We kicked the week off this week with yet another exchange
with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Muncy, he was down in Durres with me
when I was there, but now he's up in Prishtina, so it was cool to be with him
again! We started the day off contacting, and the first guy we said hi to was a
Muslim guy, who immediately offered to take us to lunch when he saw we were
working for God. We shared the Restoration (half Macedonian, half Albanian),
but he didn't seem too interested. He just kept talking about how you just need
to do good things for others, and that's all. So no success there, but that was
the first time anyone has ever taken me to eat from street contacting! It was
sweet. Also, after I shared the Joseph Smith story, Elder Muncy started
testifying about it in Albanian, and I could feel the spirit back up his words,
and the guy feeling it too. But, to no avail for now.
Elmaz, the branch president, lived in New York for 12 years
making pizzas. He's always talking about how he makes the best pizzas in the
world, so before branch council one day we brought him the ingredients and he
made us his famous pizza. He left it in the oven a couple minutes too long and
was really put out about it. It was a blast though; almost everything he says
is hilarious.
We have been meeting with a tour guide named Alex for a
while now. We play basketball with him every now and then, but he hasn't really
progressed, so we were thinking about dropping him. He came to family night,
where Elder Prince and I shared a message about how keeping the commandments
help us to see more clearly. Usually Alex doesn't like talking about anything
gospel related, but after, he came up to us and asked when the last time we
felt God in our lives was. We answered, and he said the last time for him was
during that lesson. And the next day playing basketball we had an awesome
lesson with him about the Holy Ghost! I had wanted to drop him, but Elder
Prince kept with him, and now I know why! It was cool to see that huge change
in him, and to help him to come closer to God.
Driving around. In other news, I started driving here, and
NO ONE HERE KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE. I didn't get road rage too much back home, but
I have yet to drive here without getting it. And tomorrow we're driving to
Tirana to drop Elder Prince and Gierisch off and pick up Elder Chingas and Sister
Hassell, and they drive even worse over there...
With Elder Gierisch and Prince leaving, it'll just be the 5
of us until the new ones come in Sept or Oct. So after tomorrow I will have
been serving in Macedonia longer than any other Elder or Sister here, which is
a strange thought for me. I still have almost one year to go.
