What Are You Grateful For?

June 1, 2015 email

Hello Fam!

Well once again I don't have tons to write you about. The week started out just like any other week. I told you all a little bit bout our new investigator named Xhemil last week. We were able to meet with him again this week and we were able to teach him about the Restoration seeing as the first time we met with him we had talked about the Family Proclamation. 

Shkoder, Albania

Turns out he actually heard a bit about our church when he was living in Italy! The lesson went so well and we loved teaching him. We both bore testimony of the truthfulness of our message and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He totally felt the Spirit and I know that he is gonna go places if he sticks to it. Unfortunately our schedules didn't line up this last week after that lesson but we are hoping to go over tomorrow night. 

Throughout the week we basically just did lots and lots of finding. Wednesday was a fun day with street contacting. We had set apart a couple hours out of the day and we all went street contacting as a group. We took this massive white bed sheet that had the Plan of Salvation written up on it and then we also bought some sidewalk chalk and Elder Ostergaard and I wrote " Për çfarë jeni mirënjohes?" Which means, What are you grateful for? and then we would stop everyone that walked by and we invited them to write something on the sidewalk. We didn't get tons of numbers but we were able to talk with TONS of people which was fantastic. We are just trying to get the name of our church out in the public so that they can realize that we aren't Jehovah's Witnesses or Catholics. 

This is the meeting house in Shkoder.

The next cool thing happened on Saturday. We were able to go to Tirana and watch some investigators get baptized. Their names are Tonini and Jona and they are a father and daughter and it was such a good baptism. I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Mimoza gave a talk on Baptism and it all went super well. I haven't been so happy for a baptism that isn't mine! After that we went and celebrated by eating some Mexican food. 

Group street contacting.  Plan of Salvation is on the sheet:)  

The next day we confirmed Tonini and Jona and they gave their testimonies which was fantastic. They are going to help the branch so much here! Afterwards we had a meeting with a member of the stake presidency to try and take care of some branch stuff and what not and then we had to interview Tonini for the Aaronic Priesthood. He is super ready to just take everything on! Later on during the day we did some street contacting and then we went tracting. I HATE IT. But God blesses you when you do things that put you out of your comfort zone I've learned so we kept doing it until the end of the night. On the very last door we were able to teach a family of a grandpa, dad, mom, and two young sons about the Family Proclamation. We will be going over again tonight and teach them about the Restoration. Super excited! 

Theth, Albania

Today we went to Theth. And I loved it! We got back around 3ish so that's why I'm on so late. But I have pics. And that's about all that I have for this week. I love you all and I hope you have a good week!!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

That dog looks great! I hope everything is kinda settled down now from the last week. I love you and I hope you can get the garden in soon! Loves!

Love, Jedi

Great Land of Albania

May 25, 2015 email

Well my dear family, 

Once again I write to you from the great land of Albania. 

The week was good and full of tons of finding and and running around trying to get stuff done. I don't have tons to say, once again. We dropped our investigator Erion because he was just not going anywhere and so we are just hoping for him to get ready a bit later. 

Also, the family that we tracted into last week kinda broke our hearts. We were super excited to meet with them all again and we came over and a bunch of their neighbors had told them not to listen to us anymore. So that was pretty sad but we continued on. We were able to meet with a man named Lushi and we hope to see him again real soon. He's an older gentleman that just has no idea who God is, so he's pretty interested in listening to what we have to say.

Yesterday we tracted into a guy named Xhemil. We talked to him about The Family Proclamation and he seemed pretty interested. He was very kind to us and we are planning on going over there tomorrow night so we'll see how it works out with him. 

Also we have been trying to meet with "VIPS" as we call them. They are basically just famous people in Shkoder or people that hold high positions in town, and we've been trying to be friends with them and go have a tea with them. We did that with one brother named Angjelin and that was pretty interesting. He speaks no English but he loves the F-word. So we heard that a lot. Kinda humorous but inappropriate as well. 

I was able to go on an exchange with the Zone Leaders and I spent the day with Elder Roemer in Durres! I didn't get to see a lot of the people there but I enjoyed just being there again. I worked the whole day there and then we met the other missionaries in Tirana and switched back. We had a pretty fun activity this last week as well for some of our investigators. We filled some nylons with flour and had a dodgeball game with those and just had a good time.  

Also on Tuesday we had to teach the Beginner's English Course because the other missionaries were in Tirana for the Trainee Training. Elder Wilcox taught them "I like running over old people". So now our class thinks that we just kill senior folk. 

Shkoder is totally wearing on me. I am SOO tired all the time and you can totally see it on my face all the time. I'm still out working and having fun but I'm just getting tired a lot faster. I also got made the first counselor last week and I forgot to tell ya'll. Our branch president is going to Italy next week so we are going try and get him to stay. 

Well I hope you all enjoy the new dog! Have a good week and tell Kayd that I said hey! I love you all!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I did just get my travel plans. Should be fun traveling with all those guys. But yes I can guarantee that I will be dead. Filip is still meeting with the missionaries every day and doing week. I really miss teaching him. I really miss teaching in general but he was so great. I got some awesome souvenirs for ya'll. Also have you happened to put money in my account? I got an email from the office couple and I need some moola in my pocket when I head out. I love you Mom! 

Saying Goodbye To Vlore and Hello Shkoder!

May 18, 2015 email

Dear Family, 

Well this email is gonna be a tad bit short but I have settled quite nicely into Shkoder and I am back to TONS of finding. 

So I said goodbye to everyone last week and had a really rough time leaving some members and investigators but that's okay. The missionaries will take great care of all of them. So Tuesday we took of to Tirana with Elder Befus, myself, and Sister Gjoncaj who is from Vlore and she is serving a mini mission in Tirana. So we did some shuffling around in Fier and Lushnje but eventually we got to Tirana and I was once again on my way to Shkoder with my new companion, Elder Wilcox. 

The first couple of days were just lots of finding with a lesson here and there. We have had one investigator named Erion and he is a good guy but he is still under control of his dad. And Erion is like 35 years old. He just went through a divorce and just is having a rough time.  So we have been praying a lot for him in hopes that his dad doesn't sway him in the direction. 

The missionaries in my district are Elder Wilcox and myself, Elders Ostergaard and Crandall, and the Sisters Kelly and Dunn. They are all really solid missionaries and I'm excited to work with them. Elder Ostergaard and I are definitely a bit different from the others in the fact that we really enjoy laughing and having fun. The others will understand that it's okay to be smiley all the time.

One awesome thing that happened had to do with tracting. I hate tracting. But we decided to give it a shot around some private houses in a different part of the city. We got two return appointments and only got yelled at like 4 times! HALLELUJAH! So the first return appointment didn't turn out super well. The first time we tracted into it, there was only a mom and her 2 kids and so we told her that we would like to come when her husband was there. She said he wasn't but that we could come the following night. Following night came and the guy basically thought that we had tried to hook up with his wife. After a bit of explaining we finally ended on good terms but didn't get to teach them. The next appointment was with a woman named Sofi. We set up a return appointment for a time when her husband would be home as well. We went over last night and he invited us right into the house and we had a great lesson with him, (his name is Eduardo) his wife Sofi, and his sister Valbona. And it was AWESOME!!!! We are going over tomorrow night and hopefully invite them to be baptized. They are so fun to talk with and I really hope they go well.

Jed and his new companion Elder Wilcox.

Another tender mercy happened today. Last time I was here we taught these two girls that were doing great but there dad didn't like them learning from us so they stopped coming. I prayed the other night that I would be able to see them at some point and to talk to them because their phone numbers that the sisters had weren't working. So we were walking back from our P-Day hike and I saw Juli! She was the oldest of the two girls and she totally remembered me from last year. We were able to chat a bit about school and then I invited her to come to some of the activities that we hold throughout the week and she said she would love to come. God loves us! 

MMmmmmmm!  Cherry Days in Albania!

Anyways, thats about it for this week. Lots of stuff and lots of finding. Gotta love it. Well I love you all and I hope you enjoy this coming week! Tell Emma to have fun and to do good!! Love you all!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I was able to talk with Filip last night and ask him how he's doing. He told me that he had a great time at church in the morning and that he is loving the lessons. So I'm not as worried about him anymore. I say hire Sister White. She would work her butt off and I would love working around her. We get along super well and she would do good. I love you Mom! Thanks for being so fantastic! 

Love, Jedediah James

Love One Another

May 4, 2015 email

My family in America, 

Getting ready for a baptism!

So yeah this week was super AWESOME and super SAD at times. But to be honest it was one of the most intense learning weeks of my life. 

So Tuesday started off great. We had an awesome district meeting full of love and I even got to choose the hymn (Elder Price has forgotten to give me an assignment for the meeting every week) And so I chose a Christmas hymn. Nextly, Filip asked us if we could come and chill with him for our lunch time and so we said sure. He drove us out to a place called Dhermi which is this beautiful hidden gem of a town about 40 minutes out of Vlore and it was awesome! While we were driving we talked to him about his smoking issue and fortunately it was a relaxed situation so he was open with us and we were able to kinda get to a better level with him. We chilled on the beach and skipped rocks into the ocean and just had a good time. We drove back and then we had English Course to teach and that was fun. Two ward members basically taught it because I don't know how to teach English good enough I guess. So we did that and then we just contacted all night and had a good time and then we had a lesson set up with Gentjan. We taught him the lesson and then we ended. He was planning on feeding us that night but right when we said the closing prayer we got a call from Elder Price. I answer the phone and he says "Hey, you need to get down to the Boulevard now." And I start freaking out because I think someone is dead or getting robbed but then some girl's voice comes on the line and says "Hey there's this girl here that really wants to see you." And I'm wondering if there's some crazy Albanian girl with a weird crush on me and then I totally recognized the voice. We apologize to Genti and book out the door and run down to the road and guess who was there?! SISTER KOKOL!!!!! It was super awesome! I didn't have tons of time so we just talked for about 10 minutes and took some pics together. It was such a good end to my day. 

Sister Kokol! A quick hi, but fun to see a familiar face:)

The following day was cool too. We started the day with a lot of finding which is basically my favorite thing to do now. Then we had a meeting with our ward mission leader, and that was interesting. Sister Coleman and her trainee, Sister Jackson, also came down that day to do an exchange with our sisters and it was fun to see them. Both cool people. After that we went to lunch with the Larsons and ate by the sea. I got lasagna. GOOD! Later on in the day we went group contacting which was pretty balling. It's always fun to just be unified in one massive contacting effort. After that we had two lessons to do. One with Filip and one with Emiljano. So Elder Befus went with Filip and a member that we were using. The Brother had come over smoking and so we wanted some input from his side of the  experience. One thing that I've been doing to help with Filip is I've been trying to not bite my nails. In Preach My Gospel it says that if you want to sympathize for your investigators a bit better you should try to get rid of a habit that you have such as popping knuckles, chewing pens, biting nails and etc. So I haven't bitten my nails for like a week now. While they had that lesson, I went with Elder Larson and Emiljano. We are making some killer good progress with Emiljano. He is totally starting to open up and understand everything. He is so ready to be baptized and he actually told us that he wants to be baptized. He told us this last night so we are going to meet with him as soon as possible to set him up on a date and such. But in that lesson we read Alma 32 which is the classic seed=faith story and he loved it. The lesson went well and I just waited with Elder Larson till Befus got out. They ended and I guess Brother Duraj had done a fantastic job on telling Filip that God doesn't just let us sit on our cute bums waiting for Him to take away our addictions. WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING BOUT IT!!! So Filip left happy and inspired. Then we went finding... 

Favorite people in Vlore, Albania

Thursday. This was the day where things changed a bit. We had a service project that morning helping a member move some bricks up to her roof so she could build something out of them later on. We did that and she made us breakfast. They have this thing called Petula which is like scones or navajo tacos except it's just more yeasty and you eat with cheese. We all ate and had a good time and did service. After that we went to a baptism for the sisters. It was really good but the lady didn't want a lot of people to be there because she is kinda embarrassed to be a Christian now. I say be proud but we all got free agency. So after that we had ANOTHER baptism for Elder Dahl and Elder Baldwin. Their guy is named Xheku and he is awesome! He asked me to give a talk on baptism so I was pleased to do so. Filip came to that baptism so that was great for him to see that. After the baptism we had a lesson with Filip. We got into the lesson and I started out by asking him how the lesson the day before had gone and what he was thinking. He said it was a good lesson but he said that it had got him thinking a lot. He looked at me and said that his time hasn't come yet to give up smoking. He explained that he just doesn't want to give it up. He knows it's bad but it calms him and he just enjoys smoking. And then he continued saying that he just can't do it because he isn't strong enough right now. We continued with the lesson as planned but I was not there. Right when he said those words, my heart died. I had never had such a feeling of despair and sadness come over me. We ended the lesson and said goodbye and I came upstairs and just broke down in tears. It had broken my heart to see one of God's children that I had come to love so much could just lose all faith in himself. Some of my most intense prayers have been on this brother's behalf. I know God has a plan for him and I know he will stop one day. I sat there for a few minutes just blubbering like a little girl not knowing what else to do. After saying a prayer with Befus we took off for another lesson with Gentjan. 

Friday was full of planning and finding but we also had another productive lesson with Emiljano and Elder and Sister Larson and that was great. Later that night we started an exchange and I got to go with Elder Clemans! That night we just made quesadillas talked each other's ears off. Saturday we worked together and met with some of his investigators. We met with a part member family named the Zeqiri's and they were great. The mom and dad aren't baptized but need to get married before they are given a date. But they are awesome and should be getting married in the very near future. They also live like 3 miles out of Vlore and so we walked FOREVER. All in all I had a good time with Clemans. He's good people. 

Yesterday we got the sad news that 2 of our recent converts have some problems with some people in the ward so they have decided to go to church elsewhere. I hate the fact that people hate other people sometimes. JUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!! With all of that we had a good meeting. The testimonies shared were solid and happy and all of the other lessons were great as well. And I also gave the Priesthood to a recent convert named Patrik yesterday. That was awesome! After church we went and ate lunch with the Larsons and they made us taco soup!! Heavenly. Afterwards we met with a new investigator named Arel and we have big hope for him. He seems like a good brother. We just taught the Restoration and got him excited for more. Afterwards we went and taught Genti because he had some doctrinal questions from an assignment that we had given him from section 93 of D+C. After that we came home and did our thing. And then we slept. 

Today we just played Phase 10 and ate lunch together. That's about it. Well I love you all! Enjoy these last two months without me. Have fun!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

So I will be on Skype at 6 o'clock so be ready. It should be like 10 o'clock your time.  But anyways, I love you Mom and I hope you all still love me. Have a fun week and enjoy your time with Jane!! Loves!!

Love, Jedediah

Guided Safely Home

April 27, 2015 email

Dearest Familja, 

So I got back pretty late from an AWESOME P-day activity so unfortunately this will be a tad bit short but it should still be good. I don't have tons to say but we saw some good success this week that made us all super happy. 

Wow!!  Beautiful place!

So I guess I'll start with Filip, the main man. We've been meeting with him almost everyday this week and our lessons have been awesome. We just share a scripture and he just reads it in Greek and then basically teaches us on what he thinks about it. And he always has the best insights to the Gospel. We have just been trying so hard to get him off of smoking. He is such an awesome guy and he tells us all the time that he just wants to get baptized as soon as possible. Just pray for him to get rid of smoking this week. This is the only thing that is hindering his progress and then he is a free man!

We had a lesson with him though last night and we watched "Guided Safely Home" by Pres. Monson and we actually were able to find it translated in Greek so that made us super happy campers. After we bore our testimonies on the Atonement and the love of God and it was just an amazing lesson in general.

I LOVE this picture!!  Elder Clawson standing on the corner eating something tasty, in a very foreign place:)

 Our other guy is Emiljano. He is slowly making progress. We met a few times this week and he is slowly starting to understand the truthfulness of the church. We talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation this week because he said that he didn't want to have eternal life. What? And so we explained that this was the best gift that anyone could give us. Eternal happiness and life. And so we kinda just explained all of that and such. We also had a lesson on "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto these, ye have done it unto me" and we watched an awesome Bible Video and Emiljano was bawling at the end of it. And he ain't no emotional guy. So yeah it was successful. 

P-day activity.  

Gentjan is doing fantastic as well! He gave the lesson in Priesthood yesterday and it was super good. He blows my mind. He is such a strong guy and he loves the Gospel. Also we have another RC named Ilirjan who is also great. His wife has some really bad health problems though and so that effects how many times we can get to talk with him. Hopefully we can help him out. 

Elder Price and Elder Clawson

This looks lovely!  Elder Clawson and Elder Befus.

Crepes or Suflage with Elder Dahl and Elder Clawson.

Well that is about it for this week. Today I went to Gjirokaster, Syri Kalter, and Sarande. Super fun day but super long and so I'll fill you all more in next week when I got the time. I love you all and I hope you all have a fun week! 

Love, Jed

I have no idea where p-day was today, but it is BEAUTIFUL!  Can't wait to find out next week!

Dearest Mother, 

Tell Jane and Seth to calm down! Sounds like everyone is getting all OCD on us and that doesn't sound fun. Tell Paul way to go on his mission call! I'm sorry to hear that him and Joe won't see each other for such a long time. Let everyone know that I love them! Good luck with the new radio advertisement, I'm sure it'll go great. I love you Mom!

Glory To The Lord, It Is Good!

Elder Clawson contacting in Vlore, Albania

April 20, 2015 email

Dearest Family of 6,

This week was very successful, full of love, laughter, and fun stuff.

 

To start it all off we met with a lot of our recent converts and tried to help them out with their questions and such. One of our converts is Brother Gentjan Zgëna and he is AWESOME!! He is definitely one of the best people that I have met on my mission. He was baptized in the middle of March and he is just a little ball of joy. He works as a roaming salesman with little odds and ends and every day we see him we ask him how work is going and he just smiles and says "Lavdi Zoti, mirë." Which translates to "Glory to the Lord, it's good." and he just has the best outlook on life. He is super willing to help us out with any lesson we have or anything like that. This last week we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity and he is so solid!

 

He was having some troubles this last week and so we gave him Doctrine and Covenants 121 to read because I had actually read it that morning for personal study and he read and then called us later in the day telling us how it had changed his life. That's it for Genti. He's great.

We also met with our çun friend, Valerio. He is making progress in his reading capabilities and he is starting to actually pick up what the Book of Mormon is teaching which is good. He brought a friend named Mateu with him the other day and he loved reading with us. I'm actually starting to like Valerio. At first I was a bit skeptical about him but he is showing promise so I like him now. He just chaps my lips sometimes when he takes 5 billion years to read the word "jashtëzakonisht". But I cut him some slack because I'm trying to be Christlike. 

Studying his guts out!

Filip is the man. We taught him about temples this last week and the Priesthood again just so he could kinda get implanted in his brain. The temples topic was a little rough because I don't remember much about the temple and I don't know what I need to say. But it was all good and he really wants to go to the temple! HOT DOG! We also had a lesson with him on Saturday night to kinda talk with him about smoking because he hasn't been making the progress that has been needed and we can't drop him because he is SO close to being perfect. We read Ether 12:27 with him and talked about the weaknesses that God gives all of us so that we can rely on him more fully.  It was a super good lesson and we set up some expectations with smoking that have already helped him a bunch. He is such a good guy and I just love him to death. 

This week we found a new investigator named Bujar. He came to church with us yesterday and we just sat and listened to the talks and loved church. Before the meeting started we were just chatting and what not and then he brought up baptism and I just mentioned how we are baptized to become members of our church and such and he said "I really want to get baptized." So needless to say we talked with him after the meeting and we are helping him out to figure out a date. He enjoyed church a lot and it was especially good because we had Ward Conference yesterday which made things even better.

By the way, today as I was walking down the road, a boy about 16 years old and 6'2 kicked me right in the butt and ran off down the road. I don't know why or who he was but Elder Dahl and Befus saw it so they can testify of the idiocy that goes on in this country at times.

Our other investigator Emiljano has been good too. We taught him the Word of Wisdom earlier in the week and it was great. He totally felt the Spirit and we invited him to be baptized on a specific date but he just wants to read the whole Book of Mormon first. He's actually pretty close so I'm okay with it for now but hopefully he understands why baptism is so darn important! 

I love his tag!

Those are about all of the highlights this week. But I love being here in Vlore. The people are great, the members are awesome, and I'm just loving life. The church is true and God loves us and wants to bless us 24/7. I love being on my mission and speaking Albanian and all the other crazy stuff that comes with it. 

I hope you all have a good week and stay safe. Tell Jake and Seth to make big jumps upon the track. That's how they can get better! I love you all!

Love, Jedi

New fancy suit to come home in.  They're pretty cheap in Albania!

Dearest Mother, 

Well Mom, I love you. Thank you for writing all these emails for me. Tell Seth way to go on the sacrament and on his talk. I'm excited to hang out with all of the kids. It'll be good times. So did all the snow melt pretty fast then? Hopefully the snow will be better next year. I got the suit and it is AMAZING!! I don't know if you wanted me to get both shoes or just one pair so I haven't gotten either of them yet. I don't have enough for both for now. But you would be so proud of how my missionary shoes look. They are massacred. Well I hope you have a great week and tell everyone I love them. Loves!

Love, Jedediah

My Life Rocks!

Elder Clawson with a cute member who helps teach lessons in Vlore.

April 13, 2015 email

Well Family in the West,

As I sit here in this Interenet Lokalë, I can't help but wonder how awesome my life is right now. I am serving a mission for the Lord in Vlorë, Albania, I speak Albanian with the Natives, I live on the beach, I get to finally wear short sleeve white shirts, I eat the best food ever, my companion worked at Nordstrom and helps me choose what tie goes with what pants every morning, it's sunny outside, I played beach volleyball for 2 and half hours this morning, I got to read my scriptures for a straight hour, and I get to talk with people all day everyday about how they can be happy for the rest of their lives!!! MY LIFE ROCKS!!!!!! The biggest stress I have to deal with is that an investigator didn't show up for a lesson and I have to find out why. And what kind of cereal I want to eat for breakfast. Everything is just taken care of by the Lord.

Anyways, this was a good week. We were able to meet with Filip a couple of times. He's making slow but steady progress with smoking. He is really starting to like me. After every lesson lately he grabs my head and pulls it right below his neck and he tells me how much he appreciates the help that we are giving him. He was going to come to church yesterday to come and watch conference with us but the Albanians celebrated Easter yesterday because of the Orthodox church and I guess that's what they do, therefore Filip had to do some stuff with his family so he couldn't make it. 

These 4 all came out together almost 2 years ago, and all 3 have been Jed's companions at one time or another.

We met with a new investigator this last week named Leonardo. He was good but he had read some stuff on the internet about Joseph Smith and that had kinda given him an "idea" of what our church was about. We had a member named Ariola in on that lesson to kinda help us out and she was a lifesaver. She explained lots of good things to Leo so that he could understand a bit more plainly of what our church was all about. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and committed him to read before we met him again and he said he would read it without being prejudge-mental of Joseph Smith and such. Hopefully his heart and mind will be open so that he can get a grasp on the truths shared.

Elder Clawson on his deck doing his morning studies.  Nice view!

Evening view of the bay.

After that lesson we met with our investigator E.  We asked Elder Larson to come and help us out with the lesson since E really likes him. But the catch with this lesson was that E brought a friend that is very argumentative and VERY Protestant. We sat down into the lesson and then began the onslaught of questions. Trinity, polygamy, temples, magic underwear, and all kinds of other stuff. Elder Larson was blown away with the guys questions and fortunately we were able to answer all of them with reverence and patience but the Spirit was definitely not there until the very end when the three of us testified to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the church. I don't necessarily like those lessons a whole lot and it definitely wears on your spirituality for a bit. And afterwards I was talking with Elder Befus and we were just saying how sad it is to see people reject such a happy message just because they might not be willing to give up a little vice may it be a drug, alcohol, the Law of Chastity, or even pride. Just a sad thing I say.

A beautiful Monastery in Vlore.

 We have also been meeting with a young boy named Valerio. He is one of the boys that has terrorized the church before. Elder Befus and I decided that we needed to just love them into submission. Turns out, Valerio was baptized in Tirana like 4 years ago! Who knew?! So we have been meeting with him and his sister, Laura, and been reading the Book of Mormon with them. Valerio doesn't know how to read because his family can't afford school. Whereas Laura reads very well for an 11 year old because she taught herself basically. So they are showing progress and we hope to put Laura on a baptismal date hopefully soon and see where that goes. 

We got to watch conference this weekend which was great. I don't get all of it in Albanian but I get the message most of the time. Elder Holland's talk was super freaky with those brothers out climbing. I was imagining Jake, Seth, and I and I almost lost it! I miss my brothers!! But all in all I thought it was a good conference.

Well some stuff about Vlore. It has a huge Greek influence and lots of people hear speak Italian and/or Greek. Every morning I watch the Italy Ferry come in to Port and pick stuff up and then take off again. The beaches are either super pretty or super dirty. I try to see the pretty ones. The food is good here. The people aren't very Muslim as I'm used to which is a breath of fresh air at times. The main religion is Greek Orthodox and a lot of people actually practice. There is also a large population of Jehovah's Witnesses. All in all, I love Vlorë.

Elder Clawson and Elder Befus

My companion is one Elder Taggart Reed Befus from Draper. He is a little less than a year younger than me and likes fine things. He is into fast cars, nice watches, nice suits, and definitely not into the granola man life. Which is good. We get along super well though and we are always laughing. Probably will go down as one of my favorites. He has driven Ferrari's and Lamborghinis I believe so that's cool. Personally I'm more of the Isuzu Trooper kinda guy or possibly a Subaru Outback but to every man his own.

Everyone, let it be known throughout the world that I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He lives! I love Him and I know that I will one day see Him. I am His representative and I preach His Gospel. The church is true.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Jedediah

Dearest Mother, 

Well it sounds like you were all moving around quite a bit this last week. I hope you were able to get in the water a little bit. On conference it looked like Utah is all bright and springy. Are you getting the garden ready for anything? I love you Mom, thank you for writing me every week. I know it gets tiring. Loves!

Love, Jed

PS the blog needs updating. I have received many a complaint.