Scatter Sunshine: Adriatic South: 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