Wow. Remember how before I left it felt like it wasn't real? Well it feels like that again, and I'm even IN Albania!!! Doesn't make sense, but really!
Yep! I am now in Albania! It is wild. This is like nothing I've ever, ever experienced. We live in Durres, which is about 10-15 minutes from the coast! It's beautiful here in a special kind of way. In the way of like nature-beauty, it's a little sparce. But I think it is beautiful, because I've never seen these people before, and we live literally right outside this farmer's market type thing. They have fresh fruit, veggies, olives (there's a lot of olives), fish (we don't eat them), and other stuff. So yeah! I've had a bunch of the traditional food so far! Elder Jaunay was really good at helping me try all the cool Albanian food! I've had suflaqe which is like the albanian equivalent of a hamburger. It's in a little pita tortilla, and it's got chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, sour cream (I think), some red sauce, and then french fries IN the suflaqe! It was stinkin' delicious, and they eat it with a little plastic pitch fork-looking thing. Haha it was awesome! I also had Byrek (pronounced Burek, kind of), and that was sweet! You can have either like spinach, meat and onion, or cheese, and it's in this crumbly little bun thing, and it rocked! Their ice cream here is so good, and so cheep! Everything here is incredibly cheap. Like, we are going to be well fed for the next two years. It's so cheap to live here. There's only poverty because there are a ton of people that don't work. I had fasule today! (Foss-oo-lay) that was good. It was like a bean soup thing. OH! I had Dhalle. Yuck. So gross. Dhalle is a drink made up of water, yogurt and salt, basically. I don't know exactly how it is prepared to be ready to sold, but yeah. It tastes about as good as it sounds. Pronounced "thall, (in Albanian, Dh makes a "th" sound like in "they" as opposed to in "thaw"). We had some weird fruit yesterday that probably could have been in the garden of eden. It actually wasn't that good, but it looked super cool!
It's wild. In the middle of the day, people are just stinkin' everywhere on the street selling whatever they can get their hands on. I've seen people selling what looked like just chargers for stuff, a bunch of knick knacks, "the kind of stuff you'd throw away!" -Weird Al, shoes (people are selling sandals and high heels all over). It's actually kind of sad though, because in the part of the city where we live, it's pretty poor. We have this one family we teach, and their name is "Dalipaj" (pronounced "dolly-pie"), and they are probably the poorest i've seen here yet. We've taught them at there house twice since i've been here. On the first time, Elder Jaunay invited them all to be baptized, and I think like 5 of them said yes! There are two parents, three boys, and one girl. The oldest boy had an accident when he was younger, and is now blind in one eye, and doesn't really have any fingers on his right hand. A firework blew up while he was holding it, and a piece went in his eye. It's super sad. But so we went over there on Saturday, and we watched the restoration video, because we taught it in the lesson before, and we were going to teach about the Plan of Salvation this lesson. So we watch the video on that little tiny portable DVD player you'll see in my video, and one of the sons seemed to really like it, but after the video, the father started talking about politics and money or something, and basically, we tried to tell him that the gospel blesses us eternally, and that when we first seek to follow the commandments, that God will provide. That didn't work so much. While all this was going on, I was just listening, because this guy has like 0 teeth I'm pretty sure! So I just sat there and listened to my companion try to teach this guy. It was rough, and definitely could have gone like a thousand times better. I found some cool stuff in PMG, and hopefully things will go better next time.
I've adjusted really well to the time change! I was actually like fine. I didn't really notice any problem, at all really. We met President and Sister Weidmann on Wednesday, and they are awesome! We didn't spend a lot of time with them, but they seem super loving! I'm really looking forward to spending more time with him :) We got to Durres about like 3 or 4 o'clock on Thursday, but it feels like I've been here for months. It's unbelievable. Time is the weirdest thing here. Also, Elder Jaunay is awesome! He is from New Zealand, and this is only his second transfer! He was in the MTC group right before me! He trained in Durres, and now he's training me, and he is awesome. He knows the language really well, and helps me so much. He's like super chill, and probably one of the most friendly, loving, warm people I've ever met. He's really able to connect with everyone we teach, and it's so great! He is an amazing teacher as well, very engaging. He's super cool awesome because he's like a bro! He the oldest of 6, 5 boys and 1 baby sister, and he loves his brothers more than almost everything, so it's super cool, because we both love our brothers so much. He's incredible. He's so generous and gives of his time, and his food, and everything for me. He's pretty much the coolest!
Also, people here are so kind! Pretty much whoever we talk to is willing to help me with my Albanian. They are so kind here. It's still pretty scary going street contacting though. Whew. I understand that's important to try to set up a bond with them, because when you just go like, "Hi we have a message about Jesus!" It's not very effective. So that's something I wanna get better at for sure! The small talk here is something I want to get better at! When it comes to lessons and testifying, I do pretty well there, but when it comes to talking just about normal stuff, it's pretty rough! I'm learning though! It's also stinkin' hard because people here talk fast, and don't pronounce their words as clearly as they do in the MTC, and it also doesn't help, because a lot of people here are missing teeth! So there's that! Elder Jaunay says that understanding will come with time though. Overall, I'm doing well! Another cool thing, we've been teaching these two girls named Sindi and Çeleste (Ç = Ch). Elder Jaunay and his trainer baptized them last transfer, and they are incredible! Çeleste bore her testimony yesterday, and it was awesome. We are helping to prepare them to go to the temple, which is in Switzerland! They are 15 and 16, so they'll do baptisms, but they're so excited! It's amazing to see the miracles that can happen through the Atonement.
Oh yeah! We've had dinners at some members houses already, which rocked! We also had dinner at the Stake President's house! That was sweet! His wife is American, so they're children are half Albanian, half American, and they are so cute! They know English and Shqip, so it's super cute to hear their toddler say "Uji!" Which is "water" in Shqip. But yeah, we've got a ton of member dinners lined up this week. Elder Jaunay was saying that our mission does not get very many referrals, and this is my thought. There's like 2,400 members in Albania, total, right? Not even all of those are active, therefore pretty much everyone these members know are non-members, so there should be no real excuse that we're not getting wheelbarrows full of referrals! I've made it a goal of mine to turn that around here, because teaching an investigator with a member who is already there friend is like the best scenario. We're gonna work hard!
Dad and Mom,
Thank you for your counsel from your emails! It was so nice to talk to you two last week! Momma, I'm so sorry that we couldn't talk for as long as we wanted! I felt real bad afterwards, and I'm really sorry for that! Thanks again for your emails though! This week and last both had things that I really could learn from. Thank you, and I love you so much!
Conrad,
Dude, I'm sorry about Heather. Ugh. That stinks, man. I think it's super cool how you continue to learn right now though, and thanks for sharing it with me, too, dude! Thank you for your counsel, as well. Everyone's counsel came at a great time!
Daniel, You're stinking 5' 10"!? No way! You're taller than me, already!? Wow. I'm ready to take you on! I don't sweat you! But I am sweating right now. It's really hot in this internet cafe. It's all dark, and there's a bunch of Albanians playing League of Legends or something and they're screaming Albanian at each other, and it's pretty cool!
Aight, Fam. I've got two requests.
1. Can someone tell me some of our family history on our german side? Because sometimes when we meet people, they see my name, and they're like, "Shnajder! Gjermanisht!" And Elder Jaunay is like, "Yeah! He's from Germany!" And then I'm like, "Haha no, but my family is!" And then I don't know what to say after that, because I don't know as much about that side, but can you let me know some of that so I can tell some people something?
2. When have you had to do something you didn't want to do, but you did it anyway? Because right now, in order to obtain a lot of the growth I'm seeking for, I know i'm going to have to be out of my comfort zone, but I don't want to, ya know! It's freaky! I'd love some counsel for that.
By the way, on this computer, I can't go back and edit really, so if I want to add something, I just put it in in the end! I forgot to tell you this cool story about Elder Jaunay! We were looking for the sisters in our area, and there was this guy smoking, and we started talking to him! Elder Jaunay talked to him for a while, and after a bit, we got onto the topic of smoking, and Elder Jaunay asked him for this cigarette that was behind his ear, and he didn't give it to him, so Elder Jaunay grabbed it, and asked him if he could destroy it, and after a while, he consented, and he destroyed his cigarette! It was just awesome, because I was able to see an example of how bold Elder Jaunay is! It was stinkin awesome. And we still had a good relationship with the man by the time we left, it seemed like! So cool.
Anywho, I reckon that's about it! I know that this is the work of Salvation, and that I am called to invite these people to Christ. I know that this is the best possible thing that could ever happen to these people. Think. What else could I offer to these people that would bring them more security, love, happiness, and joy than this gospel? I know of no such thing. Know that I am doing well, and that I love you all. I am doing great over here. No homesickness :) I love you all so much!
-Elder Schneider
No comments:
Post a Comment