I Have A Testimony Of Banana Bread

Dearest Family in America, 

Elder Clawson and his district.  Elder Roberts is the second from the left, and Motra Curtis is the dark headed sister 4th from the left.  They both returned home this last week.  They will be missed!

I probably had the best week of my life... Probably. This week was so good for us and we have loved working here. I'm getting on super early today because in approximately 2 hours I will be escorting my dear friend and colleague, Elder Carson Reece Roberts, to Tirana. He has honorably fulfilled his time as a missionary and is going home. (Elder Roberts as well as a lot of other missionaries Jed loves returned home last week.)  

We met with Nezir this week and he is still doing great. He might need his date pushed back just a little bit because he is still smoking a bit but he is definitely making progress. It'll probably just be like two weeks later or something. Nothing extreme. 

We've also been meeting with a new investigator named Agim Bega. He is awesome. He is super receptive to the gospel. He isn't in our area all the time so we have to catch him when he is working here and when he has a break or something. We invited him to be baptized and he was a little hesitant but he'll come around soon. He's a really good guy and he wants to do what's right. 

The is the NEWBORN monument in Kosovo.  It was revealed on Feb. 17, 2008 on the day that Kosovo declared their independence from Serbia.

I don't know if I mentioned this last week but we are meeting with another guy named Ilir Gashi. He works with wheelchairs for the disabled and he saw how the church really does a huge focus on humanitarian aid and stuff like that. He got in contact with us and he loves meeting with us. We asked him if he would be baptized as well and he said that he's a little worried because his entire village is Muslim and he doesn't know how they would take it. He also mentioned that he doesn't want to lie to people and say that he is Muslim if he is baptized in our church. He's a  great guy and we hope to see more of him. 

Here's the link on the NEWBORN monument from Wiki.  

I guess the biggest success this week happened on Saturday morning. Elder Price and I decided to make some banana bread and head out to Srdan's house for a surprise visit. We've been trying to get in contact with him but he has been telling us that he has lots of work and that he has no time to have us come over. We wanted to do some service for him earlier in the week but we had some other stuff come up and we weren't able to go out to his home. So we decided to do this surprise visit to kinda see if he really was busy or if he was just trying to drop us. We got one of the members to come with us, his name is Ardi, and we drove out there. Right when we pulled in to his house he was leaving. He saw us and invited us in and was blown away that we had made him food! He loved it. So we all went into his house and just ate banana bread with his wife, brother in law, and kids. His wife wants me to come over and show her how to make banana bread and I think I might be doing that later on in the week. But we just had a quick chat and talked about how life was going and we just had a good time talking. 

I'm sure glad Jed know's how to play soccer. (He played on year when he was 6!)  The sign Jed is making with his hands is the double headed eagle of the Albanian flag.  

The following day he came to church! And he also brought his brother in law named Jugoslav. He's a good guy. He is super short. Like a whole head shorter than me. It's nuts! Some of the members translated into Serbian for the both of them and I had to translate into English for a new Embassy worker that came. We also did a special musical number in sacrament. I played 'Come Thou Fount' on the guitar and the other missionaries all sang and I personally thought it was really good. We had actually done it the night before for a branch talent show that we had but we had been dressed up in funny outfits and Elder Price was playing the çiftalin which is like a 2 string guitar. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Price getting ready for the branch talent show.  They played  Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.

After church we had a lesson with Srdan and Jugoslav and we invited them to be baptized. They said that they would try and we are very excited to help them along! It would be so awesome to have some Serbian people in our branch! 

Last night we also got transfer calls. I told you all last week that I wasn't expecting anything to change with my companionship but Elder Price has been called to serve in Lushnjë as the the Zone Leader down there. I will be companions with Elder Jorgensen (Which I am super stoked for) and Watson will be leaving to go train a new missionary in Durrës, and Sister White is training in Second Ward in Tirana where I was a while ago. I'm sad that I'm the only one staying in Prishtina but it's alright. I enjoyed being with Elder Price and I had tons of fun with him and with the whole district that I had. I'll be back in Kosovo tomorrow with Jorgensen and work will begin again! 

I love you guys so much! Have a great week and remember to be safe! Loves!

Love, Jedediah

Dear Mom, 

Sorry I got on before you could email me. I hope everything is going well at home. I used Ruth's Banana Bread Recipe (here's the link to the best banana bread on the planet! It's a hit in Albania and Kosovo.) for Srdan and it worked out super well. Thanks for teaching me things like that. I love you! 

Love, Jedediah Jimmy