The Fall of the Fortress - The Rise of the Tree

HALLO welcome back everyone. 

Pogradec has treated me well in so many ways. First of all, starting off December there was the perfect Christmas winter vibe because it's actually cold. Rocking jackets and my newly acquired flannel has been the norm. Everyone in Pogi also uses woodburning stoves to heat their houses/apartments so after about 4 PM every day there is just a super heavy scent of smoke throughout the whole city. I love it because it gives me the vibes of living up in the mountains in a log cabin. Too many cars for that though. 

Work has been solid. The other elders in Pogradec work a lot more with the members and such, so we've been able to just focus on finding and teaching our current friends. The Albanian people are so clutch. Also the food. Missed that. We don't do a lot of door knocking in our mission, but we also decided to go out and do that one day a couple times and that was fun haha. Took me back to my days in sales, but this time in another language so that was hype and definitely kept things exciting. At least this way I can't accidentally sell them a new residential garbage contract. We also had a dope branch party for the joint Albanian independence day and the Pogradec branch's 7th anniversary, and then we had a ping pong tournament on Saturday. Fun stuff. Albanian youth are pretty weird sometimes, but it's usually a good time anyways. 

But now let's get to the stuff you're really here for shall we? Yes, sadly, the massive living room fort did fall. We had to take it down on Saturday, but it was for a good cause believe me. Last week I mentioned that we had been pounding fanta exotic. Well, this week we finally pounded enough to start on our project. After getting home on Thursday night, we began our construction process.

This construction continued over the next 3 days during lunch hour and after getting home in the evening, 

and we finally finished our masterpiece Saturday night. Man, I've never been prouder of my handiwork. Drinking 325 cans for this was so worth it. I'm honestly still surprised we found enough cardboard.

We decked it out with lights and missionary tags after too for funsies, so you can enjoy those extra pictures in the usual album I'll include at the bottom. Plus you can see random stuff from the week too and maybe start to believe that I actually do work as a missionary. 

Anyways, yes the fort did come down, but only because we wanted to be able to proudly put this monstrosity up in the living room. It stands at a whopping 7 1/2 feet tall and is 3 1/2 feet wide at the base. We made 13 individual layers of cans and it took flipping forever, especially on the last few, but God is good and we came through in the end just before I had to leave. 

I'm actually writing you guys this from Tirana and I'm now companions with my bro Elder Washburn. He's a legend. We just spent the evening making a light the world video for the churchs facebook page in Albania and it was hilarious. I cry and he gives me takis from his secret stash. It should be a good companionship. I'll probably be with him another 2 transfers and chances are, I'll be here another 2 after that, which leaves me dying here in Tirana. Little sad and weird to think that I'm likely in my last area, but the next 6 months will be fire I'm sure. 

Oh yeah we also had a mission tour this week and Elder Alliaud from the general seventies came and visited us. Very cool and good to see everyone there from the northern countries. I missed my homies. 

Anyways, have a great week you guys! Love you all!

Photos

Paskam ftohte! Keshtjella e Pogradecit - we are vibing so hard

HALLO MY FRENS!

Things are so so so so so so so good. 

I flew into Albania on Tuesday and lowkey it was the roughest weather and turbulence and landing I've ever had on a flight in my life but we are alive so it's all good. Albania is wet and cold, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now. I might cry when I go home.

I'm serving in the mountain lake city of Pogradec and its frickin cold. Its been 40 degrees with piercing wind and that is a big change from temperate Cyprus. It's been fun to wear sweaters and flannels though so that's fresh. All we need now is the snow and things are perfect. I'm also here in an apartment with 3 other elders and it's so dope. We've been vibing so hard. Theres also a really cool senior couple here - The Hansens - and it's honestly the dream area. To help you guys get the idea, I'll describe the experience I had in arriving at our apartment wednesday morning. Keep in mind, I've been in this house before on exchanges when I was in Elbasan, so I wasn't really expecting to see much because I was already familiar with the place. Holy crap was I wrong. I walked into the house and turned the corner, and discovered that the homies were the homies maximum. In front of my eyes, stood a large, glorious, unfathomably magnificent structure made of blankets and flags. It fills the entire living room guys. It's a big living room! And I can stand in it! I know that's not saying a lot BUT ITS STILL COOL! All 4 of our matresses are inside as our cozy surface and we may or may not have slept in it all week. We also have a little tv with a chromecast Elder Wheeler bought so that we can watch book of mormon videos at night while we pound fanta exotic and vibe flippin hard. We're all so motivated to work our butts off because we know we have amazing things waiting for us back at the house at the end of the day. It's so awesome. 

I'm also serving in the same house as the one and only Elder Rich. He is amazing. He came in the group before me so his albanian is baller. We've been talking probably 80% shqip and it's been waaay good for my language because I haven't spoken it for so long. That and the massive fort were definitely the weekly highlights. I'm in heaven you guys.

Yknow how I said weve been pounding fanta exotic? Well let's just say we bought an additional 120 cans of it tonight and we've already got a pile of 180. They will be used for a certain unmentioned project that I will reveal next week. Stay tuned but enjoy the pictures of the grumbullim fanta ekzotikesh.

You also know how I said I've been having a really good time? Well it was short lived. I literally got another transfer call yesterday. I'll be transferred up to the capital of Tirana next week :(( big sad. Thankfully I still have this full week and a little bit of next. Big bummer because I've always wanted to serve in Pogradec, but hey, the Lord knows where I'm needed and I'm at least happy for this little buffer I've gotten with these legends here. It's been really, and I mean REALLY good for my emotional health hahaha I'm having the time of my life. 

But yeah that's pretty much all I've got to say. Enjoy the pictures and videos. There's lots of fort and fanta related ones hahaha. 

I LOVE YOU GUYS! SEND ME EMAILS (or messages on Facebook that works too) I MISS YALL

Photos

OUR BELOVED POTATO PLANT TATE

PO!

MIRESEVINI NE TE ARDHMEN!!! PO NE TE VERTETE JAM UNE ELDER MILLI DHE SAPO U KTHEVA NGA E ARDHMJA! TANI MUND TJU TREGOJ JUVE TE GJITHA SEKRETET! 

Po mire tani le te vazhdojme.

HELLO MY FAMILY 

Its a pleasure to be back. I know I haven't written consistently at all, but at least I'm writing something. In my 3 months in Cyprus I think I've written like 4 times so honestly I say thats a pretty good ratio. We've got some deep shiz to talk about though so lets all hold hands and jump in.

POTATOES 

A few weeks back Elder Nilsson and I made some bomb mashed potatoes for our district halloween party. Well, being the genius that I am and knowing that we had a dead potted plant on the balcony, I performed an emergency heart transplant and shoved the last potato in there. Close to a month later, we have a beautiful plant child growing strong in our cooler. Pictures included of course. After a little while, we had to get some more dirt and a bigger container, so we stole some from the flower bed at the bottom of our apartment complex. Please take the time to enjoy the progress and growth of Tate. 

Pday was moved to Tuesday this week because we had the APs and Sister Leads come out to Cyprus. They landed Monday so we all moved pday to Tuesday to enjoy some time together in north Cyprus. Good stuff there. 

Anyways, they came out to Cyprus with President and Sister Burdon because we had zone conference on Thursday. Great zone conference. Cyprus just has the 10 of us and the seniors, so it was a nice small group setting. Definitely way different from the combined zone conferences I'm used to having in the north countries. Very very good stuff. Because the Burdons came out to Cyprus, we had interviews with President in person. I haven't had that since the beginning of the mission which was really dope. 

I guess another cool thing that happened this week was that on Wednesday everyone got their flight plans to go to Athens for the mission tour we're having in a couple weeks! Cool stuff, except I didn't get one. Instead, I have a flight to Albania tomorrow! Ahah. President clarified where I'm being transferred to in my interview the next day. 

P.O.G.R.A.D.E.C! I'll be moving to the lake city of Pogradec with my guy Elder Wheeler. Pogradec is somewhere I've always wanted to serve so I'm super stoked. I've been to pogi on exchanges before and it's always a blast because it's pretty much the only area in the mission with 4 elders in the same house. Good things on the horizon! 

It is a little sad to be leaving Cyprus though. I've had a really good time here and met some really amazing people. Chances are, I'll never see most of them again which is pretty dang depressing. People just don't stay in Cyprus more than a few years typically. Most of our friends are asylum seekers or refugees from Africa, and none of them really know when they're going. Still though, it's been great to meet and teach them. They are amazing people. The members here as well are incredible. I've had more member meals than I can even count in the past 3 months (which is a big deal!!!!) and that's not even the best part. They have become dear friends in a short time and their testimonies have been so strengthening for me. I've learned so much from all of them. The past 3 months have been dope as frick. 

Anyways, like I said I'm stoked. I'm hoping for a nice cold winter in Pogradec with ice and snow. It's one of the colder areas in the mission. Ima boutta be getting everywhere by sliding. I leave tomorrow morning to fly on over and that will pretty much start me off on my last 6 months. Crazy I know. The sisters from my MTC group are already headed home. May they rest in peace. 

HOT TOPIC 

In the last several months I've come across a cool hebrew word: "hesed". Look it up! It's got some really cool meanings attached to it. President Nelson did an article in the October Liahona and he talks about it. It's dope! If you want some good study, definitely give it a look.

BON VOYAGE TO MYSELF! Next time you hear from me I'll be back in the Fatherland. Albania has a really special place in my heart so I really can't wait. 

Paqe.

Limassol/Paphos Week 10

Limassol/Paphos Week 11

Ja das ist dank

Merry Halloween! Hope the festivities are going well back over there in the land of spooky season. I've missed the super decked out houses and the trick or treating, but hey, there's always next year. Even though Cyprus isn't super big on Halloween, the Limassol branch put on a trunk or treat last night, and that was fresh. Got about 4 pieces of candy and I'm satisfied. The branch president and his wife are american, and they ordered tootsie rolls over. I ate 2 of them and I am definitely going to be able to make it through the rest of the mission now. I'm filled with determination and grit thanks to those candies. Eat some tootsie rolls for me everyone. 

In the spirit of Halloween we also had a party at district council. Though our costumes weren't much, we had some great food. I spent 2 1/2 hours the night before making up a ton of mashed potatoes and sloppy joe stuff. Gave us some good leftovers for the rest of the week. 

Other than that, I honestly don't have too much to report. Teaching and finding is going well as always in Cyprus. The Lord has a lot for us to do and it's a great privilege to be here doing it. We met a couple more cool dudes from Cameroon this week, and we had a good lesson with them. They even came to the trunk or treat with us last night which was way cool. So did our homie Steve. 

Our work these days requires a lot of driving back and forth between Limassol and Paphos, but it's honestly kinda nice because it keeps things interesting. We just trek back and forth teaching our friends over there and here. The Lord has a lot for us to be doing it seems. 

On a more weird and random note, Elder Nilsson and I found out we can use the projector we have as a blacklight when we reflect it off our wall, so we've been having some fun with that. Created some good album covers. 

Also I am staying in Cyprus for at least another 2 weeks I think. Κιο εστ σχουμ ε μιρ

Photos

Driving Stick On the Wrong Side

Hey bros and not bros! In case you are bored and don't have much else to do, here is an email of some random happenings from this last week. Please enjoy. 

For those of you interested in the happenings of the work, we did a cool little experiment as a mission this week. On tuesday we had a mission-wide finding day where we did all of our studies in the morning and then between the hours of 10:30 and 9 all we did was find. No lessons, no naps, just finding new friends. It was pretty cool, though it was a long and tiring day. We had a lot of success doing a book of mormon stand by the marina and made a cool friend from afghanistan. We might not be able to teach him much since Afghanistan is not a friendly place for the church, but he loves the Book of Mormon so far. We've also been having mega success doing online finding. It's kinda been a little overwhelming really. The work rolls on. 

I also had an exchange with my homie Elder Garrick in Nicosia. In Nicosia they drive a nice manual ford van. Very fun to get the hang of, especially in nicosia which is kind of a hilly city. Having to shift gears with my left hand was kinda whack but it got my adrenaline going and it was fun. Also got to play soccer with a bunch of africans that just smoked us. I was hoping to get better at soccer on my mission, but I don't think it's working. The people we play with are just way too skilled. Nicosia is also a divided city. The north side is occupied by turkey, so we wandered up there for a few minutes for fun. Kinda cool. 

We actually went back up to north cyprus today as well. We drove over with the elders and sisters from nicosia in the van because it had the insurance, and we saw a cool castle. We also ate some relatively affordable food so that was nice. Most places in south cyprus are frickin rigged they're so expensive. Anyways, it was a party. Gotta love these pdays with the homies. 

My time in Cyprus is running out though. I think I'll probably be moved here in a couple weeks or so. We'll see!

I also got access to some calvin and hobbes I've been reading in my spare time. I included some favorites. 

Also also don't think we're apostate for not wearing tags in the pictures at the castle. Tags aren't allowed in Turkey. How inconvenient. 

Photos

I got deported

HI GUYS yeah it's been a month or so. I could update you on the last month, but honestly this last week is all that is coming to mind because that's just how dope it was. 

So, I guess I didn't really get deported, but it seemed like it'd be an interesting title. I did however voluntarily leave the country by plane and got quite a few more passport stamps. Those few of you that are my fsithful followers will remember that a while back we heard Elder Bednar and some other seventies would be coming to visit our mission. Well that day was Tuesday haha. To keep it simple, just know that when your mission comprises 5 different countries, travel is not easy or short. We left Cyprus on Sunday, stayed in Athens, and then left for Albania super early Monday morning. Man I have missed Albania. Of course I'm enjoying Cyprus, but Albania is just built different. We had a mission-wide pday in Tirana after we arrived and it was so so so dope. Ultimate frisbee and board games with all of my mission friends in one place. A highlight for sure, but that was just the beginning.

As I said, Elder Bednar and 3 seventies came to meet with us and the albanian members on Tuesday. Early Tuesday afternoon, we had a meeting with just us and them, and it was so incredible. I have gained so much respect and love for these men. They love the Lord, and they are so genuine. The fame they have in the church hasn't gotten to their head, and it's clear that they don't think themselves better than any of us. They were loving, ready, and willing to help each of us in any way they could. Rather than just hearing them give talks, it turned into a discussion with all of us involved. We had studied different talks in preparation for the visit, and these talks became the basis for the spirit-led discussion we had. He had us voluntarily share our own thoughts and insights we learned. He spoke individually with each of us that shared, and it was so inspired. Something that he emphasized a lot was how we need to act as agents, rather than be acted upon as objects. He shared that the spirit can't speak through someone who isn't using his/her agency and how we need to share insights and thoughts of our own free will, rather than because we've been called upon. It was really cool to see how the spirit led that conversation as we shared the things we were hearing but weren't being said. Lots of insights and inspiration came from that meeting. Elder Bednar is definitely an apostle of the Lord. Amazing. 

Seeing that we were all in the same country all together, President Burdon used the opportunity to put together a mission-wide conference. Messages, pizza, a massive beach service project in the rain, and an incredible spirit-filled testimony meeting made it another great day. Definitely my highlight from that day was our bus ride after the service project. I was sitting at the front of the bus, and so I asked the driver if we could use his microphone to tell stories as we drove back to the chapel. It turned into a great hour and a half. I even did a little karaoke! I love this mission.

Anyways, it turned into a long week for us south country missionaries because we didn't fly out of albania till thursday afternoon and didn't get back to Cyprus until Friday. This meant we basically had a second pday with the AP's looking at bunkers and albanian history and then spent another night in Athens. The rest of the week kinda went to crap too haha because Elder Nilsson woke up really sick on Saturday... oh well. I guess we had already had too much fun that week. 

Other cool thing: we visited a russian church and a nordic church right next to each other. Cool pictures.

Enjoy catching up on the last month of photos!

Paphos/Limassol Week 3

Paphos/Limassol Week 4

Paphos/Limassol Week 5

Paphos/Limassol Week 6/Mission Conference

I Caulked The Kitchen!

Γεια σας τι κανετε;

There you go there's some simple greek greetings so that the email looks legit. Speaking of legit, today I rode a camel. 

But hey, Cyprus is treating me well, and when I say well I mean real well. It even blessed us with having to wage war on the bugs in our kitchen. It's not something I've had to deal with until now actually. All of the apartments in the north countries are really nice because they're cheap to rent. They don't have many serious problems. Down here it is not the same haha. These apartments look a little bit more like what I expected from missionary apartments before coming out. They are pretty good, but of course they've got their quirks. They're definitely nicer than the apartments we stayed in when I did sales though, so I'm at least grateful for that. 

Anyways, this week I have been very grateful for my father and my uncles for the service they've done for me in teaching me how to caulk. As we were cleaning the kitchen and spraying bugs trying to send them into oblivion, I was realizing that there were a lot of open cracks between the wall and cupboards and windows and such that had never been filled in with caulk or seals that had long ago been compromised, so I had the genius idea of buying a caulk gun and just taking care of it myself. (Waiting for the landlord to do stuff is the worst because it takes forever/they never do anything). We spent a grand total of 4 euro and came home with a good ol gun and some caulk and I returned to my roots. Pretty fun. There's still bugs but we are trying to starve them now by continuing to spray and keeping all food on our table on the other side of the room. We think it might be working. Updates to come.

The work is going great. We have had a lot of referrals come in since I got here and the majority of them have been really solid. We've met with a lot of them and given them copies of the Book of Mormon/taught them about what it is. Gotta say, doing so many Book of Mormon lessons has been really powerful for me. Something about doing them in English too is just really good. I genuinely love this book so much. It is powerful and changes lives and it's just so cool to be able to be giving a lesson and to look down and see the Book of Mormon in my hand. That probably doesn't make a lot of sense but I've had some really cool moments in the last couple weeks. 

I've also finally started studying some Isaiah in order to actually keep up with the come follow me manual and man, it is so good. I've been using some podcasts and other old testament student manuals for some help understanding but I am having a good time. Isaiah is so dope. 

Now I have a request for those of you that have read until now. When I first got here, I told the short story of a guy named Alex that we randomly called from our contacts and came to church. We had some amazing lessons with him after, but starting last week he told us that he has something going on and hasn't been able to make it to our meetings. We have asked him if everything is alright, and he told us that it wasn't but that hopefully it would be better soon. If you guys are willing, I'd like to ask you to pray for Alex that whatever is going on might be resolved and that he can continue to progress and grow closer to God, the best source of guidance and comfort in this life. 

Okay yup it's been dope. I miss Albania a lot and all of the missionaries up there, but it's still great down here. I'll learn to settle in with these guys here as well, given time of course. 

God bless! 

Photos