Ç'bëni!!!! Si keni qenë? Me punë? Me shkoll? A jeni të lodhura?
Anyways, this week was awesome!! I'm gonna talk first about some of the stuff I've left out lately! I can't remember if I said this already, but there is this place here called "The Pelican", and it is like this gourmet ice cream and sweets place. Holy cow, it is heavenly. It's super crazy here! We live about a ten minute walk from this Pelican place, and right outside our apartment is this farmer's market where people are selling olives, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and everything, and then we walk down to the Pelican, and they're playing American music, and they have like the best ice cream I've ever tasted, and these super crazy delicious delectable yummy cakes and baked goods that look like they came right out of Food Network. I'll try to remember to take some pictures next time. You wouldn't believe it. It's so good! And, it's not even that expensive!
In fact, nothing in Shqipëri is expensive. Today, we went to a bakery, bought a loaf of white bread, 6 hot dog buns that were freshly made that day, and are good size, and a croissant with chocolate inside, and it was less than $1.40!!! It's stinkin' cheap here!!!! If anybody starts struggling financially, make your way over to Albania, and you'll be a king.
However, there are a lot of poor people, and practically everybody either doesn't have work, or they do, and work a lot! It's crazy. These people here are stinkin' hard workers. There's some recent converts that we teach here, named Sindi and Çeleste (I've told you about them, they're incredible), and their Dad works all the time. Whenever we go over there, even if it's like 8 p.m., he is still working on something. It really is inspiring, and yet it makes my heart ache. Sindi and Çeleste live there, and their mom, and I believe they have two step sisters that live in their same house, and then their step sisters have at least one child also. The mom The only people that have beds are Sindi and Celeste. This week, their power was out for two days for some reason, and might still be now. I think it had something to do with the electric company owner. I know they need like $350 dollars to get the power back on, which is a lot here. The mom was saying that the dad works all the time, yet they have no money. She also told me she sleeps on the floor with her grandson. Oh my goodness, they are such amazing people. It is so much fun going over there! They kind of live in a village type set up, because all these boys from all around play together, and it is so cute to see all of them! They had these little tiny guns each with a single plastic bullet that they were playing with, and they were having so much fun with them! It's so fun to go over there, because they family knows us really well, and all the boys like to come up and talk to us! Yesterday, as we were leaving, I shook the hand of this little boy and we were just joking around, and I just shook his hand really hard, and he laughed super loud, and thought it was so funny! Ah man, they're so cool! On a sidenote, they have some pens here that are "Schneider" brand! Ha!
By the way, did I mention before that we're getting a ton of member dinners? It rocks! I need to take more pictures of those too! The members are so cool here. People here love talking. It's kind of a shame, because sometimes we'll be at a dinner appointment for like an hour and a half or more. Whenever we have a dinner appointment, we always teach a lesson, and try to center it around asking for referrals, because a referral from a member is like Christmas! It's the best way to do missionary work. We figure that we should have about as many member referrals as... as... as there are stray dogs in the streets or as many people that smoke in Albania! No kidding, there are so many stray dogs here. They're so sweet though! I don't do it often, but sometimes, I'll pet one, and give it a little hug. This one time, one almost bit my hand. You should have seen it. It was all foamy and cross-eyed, and I was like, "Hey Elder Jaunay! I think this dog wants a pass-a-long card," so I tried to give him a pass-a-long card, but he tried to bite me, so we left. Just kidding about all of that. I hope I scared Jessie and Mom with that. There actually are a TON of stray dogs though! Where was I... Oh yeah! Referrals! If everyone thing went right, and we all had the same understanding, we should be getting more referrals. However, it seems like a lot of the members here have fears about talking to their friends about what they believe. Do you have any advice for that? Or what you do to share the gospel in your life, and what you did on your mission when members were afraid to share the gospel? By the way, Motra Xheka, the female Bruce Wayne is awesome! She's shared the gospel with several friends, who have gotten baptized, and she gave us a referral this week that we plan to meet up with! She's incredible. Other than the fact that she is an incredible member missionary, and has shared the gospel with so many of her friends, she's in her 30's, owns her own construction company, has incredibly strong testimony, and fights crime in Goth-- Durr-- ... Durrthem at night! She's so cool.
Something that's surprised me since being here is that we spend a lot of time studying and in our appartment. Each day, we're supposed to have 1 hour personal, 2 hours companion study, because there is a program new missionaries do called The First 12 Weeks, and we also have 1 hour language study, and then sometimes we take 2 hours for lunch, since ordinarily we don't take a lot of time for dinner. I was expecting more that we would be working like all day every day, but it's a lot of time indoors. We're being obedient though! We still do work hard, also! Also, guess what, I haven't gone door-to-door tracting once yet! Apparently, it doesn't have a lot of success ordinarily, but I still want to try it! The language is also coming really well! This week we started speaking only in Shqip, and I plan on doing that for the rest of the transfer, and then by then, I hope to have a pretty good grasp that I can just go the rest of the mission! I can tell ya right now that speaking English when I get back is going to be rough. I've decided to do this because I want to be consecrated. I want to learn this language and immerse myself in it so I can start being myself here with this people! When you can't speak the language to these people as well as you'd like, it can be difficult to express yourself in the way you want, but I want to be able to talk, teach, and interact with these people like I would with you all, which is why I'm speaking only in Shqip!
Anyways, to close, I want to tell you about a man named Anesti that we met this week! We were out contacting people, and Elder Jaunay and I had just finished talking to someone, and we walked by Anesti, and I looked at him, and got the feeling like, "He's different." And I later found out that Elder Jaunay got a feeling that he was ready for the gospel. Well, it turns out those feelings were both real. We stopped and talked to Anesti, and while I couldn't understand a whole lot, we had a lesson, set up a time to meet with him, and left! We met with him on Friday, and taught the first lesson, and invited him to be baptized! And he accepted for November 12th! Then the next day, we taught Plan of Salvation, and invited him to church! And he came! AND we had a lesson later that day and taught him the end part of the Plan of Salvation, and Gospel of Jesus Christ. This guy is incredible. He has a little bit difficulty reading, not just reading the Book of Mormon, but reading in general. I don't think he's been to very much school, but I believe that the feeling I had when we contacted him was real. I cannot deny that. Everything is happening miraculously. It's incredible.
I want to take a moment now, to testify for how my testimony of the Savior has grown this week. As I said earlier, I've been speaking only in Shqip this week. As a result of that, the language has come to me much better. I know that it is because of the Enabling Power of the Atonement and the Gift of Tongues. I had an experience this week that touched me. It was very brief, and in fact only a feeling, but it was profound. We were talking to this man that was sitting outside his barbershop, and we shared a scripture, maybe, or were about to ask if he knew anybody that would be interested in our message, and I was testifying of the Savior, and he kind of interrupted me, and said something about... in fact, Idk what he said, but he pointed to his heart, and his head, and then to his lips, and I understood that to mean that he was saying something about how sometimes it's only our lips that say things, and I tried to tell him that my testimony of the Savior is from my heart, but we started talking about something else. As I told him that my testimony of the Savior is from my heart, I felt a love for my Savior and a confirmation that I know he is real in my heart. I am so thankful for his enabling power in my life. One other quick experience. As I reflected on this experience later this week, I had just looked at some photos of Conrad and Dan, and I was thinking about them, and about how awesome it will be when we get to be back together again! Then later that day, I was thinking about the Savior, and it was incredible, because I had the same feeling in my heart as I did when I was thinking about the Savior as when I was thinking about Conrad and Dan. The feeling being that I can't wait until we are reunited, and about how much joy I will feel. That was a testimony for me that the Savior truly is my brother. I love my Savior, and I know He lives, and has an un-ending, brotherly, perfect love for us.
I hope you all have an awesome week! I have some requests! How do you make Salsa? I would like a recipe for that, and other easy, simple recipes for dinners we could make here! Also, a recipe for cookies. Also, if you all could take pictures of whatever is going on in your life, and send them to me, that would rock! I love seeing them! Oh, and momma, for my birthday package, my main desires would be sour patch kids, goldfish, On the Border chips and salsa if possible, letters from the family and friends and whoever else is in town, and... Jelly Belly Jelly Beans! And anything else that would either make me laugh, or that you think I would like! OH! And twizzlers! Honestly, if you sent me like stinkin' a bunch of that stuff, that would rock. I would have a lot of fun with that :)
I hope you liked the email! I'm so sorry, I'm out of time, but I'll try to email individually next week! Love you all!
-Elder Shnajdër
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