I'm Headed To Shkoder!

Mission Conference for the Adriatic South Mission!!  Pres. and Sister Ford will be returning home to England this week:)  Elder Clawson has absolutely LOVED them:)  Great looking group!

Yo family!

So yeah everyone, I got a transfer call last night! I am leaving Durrës and going to Shkoder! And Elder Watson is going to Prishtina in Kosovo! I'm super jealous that he gets to go to Kosovo before me but Shkoder is definitely going to be awesome. I will be serving with Elder Dahl. He came in the last MTC group with Elder Watson and he is a great kid from what I've seen. I"m excited to go up there with him. 

Elder Clawson with his Mission President, Pres. Ford.  (And Elder Baker in the back!)

Elder Clawson with Sister Ford.  As a mom, I love her guts!!  Thanks Pres. and Sister Ford for all you did!!

Well this week was really good. We haven't been able to meet with Elena this last week because she has been overloaded with a bunch of tests and courses. Curse school and it's horrendous tests that keep people from hearing the goodness of the gospel. But we have been able to meet with Cimi still and also with Ermal. 

Cimi actually showed us where his house is this week so we've been able to get into his home and teach them. They are doing a lot better and their situation is improving. Because God loves them. They have been reading bit by bit and they love it when we come over. They have told us that they always feel super great when we come over and it's nice to hear that we are actually doing something that changes the attitudes of people. We taught them about the prophet this last week and Cimi said it made perfect sense. We gave him a Liahona (the church magazine) so that he could read the words of the living day prophet. He loved it and was like "Why wouldn't God put a prophet on the earth right now? We still need to be guided." And I just said "Yeah." So he's ready for baptism. It's just a little hard for him to bring everyone to church because they kinda live a bit out of the way. So hopefully they will come when the new missionaries take over my area.

 

Another birthday cake from Elder Stewart and Elder Gray.

Ermal has been doing flipping awesome! He has been reading and he loves meeting with us. I'm glad that he is so awesome. He promised to try his very hardest with the Law of Chastity this week. He said it might be a little difficult for him but we have faith and he seems to be doing fine with it right now. He loves reading the stories in the Book of Mormon and he liked the story of Laban getting his head chopped off. He will be baptized soon I hope. There's no reason for him not to be. He has grown in faith a ton and he is just straight up great. 

Elder Clawson with a member from Durres.

So the new people that are taking over my area is Elder Foster and a trainee! (Elder Foster is the missionary who trained Jed when he first got to Albania. He is considered Jed's "Father" in missionary lingo, so when he trains a new missionary that young man becomes Jed's "brother")I'm getting a brother and I can be comfortable in the fact that my father is going to take really good care of my area. There's one thing that I wanna explain about white washing in Albania. Usually in America, if your area is whitewashed it means that you kinda slacked in that area and nothing good came from you. Here it's not like that. We have so few missionaries that we can't go a transfer without something being whitewashed. When I go up to Shkoder tomorrow I will be whitewashing my 4th area. I love whitewashing because I don't have room to slack off. It gives me a reason to work harder and try harder to get something going in that area. Baptisms don't always come with whitewashes and I'm fine with that. Success is never measured on baptisms and if that's why people have come on a mission, then they need to go home. 

Needless to say I'm super excited to go to Shkoder! Elder Jorgensen will be there wit Elder Temple and we have a car in our District! I'm so excited. I love Elder Jorgensen, he's one of my MTC brothers, and he's from Castle Dale, Utah. He is super funny and I'm gonna love being with him. I've loved my time with Watson and he has become a lovely social Albanian cricket. He is definitely not the Watson that I picked up in Tirana that first day. He has opened up and talks quite a bit more. I think I definitely helped with that because I talk like all the freaking time. He has taught me a lot as well.  He's helped me see some little imperfections that are keeping me back on my mission and I've been able to correct them and see the blessings that come from exact obedience as a missionary. Like music, I didn't listen to music that was like what I listened to back home but I was listening to stuff that didn't necessarily invite the Spirit into the house and was in accordance with the sacredness of my calling. We worked on that and then blessings came. We love the people here in Durrës and we love the friends that we've made.

Elder Clawson's family tree.  From right to left.  Elder Foster was Jed's trainer, therefore he is the "father".  Jed is Elder Foster's "son", and Elder Eliason, and Elder Watson are both Jed's "son" and Elder Foster's "grandsons".  Got it?  Or you could just say they're all fantastic missionaries!

Also this last week I got two more birthday cakes. I got one from Elder Gray and Elder Stewart that had a bunch of skiiers on it and then Ersi invited me over to his home one night and he had a cake for my birthday as well. I'm gonna miss all of these people but I'm excited to see what Shkoder has for me. Instead of speaking Tosk I'll speaking Gheg (Gheg is a dialect that they consider "Dirty Albanian")which is going to be awesome! AND THE BEST THING!!! The women won't be so scantily clad because I"m not right next to the beach!!

One of Jed's favorite friends.  Elder Tanner who has finished his 2 years in Albania, and is now safely home in Idaho:)

 

Although there are crazy things, I love these people. They are awesome and they are ready for the gospel. I love being here and I wouldn't give up these experiences for anything!

I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Love, JEDEDIAH THE CLAW

Dear Mom, 

I'm sorry but I died laughing when I saw that pic of Emma. Tell her to get better. I'm glad everything is going alright. I saw that the bakery has ice cream sandwiches now. That's pretty neat. 

I don't have much to say but I love you! Mission Conference was awesome and I loved seeing all of the missionaries! I thoroughly enjoy them. I'm dying here, it is too hot. I love you!

Love, Jeddy Poopoo