Family!
This has been a very good week. We were in Prishtina on Monday night
and Tuesday. We had a District Leader training up there for the three
District Leaders in the North, and then afterwards I got to go on an
exchange with the one and only Elder Rasband because he is the North
Zone Leader right now. The Training went very well, and the exchange
was excellent.
On tuesday morning I was able to get ahold of Arber (Editor's Note: Arber is the nephew of a family that lives near us. They have been trying for months to see if Elder Stewart could go meet him, but he has never been in the right place at the right time for that to happen. Finally, this week it did! Our family and their family were all thrilled. The family here was able to tell us much more about the visit from Arber's perspective too, which was so neat!) , and I got a
lesson set up with him. It was awesome. We drove out to his house, and
met him, his younger brother, and his Dad. They were all very nice.
We met him near his house, and he took us the rest of the way. We had
a great time talking with them. They were very personable, just really
great guys. I loved it. They let us explain why we were there. We
taught them about the restoration. They are Muslim, but had a lot of
respect. They took the Book of Mormon, and the pamphlet. They were so
hospitable. They then went on to feed us lunch. It was fantastic. It
is very rare for people to serve us lunch. They were just so great. We
left on very good terms. It was great to see them. I hope that Elder
Rasband, and Elder Temple can keep in contact with them. Following
that lesson with Arber we went to another lesson at the church, but
they didn't show up. Elder Rasband and I prayed, and he got ana answer
and said he had thought up a good pallat to tract out. We went over
there, and got 4 numbers for return appointments, and two lessons in
about 15 doors. The success rate was incredible. We also met a man
that I had talked to 5 months ago at a Prishtina bus stop. He is a
taxi driver, and he remembered me, and I remembered him. I think they
will get to meet with him as well. Elder Rasband was super inspired!
We left Tuesday night, and get back home safely.
We had another exchange on Wednesday night through Thursday. I went
with Elder Wright in our area. It was great to be with him. He has a
lot of energy, and we street contacted like crazy. He has served in
4th ward before so in the afternoon he showed me around to a bunch of
the members homes. It was a huge help. We had a really good time
together. I felt a little bit bad because our one Muslim investigator
went a little wild on him, and it went a little over the top, but he
took it all well.
Friday was filled with miracles. Up until Friday our week had been a
little bit crazy. We had a lot of work to do at the mission office in
the morning which left us with not a lot of time to work. We tracted
in the afternoon before our ward missionary correlation meeting, and
met a cool couple. They are quite old, but very nice! I love them. We
then had our missionary meeting with our rockstar ward mission leader
Brother Lezo. We then had a lesson that followed with two security
guys for the SanPaolo Bank here in Albania. They were wuper nice guys.
They were really great, and they loved our message. Unfortunately when
we came out of our lesson we were the only missionaries at the church,
and we were locked in the church. They were great sports about it
through. That is the second time in two weeks that we have been locked
inside of the church. The sisters came and rescued us. While we waited
for them the two men told us about their jobs. It sounded pretty
intense. they get to carry around some big guns. Turns out when we
contacted the one he had a concealed weapon on him. Kind of cool. We
have great investigators. The one came to church on Sunday, and they
are bot supposed to be bringing their families next week.
Saturday was a mini mission thing in Durrës. All of the prospective
missionaries here in Albania were there. We got to go on splits with
them, and drive them to appointments. Elder Bangerter and I went up
there with 6 sisters from Tirana, and we met the 6 Durrës Elders
there. Everything went great. I saw a ton of people from Elbasan and
Durrës. Klajdi was there, and so was Xhulio. I got to go out with both
of them. Elder Austin and I started teaching them, and they are both
super solid in the church now. Klajdi is the Branch Clerk, and they
are both preparing to go on missions. It was sweet!
Sunday was good. Edmond came to church. He is the Muslim guy that I
think is great. He stayed fpor all three hours. he is making great
progress. We met with Sister Bjeshku on Sunday night. Her mom is
dying, and it has been super hard to meet her all of this week. We had
a great lesson with her though. She truly desires to be baptised. Sh
said just give me a little more time, and then suggested the 15th of
May to get baptised. We set her for Saturday the 16th. It looks very
promising for her and her family.
Elder Bangerter is 20 today! We had a big celebration for his 20th
birthday. We did breakfast with some other Elders, and then went on a
Gondola, and a hike up in a mountain just outside of Tirana with some
other Elders and Sisters. It was great. He is an old man!! haha
Things are fantastic here. I love serving out here. I have been
reading through jesus the Christ, and it amazes me all of the things
Jesus did.
Take care of Buddy! I love you all!
Elder Stewart
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Albania? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Albania in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez