Maybe One Day I'll Be Big Enough To Go To Macedonia:)

This is Jed's Zone.  It included all 14 Elders going to Albania as well as Elders going to Hungary, and Finland.

So Jed and his fellow missionaries will be flying out to Albania on Tues. morning.  This is his last letter from the MTC and he sounds really excited to "move on" and start being a real missionary, meeting real people, and sharing the gospel with real investigators!  I asked him what they would be doing their last P-day in America.  It included a haircut, hamburger, and a Peach Mango Jamba Juice:)

Hello!

So yes we did get to go to the temple one last time for 22 months. Right after we ate breakfast from the cafeteria we went outside and ended our Consecration Week. (Consecration Week has been the last 7 days of speaking nothing but Albanian.) I think the Rome Temple will be done when I can come home. But anyways, WOW is the only word I can think of to describe Consecration Week. We only had English substitutes for 1 day and that was fine because it gave us an opportunity to translate and really listen to what each other was saying. The hardest is when you'd get asked a question by some new english speaking missionary, and you can't talk in English to them so they get all frustrated and

start freaking out. We had that happen a lot. This week has helped my language so much. I can't express everything that I would like to, but I can do  a pretty decent job at teaching, testifying, praying, and keeping a fairly mediocre conversation with someone. It's gonna be great next week!! We are all so excited to get the hecky outta this joint! It's been fun but we have had a huge influx of new missionaries these past couple of weeks and it's really started to get crowded. It was nice at first because it was just the Albanians, Hungarians, Finnish, Estonians, and a few Spanish and English missionaries thrown in and it was probably like 300 missionaries. (At the Provo MTC West Campus) But now we have just as many missionaries as the main campus. 

So my travel plans are as follows: 

We take the bus at 4:30 tuesday morning and our flight out of Salt Lake leaves at 8:40. I won't have a lot of

time to talk so I'll probably be calling from Washington, DC from Dulles. We get to DC at 2:47ish and we are there for 3 hours. Then we head out to Munich, Germany and we have a layover there for about 2 hours. Then we head to Tirana at 11:15 AM on Wednesday and we get to Albania!! SO EXCITED!! 

As freaked out as I am, I'm incredibly excited to get there and actually get into the work instead of just working with fake investigators.  Oh and I'll probably not be going to Macedonia, they don't speak a whole lot of Albanian and they generally don't like the missionaries there so they send really big Elders over there so no one will mess with them. Maybe one day I'll be big enough to go to Macedonia... But I would love to go to Kosovo but I want to stay in Albania cuz my language would get super sloppy and dirty in Kosovo or Shkoder. Thats where they speak Geg. 

So for my plaque I would like either: Mosiah 4:16 I think but I don't know if thats the one for sure. Just get one that talks about charity for other's cuz thats more my purpose instead of everyone's regular missionary scriptures. Sorry I'm lame. So in this next package, I would appreciate 3 things of my hair product, (AXE Whatever, is what it's called) And if you could put 200 bucks on my card I'd greatly appreciate it. I have to pay 100 for my baggage on the plane and another 100 for emergencies. A couple more pairs of socks would be sweet too! I burn through those things. I think thats about it. I don't have to mail anything home. I'm good on weight and I'm all ready!

Thanks for the story you shared about church the other day too. I wish I coulda seen it. 

I love you all and can't wait to talk to you!!

Love,

Jed

Dear Mom, 

I would love some peaches. Sorry I have to call you so late in the day, but they told us it would be better to call from DC. I hope all is well with you and the garden. What year is Grandpas Corvette? Well I love you so much and I'm excited to talk to ya. 

Love, Jed

P.S. Elder Holland came to our class the other day. I'm awesome I know. Unfortunately we couldn't take pics. 

Dad,

So I answered a lot of your questions in the last email. But I've been going into a lot of the New Testament and I have fallen in love with Mark 12 where Christ is telling about the Greatest Commandment. I love how the language is in the verses and how Christ tells the guy that he isn't far from the Kingdom of God.

Well I love you!!

Love, Jed