12-21-09

"I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas!! I’m beyond excited to be able to finally talk to you again. I know its only been about 2 ½ months since the last time we talked but I’m still excited. I think I might be more excited to talk to you on skype and be able to see all of you. Melissa said that you did a little test run and it worked so hopefully there wont be any problems. She also sent me a short email because she had to hurry and get ready to leave for California. It sounds like you’re excited for Christmas as well. Is it getting down to those last stressful shopping hours? =). At least you didn’t have to worry about mine since you had to get mine to me early. I haven’t received the card yet but im sure it will be here soon. I received grandmas package and Melissa’s so that was good seeing they made it here safely. So I don’t really know how much to type because im excited to talk to you in 4 days. All the internet cafes we go to have Skype so as far as I know they work. What I might do is after this email try signing on and just checking.
Missionary work continues to be good. We get in a lot but lots of times it’s just out of respect. It’s really hard because for so long these people have been kept from religion. Lots of people here have a hard time expressing their religious views because for so long communism wouldn’t allow them to so we have taught anywhere from 30 years olds people or even a 75 year old man who prayed for the first time when we were in his house. Before us he had never heard a real prayer out loud in his life and it breaks my heart sometimes. They have such a hard time excepting. The church is growing really big here in Albania but I think it’s because of a lot of the younger youth that is joining the church. Which isn’t a bad thing but it stinks when you see middle aged people who could really use the gospel but they just aren’t willing to listen. But I know not everyone will except my message and that’s why I just pray for them and do the best I can to serve them in any way. I think my biggest thing so far here is putting up with some of the other elders. A lot of them are really narrowed minded. I know I shouldn’t write anything bad about them because I should only look at the positive but it has been very difficult putting up with them lately =). They think everyone should automatically want to listen to our message and let us in and when they don’t let us in or turn us away they just talk so badly about the people and it frustrates me. I told a few elders to pretty much shut their mouths because I didn’t want to here it. I did it in a nice way but they with enough force that even though im a trainee they weren’t going to tell me to be quiet. Lots of them usually don’t say anything back to me because they usually know they were wrong or they are to afraid to I think. Even though that part of the work is hard I still have fun and am slowly but surely learning the language. I think usually by 6 months most edlers can get by just fine and understand and talk pretty well. So I have been here almost 3 so im half way there. When I get home I should hopefully have a lot more patience because it has been hard so far and I know even when I do know the language I will still need patience when I get turned away 100 times in a day =).
I sent some photos last week off my companions camera because he took some good photos of Shkoder were you able to get them? Im also sending a few more from his camera so hopefully you will get them. One day when I get enough photos on my camera I will make a CD and send them to you. I don’t take a lot of photos just because I never think about carrying with me everywhere I go."

12-14-09

"Wow I always say this but Mondays get here so stinking fast =). I love it though because I love hearing how everything back home is going. It doesn’t snow here in Albania so im safe for the next two years. It rains farther up north and around here in Tirana we have mountains surrounding us and there is about 1 or 2 inches but down in the city it doesn’t snow. The weather here has actually been surprisingly nice. A lot of people said it’s usually a lot colder this time of year but I know it will come soon. It’s really humid here so last night was probably my first really cold night here in Tirana. It was windy and the wind cut right through me. I luckily have a beanie but im excited to open your package and hopefully have a scarf. I heard in January and February it rains a lot here. I guess last year it rained for 2 weeks without stopping and no sun. But on January 6th there is another transfer and this time I will either move or I will get a new companion. I hope I go to a new area. As much as I love it in the branch im in im excited to go serve in new areas. We have been teaching tons these past few weeks but the tough part is that we are also dropping a lot of people as well. We dropped 10 people just because they didn’t desire to learn any more. But I guess that’s missionary work. Because if people don’t want to listen to us we cant force them so we just keep on knocking on more doors till we find someone. We are teaching a 27 year old women and also the mom of those two kids and they are both awesome. We will commit both of them to baptism and hopefully they will accept. If not we will just keep teaching until they are ready. We also met an awesome family a few night ago. They are members but inactive so we went to a little shop they own to say hi and they invited us into their house which was behind their house. So we went in and shared a spiritual though and then just talked to them for awhile. They had three girls who go to a private music school and they played for us. It was amazing. One played electric guitar and sang while the other played her violin. I have never heard a guitar and violin sound so good together, it was awesome. They played James Blunt, dad likes him so he will know kind of the type of music it was. If we can get them reactive that would be awesome. They invited us over for Christmas but we are busy that day but we will go sing charols to them on the 24th.
I have actually done a lot of service these past few weeks. We helped a member tear down a big brick wall and move it which was really fun. I also did splits with a person that was in my MTC group. A split is when we change companions for a few days. So we both barely speak the language but we were walking the streets talking to people, it was fun. When I was with him I taught the advanced English course because the teacher was gone. It was such a blast. I think most of the time they just asked me questions and I showed them photos and told them about home and all of you. It was a fun day.
P.s… These photos are from a few weeks ago sorry I can only send 2 of them this week. Next week ill try to send more. The mylds website only lets you send really small emails and the pictures take up to much space. Hopefully you like them.

Pictures!

I am pretty sure that Kyle described what's in the pictures in the previous post that contains his letter.

12-7-2009

"I promise this email will be way better than last weeks email. I was so frustrated with the computers at the internet place we went to last week. They had Albanian letters and it was really hard to find the write letters for English,lol. I know I already told you that mine went well. Now im looking forward to Christmas. On the 24th we are going to a American families house and having a big dinner and then 6 elders and 2 sisters in my district are going to go sing carols in Albanian and in English at members houses. We also might go down town and stand around and sing. I’m excited it should be a lot of fun.
It’s funny because I get so many funny looks when I walk down the streets of Albania because im so tall. I cant understand much but I can understand when they say oh my goodness look how tall he is ,lol. I guess there is a prince called prince Leka here and a lot of people say I remind them of him, which is a good thing because they really respect him so im glad.
So I don’t know what to start talking about. As I go through the week I make a list of all the things that I could write about. I have a few notes today. One thing that just happened was pretty funny. In my area there is a street called Muslim Shurry and it is where all the nice stores in Albania are and a lot of elders buy ties here because they are cheap and really good looking. Well I found a store that had a really nice tie in the window and everyday I would walk bye it and be like man Dad would love that tie. So today I decided to go in a buy it and I picked the one store where I tie was $55, lol. Every single tie was over $50. I grabbed the tie and asked how much it was and I had to have her repeat it because I thought I miss understood her and then I looked at the back and low and behold it was very expensive. Then she grabbed it from me and put it back where it was in the window, lol. I bet she was like dang kid touching this %100 silk tie. After I just said thank you and bye and left. I was laughing about it as soon as we left because it was so dang expensive. So sorry dad I’ll keep looking for a good tie for you because that was a little out of my price range =).
Alright so another funny thing that happened. I sent a photo of me in a garbage bag with one arm and I want to explain what happened. So usually im pretty good at always having an umbrella with me but lately the weather has been gorgeous so in the morning I looked out the window and it was a clear day but it was windy and I had a feeling in the afternoon something might blow in over the mountains. But I decided to wait till after lunch to grab it. Well we became so busy with teaching lessons and talking to people that we didn’t get a lunch. And during our last lesson at 8 we here lightning and rain just start pouring down. And I look at my companion and am just like or dang,lol. So we are searching the church for an umbrella but cant find anything. So I see a garbage bag and but it over my head, lol. And I only have one arm out because I have my Book of Mormon and a note book in my other hand underneath the trash bag so they wouldn’t get wet, lol. We had a 15-20 minute walk back to our house like that and people were looking at us like we were crazy, lol. Luckily there weren’t tons of people out but it was quite the experience.
We had another soccer game as well. If you remember the last email I talked about soccer I said I got picked last and scored a few goals. Well you would think they would have learned but I guess not. I got picked second to last and they put me in the goal. I laughed about it a little because they were taking the game really serious and I guess they thought last time was luck. Well after 20 minutes I made some good saves and nobody scored on me but nobody on my team could do anything either. So finally one of the elders told them to get me out of the goal and let me play so was taken out of the goal and sat for about 10 minutes and we got scored on twice. Finally I took another elders spot and they tried putting me in the goal again but I said no and I ended up getting an assist and then I scored 3 goals and we won 5-3. Maybe one day they will learn not to pick me last. The other team was so mad at me because I play so aggressive and kept running all over the field and stealing the ball. I don’t think they expected me to have so much energy and be so quick =).
I also am sending some photos of the baptism a few weeks ago. The mom that you see in the picture is the one that got up after the baptism and said that she realized this is the path that she realizes she must also take. We had an awesome lesson with here last night and I think in the next few months she might have a baptism date. We will just take it slow and keep answering all her questions and hopefully she will find a testimony of the Book of Mormon for herself. She is an amazing woman. She has written a couple of books and she gave me one and signed it. Of course its in Albanian so I cant read it all yet, lol. She also feeds us tons when we go to her house and teach her. Too much I think because she is always tells me I need to eat more because im so tall and she called me a wimp yesterday, lol. She was like Elder Seevers, your weak, your weak when it comes to eating how are you so big?, lol. Of course I didn’t understand her but her boys were laughing and they told me what she said. She is a funny lady.
Im also sending a few photos of the inside of our apartment. The kitchen and our beds are in the same room and then we have a bathroom and another little small room with dressers and a little place we have to workout usually. I also am sending a photo of me with 3 kids in front of a church. That isn’t the church building here in Tirana we have a really old building we rent and it doesn’t look like a church. Ours here is 3 stories with a bunch of different rooms on each floor. That picture is when we went to an open house of the church in Elbasan on the coast about 1 hr away. Hopefully you like all the photos."

-Kyle was also able to send some pictures, I need to upload them and hopefully I will have them up in the next few days-

11-30-09

"i didn’t take to many photos of thanksgiving because I don’t really think about it. We had a really big dinner with turkey, potatoes and tons of other stuff. Each companionship made a dessert as well so there were also tons of desserts there. I have been eating so much lately. Im pretty sure I have gained 10 pounds since being here. You would be happy, lol. I also do tons of pushups and pull-ups in the morning and at night so its not all fat. It will be nice when its summer and I can hopefully have a companion that likes running in the morning. We ended up watching the movie Up which I have seen before but it was a good movie so I didn’t mind watching it again. We didn’t have enough people to get a football game going but we have one planned for this week with a bunch of Albanians so it should be fun. I bet I wont get picked last again, lol. But if I do I guess I will just have to score on them and make them regret it.

This week has been a pretty boring week. We haven’t been teaching to many lessons and I think its because this week was also a holiday for Albanians because they were freed from turkey 500 years ago so it was their liberation day on Saturday and lots of places were closed down for most of the week. There weren’t any big parades or parties in the streets but just like Americans it was an excuse not to work and to get days off from work and school. Christmas and new years is huge here though. There are huge Christmas stores and tons of people excited for it. There isn’t a firework rule either so I heard sons of people just buy fireworks and on new years it looks like the city is at war. Im excited to see it. I don’t know how I will get the recording of it home to you but maybe I can find a way. One cool thing that happened was with the sisters in our area. We just finished with lunch and the sister and us split up because they were going back to there apartment place so we were walking back to the church and we got a call from the sisters telling us they were being followed by a bunch of boys who were yelling at them and cat calling them. So we told them to walk down an ally way that we knew we could cross up with them so 4 of us were speed walking down a few ally ways and we came to crossing and the sisters walked by and then we say the boys following them and then the sister s got stopped and the chuns as we call them kind of surrounded them but then out of nowhere all of us come up behind them and tell them to get lost. They were so scared they all went running except for about 2 of them who were to scared to run. The ones that ran stopped across the street and were watching us and you could tell they were scared for their friends,lol. The two that stayed we just talked to and told them to leave the sisters alone and they just kept looking at me and I think they were intimidated by how tall I was. It was the greatest thing ever. Just to mess with the friends across the street I put my hand to my ear and started to talk like I had an ear piece in,lol. Some people think we are like CIA so it was funny being able to do that and freak them out a little more."

11-23-09

"I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing for thanksgiving yet. We are trying to get about 12 elders together here in the Tirana area and play a soccer game in the morning because they have really nice indoor fields here that you can rent for an hour and with 12 of us it would be like 2-3 dollars a person which would be cheep. Then I know in the afternoon we go to the mission home and we have a huge thanksgiving lunch with all the elders in the mission.
About 40 of us. And then we watch a movie. I hope it’s Remember the Titans because that’s what it was going to be but then a few elders cried about it and now we might watch dumb Lion King.
That’s nice of the Kelley’s to say hi. Make sure to tell them hi for me and im doing great. Also tell Chris Sonnenberg I say hi. Mom told me last week that Justin is graduating in December I believe. So if you see the Reifsnyders tell them that I tell Justin hi and maybe I can get an address from him so I can write him a letter.
Ago so now time for how my week went. To be honest it was a long boring week for me because my companion got sick and we were stuck inside for 4 days!! Other elders had to bring us food and I was miserable and bored. I don’t know how many push-ups, pull-ups and crunches I did but it was A LOT!! I was so sore for a couple days, lol. I pretty much studied the language, scriptures and worked out. I also found other ways to entertain myself by cleaning the house, yelling at people out the window and trying to talk to them, which doesn’t work when your on the 8th floor. I also found that a small building across the road from us has tons of trash pilled up on it from random people throwing it on it so I decided to take all of this old gross fruit we had in our apartment and throw it on it. To say the least it was awesome. I found a watermelon that had to be at least 5 months old and threw it on the roof. It was cool watching it explode.
Don’t worry the building is empty and nobody owns it. It’s an old communism building that all the trash was on. My biggest worry was not make the watermelon all the way across the road and having land in the road everywhere. But I made sure the window was open far and I got some leverage behind it, lol. So ya that was basically my week. Except for Sunday whish was one of the 3 days we were out. We had a baptism and it went awesome. Tons of people showed up and I baptized one of the boys. Also their family was there and after the baptism the most amazing thing happened. Everyone was getting up to come congratulate the boys when the mom stood up at the stand and she started thanking everyone for what we have done for her boys. She also called me her son and said thank you to me. ( which a little side note she loves us and we go to their house and she cooks awesome food). Then she started to talk about how she supported her boys decision to
get baptized but she wasn’t interested herself and had no real desire to take the same path but that while during the baptism and watching her boys get baptized she was so touched by the love and the spirit that she also wants to be baptized now. It was crazy. She is already awesome and she gave me a poem book and she is a very successful Albanian. Whether she joined or not we would still be going to her house once a week to visit but now she wants to be taught. It was a very cool experience. Im actually going to send some photos so hopefully you get them. "

11-9-09

"I haven't been transferred yet but I will find out this Saturday if I am staying in my area or if im going somewhere else. Saturday night President Neil’s will call us and then if one of us is getting moved we will go to that area a week from today. I hope I don’t get moved and get to stay in this area for another transfer. If I stay then I will be safe until January when another transfer comes along. The baptism for the 3 kids is on November 22nd so I hope I can stay to be able to see it. Even if I get moved to a different area I think I would still be able to come back and see it but im just crossing my fingers that I don’t get moved at all.

I will call the first story the “Albanian Seat Belt Law”. So pretty much what this consists of is not wearing your seat belt in any vehicle you get in, lol. We took a taxi this week to a house that was a long ways away and I was told that people get offended if you put on a seat belt because they think you wear it because you think they cant drive. And well I’ve seen the way people drive around here and honestly they drive crazy!! So I was sneaky in the back and put on my seat belt and the man saw me and pretty much yelled at me. He was like “what you think I cant drive”. You don’t need to be afraid I have been driving my entire life just leave in unbuckled,lol.. So I didn’t wear it to the house and I felt safe. Then another night we took another taxi and it’s a habit to put on my seatbelt so I put it on and he gave me a look at waved his finger which here pretty much means you don’t need that. He said that people would rather die than put on a seatbelt. I thought you would like that story. So I cant wear a seatbelt for the next two years but luckily we don’t take taxi’s a lot =).

I also had a really cool experience last night at an investigators house. We went over with some other members to teach a lesson and when we got to the house the power went out and it was pitch black. It was raining outside really hard and inside I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. I have never seen it that dark before. Two of the girls found 2 candles though and we put them on the table and had cake and fruit and just talked about family hoping the power would come back on. When we realized it wasn’t going to come back on we taught them a lesson and shared some scriptures in the dark. It was a really neat experience. I wish we could have more lessons like that because it was a very peaceful atmosphere and they really enjoyed it.

I think those are my two stories for the week. I cant think of anything else. I told you about the transfers already and about the baptism. Yep that’s really all that happened this week. We taught 20 lessons this week which is really good for our area and my language is still the same, non-existent basically, lol. No I feel like I am making improvements every week. I feel like people are talking slower but that’s because I am able to understand words and almost get the gist of the sentence. Like they say here Avash- Avash, which means slowly-slowly. It will come as I continue to study. In the morning I have 1 hr of English scripture study then 1 hour of companion study and then 30 min of language study but then at lunch which is 2 hr’s I also study language and try to rest my eyes a little.

One thing that amazes me about here is the joy and love these people find in life. The unemployment rate is higher here than it was during the great depression in the U.S. Yet the people don’t show it on their faces. You can see it in their life style and you see that they struggle to make it every week but they stay positive. I admire how every one we talk to seems to just smile through the hardships and many of them give more than they take. I told a gentleman that I really like his tie and it looked good and he took it off and tried to give it to me. It was the same thing when I told a member in our ward that I liked his hat. They try giving it to me and it is amazing. There are always those individuals who are rude and steal but for the most part I’ve never seen a happier group of people. They love talking about family and friends and I don’t know how many times I have shown my photos to people and they are always like we want to see more, find a way to get more photos of your family. I wish I could communicate with them better and tell them more about all of you and to find out more about them but like I said before I know it will come."

11-2-09

"We have continued to teach those kids we met a few weeks ago. I’m not sure how the missionaries forgot about them. You’re probably right with missionaries talking with them and the elders got transferred to a different area and didn’t tell anyone. We have an area book we are suppose to fill out and it shows everyone that is taught even if they end up not becoming members it still talks about the people and how the lessons went so I bet elders got lazy and didn’t put anything down. This week while teaching them both said they want to be baptized which is amazing. One of the brothers came to church this Sunday and he has a desire to be taught and be baptized as well. So this week me are setting up a date for the baptism. One of the families are interested about hearing the gospel so last night we went to their house and they are such an awesome family. I don’t know if they have a desire to be members but they wanted to learn more so we will keep teaching them. I think the main reason they want us over is because they love Americans because the mom fed us so much when we went over. I was so full when we left the house,lol. It was a much wealthier family. I’m happy that at least they support the sons decision to become a member. So sometime this month we should have 3 new members. I hope I get to stay in this area so I can be here for the baptism because transfers are next week and I could get moved to a different area. 2 of the kids wanted me to baptize them but if I go to a different area I wont be able to. So hopefully I will stay. If not they are awesome kids and they will like the new missionaries who come in. We haven’t had anymore soccer games but I believe we have a big one every month so we should have one in the next few weeks. I don’t think I will get picked last again,lol =).

I don’t have a whole lot more to write about but I forgot to tell about our crazy bus ride back from the sweat shop. We took a bus out there but it dropped us off on the freeway so we could easily get to the shop. And we had to cross the highway and jump the middle guard,lol. On the way back we just stood on the side until vans drive bye and pick us up. We jumped in a van and 8 of us jumped in and there were 20 people in one van. I was slumped over because my head was hitting the roof and I couldn’t sit and we were listening to this crazy Arabic music. Then we got a flat tired going super fast down the road and I don’t know how we didn’t turn sideways. It was crazy!! Luckily there were 8 missionaries in the van I think that’s why we made it safely to the side of the road. From there we just jogged back into town and got lunch and now here I am writing to you =)."

10-26-09

"The weather here has been surprisingly beautiful. It usually is raining tons by now but today the sun is shining and it’s hot. When it does rain here it straight out pores. It rained all day last Wednesday and we got stuck in it, lol. I was drenched from head to toe be because all day it was nice but then at night it started to just come down and we just got out of a lesson and its about a 15 minute walk back to our house and I got soaked. Luckily it was a warm rain and since then I almost always carry my umbrella.

This week has gone by so fast for me. We have been extremely busy with lessons and activities. I played soccer Saturday with a bunch of people in a big indoor stadium which was fun. I was one of the last people picked because they thought I wasn’t good and we start playing and its Europe so they’re really serious about the positions so they put me back on defender but then after 20 minutes we were down by two goals ( not because of my bad defense =) ) so I went to mid field and I scored two goals,lol. I thought it was funny because everyone would do these crazy foot moves but I would just use my speed. And when I was up against someone I would just get up way close on them and grab there shirt and play really rough with them so they couldn’t use there foot work. It was a blast. We won 6-4. I also had 2 assists so I helped out with 4 of our points.

That is my sport story for the week time for spiritual stuff =). Later Wednesday night I went on a split with someone because my companion had a meeting so me and another kid, who was one of the Zone Leaders, went and contacted people in the streets near a big park and restaurant area. We were there for about 2 hours talking to people and even though I couldn’t understand anything they were saying really I still stopped them asked how they were and other muhabet questions that Albanians ask and shared a message. Anyways on with the story. So we were doing this and a crazy man came over and just started talking to us and just kept asking these weird questions and while my companion was talking I zoned off and was looking around me and saw a man walk by and I had a strong impression that I should talk to him. So I watched him carefully because I didn’t want him to leave before we could talk to him but luckily he grabbed a popcorn of a street vender and sat on a bench. Right when my companion ended talking with the crazy man he was like alright lets go. But I was like hold on I think we need to talk to this guy. I said even if we get rejected we need to talk to him or else I will regret it. So we went over to him and I started to talk to him and right away I could tell he was excited. He said about 6 months ago he talked to some missionaries and he has a Book of Mormon and he loves it but the missionaries stopped coming over to his house. So we got his number and address and he is meeting with us this week. It was a very cool experience.

Cool experience #2. We have been helping out with the English class twice a week and in the class are two kids who come all the time and they both speak really good English. They come to the beginner course and to the advanced course right after. They are both 15. I have been able to get to know them a little and Saturday we were waiting at the church when they came by and we started talking to them. We were just joking around and one of them out of nowhere was just like hey I have that book (talking about the Book of Mormon). And so we were like awesome how did you get it. And he told us 2 years ago he talked with the missionaries and one day, just like the man in the park, the missionaries stopped coming and he said for 2 years he has been looking for a way to get into the church and talk to the missionaries. And he said one day he saw my companion and I handing out English fliers and he said to himself that this was the way in. For two years he was to shy to come into the church or talk to the missionaries. So after he told us this we went with him and his friend upstairs to watch the restoration video. Both of them had huge smiles and enjoyed it and I shared my testimony and they were both extremely excited to learn more. The other friend wanted a Book of Mormon and they both wanted us to come over to their houses. After the lesson they stayed for almost 2 hours for an institute class and learned tons and then got to know a few kids. Then on Sunday they both showed up and sat by us and went to all 3 hours of class. They were taking notes and were just excited to be learning about all this. These are 2 exceptional young men and im excited to teach them. We will teach them in English because they said it will also help with their progression in the English language. I don’t remember if I said there names but they are Donald and Grey. I hope they continue to grow and read from the scriptures.

Those few things were the highlight of my week. I am trying to be patient with the language and I try hard to just listen really hard and pick out a few words. Its hard to believe that I have been learning the language for 3 months and only in the country for not even a month and I can somewhat talk and will slowly start learning. It will be so nice when I don’t have to dumb up my sentences and just speak without thinking. It’s hard to teach affectively when I can’t just speak from the heart. Im not very well with words as it is so it will be nice when I can actually show a little of my personality. Right now I think everyone thinks im just this quiet giant =)."

Pictures

10-19-09

"I am feeling a lot better this week. I still have a little cough but i feel 100% better than last week. We have no bikes here so everywhere we go we walk. So it's nice not being sick. I need my energy because we walk so much and now that im feeling better its a lot my enjoyable. I will make sure to keep eating good and getting plenty of sleep. These first few weeks we have been eating really good because all the members invite us over so they can get to know me. It's funny though because they cant really get to know me because i cant understand a thing they are saying,lol. Some of them speak english though and we can talk and then some of them talk really slow for me so i can understand and have a little conversation. As far as the language goes Shqip is how you say Albanian over here. So it just means the Albanian language. It's not getting any easier yet,lol. At church yesterday i was able to get up and tell about myself and about all of you a little and give my testimony. Everyone says i speak really well and i know i will continue to get better with speaking but i wont be able to understand for awhile which is frustrating. Usually around 3 months you can start understanding most of what people are saying are at least the main points of the sentence. That has been the hardest part because my companion is weird when it comes to talking to people. I was talking to someone on the street and he asked me a few things that I couldn’t understand and my companion didn’t answer them very well and the man got angry at us. My companion said that we shouldn’t talk to anybody unless they talked to us first. I was so mad!!! Lol. Owell what am I going to do. I just have to keep doing my thing and be patient with the language and soon I will be able to talk to everyone I want. My companion is from North Carolina and he was in the army but he came on his mission for two years. For the most part I get along with him but other aspects I have a hard time.
The last couple of days we got poured on. It was beautiful weather the first two weeks I was here but all of a sudden the rain came pouring down. Luckily I had my rain coat on so I was good. The pants still get pretty wet but nothing I cant handle. My big boots are awesome. I love them. They will keep me warm and dry when the cold weather comes and then my big jacket will work great. I also bought some gloves at the MTC before I came and they are really warm. The only thing I might need to buy is a scarf. Lots of people wear them around here and its not supper cold in the winter but its humid and windy so the scarf really helps I guess. It might be in something I ask for when Christmas comes. I cant believe Christmas will be here before I know it. Halloween isn’t big here so nothing exciting going on this month. Next month I guess all the missionaries get together and have a big dinner and watch a movie for thanksgiving so that should be fun. And then Christmas and new years I guess is really big here so im excited for that. I also heard that instead of calling if you wanted we might be able to do Skype or whatever its called. Where you can see me and talk. So hopefully we will be able to work that out.
Last night we got in tracting. When I say tracting I mean knocking doors. We were having no success and I handed out a few pamphlets to people but then finally around 8 p.m a man opened his door and was super excited that we were Americans,lol, and let us inside his house. I felt bad at first because he started to get a bunch of food and drinks for us and we could tell he wasn’t in the best living conditions. But we just said thank you and talked to him for about 45 minutes and with it gave him a short message. We are meeting with him again this week. The only bad thing about here is that the Jehovah Witnesses are always tracting around here an people don’t like them. So when they see us they think we are J-dubs and we have to explain we are from a different church… This Friday we get to help out with a few English courses so im excited about that. A bunch of people have been showing up to the free English courses so the teacher asked us to come in and help out. It should be a lot of fun."

10-12-09

"I guess i will start with the flight. The flight went really well. I ended up sitting by a bunch of cool people on the flight over to Austria. One girl was from Romania and another kid was from Kosovo and he spoke Albanian. I guess Kosovo speaks Albanian and he was really cool. I told him who i was and what i was doing and he was confused. He kept telling me i had to travel to Greece and come see him in Kosovo,lol. I kept explaining to him that i was there for my church and even showed him a Book of Mormon but he still didnt get it,lol. Owell it was fun talking to him and he had nothing but good things to say about the Albanian people. The only bad thing about the flight is that i got sick. I have been sick since i got here and its been tough. Not extremely sick but i dont have to much energy which stinks for as much walking as we've been doing. They have been letting me sleep in a little which is nice and a few nights we go in 15 minutes early so i can get in bed. But today i feel pretty good. A little more energy and my cough is going away. Dont worry though i am talking care of myself. I will make sure to get healthy.

Ok so time for the first day in the country. We got off the plan and a bus drove us to the main airport where we went through customs and grabbed our luggage. That's when we first met a few of the other Elders and President Neils. We all threw our stuff into a big van and jumped in 3 different cars to go to the mission home. The drive to the mission home was CRAZY!!! There are pretty much no driving laws here,lol. A two lane road turns into a 4 lane road and no longer will i complain about the america round abouts. The round abouts they have here are crazy. And then you have motorcycles and bikes going down the sidewalk sometimes and they dont have wild animals but they have pack of wild dogs and cats. Mom you would hat driving here. You would have to have your eyes closed the whole time. Honking the horn is actually a courtesy here. People drive so aggressive here that there aren't to many accidents but it's still scary.

So after i survived the ride to the mission home we all got interviewed by President Smith and went to the police station and a few other places to make sure to become residence here or to be able to stay for 2 years. That wasn't to weird. I was surprised at how many people actually speak English here. For the most part they love us. We did get spit on our first day though. Some people in an upper window spit on the kid next to me. I figured i better get used to it. Not everyone had the opportunity go out street contacting the first day but i did. That was my first real test of the Albanian language.... Wow they talk fast,lol. I understood maybe 1 word the first person i talked to. To say the least i didn have any success on my first day of contacting people =).

After walking around for awhile we went back inside and had dinner and got to bed pretty early. That's when my cold hit me pretty hard. The next day we got up and went to the top of town to look around which was cool. I didnt get a bunch of pictures and thats why im not sending any today but i promise next week i will send some photo. Our second day here is when we got assigned to our new companions. I am serving in the Tirane second branch. There are a total of 4 elders 2 of us are new. I have a really big area to cover. I was hoping to be located somewhere outside the main city but i heard that this is a good place to be trained because it has a bunch of different accents from all over Albania. My companion is good. He is kind of strange and loud but you know me i get along with pretty much anybody so i think i'll be fine. I was hoping we would be more contacting and teaching people but so far we have only been handing out english fliers. There is an english class we help out with that starts up soon so we have been trying to hand out things so people will come to it. I will be excited when we are teaching english and the gospel rather than just handing out fliers. My companion loves to walk super fast down the roads and we pass hundreds of people and i cant help but think why dont we just talk to all of these people and invite them to the english class. He is the senior companion though and i will just work hard and put in my time. Most likely i will be with him for 3 months and be here in Tirane for 3 months as well. Im not possitive though.

There has been 2 baptisms since i got here which is cool. One on Saturday and then one on Sunday. The kid that got baptized on sunday was Ermal. I had the opportunity to teach him the last lesson on friday. He speaks english that's the only reason i was able to teach him the whole lesson. I helped out with a few more lessons already during the week. We taught one man names Altin who is in the Albanian special forces. It was funny because i was teaching him and then he stopped me and started to say a bunch of stuff and then he smiled and looked at me to continue and i was just like uhhh, and looked at my companion,lol. I didnt understand i thing he said,lol. Then my companion started talking and i understood where we were in the lesson again and began to speak again,lol. It's so scary talking to people here. They all talk super fast and i just smile and nod my head. Which sometimes i found out isn't always the best thing i can do. The best thing i can do is just try to understand and speak and if i make a mistake i cant worry about it. That's the only way i will get better. Another weird thing is for yes they shake there head no. So when im talking to people and they agree with me they shake it no and it confuses me because i think they are disagreeing. I will get use to it but it will be funny in 2 years when i get back to the states and someone says something to me and i shake my head no like i agree and they think im saying no. Sorry i probably made no sense there.

Im trying to think what else i can write about. I love the people here. There are a lot of gypsies which scare me and are always asking for stuff. The people are very humble and are for the most part very poor. The average income is probably 2,000 a year here in Tirane which is the nice part of the country. As missionaries we live in a nice apartment. We are on the 8th floor with water all day. I love it here and i think its pretty in its own way. I look forward to spending the next 2 years serving these people. Many of them have been deeply affected by communism and its very corrupt government. The mafia is very strong here but so far we haven't had any problems with them. I think they usually leave the missionaries alone. Many peoplere scared of them though.

The food is is actually pretty good. I had a crepe the other day which was really good. I had one with turkey, ham and cheese and another desert one with pineapple, coconut, and some type of white chocolate. I also had a Suflaqe today. I dont know if thats how you spell it but it was good.

My p-day is every monday unless we decide to change it for some reason. Today we just stayed and hung out with the other missionaries but once a transfer which is ever 6 weeks we get to go travel somewhere as a district which is cool. On our p-days we can go view things around the city and go to museums but one p-day a month we can go out of our area to visit a place. I'm not sure where we are going to go this transfer but im sure it will be somewhere cool. Another exciting thing that happened this week was our church got broken into last night. We went there this morning and windows were broken and blood was all over the floor but nothing big got stolen. I guess they stole a stereo but thats all. The cops and crime scene investigator people are over there right now. Its kind of crazy. Not sure what else to say. At 7 tonight we are going over to a families house for Family Home Evening which is cool. I think i have to share a message in Shqip and im pretty nervous."

Made it to Albania

My parents received an email from the mission president in Albania informing us of his arrival.

"As you can see from the attached photograph, your son arrived safely here in Tirana. He's shown here with my wife and me in our living room following dinner in the mission home in Tirana. He is a bit tired, wrinkled and overwhelmed by the cultural shock of landing here. Everyone's luggage arrived at the same time they did!! (which is highly uncommon). He seems excited to get to work and to be assigned to his new companion. We will assign him tomorrow afternoon to his trainer, a special dedicated missionary called to that important position. But rather than wait until then to let you know he arrived safely, we thought you might be anxious to know that he didn’t get lost in transit and that he did arrive and that all is well. Earlier today, I had a wonderful interview with him, we got him registered with the American Embassy. We just had dinner, and he and his companions are off to get some rest. We will send you another short note tomorrow with all of his addresses, the name of his companion and any other information that will hopefully make you comfortable about his status.

We have had the wonderful opportunity of spending more time with your son and getting to know him a little better. Your son is still functioning in another time zone, but jet lag will pass quickly for him. Elder Seevers is doing well with the language and is talking to people in the street already. This morning, we took our new missionaries to the Mother Albania Statue and Park, a memorial to the heroes of Albania during the second world war, overlooking the city of Tirana. This is where Albania was dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel in April of 1993 by Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve. We had a short service there where we read together the dedicatory prayer, which is beautiful and becoming fulfilled in amazing ways. After prayer and thoughtful consideration, we have assigned him to work with Scadden, in Tirana. Your son’s companion is a great missionary who has earned the opportunity to be a trainer by his dedicated service here in Albania. I am sure that your son will be able to learn much from him. He will also learn to rely on the Spirit to guide him daily. He will grow in ways that you can’t imagine.

There is no mail delivery in Albania other than post office boxes, so our Office Secretary goes to the post office twice a week to pick up the mail and packages. We have found that US Priority mail is the least expensive and fairly rapid option (2 weeks), and US Express mail is the quickest (4-5 days) and the packages are actually delivered to our doorstep. The following address covers post office delivery, as well as delivery to the doorstep for US Express mail and other courier services:


Elder Seevers

Fondacioni Liahona

PO BOX 2984

Rr Qemal Stafa Vila 1

Përballë Postës 22

Tirana, Albania


We find that many items are sent that can also be purchased here and the costs are very high to ship, so discuss with your missionary what they really need to receive.

Off to Albania

Kyle left for Albania today. So be sure not so send him anymore letters to the MTC. The new addresses to send him mail will be:

For pouch letters:

Elder Kyle Seevers
Albania Tirana Mission
PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

For pouch mail it has to be a single sheet letter or postcard. It cannot be put into an envelope, it must be folded into three panels and then taped at the top only.

His address for sending letters and packages directly to Albania is:

Elder Kyle Seevers
Albania Tirana Mission
Rr. Qemal Stafa, Vila 1
Perballe Posetes Nr. 22
Tirana
Albania

Kyle has said not to send him packages with anything valuable in it because I guess the system in Albania isn't very good and he has heard that sometimes things don't make it to the person they are supposed to.

You can still write Kyle letters through Dearelder.com, just make sure you change the location from Provo MTC to Albania Tirana mission. And remember these letters are going to take substantially longer to reach him then before.

I know my parents will hear from him today at the airport before he heads over and someone should let my parents know when he makes it there.

9/30/09

"I leave the MTC this tuesday at 5 A.M. So Crazy!!! I cant wait to get on the plan and be heading over there. The mtc has gone by fast but im ready to be in Albania trying to talk to people. It's going to be hard for the first 3-5 months there because i dont think i will understand i thing but after that i think i should get pretty comfortable. It will be awesome. Im so nervous when i think about it but you never taught me to give up so as long as i keep working hard i'll be fine. Im just excited to go. It's going to be crazy because there will be atleast 13 of us on the same flight over."

9-23-09

"The MTC is still treating me well. We are suppose to only be speaking Albanian right now but it's pretty hard. I always try to have a dictionary with me so i can look up new words and learn how to say what i want to. This week has been a frustrating week for me though. There are so many of us in the classroom that i feel like the teacher haven't taught anything useful the past few weeks. Some people have a better grip on all the grammer principles and i feel like i still need help before we leave in 2 weeks. Im going to start asking them to take time and have small sessions because lately i feel like when the teachers are in the class im not learning anything because they just kind of talk to us and joke around. I have been working hard but i need to keep at it because i know i have so much more to learn. We get our flight plans this friday!!! So next week in the email i will let you know around what time i'll be able to call you. I have been here 2 months but time is just flying bye. The next 22 are going to go by so fast. Everyday im busy and working hard. Almost at anytime during the day i could fall asleep because im so tired but i just keep going somehow,lol.

I told you this before but every thursday we teach in the TRC in Albanian and last week we thought we were only going to teach half of our lesson because my and my companion had a ZL meeting. We teach at 7 and dinner is a 6 so right as we are about to sit down and eat our teacher is like hurry come with me we found some volunteers who came in early so you'll teach the whole lesson. So we went into the lesson extremely nervous but ended up just asking tons of questions and taught for 45 minutes and gave the whole lesson. My hardest part is just understanding what they are saying. I can usually say what i want but understanding is a whole different story. Its frustrating at times. Im trying to think of what else you might want to know. The RC has been alright the past few weeks. Thats where we call people up and make sure they received what they ordered. This week we did chat and talked with people. I dont really like chats because its hard to read what the other person is thinking. I cant wait until i can just be face to face talking with people. I havent played soccer for awhile. Our Chile opponent 's left so now we just play volleyball. During our 6:30 am gym the field is closed so we have to go inside. I know i have no order to my emails but hopefully you enjoy them. Just know everything is good here. I love the language and am ready to get over there and not understand a thing,lol."

9-16-2009

"So i just perhaps might have had a visitor yesterday. I the visitor just might have perhaps been an apostle and this certain visitor just might have mentioned in front of over 2,000 missionaries and he might have called me up to bare my testimony in front of all of them =). It was amazing!! I got called in yesterday and they said the speaker wants me to give my testimony but they didnt tell me who it was and i looked at my companion and was like NO! It cant be!! lol. We were in the very front row and he called me up to talk a little. It was a humbling experience but he said i did great and everyone else said i did good but i was nervous."

Here are a couple of the pictures Kyle sent from Provo:

9-9-09

"Things here at the MTC are pretty much the same. Every week we do more SYL ( speak your own language, just incase your forgot). Starting in 2 weeks we do nothing but SYL untill right before we leave. The TRC teaching is still stressful but we learn a lot. My companion speaks a lot better than me but i am working really hard. He spoke pretty good french before he got here so i think knowing another weird language helped him with this one. I am happy though because i continue to improve and i know it will eventually come and it wont come all the way for any of us until we get out into the field and its all around us. Im nervous but so excited to get over there. I havent recieved an itinerary yet. I wont get that until a week or so before i leave. But it will be around Oct 6th...Tomorrow we teach lesson two in Albanian and a lot of people are more nervous for this one because the new vocab but i feel more confident because i feel like im getting a lot better and saying sentences that make sense =). "

9-2-09

"The day we spoke all Ablanian was fun. Sometimes we speak english because its frustrating when you want to say something but cant find the words,lol.
Yesterday we also did it all day and tomorrow we speak only Albanian all day. We teach again at the TRC again tomorrow and we cant speak english. From here on out its all our language which is good. This week my companion and i swictch gosepl principles so i have to teach god is our loving heavingly father = Zoti eshte At yne Qiell. Its a little different because of the accents on the words. I also have to talk about prophets from the bible, the great apostasy and the Book of Mormon or Libri i Mormonit. its funny because you can say it so many ways depending on when it comes in a sentences. Librin e Mormonit, Te Mormonive, i Mormoni, Mormones. It get pretty crazy,lol.

I think im gaining some weight. I have atleast 2 helpings everytime and i have also been doing my bands. I wrote last week about doing it 4 days a week and im good so far but sometimes i slack on the pushups. Other than that everything is good. Just ready to go to Albania and not be able to understand anything =). I also needed to remind you to go to church next sunday so you can hear Elder Holland talk and you should get a picture with him and send me it. He is my favorite apostle and Frank wrote me a letter and said you could probably meet him so you should do that. Its not sacrament just talking which is nice."

Update

"Before i forget i have to
> tell you about a cool experience. So once a week we go
> to the RC which is the referall center and this is where
> people call and ask about the church or ask for a free Book
> of Mormon or DVD. Sometimes we take incoming calls but
> this past week we did outgoing calls to make sure people get
> what they wanted and my companion and i called this lady and
> she was like i dont wanna hear your message bye... but then
> out of nowhere she was like wait actually i do. So we shared
> a scripture with her and she was like "you boys are so happy
> and im not but i wanna be." And then we were like we know
> how you can be happier and we shared a little more and then
> she was like YA!! Thats what i want. And she excepted to
> have missionaries over to her house. It was an awesome
> experience. Because usually i have to call these southern
> baptists who called just to get a free bible and then like
> yelling at us,lol.
> Also last night we had an apostle
> come speak to us. Elder Richard G. Scott. It was
> awesome because i had really good seats. Basically the
> first thing he did was ask how many of us where learning a
> new language and blessed us with the gift of tongues and
> then and the end he put a blessing upon us that no harm
> would come upon us in the mission field. It was a
> special moment to hear an apostle of Christ do that because
> i know he doesnt just go around giving those blessing and
> using his authority like that all the time so it was
> special."

Update

Kyle has been doing good, sending emails. He pretty much said that I can put what I want on the blog from the emails, since while he is at the MTC he doesn't have as much time to email. I don't have any pictures yet because he hasn't been able to put them on the computer but hopefully, he thinks, he will be able to send pics once he gets to Albania.

Excerpt from Kyle's latest letter:

"It's crazy how busy they keep us here. It's like a religous
boot camp =). But im the zone leader so i guess im the
one that has to put down my foot and tell them to get in bed
and stop messing around,lol. Today new people came in
and we put on our orange dots and were acting like we were
new. There was a big meeting and everyone was like
arent you elders coming and we were like na we dont feel
like it i think ill unpake and chill around here. They
thought we were crazy,lol. Tonight they get to see that im
actually there Zone Leader because i get to give them a tour
around the MTC. It was fun. Things are going
really well just trying to keep studying hard. I will just be ZL here and then when i go to Albania ill be a junior companion and then possibly go up to ZL but thats up to the mission president. things at the MTC are fun though. Lots of studying and classroom work which sometimes gets old but we need it. Albanian is one of the harder languages they teach here. Soccer for gym is always a blast except we lost so tomorrow we have to redeem ourselves. I was angry because the other team thought they were really good but they weren't. Our goaly was just horrible so we pulled him,lol. I cant send pictures which is dumb so im going to mail some to mom and hopefully you can find a way to get them on the computer. If not then when im in Albania i know ill be able to send photos so i'll just save the ones i have and send them all at once."

Dropping Kyle off at the MTC

Dropping him off






Kyle and Mom



Relaxing before Kyle's drop off time



Kyle at the Provo Temple by the MTC.

Kyle's Farewell

Here are some pic's from when Kyle spoke at church the weekend before he left for the MTC.



Kyle with mom



Kyle and I



Kyle with some of his friends



Kyle with mom and dad



Kyle and the family

Departure Date

Kyle found out that he will be leaving to Albania on October 6! So once that date comes, be sure to send you letters to the Albania addresses NOT the MTC one!

Website

Kyle sent this website in a letter to my mom:

www.dearelder.com

You can go sign up and send letters through the website and they will deliver the letters to the missionary. While he is at the MTC the letter will reach him the same day, once he heads to Albania it will take a bit longer!

Addresses

MTC: Provo

Kyle will be in the MTC until October,

His address there will be:

Elder Kyle Seevers
MTC Mailbox # 114-1006
Albania Tirana Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Once he leaves for Albania his address will be:

For pouch letters:

Elder Kyle Seevers
Albania Tirana Mission
PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

For pouch mail it has to be a single sheet letter or postcard. It cannot be put into an envelope, it must be folded into three panels and then taped at the top only.

His address for sending letters and packages directly to Albania is:

Elder Kyle Seevers
Albania Tirana Mission
Rr. Qemal Stafa, Vila 1
Perballe Posetes Nr. 22
Tirana
Albania