Hello Hello!!
Wow. It has been a crazy crazy past two weeks!! The
past two p-days were a lot busier than I had anticipated so I wasn't able to
send out the mass email, but I get to today! :) The past couple weeks have been
so good. Here are some highlights:
Happy birthday to Madison!! Ya old fart. ;)
Happy Birthday to Greyman too! :)
Happy Birthday to my wonderful and sweet grandma!
Plenty nine years old once again. :)
I am in Kosovo now. To get to Kosovo we literally
drove THROUGH a mountain. It was so cool!! It is so pretty up here too!
It is so nice here! I absolutely love Kosovo!! Gheg sounds so cool too, I love
the language difference here! haha, it is a work in progress speaking it too,
but it works. :)
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| Motra Z on the Boulevard in Pristina, Kosovo |
I have been in 3 countries in the past 3 weeks. First,
Albania. Then Kosovo. Then we went on exchanges to Macedonia. It was so cool to
see more of the country of Kosovo and Macedonia as well. It is so pretty and I
loved Macedonia! The missionaries in Macedonia are awesome and the Macedonian
language sounds so amazing cool!! They also had a burger king up there!! It was
super good to have some american food...but they didn't have mint ice cream.
I'm a gonna find mint ice cream somewhere. It will ndodh.
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| Elders Clawson, Jorgenson, McGrath and Stuart |
There is an amazing delicious Thai resteraunt here!
First time I have ever tried Thai food was in Kosovo. Anyways, it was our first
time having lunch together as a district, and Elder Clawson has been serving in
Kosovo for four months now, so I asked him what I should get at the Thai
restaurant. I told him that I was a sissy with heat so I couldn't get anything
spicy. He said to get the pineapple curry because it wasn't spicy. ha, in his
defense he said when he had it it wasn't hot. but it was most definitely hot.
My mouth was on fire! and since it was our first lunch together I couldn't
start crying because something was so spicy so I started to dog pant to try and
calm my tongue down. But it didn't help at first, so I started to pant
harder...i got light headed. haha, i felt like I was going to pass out. Long
story short, I will never eat pineapple curry again. and the good news is that
I survived. :) haha.
Olives have pits. Did you know that? The olives that
I have always eaten have had that hole at the top where I stick my finger in
them... so at dinner with some members and the branch president's wife I
learned that olives have pits, that they don't come with the hole at the top.
So, one of the members had olives on her pizza and she doesn't like them, well,
I do. So I ate them for her. I took a bite into it and felt the
"pit". So, I turned to the branch president's wife and said "be
careful... i think they stuffed the olive with like a nut or something."
she just looked at me and said "sister zollinger, that is the olive
pit." My Mind was completley blown!!! I think I kept on bringing the fact
up the rest of the night that olives have pits. Because I had no idea that they
did. Really though, that is awesome!!
For service we went and mowed the branch president's
lawn and weeded! I weeded!! I was so happy!! and I may or may not have
accidentally pulled out one of their flowers......... but anyways. There were a
lot of slugs in the garden, and so we may or may not have started throwing the
slugs at each other. I was innocent of course in this. I wasn't too good at
throwing them, but my companion got Elder Clawson right in the back of the neck
and then it fell into his hoody. haha, his face was priceless. That was a
really fun service time!
We played soccer today for p-day. It felt so good!!!
aaaahhh, it felt so good!
My district here is amazing! We had lunch together
yesterday and it went so well! I just love the Elders in my district, they are
amazing and such great Elders! and my companion. She is incredible and I am so
blessed and lucky to be with her!
I love it here in Kosovo so much! People have way
different perspective on Christ here. I have been told so many times that
Christ is an imaginary person and that He is not real. They say this to my
face. They deny my Savior in front of my face every day, and it sorta stabs me
in the heart when they say it. But, I had such a neat experience about that situation
this week. I am not one to try and talk about things that someone doesn't like
or agree with because I don't want to make them mad or uncomfortable. So often
times I will try to bring up something of the restoration when I am talking to
people. It was Wednesday morning and I had read Thomas S. Monson's talk
"Be of Good courage." I really loved that talk! Well, that day I was
on the street and I was talking to this man. I showed him a photo of the
restoration and he saw Christ and God and he sorta went a little bitter. He was
like "no. That's not right. Christ isn't real. He's not real at all."
In my head I was like "ok..." but then I thought of the talk that I
read that morning, about having courage. So, I testified of Christ right then.
I told him that we are all free to believe what we want but then I said "I
believe in Christ. I know that He is my Savior and that He has done so much for
me. I am so grateful to Christ for all that He has done and I love Him. I know
that He is real." The guy left and his mind wasn't changed, but I got to
defend my Savior Jesus Christ. I felt so good Dad! I did everything that I
possible could have in that situation, but I had the courage to testify of
Christ to an anti-Christ instead of trying another approach for our Church. I
don't know if I can adequately explain how good it felt, but it felt soo good!!
That is my favorite part about being a missionary, being able to not only
represent my Savior but to also defend my Savior and my Redeemer. I know that
Christ does live. He knows me. He loves me. Christ knows all of us. Come to
Christ. He suffered for my sins and my emotions, and your sins and your
emotions. He knows us more than we know ourselves. He is the only one who can
truly comfort us because He knows exactly what we are going through and exactly
how we feel. I love my Savior so much and I am so grateful that I get to teach
people about Him, and that I get to defend my Savior. I know that this church
is true! I love being a missionary! I love this gospel!
And remember: anything is possible with two. As long
as one is God and the other is you.
Have a great and wonderful week! Smile lots and
serve lots!!
Love,
Motra Zollinger
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This past week has been a great week! I wanted to
share a scripture from Mosiah that really stuck out to me this week. It is in
Mosiah chapter fourteen and is in verse five. This verse I think explains so
well how much Christ loves us and how we can get through this life. But he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Christ
was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities; the
chastisement of my peace was upon Him; and with His stripes I am healed. That
scripture I think is so powerful. Everything that I am going to face in this
life, Christ put it upon Him. Every emotion, every trial, every sin, everything
possible; He willingly and lovingly took upon Himself. Because Christ did that,
I can find peace I can find strength and it is because of His atonement. I can
be healed through Christ's help, through His Atonement. I know that my Savior
lives! I am so humbled each and everyday when I put Christ's name on my
chest. It is one of the most humbling experiences in my life to be able
to represent my Savior to the wonderful people of Albania and Kosovo; and I
know that I do not do it alone. My Savior is with me and I represent Him, as I
am a missionary here. I love being a missionary. I love teaching and serving
people. I know that this church is true and that we don't need to ever go
through anything alone. Ever. Just like it says in mosiah 24:15; we don't need
to do anything alone, because He has already gone through everything that we
will go through. I love my Savior Jesus Christ so much and I am so grateful to
my Heavenly Father for giving me a Savior. 
