Life on the Road

The goal is to make this email a little bit less boring than the last one so let me know how I do. Swipe up, comment below, drop a like, and leave me some feedback. Love you guys haha thanks for putting up with me.

Not really sure where to start for this week. We were all over the place. First off, we only actually spent 3 days in our area this week due to zone conference and some new travel rules. To sum it up, we now need to generally drive only in daylight, and we aren't allowed to drive as far on P-Day anymore. What this meant is that even though zone conference was on Wednesday, we ended up staying in Fier Monday night after P-Day (because it has now been deemed too far to drive to Fier and back to Gjrio on a P-Day), doing a super exchange with Fier again haha which was sick, driving up to Lushnje, staying there Tuesday night, going to zone conference all together, doing a super exchange with Lushnje Wednesday evening, staying the night again, and finally returning all the way to Gjirokaster Thursday afternoon. It was pretty fun but I definitely missed my good ol Gjiro. As far as I've experienced, there is no area like it and it has honestly become what I consider to be home. It's definitely gonna be hard to leave this place haha so hopefully it won't happen for a little bit.

On that thought, last week I said there might be a chance that I leave Gjiro next week. I have now decided that the odds of that are pretty much 0 because I don't even think we are having transfers for another couple weeks after that. We should be completely good for a bit which is super nice because now I can just work to set Gjirokaster up for some major success after I leave. My plan is just to pound through old contacts and do as much finding as possible while simultaneously continuing the meet with the friends we do have. It's gonna be hard but I'm going to make it happen because Gjiro deserves some really good pune going down. 

The highlight of the week was definitely zone conference. It was exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. I've definitely been having a much less productive/negative mindset as of late and zone conference was a good wakeup call. We have had some really really good days since then so clearly I'm doing better than I was. A lot of topics were covered in zone conference, but what stuck out to me the most was the concept of love and service. Specifically, I felt so strongly that the solution to all of my worries and struggles as a missionary would be solved by love and service, no matter what the issue was or if it was correlated at all. It's so interesting too because I don't even think the topic itself was covered very much at all, but I have felt so impressed to truly change the way I have been living out here. I've felt close to all of the missionaries out here and I can genuinely say I love all of them deeply, but I realized that specifically in regards to my companion, I haven't been doing a great job of showing that love. Since then I have been trying to find every way possible to get up in the morning and just serve. I've discovered as well that it is kinda hard to find things when we personally don't own a whole lot of stuff and don't do a whole lot of things in our house... Haha BUT I have still managed to find little small ways to serve. I've been doing all the dishes constantly, cleaning, making great breakfasts (I am a straight up gourmet chef sometimes I'm telling you), letting my companion buy and eat tons of ice cream even though it's not in season and makes no sense, making his bed, letting him shower first, etc. They are all such small things and don't seem like they would make that much of a difference (and maybe they don't from a certain point of view) but I FEEL so different. I feel so much more content and fulfilled. I can feel that my companion and I are closer even just in these few days and what's most amazing of all, is that I feel like we are getting more work done and having more success as missionaries. That last one has no direct link to my random acts of service in the morning but somehow they have still affected it. I'm not sure how and I'm not really sure why, but I can now firmly declare that every single aspect of life is positively affected if you simply decide to start looking for ways to selflessly serve.

So, if you read all of that and you actually followed what I said, my challenge for you is this: Choose one person in your life that you interact with regularly. It could be a family member, a friend, or a random teacher in school. This week, go out of your way to try and serve them more than ever before. Sit down for 2 minutes and just write out a bunch of little acts of service you can do, and then do them. NEXT WEEK report back to me how you feel and how you think it has affected you. I expect at least 5 reports to come in and I am positive there are at least 5 of you who read these hahaha so do it. If you have read this it is now a personal request from me to you. It. Is. Awesome.

Quick unrelated note before I close: Pday was very fun. We have the Korça Elders with us right now because Elder Basham had to come back to gjiro to get his documents since the cops took them after the wreck. Just meant that us bois got to explore the castle in the freezing rain.

Okay sick I don't think I succeeded in making this email more interesting than the last one. Maybe you regret reading this now because you'll feel guilty not accepting my personal challenge for you. If that's the case the best I can do is say that I'm sorry I'm not actually sorry for trying to encourage you to grow (because we all need to) and that I've got some great pictures for this week which you can view below. Jave te mbare! Ju dua shume miqte e mi!

Photos

Servants of the Vineyard

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

Photos

The Return of the Pomegranate

Pershenfrikindetje shoket e mia. Eshte nje kenaqesi tju shkruaj prap kjo jave. Ka qene nje jave shume e mire. The chromebook I'm writing this email on doesn't have an easily accessible umlaut option so there is possibility that google translate won't be able to help you guys out here. Sorry but I'm pak lazy sometimes. Actually, I have met a grand total of 1 Albanian that actually texts using the c tails and e umlauts so you guys are getting a little taste of what I see every day in my online interactions. Super qejf we love it. 

This week was bomb. Elder Cannon and I actually have low-key been having a hard time. If you haven't read any of my past emails, just know that we are serving in a hard area with not a lot going on. It's hard to stay motivated at times when you can't even seem to make a single teaching appointment in a week. We are constantly trying to find new people to teach and doing our absolute best to help our 3 members out as well. Because of this, we try very, very hard to stay busy and to fill our schedule. One of the main things that has been hit hard here in the past is English Course. It is a great way of contacting and giving to the community (not to mention people think we're saints for doing it) AND it gives us something to do which is bomb. Well anyways, basically since I got here our English course has been dead in the water. So, this week we took a table out in front of the church, had a white board qe tha: "KURS ANGLISHT PRIVAT FALAS! HAJDE DHE REGJISTROHU - JEMI AMERIKAN NA NDIHMO ME GJUHEN SHQIPE", some good old Libra te Mormonit, pamphlets, flyers, and a course registry. We spent about an hour just sitting at this table talking to people as they walked by, and we got quite a few numbers! Not to mention we gave out a Book of Mormon and even more flyers for English course. Because of this sole event, English Course is back in business. We've got two ladies in their 50's that are now coming and we have a couple more people from the old registry that I called as well that may (or may not) come which is way more promising than before so we are hyped! We were able to teach 3 english lessons this last week which was so nice for the two of us. Super hype.

Miracle moment time if you're ready for it: Wednesday night we had a couple senior missionaries come down to Gjirokaster and we had dinner with them. On our way back down after dinner, we stopped at this restaurant and talked to this old guy who runs the restaurant because we're pals. He started talking to us a bunch about the usual (wow you know albanian so good you cuna are so great god bless you yay) which was super great. It was already a very enjoyable conversation because I love it when I can understand what is being said and actually respond well. Anyways, while we were talking to this guy, this girl walks out of the restaurant and starts observing our conversation. Eventually she interjects and asks where we're from, and once she found out we were American she started talking to us in perfect English. She was blown away that I (having 3 months in this country) and my companion (having 3 weeks in this country) could be speaking the language as well as we were. She began talking to us with this old guy about what we were doing there, where our church was, and some other really great encouraging stuff to be having in a conversation as a missionary with a stranger on the street. We had an awesome conversation, but, it was late and I was worried about getting back to our apartment because I was tired and it was pretty far, and to my great regret, I didn't grab this ladies contact info before we left. The next day, I couldn't stop thinking about how I neglected to get her info, and so we resolved to go back up to the pazar for some street finding later and to try and find her again. However, not too long after, we get a text from one of the senior missionaries that we had had dinner with the night before. She told us she met a young woman in the pazar who had talked with 2 American kids the night before who were *completely fluent*(?) in Albanian (gotta pat myself on the back there a little bit. Self love you know) and that she wanted us to contact her. She sent us this girls Facebook and we have since been in contact with her over messenger. She lives in Saranda and wants to meet us whenever we head back over there. Super hype! A good reminder to me that God's work is going to move forward even when a dumb teenager neglects to grab contact info. Grateful for that for sure.

Other than that things are great. The title unfortunately for all of you guys is kinda a let down. All I have to say for it is that I decided I wanted to try biting into a pomegranate like an apple (because lowkey they're just as common as apples out here if not more) so I've got a video you guys can all enjoy there if you'd like. 

P-Day was also super sick. We went up to Zvernec again and checked out a sick monastery on an island. Very bukur and very fun. I also did yoga on a log post out on the water. Enjoy the pictures!

Jave te mbare my good men and women of the world. Hurrah for pasta and all things delicious in life!

Photos

Literal Bomb Pomegranate Juice

 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

Photos

Patagonia x Cotopaxi Collab of Destiny

Hey bros! Miss y'all. Hope everything has been going ne rregull for all of you. So, if you were to look at all the emails I've written so far as episodes in a tv show, today's email is kind of going to be one of those annoying filler episodes. Sorry bout that but lowkey nothing too crazy ka ndodhur as of late (or maybe that's just how it seems now that I've had so much crazy stuff go down haha). Oh well, let's get right to it then.

I guess one item of interest was that we were in Tirana on Tuesday! We wet up to do embassy work for Elder Cannon. Very fun stuff. I got to spend half the day hanging with good old Elders Qose and Rich while our trainees were all gone. On top of that, because I was at the mission office waiting, I was able to have my regular interview with president in person. So awesome. I love in-person interaction haha. Because Tirana is so far off as well, we got to stay two nights in Lushnje before and after the embassy which was sick. We love spending time with the boys.

Couple items of business: First off, we lost 2 members of our district temporarily. Super depressing lowkey because they're sick. The Vlore apartments power is out and the landlord can't figure out why, so after a week of trying to figure it out, they finally decided just to move the Elders to Berat temporarily. Elder Fairbourne was our lovely district leader, so now that he has been removed from the district, the duty has been slapped back on yours truly. I'm not complaining though because lowkey it's pretty fun and it gives me plenty of opportunity to connect with the district (which is pretty much all new by the way) so it's good stuff. We also fixed our church wifi and our washing machine this week which is also a big accomplishment for me with the language barrier and all.

Overall, this week was a bunch of random work that got done and all is good but it does make for a boring email. Sorry about that.

I did however get some custom made patagonia x patagonia shoes. Picture is included of course. Gotta say my marker skills are not great but I'm proud of and impressed with what I have accomplished with this. 

Also Harry Potter is lit in Albanian.

Y'all are sick paqe jashte ka qene e vertete vellezer dhe motra.

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The Italian Job *but without mini coopers :(*

I am so happy to be writing an email again you guys. This last week was one of the most stressful of my life, but we have made it through and there is a lot of light at this end of the tunnel. Sorry to have missed emailing last week, but as I'll explain in just a second, I was unable to write one last week (nor did I really want to because a lot of crap was going down haha). So today, I will be catching you up on the events of the last two weeks because lots of changes have happened!

First off, last week was my last week with my trainer Elder Basham. Knowing that it was our last week, we planned a ton of stuff out. We ended up organizing a super dank service project in the archeological site "Antigonea". It's an ancient greek and then afterwards roman city that is still being uncovered about 30 minutes away from Gjirokaster. Anyways, after a pretty wild goose chase trying to find whoever was in charge of the volunteers for the work in the park, we were able to secure a 7 hour service project uncovering an ancient city. It was super dope. We even got our good friend Arli to come with us which was awesome because we bonded a lot with him. We got to work with this big group of Italian students and their professor as we found ancient pottery and tiles and such. Super cool stuff. A few pictures are included. Most of the time we were just moving leftover dirt while the experts worked, but I did uncover some really cool pieces of pottery myself. Definitely an experience only to be had in this part of the world as a missionary. Kinda a flex for sure. It was pretty fun to interact with all of the Italians as well because they got to practice their English on us. Good times.

Fast forward to two days later - we receive transfer calls. Elder Basham was told he was being transferred to Korca to train again and I was told that I will be training here in Gjirokaster! Super exciting and I was totally expecting it to happen but it hit me like a brick wall regardless. Definitely brought some stress upon me, but it very quickly became the least of my problems. 

After a good chill P-day playing soccer in a kalceto and bruising my foot because I was playing barefoot, we were on our way back to Gjirokaster. Because I had hurt my foot, I was just icing it sitting in the passenger seat. The last 2 weeks or so have been really wet out here in Albania. We've been getting a lot of rainfall and it was no different last Monday. Because of this, the roads were fairly wet and therefore slippery. We were about 35 minutes away from Gjirokaster on a mountain highway when we started hydroplaning, lost control, and spun off the road into a cement bank and barrier. I've had some pretty unexpected and terrifying moments in my life, but few compare to how it felt to get in such a bad accident. Miraculously, we both walked away perfectly fine other than the fact that I had hit my head hard enough on the door column to leave a gash (which was soon discovered to be no problem at all). I highly recommend avoiding getting in a car accident, but I especially recommend it outside of the country. The legality of the issue was so complex. We had to wait for the police to get there to do all these weird measurements and drawings for their report, and then we were able to get a tow truck to take the car away to Gjiro. Once we were done with that after about an hour or so on the side of the cold road, we ended up just riding with the tow truck guy all the way back. To drop the wrecked car off in some garage. After getting back to the house, we decided we had better go the the hospital to make sure my head injury hadn't caused any real damage since we were still running off of a lot of adrenaline and possibly in a little shock. Well, we made one fatal mistake there. We should not have told the medical professionals that we were in a car accident because the policy there is that they immediately called the police again. They then proceeded to not even check my injury, take my blood, then put me in a wheelchair and hauled me to a CAT scan. I had no idea what was happening and I was very hesitant to get on the machine, especially after realizing I was most likely completely fine, but I did so anyway and got some cool pictures of my brain. The doctors determined I was alright and so they let us go, but then the cops kidnapped us and took us to their office in Gjirokaster. The reason for this is that in Albania, you don't have the right to release liability or anything like that. Because I had been injured in the car accident, Elder Basham became completely liable for harming me and so we had to fill out tons of paperwork in case of a potential lawsuit. It took around another 3 hours and we didn't get home until after midnight. Not to mention that they also took a bunch of Basham's must-have items including his driver's license and lejim i qendrimi. To say the least, it made transfers the next day much more difficult for us and for everyone else involved. We had to take a bus up to Tirana with all of Elder Basham's luggage and we arrived a good 2 hours late to transfers. All worked out well though because we've got the best president and AP's known to man. 

Since Tuesday things have been much better but still a little hard. I was on splits on Wednesday and Thursday with Elder Fairbourne in Vlore which was good for me for sure. I was able to distract myself from all that had happened by serving there and spending time with him and with the Vlore sisters. However, things were still a little complex and fun because somehow the power to the Elders apartment in Vlore had been cut and so we went without electricity for a couple days. We had to get creative in order to have warm showers to say the least. Elder Fairbourne is awesome though and we did have a blast.

Thursday we meet our trainees in Tirana and I am training Elder Cannon! The guy is such a homie. He's got 3X the vocal volume of all the other missionaries combined and so it makes things pretty fun. It's been bothering a lot of people, but personally I'm having fun with it. He's been pumping me up a lot and his enthusiasm for the mission is super fun. Some of my favorite phrases from him include: "aaaaaayyy kinda dirty/kinda stinky", "gotta build that equity yknow" "not gonna lie man *followed by the most random phrase*", etc. He's super fun haha and I'm stoked to spend the next 3 months with the guy. 

I'd also like to say real quick, that the gift of tongues is becoming more real for me than ever before. I was very worried about having to train in an area that needs so much good time and attention with my limited language abilities, but since getting back down to Gjiro with Cannon I've been continually blown away by how the language seems to just come to me right when I need it. Words and phrases I've barely learned or used seem to just come and flow out of my mouth as I'm speaking to the people of Albania and it is so humbling. I know there is absolutely no way I would be able to communicate as well as I have been without divine help ad assistance. The more time I spend out here, the more difficult I realize this language is which makes it even more incredible that I'm able to pretty much run the church here in Gjirokaster. I am so incredibly grateful to know that I have Christ on my side assisting me as I'm out in such a foreign place. 

There is so much more I could say to you guys, but I'll leave it at this for now! Know that I am now completely fine and recovered from any really negative affects of the accident and I'm stoked to be able to continue the work with no distractions there. I love you all so much! Live every day to the fullest because you never know when someone or something will leave your life. :) 

Jave te mbare!

Week 11 Photos

Week 12 Photos

Conferenca e pergjithshme and VELLEZERIT E ZOTIT

 I hear that it's a good idea to start off the email with something interesting to get people hooked, so I figured I'd immediately let you guys know that my companion got really sick with whatever I had last weekend on Thursday and so we were out of commission half the week... Kind of an oof but we had an amazing week regardless. The work goes on even if we cannot hahaha. 

FIRST OFF, there are 3 members of the church here in Gjirokaster now (including our most recent baptism). The very first baptized member was baptized just over a year ago by some very legendary missionaries that pretty much opened up the area. He is this super cool guy named Kosta. The not so cool part about it though is that two weeks after his baptism, he blocked all the missionaries and disappeared, going completely inactive. Super sad, but after a while he began opening up to the missionaries that came in after, until now, we actually sat down and met with him with our trusty very active member Dritan! We had dinner together and it was the ideal situation. Dritan got to know him pretty well and HE started extending invitations for Kosta to come back to church. Literally such a legend. Kosta, as far as I could tell, actually expressed some real genuine desire to return and he tells us he'd really like to make the time to do so. We will keep working with him on that, but for now, we are just happy that we have contact with him again. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with him and play some good ol futbol or basketbol. Once brethren of the Lord, always brethren of the Lord. This guy has been forever affected by the gospel and that is even more clear to us now as he's starting to open back up to us. We are beyond happy and we are praying heavily for him. I'd like to invite you all to do the same and join us in our efforts. Prayer has so much power!

Another cool thing: Facebook Finding is actually legit stuff. I am one to really value in-person face to face interaction, and so to be completely honest I don't love sitting down and doing Facebook finding. I kinda have to force myself to do it. Anyways, this week I decided I needed to switch it up to keep it interesting for me, so I joined this big group of 4000 members here in Gjiro. Once I was accepted into the group, I continued to make a post explaining who I was and that I was here solely to help and serve and befriend the people of Gjirokaster. I also told this giant group that if they had any sort of service opportunity, to reach out and hinted that I also need help with my Albanian if they wanted to assist. The results were astounding. I had dozens of comments on the post alone (some of them very strange mind you) that were awesome and I also received several private messages because of it. We now hopefully will have some good service volunteer work going on this week and we ALSO have a new friend because of it! This guy texted me wanting to meet and help with my Albanian, and we ended up meeting him in person at the church yesterday and having a great discussion with him. He's a super cool guy and knows a lot about every religion which makes the discussion very open-minded. Super helpful stuff. Anyways, we hope to continue to meet with him. 

GENERAL CONFERECE WAS DANK! I actually have yet to watch the last session still because it was streamed as I was asleep Sunday night, but that will come. We actually have permission to watch it all together at district counsel this week so we will probably do that. Our district is a party so it'll be super great. Each conference I'm continually impressed at how inspired all of the speakers are. These are truly messages for all of us for our day. They are inspired men and women who love us more than we can even understand and they want us to thrive. I'm looking forward to finishing conference up and continuing to review those talks. If you didn't get to tune into all of conference, I highly recommend it. I'm not sure what the talk was called since I haven't had a chance to go back and review anything yet, but I really loved the talk given by Brad Wilcox and of course, our prophet Russell M. Nelson. Those talks were incredibly powerful. They both had a presence that forces you to get on the edge of your seat and really listen. Super good stuff.

P-Day was dank today. We went on a beautiful hike up a mountain called Mount Cika along the west coast of the country. We didn't make it all the way since it was super steep and 6 km, but we still got some amazing views and hiked through the clouds so that was good. I have missed hiking so much and I am definitely going to try and take advantage of the fact that there is some amazing stuff the hike here. I'm hoping I have a companion one day that will wake up at 4 AM with me to go peak a giant mountain. Fingers crossed man. We also returned to Dhermi! We went there back in like week 3 or something and it was gorgeous. It was still that way, but this time, they were no tourists! October is definitely not tourist season so we had the entire beach to ourselves. Super nice. I have decided I love rock beaches and I highly recommend those as well. I believe I've got some pretty fire pictures for you all if you wanna check that good stuff out. 

Love you guys! Keep it up! As Tony Robbins says, "LIVE WITH PASSION"!

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