Love Of The Bakery Lady

Oct. 20, 2014 Email
Hello family!

Elder Clawson at the market.

This week was kinda rough but it was still good. Lots of finding and stuff like that. 

The week started with our zone training! And personally, I think it went super well. We gave a training and had a good time with everyone. Lots of people participated which is always nice because I hate being the only one talking for two hours. After that we all went and ate at the Thai food joint and had a good time. Then Elder Jorgensen went out to Gjakova for an exchange with Elder Penrod and I stayed here in Prishtina with my boy, Elder Holm. We spent the night handing out English Course Fliers and having a jolly good time and then out of the blue this huge group of people starts chanting and hollering at the end of the boulevard. Being the curious missionaries that we are, we decided to go see what all the fuss was about and in the center of the city was a huge mob standing in front of this massive Jumbotron. I guess that was the night that Albania was playing Serbia in futboll and everyone was super jazzed up for that. 

Albania vs. Serbia Futbol match excitement!

We also had our first English Course class and we are teaching beginners again. I like most of the people there. They are nice and there are two boys that sit in the back that are awesome. They are actually brothers and they are learning a ton. I want to start the gospel lessons with them but their dad isn't cool with it. Speaking of their dad, we were talking with him one day and he was asking how life was in Kosovo for us. He spoke English pretty well and he said "So my boys don't understand English so we can speak of manly things." And then he said "How are you standing with the ladies?" I was just like "What you ask me brother?!" Yeah he gave me lots of tips on that kinda stuff and then I finally had the chance to tell him that I don't get with girls and then he just laughed and said "Sure, lets stop with the BS (but he dropped some real words)." So we'll work on the dad slowly and then we will get the boys. 

The following day we drove to Gjakova to pick up my companion. We drove back and then we just went through the day and taught some more lessons. The following Thursday we did service in the rain and picked up lots of trash and such. This one old lady saw that we were picking up trash for free and so she decided to just take us over to her house and clean up her super nasty window wells. Later that night we went and had English Course and that was awesome because one of the members brought like 5 of her friends and such and they were super fun to have in English course. Then afterwards we had Institute and they all stayed for that! Elder Jorgensen and I had the lesson that night and we taught the story in Alma 47 about Lehonti and Amalickiah. It went pretty well and they all participated a ton. It was a pretty fantastic lesson. 

Good looking bunch!

Needless to say they all came to church the following Sunday and are now receiving lessons from the sisters. 

Friday was the day that we had our district leader meeting in Prishtina. It went well and we gave a training on getting members into our lessons because Kosovo has had a struggle with that in the past and we really want to change that. We went the rest of the day finding and weekly planning. 

Service day, in their Help Hands vests:)

Saturday was good too. We cleaned the church and got it super clean because President Weidmann was coming up! They were here for Branch Conference and it was great. I loved it. We had a lesson with Nezir and we had the 1st counselor come in to help us with that one. We decided to start the smoking program with him because he needs some major help. We'll probably be giving him  a blessing pretty soon. But he was optimistic and ready to try his best. Really good lesson though, we shared 2 Nephi 31:17-21 and talked about enduring to the end. He's totally on his way to being baptized! 

Can you tell they're still teenagers:)

Jed.

Right after that we had a big meeting with President Weidmann and all the leaders in the branch and we really enjoyed that. President Bodell also gave a good piece in that and it was great. During that meeting President Weidmann talked about the missionaries and how much we sacrifice to come out on our missions. Then he asked everyone if they remember the names of THEIR missionaries that taught them and found them and he got to The Jashari family and they said "Elder Clawson and Elder Price" and my heart just melted with emotion! I am now legitimately thought of as someone's missionary. The person that helped!  The next day we had  church and we just had one big 90 minute block instead of 2 hours in 2 different sections. The talks were great and Betim was called to be the 2nd Counselor! We got to ordain him after that and that was a great experience. He is the man! Then we had chicken and rice for lunch and that was awesome! The sisters made it. 

We had a lesson with Gjon Jashari and it went fabulous! He was understanding everything and giving all kinds of good comments. He is a fantastic member. 

Futbol with the Young Single Adults.

Today was just a good Pday. We played futboll with the YSA kids and then I came here and now I'm emailing you. I also am having a contest with Elder Stewart to see who can win the love of the bakery lady the fastest. Who ever gets the first article of free food wins. I'm totally gonna do it but he has a head start cuz he started going to the bakery before me. But I can just turn on some of that old lady charm that I got going for him. There will be an update on that next week. 

I love you guys! Have a good week and tell Angie that I love her still!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I hope you guys have a great time in Hawaii! Enjoy the malasadas. Except for the pineapple ones. Those are the ones that I threw up the night I got my mission call. That taste still haunts my tastebuds to this day. Have fun in the water. Drink some POG for me too. I love you mom! And I hope all that canned food is good.