"Our Trio's Down to Two"-Timon

Dang it...I'm on my last transfer. We had transfer calls this last weekend meaning that my sweet companion-Motra Hysa will be leaving! She's going off and training an Albanian! (Motra Fetaj (Albana from Gjakova)) I really hope you got my reference from Lion King haha but now I'm just serving here in Gjakova still as STLs with Motra Ahlstrom!! I am excited to work here until the end! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. If you purchase something and you don't offer food to anyone, you are seen as an animal. They are all about sharing and are very proper in many things.

2. Even if it's not cold outside, if I'm seen without tights, people think I'm insane (apparently I'm going to freeze in 50 degrees haha) Also, I was crying about something in the street one day and an old lady told me, "Don't cry-you're too young"

3. There are SO MANY CROWS that literally coat the sky. We tried playing music and inviting people to our Easter concert we had on Saturday but you couldn't even hear us because the crows were THAT LOUD! And they all decided to perch right in the tree next to us haha

YEAH! We had a concert this last Saturday for Easter! We have an Easter Initiative here in the European Region with the theme as "Gjithnjë Pranë" Meaning "Always There". So we have been passing out tons of flyers and getting people to come to this concert. We actually had a good amount of people come for a major Muslim population here! We had piano (I did a piano solo!) and violin and singing and all kinds of things and presented the initiative video. It was awesome! I am so looking forward to Easter this week! We are hoping to share a lot about Christ to these people here in Gjakova this week as Easter is approaching!! 

Some really cool moments we had this week was the amount of people we met with! It was actually a major miracle to meet and teach many people. We have some potential investigators so we are excited! We are also helping teach a couple members here how to read and they are just so excited! They just want to read the Book of Mormon but they feel helpless. We are exciting and I know through the Lord and their diligence, they will learn! I am so excited!! Also we have met with a lot of the members and have spent time with all of their kids. We have a big primary here and they even participated in the concert singing "I am a Child of God". 

Funny story of the week. We have a sweet member here named Delila who shared with us her story when she tried to heal a bird. She shared "I saw a dead bird on the road and picked it up and wanted it to live. I started singing "I am a Child of God" hoping it would come alive. I then thought that Christ can heal and I am not Christ so I probably can't bring something back from the dead. And then the bird was still dead" What a sweet soul. She is the cutest thing! Her faith was there! haha

I love my Savior. He is always there. I just also love love love the song "I am a Child of God". Every child only knows one song here and that's the song. Whenever it comes on-they just belt it. Even our English Course kids know it!! It is POWERFUL! In a world here where we are not seen as children of God, it is powerful. We truly are children of God. We have a Father in Heaven that LOVES us! That pushes us, encourages us, heals us, laughs with us, cries with us. We are never along. We are His children and we have such divine potential. He wants to give us all that He has and to have us return back to Him. That is WHY He sent His son. They are ALWAYS THERE I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!! Hopefully it gets warmer this week we got hit by snow!!! Again!!

Me and my sweeties :) They make me happy! They all just jumped on me!

YEAH!!! Gjakova!!!

Me and Motra Hysa! I helped train her in the beginning last year and now she's leaving me! She's going to kill it in Prishtina!

Now we're down to two: Motra Ahlstrom and me :)

THIS WAS ONLY 2 EUROS! I only eat pizza-I swear haha

We told the story of the Brother of Jared and the 16 stones and how the Lord touched the stones and they lit up (Ether 3). Then this little member ran out and got us some stones. How cute!!! It was all he could give!!

Check out my bud-Motra Olsen!

We shared when we have found Christ there. Mine says "When I left my family (this includes my immediate family and families here in my mission and past comps)

And Motra Hysa's is when her dad passed away.

Me and Eda :)

Delila and Maria :)

This is my Kosovo flag shirt! We also found a lake here! Love this home!

-- 

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

He is ALWAYS THERE.

Gëzuar Ditën e Verës! On March 14 it's Summer's Day!! It's not really celebrated at all here in Kosovo because it's more a Albanian holiday but for Motra Hysa from Vlorë, Albania, we brought Summer's Day HERE! It was also her REBIRTHDAY (Baptism Day)! So HAPPY SUMMER'S DAY!! I plan on celebrating this holiday every year!

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. In ancient times, only 2 seasons existed: summer and winter so summer's day began on March 14th and that's why they celebrate it then. Usually on March 13th, people have bonfires to burn the old and begin with the new. We didn't do that haha If you are the first one to wake up, you will have the most energy all year. Luckily I have the nightly prayer call that wakes me up at 3am....

2. On summer's day they usually dance so we had a little summer's day party with the members and their friends and danced the traditional dance-valle! Usually the cookie, ballokume, is made but we made snickerdoodles and it was a close second :) They also have spinach byrek and hide money in the byrek and whoever gets the slice that year is the lucky one. We made spinach byrek! But forgot to put in the money....

3. Finally on summer's day, they make bracelets called verore with red and white twine and you wear it until you see the first sparrow which indicates spring then hang it up on a tree. If a sparrow takes it away, then you have luck for the year! Usually the houses are lined with flowers as well and you sleep on olive branches! It's really fun and the people are definitely superstitious but it was a blast! 

So this week there were many mini miracles or what I like to call: Tender Mercies. Tender mercies are EVERYWHERE! They are the hand of the Lord in our lives. We really do a TON of tracting and finding continuously in Kosovo as we also are strengthening all our recent members here. We had many tender mercies running into some people we've taught in the past and talking with this super sweet family in their doorstep who then came right to church with us the next day and brought a FRIEND!! I also had a man about shove me down the stairs and not call me not so good names haha BUT the tender mercy was my companions being there and finding things to laugh about. I love them. We also had a bunch of people in church AND some families from our kids in English Course come to our Book of Mormon reading. The little things matter :)

A special moment this last week was yesterday, Motra Hysa and I were asked to give talks in church. We were informed the day before and when we asked about the topic, we received "You pick!" Dang it! That's the worst! We were both frantically finding out what to talk about the next morning. However when we came to church we both just felt to talk about how Christ has always been THERE for us. I shared of the story of Christ's resurrection as many don't really understand what that means. This part stood out to me

John 20: 

11 ¶ But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,

12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Christ truly has RISEN! And He was resurrected for us. What stood out to me was that He took the time, before ascending up to His Father, to be THERE for Mary and ask her why she was weeping. Do we realized that Christ does that to US? Every time we cry and through EVERYTHING we go through, He is THERE and asks us why we weep? I actually shared a story I remember vividly from my baptism when I was 8 years old. I came up out of the water of my baptism and began to cry because I felt such a warmth and peace in my heart. While I was changing back into my white dress, my mom asked me "Why are you crying?" I realized that in that moment that Christ was THERE! I felt His Spirit. What touched me is that my mom asked just what Christ asked Mary as if He were asking me that. I know that He was there. I felt it and I know that this, the gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE. It is SO TRUE and Christ is THERE if we truly ALLOW Him to be. Motra Hysa then shared how Christ was there when she lost her dad. When no one else truly understood how she felt, Christ did. He knew EXACTLY how it felt and was THERE for her. Ever since she was baptized 4 years ago, she has found that He has always been there. It was just a powerful Sacrament meeting and I'm thankful that Christ was THERE and the He is ALWAYS THERE. I love my Savior. He is always there. I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. When has He been there for you? 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week and REMEMBER Christ especially during this Easter time!

Matching sweaters with my comps

Don't know why I'm posing like that...don't worry about it haha but this is a cute member family here in Gjakova. We celebrated summer's day with them.

Motra Hysa's REBIRTHDAY day! We celebrated (She said it's better than her real birthday) She's now been baptized for 4 years!

Don't know why the kid has a gun hahaha but I love these kids that attack me every time I pass by. When I was here in Gjakova last summer I helped out with this music program and they all still remember me!

​I really don't know what this pic is......

I live in this apartment building. We live RIGHT by the barber shop and all the barber shop guys.....

-- 

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

Здраво-Hey from Macedonia!

Здраво!! (Zdravo) This week I had the opportunity to go on an exchange in Macedonia and to serve a day there with 2 of the sweet Macedonian sisters!! One of the sisters: Sister Wright, is from the SPRINGFIELD STAKE in Massechusetts!! We realized that we've literally met each other at stake dances a few years ago!! It was fun to have a fellow East Coaster to reminisce with :) Then the other sister is Sister Rice from Iowa. She is so cute! 

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. In Macedonia they speak Macedonian (obviously) and I don't haha so I was back to day 1! But they use the cyrillic alphabet so I learned how to read it! Also the Book of Mormon is only in Serbian so it was fun to also learn a little Serbian for the day.

2. We were driving and we passed by this restaurant called the "White House" I felt like being back home in the US haha except not at all :)

3. One of our recent converts is SO AWESOME! She's actually a very well known, talented singer here in Kosovo-look up Eda Gjergji on youTube and she will pop right up and you will hear what Albanian traditional music is like. I love her!!

So going to Macedonia was like going to a whole new world! First off, couldn't read the signs or understand what anyone was saying. We were doing a Book of Mormon study and I was running around yelling out "Do you know English?" or "E dini Shqip?" (Do you know Albanian) I surprisingly met a lot that knew Albanian and some people from England were there :) Then I handed them the survey and was like "Sorry, I can't help you with reading this one" It was a lot of fun meeting so many new people and doing all I could with what I knew. That was something that I learned-yeah we can be restricted, have a disadvantage in things (like the language, I've been through that plenty of times before), but that doesn't keep us from doing the Lord's work and serving Him. We just do what we know and He will be there!

The branch in Skopje, Macedonia has 6 Macedonian members. Crazy right? And it's been open for about 7 years now! They are so awesome! This week on March 8 was also Women's Day so people were buying flowers in the streets for each other! I got my companions flowers to celebrate! We also had a lot of people give us giant bars of chocolate to celebrate so that was so nice!! Happy Women's Day!!!

Also fun fact: Our church building got egged this week....welcome to Kosovo :) Not too much has happened here in Gjakova. We actually got to meet a lot of the members here and they are all so cute!! We were able to be led to this sweet family who's father recently passed away and were able to share a message with them on eternal families. It was a miracle! It was late and we saw a boy run out into the street and thought to go to the home he came from. The mom led us right in and we met the family. Usually when someone passes away, they have a notice on the door and we noted that. It was a special moment to go in and share with them of the peace we find in Christ. Even though it's not always accepted here, I definitely was able to feel of that peace in the lesson. 

I just want to share how much I love this work and how much I know that we have a Father in Heaven that LOVES us. That has just been the recurring message in everything I do and teach here in Kosovo. Yeah, many do not accept or believe in Christ here in Kosovo. It definitely hurts when many just shoot down Christ as if He was just some teacher on the earth at one point in time. But I KNOW that He IS our Savior. There is no other and so many do not realize what He has done for them if they just allow Him into their lives. I feel so honored and blessed to be able to stand as a witness of Him at all times here in Kosovo. We have a Heavenly Father that loves us SO MUCH that He SENT HIS Only Begotten Son.

2 Nephi 26: 24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

I know this to be true. This is Christ's restored church and HE is the ONLY way back to our loving Father in Heaven. I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I LOVE YOU! Have a great week!

Happy Women's day!

FLI!!!! A very fat, oily, byrek sorta thing in Kosovo haha

Chilling with a bull in Macedonia.

Me and the Serbain Book of Mormon in Macedonia.

Us and 2 of the members in Macedonia! It was someone's birthday!!!

SO MUCH CHOCOLATE for Women's Day!

haha Minnesota, Macedonia.

"The White House"

A beautiful little village close to Gjakova.

Our spa night haha looking good.

Me and my girls again! Maria and Delila going into church :)

-- 

Mirupafshim! Të dua!

Motra Olsen

3 Countries, 1 Week :)

C'KEMI!!! This week has been a crazy one!! The title says it-this week I was in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania again!! We had zone conference on Wednesday! The North Zone is all the missionaries in Kosovo and Macedonia which is like...none haha I am one of 3 sisters in all of Kosovo and there are only 3 sisters in all of Macedonia so that's fun! No pressure! Being in conference with these people was just incredible! As Sister Training Leaders we gave a training on CHARITY! How that is the TRUE way to find joy and SUCCESS in our work. I'll share a little bit more about that later. We also had stake conference in Albanian (in Durres) where I got to see all my Pogradec and Tirana and Korcë family that I've served throughout my mission. It was a lot of goodbyes but it was a special one :) I also got to see my sweet Motra Mcguire!! It was a great week :)

Culture Shocks of the Week:

1. My favorite thing is that everyone in Kosovo just park up literally on every curb. There is like no such thing as parking lots haha

2. Sweets can't go with salty things. I just get yelled at put fruit on my plate of salad haha they must be separated.

3. I had these Valentine's stickers I was giving out to little kids and my favorite thing is explaining the stickers. One said- "QT" funny thing, "qt" in Albanian is pronounced "ch-t" so they were like what's that? I had to go through this whole process of explaining the alphabet and the word cute. Then another one-"LOL" I translated it "qesh me zë" which means "laugh with a voice" so little Delila was raising her eyebrows up and down saying "laugh with a voice" that's an example of how Albanian is not like English :)

So this week was CRAZY weather! We got HIT with snow! I just want to share what a day was like. On Thursday it was the day after a major snowstorm and then it decided to rain. So of course every plan falls through on those days and the power was out in the city. So no one's in the streets so we are resorted to tracting. Best part: you have to buzz into most buildings and with the power being out, they don't work. So we were stuck in the freezing rain, soaked, and looking for an open building. It was awesome haha and tracting in the dark! WOOOO!

So some things that have really stood out to me was more about charity this past week. As I said, we gave a training at zone conference. We shared about the greatest missionary: Christ. Why was He the greatest? Because His drive was LOVE. And not just typical love, but pure love. I was impacted by these scriptures in the Book of Mormon:

Alma 34: 

8 And now, behold, I will testify unto you of myself that these things are true. Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

9 For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.

10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.

It cannot be a human sacrifice. How could have Christ done it? Christ is the Son of God. It is because of Mary that He can die, but also because of our Father in Heaven that He has the ability to overcome death. He literally CHOSE to DIE for US because He is the ONLY way. Why did He do that? How could He be so perfect so that He could perform this atonement? It was because He perfectly loved. It was love-a divine power that was that drive to cause Him to suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane 3 times then to suffer and die on the Christ and to be resurrected so that we could overcome death. He perfectly loved. Charity must be given and it must be strived for. That must be our drive! It never faileth because it is infinite! Just like the Atonement of Jesus Christ! We must love in order to bring these children of God back to their Father in Heaven. That is my goal and has been my entire mission: To learn to love. And not just love, but to develop charity. I have a long way to go but I hope to be that representative of Christ that people will have a glimpse to know what it would feel like to be in the presence of Christ and WANT to be with Him. That is how we must be if we want to bring souls back unto Christ. Whether that be our friends or our family. I testify of that. I love my Savior and I LOVE His children. It makes me jsut cry how much I love these people and those that I have served with. I turly don't want it to end but I will do all I can these last 2 months to serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength: Especially with my heart. I love the Lord and this work. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

If you need someone to talk to, please email me and rant and do anything you need. I want to be here for you all too. I love you and I know Christ does INFINITELY!

All these pics are from conference! Motra Mcguire signed the shirt that my trainer gave me! It's a heritage shirt (trashëgim). I just love that girl! I also got to see Klea, Aleksia and Zhaneta from Korcë, Motra JONES! and Maria and Delila (they're here with me in Kosovo). Also my comps are Motra Hysa (from Vlorë, Albania) And Motra Ahlstrom from Texas. They are awesome I love being with them! And the Kosovo SNOW!!!

​BONUS: Motra Mcguire shared this and I promised to share it: ​​​bear with me real quick while i write a personal paragraph to Natalie Olsen, and Motra, you better insert this in your email so your friends and family along with mine know how great you are :) Motra Olsen, I love you. You;re incredible, and I can't wait for America because that's where you'll be. I'll forever be grateful to God for letting us serve together.... I AM SO LUCKY. luckiest to have gotten you :) thanks for everything and for dancing with me, making me eggs nearly every morning, squeezing my cheek like a nënë and then screaming in my face "I LOVE YOUUUU."... it's the little things :) i even miss you turning on the heater, (what's wrong with me?) nothing, just love you.

-- 

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