Potentials in Prishtina, Party Planning and Potatoes!

Well this week flew by, and to be honest it is kind of tough to keep
everything straight as far as what was what.

We still have that family, and our other investigator. He is 21. They
have been hanging on, and we are supposed to have lessons with both of
the again tonight. As far as the family goes they said yes.. and no to
baptism. Prishtina is a very Muslim place. The father feels he will
put his wife and children in danger if any of them were to be
baptized. Apparently he has some very practicing family. While we
never feel any danger we are told by members that among families it
can be a very real problem. It is very tough, and not a problem that
we would ever have to encounter in Canada. We have a member coming
tonight, and hopefully we will be able to get it all worked out. We
had our missionary meeting with our Branch mission leader, and the
bishop. In the end it is probably going to come down to how the family
feels. Where there is a will there is a way. We are really hoping for
them!! The 21 year old is great. He hasn't been able to come to church
yet because he has family in Peja, and was there on the weekend. Maybe
he can start going to church there. The thing is he is in between
cities all of the time!

English course is still really fun! We have a great member who is in
our class and helps us out. Elder Austin actually taught him when he
was here so that is really cool. He helps us with lessons too. I have
mentioned him before in letters. This last Tuesday the rest of our
district went to the American Military base to teach a lesson, and
they left us with all three english classes. We just played English
games with them, and everyone loved it. We played this game called
fruit basket. It is usually played where everyone is given a fruit.
For example Apple, orange, and grape. When I say grape everyone who is
a grape has to change chairs. The person in the middle try is to get a
chair. We played it with all kinds of English words. The people here
love it. I really like it too. It is quite entertaining.

That English course was the last night for my burgundy sweater. It met
an unfortunate end when it turned out to be handwash only. It might
fit Buddy now?! I guess I should read more washing instructions.
Speaking of washing our washing machine is always going now because
the other Elders washing machine broke.

So we met 5 Muslim guys on the road one day, and they kept going off
on tangents, and wouldn't hear us out for Joseph Smith. Finally we
said we have a really cool 20 minute video.. will you watch it. I
think I already told you about it. After the video they still weren't
super interested. they wouldn't let us pray. One guy took a B of M
though and said he would read. On the way out of the door they said
they were opening a restaurant right by the church, and invited us to
check it out. We said we would stop by. They were great guys. Pretty
respectful for the most part. The restaurant opened this week, and we
tried it out. The food is amazing, and a whole meal costs one euro and
a half. The guys in there all love us. We are really good friends. I
think it is cool that they have all seen the Restoration. Hopefully
they will get interested in the Gospel eventually. For now we will
just keep being great friends. Our church road is the best. We are
great friends with the grocery store worker, the bakery workers, and
the workers at this new restaurant.

We have spent a ton of time on the boulivard this week trying to get
some good contacts. It is a test of patience, and faith. We have
managed to get a few people in for lessons. 3 of which agreed to come
back and learn more. It is a great time teaching. President gave us a
training a while back on finding and how it is so important to have
new investigators every week. We have done a pretty good job at that!
A new investigator is anyone we have a lesson with that agrees to
learn more.

Friday was awesome. I have become great friends with a man in the
ward. I don't know why, but for some reason we just kind of clicked
right off the bat. He is the Elders Quorum president right now. He is
a great guy. He has to be in his late 50s. We were talking and he
asked me if I could help him with his harvest of potatoes. In the end
the whole district was able to go out to his place. We dug and dug
potatoes all morning. We had a ton of potatoes. it was hard work.
Digging, and hauling potatoes. I think it was my favourite service
project that I have been able to do out here. It would be hard to
beat. The weather was chilly, but we were all sweating like crazy.
This man got baptized about two years ago. His wife is super sick with
cancer. He says there is no hope. I am sure he must be lonely and
tired all of the time. He leads a tough life. He was so happy having
us out there though. It was the highlight of my week!

The Halloween party turned out to be a go. Apparently they changed
their minds last minute. The missionaries threw it together, and we
held the event. As far as event planning goes, I don't think I have
ever had to do anything like it before. It rocked. Everyone loved it.
The sisters got two new investigators from it. We had quite a few
nonmembers there. We had hot dogs, and finger food. There was apple
bobbing and doughnut dangling. It went super well. I think it was even
better than any of us expected!

We had the funniest Elders Quorum lesson on Sunday. It is really hard
to explain while typing, and without you knowing the people, but it
was great. It went all over the place. One part you will appreciate is
that the old guy who was the main teacher for the lesson started
ending it just like a prayer, except his eyes were open, and it was as
if he was teaching. In the middle someone asked him. "Are you ending
the lesson or saying the closing prayer?" He answered, "I am doing
both at the same time." It was a fabulous lesson! It was hard to keep
composure for the whole lesson!

Today for pday we started our district talent show skit thing for
American thanksgiving when we have a mission talent show, and each
district has a part. It should be good. It is top secret. it is still
in the making, but I will keep you posted as it develops into
something!

My fingers are tired! Have a good week! Thanks for the letters! Take
Buddy on walks!

Love Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart celebrated mom's birthday with one of her favourite things!!

Wouldn't you want to talk to these two on the street??? :)

Pumpkin Carving at the Halloween Party

That's A LOT of potatoes!!!