3-21-2011

"It has been really nice weather here for the most part. I haven't played soccer in a long time but i go running 3 or 4 times a week. There is a nice lake that we walk to and then it has a running trail around it and i run around it. I go with with Xhino who isn't a member but is one of my favorite people here in Albania. My comp. goes but usually walks around the lake and then me and Xhino catch up with him on the way around. It works out pretty good for all of us. Right now i'm living in an apartment and i really like it. It's not really big but it's just big enough.

We had a specialized training this week and Pres. took all of us bowling and to dinner! It was awesome!! We also had district conference so tons of members from all over Albania came to Tirana. There were about 400 members and it was such a blast. There were some good talks and it was good to see everyone gathered together. There were a few people that thought i was still in Shkoder so they were glad to here i'm back in Tirana. I'm going to go get a drink with one family today during lunch so i'm excited."

3-14-2011

"So today has already been a crazy day!! It's a huge holiday here in Albania called "Ditën e Verës" or the day of summer and we are in Elbasan for it. There are 12 of us Elders who decided to come here for our district trip because thousands of people come here from all over Albania to hang out and celebrate. It's about an hour from Tirana and we left early

My first week back in Tirana has been awesome. I saw a lot of old families and they are excited to have me back. The transfer of me moving out of Shkoder wasn't a huge surprise for a lot of people because i guess there was a small chance i could have moved in April but i just left a month early. I will end my mission here in 3rd branch and i'm happy for that."

3-7-2011

" This week has been really really hectic. A lot of unexpected stuff happened this week which made it a very entertaining week. The first big things that happened was that the other Elders left there house because it's in really bad condition but the big problem was that the owner flipped out completely,lol. It was dumb because we even payed for the month of March even though they wont be staying there and she is still very unhappy with us. The other Elders are staying at our house until they find a new house but while we were trying to move their stuff to our house the owner (who is a women) locked us for Elders in the house and wouldn't let us leave until we payed her a bunch more money that she said we owned,lol. I was shocked. Albanians love to just yell and speak over one another so our local missionary Morava and the owner were just yelling and screaming at each other saying not very nice things. Then finally Elder Vance came in with a paper that showed our contract owned over a year ago and she still wouldn't let us out. So then i got angry because she locked us in the house so we call our mission president and he told us to tell her she better find a good lawyer and we'll get our lawyer and do it the hard way. She finally let us go but only let us take one bag and leave the rest as collateral that we would come back to talk with her. Finally on Friday we went back over and talked to her and a huge argument started again about how we owe her hundreds of dollars. We told her to call the cops if she was serious but she just finally went back in her house and we moved everything out. I hope i never see her again. So ya there are now 4 Elders in the Shkoder house and it's been a blast.... Second big thing that happened is that i got transferred back to Tirana!! I was way excited when i got the call i would be going back. I am back in 3rd branch which has been pretty slow for missionary work but i am excited to be back working with the members and i'm with Elder Weaver who i trained 10 or 11 months ago. I will be with him until the beginning of April and then the new Elders come in and i'll be training again i believe."

2-28-2011

" I am excited for April to get a new comp. but it will be interesting to see who i train. Since Pres. stuck me up here i better get first pick on who i want,lol =). No i actually don't choose but Pres. knows and he'll give me someone who likes sports and likes to have fun while doing the work.... I was able to baptize Refik Saturday and it was really awesome. It might be one of my favorite baptisms since being in the country. He is just a stud! I think i already told you but the rest of his family and is relatives are pretty strong Muslims but he just has such great faith in Christ and the Book of Mormon that it's really motivational for me to be better and work hard. His son who is 15 was able to come to the baptism and he had a really good experience because all the youth from all over Albania met in Tirana that day for an activity and he was able to hang out with kids his age and play games and see that the people within the church are just normal people and laugh and like to have fun and enjoy life. His name is Remzi and he wasn't able to come to church on Sunday but he wants to hang out with us and play football with us and then from there maybe he will be interested in learning about the church. I'm glad i have the attitude of it's not about throwing people into the baptismal font always, it's just about getting to know them and building relationships and then taking it from there. I think that's the hardest thing about being up here is not being able to really build those strong relationships with the random people on the streets... Other than that not to much has been going on. Today we are meeting with the other Elders because Elder Morava has a b-day today and we're going to play games and chill at our house. It should be fun. There are no activities planned for this coming up week so I'm scared that it's going to go by slow,lol."

2-21-2011

"Prenda did get baptized and it went really well and Refik ( our investigator) will be getting baptized this Saturday and i will baptize him. I'm hoping that his family will also be able to come. He lives way out of town and it's hard for his family to come because they aren't wealthy by any means but the church is going to pay for the buses to get them to Shkoder and then we go to Tirana (2 hours away) for the baptism because there is no baptismal font in Shkoder. That will be the highlight of my week this week...

So we had transfer calls on Saturday and i found out that i will be with the same companion and i will be staying here until i go home in July. President told me he plans on having me training again in April when the new group comes in."

2-14-2011

"Things here have been quiet. No protests this week, or at least none that i heard about. My foot has been feeling better. On friday we ran into that big group of kids again playing football in an alley way and i stopped and played with them for about 15 minutes which was a blast but since i had my church shoes my foot was a little sore afterwards. I keep heating it and hopefully it will be %100 soon. As far as missionary work goes it was an awesome week. We have this awesome member here called Zef. I have a photo i will make sure to send it next week. Anyways, we went to his work, where he is a guard at a factory, and we played dominoes with him and had an awesome lesson with him because he will be going to the Temple in Germany for the first time here in a few months!! He's pretty excited and i'm excited for him as well. We also visit another member called Alma who is living in Italy but her and her daughters are here visiting for a little. We hung out with them last night and she has a daughter who is an awesome violin player. I also had to do a baptismal interview for the older women that we did service for the last couple of weeks. Her name is Prenda and she's awesome. I think i might have mentioned her in an earlier email but i can't remember. She will be baptised on Saturday and we are all excited about it because then the following Saturday Refik will be baptised and i believe his family is going to come to the baptism as well!! He would have been baptized this week with Prenda but it will be better if we wait one more week. I'm excited for him he is legit =). We only had 6 people at church this Sunday but it still went really well. The church is slowly growing here and we will be moving into a way nicer church building within the next few months and i think it will help people see that the church is here to stay. We have transfer calls next week and i'm actually hoping i stay. Elder Merepeza and Morava, the other Elders here, should stay and i love being in the same district as two local Albanians. If i do stay i'll get a new companion and i think my comp. i have now is going to the office. English class starts tomorrow and i'm hoping we have a good amount of people. I talked to my old comp. in Tirana and they just started an English class up and there were about 170 people i guess. A lot of the return students were wondering where i was. They asked where the giant missionary was,lol. Here i will be happy if we have 10 =). The church can't hold more than 30 so hopefully we have less than that,lol."

2-7-2011

"Protests did continue this past week but they were all down in the Southern part of Albania so this Friday they will be up in the Northern part, so up here in Shkoder. They have been pretty peaceful for know, knock on wood, but we are told to go inside when they start up so like i said before no worries.

This week has been a successful week, at least in my eyes it was. The kids here are really annoying and like to curse at us and it's even worse because my companion is a big walking target for kids to make fun of. I feel bad for him sometimes but i tell him he brings it on himself. This week i had enough of this group of kids, about 10 or so, so i took the time to go out of the way and talk to them. My comp. wouldn't follow me but i didn't care because i was sick of these kids. At first they started talking really fast and making fun of me because they didn't think i could understand but then i picked out one of them that was being really bad,with the language, and asked if his boyfriend was going to be around soon to pick him up,lol. He didn't like it but all his friends loved it and laughed. Then i started making jokes about the other ones and how short and skinny they were. After i was done we talked for about 30 minutes about myself and where i'm from and why im learning this language. Now whenever we walk by we always talk a little and one day we sat down with a few and gave out a Book of Mormon. We are also starting up an English course next week and a few said they wanted to come so it was a big success...

I still have a lot of work to do here in Albania and i know there are still peoples lives that i can touch so i am going to soak it all in and keep pushing forward to the end."