He Is The Gift

Dec. 15, 2014 Email

Well this is gonna be short because I'm in Macedonia and we don't have a whole lot of time to write because there aren't whole lot of computers open here. 

Just a short summary of my week. It was awesome!! 

Nice hat Elder Clawson!

The week started off with an exchange with the AP's from Monday night to Tuesday night which was fantastic. There was a lot of time spent out in the road finding using the new "He is the Gift" materials and we all had a good amount of success from that. The Assistants left the following day and we had a day full of new investigators and wonderful lessons. The rest of the week went on and I spent a lot of time with Elder Jorgensen out finding and teaching people about the Gospel and about Christmas. 

Owners of the Thai restaurant these Elders love to frequent.

I'm so so so sorry but I really don't have tons of time. One awesome highlight of this week was that Nezir and Suad both passed the sacrament and they did awesome! Ajdin is still waiting for an answer. Hopefully we will be meeting with him tomorrow night when we get back from Skopje. He is still doing awesome though. He just needs to get baptized. 

Christmastime in Skopje Macedonia.

We have a lot of new people that we are meeting with and I'm super excited to see what goes on with them. I'll tell you more about them when I see ya'll next week. So I"m planning on skyping at 6 so be ready. I'm super excited to see ya'll! 

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

I'm so sorry to hear that you aren't feeling good! I hope it goes away real soon. Dad said you're going to the doctor so hopefully that helps a bit. Thanks for emailing me! I love you so much and I can't wait to see you next week! Loves!

Love, Jedediah

Praises Were Sung!

My family! 

Elder Clawson and Elder Prince modeling their Macedonian attire.

How is it going?! It sounds like you are all loving life and loving the season. 

Well this was a really busy week for Elder Jorgensen and myself. Last Tuesday we had a fantastic district meeting directed by Elder Stewart who is a totally great missionary. Even if he is from Canada:), and then right after that we had to head to Macedonia for our exchange with the elders over there! We drove on over and got lost again, but we finally found our way to their house. It was kinda late but Elder Jorgensen and I were starving so we ordered some Dominos Pizza! (The only Dominoes in 3 countries is in Macedonia.  As well as a Burger King!)

A little taste of home in Skopje, Macedonia.  

The next day we just worked in their area and that was really fun. We don't speak Macedonian so it's cool to say hi to people and then let the other missionaries take over from there. We don't know how to say anything except "hello" and "how are you". For lunch that day we went to Burger King and it was wonderful. The sisters in Prishtina came with us again like they had last time, and it was the first time that Sister Favero had ever eaten at Burger King. Kinda crazy that her first Burger King experience came in Macedonia.

Elder Clawson had splits in Skopje, Macedonia this week.  Beautiful city!

After lunch I was able to do a baptismal interview with one of the Macedonian missionaries investigators. He is a good guy and he actually spoke English so I was able to do the interview without any translation. He'll definitely get baptized at some point. Once that was finished we had to go home. We came home and had to go right to the Institute Activity. The lesson was really good and it was given by the other elders in Prishtina. 

Jed visited the birthplace of Mother Teresa.  She is ethnic Albanian, but born in Skopje, Macedonia which was actually part of the Ottoman Empire when she was born.  

The following day was a little rough. We only had one lesson in our area at this time and it was Thursday. So we went finding to see if we could get some new investigators and we didn't find any but we did get a few numbers and I met a really cool guy named Osman. After lunch and stuff that day we had to go and do some service at the Branch President's home. We cleaned his yard up and mowed it which was AWESOME! I never in my life thought that I would want to mow a lawn but I was loving it. After that we went home and got changed and then we had a lesson with the Jashari family which was fantastic. I took the lead in it and taught the Restoration with the Cups lesson. They loved it and John was just smiling away thinking it was the greatest thing. The family said that they really understood the Restoration of the Church a bit more and it made more sense. 

He changed his first tire!!  Dad's always been around before:)

Friday comes. It's MLC meeting in Tirana. We wake up at 3:30am and get all ready and head out to the car. I start it up and we drive about 10 meters and we feel something is wrong. We look out and our front right tire is flat as a pancake. So we pull up on the side, get the jack out, and crank it up. We pull out the spare and the wrench and then we try to get the screws off. And THEY WON'T MOVE!! So we are freaking out for like 10 minutes to get these stupid screws off and they are just hyperlocked with the most insane glue in the universe onto these tires. So finally, being missionaries and having a knowledge that God loves His children and he does not want them to be sad, we prayed! After the prayer, I got down and held onto the wrench with all my might and then I basically lifted the car and this massive screech that rings throughout the sleeping city of Prishtina. But it had come loose! Praises were sung in my heart at that moment. We were able to get all of the screws off and we got on our way to Tirana. God definitely showed His love for us that morning. MLC was good and I'm blown away with all of the missionaries in leadership right now. I've definitely got some improvement to do. 

Skopje, Macedonia

We came home and then we had a lesson with Betim and talked about Alma 47 about Lehonti and Amalickiah. He really liked it and it was a super spiritual lesson. Then we went home, planned, and then I fell asleep cuz I was really lacking on that. Saturday was the first full day where we had enough time to give all of our attention to our area. We filled the days with lessons and we had a great day. We met with two new investigators including Osman. We couldn't watch conference but that was okay. We'll watch it sometime soon. 

Nezir is still struggling with smoking. Whoever thinks smoking is cool, is dumb. Don't smoke kids. So please pray for him. He's so great and he loved coming to conference yesterday. 

Jed said this is a favorite treat.  A cup of corn.  He called it Happy Corn:)

So yeah yesterday we watched the first session for Sunday and then ate lunch afterwards. I made banana bread again but I destroyed it in the oven. I guess it needed less than 45 minutes. But it was still kinda good. 

At least he's cleaning!

After that we had to weekly plan and that was really good because we couldn't do it on Friday. Then we had a meeting with Betim for missionary work in the branch. It was really good. 

Jed is so kind!  He send these pictures because he know's I love seeing this!  Fruit Treg, or market for p-day today.

All in all, I had a good week. I love you guys so much! Have fun and tell Dad that his new skis are so sweet. 

Loves!

Jed

Dearest Mother, 

How is life going for you? Tell Jane way to go with her biking skills. It's totally the Strider that helped her with that. Those pumpkin pancakes looked like heaven on earth. I miss your cooking. 

Well Mom, I miss ya and love ya! Have a good week!

Love, Jedediah

We Are Doing The Work Of God!

Hello my dear beloved family,

I need to start this email by letting you all know that my mission is probably the best thing in the world. I'm not just killing time sitting in Kosovo waiting for something cool to happen. We are doing the work of God and He is guiding our every move if we are humble enough to listen and willing to put forth a little effort. I love being here and I honestly don't want to ever leave this place. These people may be frustrating at times but I still love them with every licking stitch of soul that I have.  They are so ready for the Gospel in their lives and I'm stoked to be one of those giving them the message of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ.

Lot's of baptisms this week.  Great week!

So a lot of stuff happened this week. Tuesday Elder Price and I had to give our very first zone training. It's super weird counseling other missionaries and teaching them when they are so much older than us and we have usually been getting instruction from them. We have a lot of baptismal dates in Kosovë so we decided to do a training on D&C 20:37 ( 37 And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who humblethemselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having adetermination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.) which talks about the Lord's Standards for Baptism. We just told them that we needed to always make sure that the people that are progressing towards baptism are following the Lord's Standards instead of our own personal standards. They need to be following the Spirit. 

The next day we had an exchange with the Macedonian missionaries so we drove to Macedonia with the sisters because they do exchanges with the sister missionaries over there while we do ours with the elders.  We sang songs and had a good time until we got to Shkup. Or Skopje is what it's normally called. But we got lost really fast. We didn't know where we were going and Elder Price was driving and he was flipping out and so was I and we drove around for about an hour and then we saw a Burger King so we decided to stop and unstressify ourselves and we were starving anyways. We finally found where we needed to go and we had a great exchange. I went with Elder Prince who is super great and he is a great missionary. I also know how to say several things in Macedonian now. On our way home we got stopped and checked at the border and they went through all of our stuff. Crazy!

Headed to Macedonia.  It was quite the adventure!

Finding investigators in Macedonia.

Lunch!

We drove home and started doing our own work that night and then we get a phone call. It's Elder Watson and he is stuck with Elder Roberts at a little town called Ferizaj becasue the buses stopped for some reason and they had no way to get home. They could call the senior couple and go home but they would have gotten home super late and so we decided that we would just go out and drive out there and pick them up. We made the 45 minute drive out there and picked them up and then we came back home. Pretty long day.

Friday. We had to go pay our power bill for the last two months as they had threatened to turn our power off. (I didn't know anything about this because I just got here. Kinda.) After we took care of that we had to go take our beautiful Opel Corsa to the service place because one of our headlights had gone out and we didn't want to get in trouble. We went throughout the rest of the day and then at night we had to spend the night at the church so that we could heat up the baptismal font.

So we spent the night at the church and woke up at 2 to start the heaters and then at 4 to start working the water system and then again at 6 to start filling the actual font. 

Sleeping over at the church to tend to the filling of the font.

Almost full.

4 of our investigators were baptized this Saturday and I was able to watch Elder Watson baptize his first investigator as well. Talk about a proud father moment!

This weekend was definitely one of the happiest moments of my life. A family of 3, and a young man named Suad were all baptized and made a covenant with their Heavenly Father. They are one step closer to being with Him. I haven't seen someone get baptized for a really long time and it just makes me feel so happy inside.

They were all confirmed on Sunday morning and that was fantastic. Another awesome thing was that all of the ordinances were done by members of the branch. We have a really young branch and we wanted the priesthood holders to exercise the power that they have. Super awesome.

During lunch yesterday we all put our hands up in the air and we all said "Touch Down Jesus!" It's from a song. 

How about that parking job.  Jed claims he did it, but I'm skeptical.

That's all I got this week but I also had some great investigator lessons with our other investigators that are doing great. I love being with Elder Price and I love being in Kosovë.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love, Jed

Dearest Mother, 

Once again I did not receive an email from my family members. But that's okay. I hope everything is going well and I want you to know that I love you! (Don't worry!  He got a letter or two or three eventually this morning.)

Love, The White Indian Man

Maybe One Day I'll Be Big Enough To Go To Macedonia:)

This is Jed's Zone.  It included all 14 Elders going to Albania as well as Elders going to Hungary, and Finland.

So Jed and his fellow missionaries will be flying out to Albania on Tues. morning.  This is his last letter from the MTC and he sounds really excited to "move on" and start being a real missionary, meeting real people, and sharing the gospel with real investigators!  I asked him what they would be doing their last P-day in America.  It included a haircut, hamburger, and a Peach Mango Jamba Juice:)

Hello!

So yes we did get to go to the temple one last time for 22 months. Right after we ate breakfast from the cafeteria we went outside and ended our Consecration Week. (Consecration Week has been the last 7 days of speaking nothing but Albanian.) I think the Rome Temple will be done when I can come home. But anyways, WOW is the only word I can think of to describe Consecration Week. We only had English substitutes for 1 day and that was fine because it gave us an opportunity to translate and really listen to what each other was saying. The hardest is when you'd get asked a question by some new english speaking missionary, and you can't talk in English to them so they get all frustrated and

start freaking out. We had that happen a lot. This week has helped my language so much. I can't express everything that I would like to, but I can do  a pretty decent job at teaching, testifying, praying, and keeping a fairly mediocre conversation with someone. It's gonna be great next week!! We are all so excited to get the hecky outta this joint! It's been fun but we have had a huge influx of new missionaries these past couple of weeks and it's really started to get crowded. It was nice at first because it was just the Albanians, Hungarians, Finnish, Estonians, and a few Spanish and English missionaries thrown in and it was probably like 300 missionaries. (At the Provo MTC West Campus) But now we have just as many missionaries as the main campus. 

So my travel plans are as follows: 

We take the bus at 4:30 tuesday morning and our flight out of Salt Lake leaves at 8:40. I won't have a lot of

time to talk so I'll probably be calling from Washington, DC from Dulles. We get to DC at 2:47ish and we are there for 3 hours. Then we head out to Munich, Germany and we have a layover there for about 2 hours. Then we head to Tirana at 11:15 AM on Wednesday and we get to Albania!! SO EXCITED!! 

As freaked out as I am, I'm incredibly excited to get there and actually get into the work instead of just working with fake investigators.  Oh and I'll probably not be going to Macedonia, they don't speak a whole lot of Albanian and they generally don't like the missionaries there so they send really big Elders over there so no one will mess with them. Maybe one day I'll be big enough to go to Macedonia... But I would love to go to Kosovo but I want to stay in Albania cuz my language would get super sloppy and dirty in Kosovo or Shkoder. Thats where they speak Geg. 

So for my plaque I would like either: Mosiah 4:16 I think but I don't know if thats the one for sure. Just get one that talks about charity for other's cuz thats more my purpose instead of everyone's regular missionary scriptures. Sorry I'm lame. So in this next package, I would appreciate 3 things of my hair product, (AXE Whatever, is what it's called) And if you could put 200 bucks on my card I'd greatly appreciate it. I have to pay 100 for my baggage on the plane and another 100 for emergencies. A couple more pairs of socks would be sweet too! I burn through those things. I think thats about it. I don't have to mail anything home. I'm good on weight and I'm all ready!

Thanks for the story you shared about church the other day too. I wish I coulda seen it. 

I love you all and can't wait to talk to you!!

Love,

Jed

Dear Mom, 

I would love some peaches. Sorry I have to call you so late in the day, but they told us it would be better to call from DC. I hope all is well with you and the garden. What year is Grandpas Corvette? Well I love you so much and I'm excited to talk to ya. 

Love, Jed

P.S. Elder Holland came to our class the other day. I'm awesome I know. Unfortunately we couldn't take pics. 

Dad,

So I answered a lot of your questions in the last email. But I've been going into a lot of the New Testament and I have fallen in love with Mark 12 where Christ is telling about the Greatest Commandment. I love how the language is in the verses and how Christ tells the guy that he isn't far from the Kingdom of God.

Well I love you!!

Love, Jed