Ramble of the week :)

April 27, 2015

Hey all! It's your favorite ramble of the week! To start off I'm going to answer some questions.

 I definitely am beginning to see a difference in my language - I know that I am a lot better than when I started and I can pretty much get by talking to anyone it's just really hard and I have to ask them to repeat things or rephrase it sometimes. Also talking on the phone is pretty much impossible still. For language study it's all pretty much just vocab at this point and a little bit of grammar every once in a while. I get my words from the scriptures, church magazines, restaurant menus, just random stuff! I haven't really gone searching for any language tools besides that I bought 2 dictionaries. The milk here really isn't that different! We buy milk in bottles but you can buy box milk! It just tastes like its been cooked almost or something but I don't think it's bad or anything. I really don't miss any food other than munchies, like all the food here is soo good but man I loveeee chips and stuff like that. This next week I'm going to be specifically looking for nuts and dried fruit and stuff like that. I actually haven't thought about popcorn though so I'll have to look for that. And yes we do have a microwave. So there are just 4 missionaries in my ward, us and the sisters and our attendance is actually about 70 people. I can do anything on the internet there aren't any specific guidelines or restrictions or anything! It's basically you're a missionary so don't be an idiot, but ya I can go to links you send me and stuff! So for transfers they are pretty much all 12 weeks but there are like little mini transfers at 6 weeks just based on the revelation of the mission president. We walk quite a bit everyday, our house is actually pretty far from the church it's kinda annoying because everything we do is there or farther so going back and forth from our house like isn't an option very often. We do use public transportation quite a bit, we get monthly bus passes and so that's what we use when we have to go far somewhere. Energy wise just kinda depends on the day really. Some days we get home and I go to sleep at 9:30 and other nights I just lay in bed with my rubiks cube till after 10:30! A big influence on my energy levels is food! It definitely is good to have food in you let me tell you! With our 2 hour lunch idk we eat and chill, sometimes sleep, extra study. I have yet to eat at a members home, but I did get a $0.50 ice cream paid for by a member this week so there is something!! I see 2 adult missionary couples fairly frequently. 1 couple runs the institute and so we see them a couple times a week with investigators, the other works in the mission office and are pretty close so we just see them sometimes, DEFINITELY no tracting though, they don't speak a lick of Albanian - Don't have any in my ward though. We have district meetings every week and I actually really enjoy those! I listen to music pretty much every day while I'm working out, sometimes during lunch, and at night. I definitely feel I was a little too conservative with my music choices but all the missionaries share music on usb's and stuff so I'll slowly be gathering a collection.

Ok regular email now, 

We went to a mosque and it was my first time! It was super different! It was so beautiful inside like it was really so pretty but I'm not going to lie it was just a different feeling in there, I'm not sure how to describe it.  

So this week at one of our lunches with our whole district we were talking and some people started talking about first transfer munchies so this is actually a thing to be hungry all the time it's not just me! It's driving me crazy though holy cow! I wonder why it is that this happens to a lot of people. They also said that your first transfer is the worst for being tired, and then its gets bad again towards the end! Another thing they said is that your fist transfer is like super long compared to the rest so we'll see, but I haven't felt like time has been going all that slow here! Unfortunately we lost our investigator Andi this week. I kinda felt like it might be coming, he is a great guy and all but he just kinda has a good time talking to us he just isn't interested in actually converting! 

Something that was kinda a bummer this week is a part of the first transfer training thing we were watching the district videos about working with the ward and members and like that pretty much isn't a thing here. Like we work with some members and stuff but things like ward council meeting or ward missionaries are not even a thing. We pray the bishop gets to church 5 min. before the meeting starts! It's just like man we really are super lonely as missionaries. You wonder why RM's are so awkward! It's because missionaries don't have real relationships for 2 years! If you don't get along with your companion you have you and you have Heavenly Father and that is it. I definitely have felt the blessing of prayer this week just to be able to talk to someone about everything. I definitely didn't use prayer to the extent I could before my mission! 

I had some trouble getting along with my companion this week, he is super bothered and annoyed whenever people mess with what he thinks is a good work schedule which includes district activities which I pretty much need so that I can talk to people in english, and he tried to stop me a couple times this week from talking about things not related to missionary work (like favorite movies) and during companionship inventory I was like listen if you don't want to talk about other stuff fine but I'm going to ok. Then he was annoyed with me during the week because I was talking about movies to some other missionaries and we taught a lesson afterwards and he didn't let me say a single word. I was pissed after that one. Like idk I'm not sure we are going to get along super great for the rest of this transfer - hopefully it will get better.

Seriously the work here is so different from how the Preach my Gospel describes it goes! It's interesting as a missionary how people of different ages don't really affect you like you'd think it would be hard to tell a 45 year old how to live their life and stuff but personally I don't even notice any difference between him or a 20 year old they are both God's children that can grow. 

It was awesome, on Saturday Elder Greener and I convinced our district to give it a go and play soccer every Saturday morning so we invited a bunch of members and investigators to come and only one member showed up and we were like noooo we are never going to get to do this again but we were like let's just go show up at a soccer field and see if some people will come play so we went and we ended up having a huge game of soccer with a bunch of Quns (boys)! It was soooo fun! Also the new intern (they come to study under our stake president, president mema, for political science from BYU-Idaho) is here and he came and played with us! His name is Aaron and he is from Minnesota and is half Mexican so Albanians sometimes think he is Albanian but he doesn't speak the language at all so it's hilarious!! And they all said they'd come next week and bring friends! and we shared a little spiritual message after! 

This Sunday was kinda crazy! First of all we went into one of our investigators house and woke him up to come to church in the morning (his mom is a member and said it's cool) he is 20 and is totally dodging us but I feel like if we can just start getting him to show up to things we could really help him out! We also finally got this girl who we met the first week to come to church who hasn't been to church for like 5 years just because she has been super busy but she is awesome and she brought her little cousin who is 12 and after church he asked us if he could be baptized!!! We were like, ya you can man! We also got a new investigator who was taught by missionaries here in Albania 5 years ago and was ready for baptism but then he moved to England for his job but he is back and is totally wanting to join the church! Faton is still doing awesome and should be baptized in the next couple weeks! 

Anyway sorry this letter is kinda all over the place! Actually I have another challenge for all yall this week! Maybe you already do this and are just better than I was but I would invite you to try a few times this week after you say your prayer to keep your eyes closed and not move and just listen for like 10-20 seconds. I have started doing that for every prayer and even if sometimes I don't always hear answers immediately they are cherished seconds where I just feel like I'm getting recharged by the spirit, it's awesome! 

I had a way cool experience this week giving a priesthood blessing and I told her that she always had angels from her family tree supporting her from the left and the right and afterwards I thought hey I have been promised that too! That's awesome! It really helps when I am feeling bummed out that I have my homies from up in our family tree right here with me! 

Anyway love you all have a great week! Pac Fat!

My life, always on a bus.

There are holes in the ground everywhere here!  The chances of me not falling into one at some point are very low!

neighborhood

My life, always waiting for investigators.

Shoes Ali Ylli gave me

teeny alley that we walk through all the time

Deutsche market for all your deutsche needs. :)

Some appetizing street food!

Sketchiest amusement park ever!

Artificial lake of Tirana

Selfie on a hike.

Avash, avash

April 20, 2015

(slowly slowly, they say that about like everything here I swear)

Anyway hello again my American friends I had a pretty different week but I definitely feel that this is my best week yet! I think the more comfortable I get with the language the happier I will be here for sure! 

So last Monday I gave my first priesthood blessing here! It was for a member Marion Marco who actually is one of the guys who does the voice of translation for conference so its kinda cool to talk to him about that.  He served in England so that's how he knows English. Anyway it was like half Albanian half English, I was half hoping that the Lord would grant me like the Matrix gift of tongues and I would suddenly be like, "I know Albanian" :) (I at least know dad will get that reference) but alas, I'm still going to have to put in more effort. 

We got to continue to teach our amazing investigator, I dont think I have told you about him. His name is Faton and he is prepared by God! Holy cow! So we met this guy just by walking down the street saying Hi to everyone and got his number and since than we have met with him like every day! He is 23, studying law, has read the quran and bible, comes from a muslim family and has a slight stutter! He read the BoM to page 145 in like 3 days!! He keeps every commitment that we give him and whenever we pray to receive an answer or something he always says he feels such positive energy (we are trying to switch that over to the holy ghost)! He came to church this Sunday and it was AWESOME! 

Wednesday was a pretty rough we had 6 lessons planned and we got to actually do 1 (Faton) but that's kinda just missionary work I guess! Also my companion got kinda sick this week so that slowed us down, it is definitely hard not to be out working but luckily he doesn't like to waste time inside either so a few times this week he would just sit on a bench and I would do all the street contacting! I definitely struggled a couple times but it was a great experience for me and everyone couldn't believe that Verushi made me do it alone and I was like hey it was my idea! 

I also finally found a working charger for my camera! A big recommendation for those leaving the country on missions is to not lose chargers!!! They don't have any American things here so my charger is actually this weird as crap Japanese universal charger, I'll have to get a picture of it it's pretty different! 

Oh man the ice cream here is so good! It's like not actual ice cream more gelato and it is so cheap and so good holy cow! 3 scoops is a buck! 

So this week we wanted to get more people to come to our english course and so we printed 5000 little fliers to hand out to people! granted those are shared between 4 comps. but still! Its awesome so whenever we are on our way somewhere we just use those and give them to every person we see! 

So Friday was kinda a different day for me. We decided to go to one of our investigators who has been dodging us, at 9:30am because his mom who is a member said he would be home so we showed up and he was asleep so we just like chilled for 30 minutes for him to get ready and then taught him but since then we have actually been able to meet with him...so WORTH!   Then we went to a bakery on our way home to grab some bread and little did I know that Elder Verushi was messing with me and took me to one where the girl that runs it is known for flirting with Elders! It was different to say the least! We also went into an Orthodontist office because Elder Verushi is probably going to have to get braces! It seriously was like being back home for a little bit which felt both good and bad! It's funny how similar everything was though! Something interesting that I heard this week is that Elder Temple is the best non Albanian Elder with the language, and guess who was his trainer.. Elder Verushi! So that gives me a lot of hope but also now I feel like I need to match him but I'm sure it'll come! In fact I gave a talk on Sunday! The bishop called at 9:30 Sat. night and said that he needed one of us to give a talk and since Elder Verushi gave the last talk that a missionary gave it was my turn! So I had like 30 min the night before and like an hour the morning of to prepare! Needless to say it wasn't perfect but I don't think it was too bad! Faton said he really appreciated it so that's awesome! 

So remember last week how I talked about how Albanians stay young? I can't believe I forgot to tell you about my favorite ward member! She is like pretty dang old like I don't know really 80's or something she doesn't have any teeth or anything but for real by how she acts you'd think she was 25 its hilarious!! She totally jumps around and messes with us missionaries and is just the most awesome person ever! She is super short but she always pulls me way down and makes me give her hugs! I'll have to get a picture with her before I leave so you can see her! 

Something that I'm beginning to notice is I definitely have ups and downs with the language depending on the day! Like some days I'll be pretty on it and can almost stay with most things and there are some days where I mix up numbers and am just not there (those days aren't fun) also something that's hard not to do is zone out, like when people talk for a long time I can pretty much get the message if I focus but a lot of the time I just don't have the focus and just end up totally zoned out and its gotten me into trouble a couple times during lessons! 

So something different here for me is food that we eat for snacks and stuff! I'm always hungry at night because they don't do dinner here but they don't really have American snack foods - really the main things we buy are just fruits and vegetables! So I now eat a cucumber almost every day and I'm really starting to dig straight cauliflower! I'm dying for some hickory barbecue lays let me tell you! 

So last night I had a very interesting experience that made me incredibly grateful for my family. We went to go visit a family where the father is an active member but has some issues he hasn't repented of and his wife and daughter are inactive. We brought 2 members with us and we started out by talking about charity and it was going alright for a few minutes and then everything went crazy! We ended up being there for like an hour and it was almost like a therapy session because this dad was just kinda dead beat but he still went to church and so it made the church look bad for the wife and the daughter and they just had so many problems and there was a lot of yelling and  just no spirit in that house. I felt spiritually just out of funk after that lesson and I didn't like the lesson but I'm so glad I had it. I never realized how lucky I am for the family I have - like wow. I know that my words won't have the right effect but I hope that you all appreciate how lucky you are to have the families you have. Especially your fathers. Man, I just can't describe how grateful I am to have a dad who actually cares about his family and supporting them in literally every aspect - I am beginning to realize it's something very special! 

I hope you all have a great week and remember to thank you Father in Heaven and your father here on earth for the family that you have because you are so blessed!

me shume dashuri, Elder Gajmen!

Quick selfie before I download these photos. 

This is how we buy our cheese.

Open market

OLIVES!!!

I had to walk into this orthodontist office...it smelled like home! :)

Marilyn Monroe and the American Flag!  I walk past this almost everyday going to church.

This is under the church at the front entrance.  It's a bomb shelter from the commi days!

baptismal font

Cool building

Cool bridge

My lunch today...essentially meat and bread = sooo good!!

How they cook their meat.

A Mosque

Cool Catholic Church

This is a street I proselyte on a ton.

New watch I bought.

First full week in Albania

April 13, 2015

Ok so first full week in Albania down! So I guess I'll just start with last P-Day. I met Sulejmon for the first time and Ali Yli! So Sulejmon is this super cool guy he is 21 and is really smart he is studying psychology in college and learned English from watching TV and it's like perfect! So he has been meeting with Elders for like almost a year now but just hasn't felt the spirit yet supposedly. He listens super good and acts like a golden investigator most of the time but he is just over thinking it. He is always saying he wants to know for sure before he commits to anything and it's just like YOU ALREADY DO KNOW OR YOU WOULDN'T STILL BE MEETING WITH US! for real though he just needs to add up those flecks of gold and he will see. We tried commiting him to baptism later in the week but he wouldn't do it and we were like let's say a prayer and wait 20 seconds after and see how you feel and he said it and like the spirit was just blasting in my ears but... nothing. He said he felt nothing that filthy liar! It's really frustrating to teach him because he is so awesome! Anyway. Ali Yli is a member who was actually baptized by my teacher Valli Carver (shoutout)! And this guy is awesome!! He's probably mid 40s but he is so cool to talk to! Something really cool about Albanians is they all seem so young at heart! So this guy has helped us with a couple lessons and I just really like talking to him! He taught me how to roll a coin on my knuckles and that kept me entertained through all of conference! When we were at his house he gave us water and I subtly asked my comp if the water was good for me to drink and he was like ya! So I drank it and we were talking about it afterwards and I guess he didn't get that Americans shouldn't drink Albanian water he was just like ya Albanian water doesn't have anything in it so I was like crap I'm going to get sent home cause I drank a whole glass!! So we got home and I drank 3L of water! I thought I was going to explode but I thought if I just got it out quick enough I would be clear! Luckily I didn't get sick but I don't know if that was because the water was ok or me peeing like a million times that night! Something that I love that my companion does is talk to literally everyone anywhere we are going we try to talk to every person we pass and we have definitely seen some fruits from those labors! We also have been doing really good at inviting to baptism on the first lesson and we currently have 8 people with a baptismal date believe it or not! TBH I don't know how many of those are going to make it but I'm trying to have faith! One guy is named Batu and he is actually Turkish and doesn't speak a ton of Albanian (he is studying political science here) and so I actually teach the whole lesson and I do it in English so it's super different but kinda a cool experience for me! He's not so sure about the church he is kinda just looking at it from an intellectual standpoint but he said that he would read the BoM and pray about it so cha ching! So Wednesday we did exchanges and man that was a different experience! I was with my District Leader Elder A and it was just very very different. I guess it just made me very grateful for my companion. One thing we did together that I wasn't sure was worth our time is teach a gjagji. So pretty much everyone in Albania just walks everywhere but especially gjagjis! gjagji = old man. And they just walk around all day everyday and a lot of them are completely nuts! Like you be nice to them but you just don't teach them because they are actually not all there but we did (for some reason) and we pretty much just spent the whole time trying to figure out if this guys son was a member of our church (he wasn't). But it was interesting for sure! While on splits I got to meet Martini! This guy is the coolest person I have met here in Albania! He is 20 but he looks like a man like he is pretty built and is sooo funny! I need to get a picture with him! He has been a convert for 3 months and used to be a super strong catholic and is pretty much like 3/4 mormon 1/4 catholic right now -  its hilarious! That's one thing that I have really learned and loved here is that you just can't judge people - like a lot of how the church is here isn't perfect but these people are members of our church and they are making it work how they can and I love it! But this guy Maritini still throws like the lords prayer in with his regular prayer and he wants to go on a mission and he was like ya I want to go talk to people about the Bible! Its awesome!  Later in the week I actually went on my first split with a member (most terrifying thing ever) but he was the member I went with so I knew I was alright and he was actually really helpful! We had zone training this week and I got to see Jackson and Henderson again!! It was actually so nice to see them I loved it! Jackson's companion is Sister Coleman and I swear she is like a different version of Aanika like she sorta looks like her and sounds like her and everything its freaky! Also one of the girls in my district, Sister White, sounds EXACTLY like Taylor like if I'm not looking at her its' still kinda weird! Still working out every morning and my companion said there are actually some places where we can get a pull up bar for cheap so I'll probably be snagging one of those soon!   Average day... we wake up, exercise ,shower ,get ready, personal study, comp study (2 hours since I'm new), language study, lunch, lessons from then till 9 with about an hour of finding each day! Its a lot of time inside it feels like but this is the schedule we are supposed to follow so Its all good.  Also, I made spaghetti and it wasn't half bad! My companion said he has never really had pasta like that before and I was like what!!! Also, on Sunday I made American breakfast and it was awesome! Eggs, bacon and toast! He has never had bacon before! Like you get shot for less in America! Their bacon isn't quite as good but still it was like a little bit of back home eating the "ultimate breakfast" (no chocolate milk though). Saturday and Sunday we watched general conference and I loved it! It was a little hard because for some reason my companion didn't understand how important conference was and thought it was a waste of time and I was like listen I know it's a lot of time and we could be out contacting but we literally preach all day about a living prophet and we get to hear from him today!! And one of the senior couples came and played it in English off their laptop upstairs so that was awesome! I definitely missed home during conference! and they kept talking about Easter!! I kept thinking about being in pajamas on the coach with all you guys and it was pretty sad! I ate my feelings out in chocolate again and justified that I would be doing the same thing if I was home during conference anyways! We had a baptism this week in our ward though which was awesome!! We had some investigators come and the spirit was crazy strong I'm glad they came!! My language is coming along slowly but surely it's tough right now because I just feel like I can't really connect with people with where I am at right now but I have gotten a lot of compliments from other missionaries that I am learning really fast so I know it'll come! Other companionships have to set times where they can only SYL (speak the mission language) but I am stuck doing it all the time and I know it helps. They said that I need to take breaks though because missionaries that only SYL usually break pretty hard so I have been trying to use English a little more when I get the oppurtunity. Today we went to the Treg (market) and there is a big one in the 1st ward area and it was huge! I'm sad my camera was out of batteries but it's just little market shops upon shops upon shops it's like a flea market almost! I got a sweet watch there and a tie. I'll probably go back though, Elder Verushi says everyone goes there at the end of their mission and buys a bunch of crap! I don't know if I ever told yall about dhall but they warned us about it in the MTC -- it's this yogurt drink they have here and I have already had it! its pretty much yogurt that is left out in the sun for a while and then water and salt is added. Its' pretty nasty but my comp likes it some how! I also have had Fanta Exotic though! Oh my... Its soo good! like I can't describe its flavor its just sugary bubbly goodness! Also Musaka is like amazing its pretty much lasagna but instead of pasta for the layers its like essentially mashed potatoes, I know right! How have we not thought of this! Anyway things are good here I love you all and hope you got the chance to watch conference! Especially Holland, Uchtdorf, and Eyring! Their talks were aammmmaazzzzinnggg!

 I love you tons mama and am so mega grateful for you! My favorite part of the week is coming to email you!! Have an awesome week send my love!!

Nga Tirana, Biri tend Elder Gajmen!

Here are a couple pictures of where we meet for church

I'm in Albania!

April 6, 2015

Believe it or not everyone, I made it! So I'm currently inside a cafe off to the side of the street where we do a lot of street contacting and man is uploading pictures taking a lot of time! Like holy cow! Anyway I'm going to try to make sense because I haven't had an English conversation since I have been with my companion. So it all started off with waking up at 2:30 am Utah time to get out of the MTC - I am so glad that the Ukanians (Aden) left with us because they were a lot of fun to talk to. We rode the tracks down to the airport and I swear we almost lost someone like a million times like no common sense in some people I swear! But then I got to call you which was way cool! I don't know if you could tell but it was pretty weird for me idk I'll try to be more open on Mothers day! Then pretty much all day was either running around or something, honestly it was all a drunken haze. I tried to talk to a couple people while we were waiting in lines and stuff but didn't have a lot of time to really try to pass out a BoM, little did I know that it was so much easier than I could ever imagine! That ambien did me some serious good on the way over here I guess I didn't think it hit me that hard but I was sitting next to Sister Jackson and she said I was gone for most of the ride and that a couple times I jerked in my sleep and like tried to hold her hand or something which is pretty funny! But we finally got here and it was like oh crap this is real. Luckily all my luggage got here and it was all intact! So we got picked up by Pres. Wiedmann and his wife and the AP's and drove to the mission office. HOLY COW the driving here is crazy. There are pretty much no rules and people like to drive fast and accelerate quickly. Incredibly you never see any crashes but it's pretty nuts driving around here. We had some pizza and then BAM we are out street contacting I was with Elder Varushi who I would later find out was going to be my trainer. I really like the guy he is way cool but more on him later! So we got some numbers of people who would like to hear more about the gospel then I had a meeting with Pres. Wiedmann which was cool he is sooo spiritual and really likeable. He sends a text out to us every morning with a spiritual message! He really cares about this work! He also speaks next to no Albanian as expected! So then we all went to the mission home for dinner, the outside of the house looks like maybe a little nicer than standard Albanian home but the inside holy cow! Its basically an IKEA model home like everything is super modern! Dinner was good it was tacos and the AP's who've been here for a while said its the first time they have had tacos in Albania, they also said nothing is spicy here! So then all us noobie Elders (there are now 4 of us we picked up an Albanian on the way!) went to go sleep at the AP's which is pretty nice, actually all the missionary houses in Albania sound like they are pretty nice I mean there are somethings where you just gotta be like alright this is life now but for the most part good! They let us sleep till 8 since we were all so messed up but thanks to the blessings of being a missionary it only took me like 2 days to shake the jet lag which is such a blessing I know. Also the bathrooms have freaking badeys! Weirdest thing of my life!!!! Luckily we have tp in our house but not the AP's. Also pretty much everything every where is in disrepair like can't you just fix things! Just kidding but really, I know its just the American in me coming out though. Anyway we had an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit and cereal which was very refreshing from the MTC then we went up to the dedicatory spot which was a way cool experience! We read the dedicatory prayer and then they told us to go and say our own prayer dedicating our lives to the Lord for the next two years and to write impressions down on what to say and stuff and it was a really special experience for me. I'm all in on this mission thing let me tell you! The church is true people!! Then the big moment finally came we got our trainers! I got Elder Varushi who is a native Albania from Durres! I was so happy! I was hoping he would be my trainer because I knew I would learn the language really quickly and he is just a really cool guy! (more on him later). So I thought I was pretty good at this language but man it all changed now! The sucky part is that if I am focusing I recognize almost every word that people are saying but in a conversation they are speaking so fast and not clearly so I don't understand them very well and I can't put the meaning of the sentences together but I'm hoping maybe that will just come with being here and hearing it more and more! For lunch we went to this place with local food and man it was so good! The bread they threw in the oven right there and it was money and the salad was all stuff just right there and it was amazing. Then we went and taught English class which was really hard for me. It was just so much for my first day but such is life. I was teaching upper level people so the problem was that words they didn't know I didn't know how to explain in Albanian but it's all good I made it through! I also got one of them to go to church on Sunday so that was cool! Also I thought we said a pretty good amount of prayers in the MTC nooo nonono we pray all the time here and its awesome! I just never knew how much missionaries really pray!! I have allowed myself to say my morning prayer in English because I'm just too out of it at that point to use Albanian but that's pretty much it! We had Suflaqe for the first time a couple days ago holy cow I see what everyone is talking about sooo good! I forgot to take a picture but I will next time. All it is is literally a gyro with fries and ketchup and mustard added on. Money! They also put that greek yogurt stuff that they put on gyros on like everything! Also its pretty cold here right now and raining quite a bit! That giant coat from missionary mall is awesome the hood is so big its essentially an umbrella!! Also wearing that little vest under my suit is CLUTCH holy cow good idea dad! So there are dogs pretty much everywhere just hanging out especially by the lana and some times they get in fights at first I was a little freaked out by them but they are wayyy scared of people so if you wave at them or anything they just leave, there are also cows and horses that eat and hang out by the lana! This is in the middle of the biggest city in the country! Like cows just walk across the street and stuff!! There are also a ton of smart cars and mini coopers, I'm surprised at how many nice cars are here, there are a wide range of cars some are basically a motorcycle with two extra wheels but I saw a nice Porsche the other day! So I have had the chance to teach a few times now and it is pretty dang hard, I'm always worried I'm not getting my message across and I really struggle with questions because I just don't understand them so for now I am definitely doing the lesser part but I have been here for like 6 days so what are you going to do. One of the people we taught on Saturday was this guy that we just said hi to on the street and he said he could talk to us right then but he is a practicing muslim like pretty hard core and it was a hard lesson he asks a lot of questions and argues with some of our points but who knows Elder Varushi came out of nowhere and invited him to baptism and he said if our book was true he would be baptized so hopefully he actually gives it a read!! He prayed in a Muslim way no idea how to phrase that but it was really weird and I got really weird vibes when he did that.  I met the rest of my district and they all seem awesome, I love my district leader he is a great guy Elder Acheson and one of the girls from my district from the MTC is in the ward I'm serving in! I'm going on exchanges with him tomorrow! Sunday was kinda different is was hard to feel the Easter spirit because I just didn't understand anything that we talked about or anything but it was testimony meeting and I still really felt the spirit. I also bore my testimony and let me tell you the spirit is the same over here 8 hours ahead! The singing is so bad here though like one of my teachers said that it was a little different but man they are just awful at singing I dont get it! It's awesome though because they just go for it! For priesthood and stuff it pretty much just felt like a bunch of people yelling at each other it was pretty wild but that's just how they talk and they interrupt each other allll the time! It was kindof a sad Easter because I'm away from my family and its my first holiday like that over here but I got through it alright! The members are so nice and friendly everyone says 2nd ward (mine) is awesome! So final random thing is that the amount of money they say you owe is different than the actual amount! They add a 0 when they are talking and everyone does it! Its not to trick you or anything its just how they say it for no reason I swear!! if they say you owe 5000 LEK its actually only 500!! So confusing! Anyway my companion his name is Elder Varushi and he has been a member for 3 years, he wasn't really religious before. He is the only member in his family and has 6 months left! I am his 2nd trainee and he is an awesome guy! He is a super hard worker like I had quite a few phone calls those first few days because people were worried about me because he doesn't speak any English and because he just works so hard! Everyone is surprised I can communicate with him as well as I can because I guess his last trainee really struggled with it and believe me I do too but I guess not quite as bad! I love how dedicated he is though like he always talks about using this time well we have out here.  He is 25! He has alright English and he is trying to learn so we try to speak English in the house but its hard! 

Well I love you all!!

Elder Guymon

Here's my apartment in Tirana

View from our apartment

This statue is a guy on a horse called Skenderbeju and he is the most celebrated hero in Albania

This brown thing is called a river and yes it is always that color.  It runs straight through the town.

This is called a durek and it's basically made of croissant-like bread but in a pizza shape and as stuff inside...soooo good!
You can buy 8 of these plus 2 chocolate filled croissants for $5!!

Chocolate filled croissants are everywhere and are soooo good!

Albanian money - basically you take off 2 zeros and that is the equivalent of the american dollar amount.

Made it to Albania!!

April 2, 2015

Brother & Sister Guymon,

 Today was a busy day for the new group that arrived yesterday afternoon.  They had a taco dinner together as a group at the mission home last night and the girls stayed at the mission home while the Elders all crashed together at the APs’ apartment.  

 Today they had breakfast with the Weidmann’s and then was taken to the place where the dedicatory prayer was offered to dedicate Albania to the proselyting work.  They read through the prayer and was assigned to re-read it again on their own and meditate/study it out in their minds, then offer a personal prayer.  This is a very spiritual experience for them.  The spirit is so strong that they all fell in love with Albania and with the people.

It was back to the office for training, lunch, and to see who their companion would be.  You son has an Albanian trainer, Elder Verushi (ver-oo-she).  They are assigned to labor in the Tirana 2^nd ward.

 We took some pictures and wanted to share your son’s pictures with you so you can see how happy he is.  Enjoy!

There is a Facebook group set up for Adriatic South Mission that you can join to see what other parents are posting  about the mission.

 Thank you so much for sharing your son with us.  We will take good care of him.  President Weidmann loves and cares deeply for his missionaries.  He sends them an uplifting text every morning and always signs it ‘Love President Weidmann’.  The missionaries know they can call him anytime even if it is just to talk.  I have never seen a more caring and dedicated man than the president, and his wife is right there by his side making sure the missionaries are taken care of and are happy. 

 Thanks, 

 Sister White

Adriatic South

Mission Secretary