I Have Been Changed For Good

Well, its been a couple weeks since I've been home. Yesterday I had to opportunity to report to the Stake Presidency and High Councilors about my mission. It was neat to reflect on experiences and the way my testimony has grown.

I will be grateful every day of my life for the opportunity that I had to spend 18 months of my life serving others and bringing people unto Christ. It really was incredible. Of course, at the end you reflect on your time and think about how you have changed. I'm not very much taller. I don't look that different. Its not as if my personality has changed a ton either. I have always been a good kid. But my testimony is stronger.

I have come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have come to rely on my Heavenly Father and trust Him. I have come to learn how to work with Him and involve Him in my efforts. I have meet INCREDIBLE people who have changed my life forever. I want to be a better person just thinking about them. I want to live my life every day as a disciple of Jesus Christ and do what He would do.

Sa të bekuar jemi ne?!

Every day is an adventure. Me të vertetë. Some great moments this week:

Seeing Djart in the road (3 year old little boy of an investigator), we never know what reaction we will get. Sometimes he runs away calling for his mom, sometimes he insists that we come visit right at that moment, and other times he stops to chat before wandering on his way. But always he gives us a good laugh. What a cute kid.

 

Our Iba Feva friend is a miracle every day of our lives. I want to be like her someday. She is such a good example and you can't help but be happy around her. Any moment with her is a great moment of the week.

Playing soccer. Its definitely the sport of preference here and in Albania. I'm not the best at it but I enjoy it. #branchactivities

Matching my companion. We do it a lot. Usually on purpose. 

It came up in conversation this week that people who convert, do so because they weren't committed to a religion before and they have that void. Although that may be true for some converts, I think of the many brave members here in Kosovo. They are are so strong, they have to be. They didn't convert for lack of previous religion. I know I talk about these members a lot but they are incredible.

We may do a lot of finding. But we have fun while we do it. Hopefully all the finding this week will mean teaching next week :)

Its hard to believe that there are only two weeks left. It just makes me especially grateful for each moment and experience. The time to be a called full-time missionary is extremely short. I love it. I'm going to miss it. I'm going to make the most of what I have left! 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! 

 

 

Keep it real,

Motra Curtis

Happy Birthday Missionary Work in Kosovo!!!

Today is the 4th year anniversary of Kosovo being dedicated for the work of missionary. That's pretty neat. We've been to the spot were it was dedicated. It really is like the sacred grove of Kosovo. Its neat to think of the growth and progress that has happened here. The members here are pretty incredible. They are so new to the gospel and bring such an excitement and strength to the work. The have the courage that is so needed to be members here. I love being able to serve around them. I learn much from them.

 

Yesterday night we were standing on the boulevard talking to people. We stopped this neat couple. They are Albanian but live in Switzerland and are visiting here for a week. I was talking to the wife and she mentioned that she wanted to change religions, she wants to become Christian when she goes back home. Neat. We are also Christians. We exchanged numbers and we will be meeting with them before they leave. They were super nice. They left, but about 20 minutes later they walked by us again and asked if we had time to get something to drink. We didn't have time as we needed to be in our apartment soon and we had set up a later time. But they said "We are happy. Do you know why we are happy? You make us happy!" It was super cute. It was probably the spirit they felt making them happy. And we know just how to teach them to feel more of that good stuff. Hopefully we will be able to get their contact information and have the missionaries there contact them. THEY ARE ADORABLE!

We had planned group finding (the "ask us what we do") but then it was raining. So we some shifts in plans, Elder Roberts thought we could get bed sheets and tie them up as a shelter and have the film "Restoration" play underneath. We were a little skeptical but he seemed confident enough so we went for it. Last minute he couldn't come but the rest of us still went and tried it. I'll send the pictures. Long story short- it didn't work too well but it was a lot of fun (I regret nothing) we did talk to some people and got one number. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.  

The recent convert family we teach are so amazing. We continue to have FHE with them in their home. This past week we talked about temples. The spirit was so strong. The wife can't wait for the year to come when they can go. The older daughter isn't baptized yet but also wants to be sealed to her new husband (they got married last month). The younger daughter was also recently baptized and want to be married in the temple. I cannot wait for the Rome temple to be finished. Its so hard for these people to get Visas out of the country to anywhere. None of them have been able to go to the Germany temple yet. I hope they will be able to go to the Rome Temple. I have taken the blessing of having a temple close for granted so much in my life. Think about it. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. I love to see the temple.

I LOVE being a missionary. I know I probably say that every week but its TRUE!  I love learning and growing and stretching. Its the BEST! The gospel is TRUE! God loves us. 

Ju uroj lumturi dhe paqe në jetë!

Motra Kërtis

The Lamb of God

Dear People of the friend variety,

My companion has this music...Its called The Lamb of God, but we just call it the Jesus music. We love it so much. Nothing like good music to get you pumped to testify about Christ in a 97% Muslim country. Seriously though, we were talking about it the other day and we have both felt our testimony of Christ strengthen while we have been here. Christ is our Savior and the Son of God. 

There is a recent convert family that we just love. The elders taught them before but we have been having family home evening with them. We bring hymn books to sing with them. One week we forgot the hymn book. They were so sad. Never again. They have another daughter that is sometimes there. We asked her if she wanted to learn more about the church. Turns out she has already started reading the Book of Mormon with her sister! They are such a fantastic family! 

Another one of our cute recent converts who is a rocking member was busy all week and so we hadn't been able to meet with her...but THEN she surprised us by coming to the church to see us and brought us a present! Lipstick! Did we take a selfie right then and there? Why yes, we did.

We have this neat investigator that we have been meeting with. She is 52 years old and sells beauty products, so she is pretty glamorous. She called us the other day to meet (yeah, SHE called US...we didn't say no). She sat us down and was like, I want to get baptized tomorrow. She was like, talk to your people and make it happen. Its exciting to see her desire (this does NOT happen everyday). We explained more about baptism and the promises we make. She still has more to learn but she is preparing for baptism and excited about it! Me të vërtetë!

It's crazy to think my mission is coming to a close. This day starts the last month of my mission. I talked to my mission president about extending and he even asked SL. But they said no, with good reasons.(we all figured that...but it was worth trying). Time has gone so fast. I love being a missionary and wearing Christ's name next to mine. It is such an incredible experience that I recommend to everyone. But you don't have to wear a name tag to be a missionary. Fact.

Ju dua shumë dhe Zoti ju bekoft!

Motra Kërtis

A wonderful week in the neighborho​od

Highlights:

We got invited for lunch by some of our adorable English students. It was SO good. They are pretty active Muslims. They had been to Arab and Kuran class earlier that day. The call to prayer went off while we were there and the son got up and left to pray in the mosque. They were very open to hearing our message and had good questions about the Book of Mormon. It was neat experience and we are invited back!

One of our investigators has a young son. I want to give him the most improved award. At the beginning (April/May) he was very distracting during lessons and he didn't like prayers-he would try to stop his mom from praying or participating in prayers. Yesterday we were there and for the opening prayer I asked him to come sit by me and fold his arms. He didn't but just stood there quietly. BUT then for the closing prayer I asked him and again and this time he sat where he was and folded his arms and squinted his eyes shut. IT WAS LITERALLY A MIRACLE. He is making such a turn around. Its so incredible to see the influence of the gospel in this young family. 

We had exchanges with the STLs today and it was awesome! We tried a couple more finding ideas. One was where we had a poster with pictures of  Mormons that said "Who are the Mormons?" But most people didn't know many of them. So then we tried a "lemonade stand" but since we didn't have lemonade we just used Kool-aid. The idea being to talk to people as they drink it. The first 2 came up, a man with his young daughter. She takes a sip and kinda makes a face. At this point we look at each other and realize that no one tasted to kool-aid before we brought it. So, after they left we tried it. It was some orange/mandarin flavor that wasn't that great. But even the green strawberry and fruit punch didn't go over too well. I guess they just don't really like our American flavors...? But it was so much fun. Trying to get creative in our finding ideas.

One of my favorite things as as missionary is to see the change in others. The gospel is all about constant change, improvement and becoming better. I'm humbled in getting to see it bless others. I love seeing it in myself. 

Peace and blessings!

Motra Curtis

Ask us what we do.

We wanted to get creative as a district in our group finding. We took some chairs down to the main walking street in the city. We sat them down in a row with a sign in the middle that said "ask us what we do". We then sat down with The Book of Mormon in our hands. We would do things like cross our legs the same time, turn pages at the same time and stuff like that. The idea started as a joke but it turned out working really well!

Our cute family that was on vacation for a month just got back! We love them so much! We had given their number to the elders in the they had been staying before. While we were there visiting the elders called them. She tells me "my people" are on the phone. I talk to them and its totally the elders haha. Its the second time that has happened. 

It has been so good to be out and about doing missionary work. We have been passing our lots of English flyers this week. We had a poster at one point and people were coming up to us to get a flyer, even cars were stopping to get one. It was fun. 

We got to go the the base on Thursday to teach institute. It was crazy to be around so many Americans. As we went to the chow hall to eat it was cool to have people recognize us as missionaries. We may or may not have brought some American food back with us. So good! The lesson was really great. We had planned our lesson and it started going with it, but during the lesson it took a slightly different turn that ended up being so good. The spirit was strong and it was neat how everyone was able to share experiences. I loved being there and hope we can go again.

I love serving here in Kosovo. I love being a missionary. I love being a representative of Jesus Christ. ...and I'm a mormon.

Zoti ju bekoft!

Motra Curtis

A week of unusual sorts...

This has been quite an unusual week. My companion has been under-the-weather to say the least. So we have been inside pretty much all week.  This left lots of time for personal study and things of the inside variety.

We had a baptism this week! 5 souls entered the waters of baptism and were confirmed yesterday. It was literally a joyous occasion. One family of 3 and 2 men. Although we weren't actively involved in their teaching, the mother and daughter in the family we got to know and we absolutely LOVE them. I was going to give the talk on baptism and had prepared it, but last minute one of the members jokingly said they wanted to give a talk. I was more than happy to offer him the opportunity. I even gave him my paper with notes written on it. He actually took it and gave the talk. It was so interesting to see someone give a talk from the notes I had written. Some of it he gave exactly like I would and some of it he took a different way. But it was seriously so good and I quite enjoyed it. Talk about team-work. 

We got to go to Macedonia on exchanges this week. I absolutely adore the sisters out there. It was great to do missionary work. I got to teach a lesson for the first time that week. It was all in Macedonian so it had to be translated but it was so good. 

We went group street contacting that morning and I got to brush up on my Spanish. I was with Sister Schofield and I said hi to someone when she was talking to someone else and the lady actually stopped. I couldn't speak Macedonian to her so I asked her if she knew English. No. But she said she knew Spanish. So here we were using the little Spanish that neither of us knew very well and a pass-along card I had in Macedonian to communicate. Luckily Sister Schofield came over and was able to Macedonian it up with her. We got her number and hopefully they will get to meet with her soon! 

Also when we were in the store picking up some things for breakfast a man heard us speaking English and asked if we were with a church. Why yes! And he wanted to come to a bible study course. Why yes! So that was cool. Exchanged numbers and can't wait to see what happens. 

I just keep remember stories from that exchange! We went running in the morning. It was laps around the park, I gave up after a mile and went to go play on the swings. A few minutes later and woman walking by gets very exciting to see me swinging (she is speaking completely in Macedonian so I don't understand a word) and she comes and swings with me laughing and talking. I just used the 2 words I knew ("good" and "thanks") and laughed with her. As suddenly as she came she got off, said sometime to me and walked off smiling. I don't know what happened. But hey, who doesn't want to go swinging with Macedonian grandmas at 6:45 in the morning? 

I'm excited for this next week. My companion is feeling better and we are ready to jump back in to missionary work. Bring it on!

Hope you all have wonderful weeks full of happiness and joy!

Ju dua shume!

Motra Curtis

Loving Kosovo

What a crazy week! My companion has been feeling a little under the weather so we have been inside for some of it. But we have introduced water balloon volleyball here and they LOVE it! And by water balloon volleyball we actually don't play with a net but its great fun!

There will be 5 baptisms here this next Saturday which is nothing short of a Miracle (with a capitol M). A cute family of 3 that the elders have been teaching (but we absolutely adore them and have taught the daughter before). It is so incredible. They need the church and the church needs them. They will be such a strength here! 

The church is still so new here but the members are so awesome! You can't be a weak sauce member in a place where you stick out just being Christian. I stand in awe of them. Seriously.

I love you all. I love my life. And I REALLY love being a missionary!!!

Ju dua!

Motra Curtis

I love life and life loves me :)

SO MANY TENDER MERCIES THIS WEEK!

-Getting calls FROM people who wanted to meet with us after all our plans fell through (it was an awesome "seed planting" experience)

-Having a BLAST with the Macedonian missionaries that came down for a couple days (they are so great!)

-New investigators with such sincere desires to learn! (they went from new investigators to progressing investigators within the the week!)

- Testifying of truth. I love it. 

-Meeting a member from Australia who found the church building here from the meeting house search.

-just having people to teach is SUCH a blessing.

I've just felt very blessed this week. The hymn "Count Your Many Blessings" is hands down the favorite Albanian hymn among the people. Its translated really well, has a catchy tune BUT most importantly it carries such an important message. Count your blessings. Gratitude is a great attitude. I've felt very grateful this week. I invite you all to count your blessings this week and name them one by one. You will be happier. Promise. 

Ju dua!!

Motra Curtis 

p.s. We found McDonalds...

 

 

 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

We met the new mission president and his wife and they are amazing! I already love them so much and I'm excited to be working with them. He invited us to do 3 things at the end. The last commitment was about staying with our companion and praying for them in every prayer. Every prayer. As missionaries we pray a lot: before each of our studies, before we leave the apartment, etc. At first it was a little awkward and just kinda funny to pray specifically for each other in each of our prayers. As the week went on we got more creative in our 'asking blessings' for each other. Somehow it just makes you more committed to each other. I don't know how to explain. But its fun.

 

Also, the new mission president may or may not have bribed us all with chocolate...and it may or may not have worked...haha just kidding. But he really did bring this HUGE Toblerone candy bar. So good.

 

I forgot to mention last week but when Ramadan started all our phones got a mass text wishing us a happy Ramadan. We thought it was pretty cool. We don't even send out texts in Utah for General Conference. There are a decent amount of food places that close down during Ramadan. We also started cookie finding (handing out cookies with pass along cards) before we remembered that it might be a bad idea...luckily the one person we gave them to happened to be Christian.

 

4TH OF JULY!! Happy Birthay America! We definitely had a 4th of July party and it was super! We had a lot of members as well as investigators come AND some real live Americans that are here in Kosovo on interships and such. Imagine that! So legit.

 

One of our investigators called us this week simply to tell us that she had done her reading and really liked it! It was awesome. Our other investigator got the book of Mormon just over a week ago and she's already in Alma and loving it. It just makes me so happy! Seriously. It makes me happy that they are happy and love something that I love so much. If that makes sense. Basically we are just all happy and love the Book of Mormon together. Kaq.

 

I love being a missionary!

 

Transfers!

Got my last transfer call last night (wait...last??? These sister missions are so short! We be droppin like flies yo!) I get to stay in Prishtina, Kosovo which makes me SO happy!! I love this place. I'll get my new companion tomorrow and then we are going to rock this city.

We had mission conference this week which was great! We woke up at 3am to catch a bus to Tirana. We get to catch the same bus tomorrow for transfer changes. Woot woot! This mission is getting so big. I used to know everyone or at least their names...now it is nigh impossible. Also, our mission president is going home next week. So many changes! 

The month of fasting is coming up here for the Islamic faith and I'm interested to see what changes. There are so many people who drink coffee in little coffee shops here all day long, I wonder if there will be less of them. Tune in for the next few weeks.

I am so grateful for sincere prayers. We teach people how to pray almost everyday and it is such an honor to be able to listen to some of their first communications with God. There was one girl who just expressed such sincere love for her father in heaven. If you promise not to tell, I'll confess that I opened my eyes for just a second, she was in total reverence. The hardest part is that so many youth have families that not only just don't support them in the chruch but are completely against them in the church. It's not easy being a pioneer. I cannot tell you the amount of respect and love I have for these people. 

Loving life,

Motra Curtis

Strawberri​es the size of peas and tracking up a storm

Some things I remember about this week:

We handed out so many English flyers on Wednesday. We literally passed them out all day. We maybe all got a little sunburned...I wish I would have taken a picture of how many flyers we had. More than two thousand. Doing an English course is a great way to find people to teach. Sometimes I wonder what they do in English speaking missions...

Today we went to a village of one of our members. It was so fun! We sat on the ground around a little wooden table eating bread, cheese, and sausage with our hands. Life doesn't get much better than that. Then we showed us around area. He took us to pick strawberries. They were so little, about the size of a pea. BUT so GOOD! They tasted like candy. He lives a simple life full of contentment and happiness. He found the church by picking up one of our members who was walking to church. Basically, he's a boss. 

I've never tracked so much in my mission as I have here...but I've also never had so much fun tracking. You just never know who you are going to meet. There was one guy we met on the road who was really friendly and wanted our number. We gave him the elder's number. Well with how many people we talk to in the street we were bound to find where some of them live. And we found him. Ooops. You sure meet a wide range of peoples. We don't always get let in to teach right away, but usually when we do...they feed us a meal. Nuk e di. Crazy.

Some weeks you teach a lot of lessons. Some weeks you find a lot of people. Some weeks you pass out...a lot of English flyers. But no 2 weeks are the same. I'm grateful for that. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. It has been my dream to be a full time missionary for so long. Between my sister getting back from her mission a couple weeks ago and my companion going home next week I've thought about how fast a mission goes by. I am so grateful to be right here, right now doing missionary work. Its literally the best. What greater work is there than the Lord's work?

Ju dua!

Motra Curtis

Basketball...'ery day!

Well, this week will my first year in country (and by country I mean countries). That year has flown by, I feel like I got here just last week! I remember the first day I got here... not understanding anything anyone said. Looking at the signs on stores and not knowing what they meant. I remember the excitement and a little nervousness. Now I still don't understand everything everyone says, but a whole lot more I'll tell you that! I love it here. Spring isn't over and there are flowers everywhere. 

We played basketball like every morning for exercise. It was literally ballin! I loved it. We also rented bikes and rode through the big park here today. That was fun. 

Our awesome investigators whose name sounds like "holiday" is so awesome. I love every lesson we have with her! The spirit is also so strong and she just gets it. When we taught about Tithing, she was like, yeah that make sense. I've read about it in the Bible and always wondered about it. Everything just make sense to her. Her best friend died this week which has been really hard. But she has such a testimony of God, Christ and the Plan of Salvation. Before he died she had actually take a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to show him (he had cancer). I just love her with my whole heart. 

We had a pretty rough start to our week this week but it was amazing to see the hand of the Lord step right in (well, I guess step in would work better for a foot, but hand works too, right?). It was neat how things fell in to place, most always they weren't our plans but they were the right plans. I can't tell you how many times I have been impressed that this work is truly the Lord's work! There are so many examples I could give...but this will have to suffice. The Lord is great!

Love you all!

Motra Curtis

P.s. Sometimes we like to draw pictures on whiteboards.

Happiness can be a box of strawberri​es.

So for this week, I was the ONLY full-time missionary in my family. Which maybe doesn't sound too crazy. But only because my sister just got home this past Wednesday from the Philippines and my brother reports this Wednesday in Utah. But don't worry, I'm holding down the fort!

Last Monday, Kate the great walked into our lives. She is from London, England and teaches English on a base here. One of her students is a Italian member of the church who is stationed here for 6 months. He brought her to FHE and then we had a lesson with her on Friday. She had read 16 chapter from the English copy of the Book of Mormon we gave her on Monday! What the awesome?!  AND had great questions. We were getting ice cream after the lesson and the Italian brother leans to us and says in his broken English "Sisters, golden contact" pointing to her. It was awesome and they both came to church!

Sometimes you take the little things for granted. The Italian member was so excited for the sacrament. It had been 40 days since he had been able to come to church and partake of of it and he couldn't wait. I'm so grateful that I get to take the sacrament every week. Sometimes we don't realize what a blessing that it. 

We did more street contacting/tracking/finding this week than ever have I ever. Lessons falling through left us plenty of time. But we made an effort to have meaningful conversations with all that we could and learning their name. We met so many neat people! From opera teachers to retired offices. A positive contact is a positive contact. 

ALSO. Its strawberry week! Meaning they have a huge picture of a strawberry hanging up on the boulevard. And a box of strawberries are only 1 euro. And they are the most delicious strawberries. Strawberries might be among my favorites. So we probably have been multiple times. I'll have to snap a picture next time.

So much more to say but this will suffice. The work is going forth. Life is good. The Church is true. I am a Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon. Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is my Redeemer. 

God bless you.

Zoti ju bekoft.

 

Moj Motra Curtis 

Its a beautiful day

The Jones left this week, which was really sad. They have done such a good work here. Its neat to see how much it has grown since they have been here. They will be greatly missed, but their efforts will carry on.

There was a baptism this week! It was crazy! He has been investigating the church for months with the elders but had a few hang-ups. Someone was joking about them both getting baptized (she also has been investigating for a longer time) and he went home a prayed all night. Realized he knew always knew it was true. He told us on Tuesday. Had his interview on Wednesday. Got baptized on Thursday and confirmed on Sunday. He is going to be a great blessing to this branch.

As missionaries, you want members to be involved. This has much importance. It was neat to see physically what you want to happen metaphorically and physically too (why not?). You want the missionary to step out of the picture and the member to come in and take the investigator by the hand and answer their questions. I literally got to see that. We were teaching an investigator with Sister Jones. She was talking to her but then had to step out to take a call. She saw one of the members in the hallway and sent her in. She literally came in. Sat next to her, held her hand and answered her questions. It was amazing. I love having the privilege of getting to work with such fantastic members!

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now)

Motra Curtis

Just a quick one

It was so nice to talk to everyone in my family for Mother's Day. We timed the Skype just right so that we all got to talk.

My brother got his mission call to OGDEN UTAH!! They sent an e-mail to the senior couple that lives downstairs so Sister Jones printed it and brought it up to me Tuesday morning. Turns out they are from that same mission! How neat!

I love my family so much! I think I've always taken it for granted how much missionary work has always been a part of our family. I love being a missionary. I love the doing the Lord's work. Its absolutely thrilling!!

Ju dua!

Motra Curtis

It was my birthday

 First let me tell you the beginning of a beautiful story. It began years ago when a Muslim woman bought a bible in curiosity and desire to know truth. She met 2 sister missionaries (thats us!) outside the church building because she saw Christ's name on the sign by which they were standing. The talked to them and they exhanged contact information. They were able to meet with her once but then she got busy. But she had a Book of Mormon and read from it. She has many questions about the bible she has been reading. She came to have a lesson at the church with the sister missionaries (and the senior sister missionary) and was intrigued by the building. She saw the people of Christ washing the diciples feet and loved it because she loves that story in the Bible. They had a powerful lesson on the family proclamation and the restoration. When she recieves a confirmation that this is the true chruch she wants to be baptized. When asked to say the closing prayer she thanked us for the priviledge. (Most don't want to pray because they don't want to say it in Christ's name). It was a beautiful prayer. And guess what? Her story is not over! I feel so lucky to get to be a small part of it.

There is a boy here that plays the drum for money in the downtown area. His name in Dino. Pretty cool, huh? The elders are teaching him so sometimes he is around the chruch. Sometimes he plays the drum while I beat box and it sounds pretty cool. Or at least I think so. He also tries to teach me to play his drum. That one will take some practice. But yeah, that's Dino the Drummer boy. He's a cool cat.

We met another neat lady on the park bench on my birthday. Her name is Lumturi which means happiness. She has a cute little 3 year old daughter and her 2nd daughter died when she was only 8 months old. We had to go but we are going to meet this week and I can't wait to tell her more about the Plan of Salvation...also called the plan of Happiness!

I had a happy birthday full of missionary work (we met with both the Lumturi and the Muslim woman :) AND Motra Jones made a delicious carrot cake!

P.s. Motra Jones is the bomb.com. Not just because she makes delicious food. Which she does. (We may or may not have had a delightful thanksgiving lunch after church yesterday...) Or because is willing to help us with any lesson at a moments notice (if she can). Which she also does. But Motra Jones is the bomb.com because of her powerful testimony. She lives her testimony. She shares her testimony. It. is. powerful. I never realized how needed, how powerful, how awesome senior couples are.

 I invite any and all that can serve a couples mission to prepare and do that as soon as they can. It will bless your life, the missionaries' lives that are serving around you, and most importantly the people of the area in which you are serving. The world needs more couple missionares. With so many missions being created most are being called to those areas. We are losing couples in our missions as no one is coming to replace those that are going home. Get your papers ready and come! (and maybe request the adriatic south mission...its a pretty great place). Okay, I'm off my soap box now.

Just a quick 'soap box' tangent. Motra Hawkins and I have definitely talked about getting a soap box and doing "soap box finding - Dan Jones style" during some of our weekly planning: "finding ideas" brain storms. Just trying to get creative.

Well I think this e-mail is long enough. I love you all. I know the Christ lives and that he is the Son of God. I know the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. I believe the Book of Mormon to be another testament of Jesus Christ. I know this chruch is true. I know this is God's work. I know that I am a child of God.

Peace and blessing ya'll!
Motra Curtis

P.S. We had a SYL week this past week. (only speaking albanian all week...well, except we spoke english to only english speakers) It was pretty sweet. It's a lot easier than it used to be a year ago, but I've still got a ways to go. The elders helped us out by only speaking to us in Albanian. We tried applying gheg language differences. Its real interesting.

The weather outside is frightful.​..but the fire inside's delightful​...

Things you should know.

 

-It SNOWED!! I thought I wonldn't see snow my entire mission but I did . We may or may not have had a snowball fight. But probably yes. We probably also did group finding outside too. Hard core.

 

-We met a man named Skip while tracking. He is from Florida and is teaching here in the American school. His dad was in the military too. He also lived in Guam. He lived on Gecko Lane. I'm pretty sure I lived on Gecko Lane (or close). It was an awesome moment.

 

-I know an Albanain. Her name is Jonila. She can do a southern accent. She is the only albanina I know who can do a real good southern accent.

 

-We were street contacting last week and some girls came up to us and asked if they could learn about Jesus. In a 95% Muslim country...that's a beautiful thing.

 

-Speaking of a 95% Muslim country called Kosovo that I dwell in...Easter is a straight up Christian Holiday. It was fun wishing people a happy Easter. Most, even though they don't celebrate it, would wish us a happy easter back. They are nice.

 

-We had a lesson with a man and his family that we had tracked into (since it rained all week and we did LOTS of tracking) and he says he has this book he got from a friend (who knows what it could be..) and then he whips out THE BOOK OF MORMON. It was wicked sweet! And by wicked sweet I actually mean rightious!!  Love that family.

 

Being a missionary is probably my most favorite thing. Even more than waterfalls (which we went to see ANOTHER one this week!) And I love it with my whole heart. I love Jesus Christ. In Albania I feel like there were many Christains or at least people who at least knew about Christ and believed in him. It is different up here. There is not a day that goes by that we don't testify of that important first principle of the gosel. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I absolutely love it. I love easter and celebrating the fact that HE LIVES! How sad would it be if the story ended after his death. But it doesn't! I love my Savior, my brother, my friend, Jesus Christ.

 

Happy Fish!

Motra Curtis

 

p.s. the word for fish and easter are very similar and I probably wished more people a "happy fish" than I care to admit.

1 year as a missionary​.

This week was incredible. I don't even know how to write about everything.

April 10th a year ago I had just arrived at the MTC. There are a lot of things here that remind me of that time. 

First, learning a new language. Our language study now is spent trying to learn this new dialect. Geg. Just like we were learning Tosk before. 

Second, we talk to people outside on benches. At the MTC, I remember going outside and practicing teaching each other on benches and walking around. That is literally what we do here. I love it. 

Third, its SPRING! 

Fun story. We found a name, phone number and map in our area book and decided we would call them. She invited us to come but...the map was pretty rough. It based everything off the location of a mosque...Something you should know about Kosovo is that chapels to Utah is like Mosques to Kosovo. Which mosque was it talking about?? We tried asking her on the phone which mosque she was close to but didn't understand. So we had her explain it to a random citizen we stopped to help us. We got the name of the mosque and after talking to half the people on the way as well as her neighbors we found it! What the miracle! 

It was crazy the plans that didn't work out so that better things could happen. We realized towards the end of the week we needed higher goals than what we had set. Saturday night we realized we were 5 lessons away from the standard of excellence so we made a goal to have 5 lessons on Sunday. Guess how many planned lessons went through that day. Zero. Guess how many lessons we had. 5. It was literally a miracle. We felt so blessed. 

Also. This one time we tracked a building with 111 doors. 

This other time we were riding an elevator to eat at the restaurant at the top. The other man in the elevator was also going to the same floor. He asked if we were friends of the Hotel. We said, nope, just eating here.We asked if he was going to be eating there too. He said no but wished our meal well..and then said that he was actually the owner of the whole place. What?! And then we got appetizers "on the house". But he left before we could talk to him. BUT our waiter is coming to our English course this week. 

We went to a waterfall today. It was beautiful. Even more beautiful was waving to all the people in the country as we passed. We drove with the Senior couple and they just smiled and waved at everyone we passed. Pretty soon we were all doing it. I really love the people here. There have been through some pretty hard things here. But they are so good. They have such good hearts. I just love them.

This Sunday the second branch in Kosovo was created! Woot woot! President Jones here used to be branch president of the whole country! Can you imagine that?! Its so exciting to see the growth here. The Lord is hastening his work all over the world. It never ceases to amaze me. I love being a missionary. I love the Lord. 

May we be seen well together! 

Motra Curtis

This week was incredible. I don't even know how to write about everything.

 

April 10th a year ago I had just arrived at the MTC. There are a lot of things here that remind me of that time. 

First, learning a new language. Our language study now is spent trying to learn this new dialect. Geg. Just like we were learning Tosk before. 

Second, we talk to people outside on benches. At the MTC, I remember going outside and practicing teaching each other on benches and walking around. That is literally what we do here. I love it. 

Third, its SPRING! 

Fun story. We found a name, phone number and map in our area book and decided we would call them. She invited us to come but...the map was pretty rough. It based everything off the location of a mosque...Something you should know about Kosovo is that chapels to Utah is like Mosques to Kosovo. Which mosque was it talking about?? We tried asking her on the phone which mosque she was close to but didn't understand. So we had her explain it to a random citizen we stopped to help us. We got the name of the mosque and after talking to half the people on the way as well as her neighbors we found it! What the miracle! 

It was crazy the plans that didn't work out so that better things could happen. We realized towards the end of the week we needed higher goals than what we had set. Saturday night we realized we were 5 lessons away from the standard of excellence so we made a goal to have 5 lessons on Sunday. Guess how many planned lessons went through that day. Zero. Guess how many lessons we had. 5. It was literally a miracle. We felt so blessed. 

Also. This one time we tracked a building with 111 doors. 

This other time we were riding an elevator to eat at the restaurant at the top. The other man in the elevator was also going to the same floor. He asked if we were friends of the Hotel. We said, nope, just eating here.We asked if he was going to be eating there too. He said no but wished our meal well..and then said that he was actually the owner of the whole place. What?! And then we got appetizers "on the house". But he left before we could talk to him. BUT our waiter is coming to our English course this week. 

We went to a waterfall today. It was beautiful. Even more beautiful was waving to all the people in the country as we passed. We drove with the Senior couple and they just smiled and waved at everyone we passed. Pretty soon we were all doing it. I really love the people here. There have been through some pretty hard things here. But they are so good. They have such good hearts. I just love them.

This Sunday the second branch in Kosovo was created! Woot woot! President Jones here used to be branch president of the whole country! Can you imagine that?! Its so exciting to see the growth here. The Lord is hastening his work all over the world. It never ceases to amaze me. I love being a missionary. I love the Lord. 

May we be seen well together! 

Motra Curtis

 

 

A whole new world...

Kosovo, a dazzling place I never knew. There are so many things that are different! The currency. Instead of Lek we use euros. Phone numbers. Instead of ### - ## - ## - ### its a ### - ### - ### and a new area code. Instead of shaking their head back and forth for yes, its means no again (and I had just gotten used to it!). Most people call back when you call them. Everyone is Muslim (pretty much) and not just Muslim by tradition but there are many practicing Muslims. I thought Albania was Muslim but Kosovo is so much more. People have lower voices (even the women). People are taller. This city is huge! (I went from one of the smallest cities in Albania to one of the largest-if not THE largest city in Kosovo). The apartment is small. I went from probably one of the biggest apartments to the smallest. Its a quaint little 3 room apartment (bathroom, kitchen/living, bed room) I seriously love it. We'll be moving into the senior couple's apartment downstairs next month when they leave. Which will be the saddest day of my life. They are seriously the best. Also we go running with members in the morning. Running, yeah, in a park. Reminds me of when my sisters and I went running with our sister missionaries in the morning. I'm working on trying to get a group going to play sports or something...they are willing to come even early in the morning...whaaat?!  Awesome.

The Jones. Motra Jones is such an amazing missionary. We got to teach a lesson with her and she is fantastic. She knows her people. She is bold. She is loving. She asks inspired questions. She IS inspiring. We also watched the Priesthood session together as a district at their apartment and she made us an amazing 3 course meal (Salad with the works then roast beef/gravy/mashed potatoes/steamed broccoli THEN strawberry shortcake for dessert.) The food was delicious. The session was AMAZING! We kept wondering how the next talk was going to follow the last but they were all so good! All the other sessions we watched in Albanian. I love General Conference.

The language. This ain't the language they taught me in the MTC! Literally. They did not teach me this dialect. Oh boy is it different. For example. "Are you coming?"-English, "A po vini?" or "A jeni duke ardhur?" -clean tosk Albanian, "A keni kah me ardh?"-dirty geg albanina. Wow. But Motra Hawkins and I are doing our best to learn it. I feel like I'm at the MTC all over again, both of us just trying to figure it out. It funny since both of us have been on the training program pretty much our whole mission (technically not with my mini missionary but there was a lot of training that went on...side note: she got her mission call to the London England mission!). Its the first time since I was trained that I have a more experience companion. Its the first time since she was trained that she doesn't have a brand spanking new companion. We are gonna paint this city!

We have an awesome district. Today we went up to the place where Kosovo was dedicated almost 4 years ago. We read the dedication. It was powerful. Then we prayed together as a district, kinda dedicating our transfer together. It was a sacred moment. A sacred place. Then a car drove by blasting some rap music. What do you do? I'm really excited to be serving here. 

There have been tender mercies and miracles alike. After tracking/finding for hours I just wanted to teach a lesson since we hadn't had one all day (or the day before...traveling...) We went to the church to call numbers on our phone. A woman walks into the church and has a lesson with us...bringing her friend. She walked into the church people!! Right after I had expressed to Motra Hawkins that I just wanted to teach a lesson. The Lord answers the prayers of the heart.

Sorry this got so long. I had SO much to talk about!! I absolutely love it here. I started with the differences I'll end with the similarities. The members are awesome! People are nice. The work is hastening. The church is true. Probably lots more but I'm running out of time.

From the land of Kosovo! 

Motra Curtis

p.s. The Top picture is us when we first arrived! 

Spring. New beginnings​. Change. Growth. Transfers. BABY CHICKS!

to Abish, Alyssa, Breezy, Christa, Christa, Cindy, Corban, Corban, Diane, ema_iftiu, Emily, Joshua, Kaleb, Kristine, LuShaun, me, Rebekah, Teal, Kaitlin, Emmaline, Corryne, Hannah

We got transfer calls and I will get to that. But first let me tell you about this week.

I love Lushnje. I love the little villages we get to go visit. We were on our way home one day and walking down the side of the road trying to flag down a fergon to take us home. As we were walking, Motra Boettinger turns to me and tells me how when she imagined being on a mission she didn't think she would be hitching hiking on the side of a highway. But my friends, that is what we do. Every week. And we love it. 

While we were in one of the other villages we got to hold little (one day old!) baby chicks. They were so soft and fuzzy! If we could have pets you better believe one of those little suckers would have been ours in 2 seconds flat. I may or may not have named a little golden colored one Motra Curtis. But probably I did. I love the beautiful country of Albania. I always try to capture it on my camera...it never does it justice.

Its getting warmer and people are sitting outside longer. I love walking by and talking to people in their yards. We met some neat-o people. I sure do love the people here.

Transfer call. I'm leaving. Whhaaat?!! Just kidding, saw that one coming. Leaving the country. Didn't really see that coming. Knew it was possible, but didn't think it would be me. I'll be serving in Kosovo! They speak a different dialect up there. I feel like elders all seem to love that "dirty Albanian" and have been giving language tips on it in district meetings throughout my mission. Wish I would have paid more attention! I hear its a different world up there. I'm real excited! I'll miss Albania. We just became a stake! Now I'm going back to a district. But it will be a neat experience. Join in next week on KOSOVO!!!

I love the Lord. I trust that this is His work. It always amazes me how involved He is. The church is true!

Loves!

Motra Curtis

p.s. One of our members has a gated door. But we still visit her :)

p.s.s. We usually play soccer on Saturdays with the youth and their friends and this week one of the elders and I accidentally matched.

p.s.s.s. My companion keeps finding snails to hold...

You never know...

Sometimes we get to teach the temple prep lessons to those that are preparing to go to the temple. It's really great. If you have the opportunity to go to the temple you should. Right now. Tell it I say "hi".

Also. Got a really neat call the other day. A senior couple, who serve in Tirana, came into contact with a woman that had been taught in Durres. She had been visiting her sister-in-law and had been taught by Motra Wheelock and I. She had only been visiting and both Motra Wheelock and I got transferred out that month so we never knew what happened. There are so many times you talk to people and you never know where it goes. I was really grateful that they took the time to call me and let me know they had come in contact with her. She was excited to be in contact with the church again and I really hope it goes somewhere. Just a testimony to me that this is the Lord's work and He is so aware of each of His children. Plant seeds.

Transfer Madness is fun to do. Its like basketball March Madness but with missionaries instead (where they will go, who will be companions...etc.). Our mission is small enough that you can guess everyone (but its getting bigger, therefore harder). Anyways, in the midst of all the guessing and speculating I keep having dreams that involve transfers! It's crazy. Transfers in our mission happen every 3 months. Sunday night President will call each of us and tell us where we are going and who will be our companion. He likes to keep it a surprise until that night. Its crazy waiting for that call. I'll let you know what happens next week.

This week at church there was a change in the branch president. The previous branch president was an American who works here in Albania and was asked to serve as branch president. He was released and they called one of the members from Lushnje. It is really exciting to see the changes happening here. 

The church is true. The Lord loves you. Missionary work is thebomb.com.

Peace and blessings,

Motra Curtis

 

 

2 things that I love. Jumping pictures. Lushnje sunsets.