Down to One

LIFE IS GOOD! So yeah I think it's been 2 months or so since I last wrote one of these. Yall are gonna have so many photo albums to look through at the bottom of this hahaha. So much stuff has gone down that it's not even worth it to try and catch you guys up so I think I'll just mention some highlights. If you care to know more there are definitely some stories to be told in the weekly photo albums below hahaha. One of the weeks was so uneventful that I literally had 0 photos and therefore that album doesn't exist. I don't even think I could tell you what happened that week if I wanted to hahaha it was probably just random busywork in the office or something like that. Anyways, I am still in Tirana with my brotha Esquivel. He's a mega dawg and so we've been having a good time. I'll try and share a few of the highlights from the last couple months but there's no way I'm gonna get all of it. Life is just so sporadic as an assistant for real. All your routines and habits go to crap when you're picking new missionaries up at midnight and then dropping the departing ones off 3 hours later that same night lol but we still do our best to keep some good habits and have good studies and workouts and all that jazz. It's overall been a really good time though even though it's been so crazy. I've had a lot of quality experiences and made a lot of memories, so let's hop into a couple if you're interested.

First off you should all know that being in mission leadership just means tons of conferences. Seeing as our mission has 5 countries in it, having conferences for each zone means a ton of travel and also exchanges with the other missionaries which can be really fresh. Of the 8 weeks since I've last written, 3 were spent in Greece and Cyprus for zone and elders conferences with exchanges sprinkled in between each. In those 3 weeks, we hit every single area in those 2 countries hahaha. Our first week down there we stayed the weekend in Greece for church, so we flew up to Thessaloniki to have an exchange and pday with the elders there. When we were in Cyprus there was a travel strike in Athens which cancelled our flights and caused us to stay yet another weekend which gave us time to do exchanges with each elder companionship on the island. That was mega fresh because Elder Koch was in Cyprus at the time and he competes for the top spot as the most entertaining person I've ever met. I did however get a bad sore throat which was super sad because then I couldn't eat at my favorite restaurant... Chick-In Tenders... That place is honestly heaven and I was very sad when I was trying to swallow those tenders and all that came was pain. It's all in the past now though and I've let it go. :'( After those two weeks we were back in the north countries for a bit until this last week when we flew down to Crete on Tuesday to have an exchange with the elders that just recently opened that as an area for missionary work - mega cool. That exchange pooled into the beginning of the south countries elders conference in Athens where we had 2 days of laser tag, football, group finding and touching testimonies. Super epic week to be honest. Other than those south conferences we had 3 zone conferences in the north and also a mission leadership council - mega busy for sure but we managed to snag a fresh exchange with the macedonian zone leaders over general conference. Maybe that gives you an idea of what our life looks like or maybe it doesn't, regardless yup that's a lot of what we've done.

Another couple things happened that were really cool this weekend: First, on Saturday for the first time ever I got to meet Martin's family. They are so amazing. His mom is also one of the best cooks ever and she made us a 5-course meal. We were in heaven and it was so so cool. If nothing else came from my mission, I'm at least grateful I got to meet Martin because he is such a legend. Of course other cool and good stuff has happened on the mission and I can see that, but Martin kinda overshadows all of that sometimes hahahaha. Another mega random thing that really took me off guard happened yesterday at church. I was just chilling in the chapel welcoming members and friends into church in Tirana with Martin and Everaldo and in walks Ashlyn Erickson. I don't think anything less expected could've happened in that moment honestly I was so unbelievably confused hahaha. Ashlyn is a good friend back from the early day of high school at Williamsburg. We had been at some dope rock climbing camps together and I had to take a second to actually make sure she was who I thought she was because I have not seen Ashlyn in like 5 years. Super super strange seeing a williamsburger in my ward on my mission. The thing is that oftentimes I'm not even in my assigned ward on Sunday because we travel and she didn't even know where exactly in Albania I was serving so it just happened to work out that way and freaked me out hahah. God is kinda sus.

Anyways, I know that's not a whole lot of stories but I don't want to bore you guys with more long paragraphs. I will address the title of the email though and say that this next week starts my last transfer as a missionary which is totally insane. I've already had to say goodbye to the south missionaries as I won't be seeing them again before I go. Pretty freaking sad actually because I love those guys. I will be transferred to a new area next Tuesday or Wednesday I believe but I can't tell yall where at this current point in time because none of the other missionaries know transfers yet. I'll try to get an email in within the next couple weeks so that you find out - or you can just check my Facebook next week because I'll probably update where I live. Just a thought. One more area. One more companion. One more transfer. Time is so weird hahaha but it'll be good to get back with all of you wherever you may be and reconnect a little - I hope I didn't forget you lol I almost didn't know who Ashlyn was. Missions destroy your memory. 

Anyways, enjoy the mass photo albums.

Elder Millsap

Tirana Week 11

Tirana Week 12

Tirana Week 14 (Greece Cyprus Week 3)

Tirana Week 15 (Greece Cyprus Week 4)

Tirana Week 16

Tirana Week 17

Tirana Week 18 (Greece Cyprus Week 5)

Vibing With Martin & Now I've Visited All 5 Countries?!?!

Don't pay this email being subjected as if it's clickbait. Everything happens for a reason, we just don't always know why. I also just want to state before I start writing this too thoroughly that I've been feeling very illiterate in every language as of late, so hopefully this email can become a spectacle of entertainment on that front. Long live bad grammar and brain dead missionary Jacob. Amen.

It's been a vibe though. I think it's been two weeks since I last wrote? I have more of a habit of not writing emails now than writing them so I really couldn't tell you. 4 emails in 10 weeks ain't too shabby I'd say. Anyways, I'm glad to be back. I gotta keep you all informed on how things are so you don't lose interest in my existence and I won't be forced to come home from the mission lonely. 

Since getting back from Athens the pattern has been as such: Have a cool pday with the homies in Tirana, go to the office and try and grind through whatever tasks we've been given, have meetings with the Burdons over the missionaries and transfers, have our weekly work day and invite Martin the dopest human on the Earth to come and join us in our finding and teaching efforts, leave Saturday to drive President and Sister to a distant part of the northern countries for branch conference somewhere and have a dope exchange with the elders there. Repeat.

The only thing that was really an interruption to this pattern in the last 2 weeks is that a small transfer of sorts has been decided. My dear and beloved companion Elder Washburn is leaving me :(( That's an L for sure. The man is going to Athens to start working on opening that area officially for Albanian speakers! Very fresh indeed so I'm excited for him. You are probably wondering as well who my new companion is, and the answer is that I'm not getting a new companion at all. Elder Esquivel will be joining me once again hahahaha. Third times the charm baby! Should be mega fun

This weekend for branch conference we traveled up to Skopje in Macedonia, which means I've officially made it to all 5 mission countries. Mega cool that. We've been hanging out with the Macedonian elders since and they are so fresh. We've been having a blast. We spent all of pday today in Skopje and we'll finish our official exchange tomorrow before returning to Tirana to send Elder Washburn on his way. We got to go on a cold boat ride up a windy mountain reservoir and explore a cave and then we got to climb the massive cross above the city. It was so dang cold. Anyways, enjoy those pictures!

Ciao!

Photos

There and Back Again

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a loooong while. Since coming to Tirana my emailing habits have gone downhill hard. Problem is, I usually don't have much to write about every week because I'd basically just say "oh yeah we had some meetings and we did some office work but we did have time to go finding on a couple days" haha. But, it's your lucky day because lots of shiz has actually been going down the last couple of weeks.

Elder Washburn and I got back to Albania this morning after being gone for 2 weeks. We missed it a lot to be honest haha. Albania is definitely the best of the 5 mission countries without a doubt. Anyways, we were in Cyprus and then Greece for zone conferences, but then Washburn and I stayed an extra week and some in Greece to do some investigation and work. Essentially, if I didn't share about this in my last email, we were sent to test out the Athens area for work for Albanian speaking missionaries. There are a ton of Albanian immigrants there so we just went out into the street and spoke Albanian to all of them haha it was super fun! The best part was that we just got to be regular missionaries finding in an area for the whole week and we actually had some decent success. We found a few potential friends that we handed off to the elders down there (they speak Greek too) and made one new friend named Gezim! He believes in 12 gods though hahaha but it was still a good lesson. He is curious to learn thought so that was fresh. We also experienced a super big miracle. We made a facebook page for the athens area in albanian just for this experiment we did and so we had our handy dandy tech guys boost some facebook ads for us on there for bible study and for the Book of Mormon. We had people texting us all week because of them, but the most promising of all was this awesome lady named Medona. She asked for a book of mormon so we arranged to meet her and give her one. Turns out, she's actually a member from albania! She was baptized in Vlore a long time ago but 4 years ago she moved to Athens and lost contact with the church. She had tried to find it there, but gave up after a while, until she saw our ad in Albanian for the Book of Mormon! We ended up setting up a meeting and going there with the Athens sisters. She speaks greek pretty well too so we had an awesome lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon in both languages. The sisters are gonna keep teaching her and her husband (who isn't a member!). Super cool to see God's hand in all this and how once we enter into the covenant relationship with Him, he will never abandon us. He will always give us an opportunity to come back into the fold and into his true church. 

Anyways, it's been a good experience. The travel is dope and because we've been all over in the south countries for 2 pdays we got to see some cool things! I'll just let you guys kinda surf through all of the photos. Love you guys! God loves you more though!

Tirana Week 5

Tirana Week 6

Tirana Week 7

Tirana Week 8

GEZUAR VITIN E RI

Howdy folks. I figured I owed you all an email from me seeing as the year just turned over. I'll also be seeing many of you again this year so I gotta start off on good terms. It's all conditional love.

Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Things have been pretty nuts over the course of December. Working in the office in Tirana is kinda mundane a lot of the time, but it is still pretty cool and there's a lot of benefits that outweigh the negatives. First off, we get to spend a lot of time around President and Sister Burdon which is actually so clutch. They're amazing. We are also in touch with a lot of missionaries around the mission on a regular basis which is way dope because we're always in the loop and tight with the homies even in different countries. It is fresh. We've also done a little travel and will be doing some more soon. We went up to Kosovo for a Christmas Conference a couple weeks back which was way cool because I've never made it up there. I got to see all my northern homies and enjoy the freezing cold weather and gheg dialect of albanian. The major and biggest con of being in this position though is that we never ever get to work in our area. It's so tough. We don't know members or friends or anything, but we are doing our best to try and do things. I can say though that this coming week we will have 0 time in our area hahaha because we're doing some exchanges and stuff but hey it's alright. 

Something that is super clutch about Tirana 2nd ward though is that I get to be around Martin again. Since he got baptized last February I basically haven't seen him, but now I get to see him basically on a weekly basis. He is such a dawg. Here's to hoping we can make time to actually meet with him and stuff in the future because hey, he is a recent convert after all hahaha (even though he's like the most converted person I've basically ever met). Anyways, moving on.

The holidays have been so fun though. The Burdons are way too nice to us and we've basically had days off to celebrate and party together in our districts and zones even since we're all so close together in the north zone. You can enjoy the pictures featured in the several posted weeks below. As per usual, Albanian New Years was freaking hype and the city was exploding around us as we stood on the roof of our apartment building. These guys know how to celebrate. Fr Fr The US needs to take some notes and remove all fireworks restrictions so that they can be as cool as Albania. 

That's all for now folks! Have a great year and see you all later!

Tirana Week 1

Tirana Week 2

Tirana Week 3

Tirana Week 4

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