Elder Parker Stewart in the Adriatic South: A Bigger District in Gjakova!

We got our two new Elders here this week. Elder Baker was in Peja, and
Elder Fowles was in Vlorë. It is great to have them both here. It
should be a lot of fun, and it should help keep the balance as the
branch prepares for the Tooleys departure next month.

We printed and handed out 3000 English course flyers this week.
English Course starts again tomorrow. It will be good to be started
again. Elder Lesi and I will be teaching the beginners class. Elder
Lesi is going to get his first English Course teaching experience.
That should be fun for him. His English is coming along pretty well.
One of the missionaries that got moved from Peja knew him in Durrës
right before he left, and he was blown away by how well he is
speaking. He is doing great!

Our investigator that jumped down the stairs after the lesson is a
really great guy, but he just isn't getting it quite yet. It is tough
because I don't think he is putting in the effort that he needs to.
The branch could really use him, and he could really use the church.
We are going to continue to try and work closely with him. Our most
recent lesson with him went great. He said that if he receives an
answer he will be baptised on April 4. We are trying our best to help
him help himself. He has great potential, and he really does have real
intent.

We have been eating lunch with our district almost every day if its
possible. We have a really good district, and with two more it just
gets better. We make sandwiches or cook pasta. Everyone is a pretty
good sport about it. We have a vegetarian in the district so meat is
strictly prohibited. Elder Tooley made some super good peanut butter
though so I have been chowing down on peanut butter sandwiches. We
also eat a lot of greek salads. The produce is pretty good here.

We had a branch activity this week, and we watched Ephraims Rescue.
Everybody loved it, and we had a significant amount of investigators
there. We also had a less active man there. It was great! We think we
might make "Movie Night" a monthly thing. A family that we are
teaching came. They are the ones that live a few floors above the
Tooleys. They all really liked it.

We have had some really good lessons this week. In total 3 people
committed to baptism this week. It is still very early on, but it is a
start. We are supposed to try and commit people to baptism on the
first lesson. We have been promised a lot of blessings for doing it.
We had really tried to take the challenge, and we are going to work
our tails off to get people to really mean it and to become converted.

Elder Tooley was in with us for a lesson this week. He has done a
fantastic job of trying to learn Albanian. He is phenomenal. Easily
the best of any of the senior missionaries. Usually he prays and bears
his testimony. This time I looked at him and was and asked if he could
explain the role of Jesus Christ. I was ready to translate for him,
but nope he did it in Albanian. I was shocked. It was way good. Then
in church for fast Sunday he stood up and gave a very good testimony
that wasn't memorized. It was pretty cool. SIster Tooley is great to
have in lessons as well. We had a lesson with a man that was not
taking it very seriously, and she bore a super strong testimony, and
told him off right there on the spot. It was great. I called him the
nest day and he acted a lot more mature.

Fast Sunday was good here. Peja is a group so they all come here for
fast Sunday because they are still connected with our branch. They
have one active member so they drive him up here in their vehicle.
There were lots of good testimonies. Everyone was very reverent this
week. I think good things are happening here. We all ate dinner at the
Tooleys house that day. It was a lot of people in a small house, but
it was really fun.

Tracting continues to be the go to. We have done a lot of tracting.
There are a lot of really nice people here. We do a lot of finding! It
is good. We are racking in the new investigators. It is hard work, and
it isn't necessarily the most rewarding immediately, but I am sure we
will see the fruit of our efforts eventually!

Today we had a good p-day. We went to a waterfall just outside of
Gjakova. It was a really cool area. We had a good time there. I will
send some pictures.

That's my week. It has been great. I am loving it here in Gjakova!

Take Buddy on some walks! Have a good week! Do something good for someone else!

Love Elder Stewart