selfo is amazing, so we were excited to have a lesson with her! At the beginning of the lesson, she gave us a plate of grapes, and these purple fruit things. We weren't sure what they were, so we asked. Somehow I new the word for fig (thank goodness!), so we understood her answer! Then, we had to ask her how to eat it, because neither of us had eaten it before. So we tried figs for the first time, and it was really good! The fruit here is all amazing! While meeting with her, she got a phone call, and it was one of our recent converts. We had been trying to meet with her, because we had never met her before (the sisters before us were the ones to teach/baptize her), but she kept saying she was out of town. Motra Selfo said that she was with us, but that we would head over to visit her as soon as we were done with our lesson. So we got to meet our recent convert, and were super happy! She was really sweet! At the beginning of the lesson, she brought out Dhallë, and one of the glasses spilled everywhere. I thought about "accidentally" knocking mine over too, so then I didn't have to drink it, or dumping it out her window while they were in the kitchen getting a towel to clean up the mess. But I didn't, and drank it all. I drank some, and then we taught our lesson. During the lesson, she told us to drink more, so I had another drink...I gagged! My eyes were watering, and I had to stop myself from laughing at how awful it was! A little bit later, she told us to drink more, so I did...I tipped the glass completely upside-down to force it all in my mouth and force myself to drink it. I gagged again, super bad! The RC was looking at me when it happened, but I don't think she realized that I was gagging, thank goodness!
We left that lesson, and started walking to our center for a meeting. It started pouring! We walked 20 minutes, in the pouring rain and wind, and got to our meeting completely drenched. Sister Cheshire said that that's what the winter is like, just 50 times colder...I'm not excited about that...
Yesterday, we had a lesson with an amazing family in our ward! They are a super strong family, and adorable. They have a little girl and a little boy, and both are adorable. The little boy is about 7, and has super thick, round glasses, that make his eyes look giant. He spent the first 15 minutes of us being there showing us magic tricks. It was so fun, and so cool! He was super good, and I actually didn't get the card tricks until he showed us how it was done. It was really fun to meet with them. They are an amazing family, and I hope I can continue to get to know them.
Today for Pday, we climbed the pyramid! It was super fun. There is this random pyramid in the middle of Tirana, that is covered in graffiti. It is made out of cement, and we just climb up the side of it. After that, we went to eat at D-town. It is an american food restaurant, that is actual American food! The owner went to America, learned how to make the food, and then came back and opened a restaurant. That was probably one of the best burgers I have ever had! I have been missing American food!
I think that is it for this week! It was a really good week, full of lessons and teaching. I love it here, and love the people more every day. I hope you are all doing great and had a great end of your summer! I love and miss you all!
Love,
Motra Bennett