Baptisms And Potatoes

Dearest Familja, 

Elder Clawson and Nazir harvesting potatoes in Kosovo.

Once again I have encountered another week in the land of Prishtina, Kosovo. I have lived and I have conquered and come on top victorious. 

This week started out really good. On Tuesday we had a wonderful district meeting and then later that day we headed out to US military base with the sisters. We met with the Senior missionaries, the Tooleys, and then we headed to the base. So I don't know if I explained this, but the last time that I went to the base, I wasn't feeling very good. I had been sick and so when we all went to eat I couldn't eat a whole lot and it was super sad because I had been looking forward to getting some American style cafeteria food for a while. This time around I was able to take full advantage of it and I loved it! I had a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, salad with ranch dressing, white milk, and lots of bacon. It was a good time. Right after that we went into a seperate room with two soldiers and had a lesson. The sisters prepared it and we talked about prayer. It was super good and really made me think about how I pray. Sometimes I am just sitting there trying to get my prayer over with so I can sleep but I have realized that God is like a parent on P-Day that is waiting to hear from his missionary to see how they're doing and I need to be a better 'emailer'. All in all it was a spiritual lesson that benefited everyone. 

The car didn't fare to well this week.

Wednesday. Oh the lovely Wednesday. So after studies and what not, I decided that it was time for Elder Jorgensen to learn how to drive stick once and for all. Therefore, I drove out to this abandoned little piece of town with a big hill on it. I park the car on a little incline and switch him places. He starts it up and rolls backwards for a bit trying to get a start on the clutch. I say something to the effect of "You might wanna hurry." And then he hits the brakes and looks back and sees this big semi truck backing out of a parking lot. Unfortunately Elder Jorgensen couldn't quite get the clutch into gear fast enough without rolling back even further. So this guy ended up smashing the back end of our car. Good stuff!!! I get out of the car with steam puffing out of my ears because this guy would've seen us had he looked into his mirrors. Then I cooled down and got his insurance and our insurance and called the police and all that jazz. We ended up going to the police station and getting everything figured out. Wasn't our fault so we were happy. Now we are just waiting for our car. 

Elder Clawson at the church.

Thursday, just had lessons. We met with Betim and Suad separately that night but we taught both of them about the Atonement and gave some clarification on that. At the end of both of their lessons we watched "Because of Him" which came out for Easter last year I guess and I almost lost it every time we watched it. Suad almost lost it like a little girl and it was just really nice to sit back and have a relaxed lesson talking about what Jesus did for us and how much it blesses and helps us. We also taught our english course and we had one really annoying girl that thought she knew English better than me and everyone else in the universe so I may have had to humble her with some street talk and Bible talk. Nothing too hard. 

Harvesting potatoes in Kosovo.

The next day we had service in the morning! We woke up at 5:30 in the morning and met one of the members at the church at 6. We then drove out to his village which is about an hour and a half away from Prishtina right next to the Serbian border. Didn't really know that but we were okay. We helped him with his potato harvest and had a great time. All the elders took a hoe to the soil and we were digging up taters like there was no end. The sisters tried to switch off with us but the then Nazim, the member, told them that they were the ones that needed to gather all of the potatoes and then go back to his house and prepare the food for us! It was kinda funny but not at the same time. We went up to his little farm house and had a lunch of bread, jam, and cheese. We ended up getting back into Prishtina at like 4:30 which gave us enough time to run home and shower and then get ready for our fantastic halloween party! We were in charge of the 'Donut Dangle' (I named it that) and the Apple Bobbing. We set everything up and had a great turnout! Everyone was having a great time and we ate hot dogs and drank juice and laughed and partied. The games were super fun and everyone was being a sissy la la about the Apple Bobbing so I had to take off my tie and show them all how it was done. One highlight from Friday night was in connection with Nezir. He had his baptismal interview with Elder Stewart that night. AND HE PASSED!!!! Oh he was super excited, I was super excited, Jesus was super excited, and the world rejoiced. He asked if I could baptize him and of course I said yes. So he will be baptized this coming Saturday and we are super excited for him. 

Lunch after harvesting consisted of bread, jam, butter and ketchup.  A floor table and a wood stove:)  Heaven!

He hasn't smoked for two weeks now and we are blown away with his spiritual change. He is so great!! So there was that and also our other investigator, Ajdin came to the party and had a great time. He is getting super interested in the church and he loves coming to Institute and stuff and he is loving meeting with us. I think he'll be baptized for sure. He's just a solid guy that wants to do right. 

Saturday was a good day too. Met with John Jashari and talked about Charity with him. He kinda hates Serbians a lot because they imprisoned his son and he wants revenge bad. But he took the lesson well and is going to work on it. 

Jed's district harvesting potatoes.

Sunday was great! We fasted for an inactive member and she came to church and even bore her testimony! It was a tender mercy I tell ya!! I bore my testimony as well. It was good. The soldiers from Camp Bondsteel actually were able to come attend church with us yesterday as well and it was great. One of them said a testimony and said the closing prayer and it was great. 

For lunch the sisters made us french toast and hashbrowns and they were to die for! I loved it. After that, we went finding, and then had a meeting with the Branch Presidency about how the work is going and then we got everyone's numbers for the zone. 

Today we just sat around and got errands done. Elder Jorgensen and I have been overloaded with busy work this last week and it is killing me. I'm getting a cold and I'm super tired!! But I love being on my mission. I love the Kosovar people and I love chatting with Muslims everyday trying to learn more about them and how I can help their faith in God grow, if they accept my message is up to them, but I love being a missionary and doing this work. And I know that God loves us all! 

Another area Jed says he wants to live in some day.

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I hope you guys had a great time in Hawaii! I loved everyone's costumes too! Emma's was great and I loved Jane's. I hope the snow stays! It looks like you guys are all having a great time and loving life. Keep having fun and be safe. 

Love, Jedediah

I Took That As A Yes!

Oct. 27, 2014 email
Well Family, 

Pumpkin selections for carving.

It's been another week here in Prishtina and it was definitely a good one.

The Ap's came up from Tirana on Monday and had an exchange with us on Tuesday. It was super good because they both just stayed up here and we had two companionshps working one area so we just went finding and found tons of people and tons of numbers so we were set for the rest of the week. The following day we met with Nezir. It was the first lesson that we had since he had started the smoking program and it was going to be our first impression on seeing how well he was doing. 

Handsome Elders.

We came into the lesson and talked for a bit and then I asked him how many cigarettes he'd had that day and he told me that he hadn't had any smokes since the day that he started the program. My mind was melting out of the side of my face! So Nezir has been making some amazing progress. He hasn't smoked since last Sunday and we are planning on his baptism really soon. He's such a good guy and I"m blown away by how much he has changed from the first time we had contacted him in the road. He was super quiet when we had started teaching him and he would hardly say anything in his lessons and when we would ask him to pray he would say it in his head and then say "Amen" at the end of the prayer. But now he is super open, asks tons of good questions about the priesthood, temples, baptism, and all kinds of other stuff and we love it. His prayers are super sincere and out loud! We are so happy for this guy!!

Elder Jorgenson, and Elder Clawson

So that was one success that we had this week. Another happened a bit later. Elder Linderman and I got a number from street contacting from a guy named Ajdin. We called him up on Wednesday and got a meeting with him and we had a great Restoration lesson with him. He is Christian and he loves Jesus! That was a miracle in and of itself. So there was that and the lesson was just very spiritual. We set up a return appointment for Friday and parted ways. 

Church with members and an investigator.

Friday came around and we met with him again. We taught the Plan of Salvation and explained how one way we can get closer to the Celestial Kingdom is by baptism! We invited him to be baptized and he was like "Yeah, right now?" And then we had to explain that there was more stuff to learn but he was super excited to hear he could be baptized! He is such a good kid and he's 22 and super cool. We're excited to work with him. 

It snowed in Kosovo last week.  Looks like Utah today!

Another cool thing was that we got to meet with Agim from a village outside of town. We haven't had a lesson with him for a while because he has been busy but we finally got to meet with him again. In the last lesson that we had with him he mentioned that baptism looked a little weird and awkward so in the recent lesson we explained a bit more about baptism and how it can bless and then we asked him if he would like to come and see a baptismal service one time. He said 'me gjithe deshire' which means with all desire. So I took that as a yes. Hopefully he can come to Nezir's baptism real soon. 

Pres. Monson the slayer.

Visa stuff. 

Thursday I had another exchange with Elder McGrath. We taught some lessons in his area and had a good time. I really don't know what else to say about this week. 

Today I carved pumpkins with everyone else and Betim. We did the symbol of the Rebels in Star Wars. It was pretty sweet. After that I had to do some visa work and stuff to see if I can stay in Kosovo and I didnt' really get anywhere. They either tell me I don't need it or they direct me to someone else. Kinda rough. 

Well you guys! I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mom, 

Sorry this email was a little short. I'm super tired and I wanna just take a nap. But I am super glad to hear you guys are having a good time in Hawaii! Keep having a good time and eating good food! I love you!

Love, Ted

Love Of The Bakery Lady

Oct. 20, 2014 Email
Hello family!

Elder Clawson at the market.

This week was kinda rough but it was still good. Lots of finding and stuff like that. 

The week started with our zone training! And personally, I think it went super well. We gave a training and had a good time with everyone. Lots of people participated which is always nice because I hate being the only one talking for two hours. After that we all went and ate at the Thai food joint and had a good time. Then Elder Jorgensen went out to Gjakova for an exchange with Elder Penrod and I stayed here in Prishtina with my boy, Elder Holm. We spent the night handing out English Course Fliers and having a jolly good time and then out of the blue this huge group of people starts chanting and hollering at the end of the boulevard. Being the curious missionaries that we are, we decided to go see what all the fuss was about and in the center of the city was a huge mob standing in front of this massive Jumbotron. I guess that was the night that Albania was playing Serbia in futboll and everyone was super jazzed up for that. 

Albania vs. Serbia Futbol match excitement!

We also had our first English Course class and we are teaching beginners again. I like most of the people there. They are nice and there are two boys that sit in the back that are awesome. They are actually brothers and they are learning a ton. I want to start the gospel lessons with them but their dad isn't cool with it. Speaking of their dad, we were talking with him one day and he was asking how life was in Kosovo for us. He spoke English pretty well and he said "So my boys don't understand English so we can speak of manly things." And then he said "How are you standing with the ladies?" I was just like "What you ask me brother?!" Yeah he gave me lots of tips on that kinda stuff and then I finally had the chance to tell him that I don't get with girls and then he just laughed and said "Sure, lets stop with the BS (but he dropped some real words)." So we'll work on the dad slowly and then we will get the boys. 

The following day we drove to Gjakova to pick up my companion. We drove back and then we just went through the day and taught some more lessons. The following Thursday we did service in the rain and picked up lots of trash and such. This one old lady saw that we were picking up trash for free and so she decided to just take us over to her house and clean up her super nasty window wells. Later that night we went and had English Course and that was awesome because one of the members brought like 5 of her friends and such and they were super fun to have in English course. Then afterwards we had Institute and they all stayed for that! Elder Jorgensen and I had the lesson that night and we taught the story in Alma 47 about Lehonti and Amalickiah. It went pretty well and they all participated a ton. It was a pretty fantastic lesson. 

Good looking bunch!

Needless to say they all came to church the following Sunday and are now receiving lessons from the sisters. 

Friday was the day that we had our district leader meeting in Prishtina. It went well and we gave a training on getting members into our lessons because Kosovo has had a struggle with that in the past and we really want to change that. We went the rest of the day finding and weekly planning. 

Service day, in their Help Hands vests:)

Saturday was good too. We cleaned the church and got it super clean because President Weidmann was coming up! They were here for Branch Conference and it was great. I loved it. We had a lesson with Nezir and we had the 1st counselor come in to help us with that one. We decided to start the smoking program with him because he needs some major help. We'll probably be giving him  a blessing pretty soon. But he was optimistic and ready to try his best. Really good lesson though, we shared 2 Nephi 31:17-21 and talked about enduring to the end. He's totally on his way to being baptized! 

Can you tell they're still teenagers:)

Jed.

Right after that we had a big meeting with President Weidmann and all the leaders in the branch and we really enjoyed that. President Bodell also gave a good piece in that and it was great. During that meeting President Weidmann talked about the missionaries and how much we sacrifice to come out on our missions. Then he asked everyone if they remember the names of THEIR missionaries that taught them and found them and he got to The Jashari family and they said "Elder Clawson and Elder Price" and my heart just melted with emotion! I am now legitimately thought of as someone's missionary. The person that helped!  The next day we had  church and we just had one big 90 minute block instead of 2 hours in 2 different sections. The talks were great and Betim was called to be the 2nd Counselor! We got to ordain him after that and that was a great experience. He is the man! Then we had chicken and rice for lunch and that was awesome! The sisters made it. 

We had a lesson with Gjon Jashari and it went fabulous! He was understanding everything and giving all kinds of good comments. He is a fantastic member. 

Futbol with the Young Single Adults.

Today was just a good Pday. We played futboll with the YSA kids and then I came here and now I'm emailing you. I also am having a contest with Elder Stewart to see who can win the love of the bakery lady the fastest. Who ever gets the first article of free food wins. I'm totally gonna do it but he has a head start cuz he started going to the bakery before me. But I can just turn on some of that old lady charm that I got going for him. There will be an update on that next week. 

I love you guys! Have a good week and tell Angie that I love her still!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I hope you guys have a great time in Hawaii! Enjoy the malasadas. Except for the pineapple ones. Those are the ones that I threw up the night I got my mission call. That taste still haunts my tastebuds to this day. Have fun in the water. Drink some POG for me too. I love you mom! And I hope all that canned food is good. 

Praises Were Sung!

My family! 

Elder Clawson and Elder Prince modeling their Macedonian attire.

How is it going?! It sounds like you are all loving life and loving the season. 

Well this was a really busy week for Elder Jorgensen and myself. Last Tuesday we had a fantastic district meeting directed by Elder Stewart who is a totally great missionary. Even if he is from Canada:), and then right after that we had to head to Macedonia for our exchange with the elders over there! We drove on over and got lost again, but we finally found our way to their house. It was kinda late but Elder Jorgensen and I were starving so we ordered some Dominos Pizza! (The only Dominoes in 3 countries is in Macedonia.  As well as a Burger King!)

A little taste of home in Skopje, Macedonia.  

The next day we just worked in their area and that was really fun. We don't speak Macedonian so it's cool to say hi to people and then let the other missionaries take over from there. We don't know how to say anything except "hello" and "how are you". For lunch that day we went to Burger King and it was wonderful. The sisters in Prishtina came with us again like they had last time, and it was the first time that Sister Favero had ever eaten at Burger King. Kinda crazy that her first Burger King experience came in Macedonia.

Elder Clawson had splits in Skopje, Macedonia this week.  Beautiful city!

After lunch I was able to do a baptismal interview with one of the Macedonian missionaries investigators. He is a good guy and he actually spoke English so I was able to do the interview without any translation. He'll definitely get baptized at some point. Once that was finished we had to go home. We came home and had to go right to the Institute Activity. The lesson was really good and it was given by the other elders in Prishtina. 

Jed visited the birthplace of Mother Teresa.  She is ethnic Albanian, but born in Skopje, Macedonia which was actually part of the Ottoman Empire when she was born.  

The following day was a little rough. We only had one lesson in our area at this time and it was Thursday. So we went finding to see if we could get some new investigators and we didn't find any but we did get a few numbers and I met a really cool guy named Osman. After lunch and stuff that day we had to go and do some service at the Branch President's home. We cleaned his yard up and mowed it which was AWESOME! I never in my life thought that I would want to mow a lawn but I was loving it. After that we went home and got changed and then we had a lesson with the Jashari family which was fantastic. I took the lead in it and taught the Restoration with the Cups lesson. They loved it and John was just smiling away thinking it was the greatest thing. The family said that they really understood the Restoration of the Church a bit more and it made more sense. 

He changed his first tire!!  Dad's always been around before:)

Friday comes. It's MLC meeting in Tirana. We wake up at 3:30am and get all ready and head out to the car. I start it up and we drive about 10 meters and we feel something is wrong. We look out and our front right tire is flat as a pancake. So we pull up on the side, get the jack out, and crank it up. We pull out the spare and the wrench and then we try to get the screws off. And THEY WON'T MOVE!! So we are freaking out for like 10 minutes to get these stupid screws off and they are just hyperlocked with the most insane glue in the universe onto these tires. So finally, being missionaries and having a knowledge that God loves His children and he does not want them to be sad, we prayed! After the prayer, I got down and held onto the wrench with all my might and then I basically lifted the car and this massive screech that rings throughout the sleeping city of Prishtina. But it had come loose! Praises were sung in my heart at that moment. We were able to get all of the screws off and we got on our way to Tirana. God definitely showed His love for us that morning. MLC was good and I'm blown away with all of the missionaries in leadership right now. I've definitely got some improvement to do. 

Skopje, Macedonia

We came home and then we had a lesson with Betim and talked about Alma 47 about Lehonti and Amalickiah. He really liked it and it was a super spiritual lesson. Then we went home, planned, and then I fell asleep cuz I was really lacking on that. Saturday was the first full day where we had enough time to give all of our attention to our area. We filled the days with lessons and we had a great day. We met with two new investigators including Osman. We couldn't watch conference but that was okay. We'll watch it sometime soon. 

Nezir is still struggling with smoking. Whoever thinks smoking is cool, is dumb. Don't smoke kids. So please pray for him. He's so great and he loved coming to conference yesterday. 

Jed said this is a favorite treat.  A cup of corn.  He called it Happy Corn:)

So yeah yesterday we watched the first session for Sunday and then ate lunch afterwards. I made banana bread again but I destroyed it in the oven. I guess it needed less than 45 minutes. But it was still kinda good. 

At least he's cleaning!

After that we had to weekly plan and that was really good because we couldn't do it on Friday. Then we had a meeting with Betim for missionary work in the branch. It was really good. 

Jed is so kind!  He send these pictures because he know's I love seeing this!  Fruit Treg, or market for p-day today.

All in all, I had a good week. I love you guys so much! Have fun and tell Dad that his new skis are so sweet. 

Loves!

Jed

Dearest Mother, 

How is life going for you? Tell Jane way to go with her biking skills. It's totally the Strider that helped her with that. Those pumpkin pancakes looked like heaven on earth. I miss your cooking. 

Well Mom, I miss ya and love ya! Have a good week!

Love, Jedediah

There Is Nowhere I Would Rather Be

Hello Family of Clawson, 

I have had a super fun week! It was super busy and full of all kinds of chaos but I survived and enjoyed the ride. 

Jed with his trainer Elder Foster.   Good byes are tough!

On Monday I drove down with the AP's from Prishtina to Tirana and just had a good 4 hour drive with them. We saw a gypsy guy out taking a poop in the middle of the city and I just thought to myself "There is nowhere I would rather be." I was with good people, chilling in a big van, wearing a name tag, seeing something that you don't see very often. One of those 'I love my mission' moments. 

Elder Clawson and Motra Curtis.  She returned home this week too.

When we got to Tirana I was able to meet some members in the 1st branch that I knew and then we went to President Weidmann's home for FHE and it was super fun. We play Book of Mormon charades and had a good laugh. We stayed at the AP's house and had a good time with them. The next morning Elder Roberts looked at me and said "Wanna go get some breakfast at the Stephen Center?" And I just said "Uh, yes." So we left and got some Chocolate Chip Pancakes at the Stephen Center. (The Stephen Center is a little restaurant and hotel that has American breakfasts!)

Elder Clawson saying his goodbyes to Elder Roberts.  

Elder Clawson and Motra Kokol.  "She's like an Elder in a good way!"  

Then I went to the mission home and took my last pictures with the dying group of missionaries. (Dying missionaries are going home.  They've served their 2 years or 18 months and are heading home to family.) It was super rough. I said goodbye to Curtis, Kokol, (that one was super rough), Foster, (that one sucked too) Roberts, (Sad), and the rest and I just wanted to cry! They were all super awesome and I will totally miss them. Elder Palmer actually sent me a photo of him picking Elder Foster up from the airport and that was cool. 

Some of Elder Clawson's MTC group.  They're always happy to see each other.

After that I said goodbye to my old district and took Jorgy (Elder Jorgensen) up to Prishtina! We have worked super hard this week but it was Bajram 

(3) Kurban Bajram: the "Feast of Sacrifice"): In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Bulgaria, this festival is referred as Kurban Bajram. Kurban Bajram comes two months and ten days after Ramadan Bajram and marks the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail for God. As Ibrahim prepared to sacrifice his son, God stopped him and gave him a sheep to sacrifice instead (this story is also a part of the Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh). 

Muslims around the world thus sacrifice sheep for this holiday, giving the meat out to their family, friends and to the poor. This meat is called kurban in Bosnia, thus the holiday is called Kurban Bajram. 

Muslims also celebrate Kurban Bajram as it marks the end of the Hajj for the millions of Muslims who make the pilgrimage to Mecca each year. )

and everyone was out celebrating and every single store in Kosovo was closed! So yeah that kinda messed up our week but we were still able to meet with a few people. Nezir is still doing well and we were able to teach him about the Priesthood and Temples this week which was good. He is loving it and he is just fantastic in general. We also met with that guy named Agim and we invited him to be baptized! He said he wasn't sure because baptism seemed kinda weird to him. So we'll be working on him a bit slower. Still a great guy. 

Elder Clawson with some great members in Kosovo.

Well the new sisters here are Sister Favero and Sister Zollinger. They are both really good and I'm super impressed with their work so far. The Elders are Elder McGrath and Stewart and they are awesome as well! They have been finding all week and have met some great people! All in all my district is really good. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Jorgensen in their "Helping Hands" vests.  They found a cute tea set while they were cleaning up garbage, and decided to break for a bit.  Looks like Jed will have some good practice for when he gets home to play with his sister Jane:)

Elder Clawson and Elder Jorgensen really like being together.  This is a picture from Theth, Albania.

On Saturday we drove out to a little village and we met with this guy named Bashkim. He is super awesome and we actually got him as a referral from mormon.org! He said that he wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ from our point of view and that he wanted to meet with missionaries! So we drove out and met with him and gave him a Book of Mormon and talked a LOT about Jesus. He has met with missionaries from tons of other churches and he says that they just don't have all of the truth. So it's good that we got to him! He loved it when we presented the Book of Mormon. He asked us to sign it and all that jazz. He is definitely going down in history as one of my favorites. He was super awesome. Just super happy and hungry for the righteous truth of GOD!!

Street in Prishtina, Kosovo.

Jed in front of  Skenderbeu statue in Prishtina.  Skenerbeu is an Albanian hero dating back to the 1400's.  Here's the link from Wikipedia.

Yesterday was a little rough because none of our investigators could make it to church and so I just wanted to cry. But to make it all better is the fact that President Bodell invited us over to his home for tacos! So we went over there after church and had a great time just chatting about life and loving taco meat. Later in the evening we had our Branch Misson Meeting and that was great. Then I tried teaching Jorgy how to drive a stick. One Christ like Attribute that I have definitely gotten better at is Patience. I was super patient and considerate with him even though he was killing it all over the place and on several occasions he almost decimated my Bathsheeba vehicle. But he is getting better.

This is the famed Banana Bread, or I should say cake, from last week.

Lots of finding going on still so pray for us! I know you already are but just saying. I love being here! I love the cold air, I hate the rain, but I love Kosovo! I love serving with Elder Jorgensen and I love being a missionary! I know this church is true and that God loves His children! (us) I get to watch Conference next week so I'll be able to relate to y'all's stories next monday. Well I love you guys and I hope you have a good week!

Love, Jeddy

Dearest Mother, 

I'm glad this new dog is surviving. Jane needs to have a dog for longer than 2 weeks. Is it starting to get cold and snow at all? I'm hoping that snow comes soon here because I'm loathing this wretched rain right now. I had a good Pday too. Played frisbee and what not and had a happy day. Little cold but I like it. Well Mom, I think you are the absolute greatest lady ever. Thanks for writing me and keeping the blog up to date! I LOVE YOUR GUTS!!

Love, Jedediah

I Have A Testimony Of Banana Bread

Dearest Family in America, 

Elder Clawson and his district.  Elder Roberts is the second from the left, and Motra Curtis is the dark headed sister 4th from the left.  They both returned home this last week.  They will be missed!

I probably had the best week of my life... Probably. This week was so good for us and we have loved working here. I'm getting on super early today because in approximately 2 hours I will be escorting my dear friend and colleague, Elder Carson Reece Roberts, to Tirana. He has honorably fulfilled his time as a missionary and is going home. (Elder Roberts as well as a lot of other missionaries Jed loves returned home last week.)  

We met with Nezir this week and he is still doing great. He might need his date pushed back just a little bit because he is still smoking a bit but he is definitely making progress. It'll probably just be like two weeks later or something. Nothing extreme. 

We've also been meeting with a new investigator named Agim Bega. He is awesome. He is super receptive to the gospel. He isn't in our area all the time so we have to catch him when he is working here and when he has a break or something. We invited him to be baptized and he was a little hesitant but he'll come around soon. He's a really good guy and he wants to do what's right. 

The is the NEWBORN monument in Kosovo.  It was revealed on Feb. 17, 2008 on the day that Kosovo declared their independence from Serbia.

I don't know if I mentioned this last week but we are meeting with another guy named Ilir Gashi. He works with wheelchairs for the disabled and he saw how the church really does a huge focus on humanitarian aid and stuff like that. He got in contact with us and he loves meeting with us. We asked him if he would be baptized as well and he said that he's a little worried because his entire village is Muslim and he doesn't know how they would take it. He also mentioned that he doesn't want to lie to people and say that he is Muslim if he is baptized in our church. He's a  great guy and we hope to see more of him. 

Here's the link on the NEWBORN monument from Wiki.  

I guess the biggest success this week happened on Saturday morning. Elder Price and I decided to make some banana bread and head out to Srdan's house for a surprise visit. We've been trying to get in contact with him but he has been telling us that he has lots of work and that he has no time to have us come over. We wanted to do some service for him earlier in the week but we had some other stuff come up and we weren't able to go out to his home. So we decided to do this surprise visit to kinda see if he really was busy or if he was just trying to drop us. We got one of the members to come with us, his name is Ardi, and we drove out there. Right when we pulled in to his house he was leaving. He saw us and invited us in and was blown away that we had made him food! He loved it. So we all went into his house and just ate banana bread with his wife, brother in law, and kids. His wife wants me to come over and show her how to make banana bread and I think I might be doing that later on in the week. But we just had a quick chat and talked about how life was going and we just had a good time talking. 

I'm sure glad Jed know's how to play soccer. (He played on year when he was 6!)  The sign Jed is making with his hands is the double headed eagle of the Albanian flag.  

The following day he came to church! And he also brought his brother in law named Jugoslav. He's a good guy. He is super short. Like a whole head shorter than me. It's nuts! Some of the members translated into Serbian for the both of them and I had to translate into English for a new Embassy worker that came. We also did a special musical number in sacrament. I played 'Come Thou Fount' on the guitar and the other missionaries all sang and I personally thought it was really good. We had actually done it the night before for a branch talent show that we had but we had been dressed up in funny outfits and Elder Price was playing the çiftalin which is like a 2 string guitar. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Price getting ready for the branch talent show.  They played  Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.

After church we had a lesson with Srdan and Jugoslav and we invited them to be baptized. They said that they would try and we are very excited to help them along! It would be so awesome to have some Serbian people in our branch! 

Last night we also got transfer calls. I told you all last week that I wasn't expecting anything to change with my companionship but Elder Price has been called to serve in Lushnjë as the the Zone Leader down there. I will be companions with Elder Jorgensen (Which I am super stoked for) and Watson will be leaving to go train a new missionary in Durrës, and Sister White is training in Second Ward in Tirana where I was a while ago. I'm sad that I'm the only one staying in Prishtina but it's alright. I enjoyed being with Elder Price and I had tons of fun with him and with the whole district that I had. I'll be back in Kosovo tomorrow with Jorgensen and work will begin again! 

I love you guys so much! Have a great week and remember to be safe! Loves!

Love, Jedediah

Dear Mom, 

Sorry I got on before you could email me. I hope everything is going well at home. I used Ruth's Banana Bread Recipe (here's the link to the best banana bread on the planet! It's a hit in Albania and Kosovo.) for Srdan and it worked out super well. Thanks for teaching me things like that. I love you! 

Love, Jedediah Jimmy