Tirana Week 1

Hey!

So I'm in Tirana now :) Tirana is an awesome and a beautiful city! I'm in the 4th Ward and it is an awesome ward! I don't know everyone yet, but so far I love everyone! hahah and my first day it stormed pretty hard! WE didn't actually get rained on, but we had to walk through basically rivers hahah that were streets before, at a certain point it was knee deep, hahahha and it was COLD water! haha. It was a good welcome to Tirana, from the city! I wouldn't have had it any other way, except maybe a little drier....haha.

My new companion is Elder Asler. He is from Croatia and he is awesome! We are getting along well, and fortunately for the both of us we both like to joke around a little bit haha, so we get along just fine! He is from my MTC group so we are co-senioring. I love my district as well, I have my "dad" (trainer) Elder Ostergard as one of our zone leaders, and they are in my district!

So for Thanksgiving this week we have sort of a Mission conference, where we have a thanksgiving dinner prepared by our awesome senior couples! We also have a talent show, which luckily for me, is by district because I do not have performable talents hahah So I'm super excited for that! It should be good!

I don't have much else to say, other than I love it here and I can feel that I'm here because the Lord wants me to be. I don't exactly know why yet, but I am doing my best to serve Him as one of His missionaries and hopefully by the end of my time here in Tirana I will have done what He sent me to this area to do!

Well, I love all of you and I hope that you have a fantastic week. OH, and try to do something nice for someone this week :) it'll be a win win, I promise!

Loves,

Elder Sajmënz

Transferring to Tirana

"Hey Everybody!"

That was me quoting Dr. Nick from The Simpson's haha, Gotta keep the blog posts interesting, right? So this week was pretty interesting! We spent a lot of time out of Peja haha. On Tuesday we spent the afternoon going to Camp Bondsteel where I was able to eat some American food and buy some American goodies and even got a whopper from Burger King! Now I'm not a huge Burger King fan, but you take what you can get haha. Then on Wednesday we drove down to Albania and spent Thursday there for a Mission Conference type deal, we heard from Elder Dyches, who is a General Authority! It was awesome!

In sad news the family that we are teaching moved to Germany haha. Without telling us, we ended up finding out from one of their friends that we ran into in the street. Haha so that was a surprise and was really sad! More sad news, I'm leaving Peja. I've been transferred to Tirana and I'll go there tomorrow! I'm excited though. It should be good! I've heard a lot of really good things about the area and the ward! It's pretty much in the middle of the city so that's cool! 

 
I don't really have much else. I just know that the Lord is directing this work and that I trust in Him and I will go wherever He assigns me. I hope that I can do what the Lord would have me do in Tirana! And I know that He will help me!

Loves!
Elder Sajmënz

November 10, 2014

Ku je? (a common greeting..it means where are you? haha)

So this week was pretty dang slow, and surprisingly tiring! As far as investigators go, they are pretty good. We are teaching two people that are preparing to be baptized at the end of the month, and they will be ready if they keep going and keeping commitments and praying and reading! It's pretty amazing being a missionary for the true and restored church! And we are still teaching that family that I think I told you guys about a while ago, we mostly teach the oldest 3 kids and we really want them to get baptized because they have testimonies and the know their stuff!! But there is something holding them back and I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is.. It is driving me a little crazy! But they are such an amazing family!! Another investigator has sorta stopped progressing and I don't know why. It is pretty tough in Peja right now. But we are staying optimistic and are working hard!!

I hope you have an awesome week!

Loves!
Elder Sajmënz!

Nov 3, 2014

So I procrastinated this haha, so I don't have a ton of time to write it. Just a few minutes in fact haha. This last week was good, it went by pretty quick, probably because of the false start haha but that's ok!

So the highlight of the week was probably Halloween. It turns out they DO celebrate it here in Kosovo, at least here in Peja, although I think it is something that has come over from America, because they Love us :) but common? whats not to love :) haha our district is very patriotic, but I also don't forget the English half!! Anyways so Halloween! For Halloween EVERYONE walks on the Boulevard for a few hours haha just back and forth and there was supposedly a party or something! But all of the young boys to teenage boys throw fire crackers! and we were just waiting for them to start throwing them at us, but funny enough the thing that started it was Elder Braden telling a kid to throw one behind me. Unfortunately for the kid I turned around and saw him drop it hahah so I kicked it right back at him...he ran really fast!! haha. but then that went on for a little while and then it stopped. But a LOT of firecrackers!

And now for the more meaningful part ;) We had a pretty good Sabbath day, I studied fasting earlier in the week and it just felt a little more meaningful, but I did have to drink a little to swallow my cold medicine, so I kinda feel like I cheated haha. So Fast Sunday was a really good spiritual experience and it felt more meaningful than just being hungry. When you truly fast, you don't notice that you are hungry! It truly is a special blessing that we get to fast! I know that we are truly blessed when we fast with a true purpose and a sincere heart, just like when we pray!

Well have an awesome week! and help someone else :)

Loves!

Elder Sajmënz