Scatter Sunshine: Adriatic South: December 2017

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Një Vitë në Shqipëri!!!

ONE YEAR IN SHQIPERIA (Albania)! I never thought this day would ever come! It's crazy to think I haven't touched American soil for so long! We celebrated with ice cream and....that's about it haha Well after a year, we had a week's worth of MIRACLES! Christmas Miracles :)

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. So one of our investigator's invited us to go and help her celebrate her son's 6th birthday at his preschool so we had a little fun celebrating at an Albanian preschool party. It's nothing like America-all the kids were going crazy with sparklers inside and we went out to send off a lantern where the birthday boy made a wish! It was fun to spice up the work a little bit with a little celebration :)

2. For our HUGE concert we had on Saturday, we spent many days passing out fliers as one of the Elders played his violin in the streets. The culture shock this week was for THEM! It is actually very rare to meet a violinist here or to even see a violin so that was fun!

3. Christmas music here is NOT a thing so for our concert the people did not know of ANY of them but it truly was so special! We tried to sing with everyone "Nat' e Qet' (Silent Night)" no one knew so we tried belting it all we could haha

Speaking of this concert....IT WAS THE MOST GREATEST MIRACLE EVER!!! Honestly when I think how it all came together, it was all the work of the Lord! So we ended up having 174 show-which is HUGE by the way. 150 of them have NEVER heard of the church and they showed up merely through these flier invitations because NO ONE has ever heard of us here by the way. Pogradec was just opened up one year ago so it was so special to see so many come! Another thing is that Christmas is not celebrated here so we were able to have a special concert for all of these people. We had all kinds of families and people come it truly was a miracle! We were able to have the members involved giving presentations about Christ's birth teaching all these people who have never known! We were able to also sing some beautiful Christmas hymns-I got to sing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" and attempt to translate it as we displayed it on the back as I sang and one Elder played the violin while the other accompanied and I sang. I kinda forgot the words in the middle of it but good thing they don't know English! Woooo! haha

At the end of this beautiful concert, we actually had the opportunity to join all these people and dance their traditional dance with them around the banquet room we rented in the hotel by the church. I got called up to be the head leader even and it was just a blast leading everyone around the room dancing this valle dance. Our president was there and it was just a BEAUTIFUL evening! The people were able to come together and I met so many people that just live alone or others who were so humble and haven't had opportunities to attend such events so it was literally one of the greatest evenings of my life :) I was just filled with this JOY as we just shared this light that is Christ with everyone there! We even the next day had a bunch of people attend church! I cannot express my joy as Christ truly is why we celebrate Christmas. The reason why Christmas is a time of JOY and a time of PEACE because it is all about HIM! He is the source of joy, the source of peace!

This is my FAVORITE quote about Christmas from Elder Craig C. Christensen at a past Christmas devotional, "The story of Christmas is not fully told without the story of Easter. It was the Savior’s atoning sacrifice that made holy the silent night in Bethlehem."

I testify of this. I shared with you last week about the woman who knows nothing about Christ-this week we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she realized that Christ is the reason for everything! It is through Him and only Him that we can be saved and be with our families eternally. He truly is the reason for the season and Christ truly is EVERYTHING! I am working to come unto Him more and more to come to know HIM. He sacrificed for us because of His perfect love for us and I love this time of year! There's literally not a better way I could spend this Christmas than to spend every minute of it telling others of our Savior, our Brother, Jesus Christ. I testify that He lives and that He is the Gift, He is the Light of the World, He is the Reason for the Season. I love my Savior and I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK THIS WEEK! I cannot believe that just NEXT week is Christmas!!! To be honest, I am very excited to see my family and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your families! I love you all and until next week!!!

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/christmas-devotional/2016/12/the-fulness-of-the-story-of-christmas?lang=eng

We found a sleigh!!!

Eating cookies with my favorite people!!!

This is what was left over to decorate.....literally about 5 M&Ms haha we tried.

Our gingerbread house out of Lady Fingers. This is all we could find for candy haha

Went on an exhange with Motra Holt!

Birthday Boy!!!

Celebrating my one year (December 14th) going out to eat!

Making cookies for the concert.....hahaha whoops :)

At the concert :)

Mirupafshim! Të dua!

Motra Olsen

Letters:

Adriatic South Mission
Sister Natalie Olsen
POB 2984
Bulevardi "Gjergj Fishta"
Qendra "Alpas", Shkalla #5, Apt #14
Tirana
Albania

(If you can't send it with the POB box number, you can just send it without it. I'll still get it)

Email: natalie.olsen@myldsmail.net

mormon.org

Monday, December 11, 2017

Ndricoje Botën!

THIS WEEK HAD BEEN THE GREATEST WEEK OF MY LIFE! I just know that it's just going to get better and better from now! This week we focused A TON on LightTheWorld (NdricojeBotën) and Christmas miracles are happening here in Pogradec! One of them being that this Saturday we are having this HUGE concert that we are putting on for all of Pogradec and it's getting bigger and bigger than we thought so we are excited to Light the World to all of the city of Pogradec!

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. We found a coconut haha and couldn't figure out how to open it so we smashed it on the floor.

2. So everything is centered around New Years here-Christmas is not really celebrated so the lights are New Years Lights, the trees are New Years trees, and even Santa Claus is Babi Gjyshi that just means dad grandpa and he comes around for New Years. New Years is pretty HUGE here.

3. We are introducing a ton of Christmas traditions to the people here one being Christmas cookie decorating! No cookie cutters don't exist so we hand carved trees, snowmen, and ornaments. We'll see how it goes tonight at Family Night :)

I cannot explain how much my week this week changed from night to DAY once I centered Christ in it! He is the LIGHT of the World! You would think that being a missionary, I'd have to always be happy and perfect centering my life on Christ but let me tell you-if we are not making the conscious effort to center Him in our life-it's easy to forget. I was trying to find new ways to improve and I felt I was going through the motions. EVERYTHING changed once my companion and I started getting really into the LightTheWorld service and started to do everything with LOVE! Love, pure love, truly comes from CHRIST! He turns our night to DAY! While I struggled for some time, everything changed when I was reminded to remember Him and serve as He did. He did so much-He healed, He taught, and He suffered. Yes it was hard, but I don't think it was hard for Him to keep going as He had a purpose as to what He was doing this all for. He did all that He did for us because He has PERFECT LOVE! This is what this LightTheWorld is all about! He is the light of the world and we can be the Light of the World. Then as we serve and we are that light, we are FILLED with Light which means we are FILLED with love! It's truly a beautiful thing!

I want to share with you of this light and the Christmas miracles from this week. Some things we were able to do was one day, we bought a TON of oranges and were going through the streets and searching for those who were in need whether that be the beggars in the streets or people we were led to. I cannot express the joy and gratitude that filled their countenance as we gave them this simple mandarin orange. Another day we visited some of the widowed women in our group and heart attacked them with paper hearts and notes. It was the most precious thing to witness the humble gratitude from these people!

Our Christmas MIRACLES were that in English Course, we had light 6 people ask for a Book of Mormon and we have this woman that we are working with that has a HUGE desire to be baptized! Her husband in the beginning wasn't allowing her but this last week, on his 3 hours off of work in the week, he got his family all together and they all came in to CHURCH! WHAT?! He came and their whole family sat together and it was the most beautiful thing! I cried! I truly believe that miracles are happening here in Pogradec. If there's one thing I am learning is how GOOD God is! You've probably heard this before but it's SO TRUE! Honestly I just love sitting back (well, maybe not that, we're always working haha) and just watching Him work! This is His work! I used to have this fear that I'd mess it up but it's not like that. This IS His work. It's just a matter of the desire that I have to be an instrument in His hands to bring about miracles. He will accomplish His work. The Spirit makes up for what I cannot achieve and I can testify of that. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior!

I just wanted to conclude saying that Jesus IS the Light! I read in Helaman 14 in the Book of Mormon with Samuel the Lamanite prophesying, 3 And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day.

4 Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born.

5 And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.

The sign of Christ's birth was LIGHT and only LIGHT! Then, Samuel proceeds to testify of the sign of Christ's death in that same chapter that it will be 3 days of darkness. We see that without Christ, there cannot possibly be light! So what will happen when we come unto Him? We will be FILLED with light! I testify of that! We are teaching a woman right now who knows NOTHING about Christ and it's so beautiful to see her fill with light little by little. We started with His birth this week and have the blessing to teach her about His life. He is MY light and I love my Savior SO MUCH! I am NOTHING without Him! I can testify that as we come unto Him, we are FILLED with LIGHT! Let's LIGHT THE WORLD! I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I LOVE YOU ALL!! I hope you have a wonderful week and if you need a message or a friend to talk to, I am here :) Every Monday haha

Our Christmas tree with our little group here in Pogradec.

We helped a woman to see and gave her a magnifying glass so she could read :)

Changing the world one orange at a time!

Our heart attacking :)

New Years Lights!

Our hand carved sugar cookies. Please note the star I attempted to cut out ;)

Mirupafshim! Të dua!

Motra Olsen

Monday, December 4, 2017

Gëzuar Krishtlindja e Vogël!

MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! This is one of my FAVORITE holidays as it starts off the giving season off perfectly! Motra McGuire made me a bracelet and I got her a snow globe with our faces it it haha It's a Swedish Holiday that my family celebrates so I had to celebrate it over here in Albania!! Also, we relived Noah and the floods this week so....stay tuned :)

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. So it's not too much of a Christmas season here HOWEVER people instead of getting Christmas trees, get New Years trees. Yeah I don't know how that works BUT we got a tree for our apartment! I LOVE CHRISTMAS :)

2. It rained ALL week this week and the streets were FLOODED! Everyone was out of school and basically floating down the streets haha it was awesome!

3. I wanted to share of a special drink here dear to my heart. It's called Salep and it is the greatest think on the planet! It's basically the thickness of pudding but it's cinnamon and it comes in a mug.

BONUS: This week was Albania's Independence Day so for Family Home Evening on Monday we celebrated by dancing valle (traditional Albanian Dance) together and people were so into it!

So honestly, this week felt so long I can't remember a thing haha but so much happened! We are planning this massive Light the World Concert that we are SO EXCITED for and miracles are happening in regards to that concert! We are getting some of our investigator's families and the members involved so it's going to be a special Christmas! We are also trying to do a Nativity Scene with the Primary for Christmas Day-their first! It's fun because most people do not even know about the Nativity or about the birth of Christ so this Christmas will be a first for them and will be SO SPECIAL!! I am so excited!

I also want to share how much I love my companion and how much of a hard worker she is! Miracles truly are going to be brought about here in Pogradec! I just see it :) Something I've really learned this week is the importance of faith IN Christ! I've definitely had many moments this week where I just called upon to Lord to know what to do or what to say! As I am training, it definitely has impacted me greatly and I realize how much more I have to rely on the Lord. While at this point, I'm the one understanding and in some lessons, crazy things have happened, I have just been calling on the Lord to help me to know what I need to do. I am so thankful because through faith in Him, I find that miracles occur. A heart softens or someone says something that just saves the day. I am just so thankful for my Savior and I know that I am not doing all of this alone! This is Motra McGuire's favorite scripture and I have just LOVED it-Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I just want to testify of this. I honestly have so much more I need to change, I have so many weaknesses and sometimes, I have absolutely no idea what I need to do or how I can help someone in the moment in their situation, but I know someone that does-and that is Jesus Christ. I am going to try to turn unto Him this week even more so that I can come to know Him a little more in order to help those around me. I love this gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, with ALL of my heart. I love my Savior and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

LOVE YOU ALL!! Also-Today my companion and I went out for a LONG run to these beautiful fshats here!! It was awesome! Oh I miss running so much! LOVE YOU ALL!! LIGHT THE WORLD!! Check out Mormon.org for more details on how you can Light the World.