Week 49: Snow in Albania?!

Mirë dita!

The pictures I'm sending really sum up the week so take a look below! 

Motra Suckow and I have been trekking along in some record lows this week. Everyone was staying inside so that means.... tracting! Funny story we knocked on a door and a man answered. It looked like Christmas in their apartment; they were all in pajamas and had music on and the warmth of their apartment carried out to where we were standing. He said, "Wow, you must be pretty cold out there!", we said, "Yeah, it's fr-" when he slammed the door shut. Luckily we'd gotten to the point where we could just shake it off and laugh about it. 

Other than the tracting, we had a lot of lessons with our friend E who is awesome! Then Saturday we had a zone conference in Elbasan and that night we hosted a branch activity at the church. We did Minute to Win It - it was a hit!

Something Albanian/cool: Friday many people here were celebrating a holiday called Uji të Bekuar. It's an Orthodox holiday and it's pretty interesting. At 10am everyone walked to the river and the priest of the church blesses the water and throws a cross in the water. Then some men dive in the water and try to retrieve it again! Talk about a Polar Bear Plunge, it just so happened to be the morning that it was snowing!

Hand of the Lord: The Dabells, a senior missionary couple, just moved into Berat this week! They're awesome; just to serve as an example, yesterday they were the first to bear their testimonies - all in prepared Albanian! Motra Suckow and I were so thankful for the Dabell's yesterday. Our water had been out for four days (it's still out now btw) so we hadn't showered for a long bit.... but we were able to take our things over to the Dabell's home and have actual warm showers. Honestly, I'm realizing so many small things that I took for granted back home!

Something spiritual: I was reading in Luke the other day and in chapter 9, verse 23, something really stood out to me :"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." I love the use of the word "daily" in this verse! It is so hard to be disciples and to choose the right, that is why we need to recommit ourselves EVERY day to follow Christ.

Much love! Have a great week!

Motra Fulop

 

Happy Birthday Elder Dabell (on the right). He turned 20 again! We sang Happy Birthday to him in five different languages and Motra Suckow aka Betty Crocker made this amazing Ferrero Rocher cake :).

Uje te Bekuar on the bridge!

Here we're on the boulevard and the castle is on top of the mountain behind me.

Super random - There's a LOVE statue in Lushnje - a nice little tribute to Philly!

South Zone Conference Saturday! This was in Elbasan, one of the few places we have a chapel.

SNOW - view from our balcony. It hadn't snowed for five years here, everyone was so excited.