9.28.15

  This has been a crazy week, but I have a feeling this next week will be even crazier! We started off Tuesday with District Meeting. One of the missionaries mentioned that Elder Charles, the member of the seventy that spoke last week, told him what to do to be more successful on his mission. Elder Charles challenged him to only speak about missionary work/church while outside and only in Albanian. We left district meeting and were so excited to try it! As soon as we left, Sister Cheshire and I automatically only spoke in Albanian. That day, we saw so many amazing things happen. We went street contacting, and found an amazing investigator! She was walking home from school, and was sad because people had been making fun of her. She said that as soon as she stopped to talk to Sister Cheshire, she started to feel better. By the end of our lesson with her, she said she felt so much happier! She committed to baptism on October 24th! Unfortunately, we haven't met with her since. She said her mom is really religious, so we think her mom probably doesn't agree with our church/with her daughter meeting with us. But she was amazing! Then that night, we met with Lejonora. She had met the missionaries on the road, and heard about Stake Conference, two weeks ago. She ended up going to Stake Conference by herself! She is about 60, and so amazing and energetic. She tells us we are amazing and beautiful, and it makes our day:) So we met with her, and she loved our message of the Restoration. We weren't able to meet with her for the rest of the week though :( Later that day, we met with Zana, and realized we needed to drop her. She hasn't been keeping commitments, so we finally just asked her if she even has a desire to be baptized.She said that she actually doesn't, which made it easier to drop her. 

   You may be thinking that dropping an investigator and having two investigators who we haven't met with again isn't exactly a good thing, but it actually is! We were able to help two people feel the Spirit and be happier! We had success while street contacting! And dropping Zana was good, because now we are able to finding people who are ready for this Gospel. So yes, it was a good day, and we believe it was because we did the small challenge of speaking in albanian about church things when outside. Even though no one came up to us and asked us about the church because we were talking about it, we still saw blessings from it! 

   The rest of the week was basically filled with meeting with people and street contacting. On Sunday morning, we got a call from Lejonora, asking if she could come to church! We were so happy! Not only did she want to come to church, but she made the effort all by herself. I was so happy!

   On Saturday night was transfer calls! We were so anxious to get the call, and it was killing us to wait. Even though I knew I was probably staying in 1st ward, it was still killing me! Then President called. We found out that Sister Cheshire is heading to Prishtina in Kosovo! He told me that I would be in First Ward and Third Ward! My companion is a mini missionary from Durres, and I am excited to work with her! A mini missionary comes on a mission for a few months to see what it is like, and prepare to go for themselves. She has been in T3 for a few weeks, so she knows that area, which is good. I have heard that being with a mini missionary is difficult, but I am excited to do it. Plus, my area is half of Tirana, so that should be crazy! I am so excited and a little nervous, but I know it will go well. I am only with her for October, and then she is done with her mission, but I am planning on doing everything I can to learn this language better from an Albanian! This week is going to be full of challenges, but I am excited to get started! 

   Today for Pday, we have been running around, getting our house cleaned, packing all of our stuff (I'm moving to the 3rd ward apartment), and hiking. We are exhausted, but it was a great day!

   I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I love and miss you guys! 

Love, 

Motra Bennett