I defeated satan

WOOOOOO can we get a round of applause please? Thanks. That's all.

A very busy and productive but also non-productive week gotta say. We had Elders conference in tirana which was all of 2 days and then some and also did service twice in our district so we basically only had time to meet with one person and to have family home evening at the church. No biggie it's alright. Also we almost went broke this week because we needed a ton of reimbursements from the office for things but Sister Miller (our office missionary) ran out of refund petty cash. We got creative though and now we're rolling in cash again because lushnje is cheap as frick. 

Speaking of lushnje being cheap as frick, we needed something to use excess MSF so that we didn't just waste it splurging on food, so we made the smart decision and decided to buy materials to make a giant bean bag chair. We are so smart. We cut everything out and took it to a tailor and now she is putting it together for us. It should be ready by Wednesday and then we just gotta find a bunch of foam to stuff inside it and then our studies will hit new levels of spiritual highs. Pretty stoked about that not gonna lie. 

Elders conference was dope too. We did a massive scavenger hunt around Tirana and that wore us all out but it was sick anyways. My homeboy Martin decided to join us and sacrificed his time and energy to do so so shoutout to him. He's the real MVP and a great friend. We got some sweet pictures around Tirana at different points and then almost won the scavenger hunt sort of. Not too bad because I was walking around in sandals and my feet hurt bad after hahaha. Anyways, in order to help my feet heal a little we decided to go on a steep hike to this dope spot called Cyclops Eye near Tirana to wrap up that first day of the conference. It was very refreshing especially when we threw giant boulders into the spring. Gotta love it. The rest of Elders conference was a bunch more sports, whiteboarding all together, and a great devotional with President and Sister to wrap things up. We also got to watch the best two years so I gotta say it was a pretty good time. 

Satan. Yes he is real and he comes in all shapes and sizes, including in the form of giant wasps. Elder Skene and I were just sitting there vibing Sunday at the front of the sacrament room after the meeting ended, and we hear some very loud buzzing from behind the curtain next to us. After some further investigation, a massive wasp falls to the earth. Definitely bigger than anything I've ever encountered before so it kinda freaked me out. Then, it started crawling up my chair. Some nerve am I right? He smugly took a perch on the hymn book next to the chair, and so after mustering up my faith I grabbed another hymn book from nearby, and then SLAMMED HIM OUT OF EXISTENCE. It was pretty messy. Big bug means a lot of guts. Anyways I'm pretty sure it was satan trying to spy in on our sacrament meeting. After we killed it brother Hazizi told us that getting stung by one of them can put you in the hospital. Nice stuff. There are a couple pictures featured in the album below. 

I love you guys! Thanks for the love and support and have a great week! If you have any additional questions about the satan wasp, please feel free to ask me.

Photos 

Jedi Battle and Try-Hard Gjirokastër

Hey everyone! Sorry I missed a week again haha. I can say that not a ton that is truly noteworthy happened last week but I've got pictures that you can check out so if you've got questions after you can ask me individually hahah. 

FIRSTLY can we just acknowledge what a great week it was for the world. We had not one, but TWO large and significant holidays. The day of our moms, and the day of wars among the stars. I celebrated both of course. Also we got a perfect score on our apartment inspection so lets flipping go.

Things have been a grind here in Lushnjë. There is so much to do and just not a good way to schedule it all in. It's the kind of thing too where you gotta be a baller at planning because if something falls through it's often pretty hard to fill it in and then you feel like you're wasting time. Backup plans are legit. Anyways, through all of this grinding, Elder Skene and I of course need some fun stuff to do every so often to keep our sanity. So, with the two of us being quite possibly the biggest star wars fans in the mission, we decided to throw ourself a party on the night of Wednesday, May the 4th. 

This party encompassed us buying a bunch of glowsticks yet again. Like 12 dollars worth of glowsticks to be used up in one session. Honestly that's not that many glowsticks here because they are more pricy than I'd like, nejse it's not a problem because lushnje is cheap and we're rolling in the dough. After this was done, we hauled off to the church and made sure to block out all sources of light from windows, then we hooked up my phone to the loud speakers, and played some good old Samuel Kim star wars while we had probably one of the greatest glowstick battles known to mankind this day. Quite memorable. U kenaqem shume.

I also had an exchange this week in Berat with 3 of their elders which was a blast. Berat is a beautiful city with some very fun kids that hang out around the church there. Our whole day was basically hanging with them and trying to keep them from breaking into the church while elder Perrine was teaching some of them the piano. Pretty chaotic but a good experience. I should also say that from the pictures you will notice Berat has got a pretty good Gjirokastër vibe. Its definitely not as cool but it's close and it's got a sick river which gives bonus points. To end off the exchange we did some street contacting up by the castle while enjoying the beautiful views and even an orthodox church for fun. It was good. 

Actually we totally did something worth mention last week. Elder Skene and I did an English fast for most of the week and it was flipping hard. Learned a lot though. 

Pday was also great as usual. Now that it's hot again we are doing a lot of beach pdays. We did volleyball the last two weeks in a row and it's just as fun every time. Had to get some cars unstuck from sandy mud which was way fun. One of them was in the slipperiest clay mud I've ever been in and I felt like a 5 year old playing in the mud again. Got to wash off in the ocean after too. Gotta love it. 

Hajd hajd hajd shendet shendet cau ju dua pafshim 

Lushnjë Week 10

Lushnjë Week 11