Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Weekly email

Hello Friends and Family -

Sorry for not writing last week. It was a very long P-day and I didn't have the energy to write any big emails. (Writing half decent emails can be very difficult sometimes). I also wanted to thank Hollie and Aunt Mary for sending me packages! Thank you Mary for the food and the Emergen-C, especially. That has really helped me lately. Hollie, I apologize, but I opened your package before Christmas. I forgot that it was the Christmas package until I looked into it. I assure you that I will wait until Christmas to use any of the stuff : )

Since I didn't write an email last week I suppose I should tell you a little bit about the Thanksgiving here. Every year all of the missionaries in the Adriatic  South Mission go down (or up) to Tirana for a day of missionary training/Thanksgiving dinner and festivities. The dinner was phenomenal and we had REAL turkey. Don't ask me where we got it because that is still a mystery to me. After the dinner we had a talent show and dessert followed by a testimony meeting for the missionaries that are leaving at the end of this month (shout out to Elder Peterson). It was a really good day of food, fun, and remembering all the things that we are thankful for. 

Last Wednesday we had our Zone training in Prishtina and all the missionaries from Prishtina, Gjakova, Shkoder, and Skopje (Macedonia) met up at the church building in Prishtina. I wanted to share 2 scriptures from that training that I really liked:

D&C 18:15-16
Alma 26:30-31

Many of you have asked about people that we are teaching, so I will tell you about one of my favorite families that I have taught so far. We have been teaching Mergim, Marigona, and their mom Jenny, for about 2 weeks now and it is easily the highlight of my week teaching them. After teaching so many people in Albanian, its nice to be able to teach someone in English. We usually go over to their house 2 or 3 times a week and have a relatively short lesson planned, but we almost always end up staying for 2 or 3 hours just answering their questions. Marigona, who is 13, has been asking really good questions like "If we knew each other before we were born, why don't we remember?" I LOVE getting questions like that and it makes the lessons with them so awesome. We also were able to teach them how to pray and it was so cool getting to see Mergim and Marigona pray. I really look forward to seeing where they go in the next month or two! I also know that they are reading my blog, so hey guys!

Christmas is coming up soon and I am really excited to be a part of the Christmas season in a different part of the world. I know that it won't be as full blown as it would be if I was back home, but it will certainly be something special. I am really looking forward to Skyping with my family! That will probably happen around 12 noon your time, by the way. 

The weather up here is getting quite chilly. It has snowed a couple times and there is constant ice on the ground. They don't use salt up here on the sidewalks and that makes it really dangerous to walk around. I heard you guys got snow back home? Nice. I am starting to really love the snow and cold more and more. You can always add clothes, but you can't always take them off : )

Anyway, that is all for me this week. Stay safe everyone, and enjoy the snow!

- Elder Allgaier




Some guys from Tirana came to visit us in Gjakova
Math class in Gjakova

The Christmas tree at the church

My Christmas tree.  Isn't she a beauty?
The high scoring trio

The name of a restaurant that is really cool.

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