Lushnje Is Fantastic!

Elder Clawson and Elder Watson street contacting.  Sharing the Good News with some cute little ladies:)

Dearest family,

I have had a lovely first full week here in Lushnje. Nothing crazy has happened so far but we are slowly getting work which is a more than I can ask for since we are opening a new area in Lushnje. Our days are still full of finding but we've also been able to really connect with a lot of the members here. The youth here are fantastic and make up like 50% of the entire branch but they are all really nice and like to have fun. 

Tis the season for hayfever!  Even in Albania.

So this last Monday we were out street contacting and we stopped this kid named Flosed. He lives in Berat which is about an hour out of here and he is in Lushnje for school. We asked him if he had time to come up into the church with us for a second. We gave him a Book of Mormon and promised him that if he read it and prayed about it, he would be given an answer from God. He accepted and then left. The next day we had an English Course and he actually came to that which was dang exciting. Unfortunately I'm the teacher for the beginner course and he is in the advanced class so I wasn't able to get to teach him any more english, but we were able to have a lesson with him about The Restoration of the Church. Juxhin came and sat in with us to help us which was flipping awesome. (I've actually known Juxhin for quite a while. Since October as a matter of fact. When I came down here on an exchange from Durrës, I met with him while I was with Elder Bullock. At that time, he was still an investigator and was preparing for baptism. We had a short lesson with him and we clicked from the beginning. I left and when it came time for his baptism, they asked him who he wanted to baptize him. He told them that he wanted me to do it. That was the same week that Julian was getting baptized in Durrës and so they told him that I was already busy with something. I really wish I could have done it but I'm glad he liked me enough to ask me if I could do it. Right now we are like brothers and we have some good times together.) Anyways, Flosed's lesson went really good and he asked a lot of really good questions that really made me think to answer them. One thing that he is having a rough time is the whole Resurrection thing. We'll have to explain that a little bit more the next time we meet him. (Perfect week for that!)

Going for the double chins.

I'll tell ya some other stuff that happened this week. We were street contacting and out of the blue comes this big gypsy guy. He comes up to me and asks me how I was doing except he was saying "ç'kemi? A je mire? Je i bukur." Which is kinda something girls would say to us. I answered him and told him we were good and then he smiled, stroked the left side of my face with his large hand, said "Oh, sa mirë!" and then walked away whilst blowing us a kiss.  Gotta love it. 

P-day at the beach!  

Blue crab from the Adriatic Sea.

In sacrament meeting yesterday a nice older lady was up bearing her testimony. She stated how she loves the work of the missionaries and how they bless the lives of other people. I was sitting on the very front row because I had to pass the sacrament so I was just sitting looking at her and listened as she bore witness of the truths she had seen in her life. Then she ended with a testimony of missionaries and the work they do and then she looked at me and pointed right at me and said "Ata janë shumë të mirë, dhe shumë të bukur!!" which means "They are so good, and so beautiful!" Everyone in the congregation got a laugh outta that because she legitimately pointed right at me! It made my day. 

P-day soccer game with all the other missionaries, and I think some members from Lushnje.

Today we went to Fier to go to the beach. We got there, parked our car, and were gone for about 15 minutes. We came back and found two cops out putting a boot on our tire. Elder Palmer and Bilodeau instantly were like "What the heck are ya doing?!" I won't go into detail but the Albanian police know what kind of cars the missionaries have and they know we have money so they like to swindle us. They asked for 70 euros to take the boot off and that was not gonna happen. They threatened to tow the car so we called Elder Morava, (an albanian missionary in Fier who is awesome.) and he came and lowered the cost to 30 bucks. Not bad. We paid and we left for the beach. The beach was cool. A little dirty but cool. 

Everything is going good with Elder Watson. He's quiet and kind.  He's definitely growing and getting into the rhythm of things. Defineately a good kid! 

Well I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week! Filled with sprinkles, candies, butterflies, snickerdoodle cookies, movies, snuggles, bunnies, hostess powdered donuts, and everything else that makes you smile. 

Love, Jed