I'll get right to the point with that title because I know some of you are impatient. After district council on Wednesday, Elder Qose and I walked into the kitchen of the Fier church while waiting for the STL's and ZL's to finish their important convo so we could go to lunch. There was a bottle of pomegranate juice chilling on the table that had been there since Sunday. Elder Qose was going to throw it away, but I asked if I could have it because I was curious and it couldn't be that bad if it'd only been a few days. Well, as soon as I started turning the cap on this thing, it straight up exploded with more force than I've ever experienced from a plastic bottle. Fermented pomegranate juice went a solid 4 or 5 feet in the air and the bottle cap was turned into a deadly plastic projectile which shot directly into my right eye. I'm sure this would've been very comedic for me if I could've felt my eye afterwards. Everything was numb and I couldn't see, and to add to my panic Elder Qose's reaction was not good when I pulled my hand away from my eye. For about 2 seconds I wondered if I even had an eye anymore which was a really nice thought to have if you can imagine. Since there was basically a gunshot in the building, the other missionaries rushed in to see what happened and help which was fun haha. I ended up washing my eye out in filtered water and holding a carton of ice cream over my eye as an icepack. Picture included for all of your enjoyment. Anyways, after talking to the mission nurse and doing everything I was supposed to do, I was told just to rest my eyes and take some tylenol. I had a good headache for a couple days, but my eyesight came back after a few hours so we're good now haha. Surprisingly enough, I didn't get a black eye. My eyelid is definitely bruised, but things worked out well there. I'll have to cross getting a black eye off of my bucket list later.
Anyways, this week was fire, even with getting shot in the face. The day after that, we had a bomb day in Saranda where we were able to meet with two referrals, have a great lesson with one of them, and then we ran into members from Utah there on vacation! The odds of such an encounter were so incredibly low seeing as we're only in Saranda every few weeks if even that. We had just finished eating some good ol sandwiches we brought from Gjirokaster, when we heard some friendly English voices from behind us. They were so shocked, surprised, and clearly excited to see us because they immediately offered to take us to dinner. We took them up on that offer a couple hours later after we had met with our other homie. A successful day for sure.
I have been pretty amazed with how things have been going with the language. My greatest struggle right now is still understanding the natives, but when I need to, I seem to just pick up what people are saying. Even when I don't understand fully what they're saying, I just open my mouth and the words seem to just flow. I'm incredibly grateful. What's even more evidence to me that the gift of tongues is the cause of this, is that when I leave our area, it is so much harder for me to use my Albanian. Super grateful for all I've learned so far too. I think if you guys back home were to observe me speaking to the natives, you'd think I was fluent, but the natives and other missionaries can definitely still tell I'm faking it till I make it still hahaha.
Another hype event of the week was Tuesday. The ZL's came down for a super exchange down here in Gjiro, and what was even better about that is that both of the zone leaders have served here. We were able to have some good talks about the people in the area and what is best to focus on in an area that needs so much attention. It was also just super nice to have the company because it can and does get a little lonely down here with just the two of us at times. I have gotten pretty used to the isolation though, so it'll be pretty whacked up when I get moved out of here. That should still be a ways off though so I'll enjoy this great area while I have it. I don't have any other areas to compare it to as of yet, but with what I've observed and heard, Gjirokaster definitely competes for the spot of the best area.
Elder Cannon is also doing super well. He's honestly pushing me to improve my Albanian so much as well. Once he starts understanding the people around us more, I think he'll catch right up to me in his language abilities. He's literally got 100's of flashcards on our kitchen table that he goes through every day. It's pretty inspiring to see him work so hard at the vocab and I bet if I had done the same thing back in my training, I would understand a lot more today.
That's all I've got for you guys this week. Enjoy the pictures and have a hype week! Looking forward to hearing anything from any of you if any of you decide to email me :'( jk you're all great and honestly things have been going by so quick that at times it has taken be a week or two to even read the emails I have gotten haha.
Love you all! Cau
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