"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. "
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
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."
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."
Monday, November 2, 2009
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 =)."
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 =)."
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