Hejjjj what's up my dearest beloved people that love me enough to read these emails. You're the greatest and you're in for a real treat this week. I think I've got some good content for once.
So first off, this week involved a lot of travel for us. Elder Rowley and I made the long journey down the the best city in Albania - Gjirokastër - in order to have a super exchange with Elder Snider and Elder Cannon. It was good to see my son again and how far he's come. What a good dude. It was also an absolute blast spending the day doing splits with Elder Snider. It was a bit of an irregular exchange, since we spent a lot of the day looking for an apartment for rent for a member down there, but it was very enjoyable with my guy Snider. We also ran into my good pal Arli and his buddy and they decided to help us look for a house as well! Very cool little interaction arranged by the Lord. On top of that, we got to all 4 teach a lesson to Martin. Martin is someone I had been in contact with a couple months before I left Gjirokastër on Facebook, but I'd never actually met him in person until my last weekend. It was great to see him again and to see he had gotten most of the lessons! On top of that, he's expressed interest in being baptized! Super super cool. He's actually gone back up to Tirana for school, but he's said he'll keep meeting with the missionaries and going to church there which is sweet! His baptismal date is set for the end of his semester which is in about a month! Very stoked for the guy. We also met up with Nora and - of course - we met up with the one and only Dritan and played Mulan with the guy. Dritan is probably in my top 3 people I've met while being in Albania. He is an incredible man and I've missed him a lot. Good experiences from this city for sure.
Some great exciting news this week from Elbasan. I believe I have talked about our friend Iris. She's awesome and we are so excited for her because she asked us if she could be baptized in 2 weeks! She will be baptized on January 22nd and I'm so hyped. She's already a great participating member in church every week and she's not even a member hahaha it's crazy. Updates to come on that! I'm beyond excited. Also, we have been meeting with an inactive member family and their youngest boy, who is 9 and unbaptized, also accepted an invitation to be baptized the same day as Iris! We will have to see if we can get through the rest of the lessons and get the family to church, but fingers crossed we can have 2 baptisms the same day! So exciting. :) Baptism is truly such a special thing and a huge step for all of these people in their efforts to become who they can be and learn what God wants for them and it's incredible to see the effect it has on people and all of the people around them actually. They change in a way that is hard to describe, but simply put, their countenance or their presence that you feel when you're around them is lighter. You can feel God's love from them and it's absolutely incredible. There's nothing like it.
Okay now for the title. As you will see from the photos this week, I got quite the haircut from my good ol AP Elder Christensen. I've joined the buzz cut gang, and while I miss my hair, I am pretty pleased with the results. It has grown on me quite a lot and actually has reminded me every time I see myself in the mirror of my commitment to serve the Lord, to leave behind old things for now and focus on the work. Any reminder to stay focused and work harder out here is a good one and so far it has been great for me. I haven't decided how long the short hair will stick around but I guess you guys will find out.
Now for the second part of the title. We did some service for a member here that lives in a little fshat (village) close by and she had us chopping wood for her. Now, a lot of you have probably chopped wood before. Forget everything you know about it because we were chopping big logs with a sledge hammer and a railroad spike. It was awesome. She did have axes, but those were used on the smaller stuff instead of a saw. Haven't seen a saw in her possession but I think it'd be a good investment. Anyways, we were having some fun slamming a railroad spike deep into cut logs and got some content you will all for sure appreciate. I got one log most of the way split with the spike and then decided to go captain America and just rip the thing in half from there. Looked almost as epic as the movie so now I know that it is quite possible.
Also update on transfers: Elder Rowley is of course going home this week, so I will be receiving a new companion here. I was very pleased to find that I will be receiving the one and only Elder Esquivel from my MTC group! He is an absolute beast of a missionary and so fun to be around so I'm really excited. We're good friends too so that'll make it a blast from day one. I'm hoping I get a couple transfers with the guy here but we will see!
Enjoy the photos and have a great week you guys!
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