Elder Parker Stewart in the Adriatic South: Many Small Miracles and one in Farsi

So P-day.. I remember standing on top of lone peak and someone
saying... the trail is right there. We can just go down right here and
catch the trail. It will be easy.

So there we were. We took the gondolla up to the base of Mount Dajti.
We climbed Mount Daijti.. and it was really fun. There were 8 of us,
and we had a great time. We then hiked back to the base. We had only
bought a one way ticket for the Gondolla, and couldn't find a bus to
take us back down. Being 8 cheap missionaries we didn't want to buy
another ticket for 5 dollars so we decided to follow the road down. We
realized the road was a really long ways to walk, and not wanting to
waste time we decided to hike down the side of the mountain. One of
the drivers on the road said it was a trail. We got ourselves in
pretty far and realized we didn't have much of a trail. It began to
rain, and we had to bushwack our way out. It was really fun. As far as
P-days go it was pretty far up there!

On Monday night we met with our new investigators Zamira and Marin.
Zamira is 48 and Marin is 15. They are great. They found us through
our English course. They are very open. She is Catholic. The lesson
with them went fantastic. She was asking great questions, and she told
great stories about the hand of the Lord in her life. Marin plays the
Cello and is a really nice kid. He is a little bit shy, but we get
alongh with him really well. The continuation of that story was on
Wednesday night. President Weidmann decided to join us for the evening
and so we went back over there. She had a lot of questions. She seemed
a little tense. I was a little tense too, just because I was trying to
make sure everything went well. We got going though. They are so great
to teach. I love teaching with Elder Szabo because we can work
together. The lesson went great. At the very end we let President bare
the last testimony. Save the heavy hitter for last. He testified. She
cried. Marin was in awe. It was awesome. If all men could be as
President Weidmann.. I am 100% sure the powers of hell would be shaken
forever!

We met with Bishop Zela on Tuesday for lunch. He is a super great guy.
All Bishops are great, but I have got along really well with the two
that I have been with here in Tirana. We had a really great talk with
him. He cares a lot about the ward. We are hoping to have some
baptisms coming up in the nearish future so he was helping us with
that. He has been a member for 13 years. His oldest daughter was just
sealed in the Temple. He is doing great. He said that he has had a lot
of opportunities to leave Albania, but he feels that Albania really
needs him. I agree.

Tuesday night was English Course. I really like the class we have. We
have been able to help a lot of them to learn English better, and have
been able to teach a few, and hand off some others to the sisters. One
lady from our class came to general conference with us. We gave her to
the sisters, and they are teaching here and got her to church. We also
had Ward Council on Tuesday night! We have a pretty functioning Ward
Council. I have been impressed. We are getting integrated with the
ward. After Ward Council we felt pretty directed to tract a pallat. We
found an older lady who is a member who has not received a visit in
quite some time. That showed me that the spirit truly directs us.

Wednesday and Thursday were good days. Friday was awesome because we
ran a ward FHE. The ward brought up a little while ago that we need
more activities to get people out so we set up a once a week
gathering. We only had 3 member come this week, but it is a start. It
went fantastic. We had songs, prayers, a lesson, a game, and treats.
The missionaries in 3rd Ward are really great to work with so they all
helped Elder Szabo and I set it up. Next week we hope to have more.
the goal is to get people to bring their friends.

On Saturday morning we went contacting. Elder Szabo and I had a
conversation.. and the result of the conversation was that whatever we
do we are going to do it absolutely fantastic. We are going to take
everything to the next level. So we started with contacting and took
two rollup signs out and set up a big display. We got a lot of
attention and ended up getting a lesson with an old dropped
investigator. He had investigated for 6 months, but fell away because
of social pressure. It is quite evident that he missed the spirit. Our
lesson with him went well.

Sunday was church. I really appreciated getting the sacrament as I had
not received it in 3 weeks due to conference and investigators getting
to church late. Zamira came to church as did Ali!

Sunday night we did a mission Prep Class. Elder Szabo and I are the
stake Mission Preparation teachers. We made it awesome. We had 4
members and 4 missionaries show up. Hopefully we will be able to get
more out in the future. We talked about teaching the Plan of
Salvation. We talked it over and did some roll-plays. Everyone loved
it! It will be good.

Story of the week goes to Dad! Elder Szabo and i have been meeting
with our Iranian investigator named Ali. It is really hard to teach
anything deeper than the surface because he doesn't understand English
or Albanian. Halfway through the week I had an idea. The mission
office had not been able to find anyone and we had no way of finding
someone to speak Farsi... but i figured Dad could. I got permission to
write him in the middle of the week. He got back to President
Weidmann, and we got set up with some Farsi speaking Elders in
Toronto. It was awesome. We arranged a Skype call for Sunday. It went
great. He was so excited and grateful. He really wants to get
baptised! We will see. We are going to skype those Elders again to
make sure that he understands everything. The ward really likes him.

Serving a mission is a great experience. Miracles happen daily. All of
the talks on Sunday were about the Sabbath Day. One man made a comment
that when he was on his mission the Sabbath Day was every day and how
much he loved it. I thought that over and realized how nice it really
is. I have seen a lot of peoples lives change because of the Gospel.
It is great to be teaching it daily. I work with amazing people!

I hope you are all doing well. Have a great week. Love you!

Take Buddy on walks!!

Love Elder Stewart