Back to Tirana!

March 28, 2016

I'm feeling really sick so this'll be short and I'll write more next time! 

Really the big news of the week is we got transfer calls and I'm going to be back in Tirana serving in the 4th ward with Elder Beefus as AP! Pretty crazy! I'm excited though I think it is going to be a great experience. 

A ton of my favorite missionaries are all in Tirana too so I'm super excited! Elder Mero is going to be ZL in Tirana so we will get to do exchanges! Elder Anderson is staying in lezhe and will be training!

  Its sad to be leaving lezhe but I'm super excited for next transfer! 

I got my Easter Package - thank you!!

Hopefully I feel better tomorrow because I think I will be busy! anyway sorry this isn't any longer, Ill write more next week!

District Photo

Thanks for the easter package!

Small town vibes

March 21, 2016

Alrightyyyy so let me see if I can remember what happened this last week...

  I don't know if yall remember Kurt Koci from back in Tirana but he used to be my investigator and is just this super nice guy - he actually has started to call since I've been back in Albania! I don't know exactly what it was but he really liked me and it's pretty cool having someone want to talk to me so much, feels like I really made a difference with him! He still isn't baptized but he is great!

  It's pretty weird we speak English to each other and stuff most of the time in this mission and so we don't really get accents or anything but there are some really weird things that happen with the way we speak out here, or at least the way I speak! Like I really struggle at English small talk it's just super awkward, the other day I was talking to one of the peace corps volunteers here and just asking how she was and she was like wow this is a very Albanian conversation like it seems like we are speaking Albanian but in English. I was just like DANG IT!  I just can't use English properly any more! Also just my abilities to speak English in general have gone down quite a bit. Anyway it's just super annoying but kinda funny!

  Also I don't know if you all have already seen the new website for Easter by our church but the video is aweeeeeeeessssommmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeee I really like it! https://www.mormon.org/easter I would highly recommend you all check out this website!! We have been talking to everyone about easter and it's been great!

  Kinda a fun thing that we get to experience serving here in Lezhe is the small town feel! Like I have only lived here for a month and a half and I feel like I have seen almost every face in this city! There are people here that we see like 6 times a day! People can't get away from us because of how small the town is! It's super cool though because I feel like I genuinely have relationships with some of these people that we talk to every day. It's wayyyy different considering that I have just served in the capital cities of the countries I've been to!

  Our best friends here are these two guys named Fatjon and Kastriot! I actually think I wrote about them a month ago or so! But we pulled them in for a lesson and were super funny like not really all that interested but just super nice guys and now they stop and talk to us and hang out with us all the time! They are way cool and always want us to go get drinks with them! This one night I actually spent like an hour just hanging out talking to Fatjon and it was actually really good for our work because everyone knows him here (because of the small town vibe and he has grown up here) and he is Muslim (only by name, doesn't practice) but all these people saw him talking to us and he would like call people over to talk while he was with us and introduce me to friends in just a super normal way not like the awkward missionary street contact way and I kinda realized like dang these friends we have here in Lezhe might be the key to really getting some success here. Because EVERYONE knows each other here so if you are friends with someone it gives you like a lot of credit!

  The small town thing also works against us a little though too because we have had multiple people tell us that there is so much gossip in this town and that more people want to talk to us but they don't want to be seen by other people talking to us because then rumors and gossip will start so I'm not really sure how to overcome that one!

  On Sunday, Brother Kashari the 2nd Counselor of the Stake Presidency who lives in 2nd Ward came to Shkoder and Brother Grimsi the 2nd Counselor in the 2nd Ward bishopric came with him and I'm not going to lie seeing them kinda made me want to go back to 2nd ward! Never thought I'd say that! I was so surprised that they remembered me to be honest! Brother Kashari is one of my favorite members here! He is sooo nice, and speaks English sooo well! He is in charge of all the translation for church materials into the Albanian Language! Like general conference is him! He gave a talk in church and he talked about how lucky all the members were to have the book of mormon in Albanian because he was baptized in 1995 when he was 16 and they didn't have it in Albanian so he had to read it in English and Italian neither of which he spoke very well at the time so when he didn't understand it in English he would look at it in Italian and vice versa! So crazy!!! He was definitely prepared!

  It was a pretty crazy week we had one day where we planned 14 lessons and not a single one showed up!! Which was pretty disappointing but what do you do! We had some pretty good work on the weekend though! Just still trying to find the prepared!!

Service!

March 14, 2016

 Not really a ton to write about this week... First of all I forgot to include it last time but Eljon the guy that Elder Verushi and I baptized in Tirana just got the Melchizedek Priesthood which is super awesome! It was great being able to talk to him at Stake Conference. 

  The biggest thing that happened this week was the service project we did at an orphanage in Shkoder! It was pretty last minute set up (as is everything here) and so Thursday it was just the Shkoder district and we were told we were going to be digging 50 meter squared holes! When Sister Collins told me they were supposed to be a meter squared I couldn't believe it! I think I was the only one that really comprehended how bad that was because everyone else was amazed when they pulled out the measuring stick! It was super hard but sooo good. We don't really get the chance to do a ton of service so it was good to do some physical labor! There was 8 of us there for 4 hours and we only got 8 holes done!  I was soooo sore the next day though and then on Saturday we went back but recruited all the missionaries in Tirana to come too! It was way fun being with them all! We got a ton of work done and had a bunch fun!

  We had some pretty crazy days of lessons this week with people not coming at the right times and instead coming later when we are meeting with someone else! The worst one was when we had 3 separate lessons all show up at the same time! We decided to just teach them all together and it actually wasn't too bad! Kinda crazy but it all worked out! 

  Sunday was pretty awesome! The DaBells came and Elder DaBell gave a talk and it turned out I was the one who was translating! It blows my mind when I turn out to be like the oldest one or the one best at the language who is supposed to do that stuff! It was a really tough talk but it was a good challenge. I got props for it too!  Kelvin the member here in Lethe  tells me that I sound like an Albanian. :)

  This week for P Day we didn't really have anything to do so we took a van to this random village that was like tiny (kinda reminded me of Eagle actually). We walked around for a little bit and were just like well what do we do now? But they had this game house that had billiards and ping pong and this one kid invited us to come play with him and it was actually super fun! He was 16 and was with a friend who was 24 or something and they were super cool. They absolutely creamed me both at ping pong and billiards but it was really cool just kinda hanging out with some cool kids! Also today is the summer festival of Albania and they have this one special type of cookie that they only do for today and so of course I had to get it and it was pretty good!

  Anyway that was my week! Hope yall are doing great thank you so much for writing me! Have a great week! Love y'all!

Stake Conference

March 7, 2016

  Well after quite a week it ended with a huge bang of being one of the best days of my mission!! Just a bunch more days of people not showing up to their lessons, rain, and missionary life and then traveling to Durres for Stake Conference!!

  So first off a little bit of explanation on how an average lesson goes here in Lezhe: We sit down with the people and start talking a little bit - eventually steering the conversation over to religion, and then end up saying no we aren't catholic... but yes we are christian. You can tell they don't really understand but we try our best to explain that we are Christian... but not Catholic. Start the lesson and then about half way through they say ya of course we believe in Jesus Christ I'm Catholic just like you. You smack your head against the wall behind you like three times and explain once again that you aren't Catholic and continue. You ask them to read the scripture in James 1:5 (ask and ye shall receive) and ask what does this mean to you? They reply ya ya ya of course we need to have faith ya Jesus Christ and then we explain that we need to pray to receive our answers. Explain the apostasy and how Joseph restored Christs true church on the earth and they say I just think that having faith in Jesus Christ is enough...then at the end of the lesson they ask  -so you're with the Vatican right?  And we explain AGAIN that no we're not catholic!!!  And they just give you a blank stare and then they leave evidently not having learned anything and now you have a headache. :)

  For real though the head banging part was an exaggeration but the rest of that honestly happens. And I know it's not a language barrier because once a week or so we really get someone that listens and totally understands our message and you know what I've decided the difference is... Spiritual muscles. The general population here are honestly just sheep that listen to the preacher on Sunday take in a good message, never really think deeply about God and live their lives. Because of that they are left unable to understand gospel truths or any sort of lesson about God. But then you get into a lesson and the person says I have read the entire bible cover to cover and it's like alright buddy buckle up because you're going to understand every word I say and it's going to take you on a journey! It's sooooo refreshing when someone says "Wow alright you're saying if I read this book I'll receive an answer from God that it's true?" And we say YES!! Anyway sorry about the rant. :)

  So I read the Book of Mormon again in a month at President Weidmanns request underlining everything to do with the Atonement and it was amazing! It was probably the most rewarding experience I have had reading that book! Just so many victorious scriptures about Christ over coming the bands of death! So awesome! There is just so much in there and it's so plain and simple! I've been reading the New Testament and am almost done and it's been really awesome too!  My goal is to read the whole standard works in Albanian before I leave! All I have left is 30 pages of the New Testament and then the big mama of the Old Testament!

  So Zone Conference this week was super awesome! We received a training about using the members to get referrals and stuff and afterward one of the Zone Leaders came up to me and was like sorry I know that this didn't really apply much to you! But it was actually really awesome! Really the point was just ask for referrals from everyone so that's what we are going to do! 

  Zone Conference got really overshadowed by Stake Conference though which was amazing! They split it up so there were two sessions and so everyone south of Tirana went to the morning session and everyone Tirana and North went to the afternoon and I have been in every single city that came in the afternoon session! It was like Elder Guymon's homecoming! There were soooo many people that I wanted to talk to! I recognized almost every face I saw! It kinda made me realize I've been out here for a while now being one of those guys that knows everyone. Of course the highlight was seeing my boy B!!!!!! It was so amazing seeing him! Like unreal! I sat by him and Elder Mero the whole conference and it was awesome! The conference was great, lots of focusing on the Book of Mormon! When we were singing the hymns and stuff it was just amazing honestly the spirit was just sooooo HAPPY like that was really the main thing I felt all day was just pure joy and it was really an energy that everyone felt like everyone just had the biggest smiles!! The thought that I had was "What could I possibly rather be doing than being gathered here with the saints of Albania!" These people are just so amazing and I love them so much. I wish I could just spend time with all of them! 

  Also driving down there was pretty awesome because we drove down with the new senior couple, the Collins and it was so fun talking to them and getting their life stories! They have some awesome stories! I also got to give them a good taste of Albanian driving because they hadn't ever experienced it! I'm not going to lie I'm worried about if it'll be hard to calm my driving down when I get back to America because its gotten pretty out of hand out of here! 

  Today we had a pretty awesome P-Day we went to this way cool church up in the mountains that is famous around here because there is water that runs through the middle of it! It was funny because missionaries had never been there and so we really had no idea how to get there and just kinda got on a bus and hoped for the best! It was awesome! The church was so beautiful! The guy told us it was holy water and that we had to drink and of course I didn't.... just kidding I had to.  :)

  Anyway the work goes on. Nothing super significant that happened this week. Just doing our best to push on the rock and hopefully the Lord will move it for us at some point! Have a great week everyone! Remember God and fight the good fight!

I liked the name of this store (iContact) I saw it and I was like yes, yes I do! :)

Disappointments

February 29, 2016

 Alright pretty interesting week for sure! We spoke only Albania all week which was good, I kicked a couple bad habits that I wanted to get rid of! 

I'd say the first thing is last P day we had a lesson with G. and went over the baptismal interview questions and he told us he couldn't say yes he would obey the Law of Chastity or the Sabbath Day!! I was like are you kidding me you already told us you would! I think what happened is we had these nice lessons and he felt good so he said yes he would do those things at the time not really thinking about it but when it came down to will you seriously do this the rest of your life he just totally fell apart. He won't stop sleeping with his girlfriend because he said she would break up with him and he will have to work on Sundays and won't try to get Sundays off.  We talked to him forever going over everything we already had but he just wouldn't make the final commitments.  It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo disappointing!!  I just couldn't believe that he wouldn't just exercise just a teeny bit of faith to overcome these things. He still wants to meet with us and come to church and stuff he just can't follow the road of a true disciple so we'll probably just meet with him every once in a while. 

 Also this weekend the other Elders in Shkroder were supposed to have a baptism but he didn't show up which is too bad we had the members all there and stuff! But what do you do?! 

  This week I got to go on an exchange with Elder Farnworth (yes its farnworth not farnsworth) and it was awesome! I had a really fun time with him! He's being trained by an Albania and I had gone through it so I had a lot of things to say to him. I just tried to give him a super fun day and kinda actually tried to do what Elder Greener did for me when I was getting trained. We had a ton of fun and shared a tooonnnn of stories. It was funny at the end of the exchange we did a little review and talked and it reminded me sooo much of my first exchange with Elder Greener he was like this was honestly the best day of my whole mission and we talked for a little bit and just tried to get him to understand it's tough but just learn as much as you can and then God will give you an easier time the rest of your mission. Like I know my transfer with Elder Holm was a blessing for my tough training transfer! It was really fun though! We taught someone who asked me about the Illuminati then we had language study with the Collins and tried to teach them some Albanian!

Sunday was super awesome though a member of the stake presidency came and it was really great having him. Some of the members gave some great testimonies too because next week is stake conference so we did fast and testimony meeting this week! 

  Today for P-Day we went to this famous church here in Albania in Lac where there are stories of people being healed miraculously.  It's like this super holy place for the people here and it's really close to Lezhe and so everyone is always like we believe in the church in Lac and we are just like ugh great there are soooo many people that say that! We try to explain that it is just faith not the place but it doesn't really go through!  It was cool to go check it out and I took a lot of photos.

  Anyway just keep trying to find new people and the work goes on! Have a great week!

  

 

Famous church in Lac