Dear family,

I'll start out with the whole testimony thing so I don't forget to put it at the end.  There's been a kind of recurring theme throughout my mission.  It seems like I have run into many problems that have often seemed really big for me, but then through prayer, faith, scripture study, and all those little things we're constantly told to do that I somehow make it through.  A big thing to all that is you have to want these things to help or else they can't really help.  There's some scripture that says how we choose to be happy or miserable.  Remember the things that seem simple, and do them constantly with real intent as we learn from the scriptures, and we'll find help.  If we trust in the Lord, then not only will he help us, but our faith will grow, and we will become better because of it.

Last Friday, at around 7:30, I was on exchanges with one of the zone leaders, who happened to be Elder Fahey, my English companion in Shkodër, and we received the mail from the senior couple who had just gotten back from Tirana.  So on September 3, I got the wedding invitations of Jason and Ashley.  Then, I realized that I got it all on the same day Ashley was getting married. It still kind of weirds me out that I now have 2 sibling-in-laws.

I recently found out that taking naps during lunch time is usually not a good idea for me.  We have 3 hour long lunches, because from about 1-4pm proselyting is pretty ineffective.  So our schedule is adjusted so we go out earlier than usual, and we have no dinner which is a normal thing year round. The 3 hours really just consists of 2 hours lunch, 30 minutes taken from sleep, and 30 minutes for language study.  Most of the time, I just eat and then try to study Albanian for as long as I can before I am falling asleep.  I have noticed that if I end that time with sleep that I don't feel very good at the end of lunch.  A lot of times, I am actually able to stay awake for those three hours, so that's good.  I just need to find a way to stay awake.

Oh yeah, so I remembered a couple weeks ago that back when I called home for mother's day and said how my trainer would give the advice of "don't suck" that mom said she had been trying to get people to stop saying that word.  Well, there have been many times where I had really wished that word didn't exist.  I think I also had recently noticed that I didn't say it nearly as much as I used to.  Being around somebody who says how much things suck is not fun.  Especially if you're already not having a good day.  Moral of this story, that word kind of sucks.

Here in Albania, I think we get a good mixture of people.  Some people seem to love us and be really welcoming while other people can be really rude.  If people let you come teach them, it is a custom here to always give your guests candy, or a drink, or something.  People are pretty hospitable for the most part.  I think a big problem we have here probably comes as a result of communism.  A lot of people are pretty confused with religion.  The other day, an investigator was telling us that Jesus was Muslim.  He didn't seem to get that Islam came about hundreds of years after Christ's birth.  Other people tell us that all religions are the same.  Everyone understands the fact that there is only one God though.  We are constantly reminded of that fact.  I can never tell if people are just trying to get us to leave, if they really don't know, or both.  I think both can apply in many situations.  All in all, Albanians are pretty cool.

I did have a fun experience last week.  We were trying to track down this kid who had sent us a text message giving us his address.  Unfortunately, addresses here in Albania hardly exist.  So we found the correct building, and asked around using the vague information we had of this person, and we ran into something that seems to be pretty normal around here.  A ton of little kids started talking to us, and near the end of our conversation, they throw out all sorts of English cuss words.  I have noticed that a lot of missionaries seem to lack patience when it comes to misbehaving children around here.  That in turn brings a downward spiral of missionaries getting upset, and the children having fun upsetting them, so they get worse.

So, my companion went to talk to this other lady, as we were surrounded by all these kids.  So I pulled out a piece of paper that was in my Book of Mormon, and I made a cootie catcher with it.  As I was making it, I made the leader of the group agree that he wouldn't bug my companion anymore if I gave him whatever I made.  They had already seen the cootie catchers, so I pulled out another piece of paper, and accidentally made a bunny out of it.  They had a kick out of that.  They then asked me if I could draw.  I said yes, and they told me to draw an apple.  So I drew an apple, then added a face along with some arms and legs, and named the apple Gëzim which is an Albanian name that means Joy.  I then drew a banana with the same kind of thing, and I named him Gëzim2.  They had a kick out of it, and then they were just fine and stopped trying to bug us.

One thing I have learned about Albania is how cool the elections can be for the Prime Minister candidates.  The elections ended quite some time ago, but I have heard some of the political songs that they made.  Apparently one of the candidates, Edi Rama, was a former rapper, so he made his own rap song that talks about how Albania is changing and how we are the future.  The songs are pretty awesome.  If I ever run for president, I'd totally want to implement some of that.

Hey Caleb, I like being a missionary.  I get to help a lot of people.  My favorite part of my mission is being able to talk to all the people here about the church in a different language.  It was kind of hard to learn the language, but now it is fun to speak it.  Maybe I could teach you some Albanian when I finish my mission!  Thank you for writing me!

Yesterday, we were walking along on our way to go tracting, and we kept running into people that seemed interested in learning about the gospel.  It was one of the days where it just seemed like we were constantly talking to people as we went on our way.  We also accidentally found a less active member's house as we continued on our way, and we told him about institute, and he said he'd come and he'd try to come to church on Sundays.  That would be really cool.  So hopefully he comes.

Well, my time is out.  Tell everyone I enjoy getting their e-mails and everything.

Love,
Elder Uallentajn