Fallen In Love With Vlore

Loving his new area Vlore, Albania!

April 6, 2015 email

Hello family!! 

first off, this computer sucks and the keyboard is a mess so do not mind my mis-capitalization and any other gramatical errors. 

well, i have officially fallen in love with vlore!! it is such an awesome place!!!!!! i put a lot of exclamation points to emphasize the point that it's awesome. so monday i just said goodbye to a bunch of people and told them to stay solid in the gospel. earlier that day i said goodbye to my favorite suflaqe owners and they both started bawling like two year olds. kinda rough. 

the next day i got up and finished all my packing and then i took off to the mission home. every single missionary in the world was there and i got a chance to say my goodbyes to all the departing missionaries. it was super rough on me. i had seen all of the sisters come into the country and i had worked with most of them and it was just sad to have to say bye. Juxhin from lushnje actually came to tirana that day to come and see me so that was cool too. unfortunately i didn't have a camera to use or else i woulda gotten a ton of pics but ah well. i hooked up with my new companion, elder befus, and said goodbye to elder braden. we took all of the other missionaries and headed on down to vlore! we got home and dropped off all of my stuff at the house and then took off to our first lesson. we met with our investigator, filip, he is awesome and the first thing that i thought when i saw him was, holy cow, he's hugh jackman!! i sent some pics so you can all see for yourselves. he is such a good guy and is so ready for the gospel.

Vlore, Albania

He calls it Paradise!  Looks pretty good:)

wednesday we woke up and worked out and i don't really remembered what happened but it was a good day. i know that in the morning we met with two recent converts that are both around the age of 75 and we taught them the law of chastity as their post-baptismal review. Needless to say it was a fantastically interesting lesson with lots of explanation and stuff like that. the two men's names are novrus and nikolla. two awesome old guys that love being old. later on that day we met with filip and talked about his smoking issue. we gave him a priesthood blessing to help him out and he was so grateful at the end. just need to say that i love exercising the priesthood. good stuff. 

 thursday rolls along and we are just happy campers. we actually had  a service project at brother rokaj's home which is on the side of the mountain next to the bay. it has the best view in the world and i finally found the actual place where i will have my vacation home. up by him. after that we came home and had toast for lunch. i also have a killer view from my balcony of the bay. this is really the most paradise like place. after that we met with filip again and taught him fasting and such and talked a bit more about his smoking. 

P-day activity with Elder Clawson's district.

friday came along and it was all cookies and cream. we went and contacted on the boulevard and talked with lots of people about the resurrection of christ. one interesting thing, vlore has tons of jehovah's witnesses and everyone in vlore thinks that i am one of them. cool. that night we went and did a hike with some of the instituted kids and elder larson. it was super fun. 

saturday we met with some recent converts named altin and xhulieta. they are fantastic! they love reading the book of mormon and they are just so receptive to the spirit. they also have a super cute 2 year old girl named mishela. besides that we mostly just spent the day doing some contacting. 

sunday, we got up and went to church and had a fantastic time. the ward is pretty good here. we didn't get to watch conference but we will be able to next week so i'm excited. i just hear lots of good things about it. also i heard about the temples coming out. sounds awesome! after church we had lunch with the larson couple and then had studies and had a lesson with filip again. he has a problem with sleeping so he always sleeps when church is starting. (Who doesn't!) kinda sad but we'll fix that. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Befus overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

today, i went and played beach volleyball in my bare feet, it was wonderful. then i went and ate lunch and now i'm here sending an email.  i have a lesson with some members in like 20 minutes so i gotta go but i love you all and i hope you are all safe! don't worry, i am safe and working hard. loves!!

love, jedediah

dearest mother, 

sorry my email is really bad this week. my computer is of the devil and the keyboard is really broken. i should be on a bit later though. tell everyone that they will probably get an email later, or next week when i have a better computer. tell seth happy birthday though! tell him i love his guts and i'm excited for him to get the priesthood. i love you mom and it looks like you all had a blast at city of rocks this week! love you!

love, jed