Two Service Projects

July 8, 2015 email

I love this picture!  A man Jed is teaching.

Dear family in Lake Powell,

Well I was sorry to hear about the houseboat not working and I hope you all survive living out in the wilderness for awhile.

This week was full of goodness, butterflies, candy, and powdered lemonade.  We were able to meet with Xhemil again this week and it went great. We had invited to begin reading the Book of Mormon from the last time that we had met him and we were expecting him to maybe read a couple pages or something but he had read most of 1st Nephi! He had some questions about why Laman and Lemuel were always against Nephi and the dad. It was super cool and we were able to just expound on how life will always have opposition no matter what we do because Satan will always be there to try and drag us down. We then shared the message of the Plan of Salvation and he totally ate it up. He also prayed for the first time which was a miracle and a half! I may or may not have had him just repeat the words that I said but baby steps are steps nonetheless.

We met with Erjon this week as well and kinda just had a smack down lesson with him. We explained that we aren't here to just sit and chat with people but we are here to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked to him a lot about how our message can help him in his life and we just tried to simplify everything to a point where he could understand clearly. We invited to be baptized on the 27th of June and he accepted so we will just pray and continue teaching in hopes that he can prepare himself. He is a good guy, he just doesn't think as much as we would like.

We were also blessed with TWO service projects this week. The first one we did was at an investigators house and we helped her pick flowers for chamomile tea. We stayed there in her garden for about two hours just picking flowers and socializing. It was actually super relaxing. The second project was a bit more interesting. We went back to the old peoples home but this time they needed us to help change all of the old people's bed sheets. We had to pick up the old people, throw them somewhere else, change their sheets and then throw them back in their beds. Good thing we are all super strong.

On Friday we were able to have a zone conference in Durres. We received a wonderful training from Elder Roemer and Anderson about setting appropriate goals. It was kinda funny because me, Elder Ostergaard, and Elder Rawlings have all been zone leaders before so we had quite a bit to say on how setting good goals can totally help an area when they are used correctly. It was Elder Rawlings' last time to see most of us because he is leaving next Monday to start summer semester at BYU. After the ZL's training we got another training from Sister Coleman on how we can basically determine how successful we are. She showed a little clip of Napoleon Hill which was cool and we all learned from that. Afterwards we all went out and got sufflaqe and ice cream. Good day.

These young men all became missionaries on the same day almost 2 years ago now!  Still brothers in the Lord:)

This week we were also able to meet an older couple. Peter and Margarita. They are an old Catholic couple and they love us. We met them on Friday night and taught them about the Family Proclamation. After all that she asked us if we had any Holy Water and we said no. She said that when she can't sleep at night she takes some Holy Water and wash her face with it and then she would sleep better and that she had run out. We explained that we didn't use Holy water and that we used prayer to ease our burdens. So she asked me if I would pray and bless her and their home, so I did. We went back last night and we were talking and she said that she'd had the best night's sleep that night. It was just really cool to see how excited she was!

Today we just went grocery shopping, and ate lasagna. Good stuff. I love you all! Have a killer week and enjoy life without me while ya got it.

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

Well Mom, the time is near and I need to get the siblings some gifts. I've got one thing but should I get them anything else? If so, I need the funds from ya'll. I have no moneys. I am totally loving Shkoder though. Elder Wilcox and I are taking the branch on our backs. I've been conducting in church and stuff lately so that's fun. The work is definitely coming. We are still doing tons of finding but I'm loving it. 

Love, Jed