7-11-2011

" Home sweet home here i come!! It hit me hard yesterday that today is my last day of work as a missionary because tomorrow i'll be traveling to Tirana because we have a little party for all the departing missionaries and all the members who want to come. It should be a lot of fun."

7-4-2011, 9 days!

"Hey i just got back from Tirana so that's why this email is getting to you late. I went and had lunch with a family and then took another family out bowling, it was a blast. Today was my last chance really to hang out with the families in Tirana so me and my comp. took our p-day to Tirana and tried to visit as many as we could. I'm gonna miss them but i will hopefully keep in touch with facebook and skype since there both free. This past week went by extremely slow but we are way busy this week so i think times going to fly by. At least i hope it does. I'm getting nervous. I don't really know what to expect."

6-27-2011, 16 days!

"Only 16 days!! I don't know how it's possible but the weeks keep flying by faster and faster. We have been crazy busy. We have found a lot of good new investigators and i'm not sure if any of them will be baptized before i leave but i truly believe they will be baptized soon after i leave. They are just to good to not join the church. I wish i would have found them sooner so i could teach them longer and to see them enter into the waters of baptism. The trip last week was amazing. We were up in the Albanian Alps and it was beautiful. We ended up staying in this log house they had up there and it was actually very warm with the most comfortable beds i've slept on in over 2 years =). I don't even know where to start beginning to tell you about the trip. It was a long drive up there since we left at 4:30 in the morning and got up there at 3. Me and another elder took off as soon as we got there to go hiking up in the hills and we had a blast. We found all those wild strawberries and we were high enough that there was snow up where we were. After awhile we decided to go back down and met up with the other Elders but that was after we crossed that awesome rickety old bridge =). I thought i was going to fall in but it turned out to be pretty sturdy. The trip home was ridiculous because we took a wrong turn somewhere and were on this one lane road on the edge of this mountain and it took us 8 hours to get back to Tirana,lol, and from there i had another 2 hours to Fier. It was so long!! But i made the most of it and since i was sitting in the front i asked him to stop every 30 miles or so to get out and check out the scenery and walk around.... I have tons more stuff that happened but my minds just racing thinking that i only have 16 days left and then i'll be able to tell you about it in person...."

6-19-2011, 23 days

" It's been way hot though which i don't like since we are always in a tie and pants. Today we are in shorts though because we are going to the beach. I can't swim but we're going to play soccer and frisbee on the beach which will be way fun. We leave Monday at 4 a.m and get to Valbona at 1 pm but we will be taking a fairy which is going to be awesome!! It should be a blast with 13 of us going."

6-13-2011, 30 days!

"i'm feeling a lot better. I have been with a small cough for most of the week but after Wednesday i had enough energy to be able to run again and be back to my normal self. I made the mistake of telling our neighbors that i was sick. Albanians have some really weird and crazy ideas about how to stay healthy and they always exaggerate things. Our neighbors are the members so she was even more worried about me so she gave me some old school ideas of how to get rid of my cough and i'm still paying the price for it. She got onions and graded them up into a bowl with roki which i guess would be classified as liquor and then crushed up an aspirin and then she made the son rub it on my back before i went to bed. It was so much they rubbed on me and then it was way hot and she made me wrap up in a blanket and fall asleep without an air conditioner on,lol. I laugh even thinking about it. My comp. hated it because our entire room smelled horribly. I woke up asap and took a shower but the juice soaked into my skin so even today after i was done running i could smell the onion and raki coming out of my skin,lol. That is the last time i tell an Albanian i'm sick =)..... The rest of my week has been really good as well. We had a soccer game planned out for a branch activity but it got cancelled because of rain and also because we are going to the beach in Vlore this Saturday as a branch which will be blast!! English is amazing still and all our students keep bringing there friends so instead of declining in students we are actually getting more which is cool. We keep working hard with the members and we don't spend a lot of time tracting but we do a lot of street contacting and just stop and create small talk with people while we walk. It's been crazy humid and it's getting really hot and i've been losing weight just because i'm not as hungry but i drink a lot more. I don't really know what else to talk about. I'm way excited to see you all and i'm happy that i'm in Fier and i'm loving the work right now."

6-6-2011

" So this will be a short email because i'm not feeling good today. Last night after church something hit me hard and now i have a cough and a really bad headache. It's frustrating because we have some meetings tonight with some families but i think we will have to cancel them. This week has gone by super fast. English is still going strong and we keep working hard to try to find all the less active families here in Fier and try to visit them all. I'm happy and lovin the work. I just hope this cold or whatever i have passes fast."

5-23-2011

"We are in Lushnje today hanging out with the other elders because one of the Elders here got transfered up North to Shkoder so we are eating lunch and playing sports with them today. It's a beautiful day for soccer so hopefully we will find some kids around town to come and get a game going with us. This week has been strange. We've been inside a little because of the voting problems and also my comp. has been sick and struggling with horrible allergies so when we do go out its only for about 3 hours before i look at him and his eyes are puffed up and he can't breath because the allergies. I feel bad for the kid but he's a hard worker and insists on going out so it's cool. We are starting up english class tomorrow and i hope we get a good turn out. It will be interesting. My comp. and I will be staying in Fier until July when i leave so i'm excited to be with him again for another transfer. We also had an investigator accept a baptism date so we will be working hard with him to be prepared to be baptized. We also have been getting tons of referrals from members so hopefully some of those people will be ready to learn more about the gospel. I find that here we have had a lot of first lessons but it's hard to get people to continue to meet with us for weeks at a time. It's frustrating but there is a time and place for everyone to learn so i don't let it get to me, well most the time at least =)."