Have Faith People!

Jed makes friends with all the little bakery ladies in every town he serves!

Hello Fam!

Well I had a really good last week with Elder Eliason. So the week was fun and we were able to meet with a lot of people. We had two exchanges this week as well, which made things a bit different. On Tuesday night I had an exchange with Elder Tanner while the two trainees went together in mine and Elder Eliason's area. We had a great day filled with lots of lessons and English courses. We teach the Beginners class together and we have some fantastic people in that class. There's only like two guys and then like 14 girls, but they are very receptive and they enjoy the class I think. They always laugh at our jokes too.

Elder Clawson and Elder Harvey on splits.

Elder Tanner and I had a great exchange and then this Friday we had an exchange with the zone leaders. I had Elder Harvey here in 2nd Branch and Eliason went with Elder Pierce. That was a good day and we learned a lot from each other. There's not really any Elder in this mission that I don't get along with which is a really good thing. 

Twinners!

So unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with the boys again this week which made me really sad. I hope they can find the missionaries again because it is impossible for us to contact them. I got Grandma Roberts letter from February though! It was awesome and I've used almost all of the stickers that she sent me. I hope you got around to sending that package. I am dying for some mail. 

I guess I'll tell ya what you really want to hear which is my transfer call. Well last night President Ford called me and this is how the conversation went.

JC: Hello this is Elder Clawson.
PF: And this is President Ford, How are you doing?
JC: I'm good how are you? 
PF: I am great thank you. Well Elder Clawson you've done a great job training and I think you're great.
JC: Well I'm glad that you think I'm great.
PF: (laugh) In fact you were so good at training, you're going to do it again. You will be opening a new area in Lushnjë with your trainee and the other 4 missionaries down there and you will also be the District Leader. 
JC: Awesome! I'm excited! Thank you very much!

Yeah, I'm opening a new section of Lushnjë. I am actually way stoked to go down there. I hadn't considered that option at all during this transfer but it was a very pleasant surprise. 2 companionships are going up to Peja (A new area in Kosovo) and 1 is going to Prizren which blew my mind but it's awesome for them! Elder Foster (Jed's first companion in Albania, and his trainer.) is actually going to open Prizren right now as well. I've followed in his footsteps exactly and it's kinda crazy. 
Elder Eliason is going to co senior in Vlorë with Elder Holm and he is way excited because he was expecting to stay in 2nd branch. They'll do awesome! 

On top of The Pyramid in Tirana.  This was how he started out his first week in Tirana, and how he ended his last week in Tirana.  With Elder Tanner.

I head down to Lushnje tomorrow and I'm actually living with the zone leaders until I can find myself a new house. And Elder Baker is taking over my area here in 2nd Branch!! (Jed was companions with Elder Baker for a few weeks in the 2nd Branch before.) Now I know I'm leaving it in good hands. He'll do awesome here. 

The coolest things this week actually both happened yesterday. First one was right after church. We were asked to help out with a charity/humanitarian project. We just had to deliver some clothes and some food to some of the Romas (gypsies) down by the Artificial Lake. It looks like Hoover Ville from the Great Depression and we always see it when we go running in the mornings. We took the stuff to the little colony and we started to divide everything to the people but there was WAY too many people for all the stuff that we had. Some people were really grateful and then others were flipping out at us saying that they didn't want this stuff, but that they needed other things. Crazy but C'a do bësh. (Whatcha gonna do?)

Gypsie encampment.

The crowd started getting kinda crazy and crowding around us. One guy started throwing stuff and I was just thinking "Oh shiz, we are going to die." Fortunately I had gotten out of the crowd, but I saw that Sister White was right in the middle of it! I have never been so protective of a missionary before. I went to grab her arm to yank her out of the middle of the freaky guys, but thankfully she just ran out through it all. Then we took off before anything got worse. So yeah that was an interesting experience. 

Thankfully we had a spiritual experience about an hour after that. A sister in the ward asked us if we could come over and give her a blessing because she has some health problems and she really struggles with depression. Elders Eliason, Tanner, Baldwin, and myself all went over to share a quick scripture and a blessing. Elder Eliason shared Helaman 5:12 which talked about Faith. I love the topic faith because it's just the first step to everything and we can't progress without it. The lesson was good and then I administered a blessing to this kind lady. It was such a good feeling to be exercising the Priesthood of God. That's what really seperates us from other churches and I love having the great opportunity to hold the same power that Christ held. And the Power of the Priesthood can only come through faith! HAVE FAITH PEOPLE! We left after the blessing and then we went home to eat lunch because we hadn't eaten at all that day and it was about 8 o'clock in the evening and obviously we were starving to death. 

And they ate it ALL!  Goats head and hot dogs.  A well rounded meal.  

We had a bunch of hot dogs and pitas for dinner. And also a Lamb Head. A legitimate head of a sheep. We ate it's eyes, tongue, and brain. It was awesome. 

Well I hope everyone is happy. WAY TO GO SHMEMMA on Exec!! Well tell people to email me. I only got three emails this week and one of them was from the mission. I feel unloved! 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. If you go to Moab or Zions, take Dawna (Jed's bike.) with you and have Jake ride on her. That bike will turn him into a downhill/freeride lover. Maybe he will even purchase it when I come back. Loves!!

Love, Jed

Dear Mother, 
My health is great and I'm actually gaining weight in muscle lately!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? I'm excited to train again and I can't wait to pick up my second Padawan! Also my title in the mission is now "THE CLAW" because I'm double training! I'm very happy to be going down south with good missionaries. I hope everything is okay with you. Getting ready for the garden yet? Well I love your stinking guts! 

Love, The Man with 4 Thumbs (he really only has 2!)