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

I Love My Mission!

My dearest family!! 

"Ask us what we do!" One of their newest finding techniques.  And Elder Clawson said it works pretty dang good!

Well I had a fun week. It was super busy and loaded with all kinds of goodness. I'll start with last Monday, which basically just consisted of FHE and us out on the Boulevard finding people who are ready to be baptized!! We've actually come up with a new way of street contacting which is we basically just invite the people to be baptized and become members of our church if they understand and come to a knowledge that these things are true. Little blunt but it weeds out the people that would waste our time later on. 

Jed and Elder Price street contacting in Pristina Kosovo.

Tuesday we had  great district meeting given by Elder Watson. 

He did awesome! So for that day we met with Nezir who is still an awesome guy! We taught him the Law of Chastity and it was probably one of the best lessons that I've had with him because we asked him why he thought it was important that we lived by these standards and he said "Well if you go out and do bad things like this, your family is hurt and you also hurt yourself even if you think you aren't." And then he just proceeded to tell us how he's grateful for his own personal decisions in keeping standards like this throughout his entire life. But yeah, no worries with Nezir on that. He is still working on quitting smoking and his definitely making some good progress. He really does want to stop though. He knows the church is true and that the commandments come from God. He's just fantastic and I love his guts. 

Nothing better than Thai food in Kosovo.

We also met with Ramis! I don't know if you remember but he's the guy who we had the lesson with last week when I had the poop all over the bottom of my shoe. Therefore I assume he didn't smell it during our last lesson or else he would NEVER have let me back into that place. So we taught the Plan of Salvation with him and it went super well. At the end we asked him to be baptized and he said "I will get baptized for myself after I know how to help other people first." So we kinda need to wrap service and baptism into the same lesson with him and let him know what's up. But he's still really good. 

Elder Clawson's district at correlation mtg.

On Friday we were able to meet with an investigator that we had lost contact with about a month ago because he was living in a different town. He moved to Prishtina and we were able to meet with him again! His name is Agim and he's the guy that had the huge epiphany of Joseph Smith. We decided to watch the Restoration video and we had a great time. He was giving comments throughout the whole movie and then when the First Vision part came.... he was silent. We were all feeling the Spirit so much and I was so glad to have it there with us to help in the teaching process. 

The meeting house in Pristina, Kosovo.  And Elder Roberts:)

We met with some really good people this week besides them. We're teaching a guy named Ilir who works with the church in it's humanitarian projects with wheelchairs and such and he is super great. He came to church with us yesterday actually which was awesome! Yesterday for lunch the other Elders made Egg drop Soup. That's all I will say concerning that. It was good. 

They love the members!

I do need to say that I am loving my mission! It is the best thing ever to be here with these people. They are so great and so fun! I enjoy my district even though 2 of them are leaving next week which is super sad. I love speaking a different language and eating different food! I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior! 

Sporting new hair cuts, and I'm not real sure about the red jacket.  We think he looks like an usher at the Ellen Eccles Theatre in Logan:)  

I hope you all have a great week and I hope you are all safe. I love you!!

Love, Jed

Dear Mother, 

Those pies looked absolutely fantastic! Way to go! I hope they were good. Thanks for updating the blog again. It's nice to see what I've been doing lately. Has it started to get colder over there? It's starting to rain a ton here and I hate it. The rain is so dumb. Thanks for writing me every week Mom! I love you!

Love, Jedediah Jim

Silent Prayers That My Shoes Wouldn't Stink

Cute little boy! (Both of them!)

My dearest family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This last week was fantastic! I love working here in Kosovo!!

So nothing too crazy went on so there's not a ton to write about but nonetheless it was still amazing. Monday was good. Right after P day ended we drove out to a new investigators house. His name is Shemsi and he lives out in a little village.  We went out there and kinda just introduced ourselves to him and got to know him a little bit more. His daughter came out and gave us some juice and then with two cups of this other stuff that I thought was hot chocolate but then we got a whiff of it and we realized that it was coffee. We had to decline and I felt super bad because they looked a little offended by it. But ah well. That's the first time that someone has brought coffee out to my face.  It's usually super strong alcohol that gets offered to me. The lesson went well and he started talking about his past career and how he used to fly planes and how it was super fun and then he started crying. We didn't really know what to do so we just told him that we'd be coming by a little bit later during the week. He stopped his gentle weeping and walked us out. Cool guy but we can't get a read on him yet.

Elder Clawson eating his favorite thing!  Byrek and notice his sweatshirt.  It's called the Shqiponja. (Sh-cheep-own-ua) Its the name for the double headed eagle on the Albanian flag. 

We've been meeting with that awesome guy named Nezir still and he is doing fantastic! We love his guts and he is starting to love ours. We had the Word of Wisdom lesson with him this last week because we smelled a bit of cigarette smoke on him when he came into the church one day. He does have a problem with smoking but he is super willing to start giving it up. He likes coming to church and he likes meeting with us. He still doesn't say a whole lot and he just seems like a really shy guy that needs a friend. He reads and loves telling us about what he read. He had been having a little trouble praying as well. He would kinda just put his head down and pray in his head and then he would say "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." and we would just assume that it was good. But with this lesson he prayed out loud! It was amazing and we didn't even have to ask him or anything! He's just great.

P-day activity bus to go play some futbol with the youth in the branch.

 Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with Srdan this week because he was in Sremska for a wedding. But we are planning on meeting with him on Tuesday so that'll be good. We are still trying to learn enough Serbian to communicate with him but it'll come. 

On Wednesday I went to Gjakova for an exchange with Elder Schramm and it was really good. I got to meet some good people and it was nice to be around the other missionaries for the day. Elder Gray and Elder Harvey are the other set of elders there and I love both of them to death. And for some reason, whenever I go on an exchange, I always connect with a ton of members or investigators and they always just say "Why don't you just stay here?" and I'm like "Dah!" I really love these Kosovar people and the Albanians as well. They all are so wonderful and fun to be around! The exchange in Gjakova was good. I taught their English Course and met a new member and her family. Good people. The English course kids loved me because I taught them 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes'. 

Elder Clawson with one of the members in Prishtina, Kosovo.

The next day was pretty busy. We had to drive back from Gjakova and that's pretty long and then we had a few lessons to do. We had a meeting with a new investigator named Ramis and he works for the government. He's Christian though!! Hallelujiah! On our way to the lesson we passed a bunch of dumpsters and sometimes they light the trash on fire so they don't have to empty it and today they were on fire and smoking all over the place. So I decided to go behind it and try to dodge the smoke and as I was walking I slipped in something and fortunately I didn't fall but I looked back and saw that it was a bunch of poo! And to make it better, the wind started to blow and it blew the smoke right into my face and all over my clothes. I came out towards Elder Price, (who had decided to just walk the normal way through the smoke) and he was just laughing his head off. SO there I was with poop on my shoes and smoke all over my body. We found Ramis's office and walked in and I said the opening prayer and Elder Price said a silent prayer in his heart that my shoes wouldn't stink and that we would have a good spiritual lesson with no interuptions. And that's what happened. Everything went great and no smell came until after the lesson. 

Sunday dinner courtesy of Elder Clawson.  His Chicken Pot Pie speciality!

The other night we went and visited the First Counselor's family and had a good time. They have a boy named Rroj (Roy) and he's 14 months old and we totally hit it off.  I got him laughing like none other. Cute kid. 

Yesterday was good and we just went finding basically. Life is treating us great. The zone is doing well and everyone is happy. Elder Foster is going home super soon and I'm super sad because I won't have the chance to talk to him before he leaves. Hopefully I can call him before he goes home.

Well I love you guys so much! Keep having fun! Get ready for skiing!!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I suggest that you don't buy a dog until I come back. Why don't you get one like Fred's? His bird dogs are so well trained it blows my mind. I hope you are having a good time with Jane at home. Let everyone know that I love them. Are you gonna start Jane on skis this year? Have fun! I love you Mom!!

Love, Jed

We Are Learning A Little Serbian Too

Sept. 8, 2014 Letter Home

Elder Clawson enjoying a delicious Cinnabon (or two it looks like)!  The new Cinnabon store is all the rage with the missionaries in Tirana.

Dearest Family!!

I had a fantastic week! Elder Price and I were busy all day every day and we loved every second of it!

Monday we finished up Pday and went to Family Home Evening. It was pretty good and we had a couple people show up if I remember correctly. The next day we had District Meeting which was awesome, given by Elder Watson, and then we went to a lesson with Adem! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and once again he ate it right up. He did have some questions that were a little interesting but the Spirit was still there and we were able to just have a good lesson. We invited him to be baptized on a specific date and he kinda got a little upset. He's still a super good guy but he just doesn't know what he's looking for quite yet. We'll give him a little more time.

 

Elder Clawson and one of the best members in Prishtina, Kosovo.  

Wednesday we had to go to Tirana for the Missionary Leadership Coordination. We got there into Tirana and had about an hour to kill before we had to be at the mission home so we stopped at Cinnabon and got some cinnamon rolls and just sat and talked at a table outside. It was really good. The meeting that we had was fantastic and so spiritually led. President Weidmann is so great and he is definitely guiding us in the right direction. He's picking right up where President Ford left off and we are amazed at how well he's taken his role as our President. We set some goals in the meeting and then we finished. I had an exchange with the AP's in Tirana because they do exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Davis in Tirana and Elder Linderman came up to Prishtina with Elder Price. I had a great time with Elder Davis and we had some really great lessons while we were in Tirana. We met with some members and some of their new investigators and we just had a great time. Also, I got a package from Kirsten too! It had some sweet ties in it, she also had some butter snap pretzels!! DAH!! Those definitely made my day.

 

Elder Clawson's district with his mission president and his wife, President and Sister Weidmann.

The next day we had to wake up early and head to Prishtina. We got back and the AP's had to do some work in Macedonia so they left. We met with our investigator who's awesome, Nezir, and we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We kinda explained to him about the sacrament because he was kinda wondering about that during church the Sunday before. So yeah we had a great lesson with him and he understood everything and he is still progressing beautifully towards his baptismal date.

Later that night the AP's came back to stay the night in Prishtina because it was way too late to drive to Tirana. Elder Price and Linderman went and did a lesson with one of our investigators that we have been trying to put on a date for a really long time. They left and I did some manual labor with Elder Davis. We moved a piano out of the elder's home and into their car and we had a bunch of problems with the elevator so we ended up just taking all of the stairs. Pretty long. After that they slept over at our place and left early the next morning. 

Friday, that was a crazy day. So we were doing our weekly planning after the AP's left and then we get a call from Elder Linderman telling us that we need to go to Gjakova and give the senior couple a part for their broken car. We had gotten the part a few days earlier but were planning on giving it to them on Saturday. But we got up and left and drove the 2 hours to Gjakova and right when we got there, Elder Harvey looked at the part and said "That's not it." So we had to go all the way back to Prishtina, pay 100 euro for a new part, and right after that we had to drive out to a fshat to meet a new investigator. The new investigator is named Srdan and he was actually a referral from President Weidmann. He lives about 30 minutes out of Prishtina and he only speaks Serbian. So we had to bring a member with us that could speak Serbian so we could translate and we had a great lesson. He reads all the time and he is so ready for the gospel. And so is his whole family!  We couldn't understand what they were saying but we felt the Spirit so it was good. All in all it was great. 

Elder Clawson and Elder Davis on splits in Tirana, Albania.

Saturday we had interviews with President Weidmann and they went great. After that we all went out to the Thai restaurant and had some good food. That was basically it for that. 

Sunday was great because we had Srdan, Nezir, and a new investigator named Ilaz in church! They are all great and we had such a good time talking with them. We are excited to see what goes on with them. The sisters made us BLTs for lunch and it was super good. 

Today we just walked around and chilled. We went to a suit store cuz Elder Roberts is getting a new suit before he leaves. That was cool. 

Well Lotoja looked like it was super fun! I'm sorry I couldn't do the Montpelier to Afton stage. I really like that one even though it is super hard and sucks most of the time. And everyone passes me on the downhill. Well I love you all and have a good week!

Love, Jed

Dear Mom, 

I am loving Kosovo! It is the best place ever! Everything is going good. I'm over that nasty cough that I had and I feel fine. It's starting to rain a lot which kinda sucks but oh well. I'm glad you guys had a great time in Jackson! It looks awesome. Well I love you all so much!

Love, Jedediah