Miracles DO Happen Today!

March 2, 2015 email

P-day fun!

Dear American Family,

Well it was a good week. Lots of stuff going on and miracles abounding in every moment.

So Monday night we actually had to run over to a members house and give a blessing. The father of the home has been really sick the past few years and hasn't been making any progress. He needs blood transfusions every other day so it's really rough on him and his family and they called us over to give him a blessing. It was super good to give that. So in the last 1 and 1/2 weeks we have given 9 blessings to missionaries, members, and non-members. Since that has been happening so often I decided to study up a lot on the Priesthood and see what I could learn more about it. Can I just say the priesthood is awesome?! God has literally given us is power to use as long as we are worthy to exercise it. On my mission I have seen amazing things come to pass from the Priesthood but also from raw faith that people have. I was listening to a talk that I had on my hard drive and it was talking a bit about spiritual gifts and healings, and someone had asked why aren't there miracles today like there are in the Bible? The truth is there are miracles that occur even MORE often in these days! People receive blessings for all kinds of things and we kinda just skip past the miracles that are exposed afterwards such as a headache that ceases, a quickened recovery after an accident, a new job opportunity, and all kinds of other things are manifested in abundance in these last days.

Tuesday we had District Meeting and such and then we had to do some work for the Bishop in connection with helping some members at a hospital. Hospitals are the worst. The smell makes me see red. Good thing I don't go into them very often. Then we handed out a bunch of english course fliers and then had our class for the intermediate speakers. We've got a pretty good class but they are a little rambunctious. But I love teaching English so it goes pretty well. After that we had a lesson with a V and it was awesome. We are trying to help him introduce his wife and family to the church but he is a little timid and worried about it. Pray for that man!

I don't think it's dangerous?!

The next day was a bit more busy, we handed out English course fliers and then we met with the L family with V so he could get his hometeaching done. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how we can feel peaceful due to the fact that if we keep the commandments of the Lord, we will be totally fine and nothing is going to effect us eternally besides the commandments. After that we had to help another member do his hometeaching but his family is the Spaldings. So we went over to the American Embassy housing and had a good lesson with them. They have the cutest son! I just want two twin boys as a father, that's all I want. One to be a professional biker and one to be a professional skiier. Anyways, now that I've shared all that, afterwards we went to the D family and talked about the Sabbath Day and invited V to come to church with his wife and to not go to work since he owns his own place. He is coming to church next week for Stake Conference he said so hopefully that sparks a little something in his heart.

Thursday we did service all morning. We decided to pick up garbage from off the side of the road and someone had stuck a massive jagged piece of rusty metal in my bag and I moved it past my leg and it sliced my leg open! I got blood all over my sock and shorts. I went to the church to get something to clean it and the bishop just happened to be there and he flipped out and got me the Body Fluid Spill kit complete with mini shovel to scoop up any guts that may have been spilled during the accident. One other interesting thing that happened while picking garbage, I found a CD called "STING: The Ultimate Collection" I'll bring that home for you all seeing as we enjoy Sting. It seems to be in pretty good condition for having been on the road forever so hopefully it'll work. After that we had a lesson with a brother on the High Council. After the lesson he asked if we could help him buy something off Amazon. My Amazon skills, which were inherited from Mother, came in handy. After that we had our English Course and taught about Faith. Usually when we have a lesson on Faith it's because we couldn't think of anything else specific for the person but we felt prompted to teach Faith. It was awesome! We got everyone participating and everyone learned something I think. Then we met with our investigator Florence and watched the Restoration movie. He said he had seen it before but he was really moved by it.

Friday was a little rough, we had no lessons planned and just a lot of finding. So that's what we did and then Motra X from Durres called us and told us that we needed to come to her office and meet some referrals that she had for us. So we went over to her office in the Center of Tirana and went into her conference room which was super nice. Next thing we know she walks in with 5 women all interested in learning about the Gospel and some for English Course. So Elder Braden and I sat there with 6 women ranging from 20 to 40 years of age and then finally a member  named Andi who had recently returned from his mission came in and sat with us. So we didn't break any rules. But we just explained a bit about the church and such and then Motra X started saying how Mormon men make the best husbands and that we are so filled with the Spirit and all these women started eyeing us like freshly baked bread at Great Harvest. Kinda weird so we just got all of their numbers and then left and later passed the numbers onto the sisters. That night I also went on an exchange with the AP's. I went with Elder Bangerter and had a blast.

Saturday we just went throughout our day on exchange. We played futboll in the morning and then had some killer good pizza for lunch. We had some lessons not show up so we decided to go tracting. I loathe tracting. But it's necessary at times. So we found a massive building to tract and went through the whole thing. We got several return appointments set up and lots of numbers. One man did get super mad at us and grabbed our arms and escorted us to the elevator but we just took it down one more floor and then walked back up to finish the doors on his floor. After that I went back with Elder Braden and we helped some people get there house all cleaned up because of the rain that had come down that day. Tirana got FLOODED! This family's house was like 7 in. under water so we helped them get it out and then sqweegied it down.

Sunday was awesome. A man and his daughter showed up and said they had met missionaries before but they wanted to learn more and come to church. Luckily it was Sunday during Church time. His name is Sokolli and he stayed for all 3 hours of church and loved it! But that's not all, our investigator Elton that cried last month in church, he came again yesterday and he is still awesome! We had a lesson with him after church with Ona and we watched the Restoration movie. At the end Ona started going off on random stuff and it was super hard for us to get in there and throw in our parts and we were super nervous that Elton was gonna be scared away. But we finally got to speak and that was awesome. We both bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Spirit did the rest. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted and it was fantastic. Elton and I are just crying our eyes out and Elder Braden is just thinking we are sissy la las. After that we ate lunch and took some naps and then had some contacting time. We taught the J family, there the ones in that pic, and we talked about temples and the mom asked lots of questions that I couldn't necessarily answer comfortably. But at least they all want to go!

Today we all went out to breakfast and had companion study as a district at the restaurant. They have a basement level where no one ever eats so we were able to eat Eggs Benedict and read the scriptures and talk about Churchy stuff. I'm going climbing in a bit because I haven't been for a bit and I need to talk with Dan. Pray for him because he is awesome.

Well my family, I love you all like a fat kid loves cake. Enjoy your week and be safe!

Love, Jedediah Jim

Dearest Mother, 

Well I finished the last of the Christmas package this week. I made the gingerbread cookies yesterday and they were lovely. I had the chocolate pudding for breakfast like two days ago which was also great. Thank you for that stuff! Well I was able to take 20 dollars out of my card last week in increments of 10 so that is progress. It just says that my limit is too low to take anything else out. Thanks for telling me all of the weekly happenings and it was so awesome to hear about Alton Brown! I hope you high fived him for me. I love you mother!!! Have a good week!

Love, Jedi