Elder Parker Stewart in the Adriatic South: Moving Forward in Tirana

So I realize I wrote you on Tuesday, but I didn't include anything from
this week. I will take it right from the top.

Mondays are always busy for us, but this last Monday morning for our
excercise we met some other missionaries at a soccer place, and played
soccer. It was a blast. There were about 16 missionaries there, and
President came along as well. That was definitely one of the funner
P-days I have had in quite a while! There were some pretty good
players, and President showed us how they do it in Switzerland! It was
great! On Monday night FHE went well.

Tuesday there was a halfway training for trainers and trainees. We
went there and helped President Weidmann present the training. It went
great. We have a ton of great missionaries in our mission! Tuesday
night we had a lot of sucess. We were able to meet Sister Bjeshku and
teach her the 10 Commandments. She will be baptised because she has
her family backing her. She reads a lot, and has a lot of faith. she
is great! Also on Tuesday night we met the Cara family. Brother Cara
is our main investigator there, but he wasn't there on Tuesday night
so we met Soni [the member] and his Mom and brother. They all love the
lessons, and his mom has read a lot of the Book of Mormon. Her main
concern with baptism at the moment is that she won't be able to keep
her covenants after baptism. We are looking to overcome that concern
with her. Her other son is 11 and he is really cool. Brother Cara is
the greatest.

Wednasday was a crazy day. One of the best parts of the day was
helping a recently baptised family move their house. They are poor,
and their living situation was not great. They got kicked out of their
house, and we got to help them move into their new one. It was sure an
eyeopener. We moved them completely in under an hour and a half. They
moved about the distance that we did when we moved. It took one run
with a small truck and 2 with the Opel Corsa to move absolutely
everything they had. Elder Acheson and Elder Greener came with us to
help them. It went great. After the move we had a lesson with Edmond.
He is the Muslim investigator that is just a few years older than us.
Originally the plan was to drop him and explain why we could not meet,
but we couldn't do it. We both feel we haven't given him enough of a
chance. We want him to see the truth so bad. I explained to President
Weidmann last week in my letter just how hard it is for me to drop
investigators. I want them all to accept it, and I don't want to go
find others until I have finished the job. He set a good response back
this week.

Dear Elder Stewart
thank you for your testimony and for your Christ-like care. I am
wondering if Christ ever dropped someone, but He was dropped by many.
Just as a thought, I quote Mark 10:"21 Then Jesus beholding him LOVED
HIM, and said unto him, nne thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell
whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And
he was sad at that saying, and WENT AWAY (dropped Jesus) grieved: for
he had great possessions." The invitation to follow Christ should be
very powerful in order to help the investigators or less actives to
choose to follow Christ or not; but they have to know. And yes it is
all about His infinite, incomprehensible touchable love of His: 1 John
4:" And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God
is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in
him." Thank you for your efforts to fulfill your calling as
missionary. Thank you for your prayers and your work and for
faithfully invite others to come unto Christ. Thank you for sharing
your testimony often and for sharing your love for the Savior
frequently and thank you for acting accordingly.
Love President Weidmann

I thought that was quite the insight. Jesus was dropped many times.
Jesus always made the invitation very clear as to make it their
decision. E still wants to meet with us, and although his
progress is very limited right now he is feeling something. He is
always astounded as he learns more about our church. He is great! I
usually don't ask any questions in my letters to President Weidmann,
but when I do he always sends back a good response!

Thursday started with District Meeting. I have been blessed with great
Districts throughout my mission. For the record my District is our
ward Elders Acheson and Greener, Sisters Cheshire and White, us, and
Second Ward.. Elders Verushi and Guymon, and Sisters Zollinger and
Johansen. Following district meeting we went out to a wheelchair
thing. The church sent in a shipload of 600 wheelchairs to Albania,
and there was a conference thing right by Tirana. We went and
represented the missionaries. It is great to see the Humanitarian work
of the church as well. The church has a lot of very big projects.

Thursday night we had lots of lessons. We street contacted a lady on
the road and met her family. We also got to see the B family.
Sister B was not there so we had the opportunity to talk with
the rest of the family about what they have to do to get their family
ready to go to the temple. It went well. They have made that a goal as
a family.

We had a good weekend with lots of lessons. We had 7 new people show
interest this week, and begin investigating. It was great. We stopped
by the C's house on Saturday night. We hadn't seen Brother C. He
is great though. He has just been really busy. He works with the
police, and elections are coming up, and they have been working like
crazy!

We had a good Sunday. Brother C was busy. Brother S, our other
investigator, came to the church late and without his family because
they weren't in town. He was nervous to walk in so he went home. I
wish he would have called so we could have ran and grabbed him, but it
is alright! Sister B had a cousin die so she couldn't make it to
church, but her kids came. So our investigator turnout was
non-existent, but we had two less actives there, and the family that
we helped move came!

Last night President Weidmann had all of the Tirana and Durres
missionaries go to a devotional put on by a couple from America about
the Book of Mormon. It was all about how the Bof M and the Bible
support eachother, and some ancient evidence of the Book of Mormon. It
was really interesting!

One cool thing I read in personal study this week was Helaman 4. I
took from it.."the way to prosper" It is a great chapter!

Take good care of Buddy! I love you all!

Love, Elder Stewart