tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60072227736898061502024-03-12T20:25:51.851-07:00Missy and Dogsmissyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.comBlogger252125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-32937902278478707342015-03-01T17:49:00.000-08:002015-03-01T17:49:00.169-08:00February 23, 2015<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Seeing as I come home in the not too distant future... if any of you had an urge to randomly send me a letter, I wouldn't recommend doing it after a couple of weeks seeing as I won't be here by the time it will probably get here. Yup. That is all.</span><br />
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Also, I'm at that point when people are asking me why I'm still here. Bah. Come on people!</div>
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Also, also... I did the scariest thing I've ever done on my mission this last week. </div>
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I, Sister Rasëll, in front of the whole branch during sacrament meeting...... sang a duet!!! Oh lanta! I totally, 100%, sang a Child's Prayer with one of the elders. Yes. That TOTALLY happened. I can totally do hard things :)</div>
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We went to a place called Krost (spelling?) for an activity. Did a fire, played games, had a spiritual thought. It was awesome. Even better, in the mountains ("mountains" ... more like hills) and there were pine trees and stars and mmmmm... the heart was happy.</div>
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I was reading from the Ensign the other day and read a talk "The Most Important Things" by Elder Corbridge. I really like this part that he brought up:</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); line-height: 30px;">" “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. …</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (<a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/isa/55.8-9?lang=eng#7" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #1155cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Isaiah 55:8–9</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">While this may be understood as a declaration that we cannot comprehend the thoughts and ways of God, I think rather it is an invitation to think differently, to elevate our thoughts and, consequently, our ways to coincide with the thoughts and ways of God. He is inviting us to think as He thinks."</span></div>
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I really liked that. A lot. A lot a lot.</div>
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Then I was thinking about how we can elevate our thought to be like that of God's, how we can match ours to be like His.</div>
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(oh man, I wanted to write so many cool things about this but I'm totally out of time!)</div>
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I was thinking about how scripture study (read Alma 31:5) and prayer (read Bible Dictionary Prayer) both help us to learn the will of God and change ourselves to match Him.</div>
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Study this out. It's really wonderful. A wonderful topic for how we can change ourselves to match the will of God. And I know that when we are willing to practice our agency to willingly give our wills to God, we are so much happier and so much more at peace.</div>
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Much love,</div>
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Motra R</div>
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Some cool pics that I don't have time to describe haha</div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-11939343024156286472015-03-01T17:46:00.000-08:002015-03-01T17:46:03.033-08:00February 16, 2015<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
I had the best valentines day of my whole life!!!!! <div>
Why?</div>
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Because our investigator with the family problems got BAPTIZED!!! WWWWOOOOO!!!!! :D</div>
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I don't think I've ever seen someone so happy to get baptized. And her testimony after she was baptized was just amazing. This whole experience with her family strengthened her so much. As difficult as it was for her, I'm so grateful she had it. I was able to watch it build her into something so much greater. </div>
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Speaking of...</div>
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We spent hours and hours going to her house with members this last week before she was baptized because they were telling her that if she kept going to church, she was going to be kicked out of the house.... so we tried to help her as much as possible (because she was determined to still get baptized!) by bringing over members to talk to them so that they could understand that the church really isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing. We were barely making any progress until the end of the last visit... a miracle happened and her grandpa said yes to it all! He gave her his blessing to get baptized and said that as long as he was living, she would never be kicked out of the house. </div>
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WOW!</div>
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An absolute miracle :D</div>
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She came to her baptism with her family telling her to have a good time. She had full support and I've never seen her happier.</div>
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It really is a testimony builder to me that trials make us stronger. We may not realize this in the midst of hard times, but it's true. The refiners fire is real and makes us so much better than we could be on our own. I was able to watch it so clearly with our investigator. She didn't see it, but we saw it and I'm so grateful for it. </div>
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God loves us. Isn't that a wonderful and beautiful thing to know? :)</div>
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Motra</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-57608355351241145502015-03-01T17:43:00.000-08:002015-03-01T17:43:03.170-08:00February 9, 2015<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
I don't even want to talk about how little time I have left :( Aaaaaaahhhhh..... it goes by too fast. I literally feel like I was on an airplane trying to talk to a cute, old albanian lady sitting right next to me but having no idea what she was saying like yesterday... these precious moments just fly.<div>
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We have a less active member we've been working with for a while and we've visited her maybe 4 or 5 times now. And every time she prays, she says the same thing. "Please bless Sister Tengu..... *long pause as she tries to read my name tag but can't because she's not wearing her glasses* ........ and the other sister who's name I forgot." hahahahaha it makes me laugh so hard every time! I have told her my name countless times, I guess it just isn't sticking :P</div>
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Our investigator that's had family problems has her baptism scheduled for this week! Pray for her :) We're going over with ward members in hopes to show them that hey, we're not all that bad! I really really hope and pray it will be a good experience. A heart changing experience. She needs her family back on her side. </div>
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I was thinking a lot about pride the other day... it's an interesting sin. I was thinking about why pride is so bad. And a thought came to my mind... Pride cuts off the channel between us and the Lord. It denies Christ and the enabling power of His grace because we are relying only on ourselves, on our wisdom, on our judgement instead of God's. Humility opens that channel. It allows us to accept the Atonement into our life and to openly use it in our life because we are relying on One knows so much better than we do. </div>
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Much love and many prayers,</div>
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Motra Russell</div>
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What I eat every week, it's the best thing ever having cheap fruit markets everywhere!</div>
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The view behind our church.</div>
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Some fantastic people I absolutely love!</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-28579106790086917412015-03-01T17:40:00.001-08:002015-03-01T17:40:29.035-08:00February 2, 2015<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">So I've discovered that I'm allergic to kiwis.... something about how my mouth catches on fire when I eat them... but I don't even care, kiwis are so good! I'm obsessed :D</span><br />
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We had a combined zone conference this last week. It was basically a mission conference minus about 10 companionships haha But wow was it amazing! I love our mission president, he's incredible. We also got an awesome surprise and got to see the Meet the Mormons documentary! It was so good! I felt so proud to be a mormon :D Those were some pretty amazing people on that film. And lastly..... and worstly.... I had to give my departing testimony................... ug. I don't even want to talk about it, I still have 2 months okay! Sheesh... </div>
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I love listening to people's prayers in lessons. I feel they are incredibly revealing as to where someone is spiritually. We were in a lesson with a member who is less active and struggles with acting. She said the opening prayer and didn't really thank God much but sure asked for a whole lot of blessings. Then, at the end of the lesson when we invited her to come to church, she said that she would come ... unless it was raining, then she wasn't coming.... it made me think.... How often do I ask God to give me everything but then am unwilling to give HIM everything? We ask for unconditional blessings but then make our obedience conditional. It made me rethink how dedicated I was to making God's will my own...</div>
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Oh! Also! Remember the girl who's family is anti church/baptism? She was in church this last week!!!! YYYYEEESSSSSS!!!! I cannot even begin to express how happy I was, point of tears happy. It was amazing! She sacrificed to come and it blessed her so much and now she's that much closer to getting baptized! It was an amazing Sunday :D</div>
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Much love!</div>
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Motra</div>
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Okay, more sunrise pictures... I swear, they just get better and better every morning!</div>
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Me.</div>
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Shots of Elbasan from on top of the castle :)</div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-30015521373943873692015-03-01T17:36:00.000-08:002015-03-01T17:36:03.877-08:00January 26, 2015<div class="ii gt m14b26f0feb2742f0 adP adO" id=":25k" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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This last week was rough and wonderful all at the same time. It's the beautiful moments that make the hard moments okay. And it's the growing from the hard moments that makes it all completely worth it.<div>
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A really cool moment. We have a new investigator who is just a rock star. She is awesome. After our first lesson on the restoration, we invited her to pray about Joseph Smith to know for herself if it was all true what we were telling. Ya know, how missionaries usually do :) Our next lesson we asked her if she had prayed. She said she had. We asked her what happened. After a pause, she looked at us and said that she had received an incredible answer.... she said the moment she started to pray, it felt like the Lord was standing with her and she had an incredible feeling in her heart confirming that it was all true. The spirit was amazing in that lesson. I think it's the most wonderful blessing that we each can find out for ourselves if this message is true. I get to share with everyone that because of God's love for each of us, He has called another prophet on the earth and Christ's church has once again been restored. Not only is this an incredible message, but I can promise someone with 100% confidence that if they have a true desire to know and have real intent to act on the answer they receive, they WILL get an answer to their prayer that our message is true. Sooooo amazing. PS- She's getting baptized the end of February, woo!</div>
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Our other investigator is still in a battle against her family to get baptized :( The desire is there and still going strong though, so I'm not too worried... it's just a matter of time :)<br /><div>
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I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here as a missionary. I knew I would learn and grow from my mission. If you put in your part, that's to be expected. But I never realized how much of a significant impact and influence it would have on my life. I had no idea to what extent this mission would impact my life. I look back on my mission and am in awe with how much God has blessed me. I have a treasure trove of experiences that have changed my life forever that I will be able to draw from for the rest of my life. I will forever be grateful that I had an opportunity to serve here in Albania.</div>
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Ju dua shumë!</div>
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Motra Rasëll</div>
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Not much variety on pictures this week... just a bunch of different sunrises that I took haha, I liked the sunrises this week? The other is the view from a little game cafe, get a drink and play some games, it was super fun and a gorgeous view! I attached a picture of some of playing games... Elder Anderson is making fun of my thumbs up :P</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-77710940285979072222015-03-01T17:32:00.001-08:002015-03-01T17:32:49.414-08:00January 5, 2015<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Pogradec, a city we visited last pday. Apparently it has one of the oldest lakes in the world.</span><br />
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Some shots of the village our investigators lives in. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Oh! And did I mention that Pogradec had SNOW?!</span></div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-56790213508473686612015-03-01T17:30:00.001-08:002015-03-01T17:30:04.060-08:00January 5, 2015<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Let me just say that I am absolutely in LOVE with Elbasan! I've only been here a week and I already love it so much. The city is beautiful, the people are amazing, it's just wonderful :) I'm happy I get to be here for the last little bit of my mission.</span><br />
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Random things that happened this week:</div>
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Our landlord made me drink a spoon full of olive oil to get rid of my cold......I wouldn't recommend it haha</div>
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My mission president sent me a text that he hoped I was feeling better from being sick. How cool is that? It made my day.</div>
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I got to drive to one of our investigators house that lives in a nearby village and the drive was absolutely stunning. We drove between hills filled with olive trees just as a fog had rolled in at sunset.... I was so happy. It made me so grateful for the beautiful life that God has given me.</div>
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Okay, not much has happened since I wrote like... 3 days ago haha So I think I'll just leave with a spiritual thought and some pictures.</div>
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I ready the other day "Free Forever, to Act for Themselves" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. It's an incredible talk about agency and our personal accountability in life. I just loved it.My favorite line was...</div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"...<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px;">God will not act to make us something we do not choose by our actions to become."</span> </span></div>
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I know this is true. Agency is such a precious gift that God will never take it away from us. We all have such great potential, God wants us to become like Him... but we have to choose for ourselves. I know that it is possible. Everything is possible when we turn to God... but we have to do our part. We have to choose by our actions... just having faith, thinking about it, etc... isn't enough, we must act. But once we decide in our hearts to change, to allow God to mold us into something greater than we could've on our own... beautiful things happen. Amazing things happen. </div>
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This gospel is a gospel of becoming. It's made possible through Christ, we just have to reach out and accept the gift.</div>
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Much love!</div>
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Motra</div>
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The view from my apartment. Some pretty lame shots of new years fireworks, they totally don't do it justice... just keep in mind I have a super wide lens....</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-34693416174976379492015-03-01T17:26:00.001-08:002015-03-01T17:26:37.661-08:00January 4, 2015<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">So, I forgot my card reader, that stinks, no pics... sorry about that :)</span><br />
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I got transferred! ... there's an explanation point on that sentence, but I was actually pretty sad about it haha... I was only in my other area for 1 transfer and I love Tirana, so it was super hard to leave... now I'm in Elbasan serving with Sister Tengu, a native to Albania. I know what you're thinking, oh boy! She's gonna be so good at Albanian! However.... she speaks really good english... sooo... we'll see haha I try to speak in Albanian a lot, it ends up being 50/50... I'm excited for language study though! And golly, I have a walking dictionary with me always! So that's pretty cool :)</div>
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So, New Years... I have literally never experienced anything like it before in my entire life ... there has been some really strong wind lately. So strong that it will shake our building (we're the 9th floor). Between the building shaking and the constant explosions starting at about<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2032396244" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4 pm</span></span>, there were times I could have very easily confused it for our building actually exploding haha</div>
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I also sleep right next to a door that leads to the balcony. It's an all glass door so you can easily see outside. I woke up at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2032396245" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">midnight</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to gigantic fireworks exploding at eye level about 15 feet away from my face. Looking outside the window, there were fireworks exploding everywhere, and I mean everywhere! And these weren't little fireworks... I'm talking the big, Forth of July, up in the sky kind of fireworks. They were being shot up, down, sideways, between buildings, above buildings, in the streets, from people's windows, it was insane! There was not a place that you could look where there were no fireworks. Normally for a firework show, it's like this ... POP.... *pause* ... POP POP ..*pause*.. POP ..*pause*... POP POP POP ......... etc... and the grand finally of a bunch of fireworks for a few seconds... this was a constant, never ending stream of POP POP POP POP POP POP POP... the explosions just never ended! .....golly, firework shows will never be the same hahaha</div>
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Saying goodbye to people on your mission is probably the worst thing in the entire world... I hate it, so so so much. Anyways, there's an elderly less active member that we were working with in the area that I just got transferred from. Honestly, I didn't think we really meant that much to her. I knew she liked us, but ya know, just kind of eh about us. We visited her once a week and she's been coming to church pretty consistently now and is soon to be active again which is super exciting! Anyways, Monday night we were saying bye to people. We were about to go in and finish our studies (it was a normal work day) but we felt that we should say bye to her. We went over and told her we were leaving and how much we loved her and wow..... she was devastated. She said she's been so lonely and we've been the only people she's had, that we've become her girls to her and that she looked forward to us coming over all the time. That we've always been there for her and helped her to not feel lonely... I literally had no idea how much of an impact we had on her. It shocked me really. This whole time, I thought we were hardly making a difference to her when in reality we had meant everything to her. It just made me think of the scripture, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6) Sometimes we have no idea what kind of a difference we're making in other people's lives, for good or bad.... I hope we're doing those little things to make a big difference in other peoples lives for the better. The kind that touches their hearts forever and we may not even know :)</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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Motra</div>
missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-33905297768895714492014-12-24T09:46:00.000-08:002014-12-24T09:46:40.699-08:00December 15, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Last week was a crazy week. We went to Kosovo again, so that was awesome... and crazy, hence the lack of email last week. I've attached some photos of the drive up and the city. </span><br />
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This whole He is the Gift initiative from the church has been just amazing. Being able to testify that Christ is the meaning of Christmas and the ultimate expression of God's love for us has been a testimony building and incredible experience. I feel a sense of urgency to tell everyone about this message and we have never worked harder. It's been so fulfilling, so wonderful. So many little miracles.</div>
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A cool thing, some missionaries translated the video clip themselves because it wasn't one of the languages the Church translated into. Some others also designed pass along cards and made giant posters. And the coolest thing! We also have little clips of the video playing on the giant TV billboard screens in 5 different cities, one of which being Tirana in our own little Time Square :) It's amazing to see it all over the place! It's so exciting! It's so great seeing all the missionaries take this initiative and run with it with so many wonderful ideas. It's been bringing so many people closer to Christ. </div>
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Can I just mention that my mission president is incredible? We're doing twice a week Christmas devotionals at the church and inviting anyone that wants to come. About a half an hour before, we go out and street contact and try to get as many people inside as possible. Last night, President Weidmann came to our devotional and was street contacting with us. He talked to everyone he could. He is such an inspired man and an incredible example. Wow I love our President!</div>
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I heard something from our President that I really liked and thought I would share...</div>
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On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your spirituality? How frequent would you say you have the Spirit?</div>
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Now a question... what's stopping you from having a 10?</div>
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...</div>
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It really made me think. What IS holding me back from having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost? What IS stopping me from enjoying all the blessings I'm entitled to in this life? </div>
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I hope you're able to think about that and make any necessary changes to make it that 10. Especially at the start of a new year so soon... what a worthy goal to be closer to our Father in Heaven.</div>
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I also hope that you all are enjoying the wonderful spirit that comes along with Christmas. Christ is truly a gift from our loving Heavenly Father. I know that He came to this earth so that one day, we could go back home. </div>
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Much love and many prayers,</div>
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Motra</div>
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The drive to Kosovo and some shots in Prishtina. That city shot, the little white box in the distance is one of the screens that our clip was showing on :)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">The big screen in Tirana!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Bad english, my favorite :)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Chickens being sold on the side of the road, totally normal thing to see... </span></td></tr>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-9259271656817675442014-12-24T09:35:00.002-08:002014-12-24T09:39:37.696-08:00December 1, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Oh man! So much to say, so little time! </span><br />
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This last week was just awesome. Thanksgiving was amazing. Definitely one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had. We had a special mission training (basically a conference just called a different name haha). We planned how we're going to use the He is the Gift initiative in our missionary work. I am so excited that I get to be a missionary at this time. It's incredible. Being able to testify of Christ and how He is the true meaning of Christmas and a true manifest of God's love for us is just amazing. It brings a different spirit. A stronger spirit. It's truly incredible and has already strengthened me so much. Christ truly was the first gift.</div>
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Afterwards, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner made by the senior couples in the mission. I was so grateful for their service to us! They did so much and I felt their love for us so strong. They spent so much time making turkey and mashed potatoes and homemade rolls, etc... so that we would all have a good Thanksgiving. It was such an act of love that I was so grateful for. </div>
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Then we had a talent show! And wow, did I laugh or what! Every district had a talent for the show. Most of the districts did funny skits and some of them were just hilarious. Our district did a skit making fun of how we get ready in the morning. Exercise, getting ready for the day and breakfast. Sister Boettinger and I did the breakfast part. One of the elders in our district was giving instructions as a short of narrator because he's super funny and was telling us how to make a disgusting breakfast... then he said we needed to add protein ... ?? ... and walked up behind us... and dropped a RAW GOAT HEAD into the bowl!!!! Eyeballs and everything! I screamed and ran away, this was definitely not planned in our skit. Apparently it was really funny, I don't remember, I was in the corner trying not to throw up haha</div>
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We also did district pictures of everyone and I had the awesome privilege to be able to take all the pictures of everyone! It was just... so nice haha... I miss photo a lot. And I actually really liked doing group photos at weddings. So it was a great experience for me! Everyone had a lot of fun, too :) President said I have to fly out and do it again next Thanksgiving he he, done ;)</div>
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Speaking of taking photos, I told him I wanted them to look nice and edited.... soooo... he let me come over to his house this morning and edit all the pictures on his imac! Oh man... talk about a shot of happiness, it's been over a year! I was so happy to have a good photo edit session. And not only that, it was in the company of my mission President and his wife. Um, amazing. Can I have that always? I was especially happy that I got to use one of my talents, that was a blessing for sure. </div>
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So yes, Thanksgiving was so wonderful. And so full of love. I am so grateful that I get to be out in Albania serving as a missionary. I have never felt more fulfilled or happy in my entire life. It's been an absolute miracle. And I am so blessed.</div>
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The next day was Albania's Independence day, that was pretty cool. Definitely different from America... I wore my red dress on accident, I was basically a walking Albanian flag. But in all seriousness, I kept hearing people commenting on how I looked like a flag haha</div>
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I also got a wonderful text from the sisters in 2nd ward that a sister that Sister Z and I had worked with was getting baptized and wanted me to speak at her baptism! I was soooo happy!! It was such an honor and I felt so blessed. I was so happy that she was finally able to get baptized. It has been such a gift to still be in Tirana and still be able to see those I love. </div>
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On that same note, it's been an interesting experience still being in Tirana but serving in a different ward. Last transfer Sister Z and I worked our tails off and not much that we were able to witness happened. Sometimes it was hard to not let it get to me when we were being so obedient and so many others were having success and we didn't feel like we were making much of a difference... I then heard a quote that really changed my perspective. I don't remember the exact quote or who even said it, but the gist of it was... Don't be so faithless that you have to see the fruit of your labors... </div>
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That really impacted me. I knew I was following the spirit and doing what the Lord wanted me to do and just because we weren't seeing the fruit of our labors, didn't mean that the Lord's work wasn't being accomplished. The amazing part is that I'm still in Tirana and even though I'm not working with the same people, I have the opportunity to see from a distance the fruit of our labors after the trial of our faith. Three families have been brought into Christ's loving arms through the covenant of baptism from the work that Sister Z and I were privileged enough to be able to participate in. It has been such a testimony builder to me that sometimes God asks us to do things and have no idea why... and when we do them, we still may have no idea why... but there's always a purpose. God's hand is in our lives, He cares for His children, this is His work and it will progress. </div>
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Don't forget to share the message of the true meaning of Christmas with those around you! You never know who it will bless! Much love!</div>
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Motra</div>
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Thanksgiving, Dita e Flamurit, the mom we worked with on her baptism day. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matchy matchy in her Albnaian colored dress. Didn't think of that when we made it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7eSHkKfbHa92XWWc1w55DIHSBa1rl71i0C2L1PJcAUC0KkAgt0LJqvDMxxFy_oHesrwsVYp-C607lQReGoosNQKkGXwK7HhaaOYmuhOOfkER-ruG-SsTb4R-si9P0nNgT-ggqF-fRQNk/s1600/_MG_5264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7eSHkKfbHa92XWWc1w55DIHSBa1rl71i0C2L1PJcAUC0KkAgt0LJqvDMxxFy_oHesrwsVYp-C607lQReGoosNQKkGXwK7HhaaOYmuhOOfkER-ruG-SsTb4R-si9P0nNgT-ggqF-fRQNk/s1600/_MG_5264.JPG" height="241" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chocolate...my worst enemy that I love so much.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another beautiful sunset</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The used market where you can buy cheap stuff</td></tr>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-71698836740516226252014-12-24T09:30:00.002-08:002014-12-24T09:30:34.389-08:00November 24, 2014<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Another week gone by. Times moves too fast on a mission.</div>
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We did an object lesson of finding strength when we're filled with the Spirit of God by using an empty water bottle versus a full water bottle. We told the 7 year old to crush the empty water bottle. First off, I've used this analogy before, the lid is on tight, so it's tough to crush it but totally possible. Most adults will just squeeze it and say, yup, it's possible and then just stop there. But this 7 year old, he was one zealous little kid! He took that water bottle .... and he destroyed it. As in, it was completely pancake flat ... from the vertical direction hahaha I was, needless to say, quite impressed. And then I gave him the water filled water bottle hoping that he would realize it wasn't possible. Welp, that didn't stop him! hahahaha it ended up exploding all over him and me.... oops haha</div>
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We had a crazy thunder and lightening storm this past week, it was nuts! Flooded the streets and lit up the sky like nobodies business! We were planning while it was going on, we kneeled down to pray, I was praying, and I took a deep breath to concentrate and was about to start when a GIANT crack of thunder exploded in our ears and I literally screamed out loud it scared me so bad! I looked over to see my companion curled up in a ball under the desk because she was so scared, soooo funny hahaha</div>
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This past week I threw my back out really bad.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Everything<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>was painful haha I don't even know how I did it. I sat down to study my scriptures and could feel it start in my back and thought... oh no... I know what's happening... I immediately put ice on it and took some ibuprofen to prevent more damage from swelling, it didn't do much though, it had past the point of no return. From that point on, moving... didn't really happen haha ... Sister B had to do my hair for me because I couldn't lift my arms over my head. She also had to carry my stuff for me because I couldn't carry a bag. I was just a mess. I couldn't sleep that night either because every time I moved, it would wake me up. Bad news bears. So the next morning I got a priesthood blessing from the elders in my district. I know my back, it's gone out often and when it's this bad, it takes a long time to heal. So I knew I was looking at limited movement and pain for a while... which is not convenient for missionary work. But almost immediately after my blessing, my back healed to the point that it didn't hinder my work in the least bit. I mean, it's not 100% at all... but it healed faster than I have ever before even come close to experiencing. It went from sharp pains with no movement to an ache with barely limited movement, I could do my hair again, I could street contact and not want to die hahaha ... in all seriousness, it was an incredible testimony builder of the power of the priesthood and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be blessed by God's power and authority on the earth today. It know it is on the earth again to bless the lives of God's children.</div>
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Much love,</div>
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Motra Russell</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmEuasrTjSdFrsgRtO6UJ303Pk3ohKLS53nATzaXdTbRW1aPFw5e8rNKCJvpwlwaKfkM-GTHYChxiQHwKktSyliTYL4GNrlkvpIOX_7KGyH3mquEPnTppiQ78a3kpLG0vgvei_MFkAyM/s1600/_MG_5188.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmEuasrTjSdFrsgRtO6UJ303Pk3ohKLS53nATzaXdTbRW1aPFw5e8rNKCJvpwlwaKfkM-GTHYChxiQHwKktSyliTYL4GNrlkvpIOX_7KGyH3mquEPnTppiQ78a3kpLG0vgvei_MFkAyM/s1600/_MG_5188.JPG" height="241" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">poor sister B terrified of the storm and hiding under the desk hahahaha</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5rfqmphzfnnc5iLlEJQTS1p8_gdcDiSThVxm5D1OctPCvzJxEGevoiglw6RSv1q7JtV_IYhOXcihts1pfX8OuQU2VUXyrCi40E6HzQ-vcbyr_J0iQWhx0DyCH0utUKNrRMPRoaBVlDA/s1600/_MG_5189.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5rfqmphzfnnc5iLlEJQTS1p8_gdcDiSThVxm5D1OctPCvzJxEGevoiglw6RSv1q7JtV_IYhOXcihts1pfX8OuQU2VUXyrCi40E6HzQ-vcbyr_J0iQWhx0DyCH0utUKNrRMPRoaBVlDA/s1600/_MG_5189.JPG" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QamyMgbZ6M030PZ3CNFdatC2nz-7tHEah6gYtS1hHqWGuZb7EUZDdr_IxNYaVUsiHpzdrEgj2jC0X0kHM39hQ4JVKRd8p5TEWrXThx5m8Wab_a-a6hOPUvfTN3mezUUdnKoNcbwmX3E/s1600/_MG_5190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QamyMgbZ6M030PZ3CNFdatC2nz-7tHEah6gYtS1hHqWGuZb7EUZDdr_IxNYaVUsiHpzdrEgj2jC0X0kHM39hQ4JVKRd8p5TEWrXThx5m8Wab_a-a6hOPUvfTN3mezUUdnKoNcbwmX3E/s1600/_MG_5190.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">a self portrait in the window</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpullrIu1tAMnDHloM2UivA6ab-npKHv6BpeirNVZshdJ5Dfcv2D6x4vvGNr-Y38ZvfNgSckBOIJk27TxGObzMWX940JKkL3yIx7lzISavoWzgl4oatzuVTJ4Kwf7ZxgS44Dbg2ir_xuE/s1600/_MG_5191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpullrIu1tAMnDHloM2UivA6ab-npKHv6BpeirNVZshdJ5Dfcv2D6x4vvGNr-Y38ZvfNgSckBOIJk27TxGObzMWX940JKkL3yIx7lzISavoWzgl4oatzuVTJ4Kwf7ZxgS44Dbg2ir_xuE/s1600/_MG_5191.JPG" height="241" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Some cool clouds</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6NyK7EB_Bhk18WdDVJKn9eFUO1cM9By0RTyCzV0OYkIRlSEhTXVLrG1nu0IT7q9Vd460IxlqTQxEL1C2l8kY-L9yf97nbi3AN59sHLTKNRsIz7oGnfwjmA4esh2eWPaao3Fhf7pSlpso/s1600/DSCF9038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6NyK7EB_Bhk18WdDVJKn9eFUO1cM9By0RTyCzV0OYkIRlSEhTXVLrG1nu0IT7q9Vd460IxlqTQxEL1C2l8kY-L9yf97nbi3AN59sHLTKNRsIz7oGnfwjmA4esh2eWPaao3Fhf7pSlpso/s1600/DSCF9038.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">a crazy soccer game being watched that we walked by</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gMmPpeFZIlC_ztrJJahKiliLqX3220tgH1wyNrwykmPSMfgEJMwm6x__dIDOWBse33rXC3BPfA1eX_NMhxJR1ioy3EKCr5Dkmf-z3Yszr_B-joLQSpk-TMM91tXSXKbbPrUDL3nsMYk/s1600/DSCF9044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gMmPpeFZIlC_ztrJJahKiliLqX3220tgH1wyNrwykmPSMfgEJMwm6x__dIDOWBse33rXC3BPfA1eX_NMhxJR1ioy3EKCr5Dkmf-z3Yszr_B-joLQSpk-TMM91tXSXKbbPrUDL3nsMYk/s1600/DSCF9044.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">and a beautiful view from a recent converts apartment before a crazy storm hit.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-73584598779687349632014-12-24T09:24:00.001-08:002014-12-24T09:24:38.523-08:00November 17, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">This last week was just excellent and also pretty insane. We had mission conference and Elder Dykes was there which was so, so great. I'm excited about his trainings that he gave and implementing them into our missionary work. </span><br />
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The mission conference was also in my home sweet home of Durrës! So that was pretty awesome. Driving through, it honestly felt like I hadn't been gone a day. It was a pretty weird feeling actually. It definitely has not changed a bit. Because it was mission conference, all the missionaries in the mission were there. Which meant that the missionaries outside of Albania needed a place to stay for the conference... which also meant that we got to have a little sister party in our apartment with the Kosovo and Macedonia sisters staying with us in Tirana! ....Which<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i><b>also<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></i>meant that I got to spend a good day and a half with the one and only Sister Zollinger :D Happiness right there, I love that sister so much. So yes, it was really wonderful! And the conference was just so fulfilling. .... having to schedule lessons for multiple companionships, exchanges between 3 different wards, pick ups and drops off at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_678249277" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4am</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(which actually was at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_678249278" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">6am</span></span>but the assistants told us wrong... we didn't get any sleep that night haha), and food and bed arrangements for a house of 6 ... was the part that was pretty insane... but I like being on my toes, so it's totally okay :) haha</div>
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Oh, a funny side note story... we were supposed to be at the mission conference a half hour early at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_678249279" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">9:30am</span></span>. We left on time, but got stuck in traffic and also had to fill up the car that wasn't ours and no one had told us it was empty... so we're about a minute late and one of the assistants calls us and asks us where we are, we say we're about a minute away from the church. And he says, "okay.. because, no pressure, but literally the whole mission is waiting for you right now..." We pull up to see, literally, the entire mission standing outside the church ready to take a group photo with all eyes on us as we pull into the parking lot... not to mention the mission president and a 70 and their wives... talk about walk of shame! Lesson, don't be late... ever... even if it's only 2 minutes hahahahaha</div>
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The best part, no one was upset and we didn't get a talking to or anything like that because the moment we pulled into the parking lot, everyone saw that Sister Boettinger was driving ... the overall reaction... ooooohhhhhhh...<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i><b>that's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></i>why they're late! ... She has gotten a reputation for being a very slow driver :P </div>
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I really love one of the scriptures that President Monson shared in this last conference from Proverbs<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_678249280" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4:26</span></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Ponder the path of thy feet...."</div>
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I think it is such a beautiful scripture. It also made me think of a quote from Elder Holland where he says,<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); line-height: 18px;">An old proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,</span><sup style="background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); border: 0px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </sup><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); line-height: 18px;">so watch your step."</span></span></span></div>
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I think it's so important that we really are pondering and counseling with the Lord in the choices that we make in our lives. It can make such a difference later on down the road.</div>
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So that's the challenge for the week, ponder the path of thy feet :) Where are your choices going to take you in life? And is it where you want to go? And most importantly, is it where the Lord wants you to go?</div>
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Have a wonderful week!</div>
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Motra</div>
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Some pictures of Tirana and me playing a game because I hardly ever take any pictures of me... so yup :)</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-4955228198494705782014-12-24T09:22:00.001-08:002014-12-24T09:22:26.779-08:00November 10, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Oh my goodness, there's this little boy behind me singing to the music that's playing in the internet cafe, he's gotta be 6... but it's an american song and he clearly doesn't know english so he's trying to sing along and it's just so stinkin' cute, priceless! hahahahahaa</span><br />
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This last week was a good one :)</div>
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I went on exchanges with the fabulous Sister Bizës! (I definitely do not remember how to spell her name in english....) She's wonderful and it was so great to get to know her better. Her mama should be proud ;)</div>
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You meet the most interesting people when tracting sometimes. We ran into a guy who kept telling us that he was the living prophet today, not President Monson and then asked if he could kiss our foreheads, but I didn't catch what he had said until he had already kissed his hand and was putting his hand to my forehead like 3 times... strange old man. He sure made me laugh though! </div>
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One of the sisters in our ward, her husband was in a serious accident and was in critical condition. The assistants told us about it and we drove to the hospital together to offer support. It worked out perfectly though. He was in surgery and in need of blood and no one had the right blood type. We pulled up to the hospital just as they called to ask us our blood types and I had right type so I was able to donate to him. It's amazing how the Lord's hand is in our lives. I definitely know I was supposed to be there for a reason. It was a great testimony that the Lord's hand is in our lives if we only just look for it.</div>
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We were listening to conference this morning for our studies and I loved the talk from Elder Robbins "Which Way Do You Face?". There was a part that really stuck out to me when he said, talking about Christ,</div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px;">He was so perfect in representing His Father that to know the Savior was also to know the Father."</span></span></div>
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I really thought about that. How the Savior had so perfectly aligned His will to His Father's will that to know the Savior was like knowing God. I thought about that in my life, especially having been baptized and having made a covenant with God that I would take the name of Christ upon me always. And also being a missionary, a representative of Jesus Christ. I am supposed to live in such a way that my life should be perfectly in line with the Savior's will. When people meet me, when people are with me, when people talk with me... they should better come to know the Savior because I have become like Him. </div>
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It was an interesting way to think about my baptismal covenant that I had never thought of before and I was grateful for the new perspective.</div>
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Love, love, love, love and singing :)</div>
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Motra</div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">forsaketh</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> his </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">sins</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> and cometh unto me, and </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">calleth</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> on my name, and </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">obeyeth</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">see</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> my </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">face</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> and </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;">know</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"> <wbr></wbr>that I am;"</span></span></div>
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We spent time with this fantastic couple who are leaving this week :( We're gonna miss them sooooo much!</div>
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Also, a pretty sky from our apartment.</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-84138766468998959082014-12-24T09:20:00.000-08:002014-12-24T09:20:24.165-08:00November 3, 2014 One Year!!!<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Guess what? As of this last week, I have officially been a missionary for a year. That went by incredibly fast. I can't even handle it. I still like being a missionary, so I'll take that as a good sign :)</span><br />
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I'm also really enjoying being able to go on exchanges with the other sisters and get to know them better, that's been a really fun experience. </div>
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We had the best surprise this past Tuesday! While we were studying that morning, we got a call from the mission president. Of course, our stomachs dropped and the first thought was, emergency transfer?! did someone die?! along with a bit of panic... but, thank goodness, no emergency transfers and no one died haha He wanted us to take one of the members who had gotten set apart as a sister missionary that morning to the airport. I then found out it was one of the sisters I had worked with a ton in 2nd ward and was SO excited! It was such a tender mercy! Being able to take her to the airport and say goodbye was such a blessing. I love her so much. She's going to be an excellent missionary.</div>
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Oh, I also had to drive. And I thought I was going to die. But... I didn't! Hurray! haha Happy year mark to me, driving AND not dying :)</div>
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We were given a number this last week for a sister who had gotten baptized in Australia and had moved back to Albania and couldn't find the church. We called her and helped her to find the church and all the info she needed. It was such a special moment. Turns out she had been home in Albania for about 3 months and had been given a wrong address that had led her to a church of another faith. She was so confused and knew that it wasn't her church because the service was so different than what she was used to. But she didn't give up and kept searching... 3 months later, we were able to help her find it. I wish I could share the look on her face as she stepped into the chapel. It was like someone who was coming home after a long time away. She was so happy. Beyond words happy. </div>
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When she came to church this last week, I got to sit by her and she just cried. She was so happy to be back. Her faith was so strong and it was so beautiful. It also reminded me of the scripture in D&C 52:14 when the Lord says, "<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I will give unto you a pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived...</span></span>" I thought about how she knew the other church was not her church because it was not the same... and then I thought, as she sat next to me taking the sacrament and so strongly feeling the spirit of the Lord, how all of this must be so familiar to her. I thought about how the Lord works in patterns so that we can always recognize His hand and so that we can "not be deceived". I thought about the pattern of prophets since the beginning of the world and how we have a living prophet today and the pattern of how God always blesses us when we prove faithful to Him. These patterns are such a blessing to us to help us and to guide us. God has given us so many tools to help us find truth and find our way back to Him because He loves us. He is our Father and we are His children. </div>
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Shumë love!</div>
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Motra </div>
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"<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is significant that of all the titles of respect and honor and admiration that are given to Deity, He has asked us to address Him as Father.</span></span>"</div>
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I got a birthday package from my family!! It was so sweet of them! except they made one mistake, that number 6 candle was actually supposed to be another 2.... eeessshhh, mother forgetting her daughter's age, aaawwwkkkwwarrrddd..... ;)</div>
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A couple pictures of painted buildings in Tirana. Some birds. Caged birds are everywhere here... it's a superstition thing, they're supposed to keep off bad spirits or something, don't quite remember :P</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-64530054205594738562014-12-24T09:15:00.001-08:002014-12-24T09:15:47.115-08:00October 27, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">I went hiking today and shot with my film camera. mmmmmmm happiness :)</span><br />
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Also, accidental bushwacking, just excellent. It was like I was at home with my papa, ha! </div>
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Oh man, so... some rockin' investigators. It had been over a month since we'd seen them (I say we when I actually mean the last sister in the area because I actually had never met them :P) and we were thinking of dropping them because we couldn't get a hold of them. Anyways.... after some promptings from the spirit to be gutsy and contact them another way (background info to that that I don't have time to go into, but they basically asked us not to contact them this way... oops haha), we ended up getting a lesson with them and have been meeting with them all week. And can I just say... wow... powerful lessons. If this young family gets baptized, the Lord has some great work planned for them because they are incredible. They're the kind of people that we walk away from their lessons walking on clouds... best feeling ever. I think we may get more out of their lessons than they do! The spirit is so enlightening and so powerful and so wonderful. I am so grateful that miracles happen when we follow the spirit, even when it can be scary.</div>
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Lately I have developed a slight obsession with the book Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage. How have I never read this book before?! I have no idea. It's blowing my mind. I can never put it down when I start it. It's just so incredible. Did you know he wrote it in the SL temple? Can you image the inspiration he must of gotten from writing it in the temple? It's a beautiful work, I would highly recommend you to read it if you haven't.... But seriously.</div>
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There's a part that I read this morning that I especially loved. It talked about prayer... </div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px;">It is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source than the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears. The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in heaven. Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire.</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.00784314); color: #2f393a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"</span></div>
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I love this because I've thought a lot about prayer my whole mission. I'm convinced that there are so many incredible blessings that can be unlocked through prayer that I have not even begun to understand yet. Wonderful things happen when we learn how to truly pray.... not just say words, as we learn from this quote that words so often fail us... but when we pray with our soul and heart and really, truly connect and communicate with our Father. That kind of prayer is a gift, a connection that brings enlightenment and revelation, peace and purpose.... we cannot progress as we need to without prayer. Prayer is work and if we could get ourselves to pray as we should always.... what spiritual strength we would have! I think the most powerful missionaries I have ever seen who were able to have incredible miracles in their mission were who they were because they knew how to pray...</div>
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If you're just going through the motions and not feeling enlightenment and connection with our Father when you pray... take a chunk of time, kneel, completely focus with your mind, heart and soul and pray. If you pray slowly, listening to the spirit and enjoy the closeness you can have with our Father, I promise... it will bless you.</div>
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Love you all,</div>
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Motra</div>
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Shots of the hike. An amazing old nëna with her cow. She was very happy that I was taking pictures of her beautiful old cow and was smiling up a storm. She was even smiling when she told me that it would kill me if I got to close... thanks nëna haha</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">The fantastic kids who got baptized last week. Loooooove them more than words.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">More awesome kosovo pictures.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Pictures from Kosovo! They really like America... this is the Bill Clinton statue :) haha</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">A giant catholic church being built in the middle of a muslim city, made me laugh with the irony :P</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> An amazing old nëna with her cow. She was very happy that I was taking
pictures of her beautiful old cow and was smiling up a storm. She was
even smiling when she told me that it would kill me if I got to close...
thanks nëna haha</td></tr>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-58076978336189759042014-10-25T17:18:00.004-07:002014-10-25T17:18:34.092-07:00October 20, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">So! .... I'm totally in Kosovo right now. We drove up this morning for an exchange. And we had really good indian food for lunch. Food variety? What? This exists? he he, kidding :) It's beautiful up here. I'm looking forward to seeing how the work is up here. I know it's different but I think it's something you have to experience to truly appreciate :)</span><br />
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It shouldn't, but it still throws me off guard how awkwardly blunt Albanians can be... things that were said this last week... to me, "You would be so much more pretty if you didn't have those freckles..." ... uuhhh hahahaa .. and to my companion, "You're too fat." What?! hahahahaha I seriously laugh so hard every single time. It's very... not something I'm used to at all.<div>
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This past week was a beautiful and devastating one. </div>
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I was so blessed to be able to attend the baptism of a part member less active family that Sister Zollinger and I had found last transfer. The parents were baptized and hadn't been to church is 13 years. We found them street contacting and started teaching them. The mother immediately came back to church and her two children were baptized this last Saturday. I can't even begin to express the joy I felt, it was unreal. They are so wonderful. I'm so happy I was able to attend such a beautiful ceremony for this miracle family.</div>
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Once we got back home that night, we had a lesson with a family that Sister Boettinger and I had found and have been teaching that wanted to get baptized. We had fallen so in love with them, they were truly amazing! They were the light of our missionary work! Long story short, it came out in that lesson that the mother did not believe anything that we had been teaching and after doing everything that we could possibly do, we were almost laughed out of their home.... it was devastating losing them. We walked away sick inside. It cut deep and hurt reeeeaaallll good. The stark contrast in a single night. It was an emotional roller coaster to say the least. I'm still not quite sure what Heavenly Father wants me to learn from this, but I do know that even though devastating moments like this happen... I am so grateful for the gift of agency. It's a tremendous blessing. It's the only way we can grow... And I'm so grateful that even though agency can be used for bad, we still have the opportunity to choose and I know it's only because of the love of our loving Heavenly Father. Oh how much He loves us.</div>
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Sorry I don't have pictures! I definitely forgot my card reader. And I also am short on time.</div>
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But I love you!</div>
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Choose God!</div>
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Motra</div>
missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-60216979343756289342014-10-25T17:17:00.002-07:002014-10-25T17:17:59.929-07:00October 13, 2014<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Just in case you didn't know (don't worry, I didn't either...) it's Canadian Thanksgiving! ... I have a Canadian companion just in case you were wondering... And we decided to invite the zone over to have waffles and celebrate with us :) It was a lot of fun... and amazingly, we had enough waffles, dunno how that happened. By the way, did I mention how stinkin' cute my new little companion is? Because she is. But don't let the giant smile and little body fool you... this little sister can tackle you hard, because she played rugby for forever. Yup, surprised me, too haha</div>
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So, miracle. We found a family!! Mom and 2 amazing kids! And the kids want to get baptized! Working on the mom... but wow, they are just... wow. So loving. So happy. So wonderful. So, just, wow. I can't get over how much I love these kids! Good things are happening here in 1st ward :)</div>
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Sister B and I got to give a cool training in MLC this past week. That was a great experience. Even better was studying it out ourselves and having the spirit teach us more than we knew before. The spirit is a pretty powerful thing. I think having access to it whenever I want is the most incredible blessing :)</div>
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Super cool!! We got assigned over the sisters in Kosovo! Meaning that Sister B and I will be taking an adventure up to Kosovo! Woo! We'll be driving up there. By ourselves. To a foreign country we've never been to before. By following road signs. ........ I'm probably going to die. But whatever, it'll be fun! Woo! hahaha</div>
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I've learned so much about the importance of prayers on my mission. It's amazing really. I had no idea the level of importance prayers had and the power and revelation they have the ability to unlock. There's a sentence in Preach My Gospel that says "effective prayer requires great effort". I did not understand that until my mission. It is so true. But it is so worth it. It reminds me of Enos when he "wrestles" with the Lord in prayer. Prayer takes focus, energy, commitment, a whole ton of patience.... but it's so worth it. When we give our whole heart and our whole mind to prayer, to really try to align our will with the Lord's, to change, to search out the spirit... it is so spiritually fulfilling and so worth it. If your prayers are going through the motions... try to change it, it will bless you.</div>
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Motra</div>
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The cancer patients that we love so much and visit often :) The majority of our zone that came to our little party. Sister B and some other pictures that I don't remember haha</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-85188425294651789912014-10-25T17:14:00.003-07:002014-10-25T17:14:50.695-07:00October 6, 2014<div class="ii gt m148e61ea9c568551 adP adO" id=":1gm" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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Oh wow! Conference! .... okay, just kidding haha, I actually have no idea what happened at conference. We've had so many problems with the internet and live streaming that the stake just decided to wait until next week so it could be downloaded and we would have no internet issues. So, I'm sorry that I have no conference inspiration for my email! Next week :)<div>
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First ward, from what I know so far, is great! It's definitely different on this end of Tirana and I miss 2nd ward a TON. But that's okay, I'll learn to love these people very quickly, I'm sure. </div>
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My new companion is awesome! We were actually in the MTC together. Her name is Sister Boettinger (Bet-ing-ger), she's from Canada, 5'1'', vegetarian, and stinkin' adorable! I love her so much already! It's going to be very fun serving together.</div>
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We had a baptism this last week with an excellent woman that the ward found in the cancer unit at the nearby hospital. We've been teaching her at the hospital and it's been a really wonderful experience. I'm grateful to have had it with her.</div>
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This last week was really just a whole bunch of craziness, wonderful, busy, awesome craziness! I'm so excited about my new companion, my new district and this new area. It's going to be a wonderful experience! </div>
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Don't forget that the Lord loves you. Trust Him, follow His guidance and you will always be led down safe roads.</div>
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Me shumë dashuri,</div>
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Motra Rasëll</div>
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Some awesome people that I adore :) </div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-2091526296816221332014-10-25T17:13:00.001-07:002014-10-25T17:13:23.972-07:00September 29, 2014<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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Transfers!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />Man. Rip your heart out :( I'm leaving 2nd ward and my heart hurts about it. But alas, such is missionary work! My wonderful trainee is whitewashing KOSOVO! That's right, she's a rockstar!! And I am staying in Tirana, woo! I'm going over to 1st ward and going to be a sister training leader (I don't know what this means, okay, I kind of do, but ya know... I don't know what to do haha). So that's going to be fun! I'm going to be with the wonderful Sister Boettinger from my MTC group.... I'm so heartbroken to leave, I'm gonna miss Sister Z a ton :( sad day.... and all our wonderful people here. But I'm so happy I get to be close to 2nd ward!<br /></div>
I'm so distracted right now. I can't even handle it. I'm so sorry! haha<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br />We had a ward party and danced to traditional music. Oh golly it was fun!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
Also, my companion drank 3 water bottles at lunch when we had back to back lessons. Worst idea ever hahaha I don't think I've ever laughed so hard hahaha .... oh man. Soooo funny. Good news, she did NOT pee her pants. Close though ;)<br /></div>
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Ya know what I love? Prayer.... Sincere. Heartfelt. Focused. Spirit filled prayer. It's life changing really. Being able to connect with Heavenly Father and really communicate our soul... it's amazing. It's a gift that I am so grateful for. Read "Pray Always" by Elder Bednar. It's excellent! It changed my approach on prayer completely. I have a strong testimony of prayer. It's also a lot of work. But it's work that's worth it. So if you've been slackin' on prayer, aka, going through the motions, saying what you usually say, not putting in the work to really connect with God.... stop it :) Get on your knees and talk with your Father in Heaven. It will bless your life :)<br /></div>
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Much love my people,</div>
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Motra Russell<br /></div>
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Me with awesome peeps. Girls are members, the family are some of our investigators. And my Sister Z dancing :)</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-62633562653597649232014-10-25T17:11:00.001-07:002014-10-25T17:11:15.790-07:00September 22, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">It was definitely one of those weeks where everything just happened to go wrong. It got to the point where I was standing completely lost in the rain in the middle of a mud field and I thought to myself.... huh.... hahaha .... </span><br />
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The elders had called us late the night before saying that one of the members wanted us to pick up her daughter to take her to church the next day because she had to go to work. We of course agreed but had no idea where she lived. We got sketchy/incomplete directions from her and the elders and headed out early the next morning. We searched and searched and searched for an hour and could not find her. And unfortunately, all the phone lines were down so we couldn't call anyone. It had taken so long to try and find her, that we ended up not being able to make it to our lesson that morning that we were really looking forward to... and as I was standing in the mud in the rain... lost... frustrated... We said a prayer that we would find her.... well, we didn't find her. I did find corn huskings on the side of the road to kind of wipe my shoes off though. Just got my hands muddy in reality... We finally got back to the church with 2 minutes to spare. Blisters from so much walking in my shoes that I only wear to church for a reason, sweaty, covered in mud, irritated that we had been given bad directions and weren't able to find her and were worried her mother was going to be upset and not trust us anymore, and irritated since we couldn't even show up to our lesson with our investigator who seemed bugged (understandable) that we just didn't show up when he had left his family early to see us .... I sat down in church slightly overwhelmed.... but the peace that came from the sacrament was unmistakable and so real.</div>
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Turns out the elders found the girl waiting for us and took her for us and so she ended up being able to get to church safely. And the elders helped us to get a lesson with our investigator after sacrament because they felt bad we didn't get to teach him in the morning.... I'm ashamed that I was irritated and immediately repented. Because, looking backward, even though nothing happened as I thought it was going to, it still happened as it should. Heavenly Father made sure everything was taken care of that was supposed to happen. It took some detours to get there, but it still happened. It just made me think about how many times we don't trust Him. We don't trust that He's got our back and is looking out for us, that our hardships really are for our good and everything is going to end up okay. But when we allow Him to have a role in our life, it always turns out okay...</div>
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One night a while ago, we felt prompted to go tracting to a certain building... ended up meeting an awesome guy who is now an investigator. He ended up knowing someone in our ward, they had worked together. After he left, the member said something so interesting to me... "He was the last person on my list that I thought would have been interested in investigating the church....". It made me think about how we don't know these people. Only God does. God knows His children's hearts. If we want to share the gospel and be successful at it, we've got to ask<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b><i>Him</i></b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>what<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b><i>He<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></b>wants us to do.</div>
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Last thought.... </div>
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The pope came this last Sunday. That was crazy. We got grounded. Aka- if we weren't in a lesson, we had to stay indoors for safety reasons.... so that was... boring haha ... anyways, they shut down the buses for him coming because a ton of the roads were shut down and filled with crowds instead of cars. It made our sacrament meeting veeerrrryyy small. The people who live far, most just didn't come which ... I dunno, I think it's understandable. But there were a small few that when they found out about the buses, walked. And it's not a short walk. It made me think about the Anti Nephi Lehi's in the Book of Mormon (Alma 53:10-18). They made a covenant with the Lord to never again use their weapons of war and buried them in the ground. Well, war comes and the Nephites are dying by the thousands to protect them and their families... and they start to feel terrible. They start to feel like they should do something to help and start to get ready to go to war with the Lamanites to help out their brother and sisters. But Helamen says no, don't break your covenant. And so they don't, but they send their young sons instead... which we now know as the stripling warriors who miraculously saved many and none of them died despite their lack of experience. </div>
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When reading that story, I thought to myself about how they that were in that situation probably thought, ya know, God is gonna understand if we break this covenant. This is perfectly reasonable... And if I was in their shoes, I probably would've thought the same! But they didn't, they sacrificed their young sons and kept their covenants. And it brought miracles! And so many blessings! I thought about that as I thought about the people who had walked long distances to get to church that day... honestly, I don't think God will punish those who didn't come. I think He probably does understand... but those people aren't going to have miracles in their lives like the people who sacrificed to keep their promises with God. It's when we give our all, when we sacrifice for Him... that's when the miracles happen. That's when the most blessings come.</div>
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I love you all!</div>
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Motra Russell </div>
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Me with a cute nëna... she was very happy to know I would be sending her picture home :) And her toothless smile is ADORABLE!</div>
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This cut out is me teaching Sis. Z rule of thirds to improve her photos haha</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-49351542233915898012014-10-25T17:09:00.002-07:002014-10-25T17:09:55.191-07:00September 15, 2014<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">First off. It's getting cool. Blessed day!! .... okay, it actually was a mild summer and never got<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">hot even though I still sweated my face off. But still, I am grateful :D</span><br />
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Second off. The internet cafe we go to just banned smoking and I can breathe cool, fresh air! Cool because it's cool and fresh because it doesn't have smoke. Oh man. Best email session in a while :)</div>
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<br />Okay, so... I don't really have any stories this week... Our power was out for over 24 hours so I made toast with a candle... uh... what else... I dunno. I really got nothin' haha I know a lot happened but I can't think of anything right now! </div>
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We had a lot of progress with investigators and are feeling incredibly blessed. We had 2 different families in church this last week which was a huge blessing! We're so grateful right now :) We're being blessed in the work over here.</div>
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I recently read a talk by President Eyring titled Waiting Upon the Lord. It was excellent, you should read it :) A part I particularly liked was when he, after getting an interview with President Lee at the time, says:</div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">" “President Lee, how do I get revelation?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He smiled. I am glad he didn’t laugh, since it was an odd question to ask. But he answered my question with a story. It was essentially this. He said that during World War II he had been part of a group studying the question “What should the Church be doing for its members in the military service?” He said they conducted interviews at bases up and down the country. They had data gathered. They had the data analyzed. They went back for more interviews. But still, no plan emerged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Then he gave me the lesson, which I now give to you, in about these words: “Hal, when we had done all we knew how to do, when we had our backs to the wall, then God gave us the revelation. Hal, if you want to get revelation, do your homework.” "</span></div>
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I think it's so important to remember that the Lord isn't just going to hand us answers to life's hardest questions on a silver platter. We have to work. We have to do our part. We have to show we really want it. And I know that when we do all we can do, when we lay it all on the line... that is when we get our answer and that is when we're able to find truth from God. I know that this is possible because I have experienced it myself. It's only after having my faith tried and tested and after I have done all I could do... that is when I get those answers. God loves us, He wants us to have answers <i>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>to grow in the process. </div>
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Much love and prayers!</div>
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Motra Russell</div>
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Photos of the wonderful sisters in my district. Some clouds that were pretty cool. The Rogner Hotel with the best food ever! </div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-89090900048836947412014-10-25T17:07:00.001-07:002014-10-25T17:07:40.751-07:00September 8, 2014<div class="ii gt m14855f5a3d857956 adP adO" id=":1hk" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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So yesterday. We were running late because of a lesson that went over (oh boy, one of my biggest weakness as a missionary... controlling chatterboxes ...) so we were literally running down the road to get to our next lesson (I fear this happens too often with me...hmmm). Right before we step inside their building, it starts pouring rain. We're not out too long, so it really wasn't that big of a deal. Once we're inside, their apartment is reeeaaallly warm and since we had been running, I am sweating up a storm... but I didn't realize how bad until their mom looks at me and says, "oh no! You're so wet from the rain! Let me get you a towel to dry off." ............... it wasn't from the rain..... ah the shame haha<div>
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This last week was so wonderful! And on top of it, it was also my birthday :) I turned 22!! Can you believe it? I know you can't... so just believe me.... I'm 22. Tweeeeennntttttyyyy ttttwwwwoooooo................<wbr></wbr>......... okay. I'm 26. Don't talk to me about it. All the 19 year olds over here like to remind me that I started college when they were 12 haha</div>
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For my birthday, first off, can I just say that I have an amazing companion? She got ready that morning super fast so that she could make me a birthday cake. Are you kidding me? She's amazing. We later had district meeting. That was good and cool and stuff :) After we went to a hotel restaurant that was wow, amazing. Wow! I about died it was so good. And so fancy. I felt a little out of place :P We then taught some awesome lessons which was really wonderful of course. Later that night we had been invited to a members house for dinner and a lesson .... we get to her house and open the door and there's a little surprise party for me! 4 of some of my favorite people were there singing me happy birthday :) One of our recent convert's mom also made me a bunch of my favorite food, too. It was soooo sweet! I felt incredible loved and so grateful. They really were so thoughtful to do that for me, I couldn't even believe it. I am serving in a wonderful mission with some wonderful people :)</div>
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This last week has been full of so many blessings. I am so grateful to be here. I have learned so many incredibly valuable lessons that are going to affect my life forever. </div>
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I've been thinking a lot lately about how much God's hand is in our lives... I've been seeing it so much in missionary work as well as in my personal life. I feel so often there are little things that the Spirit prompts us to do (that we may or may not understand) and when all is said and done ... we look back on these events and realize that they tied so much into the bigger picture along with a million other little things that all fit together perfectly to make a beautiful experience and a beautiful life. I'm learning more than ever to trust the Lord. Trust that He knows what's best for us, that His hand is in our life and that He truly is watching out for us. We have no need to question promptings, to question His will... we can trust that they will always be for our benefit and for our good. What a blessing it is to know that. So here's my challenge. Don't be afraid to follow a prompting, however confusing it might be... I've been amazed to find what beautiful things happen, even when following promptings that may seem difficult or a sacrifice. </div>
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Trust in God. Trust that He loves you. Trust that He wants what's best for you.</div>
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Me të gjithë dashurinë time,</div>
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Motra Rasëll</div>
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Some pictures of some cool stuff. One of the members put chocolate frosting on my face and a banana on my head... dunno why... but it made me laugh haha Also a group picture, the frosting bandit is not in the photo, she "doesn't like pictures" ... how are we friends? I dunno.. but I still love her :) haha</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-66252628076500948632014-10-25T17:04:00.001-07:002014-10-25T17:04:07.528-07:00September 1, 2014<div class="ii gt m14831ee984a8663a adP adO" id=":1j0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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So this last week was amazing! So many miracles happened. So many doors were opening. Our mission president has really been working with us to involve the Lord in our planning so that we do the work that He wants us to do, not just what we think we should do. And it has been leading to some incredible experiences. I've already learned so much from my President. I'm so excited I get to serve even more time with him. <div>
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So this last week in church. I'm standing on the stairs with Sister Z. There are two floors of stairs above me. I step an inch to the side just in time for a wad bomb of spit to land on the ground inches away from me. I look up and there's a stinker little kid smiling proudly at his work. Gross. Good thing I love kids hahaha</div>
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One of our investigators, who prefers us to teach and talk to her in english (she likes to practice), was in church in Sunday. Afterwards I went up to talk to her. We talked about her day, her cute dress, how she liked church and then I stopped and said.... wait.... I've been speaking in Albanian this whole time..... YES! Point for me!! :D</div>
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We had an amazing experience with fasting this last week. We both felt prompted to fast about the work in our area and so we did. It opened up so many doors and so many blessings. I am so grateful for it. I wish I had more time to write about it all! But I will say that I have a strong testimony that God's hand is in our lives. That we may wonder why things happen they way do (or don't happen at all), but I know that God always has our best interest in mind and He will always lead us along if we allow Him to. </div>
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Me të gjithë dashurinë time,</div>
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Motra Russell</div>
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Went to Krujë again today :) Super fun, here are some shots of it along with the inside of a really old mosk and supposedly one of the oldest olive trees in the world.</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-16057471732676595712014-09-21T20:26:00.001-07:002014-09-21T20:26:29.016-07:00August 25, 2014<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">So. I speak english fluently. Duh. But man, teaching it is hard. I have no idea how to teach someone how to read english. Or really anything. I could teach someone how to speak albanian fluently.... english? Nope. I'm probably the worst english teacher ever. I can tell you if a sentence is right or wrong.... but not why haha I'm grateful our english course is free otherwise I would feel awful haha</span><br />
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We were street contacting the other day and a cute, happy family walked by. Sister Z asked them if we could talk with them and they stopped and asked us what about... she started talking about being with our families forever and testified about something else that I don't remember, and wow! They really seemed to like it! Sister Z was getting really excited! ... And then they asked what ward we were in. Boooo... He was the bishop from 3rd ward haha total Best Two Years moment.</div>
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So my sister is home now! That's crazy! I'd just like to give a shout out to her for being amazing. Kaq.</div>
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A guy from 1st ward got baptized this last weekend. Sister Z and I got to go unexpectedly with an investigator that called us and said he was at the church (we don't know why he was there, he just showed up haha but hey! It was a huge blessing so we'll take it!) Before the baptism, the guy getting baptized kept turning around and staring at me and I thought, oh boy... this is awkward. Afterwards, we went up and talked to him and apparently Sister Z and I had ran into him passing out english fliers and encouraged him to go to english course where he lived and he said he would and then he got baptized! Wow! That's why he kept looking back at us, he remembered us telling him to go. I feel like most of the time we don't get to see where our actions are blessing others and so it was such a blessing being able to have this tender mercy.</div>
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As for a thought...</div>
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I'm reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover right now (which has been so wonderful by the way). I was reading in Alma and read Alma 5:45-46. I've always loved these scriptures and I want to talk a little about them....</div>
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So remember Alma the younger? He was described as the "vilest of sinners" trying to destroy the church of God in the land and really just being kinda rotten. Well, the prayers of those who loved him and especially his father led to him being visited by an angel of God and it completely turned his life around. I love how he describes it in Alma 36. It's so beautiful. In verse 22 of that chapter he even tells his son that he saw God sitting upon His throne with countless angels around him. I can't even imagine what kind of experience this was. He saw the very Father! I would think that this would be the most converting experience of them all! But in Alma 5 he says this:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me."</span></div>
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Alma the younger, who had seen God, still had to fast and pray to know for himself from the spirit if all of this was true. </div>
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I think that is so powerful. Especially as I talk to so many people who tell me that they would believe if they saw God, they would believe if they saw the golden plates, they would believe if they had more proof... but even if they had proof, it would never be enough. It's never enough to have signs or proof or any of that stuff. We can only know truth through the Spirit. Through prayer. Through faith.</div>
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So if you want to know if all of this true, if Joseph Smith really saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. If you really want to know if the Book of Mormon is true or if Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet for God.... live in a way that you're worthy to get an answer from God by keeping the commandments, going to church, searching the scriptures, praying... and then ask Him. Be patient for His timing and have faith that you will get an answer and I promise you that you<i><b>will<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></i>get an answer. I got an answer.</div>
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I know this is true because of how it's changed my life. How I feel. And from answers to prayers. This gospel will change your life if you let it. </div>
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Me të gjithë dasurinë time,</div>
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Motra Rasëll</div>
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missyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00543204246047233986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6007222773689806150.post-31241675686519476162014-09-21T20:16:00.001-07:002014-09-21T20:16:10.868-07:00August 18, 2014<div class="ii gt m147e9d7144eacbf7 adP adO" id=":17f" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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This last week was excellent as always :) <div>
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We had an awesome lesson with a new investigator, sweetest old guy ever. He prayed for the first time in our lesson and after said that he felt so emotional. It was so beautiful. These moments make me so happy. I will treasure them forever. After when we were talking about church, we told him that in church we dress our best to show respect to God and he immediately buttoned up his shirt to the top button so that he could look his best right then. I don't know why, but it touched me so much and I had so much love for him! I can't even begin to say. I wanted to cry I loved him so much! It just really touched me.... then we found out he lives in 4th ward and we have to pass him off to the other missionaries and I cried in side :/ But that's okay! He's going to be taught and that's all that matters! </div>
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So ya know how people joke about the lame excuse of "I can't do it, I'm washing my hair"? Ya know, the joke that isn't really that funny haha .... we were tracting and a guy answered with suds all over his hands and hair and said, "you're going to wait for a minute, I'm washing my hair"....and then shut the door.... he he he, hahaha I laughed pretty hard :) But hey! He came back and we had a pretty good discussion! He's a cool guy, hopefully it goes somewhere.</div>
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This last Sunday was really just amazing. Our Mission President came to speak in our ward. When he started talking, he talked about how he was an Area Seventy for Europe and had come to Albania about 5 years ago. He said that when he was speaking in the district conference, he felt impressed to tell the congregation that if they were faithful, they would have a stake in 5 years. Well, we just got a stake, so that's pretty amazing :) He then started talking about how he and his assistants and wife went down to Serandë (pretty sure that's spelled right) to pray about if it should be the next opened area to missionaries (which is every missionary's dream hahaha). While they were there, they found a hill so that they could overlook the city. He said while they prayed, he could see a temple in Serandë. He then promised us that we not only will one day have a temple in Tirana, but also in Serandë. TWO TEMPLES! Are you kidding me?! I was dying by this point. The Spirit was BURSTING! I could hardly handle it! Then he told us that we have three things we have to do. In a summary, he told us that if we invite people to sacrament meeting, keep the sabbath day holy, and pay our tithing... we would have a temple very soon. </div>
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I can't even handle it! This is the best news ever! The closest temple is in Germany. We're excited about Rome, but it's still far. Members always ask us, do you think we'll have a temple? Do you think it'll ever happen? These members want it SO bad. And I'm not gonna lie, I always feel somewhat guilty that I live in a temple dotted state. It's an incredible blessing that I am so grateful for. But now, now I can tell them with every fiber of my heart that yes, YES!! There WILL be a temple! There's gonna be two! And this is what you have to do! I am on FIRE about this! I witnessed a powerful prophecy and the Spirit bore witness of it's truthfulness. I have never felt so urgent about the work. I want these members to have a temple so bad. I have never felt more peace or more happiness than I have in the temple. </div>
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I'm also so grateful that we have access to the Spirit so that we can know truth. Yes, this promise about two temples was amazing and cool.... but it was the Spirit confirming that it was true that made it powerful to me. We can know truth for ourselves! And it's amazing! We don't have to take anyone's word for it, we can know for ourselves and I am so grateful for that.</div>
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Ju dua shumë, pa masë!</div>
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Motra Rasëll</div>
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I was lame at pictures this week, sorry :/ Just a shot of my comp and me!</div>
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