Christ fell on His face, so that we can fall at His feet.‏.... Week 63

Hello Hello

Motra Zollinger and Motra Hysa (Mom insert I love this picture!)

Wow. This past week just wizzed by, like so much. It was such a great week though, I absolutely had such a blast this past week!! I am not short on email time either right now, so brace yourselves...because I may or may not have had some good camillisms this week. hehe. Don't I always. ;) 

First thing. Heat. I don't think that it is spelled h-e-a-t. More like A-L-B-A-N-I-A or like T-I-R-A-N-A. Holy cow. I think I am just a sissy about it though, but boy. Let's just say that I do not have any luck when it comes to heat because a) i sweat worse than a boy b)i sweat like a pig trying to pass peach pits (emphasis on the pits aka more than one pit). I have gotten use to the feeling of sweat dripping down my back...it is so pleasant. ha, not. BUT, because it is is so hot, I just eat ice cream every single day-and maybe a smoothie along with ice cream or i get doubles of it. So I guess it is a win win situation. 

 Motra  Zollinger loves her companion, Motra Hysa 

Tuesday morning a member needed us to help carry her suitcases to the fergon places to send it down to Fier. That is not a problem. We headed over to her house early to help her take them over. She had me and my companion co-carry a quite heavy bag and she took a suitcase. Well, this member is super sweet and didn't want us to tire... but you see, patience isn't always something that I have been gifted with when it comes to do hard things like carry heavy things. She was asking and insisted that we take a break every minute. As far as we needed to walk, that was going to take us close to an hour to get there. So by the time it was the 2nd or 3rd break, i couldn't handle it. So, I just swept down and picked up the bag and then just started walking. I am pretty sure I might have grunted as I tried to lift that mini elephant up. Well, this member I always thought she was stubborn, but I totally won the battle that day. Thankfully we took a bus part way there...but my arms were shaking the rest of that day. haha, i got sore in places that i didn't even know was possible to be sore. So, pretty much I got swoll in 5 minutes, but then all the muscles fell and i got them relief society arms. ;) 

Being Motra Z....

We had the weirdest day street contacting on Tuesday!! We were down in the center of Tirana, as we were contacting I noticed how there were a lot more cops out than usual. But I didn't necessarily think anything about it, until they started to shut off the streets and then more cops were showing up and I was starting to see some undercover cops (just because Elder Autsen pointed them out).  So, we all just got together on one side of the street, and then the craziest thing happened! I guess the German ambassador was there or something, because he drove by. Along with 50 cop mortocycles, and some secret service and the SWAT equivalent people and everything. I was just watching all the cops drive by just staring at them. It was crazy! There was even a helicopter that was following them up in the sky. It was so cool and intersting and so weird at the same time. Yeah, so that happened.

This week I was craving Mom's chocolate chip cookies so bad. So, I decided to make cookies and eat them instead of trying to control my cravings (which if it comes to a craving of chocolate, just eat the chocolate). So, we went to Neranxhi's (has american food and stuff) and we bought chocolate chips. Well, I forgot how much mom's recipe already makes, and I was wanting a lot of cookies and so I doubled the recipe. I also put in a kilo of mini chocolate chips. They were SO GOOD. and so chocolately! They tasted like Mom's cookies as well. I brought some to finding that day, the elders ate 19 cookies in less than 5 minutes. I made about 6-8 dozen cookies for Zone training the next day and they all got eaten as well. They were yummy. :) 

Earlier this week I woke up in the middle of me sleep walking in the apartment. It was the weirdest feeling ever. I woke up in the kitchen trying to put my teddy bear in the fridge and then I woke up and was super confused and then went back to bed. yeah, so that was weird. 

Is a watermelon a fruit or a vegetable?? Me and Sister Hysa had that conversation earlier this week and she thinks it is a vegetable, but obviously it is a fruit. haha. so we started calling other missionaries and asking them. So, yeah. haha. we had members look on the internet and one website said it was a fruit and the other a vegetable. So, it is a fruitable. 

Yesterday for district lunch we had tacos. Atleast they were sorta tacos. I tried to make home made refried beans again, which can be explained in two words: FAIL. haha. Elder White was helping me, and i didn't even really think about how long the beans would have to bake, and so instead of like the four hours like they are supposed to usually, it got two hours. but they were still soft and edible. So, it worked, they all got eaten. But, I am going to stick to canned refried beans from here on out. haha. 

"me and Motra Tengu, she came for a baptism! :) "

This is Meksikani (his real name is Aaron) and his friend Aemmon.

T1 had a baptism, and we went with our investigator who is 65 years old. As we were waiting for the sister to change from being baptized we sang hymns. I was leading the music. I heard the door open up, so i thought that the sister had gotten back and so I just went and sat right down after the first song. But then as soon as I sat down one of the sisters just looked at me and was like "she isn't here yet...we still need to sing." having a camille-brain that I do, it took a couple seconds to register what she said and then I was like 'oh, awkward!" and i jumped out of the chair and speedy gradma shuffled to the front of the room and was apologizing as  I was walking up there. haha, but everything still went well. Our investigator enjoyed the baptism as well. She has a bad neck, and after she got baptized she just said how beautiful it was but that "you can't do that to me. Because i can't bend like that and my neck is going to break and then you'll kill me". So, we got to work on that with her... 

The RS having an activity in the park, Motra Z loving it!

so, last night President Weidmann called. I am getting transfered. There is an emergency transfer or something like that (I plead the fifth. It wasn't me. haha, i don't know what is happening or why) and I am going to be going to the Tirana 4th ward with Sister White. It was totally unexpected and I didn't even know what to think at all last night after he told me-but I am excited and know that this is where God wants me to go now. I am super sad to be leaving Sister Hysa, she was amazing and has been so fun to serve with! But, let the new adventures begin! 

This past week we had zone training. It was such an amazing Zone Training! It was by the far the most spiritual zone training that I have had thus far on my mission! It was incredible. We still learned what our goals were going to be for the month, but we didn't focus on them. We focused instead of the reason for everything that we do here. We focused on Christ. We talked about our conversions with Christ. It was so incredible. I felt the spirit so strongly throughout it, especially as I reflected my testimony-with where I started and now where I am. It was super amazing as we talked so much about Christ and about His Atonement. Ever since I have thought a lot about the Atonement and I realized that life is supposed to be hard. We came here to learn, and if something appears to be harder than what we expected it to be, that's okay because we are in good company. We can't forget who is happened to first. Christ, He knew that what He was going to do in the Garden of Gethsemane wasn't going to be easy, but I don't know if He knew how hard it was really going to be; because in Mathew we read that "And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."  That is powerful. Christ, the Savoir and Redeemer of the World as He was suffering in the garden, it caused Him to fall to His face. So, it would only make sense that life would bring us to our face as well, because there isn't anything that happens in this life that hasn't happened to Christ before. I love a uote from Neal A. Maxwell, which says "How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me coem and dwell with Thee and fully share thy joy." Everything that happens in life is because God needs that to happen to us, because we come to know Him more through everything that we go through. But we are not alone. Never are we alone. Everything that we have gone through, are going through, and will go through, Christ has been there first. Christ fell on His face, so that we can fall at His feet.  

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

Love,

Motra Zallenxher