"Teach me to do thy will" psalms 143:10 January 23, 2023

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As I'm sure all of you know if you've been following my emails, we are mega low on missionaries here in Macedonia. Half of our allotted amount are currently visa waiting, including a senior couple (which would be so so so helpful). As Sister Chamberlain and I have been nearing the end of our missions, we've grown a little bit more uneasy leaving Macedonia in the situation it is: when we leave an elder also leaves meaning only 4 elders would be left to run the whole country in 3 different cities with very very little support. We pray that the new missionaries, who are not so new anymore, can get here soon, but as we begin our last transfer this week, clearly 6 weeks is not enough time to train missionaries, especially in such a wild language and culture and with the additional responsibilities we have here. Thus, we made an absolutely wild choice I never thought I would make: we asked and got approval to extend.

This extension kind of came out of nowhere for me, especially because the weight of my mission has already been incredibly taxing on me. The additional weeks the area Presidency granted us means I'll be serving nearly 20 months, which is wild. Wild because a)there were many times on my mission I wasn't sure I would even be able to serve the full time and b) that they gave us approval so close to us going home and gave that approval within 24 hours of asking. 

Sometimes we pray for miracles and the miracles we want seem to never come. This certainly was not the miracle I was praying for, but its miraculous nature does not change. Since making this decision I have received additional strength and peace. I have confidence in the Lord's plan, whatever it maybe, whether the missionaries can come in that time, or whether Sister Chamberlain and I are simply here to support the 4 other missionaries in this work. I love Macedonia and I am so grateful for the blessing of being here just a little bit longer. 

But before I bore you with more words, уживајте неколку слики:)

all the missionaries crammed into a scary yugoslavian-era elevator

and another obviously important picture of all of our foreheads at the mosque last week

we also got mexican food a couple of times this week and neither of which were very "mexican-y" but both were bussin

some delicious bakery items:) bacon wrapped gjevrek (kinda like a bagel) and then I saw some pao de queijo so I had to cop it. It was pretty good ngl, idk how they did it like 6000 miles away from brazil haha

and one of the weirdest experiences of my mission... we were book of mormon tabling this week (basically exactly what it sounds like: you set up a table with lots of copies of the book of mormon, we usually have english, serbian, and albanian, and then we have a whiteboard with a question or something on it and we stop people and ask them questions and teach them about the book of mormon:)) and this man stopped, read our sign, and then came up and told us he was the director of the Mother Teresa museum just down the street and he wants us to meet at 10 on Friday. Well that appointment turned out to be a lot less of a lesson and more of a business deal? It was weird as fetch and he was trying to help us "sell our books" at the museum and we had to explain how we were volunteers and we don't sell anything and stuff. It was very interesting and was definitely testing my Macedonian skills hahah. Anyways he loved our professionality (?) (literally just actually showing up on time hahha) and as a thank you he gave us free books about Mother Teresa

on our way down to Ohrid this week, we took a quick 10 min detour to see a beautiful monastery: Манастир Света Богородица-Пречиста.

and a pretty lil sunrise from our apartment 

This week, I have been studying following the will of God over my own, and boy did he make me practice what I studied. As I was studying, I came across this verse that struck me from Psalms 143:10: "Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness." I love the verb teach, it is so powerful in this sentence. We cannot simply ask God to tell us his will, that requires very little of us. We have to be willing to follow it. So the more insightful word teach here has changed me as I have not only sought to know my Father's will, but to do it. It has required everything out of me. My desires have been changed as I have done so, and I look forward to following his will as I continue my time here.

Со љубов,

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