So this has definitely been an exciting week here in Elbasan!
First off, Elder Cani is so cool! He's super funny and he's such a great missionary! So far we've been working super hard together and we're seeing so much change here in Elbasan, it's awesome. One thing that I've really learned from Elder Cani is not just working hard but working smart. We do a lot of contacting but when we do it the goal is always to have a lesson with them right then instead of trying to set one up for another time. That's been super cool and we've had some really cool lessons and met some awesome people. Another thing we've been doing a lot of is working with the ward members. Right now we're really trying to become good friends with all the members, especially the active ones, and to really try and strengthen them, then at the same time try and find less active ones and bring them back. We've been doing a ton of things with them and we try to make everything we do with them fun but then also teach them something at the same time. Also thank you for sending me that picture with all the members, they're awesome. Some of the ones we've been doing a lot of things with recently are Xhuljo, the other Xhuljo, and Hasan. They're super fun and they're super good at soccer. So yeah, that's one thing that Elder Cani does really well, and he's super good at relating to the members. I love serving with him, and my language has gotten a lot better because now I'm learning where I make a lot of mistakes when I talk and I learn things the correct way the first time now, which is super nice. Also Elder Cani speaks really good English. He didn't know any before his mission and for the first part of his mission he didn't really learn it, but then he got called to serve in Macedonia and the missionaries there don't speak Albanian so he had to learn English and Macedonian, which would be super hard. It's really fun because we are helping each other learn each other's languages so there are some funny mistakes that both of us still make.
So other than that, things have been pretty normal here. We've had a ton of first lessons and new investigators this week so hopefully we can keep meeting with them. We've had a couple cool lessons, like yesterday we were walking to Vëllai Dhamo's house to give him the sacrament and we met two people on the road so we felt like we should invite them to have a quick lesson and show them the Ndriçoje Botën video and it ended up being a super amazing lesson and we committed one of them to baptism! Then we also had a soccer activity on Saturday and we ended up inviting a lot of members to come play and Lindis ended up bringing his brother and he had a great time. So then at the end of the game we invited him to come to church with us and he did! So now we have a lesson scheduled with him and I have a lot of hope for that!
Other than that, we've been doing a lot of stuff to get prepared for Christmas. We have a ton of things planned for this week and I'm so excited! Christmas day will be weird though, we only have one hour of church but then we have a district lunch and the Christmas Skype, but the rest of the day is a regular work day, then the day after we have a full day P-day instead of just until 6 PM. Speaking of the Christmas Skype, I'm still not sure when I will call just because the schedule for that day is super weird, so it'll probably be some time after 4:00 PM Albania time(8:00 AM Utah time) but before 6 PM. I'm sorry I can't really get any more specific than that but that's just how it works with Christmas being on a Sunday. I am super excited to see you all then though!
Also it still doesn't feel like Christmas time here just because of the weather. It's super sunny and there's no snow, but when it gets dark or windy here it's super cold. Also most people here don't celebrate Christmas here, and even the ones that do it's very different from American Christmas. But New Year's here is insane!!!(or at least that's what I've heard). I'm also super excited for New Year's here, we get to watch movies on New Year's Eve and I totally expected it to just be like 17 Miracles and Ephraim's Rescue but there are so many good movies that have been approved, like Star Wars 7 is approved and so are the Lord of the Rings movies, so let's just say I'm super pumped.
So that's about all for me here, I'm loving it here and things are going so great here in Elbasan! If things keep up like this Elbasan could become a ward soon!
Mirupafshim familja, ju dua shumë!
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