Never a Dull Moment!

Their Stake Choir - Small but growing!

Dear Family! I am so happy that the bear did not eat you!

This week has been a very intersting week as I have been serving with
two companions, not 1. Mini-transfers took place this week and as a
result everyone came into tirana. Elder Wright was supposed to head to
Germany that day to receive surgery for a hernia. There was a little
miscommunication it sounds like, and he was not able to leave. He
didn't have a flight. We spent the following days waiting for flight
plans, but they never came. Every night he went to bed thinking that
he might be leaving the next day, but I guess that just wasn't the
plan. He was great to have around though. It was very interesting
teaching with threee missionaries, but I liked it a lot. With three
missionaries it also makes it possible to get a lot done contacting,
and when we have to come in here to the office. As well, Settlers of
Catan is pretty hard to play with only 2 people so we had some pretty
intense games of it the few nights he was here. I forgot how much I
love board games.

This last week I also went on an exchange with our District Leader
Elder Verushi. He is from Durrës, and he is a very good missionary. We
had a good exchange. He is madly trying to learn English so that he
can continue his studies. English is a really big advantage. I tried
to help him with that. He is doing really well at it now. He is a
super solid teacher as well. It was fun teaching with him. We also had
some time to cook some stuff together. My cooking skills are a little
rough around the edges, but we had a pretty good time doing it. I was
kind of hoping he would know some Albanian Traditional stuff, but he
didn't Someone else will have to teach me.

We have been working really hard with our one investigator named
D. It was quite the series of events this week with him. He has
progressed a lot. He re-found his desire the other week when we taught
him about the two greatest commandments. We told him that if he put
God first everything would work out. His whole persona has changed. He
has a huge desire to be baptised. He was already down to smoking very
few cigarrettes. This week we used a member who had smoked a ton. He
said that one day he just said I am done, and he prayed a lot and
quit. D has a huge testimony of prayer so he did the same
thing. He says he has been feeling really good. We did D's
practice interview, and he passed with flying colours. He had his real
interview on Friday, and the interviewer failed him saying that he
wanted him to be longer and better repented of smoking. It was a very
tough thing on D. I was super confident in him. He has changed
a ton. He first met missionaries 7 years ago, and has never had the
desire to quit smoking. His desire is now huge, and the steps he has
made are incredible. I felt bad for him, but we supported the
interviewer, and are now working for baptism on September 5th. I think
he can do it. We are just praying for him a lot.

I smashed a can over my finger again at soccer. Everybody loved it. We
always have a spiritual thought, and it was our week. Usually no one
listens so we decided to do something awesome. I explained the lesson
and smashed it once, Everyone was so surprised and they all went
silent and were just looking at me. I quickly reexplained what I had
just said, and smashed the can again. It went really well.

We saw our investigator O again. We met him in the stairwell one
night. He has lived in Canada and in the States before. His Dad just
passed away. He is married with two young kids. He is a very spiritual
man. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. His wife sat in on the end.
O heard the restoration a few weeks ago, and he is very open. He
told us he will come to church. He will be busy for the next couple
of days, but we will go back there at the end of the week. We are very
excited for him!

I hope you all have a great week! Take care of Buddy!

Love Elder Stewart

The Prishtina Zone Leaders stayed at our house one night. Elder Keck,
me Elder Muncy, Elder Greener, Elder Wright.