Contacting and More Contacting

Dearest Family,

This week was kinda long but full of good stuff! We finally found some new investigators and saw some good improvement on the progress of others.

So Monday we just went contacting for the rest of the night after we had gotten done with climbing and emailing. We had been out there for a while and then this guy was looking at us so we naturally stopped him and asked him if he wanted to learn. So we took him to the church and gave him a lesson on the Restoration and then he told us that he had actually taken lessons from the elders before and that he had heard all of this and that he really just wanted us to give him financial help. So that was when we ended the lesson gave him our number for future referrence and then we left.

Tuesday, we woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning and took off 30 minutes of our lunch time because we needed some blessings and so we had to sacrifice the only thing we could, which was time. So we got an hour of street contacting in the morning before District Meeting and then we had lunch and visited a family later in the day. We taught them a review of the Gospel and got them all hyped up and they were loving life. After that we had our English Course and we had a good time. Two girls showed some desire to learn after the lesson and we introduced them to the sisters and it was great. After that we had a lesson planned with Florencë and he didn't show up so we will probably drop him real soon because that brother is not acting on his knowledge. 

The Israeli, the Avonite, and the Kiwi.  Great Elders!

Wednesday, we woke up at the same time and got out street contacting and all that lovely jazz. After that we had a lesson set up with a new guy named Rifan but he didn't show up but ah well. We got more time to street contact. On our way to the church for a bathroom break we said hi to a guy on the road and then a conversation started and we were able to invite him into the church to come and learn a bit more. He accepted a baptismal date and loved the Book of Mormon. His name is F and he lives close to Elbasan so we handed him off to the elders over there but it was still great! We are trying to talk with everyone and so far it is really good. After that we had Ward Council meeting so Elder Penrod and Elder Braden went and got all of that figured out while Elder Sadiku and I met with some of his investigators. 

Thursday we went to go meet with V and his mom because we hadn't paid them a visit in a while and so we did that. His mom, L, fed us some really good food and we had a great time talking about the scriptures with them. After that we went CONTACTING!! Wonderful it was. And then we had a lesson with a guy named B. He thinks that he is a god so we had an interesting lesson with him explaining that we are God's children and that he is our Heavenly Father. He seemed a little skeptical but he said he would read. After that we had English Course again. We are really trying to get them all to come to church. After that we just went street contacting. Love it!

He's always got cute girls!

Friday morning we went contacting at the Pyramid with the other Elders and that was great. Got lots of numbers. After that we did some weekly planning and then the Assistants took Elder Braden to the hospital to get an x-ray for his foot because it's been hurting him for a while. Turns out he just has a bone spur. But I got to go on splits with ELDER PRINCE from Macedonia! It was the best ever! I love that guy to death. While with him we taught a guy named Mjeku who was awesome! He accepted a baptismal date too and we are stoked for him. Then we met with Behar again and had a Plan of Salvation lesson with him and had a nice talk about that. He is slowly going to get better and believe a bit more. He just thinks that God was made up by men so they wouldn't feel so lonely in the world. Even though he is very against the whole concept of God, Elder Braden, Brother A, and myself bore some solid testimony on the realness of Heavenly Father and there was no way that Behar didn't feel the Spirit. After that lesson we went and taught the J family about living prophets and had a good time with them. We invited them to get all ready for General Conference and such and they are preparing some questions that can be answered in conference. 

Saturday, it was the Day of Summer. Probably one of the biggest holidays in Albania. And Elder Braden and I set up 5 lessons with investigators and guess how many of them actually happened. NONE! Yeah so we just contacted for all day until 6 o'clock and then we went to a baptism which is always a joy. The man's name is P and he got baptized into our ward. He met the missionaries in 97 and then the missionaries got evacuated becasue of the civil war that went on so yeah. But he met us again and got baptized!

 Sunday was interesting. We had two investigators in church and the sacrament meeting was going great and everything and then Ersi walks in, and two of his friends. Ersi looks fine but then the two friends are wearing these huge flat brim hats and talking up a storm in the back of the meeting room and then their phones go off and so they get up in the middle of a talk and just make a racket as they leave the room. After the talk, the bishop got up and just ripped them a new one saying that this was a church and not a club and that we came here to worship God. It was really good but kinda frightening for our investigators. After church we went to the other Elders house and ate lunch and took a quick nap and then we had a lesson with Brother A. About 10 minutes into the lesson we get a phone call telling us that a members father had just died and that we needed to come take the casket down the stairs. So we hussle over to this house, carry down this super heavy casket down some flights of stairs in an apartment building and place it in the hearse and then the family puts us on a bus and we drive to a cemetery and we have the funeral! The man died and 4 hours later was in the ground! It was super fast. It was also very sad, we had all given this man several blessings of healing in the past because he had been suffering with cancer. It was sad for the loss but we knew that it was an answer to our blessings. After that the bishop told us that we needed to go with the family to a restaurant to kinda sooth the pain. Then we went home and I fell asleep while Elder Braden called for zone numbers. 

Today we went to TEG to go see what they had and they had gotten some awesome new stores but they were all ridiculously expensive so nothing happened. After that we went to the climbing gym and did some slacklining and bouldering. I'm getting lots better by the way.

Well that was about it. I'm super sorry that my emails are just lame lately. I'm hitting that point where emailing isn't that much of a highlight anymore. My week was an awesome spiritual week though. I know that if we sacrifice the little things in life that are holding us back from giving our all, we will be blessed and we will be more able to see God's hand in our life. I love the church, I love Albania and I love my mission! Have a good week everyone! Love you!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

Well I love you and I wish you a happy anniversary! I definitely agree with you on making cookies for the occasion. I hope you made me look good in your talk. And by the way, my singing is tons better than it was in America. So yeah that old lady loved it. I love you MOM!!

Love, Jedi