I To Give My Witness..... week 52

Sister Z and Johansen

Hello Hello!!!! :) 

I hope that ya'll had a most wonderful and splendid week! This week was a super great one! :) 

Sister Z posing as Superman

First thing is first! Happy Happy Birthday to my sister cousin Carolina Kidd TODAY!! You are 16 years old, that is absolutely terrifying!! haha. It is a good age though. My only words of advice for my dearest cousin is to remember my counsel about kissing-it is gross and total unsanitary. Kissing, it can wait. Just remember that. :) ;Also, Happy Birthday to Miss Mallory Rogers this week! But since you are engaged, I will not give you any kissing advice... besides have fun. ;) 

We taught Family Home Evening to the Young Single Adults here in Tirana. That was absolutely terrifying. I have not been that nervous in such a long time. But, it went super super well! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father helped us with that lesson and that the Holy Ghost was our co-teacher. 

Wednesday was the 23rd of April. That was a super super bittersweet day for me and my MTC district group. It is crazy how fast time flies. So we went to the Rogner hotel for lunch. The food was yummy. 

Pday minion pants Missionary

meal at members house

Today for p-day we went and spend the day with one of our wonderful members. I love her so much! Me and Sister Russell taught her and she is absolutely adorable! We went and had some yummy yummy pizza. The best pizza in Tirana. and I had real Dhale for the first time ever! I actually thought it didn't taste bad at all, like it was actually good. My companion on the other hand...wasn't the best fan. Thankfully she didn't throw up though. Then we went and went in random shops just to look at the clothes that they had. There were minion descipable me pajamas and i thought they were awesome! So the member told me to go and try them on...well the Medium size in Albania should be changed to "people who don't have a butt the size of canada or thunder socker thighs aka doesn't fit a sister zollinger." I put them on and just said "umm...these are too small." but the member still wanted me to come out and show them off. haha. so I did. haha. they laughed so hard. haha. 

Saturday we played futbol. It is super sunny and bright down here in Tirana. I got sun burnt...but hey, I got new freckles on my arms and hands. I think they look rather cute. :) But soccer went super super well! We played with a ton of little kids 12-14 years old and I was worried that I was going to accidentally kill one of them. So i just played defense the entire game. haha. it was a lot of fun! 

Yesterday was a super good day! The piano keyboard has another note that seizures. haha, it's annoying. 

A view  of Tirana

I feel like the past couple transfers that I have truly started to fall in love with the Book of Mormon in a way that I didn't even know was possible. I remember that before my mission, when I read the Book of Mormon for 10 minutes, I thought that was a really good amount of time. Since being on a mission, for personal study I get so excited when I can just read out of the Book of Mormon only for the entire hour...and it still isn't enough. The Book of Mormon is such an incredible record that we have, and how blessed we are that God has been so merciful and loving that He has preserved the sacred golden plates to come forth in these days. The days that we are in.  This morning I listened to my all time favorite talk by Elder Holland, Safety for the Soul (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng), listening to the talk I was filled with an excitement and an indescribable feeling for the Book of Mormon. I remember when I first heard this talk, it was in October of 2009, i was in 9th grade. 9th grade was the time when my testimony was born, when I really felt that I had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and it happened during this talk. This is my favorite part of his entire talk: I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. ⁹ Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

Sister Missionaries 

For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” ¹⁰ How powerful is that? I feel like in a way I can relate to what Elder Holland was saying about Joseph Smith and his brother and their families.  I wouldn't have left the family that I love with all of our my heart to come to a foreign country to learn a foreign language just to talk about some book. I wouldn't willingly face mockery and laughter and ridicule from others every day just for some book. I wouldn't try to change my nature and who I am just so that I can better live what is taught in some book. I wouldn't face my biggest fears or throw myself completely out of my comfort zone just so that I could explain and invite people to read some book. I wouldn't leave everything that I knew for a year and half just for some book. I wouldn't do any of that for some book. BUT, I would do all of that for the Book of Mormon. I have left the family that I love, some of the people that I am closest to in my entire life; my parents and siblings to come here in Albania speaking Albania to talk to people here about the Book of Mormon. I willingly and humbly face mockery and laughter and ridicule from the people here that don't understand the importance of the Book of Mormon. I am trying to change my nature and who I am so that I can better live what I preach from the Book of Mormon. I do face my biggest fears and throw myself out of my comfort zone every single day so that I can explain and invite people to read the Book of Mormon. I have left everything that I was and knew for a year and half to tell people about the Book of Mormon. And you know what? I don't regret one second. If I was asked to, I would do this the rest of my life. If someone gave me the option of death or denying the Book of Mormon I would tell them "i want a Book of Mormon engraved on my headstone." It would be an honor to die defending the Book of Mormon, but that isn't what God has asked of me. He has asked me to live for the Book of Mormon. To give my witness of the Book of Mormon everyday, and to be a living witness of it. Our lives change when we go from just reading the Book of Mormon to trying to live what we read. I too want to Give my Witness before God and all those that will read this, with the angels who take notes of my life that they will write this down, that I give my honest and humble witness that the Book of Mormon is true. It is a simple testify, but it is a true testimony. I have read the Book of Mormon multiple times, and I have prayed to know if it is true. Moroni's promise works, ask God. He listens and He will answer. He has answered me, and if He has heard me and answered me, He will do the same for any of you. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and I know that every word that is written in the Book of Mormon is true. It is true. All of it. and I will proudly and willingly go down to my grave defending the wonderful and holy Book of Mormon. You simply can't deny the truth. Truth is truth. God is truth. and that will never change. 

Have a wonderful wonderful week! Smile lots serve lots and treasure trials!! :) I love you all!! 

Love,

Motra Zollinger

PS.
i felt like i am forgetting to say something....but i don't remember. so if i forgot something, just send me an email and i do it in the next email. haha. :)