Elder Guymon's Awesome Adriatic Adventures: Week 14

May 4, 2015

Ok so my week.. I'm not going to lie it's getting harder and harder to remember what happens and stuff. District meeting was awesome this week! So basically our district is 5 companionships and the majority of the work done for the past few YEARS has centered on one street because it's super convenient and close to the church but it's really starting to be over worked. Like that's the only place that I had really done anything before this and our district leader decided to set specific areas where companionships need to be doing their finding and it was like the heavens had opened! It sounds like it's so simple why didnt you do it before I know but man it was serious revelation and it's been awesome!

Our investigator is coiming along pretty slow but I really feel like he is coming it's also awesome because he is super smart and I'm pretty sure he has been thinking I'm kinda an idiot because I just can't speak super well but last lesson I really wanted to share an experience and do it well so I did it in English and man he totally looks at me different now, like he used to not look at me in pauses and stuff to see what I would see and now he totally looks at me like looking for my opinion it feels really cool to have earned that trust!

This has definitely been my best week with the language. I'm so close to being able to really talk to people freely it's still slow and a struggle but I can get things out now and understand almost everything! In fact, I had a lesson where we did an exchange and I was with Aaron (the intern who doesn't speak Albanian) and I actually did pretty well! It was with Faton (our star investigator) and I taught the whole thing and then just asked him to bear his testimony at the end (Faton understands a little English). I seriously love Aaron though he is so cool! He served his mission in Argentina and has some great stories but it's kinda sad because he has a roommate who is just a loser and sleeps all day so he likes hanging out and doing activities with us missionaries!

I also am having more interesting experiences with members because of my language. I had one sister that I was talking to tell me that she couldn't stand to look at my eyes because they were so beautiful and like kept giving me side glances all through institute so I had some red flags go up on that one but don't worry I'm clear! I also had one super nice grandma member call me her heart but I think that one is pretty safe! The people here are so nice though its awesome!

We also got to have a lesson with Angjello, so he is the younger cousin of a member, Anisa, who came to church and loved it! Anisa hasn't been to church in 6 years and is a little weird - she calls us like 5 times a day but we are trying to push her over to the sisters, it's so funny because she is Albanian but only talks in English to us and Verushi thinks it's because she's into me which I think is funny but who knows! Anyway, Angjello is 12 and is pretty much a sure baptism as long as his parents let him!

Also I had a miracle this week and I want to share it with you all. This might seem like a silly dumb thing but for me this was a huge spiritual witness! This week I really wanted to work on setting goals and actually following through with them and keeping track of them because I just never have been able to do it so I prayed a lot and asked for help and one of them was to be up, out of bed by 6:30 on the dot. But then literally the night after I set the goal I didn't set my alarm to wake up!! (I'm 19 what are you going to do?) So then the next morning I suddenly woke up to like a voice in my head that just said open your eyes and I looked and my alarm clock said exactly 6:30 (my alarm would have been set for 6:25) and I got out of bed and was like woh that was the real deal! I know it's so small and dumb but it was something God saw was important to me and I'm sure that he looked at me and thought "you dork not setting your alarm" but I know that I would not have coincidentally woken up at exactly 6:30. So if you ever think that God doesn't answer your prayers or doesn't care about your dumb worries I don't want to hear it because He is real and He is listening!

Elder Greener is still awesome and is my favorite part of this district I also realized he kinda looks like Tanner! but I was talking about if he had gotten any packages and how long it takes and he said it depends he had one package that took 3 months to get here! (he got his birthday package on christmas!) but he got a package recently and all it had was mac and cheese and oatmeal packets!!! Like what the heck man you can make oatmeal and mac and cheese! but he just said that nothing is like packaged quaker oatmeal! I also might be able to do an exchange with him this week!

So I have 3 talks that I listened to this week that were suuppper good the first is pretty long (45 min) but it's a devo by Bruce R McConkie and I haven't really heard talks by him before and he sounds like his talks are like Hollands like he was dropping bombs!!! Its called 7 deadly heresies, the next is actually by Holland called The Grandeur of God, and the last is a classic awesome talk Joy in the Journey by Monson! I know you might not have time for all of them but give it a try!

So one thing I thought about this week is how glad I am that I went to college for a semester at BYU, I truly think that I did it almost perfect for me. The mission is hard out here and if you don't have at least a little experience with not always living with your family honestly it's going to be even harder just how it is. Also I will for the rest of my life look back at my first semester of college and remember a truly AWESOME time I really had sooo much fun! But it's also good that I just went for one semester because I had a truly awesome time but I wasn't ready to put the studying in that I needed to and didn't get the perfect grades I wanted. If I could change one thing I would have gone to a summer semester but only taken some dumb generals or something during that semester to just party and not have too much to worry about but ya that's my two cents... I really feel I'm better off for going to college so thank you family for that advice! It's a personal thing though for sure! And I'm definitely grateful for friends in college that didn't let me go toooo wild because I know that does happen too!

Another miracle this week was our investigator Gini! He is really awesome and actually desires to be baptized and learn about the gospel but at the same time he is soooo weak like he just has nooo self discipline and so meetings are hard to get with him and getting him to church at 9 is hard but this Sunday I was fasting for him to be able to meet with him more regularly and we went to bring him to church and he wasn't there and it was kind of a dang it moment but then after about 10 min of the church starting he came on his own out of nowhere!!! It was so awesome!!!

This week Aaron told me a story that kinda scared me and I'm not looking forward to! I don't know if this is all missionaries or just ones that go to sketchy places but apparently at the end of our mission we have to take this pill called "the bomb" and it's big and black and apparently it just kills everything inside of you and flushes you out, so that should be a good experience.

One thing that is kinda cool about serving here that a member made a comment on today is that everyone is a first generation member here... like let that sink in -every single member that's like over 10 has made their own decision to join this church and has their own conversion story! It's so cool to think about - they are quite literally pioneers here! That is what gives them such a special spirit and why things are sometimes rough! They are all so new! Idk for me it's just something cool to think about!

Also family search got an archive up of Albanian names!!! Everyone is going NUTS like it's the greatest thing ever, everyone wants to do family history work honestly I know I suck but I've never done indexing before but I have been asked to teach people how to do it and so it's pretty easy to figure out but it's so cool to see the spirit of excitement they have! It actually really is way cool too!!

Anyway, sorry I think this letter is like mega long but I had a lot to say! I love you all thank you so much for the mail it really makes me have an awesome week!

Be happy and know that we literally have a Father who is in Heaven and is perfect!