E.'s Baptism

 June 20, 2016


 Super crazy week! So first of all on Tuesday we went over the G. family house (the dad is a member and we are teaching his two kids who are 20 and 24) and they had a bunch of extended family over and we taught a ton of people in a mega lesson and have now started teaching some of their cousins now too which is super awesome! They are such a fun family! They are super weird but way cool! I really think that they will get baptized as long as none of the parents are against it or anything!

  And G. also gave us a referral and this was like the most prepared guy of my entire life! Like from the time we started the lesson he was saying he knows this is the road he needs to follow and just soaked in everything we said! He also wants us to teach his family! At the end of the lesson we were explaining baptism and he actually asked us when he could be baptized! Soooo awesome! He has 4 kids and a wife so hopefully we will be able to teach all of them!

  We also went over to G. house and taught his wife and daughter in law and I had met his wife before and I thought I understood her the last time but I must have been lying to myself! She speaks the craziest Albanian ever! Like even after living in Kosovo it's just so much mumbling and stuff it's basically impossible for us to understand. G. has to translate some of the stuff she says because we just don't get it!!

  It's also been super hot this week! Like getting up to 95 degrees! We were street contacting in the shade and I was sweating just standing in the shade!! And considering it's only June I think I'm in for some rough days! Also I have never had to experience city heat in Albania and it's horrible! All that cement just kills you!

  The best part of this week was definitely the baptism though! Our homie E. got baptized!!!! He brought his sister to the baptism which was way awesome! Also our friend who was less active that we activated was the one that baptized him so even cooler! It was actually such an amazing day because there were three people that all got baptized during that service! I have never been to a multibaptism like that here and it was so spiritual!  E. was so happy after - it was amazing! 

  Sorry I feel like a ton happened this week but I don't really know how to put it all in an email I'm doing super awesome! Next week is mission conference so that'll be exciting! Also of course I have to wish all the fathers that helped me get out here a happy fathers day! Especially my dad who is the best in the world! Love you all have a great week!

Service

June 13, 2016

So it was quite a week this week! Lots of fun and exciting stuff, but the best part is this week we are starting transfer meetings!!!!!!! WOOO! I love them so much, I think they might be my favorite part of being AP, maybe. 

Anyway to start of we had 2 exchanges this week so that was pretty crazy! They were one right after another too so although I had a great time on them it was nice for things to get back to normal!

  First I was with Elder Wilson who is currently serving with Elder Mero! Elder Wilson was trained by an Albanian too so we both had a good time talking about that. It's similar to how people who have PTSD are able to relate to each other. Just kidding! But really though there are a lot of similar trials that we had! It was super fun being with him, he is a great kid from Rexburg!! We actually have a decent number of Idaho kids in our mission right now.

  Then we had another exchange and I was with our district leader Elder Holding! He is super awesome, we had a super good time together! We had a ton of stuff in common that we could talk about! We talked about skiing for like a good hour and a half! We had a super great lesson with our investigator E. who is going to get baptized this week! Edi our ward mission leader came and helped us and E. was a little nervous about how he wouldn't be able to be perfect and Edi just was so amazing and helped him really understand repentance and what we are promising to do when we get baptized. Edi is such an amazing teacher, it makes me realize I still have sooo much to learn!!

  Sadly this week we had set up to meet S.'s wife again in their house and to begin to teach her the lessons but S. called us and told us she didn't want the lessons and that he would explain when we met next! So we met up with him and he said she just came home and all of a sudden said she didn't want to take the lessons and S. tried to convince that it would be great and they would be together through the whole thing but she just said no and he didn't want to keep pushing her! So super awesome that S. was trying to help so much but sad that his wife is a no go for now!

   Then Friday was super awesome, we played soccer in the evening as of late the soccer activities haven't been going super well and just not a lot of people come so we decided to try to do it in the evening on friday and it was amazing!! We had to have 2 separate games because there were so many people and we got a ton of kids phone numbers who want to play again so hopefully we'll be able to get some new investigators out of it!

   Saturday was a pretty crazy day! In the morning all of Tirana loaded up into our vans and we drove to Durres where we did a service project that we did with the seminary students of Albania that was set up by one of the first 4 missionaries that came and opened Albania for missionary work! Pretty crazy! It was super weird talking to him about it because everything is just so different. It was so fun being able to be with Elder Clemans and all the other missionaries! It was so sunny out though my face got a little burnt! We painted benches and cleaned up the outside and built some cabnets and stuff inside a childrens hospital so it was great!

  Then after the service we had a baptism in the evening and it was a super amazing service!  There were  more people there than we normally get for sacrament meeting! She was the sister of a member and was just so amazing! Super sweet girl! After the service talking to the members just made me realize how much I love some of these kids! Although they can drive me up the wall sometimes they really are such good kids and I enjoy being around them!

  After church on Sunday our whole district went over to our Bishops house and we had a barbecue and it was so amazing and so much fun! I love our Bishop so much and just being out in his front yard cooking food and just hanging out as a family it seriously felt like home. It was one of the happiest times I've had out here. Just a good Sunday afternoon barbecue with family and friends! What more could a person ask for! 

Afterwards we went with President Weidmann to a bishops meeting in Durres! I was super nervous for it! All the church leaders of Albania were gathered in one room and we were supposed to train them! Luckily it went alright! They are such good men for all they are doing for the church! definitely could not be easy!

So ya I'm doing super great! Had a super crazy fun week and things will probably just get crazier knowing Albania!!! Hope you all are doing well! Loves!!

Service project in Durres

Sunday Barbecue!

Another crazy week!

June 6, 2016


Alright so very crazy week this week involving a lot of talking to Salt Lake! There was a stake conference with a broadcast from Salt Lake that was specifically for western europe which was pretty cool! Personally I think calling us western europe is a bit of a stretch but I'll take it! It was a cool broadcast!

  We had a great week of work! Specifically our Saturday was one of the craziest blessing days of my mission! So first of all we went and played soccer in the morning and we ended up joining with a bunch of cool 18 year olds and so hopefully we will be able to start teaching them. Then we were hustling over to a lesson when a lady stopped us in the road and told us she was a member from Italy and wanted us to teach a family here and gave us all their contact information! Then our lesson with the guy was so cool! He was a software developer and I was like man that is something that I would possibly like to do and he totally loved his job and also worked on solo projects with friends and I was like mannnnnnnn that sounds so awesome!! Then we had a lesson planned with a less active but it turned out he actually brought a friend and we taught his friend instead! Finally we went over to S.'s house and we were able to start teaching his wife and hopefully we will be able to teach his kids too! It was so crazy awesome!

  We think that Saturday was just to prepare us for Sunday which was pretty crazy trying to handle the broadcast and it was just kinda a sleepy day. There was no one outside to street contact but in the end we were able to teach another members family so it turned out great! I've never taught so many families it's so great! Tirana just has so much success it's insane! Hopefully we'll just be able to keep it up!

  Next week we will be having a baptism of a kid named E. that I street contacted a little more than a month ago, he is super awesome! He would have been baptized 2 weeks ago but of course right at the peak of his progression he passed out in class and has had to go back to his home town which is a 2 hour ride away from Tirana and get medical tests for that and stuff so he hasn't been able to come to church or be taught as much as we would like but he is still doing great! He kinda reminds me of B. in some ways just because they are both 20 year old kids from the north so some of their cultural stuff is similar! Hopefully our returning member M. who wants to serve a mission is going to baptize him!!

  Also yes I did get a root canal in Albania so that's a pretty cool story! Luckily I'm still alive! Doing great, having fun, and dunking people! Hope yall have a great week, loves!