SNOW!!!

November 30, 2015

 Ok so pretty awesome week! I have to say it definitely sucked not being home for Thanksgiving but it was a pretty good day here so not too bad! Also new fruit for you to all look up! Persimmon! Super good! 

All of you have to go check out the new church video for Christmas it's awesome!! christmas.mormon.org! (krishtlindja.mormon.org in Albanian) go watch it and share it with your friends!

  So pretty much the main thing that happened this week was obviously Thanksgiving! We drove down Wednesday night and we picked up Elder Watson in Gjakova so it took about 5 hours total of driving! We got to the Gjakova branch building and it was flooding! It was raining a ton and there was a problem with the piping in the road and it was flowing into the building! 

So anyway we got to Tirana and we stayed at the zone leaders house there which was fun! The next day was just all Thanksgiving pretty much! First, President showed us the new Christmas video and talked about how we are going to be using it and then we had our Thanksgiving meal! It was actually pretty dang good! I talked a lot to Elder Clemans and Elder Crandall which was super fun! There were a couple times where I felt homesick but they kept us pretty distracted! THEN the best part! All the districts performed their individual skits! We were the second group to go and I was so nervous holy cow! Hopefully I will be able to send a video to you next week because I don't have one this week but it was awesome and guess what! We won as the best skit! So whats up! Prishtina might not have the best work but we are dang good at being funny! President Weidmann was so funny he got up and was like ok to close I would like to tell you all what it's going to be like in the Celestial Kingdom and then he just started showing pictures of Switzerland!!! It was hilarious! Then we just loaded in the cars and headed back out!

  When we got back to Prishtina the next morning (we stayed the night at Gjakova because it was too late) it was dumping snow!!! I was soooo happy you have no idea it was the best thing ever! I was having so much fun contacting out in the snow it was ballin! Definitely having to start wrapping up though because whew it's cold!!!

  So we have been teaching this referral named A. and he is actually doing really awesome! He is Catholic and it's super different teaching him because I forgot how to best teach a Catholic because it's been so long! He's super cool though and has actually been reading the book of mormon which is awesome! 

  We also had a really cool lesson with this guy named S. and his son! S. actually studied at ASU a long time ago and remembered this mormon professor that he had there because he went to their house for dinner! He is a super successful guy and a ton of people kept coming and saying hi to him because we were out getting drinks and it reminded me of being with Dad because so many people know him cause he did their braces! It was a super relaxed lesson and he was really interested and so was his son! He wants us to come to dinner sometime and also wants us to teach his employees who are all younger people who would be open to listening!

We went to Prizren today for P-day - this cool city in Kosovo -I took a bunch of pics to show you!!

  Anyway, Prishtina has been pretty crazy as always but I love it!  I'm starting to think about how I have to leave at the end of December and I'm so sad. I honestly never want to leave this place!! It feels like I just need to be here! 

Have a great week everyone - I hope you all enjoy skiing while I can't which suckssssssssssssssssssssssssss! But you don't get to be out here in Kosovo serving the most awesome mission ever!

Loves!!

Snow...

view from our apartment.

fun day contacting in the snow!

My first persimmon!

P-day in Prizen, Kosovo

Flooding in the Gjakovo building!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2015

Alright not a ton to write about this week! Pretty good week though! To preface this email I would like to say that mom was right all those years ago, I definitely do regret not learning piano! You win!  :)

  So to start off on Tuesday we planned two lessons at the same time just because we really didn't expect either of them to come to be honest (not at perfect faith yet) and they both actually did come! So we quickly called B. and Elder Hydrick and they came and did splits with us and it was so awesome! One of them that came was a less active that I hadn't heard from in like 3 months! Then another was a new investigator that brought 3 friends! We were like holy crap! It was a pretty awesome lesson! The investigator is actually on a baptismal date now but the rest of his friends haven't had a chance to come back which is too bad! 

  Something else awesome is I have been trying to figure out the bus system here because it's such a big city and no one else has bothered to do it yet so we took our first bus this week and of course we happen to take the bus that takes us outside of Prishtina to a fshat (village)! We left the city and we're like ohhhh crap... And we were looking out the window and this guy was like "hey do you guys know where you are going?" I was just like "Nope! Just kinda checking it out" and he started laughing and then we started talking about why were here and he was like, well hey my house is right at the next stop want to come over and talk for a bit? Well of course we said sure and went in! It was a super cool lesson and although his family isn't super interested it was cool being able to go to his house and they were super nice! I really want to keep going out to fshats because people are way nicer out there.

  Also this week is Thanksgiving which I'm super duper going to miss, but we are going to Tirana and all the mission is getting together and we are having a thanksgiving dinner and doing skits and stuff so that should be super fun! Definitely am going to miss this holiday though considering it's my favorite one!

  Anyway I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving I definitely will be missing you but it'll be a good time! Love you all!

King of Jordan came to visit

Super strange new fruit I tried called medlar.

When your fruit loop contacts are all middle eastern countries???

Lambo!!

Burger grillin!

15 euro meat platter...money!

Quince

November 16, 2015

Ok pretty packed week! First of all I tried a Quince for the first time! It's a fruit and it's so strange - so when you first bite it, it tastes like an orange. Then after a bit it tastes like a grapefruit, then right before you swallow it tastes like an apple! It's crazy! Apparently you don't normally eat them raw but Kosovarës do!

  So on Wednesday we drove down to Tirana! We woke up at 4am and had a 5 hour drive to get there! Whew it was pretty rough! We drove with the Gjakova Elders which was a lot of fun!  When we finally got there I got to have that good old byrek with beans that I've been missing! It was delicious! 

So we went there for half way training which is just for people that have trainees and it was really good! We also got to go and baptize Elder Mero's grandma! It was way cool she got baptized in 2nd ward which is where I used to serve and I got to see my old investigator Kurt Koci! He is a baller! Still investigating but he is doing good! Elder Mero was like a celebrity there because everyone remembers him from when he was a  little kid! I got to see Elder Verushi who is now Brother Verushi because he finished his mission, it was pretty crazy! Then we just drove right back up to Prishtina! We were awake 17 hours that day and 10 of it was me driving! I was so wiped by the end of the day!

  Also when we got back we got to meet the two new missionaries Elder Eddings and Sister Olsen. To be honest we have been so busy I still haven't had the chance to get to know them super well but they seem awesome! Elder Eddings is hilarious and definitely as smart as everyone said! And Sister Olsen played starcraft! 

  There was a friendly soccer game this week between Kosovo and Albania and it was so funny! Most people here were wearing Albanian fan stuff! Like they are basically the same country! A lot of people had flags that were half Kosovo half Albanian! The game actually ended 2-2 which is perfect cause everyone was happy about it! It's just funny to see how these people truly are Albanians just living in a different country! 

  Something crazy that I just realized is how low the mission age is right now (most missionaries here haven't been serving for very long) Elder Eddings came in 2 groups before me and between his group and Elder Mero's group (1 group after me) there were only 7 Elders!!! We used to get like 12 every transfer! So the next group is going to be 12 again and a lot of these brand new missionaries are going to have to train right after being trained just because there isn't any other choice! Pretty crazy!

  Anyway, I love being a missionary!! I hope you all have a great week!  Love you all!

Newborn Monument in Prishtina

Won't be needing these this year. :(

Week 40

 November 9, 2015

Whew busy week!  I feel like these weeks are so long when I look back and see everything that happened but when I'm in the moment they just fly by! 

So first of all the WiFi is working at the church again so I can upload pictures and videos from my camera which will be super nice!

  Anyway, so we met B. last week on Monday and he was looking pretty depressed and we were in a room just us and the Hydricks and he explain all that went down and I guess he really did just essentially break his mom's heart.  She was basically sick the next day because of what he told her. Elder Mero and I just decided that we were going to spend a ton of time with him this week and just not talk about it this rest of the week unless he feels like he needs to. He said he felt way better after meeting with us and you could literally see a difference in his eyes it was crazy! We met with him everyday and just kept sharing spiritual thoughts with him. He has started ponderizing a scripture every week which is awesome! He just does things every week that are super impressive to me!   He also passed the sacrament on Sunday!

  I also had a really cool experience teaching English Course this week. We shared the Plan of Salvation with them at the end and I just felt the spirit testify through me through a lot of it and as I was teaching it one of the people in the class was actually crying. It was such an amazing moment for me to see like holy cow nothing I could have said would have done something like that and I just knew everything that I had taught had been from the spirit. I love moments like that honestly it's what I live for out here! If I could just teach perfectly from the spirit all the time I would be the perfect missionary but unfortunately I'm not!

  This week we went up again and picked potatoes it was so fun! It's so nice getting up into the country and doing some real work! I really don't know if I could ever live in a big city! There is just too much craziness!

  We also had the craziest lesson I have ever had with a guy this week. He seemed totally normal when we were talking to him on the street and then when we were starting the lesson he seemed pretty normal but then it just got super strange! First he was like, "do you think humans were made for this earth?" "yes, God created this world for us to come here and receive bodies." "Then why are humans the only creatures that have to use clothes and other things when seasons change! Animals don't have to! It's because we came from another planet!" at this point I was like oh great - and it just went down hill from there - he told me I had to read this book called the book of the devil and then he asked "do you believe in Adam and Eve?" "yes they were the first two people that were sent to this earth" "who gave them their names?" "God did" "no no no those were the names they had when they came from another planet!" ughhhh then we got into the classic argument of how God can't have a son which honestly no one can ever give me a real reason why. I ask them if they believe in an all powerful God that has no limits, they say yes of course. Then I say so he can have a son then? NOOOOO every time honestly! Then we finally finished and he was like so next time we meet I need you to answer me a question and so I was like "ok what's your question?" "why do humans have hair?" I was seriously like oohhh my gosh I am so done with you so I said in maybe not the most Christlike of manners "IT'S BECAUSE WE ARE MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE, WE LOOK LIKE GOD!" I didn't actually yell it but I did raise my voice a bit (still working on patience). He honestly was just super annoying!

  This week we had mini transfers and..... Elder Keck and Sister Fuller are leaving which is super sad! We have been a pretty awesome district  - honestly everyone gets along super well but.... we get Elder Eddings and Sister Olsen! I'm so excited to have Eddings up here! He is a genius! He helped make a game called the Stanley Parable which is actually a super popular game and so he is like loaded! He is so funny though! I think we are going to get along super well! 

  Anyway I hope you all are doing great and I love you all!  Have a great week doing whatever you do! 

Love, Elder Guymon

Selfies!!

P-day lunch

going to pick some potatoes!

Prishtina missionaries with President and Sister Weideman

Happy Halloween!

November 2, 2015

Alright so pretty exciting week, what week isn't exciting on a mission honestly! First of all time is flyyiinnggggg for me now! Like I blink and a month goes by. Everyone says next transfer is going to be when time starts going super fast so that will be crazy! It's just so strange time just works crazy out on a mission!

  

Anyway this week we had mission conference which was awesome! We had a member of the 70, Brother Johnson come and talk to us. Of course it was just awesome seeing everyone again! It's funny all of us from my MTC group aren't as close as we use to be just because we have been serving around such different people we tend to stay in separate groups. Still it's awesome seeing them all! 

 Mission Conference was a super great experience for me. We sang Lead, Kindly Light which is just an awesome song and then Sister Weidmann talked about the song and kinda expounded on it and it was just awesome.

"The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene; one step enough for me."

This was a big part of what she talked about. How often times we just have to have the faith to see one step in front of us and not worry about the distant scene and whatever else is out there. It's super hard to do though! Seriously I recommend you all read that hymn and think about it!

  Then Brother Johnson talked to us about a ton of stuff about recognizing the spirit! It was crazy how well he used the scriptures! Like there was one point where he was going through so many of them and talking about them that I don't think I looked up from my scriptures for like 15 minutes! It was really cool though I didn't really learn anything super new it was more just an awesome scripture spiritual boost. We talked about Moroni 7 and how you can tell when something is a prompting from the spirit and how we can invite more of them into our lives.

  Then afterwards I was selected as one of the missionaries to have an interview with Brother Johnson and I was like "what did I do?!" but it was actually way different than I imagined. It wasn't an interview about me it was an interview about the mission and specifically Kosovo since I was the only missionary being interviewed from there.  He just asked a lot about the work there and stuff.

  The night that we got into Tirana it was like 8:54pm (we have to be in the apartment at 9:00p) when we got to the AP's apartment but Elder Mero and I really wanted to get suflaqes because they don't have them in Kosovo so we were like oh we can totally make it and sprinted to go and find a suflaqe place and get back in time. It was so funny and just felt like such a missionary moment like what other 20 year old guy would be sprinting to go get food so that he could be inside by 9pm? It was awesome though and we made it back like barely in time!! (they were on the 10th floor so that's impressive!)

  Also while we were in Tirana we got to go and see Elder Mero's grandparents! His grandma is getting baptized in a couple weeks and Elder Verushi is teaching her! So we got to go and be with Elder Verushi and his companion for a little bit which was fun. It was funny his companion was like "so I hear you're something of a prodigy" and I was like super confused but I guess a bunch of people told him that I came into the country already fluent in Albanian which was pretty funny! It did inflate my head a little though knowing there are rumors about me being good at the language floating around! Also Verushi complimented me on my Albanian and said I was getting really good which was awesome!

  Anyway we finally made it back to Prishtina and this weekend was Halloween! They do celebrate Halloween here but not really much. Like some venders sold masks and there were some little kids dressed up but nothing too big! Elder Mero and I went and bought pumpkins and carved them and I was actually pretty happy with my Jack the Pumpkin King! Other than that nothing really special happened that day! I do miss holidays they are nice little breaks from normal life.

  Also we did "break the fast" on Sunday with the branch and I brought my fasule (albanian beans) and everyone was super impressed that I made them because it's like a super Albanian thing but I learned from Elder Verushi! 

  This week for work was pretty awesome! We met a lot of really cool people and have been doing a ton of tracting but as usual it just is kinda - we will see if we can do second lessons with them. This one kid especially named E. was super open. He started talking about science at the beginning and I was like oh great but then he started talking about how scientists were starting to conclude that there had to be a God or at least some kinda greater power and he was super cool! He was 20! He also said a super awesome prayer at the end of lesson which is always a good sign!

  B. had a big challenge hanging over his head! He was planning on telling his family about him being baptized this weekend and it was just worrying him all week! We met with him a few times and really just tried to strengthen him and prepare him for this weekend. We fasted with him Friday and Saturday.

 He told his mom on Sunday and I guess she had a really hard time. I really am amazed at how much people go through here for this faith. We are meeting with him tonight and will hopefully be getting the full story but man he is in a pretty rough spot. I love that guy so I hope he is alright!  Pray for B!

 Anyway I love you all so much and appreciate your prayers! You are the best!  Keep on keeping on!

Peja

October 26, 2015

Ok so this week was COLD! Dang I was not expecting to have the cold hit as hard as it did here! Depending on how this holds up I may be buying some thermals to make it through this winter here! Definitely bad call not bringing any. It also rained like non stop for 3 days straight which was no fun! I don't have my notes with me so I'm sorry I just am suuuuppperrrr bad at remembering stuff that happens during the week without them so I'm going to try my best!

  So as I said on last Pday we were in Peja so I didn't have a ton of time to write you guys but it was really good. We actually got to meet B's family and that was super cool. They made us a bunch of traditonal food and it was so good! The Hydricks came and were super nice and the family loved them so it was really awesome for them to have a first contact with the church even if they didn't recognize it as that! Peja is such a beautiful place I really hope it reopens soon! 

  This week President Wiedmann told us that we should go try tracting some specific apartment buildings here in Prishtina so we went and did it and had some crazy success. We went with the other elders and just kinda split up and we ended up having 3 lessons and getting 5 new investigators!! It was honestly crazy! We had a very successful week so definitely counting our blessings! A lot of our return apointments with them are tonight so hopefully we can meet with them all again because that would be awesome!

  Also this week I have been feeling pretty sick which has been rough but I definitely have seen the Lords hand in the work helping me because I seem to always have just enough energy to work all the way through the day and then I just come back and crash super hard. It's like all during the work in the day I don't feel horrible but in the mornings and evenings I've been pretty rough.

  Being able to teach B. as a member has just been awesome this week! When someone goes from being an investigator to having the Holy Ghost they just take off in the church, it's so ballin! He and I gave talks on Sunday so all week we were helping him prepare for his talk and he put so much work into it! Like looking up all these talks and mormon messages and stuff! His talk was so good too, he rocked it! Everyone in the branch thinks we are the best missionaries ever because we baptized him! It's just crazy because we really did nothing! 

  Also I didn't too bad on my talk myself! I'm including this not to brag but just a change I've seen in myself. Like before my mission I really didn't feel like I was very good at giving talks first of all, and second I had to write all of it out so that I could have my thoughts in order before I got up and just talked but I decided to try to just go for it and see what happens by just studying and selecting some scriptures and bullet points and honestly I did super well! I was really happy about it. Just another awesome thing that happens as a missionary which I think has 3 reasons, number 1, I'm way better at talking about gospel topics and stuff like that in general now, 2 I'm way more confident now, and 3 I'm way more in touch with the spirit! It was just a cool experience for me to have, definitely no fear about giving talks anymore!

  Something kinda crazy that I've been seeing this week is how important the gospel is by living it through B. So first of all I really think I'm going to be friends with him for the rest of my life! I really just like him as a friend, plus we are the same age. But anyway he still hasn't told his family yet that he got baptized, but is thinking about doing it this weekend but the thing is he might lose all family support and everything when he tells them. Just seeing how much faith he has and how he realizes this gospel is more important than everything to him is just awesome. I'm really worried about him so I'll let you know if he does it this weekend. He just has such a fire right now it's awesome!

  Anyway next week is mission conference so that's going to be awesome I'm sure I'll have some sweet stories from that!  Elder Mero is also doing awesome and is now starting to get a pretty good grip on the language which is sweet. 

  Love you all have a great week!!!

Beautiful Peja!

B's baptism!

October 19, 2015

Hey all we finally made it up to Peja! Therefore I have no time to email but I sent all the pictures from B's baptism! !  (I can't post the pictures of the baptism but Adam and B are beaming with BIG smiles! :))

The baptism was amazing! I was stressed out the whole day trying to make sure everything was perfect and there were of course a bunch of things that went drastically wrong but it all ended well. :)
 The moment I got into the water with B. it was just like the spirit just filled me and everything became so peaceful. It was my first time ever baptizing someone and it was amazing. The spirit was soooo strong in that moment wow! I had to baptize him twice but that's ok haha no beginners luck! His testimony was so awesome after! He blew everyone away! 

Other than the baptism not a ton of crazy stuff has been happening. Our days have been literally full of lessons that we have planned but we maybe get one because they just don't show up! It's so annoying! 
I also went on an exchange with Elder Kek! We are the missionaries who have been serving the longest together up here in Prishtina! It was fun being on an exchange with him. Missionaries always say that the North Zone makes missionaries more relaxed (that's both good and bad) and it's suuupppper true! 

Also I don't know if you have had a chance to see these but the church released these videos called 12 steps to change and it's about addiction and they are super intense but super amazing! They are on the mormon channel and I would highly recommend watching them! Just shows you how powerful the atonement is! 

Anyway sorry I don't have a ton of time to email but I'm doing awesome! Feeling a little sick but that's alright! Love you!

Picking Potatoes! :)

October 12, 2015

 So this week we started off heading up 2 kilometers away from Serbia! A member called us and said he wanted our help with some service and said we were going to be picking potatoes so we all started driving over to his place following his son and we thought it was going to be kinda close but it ended up being super far away and up through all these crazy roads but it was awesome to get out of the city! 

Also I can now officially say I have picked potatoes and can be a true idahoan.  I never picked potatoes in Idaho and who would have thought I'd be doing that in Kosovo?!  The service was awesome but honestly I think my favorite part was the drive there and back, just driving through these mountains and country sides it was so beautiful and kind of reminded me of home a couple times.

This week  a lot of people were watching soccer games...it's huge here!  Sadly, Albania lost to Serbia but then they beat Armenia and made it into the Europe cup!  There was a huge parade though the city after that and fireworks!

  Something pretty interesting and fun this week has been teaching Albanian. Since Elder Mero doesn't know Albanian super well, especially grammar, we just started from the beginning and it's been pretty fun and really good for me! It's so crazy because he doesn't understand any grammar principles or anything but just automatically uses them when he speaks.

  This week was zone conference which of course was awesome! Something that I loved from it was that they told us we should literally ask to get a referral from everyone we meet and to set goals for how many referrals we wanted to get. It's something that just hasn't really happened a bunch in this mission and so it's been super cool to do now. So far we haven't found a ton of success at it but I really like doing it. So even people we just street contact we ask them if they would have any friends interested. And our zone right now is just sooo fun! Like we are just absolutely stacked right now! 

  Once again the Lord showed me that it was His work not mine.  So after zone conference we were planning on going to our house when a random guy showed up and said that he had been taught by missionaries before and wanted to get taught again!  It's just so crazy like we stand out in the rain (it was raining for half the week) for a whole day and nothing really happens, then randomly the Lord just gives us work like that!

  Honestly I've just been seeing the hand of the Lord in our work a ton. Everyone says you see extra blessings while your training and it's suuuppperrrr true. We got 23 numbers a couple days ago all in one day! That was insane! I also got to teach my first lesson to a family because they let us in when we were tracting so that was super awesome! 

  Also B. will be getting baptized on Friday so that is awesome! Then Saturday and Sunday we are going to be watching general conference! B. is soo excited it's awesome. We taught him about church history this week and stuff and he just loved it! I seriously like can't believe how perfect he is. I'm so excited for his baptism! Plus it'll be in a portable font which I always wanted to do!

  Anyway I love you all! Stay awesome! 

Picking potatoes in Kosovo!

Prishtina Elders

Driving to the farm...

Teaching Elder Mero Albanian

Kosovo soccer uniform

Albanian soccer uniform

Parade through the city to celebrate the win.