3-29-2010

" I'm happy to say that this week has been a lot better than last week. Last week was the worst week i've had since being here and i dont think any other week could be as bad as it was, lol. This week could have been another bad week but i told myself i wouldn't let it happen so i have made it a good week. As hard as its been i just keep smiling and pushing forward knowing i'll come out a better person after this experience. I finished the Book of Mormon in Albanian this morning so im pretty excited about that. I think in my group im one of the best when it comes to reading and understanding books and i am up there on knowing the most words but i have a really tough time getting all that to come out right, lol. Both with pronunciation and just putting everything in the right order or cases. I know as i continue to talk and am here longer it will come more natural. It's hard to believe i have been out for 9 months about now. Even more crazy that i only have 1 year and 3 months left here. Where does the time go?

Also new exciting news i might train in a week. A new group is coming in and i think i might train. Im not sure if my language is where it needs to be to train and be on my own but just like with being this Albanian Cun (Kid) i know i will be able to do it. Today we went to some awesome caves just outside of Tirana. It was about a 40min ride and a good 40 minute hike up to it and i brought that awesome head lamp you gave me. The cave was huge!! It went back in a long ways and it was muddy and a few from the group fell right on their butts, lol. There were also tons of bats in the very very back. It was crazy listening to them chirp. I got some photos so i will send them to you next week hopefully. Im trying to take more photos of things but i never take my camera with me because it might get stolen.

I didnt tell you last week because i didnt feel like writing much but that girl i was teaching got baptized ( Julia). Her entire family came from down south and it was an awesome baptism. Her family is all Orthodox but they were very respectful and invited me to there house whenever i go down south, lol. Which will probably be never. It was really good to see her get baptized and it was in my old ward that i was in so i was able to see tons of members so that was a blast. Also i have another cool story. As District Leader i have the privilege of interviewing people who are getting baptized and the sister in my zone has a family and i was able to sit down with them one by one and talk to them and here their stories about reading the Book of Mormon and finding the truth and i could have talked to the Dad for hours because he was so awesome. I want to write a little about his dads story if that is ok. His dad (Like most Albanians) lived his entire life during communism so he had no religion freedoms so he was a hardcore Athiest. But about 10 years ago while on his death bed a Book of Mormon fell into his hands by a friend who didnt want it (remembe that at this time communism is no longer here in Albania). So his dad (Agron is the man i was interviewing so his dad) begins reading this book and without meeting any missionaries he is converted to the gospel and believes in Christ and is ready to meet his Maker. Well he dies without ever nowing anything about the church but he son (Agron) saw this change in his dad and was also recieved a testimony for the truthfulness and the testiment of Christ that is in it. So years pass by and 2 months ago the sisters come to Agron and tell him they have a message about Christ and he invites them in. The sister then show him the book and right away he started to cry. He has been taking the lessons ever since and him, his wife and his kid who is 12 will be baptized on April 11th. They also have a girl that is 6 who isnt old enough but one day she will be baptized. The whole family was amazing and during the interview they were just quoting scriptures and telling me stories about the people in the Book of Mormon. It was really cool. I'm happy that he will be able to go to the Temple soon and do the Temple work for his Dad who was been dead for 10 years now."

3-22-2010

"Im sorry but i can tell you right now this wont be a long email because i have a horrible headache and am in a really bad mood so im sorry. It has been such a hard week for me. My companion is a 17 year old kid who doesnt listen to anyone. I have caught him with 3 personal cell phones hiding from me trying to call people and he has left me two times all by myself when i didnt know where the heck he went. He was suppose to get sent home for what he has been doing but i dont know if it will happen. He doesnt speak any English and i am getting better at Albanian but it isnt even worth it because 24/7 i have to stress and worry about what he's doing and where he is at. I dont know if i will last another 2 weeks of this. In two weeks he is done and i new group of 4 elders come in and i will get a new companion."

3-15-2010

"It has been a crazy first week with my new companion. His name is Eris Mustafaraj and he is 17 year old Albanian Cun who really doesnt know anything about missionary work, lol. He doesnt speak any English and is very messy. It's funny because there is no such word as personal space here in Albania. Basically anything he sees he uses so i had to remind him that im American and he cant use my razor, deodorant or open up my journal and try reading it, lol. He is quite the character,lol. I dont want to sound all negative though because he is a good kid just doesnt know how to be an elder really. I had to take away his personal cell phone and little Nintendo game he had, lol. I know im just a mean companion taking away all this stuff. And to make things worse he didnt know we do street contacting or knock on peoples doors so he didnt want to do any of that this week. I tried to explain that if we dont knock doors or talk to people in the road we cant find anyone to teach. So ya it has been a rough first week. I think we are finally on the same page though. We have a few lessons planned for tonight and we set a goal to find 5 new investigators this week and knock some doors so it should be fun. I can say my language is quickly improving. I honestly was doubting myself if i would be able to communicate with him good enough but i seem to be getting by. I cant always understand him but as the days go by im getting better. As Albanians say avash avash =). I will be with him for 3 more weeks so hopefully i will continue to improve. It has been hard on me though. It is mentally tiring only speaking Albanian all day. It reminds me of a scripture in 1 nephi actually where it say that the Lord gives no commandment without providing a way for man to accomplish it. So even though i felt inadequate to be in this position God is providing a way. My understanding skills have improved tons over this week and i know it is nothing im doing. So even though it's hard i will be able to get through the callings i have... As far as district leader responsibilities im am over 10 elders in my area. I have awesome elders in my district so my job isnt hard at all. Everyweek we have a district meeting and i do a training and try to figure out what we can do as a district to serve the people better. Im in a big district but they are all awesome so it wont be hard for me. Hopefully next transfer the same elders stay because they all work hard and are obedient.
The weather has been pretty crazy here. Rain, rain, rain oh and did i mention more rain,lol. Today is actually a beautiful day so hopefully it is the beginning of more beautiful days. I cant wait for the summer. I here its really hot but i would rather be talking to people in the hot weather and not the freezing cold. I dont know why but people are just more friendly when it is nice weather,lol. And i would rather get shut down for 3 hours straight tracting in the heat rather than get shut down for 3 hours in the freezing cold. My ping pong games went really well last week. I lost a few games actually but i won all the series and came out on top, lol. I didnt play president because he had to leave for something in another near by town. He said we will play soon though, lol. So im pretty excited. Today we are going to go play pool at a pool hall. We also played frisbee this morning and it was a blast. They wanted to play basketball but i told them no i cant play. I will make sure i stay away from the basketball court. Okay well i dont know if i have anything else. For somereason i feel like im forgetter something. If i am i'll tell you next week. Hopefully this week will be a better one for me. I just have to keep my head up and keep pushing forward. Missions are full of ups and downs, lol. This week no matter what will be a good week because i have a baptism sunday which i think i already told you about. So im excited about that. We also start up english classes 2 times each week which we teach so that should be fun as well. Oh and were are helping a family move into a new house. See i knew if i kept typing more things would come to my mind,lol. Alright sorry ill stop blabbing on. You all have a great week and i will talk to you again soon."

3-8-2010

"So i guess i can tell you about my week now. As far as the question about tracting i dont know anybody in this area so the areas we tract are brand new to me. We have a few people we are teaching from the previous Elders that have been here but other than that we have been working hard to find new people to teach. My comapion has been in the country for a little over a year and has been in this area for 4 or 5 months. He is way cool and we played tons of frisbee this week. We woke up at 5 today and went and played, lol. It was pretty cold but it was fun. I wish i had my camera because it was really muddy and we were filthy and people were looking at us like we are crazy. 10 americans running around playing frisbee in the mud. So i recieved some crazy news this week and im really nervous. My companion is geting transferred as assistant early because one of the missionaries here is finished with his mission so they did a little emergency transfer. The missionary who is done is an Albananian local and he started at a weird time so his 2 years are up so we will be getting a mini misisonary for 4 weeks until the new group of people come in to Albania in April. And guess who is with the mini missionary? Yep its me, lol. Im so nervous because he is a 17 year-old Albanian who doesnt speak any english and doesnt know anything about missionary work. Im so nervous. He will be coming up on wednesday so im just trying to prepare myself. I think it will be good for me though because it will be 4 weeks of nothing but albanian so hopefully i will improve at the language. It will be hard to understand but i just have to be patient and work hard. It will be a great opportunity for me to grow in the language and as an individual. So next week i will tell you how my first week went. Oh and i also got called as district leader so that is also stressing me out a little, lol. I wont have any problem as distrcit leader but it will be hard trying to train this Albanian kid and trying to fulfill the responsibilities as district leader. I think it will be good for me though and i know i can handle it.... I also found out yesterday that one of my investigators in my old area is getting baptized on the 21st!! We found her about 3 months ago and right before i left we committed her to baptism but she wasnt sure but she called me yesterday and told me so i will be going to that baptism on the 21st which im really excited about..... Other than that i dont know if i have anything exciting going on. I think that was enough news for one email right? lol =). I received a package of chocolate last week so thank you for that. It was so good!! I didnt relize you sent me chocolate so i was surprised. Sorry your spending more on me over here by buying me stuff and shipping it than what you were spending on me while i was home, lol. And you thought you would have more money with me gone, lol jk. Alright well sorry i have to go so fast but i have a big ping pong game with President Neil. So far i havent been beat in a tournament but i hear he is good so i better bring my A game and beat him. But then again if i beat him he might move me to a really bad area for the next 18 months, lol. So i might have to let him win or atleast keep the score close."

3-1-2010

"So i guess its time to talk a little about my life this week. I came to my new area on Tuesday and my new companion is awesome. His name is elder Allen and we get along way well. I think i said it last week but he loves sports so 3 times a week we get up and go play ultimate frisbee and the other 3 days we run and everyday we work out at night. Im really excited for this transfer it should be fun. Wen it start warming up we will probably go play ultimate frisbee every morning. We wake up at 5:45 and run down about a mile to a park and meet a bunch of people there and play. It is a blast. Right now its been raining and the field is muddy but its fun to go slipping around and trying to play in it. The house i am in is so nice. It's two stories and i get my own bathroom. Right now it is freezing cold because we only have a heater in our bedroom so at night it is nice but when you go to the bathroom or downstairs to cook breakfast i can see my breath. But it is still really nice and im glad to be here. We have had a lot of success already this week too. The first day i talked to this man and his 2 kids in the road and got his phone number and the next day called him and all of them met us at the church and had an awesome lesson. We are meeting with them again this week and they are really excited and excited. We also got in 4 times tracting but no return appointment came from it. Owell atleast we are still working hard trying to find people. One house we got in was this funny man who kept trying to get us to drink Raki with him. At the end of the lesson we asked him to pray and he was like i cant i have been drinking and i cant pray when i drink. And then he was like i would go to the Mosque (because he is Muslim) but i cant because i drink, lol. It was so funny listening to him. He just kept saying i want to do this stuff but i cant because i drink and im drunk if i didnt drink i could and would but i drink, lol. He was a funny man. Maybe one day he wont drink so he can pray. One thing about this new area is that we walk tons. We run in the morning and then throughout the day we walk a good 6 miles i would guess. Our house is a mile from the church and then we go from the church and back to our house atleast 4 times a day plus with the other walking and tracting we are on our feet alot. Thank you for sending me a package i hope it wasnt to hard or expensive. I will let you know when i get it. Today we are going to a nice restaurant to eat called Era. They have such good pasta. Then i think we are going to play ping pong at the church. I must say im pretty good at it now. I have been beat a few games but never in a tournament game we have here. I probably just jinxed myself, lol. Alright i think that is all i have for this week. Sorry i didnt write tons but hopefully i will have more next week. I cant believe February is over and it's almost May."