Finding, Member Visits, and More Finding

The District!

Jan. 20, 2014 Email

Hello Beloved Family!!


So I'm happy to hear that you all had a fantastic time at Sun Valley! I am also glad to hear that Seth is becoming a beast at skiing finally!!
Well this week has been full of finding, member visits, and more finding.

 

The week started out with us just standing out on the sidewalk of Myslym Shuri, which is a pretty popular street in the Tirana e Re area and we found absolutely no one! We've spent probably about 48 hours this last week doing finding. Fortunately we've finally found several really good numbers that we've been trying to meet with. One kid is named Elton and he has met with us once. He's a really good kid and he brought his friend Geris who we also met when we street contacted into him. He has a Book of Mormon now and he's been reading but he hasn't been able to meet with us because he works a lot of the time.

Therefore, we've been doing a lot of work with recent converts and less actives. We met with this one guy named Leo and he lives out in the fshat (village:  thank heaven's for Google Translate!  I am becoming fluent:)) called Kombinat but we met with him and he said that he wants to come to church but he has some health issues and it's hard for him to go out and get to church. He is also trying to find work.  We have also been meeting with this one girl named Algida. She is a fantastic recent convert and she is booming with the Spirit. She has translated Jesus the Christ into Albanian and whenever we have a lesson with her she always asks us how we can apply the lesson to ourselves and she basically teaches us. She is so great!

 

Combined Language Study

We are meeting with the Juba family to teach them the retention lessons. They usually feed us dinner  which is pretty awesome. Samuel and Evi are doing awesome in seminary and they are passing and preparing the sacrament every single week and I'm like a proud father!! 

Speaking of being a proud father, Elder Eliason is doing fantastic! His language is getting better, slowly but surely. I had an interview with President Ford and he suggested that I have a combined language study every now and then with the other Elders in my district. We've done that twice and I've taught both of the times and I know it's helping them, but it's also solidifying my own language skills. 

Wrong bathroom Jed!  Even I can read that Albanian sign:)

President Ford asked me how my family was doing and I told him that you were all at Sun Valley skiing and he just said "Well that's sad that you're not skiing with them, but you're so blessed to be here in Albania!" And I couldn't agree more!!

Lately I've really started to see how much Albania is starting to feel like home. I'll get out of the house in the mornings and we'll say hi to the bakery lady, see the usual old guys out playing dominoes and it's nice to feel comfortable here. I really do love being here. As much as I miss all of you, I do not want to leave. It was also really cool to see Dave Johnson too!! I'm glad he got a picture with me and Elder Anderson for ya'll. It was fun to see a familiar Providence (Cache Valley) face. He just reminded me of his sister, Mary Kate!! They are so similar.

 

P-day lunch.

Tell Jake that if he's eating at a nice restaurant, they serve real buffalo burgers. But I know how he feels. Today I asked for some chicken wings, and I got 5 pitiful little things that resembled the arm of a chicken. Come on people!! All I want is some OREOS and some BBQ Sauce, Old Spice Deodorant, and good toothpaste!! (Those are things I would like in the next package.)

I hope all is well with everyone, I love you all and I miss you all!!

Love, Jed

 

Dear Mother,

Are you starting to suck at skiing now?! You couldn't keep up with everyone? I'm glad Jane is following in my footsteps. Even though I never remember saying I was sick. I'm glad to hear that Weston is okay. I don't know him very well, he hung out with another group of kids, but I had the same classes as him a few times. Thanks for keeping me updated on everything Mom, I appreciate it. I love you so much!!

Love, The Eldest Son, Jedediah

The Things That Help Me Learn Albanian

Sorry friends and family!!  This is last weeks email from Elder Clawson!  I'm a slug and a slacker and Jed has chastised me for not having it up in a timely manner.  I promise I'll keep up:)


Jan. 13, 2014
Hello Everyone!!

So this week has been pretty fun and lots of finding has been going on. Elder Eliason is slowly but surely making improvements in his language abilities and it's really cool to see him blossom into a beautiful Albanian butterfly. 

Since we kinda baptized all of the investigators that I had with my previous set of companions, we have been spending an awful lot of time out finding. And it has been really slow. The past two days have probably been the best of the week because people were actually stopping to talk to us, but they just didn't have the whole desire to learn more. We had a few potential people that I thought were feeling it but they just weren't quite super accepting of what we were saying. Kinda rough but ah well.

Jed and Elder Eliason were EXCEEDINGLY proud of these homemade nachos!!!

Last Monday night we were asked to go out to a little fshat outside of Tirana, to visit a member who needed a blessing. We got to her house from the bus station and we talked with her for a little bit and she had an old friend there that I talked to for a while. She was like 80 years old and was telling me the story of her life basically and how she had her husband and son die by the border of Greece and all kinds of other crazy stuff. I kinda wanted to switch tangents so I asked her if she was with any religion at the time and she said "Yeah I'm a Jehovah's Witness." So that was the extent of my religious conversation seeing as we have plenty of arguments with JW's in the streets. The lady we were giving the blessing to was very grateful that we had come all the way out from the center of Tirana to come and give her a blessing. She made us a meal which consisted of chicken, rice, tuna salad, juice, and my son's (His companion he is training) favorite thing ever, fshat kos. This is the kinda kos (yogurt drink) that they let go sour and it gets all clumpy and you eat it with a spoon. I just downed my bowl and my poor companion almost threw up the first bite he took. I told him if he eats the kos, drinks the dhallë, drinks the ujë me gaz, (carbonated water), and eats the cat meat, his Albanian will get better faster. After we finished eating we gave the blessing for her and really felt the Spirit. It was a nice way to start the week. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Eliason getting ready for the day.

We didn't teach a ton of lessons this week but the ones we got were really good. Evi and Samuel received the Aaronic Priesthood two weeks ago and they passed the sacrament yesterday and it just made my heart jump for joy! They are some awesine kids and I think they will be some strong members if they stick to their guns. Also, I don't know if you all remember but I had one investigator that I had to give to the sister missionaries in another branch and her name was Eli. She was an older lady but she was progressing very well and I had very high hopes for her. She is now being taught by two sisters and she is getting baptized!  And she asked me to baptize her!! I'm so excited! So that's all the good highlights of this week. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Brown saying their goodbyes.  Elder Brown LOVES being featured on
the blog and is now home:)

I hope you guys are all having a fantastic time in Sun Valley. I'm sure it'll be fantastic ripping it up on the slopes and what not. The weather here feels like September at home. I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts right now cuz it's not cold enough for pants today. It doesn't usually get too cold and there's no more snow in the mountains which kinda sucks. Maybe I'll go to Kosovo sometime next winter. I'd like that. I'm having fun and being safe and smart. My companion gets freaked out about how close I get to speeding cars when I cross the street, but I just tell him it helps me learn Albanian. 

A very typical meal.  I have lot's of pictures of this dish.  It's called a Meat Pot and Jed said it's delicious!!

Elder Clawson and Elder J. from Jed's MTC group,

I love you guys so much and I hope you all stay safe!!! Tell Emma to text Carson to let him know that I love him and I'm excited for him to come join his Nord Brothers in the field!! Kirsten said he gave a really good talk too. Love ya guys!!

Love, Jedediah the Nord Lord


Dear Mother, 
I'm glad you get to go skiing with everyone in Sun Valley. I'll miss that this year but hey, I might not even be able to afford skiing with ya when I'm home so I guess you can all get used to not having me with you!! Those Red Velvet cookies looked delicious and I would say send some to me, but I don't know if they'd survive. Well I love you Mom, have fun and tell everyone I said hi. 

Love, Jed

I Understood Every Single Word

Elder Clawson on the quiet streets of Tirana, Albania on P-day.

Hello my lovely family,

Well I am a proud father. (When a missionary trains a new missionary straight from the MTC they are considered father and son.  And the funny thing is that Elder Foster, who trained Jed, is now considered Elder Eliason's grandfather.) My son is one Elder Eliason from a little village in Illinois. He's a month younger than me so it's not one of those weird situations where you give birth to a son that's older than you. 

These elders are all waiting to pick up their new trainees. 

So I picked him up at the mission home last Thursday along with all of the other training Elders. We were all super stoked to get our sons. We had a really good training from President Ford, (a training on how to train. THE IRONY!!), anyways, that was really good and I totally forgot that when you have a trainee, you get put on a different schedule than the normal missionaries. We have an extra hour of study during the day for "The Training Program". And they also really emphasize the fact that we shouldn't skip out on those studies. It's kinda different than from what I'm used to in the past. We kinda would skip out on a few studies as I had been here longer because we would have lessons but I guess the studies are really vital for the trainees. 

This is Jed's new companion.  Elder E. The caption that came with this photo was, "I'm Happy!"
He actually sent a really cute picture of
both of them smiling, but it was too blurry.  Sorry!  So just imagine Elder Clawson smiling too!

We took a taxi with all of Elder Eliason's stuff in it back to our house and we moved him right on in. We went out street contacting that night with the other missionaries in our branch. One other set of Elders and a set of Sisters. They are all fantastic, and the new kids are a really good group of new missionaries. 

Elder E was in his high school band and he has lots of fun stories.  He is a hard worker and enjoys putting himself out there. Me and Elder Bullock, have been throwing our trainees into the fire recently so they kinda get a foot hold on how people will react to missionaries. We had them contact by themselves for about 20 minutes last week and they got a solid number of people they talked to. They are doing great.  We are doing a lot of finding, or street contacting right now.  We have found some pretty promising people.  We met one kid named Elton that called us and asked if we could meet on Sunday and give him a Book of Mormon. We met with him last night but we didn't have enough time to really get into anything, so we just went through the introduction of the Book of Mormon with him and he seemed pretty stoked on getting the book to read. 

Jed saying goodbye to his latest companion.  

So hopefully this week really gives out some good investigators.  One amazing thing that happened this week was with my language. I was having a really hard time understanding people completely with my last companions and that was one thing that really made me nervous. I knew for a fact that no trainee was going to understand a native speaker that speaks a million miles an hour, and I was the person who had to understand what was being said. But our first lesson, I understood every single word that was said. And I was able to explain my own thoughts and that made me feel like a million bucks. Thank you all so much for your prayers. I know for a fact that they are what's keeping me alive and going here in Albania. 

This picture is from Christmas right after the elder's Skyped their families.

Today for P Day we went to the big treg (a large enclosed market)and I bought a hoody and two new ties. They're pretty cool. Elder Eliason bought a new watch and a couple cool ties as well. I told him welcome to the land of cheap ties bro. Then we went to Tajvani and went bowling again and this time they had the cosmic lights on!! That was awesome. Then we took our new companions  to eat a "Special Pita" at Time Out which is one of the missionaries favorite things in the world. We also made them drink Dhallë. That was awesome. (From what I've heard, this drink is very common, and served everywhere, but I haven't heard of any missionaries who actually liked it.) 

dhalle

is a cold yogurt beverage mixed with salt. In addition to Turkey, where is it considered a national drink, ayran is found in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Lebanon, and is present in the North Caucasus, too. It may also be referred to as Turkish buttermilk. ...

I hope school is good for all the kids. The new couch looks freaking awesome. But it'll be a while till I see it in person. I love you all so very very much. Have a good week and have fun skiing and stuff. Tell Jess good luck with that baby!!

Love, Jed

Dear Mom,

I hope you had a good time at Jess's baby shower. It looked like a lot of fun. Tell Gem good job for learning how to ski and tell Grandpa that he better be down with skiing with me when I get home. I hope everyone is happy and healthy. Love ya mom!!

Love, Jedediah 

Happy New Year From Albania (and BTW, I'm training!)

Today's p-day activity involved climbing to the top of "The Pyramid" in Tirana.
New Year's is the big holiday in Albania.  Jed said last night was like World War III.  Rockets and fireworks blasting all night!

The pyramid: International Center of Culture (Albanian: Piramida) was a museum in Tirana, Albania, that opened on October 14, 1988. Formerly known as "Enver Hoxha Museum." This pyramid-shaped structure was designed by the daughter and son-in-law of the late communist leader Enver Hoxha. It served as a museum about his legacy, but after 1991 became a conference center and exhibition venue. Some sources have referred to it as the "Enver Hoxha Mausoleum" although this was not an official appellation.^[1]

During the 1999 Kosovo War, the museum was used as a base by NATO and humanitarian organizations.^[2]

It appears that the 17,000 meters square complex may be destroyed for the new Albanian parliament to be built on its place.^[3][4][5] However, some leading foreign architects have opposed such a move while other supported it. Historian Ardian Klosi who died recently, initiated a petition not to demolish the structure with around 6000 signatures. Prior to being designated as the seat of the Albanian parliament, the structure was originally supposed to be turned into an opera theater. However construction works were halted, while the exterior marble tiles were removed and seen in a depot outside of Tirana.^[6]

Since 2001, part of the Pyramid is used as broadcasting center by Albanian TV channel Top Channel. The surrounding space is currently being used as a parking lot, and bus station for mini vans to Elbasan.

Hello sweet family!!!!!!

So it's been a while since I've written you all an email. Lots of stuff has happened though. 

Well I started the week with Elder A and we just kept working with a family we've been teaching and with E. and getting them all ready for baptism that week. Before Christmas we had the baptism for E and there were so many people there to support him. All of the young women came and watched him be baptized which was a totally self esteem boost for E. He also brought his sister who kinda had interest in the church but not a whole lot and we still haven't been able to set up a meeting with her. The baptism went fantastic and I didn't have to dunk him  more than once. He gave a balling testimony and we all ended with lots of smiles.

The next day was the day for the family's baptisms in Durres.  So we ended up taking a fergon (Like a big van with tons of people on it.) on out to Durres and I got to see tons of old friends there. Two of the Pjetri family kids were there and I got to talk with them for a while as well. The dad got to baptize all three of the kids which was such a spiritual boost for that family. The kids came up and gave their testimony and cute little Erik got up there, said good evening, and then just started crying! It was the cutest thing that I've ever seen!!

So we were on cloud nine that night and we actually came home with the family in their freaking nice Mercedes-Benz. That was a lot of fun and Erik was going freaking crazy. But ah well.  

So it was basically just busy work after that with Elder A until Christmas came. The Shkoder Elders came and stayed with us all night Christmas Eve and that was ridiculously fun. The next morning we woke up and I opened up all of my presents, which were so cool by the way, and then we made blueberry pancakes for everyone. We went to the treg (an open market I believe.) and I bought a new watch and some new scarves and what not and then we went on our way to the mission home to go and eat with the Fords.

 There were 6 of us who were invited to come and eat at the mission home. We got to the mission home and waited a little bit for everyone to get there and then we all sat at the table and exchanged some gifts that we had been given from the Fords. We had lots of good things to eat at their house and we all had a good time. After dinner we completed a big puzzle with a picture of a Ferrari on it. Then we watched an original British Christmas movie called the "Snowman" which was just a silent cartoon with a soundtrack of music but I really liked it. It was cool. 

Then I went to an internet joint and I got to Skype with ya'll!!! That was fantastic to talk with everyone. Jane is so big! It's ridiculous. I've missed out on all of that fun with her!! She made me more trunky than Kirsten did. And thanks for letting me talk with her for a little bit as well. We both appreciate it. 

After all that, A and I just tried to get work done. He was dying hard core and I know it was hard for him to get the desire to work. (When a missionary is about to return home they are considered "Dying".  Compared to when they get to the mission they are considered "Born".) But we did fine and it was really sad when they left on Sunday. Two elders came down from Shkoder and they picked up A from the house and Elder B just stayed with me. We said our goodbyes and told them that we would see them in a year and a half! That was the night that we also got our transfer calls.

Me and B went and worked and then came home to wait for our calls from President Ford. B got his first and he was told that he would be staying in Shkoder and he would be going with Elder V. who is a native!! He was stoked and nervous at the same time but it was all good. Then President wanted to get on the phone with me. 

He asked me how I was doing and how it was with Elder A and after I had answered all of his questions he told me that I would be staying in the second branch, and I would be training. 

I don't know if this is a big deal to ya'll, but it blew me out of the water! I'm the only Elder in my group who will be training and I don't know if I'll be able to handle it!! This boy better be good at the language or heaven help him cuz I won't be able to. A lot of praying has been happening with this and I'm excited to start. I meet the new missionaries tomorrow and we'll have a meeting and then I'll be taking my new "son" to the house to start work. Pretty crazy. 

Well that's the news for the week. I'm glad you all got to go skiing recently. Sounds fun. I love you guys so much!! Have a good week.

Love, Jed

Dear Mother,

I am super nervous to train. It's a really big step for me and I hope I can do my best. I hope everything is okay with you and the family. I love you guys so much. 

Love, Jed

Another New Companion

Hello my dearest family,

They bought a real Christmas tree!

So this week was really awesome with Elder Baker. We had a fantastic week and we got a lot of work done. We've been working very hard with E and with the family we've been teaching, and they are all still planning on being baptized!! We met with E the other day and asked him about his parents allowing him to be baptized because he said it was a bad idea for us to come and talk with his family about being baptized. So he came to us the other day and said that his dad wouldn't allow him to be baptized because his dad is a different religion.

After talking a bit longer we found out that his dad is really just frustrated with him because he's been sluffing his last hour of school almost every day and he's starting to get bad grades. So I told him he needed to go to school and to be a good kid and then we asked if he had prayed for his dad's heart to be softened and let him be baptized into our church. He said he had so we told E that his prayer would be answered very soon. 

The next day was Sunday and he came into sacrament meeting with a huge smile on his face saying that his dad had given him permission to be baptized!! We were all super stoked and jumping up and down like little girls. Good day!!

So that's all the amazing stuff that happened this week. This last Tuesday though, Elder B and I were walking after a District Meeting and we were just walking and chatting about life and in front of us is this 16 or 17 year old boy. Pretty tall and big and I was noticing that he was flipping something in his hand. I thought it was just keys to a house or something and then he turned around and approached us and Elder B got this big concerned look on his face and then I heard him ask if the kid had a problem. I watched Baker grab the kid, twist his arms around his head, and then B slammed him into the side of a parked car that was off to the side of the road. I guess this kid didn't have keys to someone's house, he had a butterfly knife. Thankfully B saw it and realized what it was. The kid just walked away and we went our way. So that was kinda crazy. 

Missionary life!

But I had to say good bye to Elder B today. Elder O (An Albanian elder waiting for his visa.) left today to start his mission and I am being put with Elder A who is going home in 15 days. He's really excited to go home but we are super excited to serve together for a short little while. He was on Special Assignment with Elder W but they got taken off that and now I'm with A. (Special assignment missionaries work strictly with men working to get the Melchezadic Priesthood.  Albania is hoping to form their first Stake in the next few months, and they need a lot of priesthood leadership.  Exciting for Albania!!)I'm really excited to serve with him. He lives close to us and skiis all winter long. So we have a lot in common. We've talked about Lee's Mongolian  BBQ a ton and lots of other stuff about Utah. It should be fun if he doesn't get me too trunky and stuff. 

Cleaning out the baptism font this last week.  Jed said it was growing some serious mold, and these missionaries are having a lot of success and baptizing, so it needed a good cleaning!

Sunday dinner at the Senior  Missionary couple's home.  This wonderful older couple feeds this group of missionaries every Sunday.  So kind!!

Dinner must have been good!  

Thanks for telling me about Gus. (One of our dogs died this week.  It was so sad.)I'm incredibly disheartened that he is gone though. I honestly thought Lucy (Our other dog.)was gonna go first but I guess not. I feel bad if he was hurting before he died. It does break my heart though. He was a stud of a dog. His ridiculous crooked run. Or when the hay in the field would be up super high and you'd see his head bobbing up and down like a rabbit. 

Our favorite Gus died this last week.  He's been with our family for almost 13 years.  Such a good dog!  He will be missed.

Well I haven't gotten any packages yet. I did get the one from Erin though and it was awesome! She made me a sweet pillow case for Christmas and this fantastic peanut butter jello stuff that I ate for breakfast one day. It was amazing. 

Well I love you guys so much. I'm glad you got to see Kirsten this week at the farewell. She loves seeing you guys. Enjoy your week and have a good time getting ready for Christmas. I'll be skyping you at about 6 o'clock here which is about 10am there so be ready in the morning. I"M EXCITED!!

Love, Jed

Dear Mother,
those cookies on the blog look fantastic. Elder Brown is also sitting next to me and he was stoked to see his pic on the blog. I love you so much and thanks for writing me every week. 

Love, Jed

New Companion This Week

Hello Everyone!!

Mes Bridge (Albanian: Ura e Mesit "bridge in the middle")[1] is a bridge in the village of Mes,[2] about five kilometres (straight line) northeast of Shkodër, in northwestern Albania. It was built in the 18th century, around 1780, by Kara Mahmud Bushati, the local Ottoman pasha,[1] and it spans the Kir River.[3] It is 108 m long, and represent one of the longest Ottoman bridges in the region.[4] It was built as part of the road that goes up the Kir Valley, eventually to Pristina.[3](from Wikipedia)
Jed said the bridge is 2000 years old, but it seems that it's actually about 250 years old, but still impressive!

This week was the craziest week of my entire life.  I have a new companion.  It's Elder B.  Pres. Ford called last week and proceeded to tell me that I was going up to Shkoder with the Assistants and we would be picking up Elder B. who was in the same MTC group as me and then he would be coming down into Tirana with me and we would continue workin here. 

Shkoder, Albania.  Beautiful little city. Sightseeing before everyone wakes up.

Saying goodbye to Elder M!!  He will be missed.

So we left at 3:30am and got into the big blue van that they use to transport the missionaries. We drove all the way up to Shkoder which was about an hour and a half. I wanted to sleep but I just got talking to the AP's the whole freaking time so unfortunately I didn't get any sleep. We pulled into Shkoder at about 5:30 that morning and since the elders there weren't awake, we decided to not go wake them up. We got a loaf of bread and then just took off to go see a really cool old bridge that's been there for like 2000 years. It's huge and way cool, I've got a few pics. So we looked at that for awhile and after we kinda looked around the town of Shkoder for a while. It's a really pretty place and I would love to serve there now that I think about it. 

So 6:30 rolled around and we went to the Elders house in Shkoder. They were in a triship meaning there were three missionaries serving together.  One of them is an Albanian missionary waiting for his visa to go to Australia. We had a good breakfast with them. Lots of eggs.

Breakfast with the Shkoder missionaries.  Lots of eggs:)

This is Elder Brown and he wanted a feature on the blog:)

So we took Elder B with us after breakfast which was a little bit sad for him, I know exactly how it feels to be taken from your birthplace, (They call the city they started their mission as their birthplace:) but we were both glad to be serving together. On the ride home we got about an hour of sleep and then the AP's dropped us off at our home. We took Elder B's stuff up into the house and unpacked all of his stuff and then I just explained how I was going to die if I didn't take a nap. I had been up since about 3 in the morning and now it was time for me to catch up on some sleep.  I slept from 12 to 2 and then we had a lesson with Evi!

So now to the work subject. Evi and the family we've been teaching are all doing fantastic! They're still planning on being baptized, so that's awesome as well. We have to go talk with Evi's mom or dad this week and have their permission to have him be baptized. I hope that all goes well. He's reading and praying every day and he's a great kid. He has those moments where he acts like the teenage boy he is, but for the most part he's fantastic. 

Elder Clawson and Elder B with a favorite investigator.

We also have a new investigator from our English Course named Eli. She's about 55 years old and has a son that lives in Canada. She really wants to learn English so she can go and visit him. She showed a little bit of interest in the church when we would give our spiritual thoughts and she really knows a lot about God. We had our first lesson with her last Saturday and then we met with her everyday since. She reads and loves coming to church. We had two baptisms for some of the other missionaries this last Saturday, and she came to one of them and said it was absolutely beautiful. Elder B and I invited her to be baptized and she said she'd try her best to be ready. So I call that a yes if she stays as golden as she has. 

Elder Clawson and Elder B on Pday.

Missionary life.

Elder B and I are really struggling with the language but we can already see the improvement that we've gotten in the last week. We are getting work done. He's a really hard worker and knows his purpose for being here on a mission. It's always fun to talk about our adventures from our past life. We get along super well and he likes Tirana already. It's pretty big and the people are kinda weird sometimes but he's accepting the fact that it's just where he is. 

We are the first of our group to co senior which means two from the same group are comps in the field. We are also the youngest to co senior seeing as no one coseniors their first transfer into the mission. 

Jed's Christmas tree courtesy of Elder Matson's family.  Thanks Matson's!!

I love this pic!!!  The entire Adriatic South Mission.  It is small compared to other missions, but big in heart!  Jed is right in the middle by the sister with the yellow scarf:)

We're are being safe and having fun doing the work. It's starting to get really cold which is awesome but Kirsten told me that it's ridiculously cold at home. I'm glad to hear that you all had a fun and eventful week. 

Tell Eric and Devan that I'm excited for them. (Some of Jed's friends leaving next week for their missions!) I miss seeing their ugly faces.  Well anyways. I can't wait to hear about the skiing adventures that you guys have. It'll be fun to talk to you all on Christmas too!! Have a good week and I love you all!

Love, Jed

Dear Mother, 

I haven't gotten the packages yet but I did get Erin's today. So maybe at the end of this week I'll get them. The mail here just sucks. I'm excited to eat those pretzels!! Thanks for all of your prayers. I can definitely feel the influence they have on me.  I love you so much. 

Love, The Eldest

Have You Ever Received An Answer From A Prayer?

Dearest Family,

Mishies outside the church.

I'm glad to hear that all is well with you and with everyone else. I'm glad the canyon was open and you were all able to go through that way for Thanksgiving. Sorry Basin wasn't good enough for you all to go skiing though. That kinda makes me sad. How was the food at the party and the Clawsons? Probably superb. 

Jed made 4 fruit pizzas for Thanksgiving and a mission conference.  Can you tell he is a baker's son:)

My Thanksgiving was actually really good. So I left for the mission home with 4 huge Fruit Pizzas that looked like HEAVEN!! We had a good mission conference for a couple hours where we received training from President and Sister Ford, which is always fantastic because they are funny and can always help us do better, and then from a couple of the missionaries as well which was fantastic as well. I was kinda down on myself though and a little bit homesick. But that exact day, I got a letter from Dad and also from Kirsten. They were sent about a week after I got into the country and I got them about 3 months late. But their letters really comforted me and got me back into the Spirit of Working. I was very grateful to get them and know that I'm not forgotten!! Just kidding, I know you all love me. 

Elder Clawson and Elder R. who was in Jed's MTC group.  Mission Conference.

After we ended our mission conference, we all went down into the basement where all the senior couples had prepared a meal for all of the missionaries. There was turkey, stuffing, potatoes, rolls, tons of desserts, and loads of fruit salads. It was all so good. The only thing that I was kinda bummed about was that the stuffing wasn't Stove Top brand. I really like that stuff but oh well. It was fun to just talk and to chat about whats going on in all of our areas. It's nice to see the Elders from Kosovo that we hardly ever get to see as well. I talked with Elder Rawlings and Allgaier a ton and got to know how everything is working up there. Seems all is good and the work is coming along slowly but surely nonetheless. 

So for the talent show stuff, I sang a remix of the Pokemon theme song with the district from Durres, and for the district here in Tirana we did a midget dance to a cool primary song. Unfortunately the zone in Lushnje and Fier won but they had a sweet talent. They had a way cool rap that they did. The overall winner was Elder Brown from Shkoder and his "magic" tricks which were hilarious. All the Elders from Shkoder are actually going to be staying at our house tonight which should be a party.

The dessert contest was really good. I genuinely thought I was gonna win the contest but I lost to a cheesecake! All the missionaries just like chocolate stuff cuz they're a bunch of cheesecake lovers. Just kidding. Or am I? 

Elder Clawson with two young men who are going to be baptized!

I had an exchange this week with one of my zone leaders. Elder P. We had a really good day together and got work done! Our (Jed and Elder Matson) goals this week for numbers were 10 member lessons, 10 other lessons and 7 new investigators. It meant that we were gonna have to work really hard. We reached 2 of the 3 goals and we are very happy. We got a golden new investigator named Evi. He's really good friends with a boy named Samuel who is already one of our investigators and he's been bringing Evi to the seminary classes and to church for a bit. He asked to be taught because he wants to be baptized and we were just like heck yes!! 

He's being baptized the same day as a family we're teaching and he asked me to baptize him. My first legit baptism if this goes through. He reads every day and yesterday I had a lesson with him about reading and praying often and one of the questions that I asked him was "Have you ever received an answer from a prayer?" And he just beamed and said "Yeah, one time I prayed and I received two answers from one prayer!" Instantly I was just like, You are a stud Evi. You know this stuff is true and YOU ARE AWESOME!! So we are also teaching several of the people from our English Course. They are very happy to meet with us and I'm hoping that they go places. They have fantastic potential. 

Today for P Day we went bowling as a zone basically. I took 3rd which definitely boosted my ego more than it should. We left from bowling and came to the Winders home and had some fantastic BLT sandwiches. They seriously are some of the nicest people. 

We have a Christmas tree taped up on our wall with a few of Elder Matsons presents wrapped up underneath. Maybe I'll buy myself a present just so I can have something under the tree. I've eaten the pumpkin bread and all of the other mixes now. They were delicious. I'm saving the wassail a little bit. I want some Christmas morning before I go and work. I'm excited to talk to ya'll!! I may ask you to take my bike into the frame so I can see it. 

Snow in the mountains above Tirana, Albania.

So, this morning I got on to read the emails that I'd gotten from everyone. I read Mom's first and I was instantly bawling like a baby. It has broken my heart to hear about Mr. Litizzete. (Jed's favorite teacher of all time died Sat. in a tragic accident.  Here's a link to the news article about it.) That guy was not only the best teacher I've ever had but he actually helped strengthen my testimony. He wasn't a member but he was a God fearing man and every now and then we had some good conversations on the subject. Having little chats every now and then with him was one of the funnest things to do during a busy, rushed, and hectic school day. I loved watching some sweet GoPro video every day before class started. I enjoyed going to the Banff Film Festival with him too! I enjoyed talking with him about "Where the Trail Ends", downhill biking, skiing, kayaking, rock climbing, and all sorts of crazy stuff. He was the one that influenced me and Scott to go skiing at Alta during the middle of a school week. He had an awesome beard and ponytail for heavens sake!

But the best thing that he did for me was this: He helped me see God's hand in everything. When he would teach us about how plants use the light to survive, how DNA replicates itself, or how animal populations could effect everything around them, I knew he was thinking the same thing as I was. All of this is part of something bigger. He was definitely one of the best people I've ever met. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week. I love you all and remember that this is the true church!!!!

Love, Jed

Dear Mom, 
Thanks for keeping me posted on everything. And thanks a ton for the recipe for fruit pizza. They turned out fantastic and they should have won because they were good. All the senior couples told me it was amazing. I'm actually making one for the family we're teaching tonight so that will be fun. I love you so much and thanks for everything. 

Love you, 
Jed