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."