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.