Scatter Sunshine: Adriatic South: Një Vitë!! ONE YEAR!!

I officially have hit my YEAR MARK!! WHAT?! No I didn't burn any shirts or anything...but I managed to burn a pumpkin haha but this last week was a special one! We had one of the families we are teaching get BAPTIZED!!! We now have the first family baptized in Pogradec!! This city truly is a special place!

I'm going to spice some things up a bit haha

12 Things I've Learned This Past Year:

1. Kindness is service

2. You don't need measuring cups to cook. Just eye it, sample it, and all works out! I've learned from the best here-and that is EVERY Albanian!

3. Patience requires a lot more than just waiting...it requires faith that things will work out, hope, and a lot of love.

4. It's a LOT easier to choose happiness. While I can go through the same things everyday-street contact, tract, study, eat, and repeat-It's a BLAST everyday when you choose it to be :)

5. If I never know what to do; If I'm placed with a lot of responsibility-or pretty much all of it because we basically need to run everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, here in Albania, I am NOT doing it alone. I have a Father in Heaven that I can turn to IMMEDIATELY in prayer!

6. The Scriptures are the GREATEST THINGS ON THE PLANET! Man they are so awesome! It's also fun to read the Book of Mormon in English and then the Pearl of Great Price in Albanian-ha! I'm trying to get any study in that I can it's like CAKE!

7. Speaking of cake-You can't have dessert here without it being drenched in sugar water. Don't get me wrong-it's good. Another note-don't plan on going on any healthy diet here you'll just get 5 plates of byrek and salad drenched in olive oil. Welcome to Albania :) Or more-the life of a missionary haha

8. I never understood how much I could love an ENTIRE people! I love the Albanian people! It's truly a love I can't express into words. Just that I can only imagine just slightly, the immense love that our Father in Heaven has for us!

9. Speaking of these people-they just GIVE! They have taught me so much! That includes not to compliment or they'll give you all that they have ;) haha and to truly give more of myself to others.

10. The importance of family. Oh my goodness-I cannot even begin to explain! These people are CENTERED on the family here and there is such a special Spirit in the air to see so many walking with their families and so many weddings blasting through the streets. Family is such a focus that every goodbye given to me is, "Hope you find a great husband!" or "May you have 10 kids" I'm just like-woah. I've got time haha but I have truly seen that the family IS ordained of God! The couple that was baptized this last weekend were united with their 2 children who have been baptized within this last year. They are now all preparing to go to the temple. When we end lessons with this family, we all kneel in family prayer and it is so precious! The family is SO IMPORTANT! It truly IS the plan of God! His plan is not just that WE return back to Him, but that our FAMILIES do! Anything Pro-Family is Pro-Christ. I can testify of that! Christ suffered so that we can be together with our families forever :)

11. God LOVES His children! He loves you! I cannot tell you how many times the Lord has placed someone in my path so that I can reach out to them or to send me an idea how to serve someone. I'm just thankful that I have the opportunity to serve. He's the one sending the messages thinking of EVERY little detail to help each and every one of us.

12. To serve God, to find happiness, we just need to be WILLING to follow Him. THEN He will qualify us. I do not have the training, the background knowledge, or the skill to council families, to help people find jobs, to teach foreigners English, to teach the gospel in a foreign language and ALBANIAN at that too, to know the needs of these people, to be the source of resolving conflicts, to run meetings and activities, to be the chef in all of the refreshments required for activities, and so many other things. The good thing is-I don't have to! But someone does-and that is Christ. If I am just WILLING to serve Him. If I am willing to do all these things-if I have faith in Him then He will qualify me. He will make that happen. Faith truly is so powerful! I am some foreign, 20 year old girl trying to take care of so many here and what do I know about their struggles? What do I know about their sufferings? While I don't know, someone does. As long as I look to Christ, obey Him, and have faith in Him, He can, and has turned me into someone capable of doing so much I definitely have lacked the faith in myself doing. Luckily, I just need faith in Him, then miracles are brought about. Then through losing myself and trusting HIM-I find myself.

I just want to share with you how thankful I am to serve on this mission. Oh yeah is this the hardest thing I've ever done? You got that right. But I have seen so much change and my eyes have been OPENED in this last year than any other time in my life. My mission is changing my life for good and will continue to change my life. However, it's not the mission that's changing me, it's Christ. I love you all. I can testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

BONUS! Culture Shocks of the Week:

I knew I had to do it :)

1. CHESNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE! It's a thing here in Albania! I actually had it with a family for my birthday and wow are they good! haha now I can only think of Christmas. Who am I kidding-I've been thinking about Christmas since July :)

2. Canned pumpkin doesn't exist here-or really anything canned so do you know what that means? You got that right-I chopped, boiled, scooped, and mashed my OWN pumpkin! Now I got a hunk-a-ton of pumpkin so looks like it's going to be pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cake, and pumpkin byrek of course for a week!

3. I feel like all my culture shocks are turning into food. Obviously it's a problem for me haha BUT it's JAM season so I've had juices and jams I didn't know could be juices and jams. While the fresh fruits are all out in the summer, winter brings on jams and juices and people keep GIVING them to us! Ahh! I currently have cherry jam, apple jam, and quince jam (yes, a fruit here in ALbania) in my fridge.

LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have a wonderful week!