Yooo what's up my fam? It's a pleasure to once again be writing to you for my weekly episode of events. It would be more of a pleasure if I got more emails from you guys, but oh well I guess. I'm not bitter. Things are great here regardless shokët e mia. Të vazhdojmë? Mirë you don't have a choice because I'm going to keep writing anyways.
As per usual, us Gjirokastër Elders, being so isolated and having such a large area, we're in many different places. We actually got to meet another referral from a Facebook ad down in Saranda and that was really sweet. He's a neat dude and we hope to continue to meet with him. You may or may not remember, but we met another referral from Saranda almost 2 months ago and haven't had any in person contact with him since... Hopefully we can continue to meet with both of them because they're both awesome dudes and it would also be great to have an excuse to drive to Saranda all the time. It's a beautiful city right on the coast with pristine blue water so we love going there. I've only been 3 times (twice on pday lol) so we gotta rack those visit counts up. Anyways, Afeis and Andi are great, are both very openminded, and now both have Book of Mormons. Cool stuff.
We also had a super exchange up in Fier this week. It was such a blast. Not only did we get to hang out with the Elders and Sisters in Fier, but we got to play football (soccer) with mEmBeRs and some other friends they have up there. If you're not familiar with our situation in Gjiro, just know that we don't quite have enough young bodies in our group to play a good game of football... meaning we pretty much have zero that would want to or are capable of doing so. It was definitely needed for me to just have some genuine physical activity as missionary work so I am counting it as a major blessing. Elder Qose is also the branch president of Fier right now so I got to see what it's like to have the responsibility of doing some good old branch work/financing and stuff. Chances are I'll have to be doing some of that stuff in the future so I'm glad I got a sneak peak even though I'd rather just focus on being a missionary haha. I've really taken not having a branch to take care of for granted because we have so many less responsibilities there.
Balloon Battles. In pure Elders fashion, after we had finished up our language study we decided to get some brief physical activity in to wake ourselves up a little. What resulted was one of the funnest things I've ever done in my life. You know that game you play as a kid where you try to keep the air-filled balloon from touching the ground? Super fun. Now imagine that on steroids on a very competitive level with 4 Elders who have been cooped up inside a church for the last few hours. To say the least, once the sisters noticed what was happening they were very entertained. Also got some quality footage from Sister Meredith that is now shared in the album below so kudos to her.
SICK STUFF! Take that literally. I woke up Saturday feeling like vomiting haha. After doing my best to recover in the morning with no success, we decided to go out anyways. After taking our car to a shop to get some scratches fixed we stopped for lunch at a traditional restaurant and that's where I discovered I still was not able to eat anything without my stomach getting very upset. We promptly went to a pharmacy and got some stomach medicine and returned to the house where I received a blessing and a much-needed nap. Long story short, the rest of Saturday was spent resting which didn't make me feel very great but I'm grateful for it in hindsight.
Other fun stuff too: we have a senior couple that was supposed to go home on Monday, and they tested positive for COVID. As a result, everyone they were in direct contact with is now quarantined which includes the Fier Elders and Vlorë (almost our entire district). Since we had close contact with Fier this week as well, if they test positive then we too will have to quarantine. We are definitely praying that doesn't happen but until then the work goes on I guess. Even though I had to be vaccinated to come out here, I've been wearing a mask just in case that bug I caught is actually corona. Let's hope that wasn't the case because that'd make the vaccine kote. :/
Today was a good day as well. We stayed down here in good ol gjiro because our beloved Fier Sisters wanted to finally make it down here and see around. We're already an hour and a half away from Fier (which is the closest area to us) and the Fier sisters, until Friday, we're living in Berat which is another hour past Fier. So, with all that, they weren't allowed to come down to Gjiro because it was too far. But NOW we are mirë and we had a great time helping the sisters tour the castle and do some dank shopping in the bazaar area near the castle. Fun day for sure and we didn't have to drive 3 hours which is very nice.
I love you all! You're all the bomb.
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