It blows my mind that I'm already writing to all of you guys again. Time is flying by way too fast. President has told me too that he might take me out of Gjiro this next transfer (2 weeks) so we will see what happens there. My time in Gjiro has been so long yet so short all at once. A very strange feeling for sure that only those who have served missions can truly relate to. Let's get to it though shall we?
Highlights of the week:
Picked a ton of olives and tried tasting a raw one (don't recommend it)
Had a super exchange in Fier
Went to Saranda again woooo
Had some great English Course lessons!
Made a new friend and she came to church lets goooo
The language is still frustrating as frick
Met with a murderer
etj
To get started on all of that, Wednesday we stayed the night up in Fier with the Elders there and had an awesome exchange. On this exchange, I learned the glories of olive picking. Lowkey I really enjoyed it and it feels very good to just do some genuine service for a member for a change. Anyways, the day after that we all went to Vlore for another service project (guess what) picking olives. With the accumulated 5 hours or so of picking I'm starting to feel like I actually know my stuff. To make things even better, we are actually going to be picking olives for the same person again tomorrow morning haha. Super great and I am excited believe it or not.
Okay some short story time now. I think I've mentioned how Elder Cannon and I have been attempting to revive the English Course in the area and how last week, we were successful in doing so. Well, turns out it was a true revival because we met with this lady another two times this last week for English course, and each time we were able to share a great spiritual thought afterwards. On Friday night, after our lesson, we were able to share a little bit about the restoration. We ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and inviting her to church on Sunday. Well, as it would turn at, she totally came yesterday! The unfortunate side of that is that everyone else decided to bail on us yesterday so she was the only one there... Kinda awkward for a first-timer to show up and just have us there haha. But, she had met our member Dritan a couple days before so she was pretty understanding of it. We were able to have a great discussion explaining what the sacrament was, do the ordinance, sing some hymns together with just the 3 of us, and then we had a full restoration lesson with her there in the church building. It was super awesome and she said she'd like to come back again! We are also continuing English course with her so we will for sure be seeing her a bunch. After she left the building, my companion and I just lost it. We were so grateful and so excited to have been a part of that miracle and we just hope to be able to continue to see it unfold.
So the murderer thing is kinda fun. On Tuesday we were wandering the city talking to people as you do in our secluded area, and we ran into this old man carrying bags up a hill. I offered to help him with the bags, but he said he was good because he was so close to his home. He then, in typical friendly Xhaxhi Albanian fashion, asked us where we were from. After talking to him for a while, he asked us if we would like to come sit down with him in his home and have a drink and just visit. We of course, with nothing else on our schedule, accepted and followed this guy back to his house. We sat down and talked to him, drank some peach juice, talked to this other young guy who lived on the second floor of this guy's house, and had a good typical discussion with this guy as you would expect from an 80 year old (or maybe older?) dude who lived through communism. After maybe about 15 minutes of being there, this guy's son walks into the room incredibly concerned. He started talking to his dad asking what the heck we were doing there and what he was doing with us. Our old guy explained that we were American and he wanted to visit with us and do some good ol muhabet (small talk). The son then told us we needed to leave immediately and that it was dangerous. A little confused, I started standing up asking for clarification, and all he said was "hajdeni! Eshte e rrezikshme! Tani!". Very interesting for us. Anyways, as we were leaving I was asking the son what was wrong, and he told us that we should never come back and that his father had killed his mother and had been in prison quite a while. A little surprising to be sure haha but we thanked him and we went on our way. Definitely one of the weirder interactions I've had since getting here.
As of right now, I am actually in Fier again. We won't be in Gjirokaster again until Thursday because we have gotten some new travel rules that keeps us from traveling too long or at night so we are staying here in Fier tonight, doing that service project in Vlore tomorrow, and then staying in Lushnje tomorrow night before zone conference. It's definitely gonna be a good week and it's always exciting to get to stay the night with other Elders.
Alright I love you guys! Do flasim javen tjeter! Cauuu
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