Aug. 1, 2013

Dearest Fam!

I'm glad to hear Grandma Clawson is making some progress. Give her a hug for me.

So happy to see that Elder Clawson knows how to study:)

So this week has been good. This morning i got some really good excersise in with Elder R. He's the one that pitches for the college in San Mateo. He has two mitts so we went outside the house and played catch and then he practiced his pitching with me cuz he has to keep his rotator cuff and shoulder in good shape. He pitches at 92 MPH. And I was catching them like they were nothing. He said I was pretty good at pitching but I'm pretty sure he was just lying.

Elder Clawson's Branch Pres. who
reminds him of Grandpa G.

My new investigator, Bujar, has been a pain in the butt this week. We taught him the lesson on The Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was all up for having faith and praying and what not, and then yesterday we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said "Nuk besim ne Jezu Krishti. Nuk ditur nese ai ishte Biri i Perendise." which translates to, "I don't have faith in Jesus Christ. I don't know if he was the Son of God." I was getting ticked so we decided to end the lesson there because there's no way the Spirit can come into a room and testify to an investigator when the teacher is in a bad mood. I felt really bad for being frustrated but i tried to not let it show during the lesson. So next time something like that happens I'll be sure to be understanding.

The most frustrating thing is when i'm in a lesson and the investigator asks a question that i know the answer to, and i don't know how to say it in Albanian. I don't like the feeling of being restrained in my thoughts and words due to my insignificant knowledge of a language. I'm trying so hard. I've been emailing Austin Knowles a bit and he's given me some nice advice on learning the language.

The new cafeteria is super nice! The food isn't heavenly but it is so much better than the other stuff we were eating. I've been so unhealthy with my food choices here. I feel fat. When i got the package of bread and Funyuns, I went to the store and bought some Queso, and I dipped funyuns in queso with the elders that are going to Mexico. It was delish but disgusting all at the same time. And when Kirsten sent me the bag of Funyuns, I ended up eating them by myself in one sitting. That was a bad idea as well. But thank you for all the goodies! The bread is awesome and everyone loves it. My teacher,

Elder Clawson and his tall comps.

 loves the pumpkin bread. He's really poor since he has a brand new baby, and a young wife and he goes to school full time so he enjoys being able to eat. I don't know if the glasses or the watch or socks are supposed to be sent here, cuz i haven't seen anything. I haven't gotten a lot of mail for the week so I don't know if they got lost or something.

Tell everyone that i love them! I hope everyone is safe and healthy! Tell my friends to not do anything crazy too.

LOVE YOU!!
Jed

Dear Mom,
I hope the primary calling isn't too stressful. Who took your place as the sunday school teacher? How are the Kureks doing? I miss you all and i wish i was coming down to Lake Powell with you. The Deser Daze is awesome, huh? I miss your good food,and just being able to take a nap. I get so tired during devotionals and what not and I might pass out due to lack of good sleep. For some reason I haven't been sleeping too well at night and i don't know why. Last night though, Elder Olds woke up at like 1 in the morning and started teaching something in spanish. But the best part was he got up and said "Listen up you Fools!" and then he started speaking spanish. He does a lot of weird things at night. He farts way loud too but so does Elder Linderman. We have learned how to cook microwave burritos with an iron cuz we're too afraid to mess up our toaster. That toaster is so awesome! Especially with the Asiago Sourdough. We smuggle little butter packets from dinner and stick them in our fridge just for the bread. Well I love you and I hope you're not stressing over me too much. I'm healthy for the most part. I think I might've fractured my hand before I got to the MTC cuz it's been hurting for a while but I'm drinking lots of milk so I'm sure I'll be fine. If not I'll have someone look at it.
Love you tons!
Jed

Dear Dad,

The District

So every Sunday we watch a church movie. And there's only two to choose from. The Testaments or the Joseph Smith story. So this past Sunday we watched the Testaments and I can quote every line from it now, but I decided to draw some specs for a bike that i want you to make while I'm gone. Send it back to me if it needs more (which i'm sure it does.) and I'll do it if i ever have free time. I have fifteen minutes at night for myself so I can do it then. It's not distracting me from my work here. I study everyday for like 8 hours. Which reminds me, there is a lot of super crazy stuff in Alma. I didn't even catch all of it when I read at home. I hope Lake Powell was a blast! I love you tons!
Love Jed

Dear Siblings,
Emma, every Elder in my district tells me that they are going to date you when we all come home. Which i wouldn't mind cuz they are all super cool dudes. I hope everything is going well with Eric. Tell him Congrats on mexico for me. Spanish is easy. We hate spanish speaking elders cuz they always complain about how hard the language is and then we whip out our huge notebooks full of noun declinsions and verb conjugations and say "Shut up Elder. This is what a real language is." But I"m sure Eric won't complain.
Jake,  I hope you have maintained the dirt and jumps on the track. Which reminds me, in the winter it'll be sick for skiing.
Seth, I hope you're making all kinds of weird things out of duct tape. Remember that you are awesome and that I love ya. A mission is so fun and I know that you'll love it when you end up going on one. I hope you've been having fun with Jace and all the cousins too.
LOVE Y'ALL!
Jed