February 7, 2011

Hello! Greetings from a very cozy internet cafe on my little hometown Myslym Shyri street. Sorry to bust your bubbles, but not too much new here in my little part of the world. Motra Yourstone and I are kinda in a little dry spot of our missions with basically no investigators or too much potential work, but we are still loving life. We are just glad that we at least have each other, although we aren't so pleased that the time is flying so fast and we are down to our last two weeks together. So basically the first time in our missions, we have been pretty forced to go tracting. We have been creating a running list of all the reasons why people don't want to talk to us or hear about our message. It is quite entertaining and keeps us laughing after a long day of very little success. I'll give you a little sample here, although they might not be as funny for you:

-I am on pension.
-I have people (in my home).
-I can't stand.
-My daughter in law is learning for school.
-It comes to me sadly, but I know everything.
-I have my own books.
- I have every book.
Our reply: Do you have this one (Book of Mormon).
Their reply: No
Our reply: So we would like to tell you about this book and give it to you. (something like that)
Their reply: But I have every book.
-I'm atheist, I believe in only one god.
-I'm not in a state to listen.
-I'm sick.
-All prophets are wrong.
-Are you Jehovah Witnesses. (At least 90% of the people we talk to ask that!)
-My hands are wet.
-Woman yelling through the door, "I can't find my keys" (to unlock the door).
-A little boy answers the door and we ask for his parents. We hear him go back and talk to them and then he comes back and tells us "they are all asleep."

Anyway, I guess some of those are kinda legit excuses, but we still are pretty entertained keeping a running list!

So our excitement this week included back-to-back exchanges with all the Motras. Motra Halabuke came over to my area and we worked together for 24 hours while Motra Yourstone was over in her area with her trainee Motra Hoxsie. Then the next day both Motra Peatross and Leit came up from Vlore for exchanges with us. I spent the evening with Motra Peatross and we had a great time visiting some of her old people. It was fun to see Motra Leit also. She is doing wonderful as always and I would have liked to spend some more time with her, but I wanted Motra Yourstone to get a chance to see how awesome my little cupa is!

Also this week we went out for drinks and a lesson with some of our kinda investigators, who in all honesty probably just enjoy us and learning English more than our religious lessons, but we are giving them a chance. It is a sweet mom with a 12 year boy who is super awesome and probably would be baptized if it weren't for his dad, and also a little 2 year old girl. So we were out at this really nice cafe and trying to talk to this mom, but I was stressed up the wazoo because this little girl was running everywhere and screaming and raising havoc. The mom didn't seem to care and must just be used to it because she just cries for something and her mom gives it to her. I was appalled. I don't know why I am sharing this story, it is pretty useless, but Motra Yourstone sure got a kick out of me freaking out after that little appointment about how I couldn't focus on anything because that kid was going crazy. I didn't even notice the sweet tunes playing at the cafe because all I could think about was how this little girl should be locked in a closet or we all would be kicked out of the cafe. Moral of the story: Never spoil your kids because they will turn into little monsters! I am learning the most useful stuff on my mission!

Well, like I said not to much more exciting stuff around here. Even though neither Motra Yourstone or I cook, we are surviving fine. In fact this week we made scrambled eggs and the top layer that wasn't burned to the pan was actually pretty good. And then last night we steamed vegetables (we learned that from some of our old companions) and made rice. Motra Yourstone was eating her rice with soy sauce until I introduced her to my way...plain rice with powdered sugar. We then had an excellent breakfast today of cold rice and powdered sugar. I highly recommend it!

I love and miss you all and hope you have a super awesome week!
Love always,
Motra Hall