Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Life in Albania - Week 18

So, how the heck are you all?! It sounds like you are all doing great from the emails. This week was another kinda slow/boring week but today was a TON of fun. I will start with the questions!

1. Why do you think you no longer have a parasite? I would like some pretty good details! J

I'm not sure ha. It just disappeared! But seriously, I haven't had too many problems lately, therefore, everything is great! :) Thanks for being concerned though!

2. How did you know something was going on with your tooth and that you needed to see the Dentist?

I was having tooth aches and so we went and saw what the problem was and she was an awesome Dentist. For real. Plus she spoke perfect english (which was nice since I don't know the vocab for cavity and other doctor words haha). I really think she is better than the dentists back home. I had no problem with any of it. It was actually kind of relaxing!

3. Are you both feeling better this week?

Well Elder Vance's fever didn't go away at all this week and so we once again were ordered by Sister Neil to stay inside. It was super boring haha but it's okay because I was able to do more language and scripture study.

4. How is Gentiana and her friend doing? Do they still have baptismal dates? If so – when will they be baptized?

They said they were going to come to church this week but they didn't. We are going to go visit them tomorrow and hopefully they are doing good. Their date is for February 19th I think. Whatever the closest Sunday to that is.

5. Did you ever get to teach Rimi again?

Right now is Exam season for all of the college students and so they have a 2 week break from school to study for exams and stuff. Rimi lives outside of Elbasan and he hasn't been in the city so we haven't been able to meet with him. We hope we can meet with him at least one more time to talk about authority because he just doesn't "get it" if you know what I mean. Like, If it was true that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ, then it would be a HUGE deal because that would mean we have a LIVING prophet today who leads God's church. He doesn't really understand that. We have tried to explain it. Hopefully he will get it someday.

6. How are Lori and her Mom doing?

Lori and her Mother are AWESOME! One of the only lessons we were able to have this week was with Lori. It went really really well. Lori said the closing prayer and it was beautiful. I always love hearing people’s first vocal prayers because it has no repetition qualities to it. It is just them talking to God the way they want to talk to God. It was amazing. The Spirit was incredibly strong.

7. You mentioned something about a boy name Olsi in English class – how is that going?

Yes, we have a private English class going on with a boy named Olsi. It is going really awesome. We showed him the Restoration video and the Spirit was really really strong. There is no way that he could deny feeling something. We had a really good conversation with him afterwards and then the next English class that we had with him, he didn't want to talk about the church. It was really weird.. I don't know why but we do know he is really into science and we think that might be the problem.

8. How many people are in your English class?

We currently only have the private english class with Olsi but we are advertising for an English class to start for March 1st with whoever wants to come. Hopefully we get a really good turn out.

9. You mentioned that you are learning how to read music. Do you mean so you can play the piano? Does their music look different from ours when it comes to the notes?

I am just learning how to read notes so that I can play piano. I have gotten a lot better. I can't sight read perfectly but with practice, I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of my mission I could sight read pretty well/ play all the hymns.



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Okay, so I don't want to forget some things so I will come out and say them first haha. I got another Dear Elder from Sister Long. Thank you so much for sending me those! It's great to hear from people from home! Also, I got a package from the Bakers. It was AWESOME! There were Warheads in it!!!! haha yessssss. Mrs. Baker, how do you just know? you just always know haha. Thanks a ton for the Valentines day gifts! It is very appreciated. But Mrs. Baker, I don't think you want to adopt that little boy haha. He is a little DEVIL! He destroys all the toys there haha. Although, you dealt with me and Evan and we were no different than that. I was just thinking the other day about one time when Evan and I were shoveling the snow off of the front yard (along with an inch of the grass and dirt beneath the snow) so that we could play football! haha you came outside and weren't too happy but then Marty came out and you two just kinda shook your heads and then let us keep going so that we could play football! You all put up with me and Evan so well! haha You must have known how much backyard/frontyard football meant to Evan and I. I don't know about Evan, but for me playing football at the Baker house is one of my fondest memories. So yeah, thank you for the package! ha

Alexis- CONGRATULATIONS! that is so awesome that you got one of the lead roles! I'm stinking ticked that I don't get to see you in the play. I'm sure mom and dad will purchase one of the 2 million dollar movies they make though haha. So I will eventually see it. I was actually just thinking about something. You should take all of the videos of you from when you have sung live and in plays and stuff and make a youtube account. People would love hearing you sing. You might be the next Justin Beiber and get picked up off of youtube! ha Anyways, that is awesome that you got a good part. hahahahah I think it's hilarious that Dayna gets weather updates from Tirana Albania! haha that is great!

Ashley- Sounds like you are having a ball with those 6th graders! hahaha why would you put Isolated out of all of my songs onto your CD!? My newer stuff is way more legit! haha oh well. You are hilarious. I can't believe you teared up while listening to it haha. Oh sister bear. I heard a rascall flats song on the radio here in albania and it made me think of driving to seminary with you freshman year. Can you say Shockwave?! hahahaha Wow. We are so hardcore.

Kend- Don't worry about sending any sort of special letter! I have gotten all of the letters you have sent now I think! I hope you have gotten mine. I have sent one every week so you can figure out which days you haven't gotten. I hope they eventually get to you if you haven't gotten them yet. Keep up the good work in track! It sounds like you are doing awesome! And thanks for texting back my dad who randomly texted you haha.

So today, we took our district trip to a place called Porgradec. It was BEAUTIFUL! We are definitely going to spend a day there when you come to Albania. It was incredible. I will send some pictures if I get a chance. It was probably the coolest city I have seen in Albania so far. I loved it. We just skipped some rocks at the shore and then walked around and then ate one of the rarest fish in the world! It's called the Koran fish. You can only get it in 2 cities in the entire world! It tasted like salmon. It was really good.

Like I was saying, On Tuesday we had a lesson with Lori and her Mom. It was a really awesome lesson. It's cool because we do it at a members house. The same member who we got them from as referrals. They help the lesson a ton and make sure that the investigators feel comfortable. We always tell the members what we will be teaching about and what they should talk about before hand so that they don't have to worry.

I don't have any more time to say anything because we gotta go! But I love you all! Thanks for being such an awesome family. Peace, Love, Happiness, Misisonary work.

Elder Eckel

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