Elder Parker Stewart in the Adriatic South: English Classes Start Again!

O family!

Tuesday was a funny day. We were at the church for a lesson, and Elder
Lesi's bishop was there fixing some stuff at the church. He was so
excted to see him. They had a cool little reunion. Personally I think
that would be hard to serve in such close proximity to home. He loved
it though! Someone should tell my bishop to aspire to Albania and
Kosovo building maintenance! On Friday we went out to lunch with Elder
Lesi's stake president because he was up here doing institute. His
people are everywhere. :) He loves it though so it is good!

I am back to teaching Beginners English *sighofrelief* I really like
this class. The kids are awesome, and we have two ladies in there
sixties. It was really funny. We were going through the alphabet, and
Me: What starts with J?
Lady 1: Justin Bieber
Me: G?
Lady 2: Gangster
S was Silvester Stalon, and R was Rambo. They are both very young at
heart. I had a pretty good laugh about that for the rest of the night.

On Wednesday I went to Tirana with the sisters, and Elder Rawlings.
There was a meeting there for missionary leadership. It was good.
President Weidmann is a very inspired person, and he has great ideas.
His training was great. Dad had already told me a lot of it so that
was pretty cool. Pres Weidmann said stuff like praying for District
members by name, taking interest in their lives, offering priesthood
blessings, praising members of the district often, prayerfully
preparing for meetings and exchanges, taking accountability, setting
meaningful goals. Those are just a few things. It was well worth the
drive down there.

On the way back up to Kosovo everyone was pretty tired, and so we took
a quick break. There was a church on the hill right beside the road
and we decided to go check it out. We got some good pictures. In
Kosovo I got pulled over again. I don't even drive crazy. It was a
back road and paved, had no road signs. I was going 80 and then he got
me. Apparently it was 50, but I think there is no way. He talked with
me for a while I just accepted it, and he got ready to write me a
ticket. He then asked who all of the other people were. I explained to
him and had the sisters in the back role down the windows. They talked
to him for like 10 seconds and then he said drive safe and have a good
night. I guess the sisters charmed him. They got pulled over today and
got out of it as well. Elder Rawlings jokingly said we need to drive
with sister missionaries all of the time.

We had a training in Prishtina on Thursday. It went really well. They
had a good training, and some good commitments.

We have had some really good lessons this week. The man that works as
a barber is doing really well. He wasn't reading from the Book of
Mormon, and so we had a lesson on reading. He read 34 pages in between
teaching appointments. It was awesome! We were so excited, and so was
he. He had a lot of questions, and wanted to read part of it again
with us. He is doing very well. Hopefully he will get baptised here in
the near future. He is a good guy!

We had a man at church last week, and he is looking very promising. He
is always so happy. He is well knowledged in history. He works a lot,
and is hard to meet, but he is great, and he comes with questions.

The branch here is doing well. We had good attendance as far as
members go this week.

Sister Tooleys birthday was yesterday. We decorated her door and
brought her gifts and a cake. The sisters planned it all. Sister
Tooley was so surprised! She loved it. It was also Albanian Mothers
day. Elder Lesi skyped his family while we were at the Tooleys house.
Happy Albanian Mothers day Mom!

Last night we had a few lessons fall through consecutively so we went
out finding, and Elder Lesi felt like we should go meet a guy who we
hadn't met in a while. We caught him home, and it was just what he
needed. He has been divorced for 40 years. He has had a rough life,
and it was just what he needed. He was so happy to have visitors. Life
has just been really hard on him, and he is very aged. He is a great
guy though. It was awesome to see him. We taught the first principle
in the Restoration lesson. God is our loving heavenly father. He was
so happy, and he loved the prayers.

We are very excited for this week. We set some high goals, and we hope
to see a lot of great things continue to happen.

Have a good week! Take extra good care of Buddy! I am sure he will heal up!

Love Elder Stewart