Elder Tyler Allgaier's Mission Blog: Week 7? 8? 9? Who knows....

Dang... Time is really flying by. It has already been 3 and a half months since I have seen you guys and it feels like it was just yesterday that I was saying goodbye at the airport. Hopefully this pace can keep up for the next 20.5 months.

So, do you remember how I told you about the weight-loss "program" that we have? Apparently it got pretty bad with a few other elders. The senior couple in Prishtinë helped us all get some stool samples to a lab to check them for diseases or anything serious. Luckily, we all passed with flying colors and no one is dead.

On a completely different note, we are about to start our first English class this weekend! The past couple weeks we have been handing out flyers and telling everyone about it. I did notice a trend, however, while passing out the flyers. Everyone is super excited about the class until the see "Jezu Krishtit" written on the paper. Then they just turn and walk away. It makes me kind of sad, but that's just how it is here. Anyway, we have 3 different classes: beginner, medium, and advanced. It is about 95% teenage girls so it should be really interesting to see how seriously they take it. A lot of the girls here (if not all) just want to go to America and are trying to find anyone to take them whether it be through marriage or something else. Thankfully I don't have to worry about any of that. I have someone better in the great U.S. of A.

A couple days ago my companion and I went to the center (the place where the nënë Tereza statue is) and did a tabling session for a few hours. We had a couple people come up to us and ask us questions and my companion took them by himself to go teach, leaving me at the table. I was a little nervous, I'll be honest, especially when a lady came up to me. I had a complete conversation with her in Albanian and told her about the Book of Mormon, the things we believe, and even joked a little bit. I understood every word she said and I am pretty sure she understood me. It was so cool to finally see my language skills being put to the test... and to succeed!

To make the story even better, after that lady left a Muslim guy came up and asked about our church. I started introducing everything in Albanian and he said in English, "If you want, you can just speak in English". Thank heavens. So we had about a 45 minute conversation about what we believed and what his faith believed. It was interesting to see the similarities that Islam and our faith have. He was a really cool guy and I hope that we will be able to talk again!

Now let me finish up by telling you a quick story: There is a girl that I would see all the time with her friends on the street and she would always giggle and say "Hello" in an Albanian accent. We see a lot of girls do this, by the way. One day I walked by her and told her "të puth fortë" in a joking way (I can say that kind of stuff because I am still learning the language, right?) and she almost lost it. I'm pretty sure she giggled all the way home. So late one night we were tracting (or knocking doors) at a pilatë (or apartment complex). We didn't have any luck until we got to the last door. The person who answered it was the same 12 year old girl from the street. Talk about amazing coincidence. She went a got her dad and we had a lesson with him about our beliefs and it went really well. During this entire 30-40 minute lesson, I could see out of the corner of my eye this girl taking pictures of me with her iPad. It was pretty funny. After the lesson I asked her if she had any good pictures. She laughed pretty hard and her face got all red. The end.

So that was my week. I hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for next week! Stay safe!

Love,

Elder Allgaier

P.S.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPENCER!!!!!!!!!!!