the one about prepared people

So, first off, here's a picture of my new (actually 3-week-old) companion, Elder Ireland from Mesa, Arizona.

And now, down to business: This week was tiring! It started out early on with us helping our landlord with a bit of home improvement. He's going to lay cement and floor tiles on the roof (the roof is flat, so it's not as weird as you might think). He had a truck come with bags of cement and a big pile of sand. We unloaded the cement bags then the guy dumped the sand in the yard. Then, we had a big job to do. We carried these bags of cement up about 3 flights of stairs. By the way, they weighed 110 lbs. The only way to carry them was to give them the Heimlich maneuver. Then, later that day, we got 3-gallon buckets and filled them with the sand and carried them one at a time up to the roof. We made about 12 trips each until we tired out, then he said we'd work on it more another day. We probably only got a fifth of it done, and that's just hauling the sand up to the roof. There'll be a lot more work when we get it all up there.

We were walking next to a building one day and a lady turned the tables by stopping and talking to us. Usually, that's a sign they're crazy, but this lady was cool! She actually met with missionaries a few years before but lost contact. She works in a little insurance office and says that she and her friend read the Book of Mormon when they have free time, and she reads it to her daughter. That's crazy! I've never encountered that before. It's awesome how the Lord prepares people to receive the gospel. We have high hopes for her!

On Friday we went to Tirana to do some business up there and get me a 6-month dental checkup (no problems, woot!). But on the way to the Tirana vans in Lushnjë, we were stopped by a reporter/radio person on the street. They wanted a little shout-out to Lushnjë, and after some persuading, I agreed to say a few things into the microphone. They just asked how I thought the weather was, what we were doing and such. A fun little distraction to an otherwise boring day.

Yesterday we made Hawaiian pizzas! Man, I think that's going to be one of my favorite Sunday lunches from now on. But we overestimated the amount of toppings we'd need, so later that night, I had myself a little ham-pineapple salad!

I want to congratulate whoever thought up of the pineapple/ham combination.

That's all. I wish everyone all the best.

Elder Weaver