Second week in Kosovo

 July 13, 2015

Alright so second week here in Kosovo! 

   This week we lost water for a few days. I had to shower by dumping a 5 liter bottle on my head. And we just had to use a bunch of reserve water we had for anything. (There's more of a story to this that I won't put in the blog)

  We also had our first zone meeting this week and I finally got to meet the Macedonian missionaries. Holy cow those kids are crazy! I had a lot of fun with them for the half a day I hung out with them!  The thing is they really are basically not a part of our mission just because no one ever goes there and they don't speak our language and don't come to a lot of things so not a ton of super vision! They are really cool though and to be honest their work isn't too much harder than it is here. It's just that they are stuck there for 2 years like that!

  The food here is some awesome! One place we go to is called Tip Top and it basically looks like a 70's diner and the food is only $1.50 a person and it's pretty good but just super greasy and not very healthy  so I can only eat there a couple times a week! :) It's so awesome how cheap food is here though! Also we found a soft serve ice cream place and it tastes exactly like frosties! Best discovery ever!!

  Finally my gheg is coming along and I'm starting to use it! It for sure isn't easy but I understand people now which is better than last week! It's crazy I've been studying it more and there are just so many essential things that are changed it feels so different! Like you really have to be thinking to speak it one way or another it's not just a little slip into a different way to speak! 

  This week we met 3 really awesome people contacting! The first 2 are a couple who speak perfect English and are actually working for a Canadian company here - both agnostic but are pretty interested in learning more about what we believe and wanted to read the Book of Mormon to see if they really could find an answer. 

The 2nd guy is Kosovar but he lived in Australia for 4 years during the big war so his English is perfect too and he was super interested in what we taught and talked about how he really considers himself spiritual. We taught him this week and he has some weird ideas but he wasn't too far off from the truth in some ways and just needs some little adjustments! What a help priesthood and revelation are holy cow!

  Something funny contacting this week was I got to rebuff one of the classic Muslim arguments.  I was talking to this guy and I could tell he was not really interested and just kinda wanted to prove he was right and one thing he said was why do you worship the cross? If Jesus died in an Electric chair would you worship that? And I was just like we don't worship the cross.  We like to think about Him and the life he lived and the example He set for us. Then he got really quiet...he had no idea what to say! 

  Also something very crazy this week is I went to my first Funeral. Never thought that would happen out here on my mission. The 2nd councilor in the branch presidency's wife had been sick for a long time and she passed away this week and he invited us to her funeral and we really felt the need to go since we would be the only ones from the branch there. It was a muslim funeral though and man it was different! We had to take our tags off and there was this huge procession and all this stuff but all of it was done by the Hoxha and Nazim (the 2nd councilor)  really had no part in the funeral or anything at all.  Most of what they said was in Aarabic so most people didn't even understand anything that was being said. 

We are going to go back this week and dedicate the grave.

  Anyway I was kinda distracted today with other stuff so I hope this all made sense but I'm doing awesome and Kosovo is just so cool! This place is a blast! 

I love you all and hope you keep doing the three easy things to keep your testimony! Pray, read your scriptures and go to church!! 

Loves from Kosovo!!

This stuff is awesome!!

70s greasy diner...so good!!

Mosques are everywhere!!

Sister Missionaries

Bill Clinton!?

Our Chapel

America!!

July 6, 2015

 So basically my life has never been so awesome!  Sure I've had really great times in my life - but wow I'm having an absolute blast right now and seriously everything about this transfer is pretty much perfect!! Ahh! I just never realized how much fun this can and should be!  I have sooo much to write about I hope I get it all and it all makes sense!

  So to begin, Tuesdays were transfers. So we went to the mission office at 9am for meetings and training for District leaders and stuff which was good. President made an example of me a couple times just asking me if I was nervous for being such a young district leader and but it was all good. Then just so much craziness! I finally met Elder Holm and he is awesome  - didn't really get to know him much at that point we just talked a bit. So our bus to go to Prishtina was leaving at 4pm so we thought we were going to have a lot of time sitting around but I was busy the whole time! A bunch of the new missionaries went to the Police office to do somethings with visas or something idk but they didn't accept three of our passport photos because "the background wasn't white enough" like what the heck these things are good enough for America!! So then we were running all over Tirana looking for a place to get passport photos done but we found a place. Then we had to help people with moving around luggage and stuff and getting it loaded into cars and by the end of all this craziness it was 3:45pm and we're worried that we were going to miss the bus and have to spend the night there! Luckily we made it and then began our bus journey! It was a 4 and a half hour bus ride and it was a super pretty drive up through the mountains and Holm and I finally got time to talk a lot and stuff.

  So Elder Holm is awesome we get along super well and I'm so happy! He just got off a difficult transfer so we are both just super grateful to be with each other and we are pretty similar! He has an immense amount of geek knowledge like me! Like he has played pretty much every video game I have played and his favorite movies are star wars! Its awesome! He is also hilarious like everyone in the mission loves him just because he is so funny and fun to be around and he just jokes around with everyone! He didn't go to college before coming here but this is his last transfer and he is planning on going to BYU Provo and study mechanical engineering. We seriously just get along super well!!

  Finally we made it to Prishtina and we went to our house where we discovered a pretty big clean up job waiting for us.  The elders who were in our apartment last left it a huge mess!!  Elder Holm really likes to have the house clean which is pretty awesome so those first few days we just totally deep cleaned the place and finally it's getting up to shape. Our fridge had some nasty stuff and we had to bleach out the whole thing which was a sucky job. But our house really is pretty nice!

  So first impressions of Prishtina, HOLY COW ITS SO NICE!  The city is super pretty and there are more trees and not as much trash and dirt. So the language is definitely Albanian but its pretty darn different!  My first day there were a few people that I absolutely did not understand. And some people don't understand me here because my language is too Southern but it's getting easier as the week goes on. Also I don't know if you know this but we use the Euro here which is dope! The food has been awesome so far! They have a Thai restaurant here which is clutch!! SO money! And they give missionaries discounts because we have been coming for so long! For fourth of July we had burgers at a place that were so good. Like some real burgers it was awesome! Also Byrek here is made more like Spring roles which is super weird! Today we had Doners that were money, they were more Turkish than they are in Albania so they had more spice and stuff which is so good.

  So in my district it's me and Elder Holm, The Zone leaders (Elder Kek and Elder Razband), Motra Ariza and Motra Cuni (a chilean and an Albanian! We don't have american sisters), and a senior couple Elder and Sister Hydrick! The zone leaders are so fun I love both of them and we do a lot of stuff with them! We also do a decent amount of stuff with the sisters too! And the Hydricks are awesome! So something funny about Prishtina is something called the bubble! Basically all missionary work is done within this little bubble. The church and all the missionary houses are within about 5 minutes of each other which means that us missionaries are together pretty frequently which is awesome and also the area where we do most of our street contacting (The Boulevard) is about a 7 min. walk down from all of our houses! It's so nice being so close to everything.

  There are way more tourists and foreigners here in Prishtina I mean it's not over flowing by any means but you probably see a couple foreigners a day.  Most are from Germany or Scandinavia but occasionally you'll get an American or British dude thrown in. There are actually these 2 girls who are doing internships from America that we have talked to a couple times! It's really awesome being able to talk to Americans and at first talking to them they were just wondering what we were doing and we talked about random stuff but then they are starting to ask questions about the church and are beginning to become interested, it's interesting to see the change. We aren't converting them by any means but I'd put money down that if they saw missionaries again back in America they would go talk to them.

  So in Prishtina the work is very different! We pretty much do contacting all day.  Elder Holm is pretty dang good at street contacting! Especially because here if you even mention Jesus Christ people will pretty much instantly just leave. It's interesting Motra Zollanger told me before I came here that my testimony of Christ would grow a ton because he gets ripped out here and it's true. I really miss being able to talk about Christ. Obviously when we teach and when we have church we get to talk more about Jesus but out on the street it just means you aren't going to have any success if you talk about him. So Elder Holm is really good at talking about families and we get a lot of good numbers doing that! It's also extra hard right now because Ramadan is going on so the more religious Muslims are fasting during the days and so they are a little more irritable and less willing to listen to us because they are constantly reminded of their religion. Most people are pretty nice though -  there are some people that really try to argue with us and tell us we are bad people but that's all good! Something that has helped me is Holm showed me this talk from BYU called "Understanding Islam" and that is super important to listen to if you serve here in Kosovo.

  So a little about the branch - Ya it's a branch and it has about 25 active members but of those 25 active members there are about 5 that are really solid like you can ask them to do callings or clean up the church or stuff like that, maybe 6, so if that puts things into perspective for you people in Utah. I never could have imagined what this would be like. There are these 2 really awesome members named Betim and Suade and they are both mid 20's and pretty smart guys, they speak English perfectly and are so fun! They are just  super cool and a lot of fun to hang out with. They have also both been members for only a year but a lot falls on them because they are the only ones willing to do things! Then the branch went through a major change just a couple months ago where the branch president used to be an American from the base but it has now switched to an Albanian and there have been some problems that have come with that - Elder Hydrick is 1st councilor in the presidency and the 2nd councilor hasn't been able to come to church because his wife is actually about to die from cancer but I've heard he is a pretty solid member. The thing is The Branch President really is hard to work with but we have talked a lot about how we just need to support him so the branch can grow better and that he is slowly learning just like the rest of us! He has only been active in the church for 5 years! The missionaries do a whole lot for this branch right now and we are trying to slowly move away from that without causing problems. 

  So we actually had 4th of July this week and believe it or not I had a pretty good American time! People from Kosovo love Americans almost as much as they hate Serbians (it's a lot). In fact they not only celebrate 4th of July for America but they have a specific day set aside (I forget when) called thank you America day!! So the big billboard at the end of the boardwalk kept playing messages about happy America independence day and there were a few American flags and stuff! We also went with the other Elders and got some amazing burgers to celebrate! And the night before there was a branch party for it which was pretty fun - I got to listen to some good old stake dance music! Then that night there was a pretty awesome firework show but sadly it got cut short because of some threat or something idk?!

   So ya life is pretty awesome just having a great time here in Kosovo and an awesome time with Elder Holm. I know 100% that this is God's way of giving me a little treat after my last transfer because ya I really did learn a whole lot but man it was hard!!

I love you all and hope you're having a great time! Because I am!

Apartment in Prishtina

Branch party for 4th of July

American food on 4th of July

Kosovo!!!

June 29, 2015

Holy cow this is like one of this most packed weeks of writable stuff I've had so I'll try to fit it all in but we'll see! It seems like the week went by super fast but I can't even remember Tuesday it seems so long ago!! 

So to start off we finally did service this week! We went out to a real village not just those sort of villages that are more just suburbs of the city and we were planning on picking a bunch of tomatoes but then they found out Verushi used to work with AC units and we ended up rigging together an AC from parts they had it was actually a pretty dope service project! I learned a ton and they were suuuupperrr grateful because they didn't have one before! We had lunch over there and in their salad they used Squash Flowers, like the buds before they become the squash. Super weird but they were pretty good so I'm not complaining! 

Then we had mission conference which was pretty sweet! We got the whole gang back together from the mtc buttt.... I forgot to bring my camera soooo whoops next time though! Anyways listening to all the missionaries who were leaving and their testimonies was awesome like these guys have had their lives changed I just hope I can become like them!! 
One of the major themes they talked about was just how they have seen the gospel change lives whether it was theirs or other peoples and it was just awesome. Then President did a little question and answer and it was pretty awesome but we didn't have much time and so there were only 3 questions which was kinda a bummer but I'm going to start asking questions in my emails! I also got to meet all my family which is pretty funny! Finally got to meet my brother the infamous Elder Temple. He is the best missionary in the mission with Albanian and is supposed to just be an absolute blast, he seemed like a pretty awesome guy but didn't have a lot of chances to talk! 

On Wednesday I did an exchange with Elder Greener and holy cow! It just opened my eyes to how awesome missionary work can truly get! I had sooooo much fun with him and the thing is we had a better than average work day than what Verushi and I usually have. Like idk I just think Elder Greener is an amazing missionary it looks to me like he has found a great balance between fun and work and hey now he is going AP so I'd say he is pretty good! For real though I would love to serve with him at some point but it's unlikely. 
We also had some really awesome talks about how to be the best missionary possible and a lot about desire. Like how sometimes we know commandments are true and we keep them but we reeaaalllyyy don't want to, like it's really hard. And how if we could just change our desire our lives would become so much easier, and that is where prayer comes in! We don't always have to pray and act like everything is all peachy when it's not! This is our Heavenly Father, this is God! He isn't stupid, and we don't need to lie to Him. If something really sucks for us talk to Him about it and I guarantee that if you keep doing the right thing He will make it easier for you. 
I really wish I knew this stuff before my mission. Like some commandments really really sucked for me to keep sometimes and I really had no desire to keep them EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THAT THEY WERE COMMANDMENTS FROM GOD! I know right it sounds dumb but it happens to all of us! And I just wish that I had really gotten on my knees and pleaded to God to help me change my desire because life would be so much easier!! It's the same on the mission too like sometimes I don't want to wake up at 6:30am but if I can have my desire changed it's so much easier!! 

After our exchange we always do a little "what did you learn/ how can I improve" kinda thing and it was really awesome! Greener really complimented me and pretty much said in any aspect of the work whether its language, teaching, studying, or contacting that he would set me up as one of the better missionaries in this mission which was a huge compliment coming from him! He also said my language is set up so I'll probably end up being like Elder Temple who is practically a special assignment Elder and gets sent around to do translations all the time. It was just really nice talking to him and getting those compliments not because it makes me have a big head or anything but if I'm going to be straight honest I don't think I've ever gotten a compliment or any positive feedback from Verushi, which might be part of the reason it's been so hard. 

Also this week I got a gift from Koci! He really likes me and I really love him but it was so random he just bought me an awesome gift and it meant a lot because I know he is not super wealthy! It also made me feel really good because I know that I made a difference to him! I also know that I really need to work on accepting gifts, idk I just feel super awkward about it. 

Then we went to dinner at the Osmani's house and man I just felt a really special spirit there. So the mom was baptized in the church and her husband had a lot of health problems but had a testimony of the church, never was baptized though, and now both her daughters have served missions and her son is currently serving. Like that family is one of the big bases of the church here in Albania and it's amazing what they are doing! 

The day of the baptism was an awesome day!  We really got to build up Eljons confidence just cause he is a such a soft spoken guy but when he speaks it like hits you deep! He kept talking about how he wished he had had the Book of Mormon earlier in his life which is awesome! Also I gave the Holy Ghost to him which was my first time and man that was an awesome experience! Priesthood Ordinances are so amazing! There is just a crazy spirit when doing that! Its amazing! 

So Saturday Aaron and I were a little later than everyone else for Futbol and when we showed up all the little kids ran over and were like PALLATI AND MEXICAN!!! It made me feel so awesome - I'm not going to lie those little kids really love me and it's awesome! I really am going to miss some of them holy cow! 

Something pretty funny this week is that our sisters have a car right now and they have had it for 3 days and have gotten 4 tickets!!! HAHA all parking tickets! It's hilarious and I think a record. At the same time though I don't really want a car on my mission because everyone ends up getting tickets for random things that we don't understand and we have to pay for it ourselves. 

So finally the moment you have all been waiting for - transfers were this week!!! Holy cow Saturday it was in the back of my head all day! Finally at like 10pm we get a call from President and he told Verushi he would be staying in Tirana so that he could learn English and do Pathways and stuff then I get on the phone and he says I'm going to PRISHTINA (Kosovo) that one kinda came out of no where holy cow!  I am going with Elder Holm!! Literally I was talking to Greener before transfers and I was like ya if I were to name a missionary I would want to serve with it would be Elder Holm! Greener said he is probably the funnest missionary in the mission! I've talked to him a bit and he just seems really awesome! 

So what I know about Prishtina is that it is suuuppperrrr Muslim and there are actually a good number of people in ISIS up in that area! I guess if people say no I'm Muslim we are just supposed to respect that and leave. The work is pretty hard and not a ton of success. There are about 20 active members and the members there are supposed to be pretty strong because they have been through a lot of persecution from family and stuff to convert and some of there families still don't know!! We also will be using the Euro up there and it's supposed to be a nicer area than Albania is. Also here is a surprise for everyone I will be DL up there! I know right it's my second transfer for petes sake! I thought the AP's were kidding at first when they told me but we'll see how it goes!! 

Literally these last couple days idk maybe it's because I know that I will be leaving now but it's been even harder around my companion but I've just been like well just 2 more days and then I'm out of here. 

Anyway I hope you all are doing amazing and have had a great week! Next week I'll be writing you from up north in Kosovo which will be quite interesting! 
I love you all and definitely have learned a ton from this transfer but also really have just learned how much I have to learn still!! Maybe one day I'll catch up!

Kalofshi bukur!!

Kurt Koci

Gift from Kurt

Eljon's Baptism

Happy Father's Day!

June 22, 2015

Ok so pretty dope week if I do say so myself!  We set a really high lesson goal this week because we felt like our work had dropped a little bit and we got 30 lessons which is our record (we got 9 lessons in one day)! We taught our investigators every day which was sweet! We got to see some real progression! 

To start off I'd like to talk about Elion! Holy cow this guy is so prepared by God!!! We have pretty much been teaching him for a week and he is getting baptized on Friday!!! He has already read a ton of the BoM and has a testimony of everything and is just a baller. Such a testimony that there are people literally just waiting for this gospel and we can't be wasting our time with investigators that are progressing!! So ya baptism Friday, 3 days before transfers!! 

   Next, H. and S. are the dopest people ever!! These lessons are really hard and we have to go super slow because we just have so many differences (religious, cultural, language) but they are progressing awesome! They now ask us when we can meet again and they both told us that they feel like their life has changed since meeting with us and they are happier and have more energy! So awesome! There was one lesson that was kinda a crazy experience for me. We did a member split so I was with Faton and we were teaching them and so I would translate from Albanian to English for what Faton said and then Hamid would translate from English to Farsi to explain it to Saeid! How cool is that!? It was like a crazy tower of babel, gospel linking people kinda experience! Also, It's so nice that Faton helped us because Albanians are super racist and when he first heard that we were teaching Iranians he said we need to be careful and shouldn't bring them to church! Also S. is like 44 which is interesting because he is pretty much my dad's age but he is like a pro ping pong player! Oh my gosh I've played against super good people but nothing like him! I was literally sweating trying to keep up with him!! He has been playing seriously for 20 years! They also came for Futbol and he is amazing at soccer too! Like Elder Greener is the best missionary and they were both going at it and it was amazing to watch! We also taught one lesson with just S. this week and that was nuts. His English is pretty bad and so we literally were typing to each other over google translate! What a crazy experience I'm having here! 

   We had a super dope miracle happen this week on Tuesday! Also, I apologize my word of the week is dope for some reason. We were having district meeting and half way through this guy interrupted us so the AP's went out to talk to him and they were gone for the rest of the time which was weird and then they came back at the very end and explained that these Bibles that were translated by an Albanian Christian who had been living in America were going to be donated to us because they were originally going to be sold but then the translator died and the company wanted to donate them to a good cause and so this owner had been seeing us missionaries going in and out of the church for months and said we looked like good young people and so we literally got over 1000 Bibles for $10 (we paid the guy to help us move them to the church in wheelbarrows) and the reason this is so amazing is because a lot of members don't have personal bibles! Now we are hoping that the stake president will approve the translation but if he doesn't President Wiedmann says we are still just going to give them to the members and just not tell him because we all say that they are good! 

   One night we went out with Algida for a lesson (an amazing member that helps us out all the time) and we were riding on the bus with her and we were talking to this guy and he thought that I was Albanian and she was American which was pretty funny! She complimented me a ton on my language which actually kinda made me feel pretty awesome! I really am starting to feel quite comfortable with the language and I know that that's a gift from God because it's only been 4 months and I already feel good which just doesn't happen!!

  This Sunday was elections for all of Albanian and so we had to be on high alert, we almost had to stay in our house because people go kinda crazy over that stuff here. Apparently last year in our area there was a bomb that went off and someone died! So that's pretty crazy! Sadly nothing all that interesting happened but we did see a ton of police at this one spot and Verushi said that we should just take a different street which I'd say was a good call! 

Also, on Sunday one of the first missionaries that ever came to Albania was in our ward and he was here over 20 years ago! It was awesome talking to him and amazingly he still could speak Albanian! It wasn't pretty but he could actually converse with people. I was super impressed.

   Some interesting history about the church in Albanian is it's history of great apostasies. So basically every single branch that exists here in Albanian has gone through a period of serious apostasy and members leaving the church and you want to know the biggest reason for it? Money. So basically Tirana for instance has gone through two big ones. The first for money and the second a bunch converted to JW.  But after each apostasy the church becomes really strong because the members that stay are real troopers and so you know the members that have been here for 20 years are like the strongest members you are going to find around, but right now Shkoder just recently had their apostasy and its baddddd. They usually have 2 members in their church and there are about 64 members that are up there and they no longer have any contact with the church. The problem was and has been in other areas is that missionaries have told people that they can get money from the church to help them with groceries and stuff and you get a lot of baptisms but then a missionary went up there and realized what was happening and how much money was being sent (I heard the sum was ridiculous) and so with approval he cut off funds for Shkoder and literally killed the branch. That shows some serious guts but it was a good thing because now they can start rebuilding! It's a real problem and makes Verushi super mad. Basically just never tell people they can get money from the church until they have been a member for at least a year is my personal thought. Its a big big problem here.

    And to close it all out Fathers day doesn't exist in Albania! I know right? What a jip! But anyway I compiled a list of attributes that my dad has that make him the best and things that I hope I can use in my life and I'd like to share them all with you because you should all know how awesome my dad is!:

1. Love your Family

  My dad has never to my recollection complained about my mom in front me and I am so so grateful for that! 

  One thing that I can't imagine is easy that he has done throughout my life is just taken time for us. I read a talk where the guy said love in the family is spelled  t-i-m-e. My dad has continually come to sporting events and other things of the such since I can remember. Even for ultimate frisbee when I was 18 and could take care of myself he still came and watched my games and that made a big difference for me even if I probably never showed it enough  The fact that my dad took time out of his life to come see me play a dumb sport really meant a lot to me. Even if I sucked at the sport it didn't matter he still came!

  I also have never felt unloved by my father to my memory there has never been a moment where I truly questioned his love for me. And even if he didn't just say I love you he still showed it in his way which often times meant even more to me because they are the same way that I would show my love too.

2. Have a Hobby

  My Dad has some amazing life time hobbies and is very dedicated to them, adding even further direction in his life than just a career and family. One thing I have learned from him is that it is never toolate to become good at something new or to pick up something new. He hasn't been cycling since 20 years old or anything like that but he picked it up and is now truly excellent at it even if he won't admit it.

  He also didn't let money stop him which is something I really need to learn. If you look at the sheer cost of what it takes to get super into cycling that could stop a person, but I can't tell you the happiness that I have seen in my Dad with his bikes. It's something that brings him joy and you can't put a value to that. I hope that I can find a hobby one day that I love as much as he loves cycling and I hope that I won't let money stop me because I know that he would probably have much more steam if he wasn't able to blow it off with biking. It's also given him a new way to achieve even more accomplishments and fulfill his life all of which I hope to be able to do.

3. My dad provides opportunities

  Probably one of the things I'm most grateful for is that my dad gave my opportunities to learn for myself. It's not like he just left me out to dry or anything but he let me suffer a little and make mistakes even if he could do it better himself and because of that I personally believe I have some pretty awesome problem solving skills and am not afraid to do some trial and error (both good and bad) 

  He also provided me opportunities to see how other people live and how lucky I am to be in the family that I was born into. I have been able to go on service trips and to do service projects in my own area that my father has provided me the opportunity to do and I know that I have really grown through them and have been more grateful for the little things.

  He really has provided for everything that I have ever wanted and have never missed out on something that I really desired to do (that was good) school, service, spiritual, social, sports you name it he has done something for me to grow and to achieve grater than what I could have alone.

4. Control what you can

  One thing that I have become more grateful for him as time has gone by is that my dad is very good in my eyes of controlling what you can and not getting caught up in what you can't. He has shown me what's done is done and now it's our choice if we are going to forgive. He has worked with people that haven't done well with him in business and in other aspects and ya that really stinks for him but from what I have seen he has forgiven them and just continued to do what he knows is right and not made a huge deal about things others have done.

  He also is insanely self disciplined like literally the king of self disciple holy cow! I really hope that one day I can have it like he does. I don't really have much to add about this one except that this is probably in the top 3 strongest aspect that he has holy cow you just look at his life to see it. 

5. Find yourself in the church

  My dad has taught me that you don't have to be a cookie cutter member of the church to be a great member and that truly it's desirable to be your own self in the gospel of Jesus Christ because our church needs all sorts of people. I have also always admired that he has never judged people based on where they are in the church, that is their deal and we are working on our own stuff. 

6. Don't be so serious!

  My dad has alllwayysss been able to laugh at himself and even make an intentional fool of himself I swear! But I hope to have that kind of spirit. Life is so much easier when you can laugh at yourself and I have never seen my dad get mad for other people laughing at something that he has done and he usually is one of the first people to laugh at it!

  He also is able to laugh even when things kinda suck which I know is hard and especially when you are supposed to be some perfect steady rock and not let anything go bad, but even when things don't work out he is able to laugh it off and change our plans and make everything still work out!

  He also just has fun! I truly like spending time with my dad and I have a lot of fun with him! One the earliest memory I have with my dad is playing Super Nintendo with him - and that pretty much is all you need to know about him. I have just always enjoyed playing games with him and he has always made sacrifices to have fun with me and create good memories! 

7. Money and "Stuff" aren't the biggest things

  Something SUPER impressive my dad has shown me is that it doesn't matter who has "the biggest truck, boat, house etc." There are lots of people that get caught up in that especially in our area and he has never been swayed into that game and its been a great example for me. If we like it and it still works, what does it matter how it compares to everyone elses!

  I also never knew how much my dad made growing up, heck I still don't even know now! And maybe this is a personal thing but I'm honestly so grateful I never knew! Ya I have asked him before but he has never told me and I definitely want to follow his example in that. I mean sure it mattered to him how much money he made but that was something that he needed to know but I didn't and so I never could compare or think about it and that was truly a great gift for me!

  He also taught me how to save my own money and to "postpone gratification" which I know will help me for the rest of my life!

8. Getting old "ya it's happening" doesn't have to mean you get old

  This is just one of those things he is without a ton of explanation. I mean he works out every single day harder than I ever have, he goes just as hard on the wake board as Grant or I do, he still keeps up with us in learning about technology and new stuff that comes out, and he honestly like I said is just truly fun to be with.  I have a great time with him and don't think of him as old at all!

9. Teach Correct Principles and Let them govern themselves.

  Boy what an example my dad is of this! Like I said earlier he provided me tons of opportunities to learn things for myself through trial and error and to "govern" myself but he also taught me to make the right choices and made it clear consequences that would come from the decisions I made. Growing up I was never the friend that had all the rules and wasn't able to do things because their parents wouldn't let them and sure that's a way to parent but personally I am indebted to my dad for letting me choose for myself because I feel that was the best way for me to grow and that I was able to learn lessons in my own ways that have stayed with me not just because my parents said so!

  One of the correct principles my dad taught me that I am still trying to get better at is setting goals! That guy is a goal machine! He has always encouraged me to set goals and have something to work towards and through my life I have seen how much it can help if I have goals guiding me!

10. Do things yourself

  My dad loves doing things himself if he can, first of all it saves money but I don't think that is really half the reason he did it. I learned so much about how to be a land owner and how to work by doing things we could have easily hired other people to do but we didn't because it's important to work for yourself and to save but also it just taught me so much!!

  Anyway I know this isn't like a big lovey Fathers day gift but these are what I admire most.  Honestly I love my dad so much and wouldn't trade the world for him. He has always been an amazing example for me and if I can grow up to be exactly like him I feel like I will have reached twice my potential.  There have been many times in my life that I have just felt like he casts such a big shadow and is so hard to follow because he honestly is just perfect to me. I love you so much dad and a miss you boat loads. Thank you for always loving me even when I was the salt of the earth!

Interesting week

June 15, 2015

Alrighty so this week has certainly been interesting, it feels like it's gone by so fast but at the same time Monday seems like a year ago!! 

For any of you wondering we are given $200 a month per missionary here in this mission. Which is quite a bit of money. We never have to think about it but I have heard some missionaries are worse than others. Verushi said that a normal family of 4 lives off of $200 a month and we as two missionaries are living off of $400 so... ya.

  I have a couple pretty crazy stories this week! First off I met a crazy guy! We were outside the church and this guy just came up to me and was like "can you take this notebook to the leaders of your church" in English which was super weird and he just gave off a crazy vibe and I was like uhh i dont think so and he just gave it to me and said he was so sorry for all that he has done to America and that he didn't mean what he said in his letters and then ran off. Very weird. I opened the notebook and it is in English and is like the weirdest stuff ever!   This guy wrote down "letters" to America and China trying to start a war between them and talked about the inner devil of people, idk it's super weird.  You better believe I kept that thing though!

  I also had my first interview with President Wiedmann man that was so different than what I imagined! I pretty much got in there and we just did small talk for 30 min! :)

Another interesting thing I realized this week is how free we are! Like often times it seems like our schedules are so strict and we are always busy and then one day I was like holy cow we could just not do anything. We don't have someone watching us. And I was just thinking that it's a miracle that missionary work is being done by a bunch of unsupervised 18-22 year old kids running around! :)  That really is a miracle! :)

  This weeks work was awesome though! We left a bunch of our investigators that we had been teaching but just weren't progressing because we wanted to find people prepared right now for the gospel and we have found some DOPE investigators! 

1. Paula, this kid is 14 and has a lisp (idk I guess we work well with speech impediments) and he is super interested in the church and school is out right now so he has infinite time to read! He also brings his cute little 4 year old sister to church! His mom wants them to join our church but she's not sure herself just cause she's so busy all the time but I bet she changes with time! Their dad is in prison for.. idk?? 

2. Elion, this hommie is a soldier and he's like a bigger guy with a small voice! He speaks pretty quietly and slowly but it means a lot what he says. He is pretty awesome and has read everything we have asked him to and I think he'll be baptized. 

3. Gjini! This guy is 16 and is staying with this member family for the summer and he has been to church before and is super interested! His friend in the family is named Mateu and he is also 16 and totally reminds of Grant! In Gjini's prayer he said I know the BoM is true which was pretty funny but I thought it was awesome! Like why not bear your testimony to Heavenly Father? 

4/5. (My personal favorites) H. and S., these two guys are NUTS!! They were given to us by the sisters (Elders are only allowed to teach guys and Sisters are only allowed to teach girls in this mission) and they are from IRAN!!!!!!! Like literally Americans got them out of Iran and they are now waiting here to be allowed into America as political refugees. Holy cow - teaching these guys blows my mind! Guys - I'm teaching the gospel to Iranians!! That's so freaking sick - I get so hyped thinking about it! I would never have dreamed of doing something so awesome! They speak Pharsee and English alright.  They are pretty hard to teach because their English isn't great and we use weird words in our gospel but we have been able to find some materials in Arabic which they know as well and there is actually a district president some where around here who speaks arabic because he is an RM from Georgia or something so we might do a skype lesson with him so he can help us! 

  Also Idk if yall have seen my picture on the Adriatic South Facebook page here but a lot of the members here have seen it so now I'm famous as the missionary who posed with a girls fan for a picture! It was only a matter of time before I made an idiot of myself! 

 A very very strange thing that happened to me this week was being the last person a woman met before she had her baby. In Albania apparently this is a big deal and an even bigger deal since I am a missionary so it was a really good sign for her baby. So I was street contacting and I gave this lady a card but she wasn't interested and then 2 days later she called us and was like is this Guymon? and she was like Hey you are the last person I met before I had my baby can we meet up some time next week and so I was super confused but Verushi was like ya you have to it's normal. So I guess they give you stuff and sometimes you go out for dinner and sometimes they name their child after you?!? What are the chances of course these weird things happen to me. So we met up with her and she was super excited to see me and had this whole goody bag prepared for me and just talked about her baby and said she had been praying for it to go well and then I was the last person she met so it was a good sign and the she did the whole kiss my cheeks thing which was the first time for me....crazy! :) 

 This week in Futbol the kids got even more creative with my nickname! Literally the entire game these kids were coming up with new rhymes for "Pallati" (skyscraper) and holy cow these things were clever! Also Having a nickname got me in as 2nd pick which was pretty dope! But seriously these rhymes were so funny! They don't sound as good in English but 2 of the best ones were: "oh Pallati where do you keep your stairs" and "Its a Pallat without a permit! Lets destroy it!" :)

  This week Faton has helped us with a couple lessons and man it's just been awesome like he totally is a huge help and he has only been a member for a few weeks it's insane! What a difference the Holy Ghost makes!

  Something interesting I learned this week which is kinda sad is I learned a little about the Macedonian missionaries. idk how many there are but there are very few and they are in the same zone as the Kosovo missionaries and one of the sisters here was in that zone for a bit and saw them every once in a while and she was like man those guys were just really depressed - they pretty much stay in one spot their whole mission and never see any change because they can't do actual proselyting and stuff like that there! That would be way hard! and you better hope you like your companion!!

 Also this Sunday was absolutely insane! So a ton of people were gone from our ward because of the Choir that was in Vlore and we only had the 2nd councilor in our bishopric there and Elder Verushi got a call the night before saying he had to give a talk. so we went and got H. and S. from where they live and then on the way to church (20 min. before it started) I got a phone call and the 2nd couniclor said I had to give a talk too!! I literally found 2 scriptures and just went for it because I didn't have anytime to prepare I was explaining everything to my two investigators who didn't speak albanian! So pretty much that was the 2nd time I remember really crashing and burning since that one time when I had a big head and thought I didn't need to prepare my talk when I was 10 years old. Luckily Algida said that my Albanian language was actually perfect and I didn't make a mistake there so it was just my actual talk that sucked not my language! Then I had to translate all of church from Albanian to English for my investigators and holy cow that was soooo hard. I was physically and mentally drained after church. I just went home and pretty much went into a coma! They had a really good time though and were like that is the first time we have ever been to church and it was really good thank you so much for bringing us! I'm really not a fan of translating from Albanian to English. I think I could do English to Albanian pretty easily and I'm actually beginning to try to think in Albanian but man vice versa sucks!

  Anyway lots of just very crazy things this week but it's been good and I really am foreseeing some good success with these new investigators! 

I hope you all are having a great week and keep doing what you need to be doing! I'll be here in Albania if you need me!!

Random building art!

Call me top chef!

Another meal I made

This is how you know someone is Orthodox...they burn a cross above their door.

Goody bag I got from the lady who had her baby.

Goofy missionaries! :)

Week 19

 June 8, 2015

Okey dokey so this week was pretty awesome! 
We switched up the levels for english course again and now I'm teaching beginner ughhhhhh! It sucks so much, especially after just teaching advanced! Advanced I just got to hang out and talk in English for an hour and discuss things but now I'm like teaching the alphabet and crap like that!! Luckily Elder Verushi can actually help me in English course now though!

  We also had the very odd experience of meeting Elder Verushi's cousin. It was so random we were out street contacting and she was working in the food place behind us and recognized him! We went and had drinks with her and she is now actually taking the discussions from our sister missionaries so that's pretty awesome! Elder Verushi is like way stoked because he could get another member in his family!

  I gave another few blessings this week but there was one that was really special. I gave one to Motra Johansen the sister that was in the MTC with me! I feel the spirit every time I give blessings of course but idk every time that I have given a blessing to a missionary there is something so special idk how to describe it. Like I closed that blessing just crying because I felt the love of God so powerfully. For me it is a testimony of how much God cares for his missionaries and ESPECIALLY his sister missionaries.  I can't even imagine the amount of love and care He has for them. I testify that God holds missionaries in a special place in His heart and that even when it sucks it's going to be for your good because He loves you so much!

  We also did some awesome street contacting this week and I met some really cool people! This one guy I ended up talking to for like 20 min. in English and it was awesome. He was agnostic but after talking to him he was so interested in the BoM and wanted to come to church and stuff! He talked about the Book of Eli (a movie) I guess it's about the bible and stuff idk not totally sure. I also had my first experience of a guy up in my face totally mad at me like spitting when he's talking to me and stuff - man that was weird! Like why is this man so mad at me! I just talked to him and testified and then said good bye and he was like suuupperrr annoyed. I really didn't mind it too much though! Another day I had a 30 min. discussion with this guy I think he was an Evangilist, he basically believed that it's just grace that saves us - no works and he knew the Bible so well! I definitely had the spirit helping me out with talking to him because I threw out some Bible right back at himl! There were a couple times that I totally stumped him which made me feel like a baller but I know that's not how you convert someone, he just wasn't really interested so it was fun to have a discussion with him about some things. 

  Also this week was Elder Verushi's birthday! He didn't tell anyone though but a couple of us found out and we did a little celebration! Then we went back to the apartment early that night because we didn't do all our studies in the morning because of meetings and he wanted to drink red bulls so I had one against my better judgement at 6:30pm and I was up till 12:30 and I couldn't sleep!! I also was like mega productive though and cleaned our whole house! I'm not going to lie I'm really grateful for dad's advice to use caffeine like medicine. I know it's healthier for me and it makes it so that when I do use caffeine it really does a number on me!

  This week futbol was mega fun!! I also got a new nickname that all the little kids call me! Pallat which means like the tall apartment buildings here - it's essentially calling me skyscraper. Aaron and I and one of my AP's were all on the same team and so it was Meksikan (Aaron is half mexican), Pallati (me), and Kanadez (AP is from Canada) It was hilarious because none of them can remember our real names! 

  I also had an interesting experience over at a members house - we were giving him a little lesson and were going to give him a blessing. He is really cool and had lived in England for 10 years, and he suddenly pulled out his scriptures and was asking us to expand on all these things and it was interesting because he has been a member for a while and is older than both of us and was asking us for help and we were talking to him about it and he made an interesting comment. He said that ya he is a member and has the holy ghost but no one has the holy ghost more than missionaries and that we are literally called here to get revelation for members and that we are better able to interpret that revelation than anyone else. I definitely felt the spirit confirm that to me and the power I have! That doesn't take away from the members responsibility to receive personal revelation but it is true that that is one of the reasons we are called here!

  Update on Faton, this guy is amazing! I can't describe to you all how awesome he is!  I truly believe he is going to be such a strong member!! We had some lessons with him this week and he has totally been hounding us because we promised to give him a D&C version of the BoM after his baptism but we hadn't been able to make it down to the office and he was like guys I want to read this so bad come on!! And then we were talking about studying and he was like ya I really have studied the BoM and I know 100% that it's true! He's amazing! Then we had this one lesson and at the end he said the prayer and before the prayer he asked us if there was anything we wanted him to pray for and then he said the prayer and oh my gosh that was the most spiritual experience we have had with him! It was mega long and I seriously started crying just because the spirit was so strong and it all just hit me like I truly helped change this guys life and l look what he has become... its amazing! Wow I love him and he is so stoked to help us with lessons now as a member! We also got the new liahona with all the latest general conference sessions and we gave it to him on Sunday and he read the whole thing after church!!! Like who the heck!!

  I don't know if I have sent this before but right now I am studying the BoM with a student study manual and it's so cool! I'm learning a ton of extra stuff I've missed! It's amazing how much stuff this book has  -holy cow! Like all the 2 Nephi chapters from Isaiah! Those things are gold!! I also have been reading and listening to and reading a lot of talks and especially BYU speeches. That is a favorite pass time in this mission is BYU speeches.  Some people have like 2 feet stacks of papers just filled with talks and stuff! There are so awesome though like these things are truly modern scripture! I can't believe I didn't use them more before my mission!!

  Anyway things are moving along here in Albania I hope you all are good back at home and that everything is going well! I appreciate you all writing me!! Loves!

Faton's baptism

 Ok so this weeks letter! Idk it's getting harder and harder to write which I apologize for but what are you going to do! 
I gave 3 blessings this week which is always awesome! I still get super nervous to give them in Albanian but the people always seem to be super grateful so I think I do alright with them! And I know that Heavenly Father isn't going to withhold blessings from them because of my language which is comforting.

 On Thursday I did an exchange with Elder Acheson which was awesome! I learned a lot from him and we talked a lot. We had a lesson with Suleman and it was awesome!! Like super spiritual and ya just super great! We also went and visited this huge orthodox church! I have never been to an orthodox church before and it was pretty cool! The roof was a huuuggeeee dome and the entire thing was this giant painting of Jesus! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me but I think I will be going again! 

  This week I read two amazing talks! They are very much written for missionaries but if you're interested to see what I'm trying to be like you should read the Ricciardi Letter and the fourth missionary, holy cow they were super powerful talks and it's just like I'm never going to be good enough! I really want to be the best missionary I possibly can but it seems like it's so much easier to say than to do! 

I also watched 17 miracles for an institute activity and man that thing is sad! I have now seen that and Ephraim's rescue here and both of them are so sad - holy cow! 

Also want to know one of the main things I miss? Being able to instantly get the answer to any question I could ever have through google! Man that is such a blessing I hope you all appreciate being able to google things all the time because it's hard not being able to do that!!

  Friday I had the interesting experience of being on the phone for an hour and a half with the mission nurse! Elder Verushi has been having some leg pain for the past 8 months and his tooth pain started up again so he had me talk to her and holy cow that turned into quite the conversation! She asked a million questions and I was translating from Albanian to English and back the whole time and my head hurt so bad afterward like I had a legit headache from using my brain so much!

  Then Saturday after Futbol we went out to lunch with Aaron (the intern to our stake president) and that was way fun! He told us a bunch of stories from his mission in Argentina and man he had some crazy experiences! He had 1 transfer (6 weeks) where he baptized 23 people! Like are you kidding me! Thats just insane!! 

He also had some amazing spiritual experiences which were awesome to hear about! Also, he had a girlfriend wait for him the whole 2 years while she was at BYU-I (i know, apparently that actually happens!) And then she pretty much instantly wanted to get married when he got home and he wanted time so they broke up! Like that's 2 years down the drain for that poor girl! 

  Also Saturday was the big day for our baptism!!!  Elder Crandall had a baptism a couple hours before ours and they had a married couple so he did one too! It took him twice to do it! From the looks of it it's going to take some practice!! A baptism feels a lot like planning a party, like when you go to a party it's just a lot of fun but the host is running around everywhere making sure everything is perfect and it felt kinda like that! Luckily everything went perfect except the bishop didn't show up. We had a ton of people there though which was awesome! He gave his testimony after and it was a little interesting to be honest but it was really good too! Just super innocent! I really think that this guy is going to be an awesome member!

  Sadly Sunday he was 40 minutes late!!! So he didn't get confirmed...talk about Satan fighting against the work of the Lord! He said he had some work turn up at home!! Luckily it won't be a problem with him and he'll just have to get it next week - but what the heck!! 

Suleman came to church and I just spent a lot of time talking to him in english and man this guy is pretty stinking smart! He reads Psychology books for fun! He said there is no point in reading a book if you aren't going to learn something from it! He also asked me if he could come to the church during the week to pray! I was like why? And he said - I just feel clearer here...I don't know it's just a good atmosphere! and I was like DUDE THAT'S THE HOLY GHOST AND YOU KNOW IT! and he laughed and was just like ya maybe, do you use like special paint for the walls or something though?? Oh my gosh!! This guy -  if he will just quit over thinking it he knows that all of this is true!!

  A funny experience I had this week with language is Elder Greener was all proud because he had been working on the wishing tense in Albanian, ya we have a different tense for wishing... like if you want to say "good luck" that's wishing something for them and you have to use a different tense so ya also a lot of their phrases that they use have wishing tense like good-bye (Mirepafshim) is actually "may we be met well again". So he was using that on me thinking I didn't know what he was saying and then I basically used the "shut up" version in Albanian on him which is wishing tense and literally means "may your mouth be dried to you" (te thofte goja) and he was blown away! He was like what the heck you aren't allowed to know that yet I'm just starting to learn wishing tense!!! :)

  Another thing with language that is really cool is I have noticed that when I start talking and really get going I say things that are correct that I haven't even really learned well yet. Like I'll be going and then be - wait was that right and I'll think about it and it totally is! It's two things, 1 my ears are getting used to what Albanian should sound like so it just naturally wants to say it like that, and 2 the spirit is totally pushing for me! It's crazy though -  some things if I had thought about them I wouldn't have said them right but they just came out and turned out to be right!

  I also met a really cool couple this Saturday who are living in the Bay Area! They are from Tirana but moved to California and now just come back here on trips for 3 months at a time! The wife is a super active member and both of their kids but the husband isn't. They invited us over and said they could feed us  every week if we want - so that will be awesome and maybe we can get that guy converted finally! It's crazy though the elevator up to their place is literally an inch wider than my shoulder width! its super old and sketchy!!!

  I downloaded a bunch of talks about the Book of Mormon this week and holy cow they are freaking awesome!!! You all have to listen to the talk by Holland called Safety for the Soul!!! WOW that thing is a knockout talk!!

I love being a missionary and feel blessings all the time.  Definitely not easy though! I had an awesome experience this week. I was struggling with Elder Verushi and just feeling pretty rough and I was saying a prayer by myself and there was a moment where I just was talking to Heavenly Father saying I needed help and I felt the spirit so strong like it was all around me and literally the thought that came to my head was that Heavenly Father was just giving me a big hug! I could never deny that this church is true!

Love,

Elder Guymon

Faton's baptism

Baptism program

Cool castle the whole district went to on our Pday