MTC Week Eight

Alrighty! What the heck is up!?
I will start with the usual.

1. Am I good on supplies and clothes and stuffffff?
- Yes! I am doing great. I have more than enough ha. Thank you!

2. Has my Visa come yet?
- My visa debit card? Yes haha. My visa to albania? Nope. We were actually really worried about that and then we found out this week that you don't need a Visa to get into Albania. I guess they will take anyone to come to the country ha. It is good for their economy so they don't care who goes in and out.

3. Do I want a calling card for the airport?
-That would be awesome. I think that would probably be the best idea for that. I get my flight plans in 9 days!!!!!! WOOOOT!

4.Am I allowed to print emails in Albania?
- I am not sure. We don't really get to talk to the people who served there after we teach them. We leave and they talk to our teacher about how bad we speak Albanian haha

5. How did the German person get my dear elder thing?
- I am not sure haha. Maybe Ashley's blog? It was pretty cool though. I'm so glad that you are doing that for me (Ashley). You are the bomb digity!

6. Any food for the next package?
- I'm actually pretty good on food haha. We have more than enough to last us the rest of our stay here. Thanks! Maybe some WarHeads or CryBaby's. Those are the only candy that i have been craving ha.

7. Do I set goals for the language (vocab)?
-Of course! I set goals every day for the language. I have been trying to memorize at least 25 words a day. It is a lot harder than it seems. It's going well though

8. Does the district have contests (language)?
- We sometimes play games where we have verb conjugation races or races on writing sentences and stuff. Is that what you mean?

9. Do we have sticky notes labeling everything?
- No haha. Although the sticky notes at home actually helped me. I remember those words more than other words. And to make it even better, I know how dad pronounces all of them hahaha.

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Alrightyyyy! So, this week has been pretty awesome. I have been getting better at the language every day. I actually have a really cool experience to share. So one of the people who works here at the MTC asked my district to help him with a teachers meeting. He is over all of the teachers at the MTC. He told us he would be teaching us in Albanian and all we would have to do is bring our scriptures and our selves. We were all really confused because this guy only knows Greek. We had no idea how he was going to teach us in Albanian. I guess he looked up like 10 words in Albanian about an hour before the meeting. We were all thinking to ourselves that this was going to be a disaster. We showed up to the meeting where there were probably 20-30 teachers. The man in charge had us sit in the front so he could teach us in Albanian. He started to teach us. His Albanian was awful haha. He only knew about 10 words. And the words that he "knew", he didn't really know well ha. He said most of the words he didn't know in Albanian, in Greek. Greek is NOTHING like Albanian. He was teaching us about the Plan of Happiness that God has given us. He used lots of hand motions to help us understand what he was trying to say. With the language and hand signals together, it was not very clear what he was trying to say to us but what was clear was that he was teaching us things of God. The spirit was so strong. By the end of the lesson, I was in shock. I had not a clue what he was saying but at the same time felt as if he was speaking in english. He taught with the holy ghost, the spirit of God. It became very evident to me that it's not about how well I can speak Albanian. I will probably sound to the Albanians the way he sounded to us. But that isn't what matters. If the Spirit is there, The language isn't what matters. It was very comforting to know that and to experience it first hand. I am so lucky to be in the work of the Lord. I know without a doubt that The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in these days. We have God's power on the earth and have a living Prophet. I always knew that the Church was important and that it was good but I have gained much much much more of an understanding of how important it really is.

Just a couple more things: So I signed up to sing in the priesthood session of conference. I don't know if it will actually end up happening because the place where the choir practices is closed until a week before conference so no one really knows if it will really take place. I hope it works out though! Dad, you will not only know in your head that I am watching the priesthood session of conference but you will get to see me! haha Cool stuff. Yeah, I don't really know what else to say about my week. All my days pretty much blend together here ha. Next week is concecration week which means we speak NO ENGLISH for the whole week. ALL ALBANIAN! AHHHHHH SHOOT ME! haha just kidding. but seriously. it's going to kill me.

Ashley: That is SOOO cool that you were on the same plane as L Tom Perry! I am jealous. Ash thanks for the quotes/notes you gave me. Those are awesome. Also, I was going to gym monday night about 6:45 and what do I see? I see your freaking car parked on the side of the road haha. I sat there with my comp and waited for a few minutes to see if you were gonna come back and then I was like "eh she is probably at class at BYU or something and isn't coming back for a while." I then played soccer for like 10 minutes and then went back to see if you were there and NO! you had already left! I was so mad haha. I wanted to yell to you in Albanian.

Alexis- I think it's way funny that you and Alec are going to Homecoming together. He has always had a strange love for you hahaa. I'm sorry that your animal bracelet broke. I will send you a new one. I hope you did well on the ACT. We need to go to BYU together. End of story!

Mom- Thanks for all the times you write me! It soudns like you did an awesome job at stake conf. Sarrah Pratt said you did way good! It sounds like Elder Maynes had some awesome things to say. Oh, I bought a new tape recorder here. It's much smaller and works way better. I bought it today. Do you wante me to send the other one to you guys?

Dad- I am glad blizzard is still doing well haha. Thanks for writing me everyday. I can always count on at least one dear elder! It's the best. Sorry I can't say much. I'm running out of time! Sorry. If you could get me some more Albanian "Plan of Salvation" puzzle things that we got at missionary mall. THat would be great! I guess those are much needed in the field. I'm glad you found moms car keys haha. I Accept your apology and don't blame you for blaming me!

Well I gotta go! Goodbye! I love you all! Keep writing!