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!