tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5346280958786839272024-03-05T17:15:47.843-08:00Elder Parker Stewart in the Adriatic SouthUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-11911950369035274092015-11-03T19:51:00.002-08:002015-11-03T19:53:55.543-08:00Go Hard...Before Going Home...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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This week has been fantastic. God really does qualify and help his servants.<br />
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We have been working with Myslym and Lumturia. They are an older<br />
couple, but they are so open. Many of the older generation are not as<br />
open due to communism, but Myslym and Lumturia are great. This week we<br />
taught them twice. The first time we taught them about following the<br />
prophet, and the second time we taught them about the Sabbath day and<br />
coming to church. Myslym is a goof ball because he doesn't like to<br />
keep commitments. Lumturia says he is like the kid in school that ever<br />
admits to studying but somehow magically aces the final exam. He soaks<br />
it all up. Lumturia usually tells us about their reading assignments<br />
and he fills in the details she misses. They both came to church.<br />
Myslym told us he wasn't going to because he had a meeting with some<br />
other people. I told him we go to church for God and we put him first.<br />
On his way out from church he leaned to me and said.."I came to church<br />
for God today." They have a great light. I love them both. They really<br />
enjoyed church. Their phone went off in the middle and some of the<br />
members glared and whispered things to them. I was scared they would<br />
get offended, but they laughed it off. They are great!<br />
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We were very worried about our other family. Zamira had been acting<br />
very tense on the phone, and we were worried that she was unhappy with<br />
us, or going to drop us, or something. We got an appointment set up<br />
with her and Marin, and met them. It turns out they just had some very<br />
hard finacial struggles throughout the week. Zamira looked like she<br />
hadn't slept as much. Marin was his usuall self, but he said he had<br />
missed a lot of things througout the week. His mom stays on track of<br />
his schedule just like you do for us mom, and she hadn't remembered so<br />
he missed a few classes and practices and such. We listened to her<br />
talk for quite a while. The amazing thing for me was that she didn't<br />
once curse God or swear or lose he composure, she just went on and on<br />
about how she had sheen God helping her through he trials throughout<br />
the week. I felt the spirit very strongly. In some of the toughest<br />
circumstanses of her life she praised and praised God even reading<br />
scriptures from the bible and Book of Mormon. We talked about the Holy<br />
Ghost, and the atonement. She believes very much that Jesus Christ is<br />
her Saviour. She showed us a cool note as well. Sister Fronk (a sister<br />
in 2009) had made her a cake and wrote her a birthday note 6 years<br />
ago. While reading through her Bible she found the note and thought of<br />
us. We didn't know before, but Zamira met missionaries for about a<br />
year about 6 years ago. She seems super prepared now. Now that Marin<br />
is grown up a little more I think she is very strongly looking into<br />
our church.<br />
<br class="" />
We met Ilir for the first time while walking quickly down the street.<br />
I felt to talk with him and said hi and tried to talk with him, but I<br />
missed him and he got a few meters passed me before he turned around.<br />
I looked back and saw him standing there so I went to talk with him.<br />
He is 28 years old. He just finished school to be a doctor. He is the<br />
oldest of four children. Boy boy girl girl. We had a great converstion<br />
on the road. He said he would like to learn more. We had our first<br />
meeting with him on Saturday night. It was fantastic, but he did not<br />
want to pray. He let me pray once, but it weirded him out. We didn't<br />
pray again. We had a good lesson for him and he committed to read and<br />
to come to church. He came to church on Sunday morning and said his<br />
family had gotten mad at him for meeting.. mostly just that jis<br />
grandparents were mad. They all live together and it had become the<br />
topic of conversation. We told him that we aren't here to force people<br />
to do anything. He said he didn't feel comfortable coming into<br />
sacrament, but that he wanted to meet us again. We set up an<br />
appointment for 4 oclock. We met him at the church and talked about<br />
his reading. We hadn't hit to much on the Book of Mormon so we were<br />
hitting it again. He had read 30 pages!!! and he remembered every word<br />
of it. We talked through it and answered his questions. We talked<br />
about Jesus Christ and about his role in the book and in our lives.<br />
W|e talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and the way he felt. At that<br />
point he made one of the most sincere comments I have heard. He said..<br />
"I have been thinking a lot about that prayer stuff, how do I do it?"<br />
We explained how and asked him if he would try. He said yes. I don't<br />
remember what he said.. all I remember is he was having a<br />
conversation. For about 15 seconds he talked with his father in<br />
heaven. After 28 years he made the connection. You could tell he felt<br />
it. I felt it a ton. Elder Szabo and I were blown away. The spirit was<br />
incredible. We left on cloud 9! I can't wait to meet him some more<br />
throughout this week.<br />
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Ali is doing great. He is in a rough spot. He doesn't really fit in<br />
here in Albania. He doesn't speak the language, and he is just a<br />
little different. He often feels like an outcast. We met the Toronto<br />
missionaries again. Ali is such a great guy. He came to the lesson<br />
with an empty pot. I asked him about it. He said.. there is a very<br />
poor lady that lives near by. I made here some pasta and gave it to<br />
her. Wow Ali. You have nothing, but you still give!<br />
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Other fun things that happened... we teach Seminary, we planned a<br />
pumpkin carving FHE, we planned a Zone Scavenger Hunt. Our motto is<br />
that if we are going to do something we are going to go it awesome,<br />
and we definitely did all of those things awesome. Elder Szabo is great<br />
and we are having a really fun time together.<br />
<br class="" />
Walk Buddy!<br />
<br class="" />
Love Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adriatic South Mission Conference October 2015. Elder Stewart is in the very centre.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-87176017102984887972015-10-27T21:58:00.002-07:002015-10-27T21:58:40.443-07:00Many Small Miracles and one in Farsi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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So P-day.. I remember standing on top of lone peak and someone<br class="" />saying... the trail is right there. We can just go down right here and<br class="" />catch the trail. It will be easy.<br class="" /><br class="" />So there we were. We took the gondolla up to the base of Mount Dajti.<br class="" />We climbed Mount Daijti.. and it was really fun. There were 8 of us,<br class="" />and we had a great time. We then hiked back to the base. We had only<br class="" />bought a one way ticket for the Gondolla, and couldn't find a bus to<br class="" />take us back down. Being 8 cheap missionaries we didn't want to buy<br class="" />another ticket for 5 dollars so we decided to follow the road down. We<br class="" />realized the road was a really long ways to walk, and not wanting to<br class="" />waste time we decided to hike down the side of the mountain. One of<br class="" />the drivers on the road said it was a trail. We got ourselves in<br class="" />pretty far and realized we didn't have much of a trail. It began to<br class="" />rain, and we had to bushwack our way out. It was really fun. As far as<br class="" />P-days go it was pretty far up there!<br class="" /><br class="" />On Monday night we met with our new investigators Zamira and Marin.<br class="" />Zamira is 48 and Marin is 15. They are great. They found us through<br class="" />our English course. They are very open. She is Catholic. The lesson<br class="" />with them went fantastic. She was asking great questions, and she told<br class="" />great stories about the hand of the Lord in her life. Marin plays the<br class="" />Cello and is a really nice kid. He is a little bit shy, but we get<br class="" />alongh with him really well. The continuation of that story was on<br class="" />Wednesday night. President Weidmann decided to join us for the evening<br class="" />and so we went back over there. She had a lot of questions. She seemed<br class="" />a little tense. I was a little tense too, just because I was trying to<br class="" />make sure everything went well. We got going though. They are so great<br class="" />to teach. I love teaching with Elder Szabo because we can work<br class="" />together. The lesson went great. At the very end we let President bare<br class="" />the last testimony. Save the heavy hitter for last. He testified. She<br class="" />cried. Marin was in awe. It was awesome. If all men could be as<br class="" />President Weidmann.. I am 100% sure the powers of hell would be shaken<br class="" />forever!<br class="" /><br class="" />We met with Bishop Zela on Tuesday for lunch. He is a super great guy.<br class="" />All Bishops are great, but I have got along really well with the two<br class="" />that I have been with here in Tirana. We had a really great talk with<br class="" />him. He cares a lot about the ward. We are hoping to have some<br class="" />baptisms coming up in the nearish future so he was helping us with<br class="" />that. He has been a member for 13 years. His oldest daughter was just<br class="" />sealed in the Temple. He is doing great. He said that he has had a lot<br class="" />of opportunities to leave Albania, but he feels that Albania really<br class="" />needs him. I agree.<br class="" /><br class="" />Tuesday night was English Course. I really like the class we have. We<br class="" />have been able to help a lot of them to learn English better, and have<br class="" />been able to teach a few, and hand off some others to the sisters. One<br class="" />lady from our class came to general conference with us. We gave her to<br class="" />the sisters, and they are teaching here and got her to church. We also<br class="" />had Ward Council on Tuesday night! We have a pretty functioning Ward<br class="" />Council. I have been impressed. We are getting integrated with the<br class="" />ward. After Ward Council we felt pretty directed to tract a pallat. We<br class="" />found an older lady who is a member who has not received a visit in<br class="" />quite some time. That showed me that the spirit truly directs us.<br class="" /><br class="" />Wednesday and Thursday were good days. Friday was awesome because we<br class="" />ran a ward FHE. The ward brought up a little while ago that we need<br class="" />more activities to get people out so we set up a once a week<br class="" />gathering. We only had 3 member come this week, but it is a start. It<br class="" />went fantastic. We had songs, prayers, a lesson, a game, and treats.<br class="" />The missionaries in 3rd Ward are really great to work with so they all<br class="" />helped Elder Szabo and I set it up. Next week we hope to have more.<br class="" />the goal is to get people to bring their friends.<br class="" /><br class="" />On Saturday morning we went contacting. Elder Szabo and I had a<br class="" />conversation.. and the result of the conversation was that whatever we<br class="" />do we are going to do it absolutely fantastic. We are going to take<br class="" />everything to the next level. So we started with contacting and took<br class="" />two rollup signs out and set up a big display. We got a lot of<br class="" />attention and ended up getting a lesson with an old dropped<br class="" />investigator. He had investigated for 6 months, but fell away because<br class="" />of social pressure. It is quite evident that he missed the spirit. Our<br class="" />lesson with him went well.<br class="" /><br class="" />Sunday was church. I really appreciated getting the sacrament as I had<br class="" />not received it in 3 weeks due to conference and investigators getting<br class="" />to church late. Zamira came to church as did Ali!<br class="" /><br class="" />Sunday night we did a mission Prep Class. Elder Szabo and I are the<br class="" />stake Mission Preparation teachers. We made it awesome. We had 4<br class="" />members and 4 missionaries show up. Hopefully we will be able to get<br class="" />more out in the future. We talked about teaching the Plan of<br class="" />Salvation. We talked it over and did some roll-plays. Everyone loved<br class="" />it! It will be good.<br class="" /><br class="" />Story of the week goes to Dad! Elder Szabo and i have been meeting<br class="" />with our Iranian investigator named Ali. It is really hard to teach<br class="" />anything deeper than the surface because he doesn't understand English<br class="" />or Albanian. Halfway through the week I had an idea. The mission<br class="" />office had not been able to find anyone and we had no way of finding<br class="" />someone to speak Farsi... but i figured Dad could. I got permission to<br class="" />write him in the middle of the week. He got back to President<br class="" />Weidmann, and we got set up with some Farsi speaking Elders in<br class="" />Toronto. It was awesome. We arranged a Skype call for Sunday. It went<br class="" />great. He was so excited and grateful. He really wants to get<br class="" />baptised! We will see. We are going to skype those Elders again to<br class="" />make sure that he understands everything. The ward really likes him.<br class="" /><br class="" />Serving a mission is a great experience. Miracles happen daily. All of<br class="" />the talks on Sunday were about the Sabbath Day. One man made a comment<br class="" />that when he was on his mission the Sabbath Day was every day and how<br class="" />much he loved it. I thought that over and realized how nice it really<br class="" />is. I have seen a lot of peoples lives change because of the Gospel.<br class="" />It is great to be teaching it daily. I work with amazing people!<br class="" /><br class="" />I hope you are all doing well. Have a great week. Love you!<br class="" /><br class="" />Take Buddy on walks!!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mt Daijti Adventure</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Trail"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This sort of looks like a trail...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Szabo and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart, Elder Gray and Elder Roemer</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finally at the bottom of the mountain!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ali on his skype call with the Farsi missionaries in Toronto.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVRNwOXI9jsFLN-MDJuwYZOBSw8wJwBve9I9RYPAqsO3E2j-5HMzeFSkjipmBoKSR3InSm0Z8X3FA2xJoB96YbzM-OHeDN1LDKScGAiSz8b6Rsc1BszOfwFSq8TuHq8zi3Ujd5P4N9ObY/s1600/PA260429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVRNwOXI9jsFLN-MDJuwYZOBSw8wJwBve9I9RYPAqsO3E2j-5HMzeFSkjipmBoKSR3InSm0Z8X3FA2xJoB96YbzM-OHeDN1LDKScGAiSz8b6Rsc1BszOfwFSq8TuHq8zi3Ujd5P4N9ObY/s320/PA260429.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early morning at the church for his work out.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-22740620645889975862015-10-27T21:48:00.001-07:002015-10-27T21:48:42.257-07:00Recognizing Miracles<br />
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Dear Family,<br class="" /><br class="" />There have been many miracle throughout the week. Everything came<br class="" />together on Sunday when we were able to have 3 investigators in<br class="" />Sacrament meeting.<br class="" /><br class="" />We have been working a lot with Ali. He is from Iran, and he has<br class="" />learned pretty much all that we can teach him as far as Preach my<br class="" />Gospel lessons go. He is a very spiritual man. We always have great<br class="" />lessons with him. He is reading from his Persian Book of Mormon. He is<br class="" />set to be baptised on the 31st, but we really need a Persian Speaker<br class="" />to answer the questions we can't and to go through the baptismal<br class="" />interview with him. We are currently trying to communicate with an<br class="" />email address that Elder Whit gave us. We sent the email last Friday,<br class="" />but have not received a response yet.<br class="" /><br class="" />There is a couple named Myslym and Lumturia. Lumturia came to church.<br class="" />Myslym mas in Berat. They are not religious, but very open. Lumturia<br class="" />loved church.<br class="" /><br class="" />Our other investigator in church was a boy named Eraldo. He<br class="" />disappeared and we couldn't get ahold of him, but on Saturday night<br class="" />God helped us get ahold of him and he came to church. He is a very<br class="" />busy guy, but he has some very serious questions and concerns about<br class="" />God. he seems sincere.<br class="" /><br class="" />Throughout the week God has been putting people in our path to talk<br class="" />with and meet with. Elder Szabo continues to impress me. He is a good<br class="" />worker, and a great missionary to be around.<br class="" /><br class="" />We have been trying to develope a good relationship with the bishop.<br class="" />We are going to his house tomorrow at lunch to talk with him.<br class="" /><br class="" />We had 3 general Authorities come here this week. Elder Hamula, Elder<br class="" />Dyches, Elder Nelson. Elder Hamula is in the First Quorum. They gave a<br class="" />firside and did great.<br class="" /><br class="" />P-day was more of an adventure than we bargained for this week.<br class="" />Details to come... next week :) Some good pics though this week.<br class="" /><br class="" />Love you all. Take Buddy on walks!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder Stewart</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-18526554828867652602015-10-16T11:14:00.000-07:002015-10-16T11:14:17.206-07:00France 2016 and Opposition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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3rd Ward has proven to be a little bit difficult up until right now.<br class="" />We are working with everything we have, and so are the other Elders,<br class="" />but we haven't been able to generate a whole lot yet. We are stilll<br class="" />going and praying a lot though.<br class="" /><br class="" />We have a really cool investigator named Ali. He is from Iran. The 2nd<br class="" />Ward Elders have been teaching him for about 2 months, but hew moved<br class="" />into our area. It is a blast teaching him. He speaks a little<br class="" />Albanian, a little English, and Persian. Our lessons with him include<br class="" />the scriptures, Google translate on his phone, and a lot of actions<br class="" />and arm movements. He is learning really well though. He loves Jesus<br class="" />Christ. He has a very long history and has a strong testimony of the<br class="" />atonement and forgiveness. He is scheduled to be baptised at the end<br class="" />of this month. It is very exciting for him. He is trying to give up<br class="" />smoking right now. He has a lot of will power. He is pretty<br class="" />determined.<br class="" /><br class="" />We are back at English Course. Elder Szabo loves teaching English so I<br class="" />am happy to let him. It means he teaches and I get to interact a lot<br class="" />more with the students. We have some pretty cool people in our class<br class="" />right now. One family is very Evangelical so they knew all about<br class="" />prophets. The oldest one came to a session of General Conference.<br class="" />There is a mom and her little son that always come. She seems really<br class="" />lonely, and we have a fun time with them at English. Hopefully the<br class="" />sisters will start teaching them pretty soon. My favourite kid sits on<br class="" />the front row. I think he is 16, but he is pretty funny. He respects<br class="" />what we do.<br class="" /><br class="" />A good scripture that I read this week is Alma 13: 28 and 29. I liked<br class="" />that it talks about humbling ourselves and calling upon God. If we<br class="" />humble ourselves we get a lot of other Christ-like attributes. It<br class="" />really stuck out for me this week. I think I already mentioned it, but<br class="" />a couple weeks ago I read Alma 18:35 and i really stuck out to me and<br class="" />we have been using it a lot lately. It talks about having the Spirit<br class="" />and what the Spirit does. It gives us knowledge and power according to<br class="" />our desires and our faith. So if we have the Spirit and have desire<br class="" />and faith to do something God will give us the power and the knowledge<br class="" />to do it. It has a lot of different applications.<br class="" /><br class="" />Our super awesome investigator Ilir kind of dropped us this week. He<br class="" />really just stood us up and we couldn't get ahold of him. We have come<br class="" />to realize that he had alterior motives for meeting with us. He wanted<br class="" />a job and thought we were getting paid so he wanted to get baptized,<br class="" />become a missionary, make money and then use the missionary thing to<br class="" />start working in a new country and start a new life. It is to bad.<br class="" />Hopefully he eventually realizes the truthfullness and reality of our<br class="" />message, but I guess time will tell. He really was in a tough<br class="" />situation without work. If he can see past the physical for just a<br class="" />second I am sure it would all work out for him. The church has a<br class="" />really cool program for single adults here called the "Pathway<br class="" />Program". They can get a degree through BYU Idaho, and it can really<br class="" />help them finding work here.<br class="" /><br class="" />We have a new awesome guy though. His name is Ernaldo. We met him<br class="" />street contacting in the road. He asks all the right questions. He<br class="" />came to the Saturday morning session of General Conference, and we had<br class="" />a lesson with him after it. We had two members in our lesson. The one<br class="" />is a RM of about a month, and the other has been baptised for about 3<br class="" />months. They were both around his age. The lesson was super great.<br class="" />Awesome questions, and powerful testimonies. We set up the appointment<br class="" />for Sunday at 12. He wasn't going to be able to come to the session,<br class="" />but to meet at 12. He didn't show up, didn't answer my text, and<br class="" />turned his phone off twice. We were super sad. Last night I called the<br class="" />phone again. His mom had it. She needed it for the whole day, and we<br class="" />had disturbed her at work. Apparently Ernaldo was really busy. We are<br class="" />hoping for him. We will give him a call tonight and see if we can work<br class="" />something out. As far as first lessons he has big potential. He seems<br class="" />like an honest seeker. I think it will be great when missionaries in<br class="" />Albania can use facebook because they will be able to keep better hold<br class="" />of investigators. Everyone here has facebook.<br class="" /><br class="" />Conference was really good. I really liked President Monsons talk. He<br class="" />looked really sick, but his talk was very powerful. Elder Bednar did a<br class="" />great job of explaining why the Lord calls older men to lead our<br class="" />church. I liked the talks of the 3 new apostles. Elder Stevenson is<br class="" />really young. He seems to have a fire about him. Elder Renlund appears<br class="" />to be very wise, and a powerful leader. I loved the things he was<br class="" />saying about seeing others through their parents eyes. That is pretty<br class="" />hard sometimes. It is a really good way to think about it though. I am<br class="" />sure there area lot of people in heaven praying for their sons and<br class="" />daughters here to accept the Gospel.<br class="" /><br class="" />We tract a lot. We are praying for a family. We have seen a lot of<br class="" />resistance this week. The people have been very un-accepting this<br class="" />week. It has been pretty weird actually. We have been very diligent<br class="" />though and have been going out and tracting a lot. The worst one was<br class="" />last Monday night. Looking back on it it is pretty funny, but in the<br class="" />moment we were really confused. We knocked once and no one answered.<br class="" />We could here people in the distance so we knocked again. This time<br class="" />they came to the door. The door flew open and instantly I got punched<br class="" />in the chest and then kicked in the side of the leg. The guy then jab<br class="" />kicked Elder Szabo in what seemed to be an attempt to kick him down<br class="" />the stairs. He started swearing at us like crazy. We hopped down the<br class="" />stairs, and just walked home. It was almost 9 so we had to be home<br class="" />pretty soon anyways. The miracle of that story was the next day we<br class="" />went back to finish the building. We tract from top to bottom so he<br class="" />came up the stairs and we were at a door in the corner. He kind of had<br class="" />his head down and didn't even see us. I know that the two of us could<br class="" />have taken him if he would have come at us again, but the Lord<br class="" />definitely saved us some conflict.<br class="" /><br class="" />Last night we went to a house on the US Embassy Compound. We ate<br class="" />dinner with the Roberts family. They fed us really well. They arrived<br class="" />a few months ago and will be here for 3 years. His job takes him all<br class="" />around the world. They seemed like a really great family. It was weird<br class="" />hearing kids speak English. He said he served his mission is Taiwan so<br class="" />I asked if he knew an Elder Hill. Turns out Elder Scott Hill was a<br class="" />mission legend. He hit the field about a year after Scott so they were<br class="" />there for a year together, but had never served near one another.<br class="" />Small world. I thought that was pretty cool. We shared the smashing<br class="" />can lesson with them and they loved it.<br class="" /><br class="" />The big news for the Albanian country this week is that we beat<br class="" />Armenia and have qualified for France 2016.. the Euro Cup. To my<br class="" />knowledge Albania has not been in it before, at least not in recent<br class="" />history. Everyone is so excited. I am sure if you jumped online you<br class="" />could see highlights from the game downtown Tirana is packed today.<br class="" />There are people everywhere. There is a big celebration and concert<br class="" />tonight that everyone is planning on going to. When the won last night<br class="" />Tirana got pretty loud. We had lost to Serbia on Thursday so it looked<br class="" />like we might not make it. Everyone was a little worried because<br class="" />Armenia is a pretty good team. I guess that Albania played pretty hard<br class="" />though.<br class="" /><br class="" />We are giving it absolutely everything we got out here. Elder Szabo is<br class="" />fantastic. We get along great. He is big into trying to cook so we<br class="" />have been trying different things out in the kitchen. He seems to know<br class="" />what he is doing. He cooks good chicken. He is also big into working<br class="" />out... all body weight stuff. Today we took our pullup bars to the<br class="" />church because they don't fit on our house door frames, and tried it<br class="" />out for a little while. It is fun working with him though. We have<br class="" />been working with 2 less actives in their 20s, and it has been a great<br class="" />time teaching them with Elder Szabo. It is really funny because the<br class="" />one less active in particular is playing tough to get. He just likes<br class="" />the attention so we have a good time getting him. Our lessons with him<br class="" />are super spiritual. Elder Szabo is a solid teacher because he always<br class="" />teaches in unity like it says in Preach My Gospel. I say something and<br class="" />testify, and he always follows it with a testimony, new principle, a<br class="" />question or two to check for understanding, and he always end with a<br class="" />testimony so I know when to come back in and keep the process going.<br class="" />He is reliable and I really like that.<br class="" /><br class="" />Hope everything is going well! Love you lots! Take Buddy on lots of walks!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder P. Stewart</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Szabo and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post soccer celebration</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post soccer celebration</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Post Soccer celebration. </td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-24705112106711251812015-10-16T10:53:00.000-07:002015-10-16T10:53:00.312-07:00Third Ward and His District Goes Home...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Third Ward is a great place. I am really enjoying it. Tirana is a<br class="" />fantastic city to serve in. I have loved all my areas, but I am happy<br class="" />to get so much time here in Tirana.<br class="" /><br class="" />Monday night was my last meeting with President Weidmann and Elder<br class="" />Greener. I am so happy for the chance that I had to get to know<br class="" />President and Sister Weidmann. They have taught me a lot. They are<br class="" />both very remarkable people. It has been so great to see the interest<br class="" />that President Weidmann takes in each of the individual missionaries,<br class="" />and in his calling as a mission President. He knows why he is here,<br class="" />and relys on the Lord to help him lead the mission.<br class="" /><br class="" />We had our Family Home Evening right after that. Like usual it was the<br class="" />Whites, the Otons, the Weidmanns, and ourselves. For the lesson we<br class="" />watched Elder Scotts Funeral service. It was very reamrkable. My<br class="" />favourite parts were Elder Hollands prayer and the testimonies on the<br class="" />end of each of the talks. I really loved Elder Scotts sons talk as<br class="" />well Mom! When Elder Holland prayed though it seemed like he was<br class="" />giving a report directly to his dad. I hope you all had a chance to<br class="" />see it. I didn't see the other two funerals, but I would imagine they<br class="" />were great as well.<br class="" /><br class="" />Tuesday was moving day. It was really weird because Elders Baldwin,<br class="" />Holm, and Eliason were all leaving. They took off and all got home.<br class="" />There was a President Ford mission reunion in Utah on Friday so I<br class="" />think Elder Holm went to that.<br class="" /><br class="" />I got into Tirana 3rd. Elder Szabo is super solid. We are having a<br class="" />good time together. On Wednesday we started our English course. It is<br class="" />fun to be back teaching English. We are teaching beginner. It seems<br class="" />like we have some pretty cool students. We will see who stays around.<br class="" />Usually it fluctuates a little bit for the first few classes, and then<br class="" />we are left with our class. We had ward council that night. It was the<br class="" />best functioning meeting that I have seen on my mission. It was great!<br class="" /><br class="" />Thursday was a good day because we met our first investigator. We were<br class="" />out street contacting, and he was sitting on his bike watching me talk<br class="" />to people. I talked with him, and he seems very promising. We had a<br class="" />great first lesson with him. He is looking for a little bit more in<br class="" />his life. He has a ton of faith. He was baptised in a church 8 months<br class="" />ago, and has been going there every once and a while. We explained the<br class="" />Restoration and he really liked it. That evening we went and Elder<br class="" />Szabo interviewed 2 girls that the sisters are teaching for baptism.<br class="" />They both have been going to church for quite some time. They both<br class="" />passed and were so excited for their baptisms. On Thursday night we<br class="" />were also able to visit the Juba family. They are super awesome. We<br class="" />hit it off great. The dad and 3 of the kids were home. The dad seems<br class="" />like a funny guy. He lived in America for a couple of years, but not<br class="" />the kids. The boys are like 16 and 10, and the girl is around 13. We<br class="" />did that smash the can on your finger lesson. They loved it. We also<br class="" />used a pretty solid analogy with Messi. They thought it was pretty<br class="" />funny. We committed them to read Alma 7. At church I asked them all<br class="" />about it. The two older ones did, but the other one hadn't I got on<br class="" />his case and told him to read it. He thought it was funny and said he<br class="" />would.<br class="" /><br class="" />Friday was amazing because we were able to meet with a lot of people.<br class="" />We met again with Ilir. He wants to be baptised in our church and we<br class="" />set October 24th as his baptismal date. Wouldn't that be cool to have<br class="" />a baptism on your birthday Mom? We also met a really cool less-active<br class="" />named Julian. He has been to the temple, and is a very nice guy!<br class="" />Tracting in the evening we got into two doors. The first one was a<br class="" />grizzley bear. 3 foot shoulder width 6'6 pushing 300 pounds biggest<br class="" />man I have seen in my entire life. He was super nice though. He wasn't<br class="" />super intersted in what we had to say, but he was nice to talk to and<br class="" />very respectful/ He works in the army here in Albania. He was married<br class="" />with 2 small kids. The second man we met with was married with a small<br class="" />kid, and he was very nice a well. He was very respectful. He took the<br class="" />book of Mormon and said he would read. We tried to get a return<br class="" />appointment but he said that he will read some of it and we can talk<br class="" />again in two weeks. He was very smart. He studied at Oxford.<br class="" /><br class="" />Friday was a tougher day of finding. We didn't have a lot of immediate<br class="" />sucess. One really cool thing that happened though is that we got a<br class="" />lesson with the Vogli family. Their son Roi just barely got back from<br class="" />his mission. His mom was baptised in 2001 by Elder Ryan Peterson. They<br class="" />were showing us pictures, and I was like.. I know him. They want<br class="" />contact with him again very badly. Apparently they kept in touch with<br class="" />his companion but lost touch with him. Can you send me his email? They<br class="" />want to email him. Small world.<br class="" /><br class="" />Saturday and Sunday were both great days. Third Ward seems strong.<br class="" /><br class="" />A funny thing that happened this week is we lost water. We are 4<br class="" />Elders in one house, and we lost water. We cooked lunch one day and<br class="" />made a ton of dishes. As we went to wash them we realized we had no<br class="" />water. We spent about 2 days with it coming and going. It was funny.<br class="" /><br class="" />Take care of Buddy and have a great week. <br class="" />Love you! Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shehu Family</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and Elder Greener at FHE with Elder and Sister Weidmann and the office couples.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and Elder Baldwin - His MTC comp.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and Elder Holm</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Eliason and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-32047851238819484342015-10-04T21:56:00.002-07:002015-10-04T21:58:47.199-07:00A Grave Service and a 20th Birthday!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This week we finished up the transfers. We had a few more meetings and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">everything worked out. I will be going to the Tirana 3rd ward. Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Greener will stay here in our area. I will be working with Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Szabo. I am very excited. I have heard a lot of really great things</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">about 3rd ward. Tirana is split up into four like a pie. I am in the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">part of Tirana directly opposite of where I am right now. I think I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">will really like it. We have a great district. Elder Szabo is the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">District leader, but Elders Gray, Sadiku, Fowles, Befus, Lesi, and a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">trainee will also be in our district. We also have Sisters Bennet and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Cenollari.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We had an eventful last two days. We played soccer on Saturday</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">morning. We tried to get all of those kids to come to soccer with us,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">but we got there just after 7am and they were all still asleep or off</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">doing chores and couldn't come. Soccer here is really fun though. The</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">kids are defietly better than little kids in Canada. Saturday was our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">busy day that we spent for the most part at the office. For lunch we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">went to the Lezos. i haven't been fed by members many times while</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">being out here, but we went to their house and made a super good soup</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">with them. We had a really great time talking with them. They are</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">certainly one of my favourite families here in 4th Ward. We played uno</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">with their son and looked at old photos of Brother Lezo. He had some</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">pretty crazy hair back in the day. Saturday night was fantastic. Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Greener and I have been working a lot with the Tafili family and the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Shehu family. We talked with Bishop, and organized their baptisms.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Arindi Tafili and Redion Shehu got baptized. The baptisms went well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">An RM baptised Redi and Brother Tafili baptised his son. He was pretty</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">nervous, and I thought he may have given his kid whiplash by how fast</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">he threw him under, but Arindi survived. Their testimonies were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">awesome. Redi gave a good testimony. "I am grateful to be baptised. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">love you all. Amen." Arindis was slightly longer. "I felt so good when</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I was baptised, but i will be even better when I get the Holy Ghost.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Amen." I guess we need to work on ending testimonies in the name of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Jesus Christ. The ward turnout was great. Redis dad is the one that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was never confirmed that Elder Bangerter and I were working with last</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">transfer. He is not super interested in learning about the church, but</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">he did come to the baptism. It was his first time inside of the church</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">in quite a while. We had a pretty good talk while he was there. He</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">liked the service.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The news of Sunday was that Sister Xhani passed away. She is a less</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">active that we were working with. She was right around 50. She wasn't</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">very old, but she had cancer. She is the one that we visited a couple</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">of times in the hospital. She sang us the song "A Childs Prayer." I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was super sad to hear that she passed away. It came to both Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Greener and I as a shock. It was very unfortunate timing. It kind of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">felt that we didn't have a lot of things resolved. We were at there</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">house the other day, but only her daughter was home. I called Xhesi</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">(her daughter) on Sunday morning, and talked with her for a couple of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">minutes. She was crying so hard. I felt bad for her. She is just one</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">or two years older than us. We got directions to the burial service.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elder Greener and I left just after church. I don't know what</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">happened. It was really sad, but none of the members went. Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Verushi and Elder Baldwin came with us and helped us get there. It was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">good to have Elder Verushi because we didn't know what an Albanian</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">service was like. We got to the graveyard, and beat the others that we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">were coming. What I saw when I got there was horrifying. I had</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">nightmares last night about the whole thing. I have been to graveside</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">services before in Canada, but this was nothing like it. We saw one</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">happen before Sister Xhanis, and it was just like Sister Xhanis.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The parade all came in and parked right by the sight. Everyone jumped</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">out of the vehicles. Everyone with the exception of Sister Xhanis two</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">daughters looked completely disinterested. Xhesi and her Sister were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">crying so hard, and no one would stand by them or help them. They</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">stood there all alone just crying. We didn't know what to do. If we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">weren't missionaries we probably would have went and stood by them or</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">did comething, but no one did anything. 6 guys went to the back of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">car and just kind of pulled the casket out of the back. No one was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">dressed up. The casket was rocking back and forth. There were two</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">grave diggers at the grave. The casket got carried over and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">place/dropped 6 feet down. As the casket was getting carried there was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">a family of beggers that were walking through the crowd asking for</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">money. It was so sad. Here there were these two girls 21 and 25</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">burying their mother and they were getting asked for 20 cents. There</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">were so many things wrong with that. I felt bad for the begging family</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and the Xhani family. I din't feel as bad for the other people because</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">they were all talking about food, futbol, the weather, and every other</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">thing that had nothing to do with anything. They were smoking</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">cigarrtetes and making a lot of noise. I was not impressed. I really</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">liked Motra Xhani. Xhesi called us forward at that point and we got to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">dedicate the grave. I felt the spirit super strongly because we were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">standing in front of Muslims, and Orthodox, and Catholic, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">dedicated the grave with the Melchizedek Priesthood in the name of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Jesus Christ. I walked away from the grave really quietly.That was the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">only point I heard silence. That was the only point where it seemed to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">me that the crowd may have respect for the dead. The grave diggers</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">then continued. They grabbed their shovels and started throwing on</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">dirt. They said if anyone wants they can come throw on dirt. The two</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">daughters rushed forward sobbing. Some people threw on flowers, but it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">all got buryed. The beggars continued. On the side of the grave there</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was a plastic garbage bag. They put that in the grave to. We had a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">little bit of time to talk with the grave diggers before the funeral</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">so we already knew what it was. Sister Xhanis 7 year old son was hit</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">by a car quite a few years ago. She was getting buryed in his grave,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and that was him.. in the bag. I couldn't believe it. Everything</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">finally got buried. The girls cried. Her brother came forward and said</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">there will be food at a such and such restaurant. He stood in a line</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">with all other relatives and one by one we all walked by and gave</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">condolences. We got in the car, and I think we were all in a little</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">bit of shock of what we had just seen. I have thought about it all and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">it is still hard to grasp. Hopefully Elder Greener and Elder Opper can</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">see their family sometime this week.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We got a great new investigator yesterday. A lot of RMs are getting</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">back. The missionary force from Albania is really increasing. One of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">them brought a friend to church and they stayed for three hours in 2nd</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Ward last week. As is turns out he is living in 4th Ward and so he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">brought him to us to teach. The boy is 17 and super prepared. I would</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">say he is the most prepared investigator that I have ever taught. It</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">sounds like he will probably be baptised in October. Member missionary</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">work is great. It is by far the best way to grow the church.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Last night we had the opportunity to give a blessing to one of our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">investigators dads. It was a cool experience. He is 85 and it looks</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">like he is on his last couple of days. Miranda and Mateu are the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">investigators and they were so happy that we gave the blessing.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">My birthday was great this week. Thank you so much for the package</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">mom! Thank you for the birthday wishes. I really appreciate it! We had</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">a really good day. We were in meetings in the morning with President</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Weidmann, and we had a lunch with the district. It was great. Sister</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Weidmann made me her home-made bread! Elder Baldwin gave me a tie and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">a razor. Sisters Zollinger and White made cupcakes. Elder Temple made</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">some really good food. Elder Greener soaked me with silly string in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the morning right when I woke up. It was a really good day!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Have a great week! Take Buddy on walks!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love Elder Stewart</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfZKaQWy_UFckZLZkSWMjeeOEnSI8fQkueoCYhPVzUYrHjEkJ7AnQU7_T20yd6UPAba_Cm1Fi-iIpGbDf-mtSgsiQF_6ZDukYlh4H0gNKP2tw5SpML-h-ticJG9xK8BC4PWRfbSoz2Nks3/s1600/P9240271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfZKaQWy_UFckZLZkSWMjeeOEnSI8fQkueoCYhPVzUYrHjEkJ7AnQU7_T20yd6UPAba_Cm1Fi-iIpGbDf-mtSgsiQF_6ZDukYlh4H0gNKP2tw5SpML-h-ticJG9xK8BC4PWRfbSoz2Nks3/s320/P9240271.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silly string courtesy of Elder Greener for the 20th birthday!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0Ln6T8x5-fETsbeCUUWoyFBq4J8lc6LtcK02vfnKSd8Yaajp4TDiBMq9jLOH3ruLi0xqncsUZRp84zbAdaJhqmB6CDYyvk1yJRQyjYQXAB_GGtTZqjDAe50pV7dQqQFJr2Igi4K8dG5s/s1600/P9250274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0Ln6T8x5-fETsbeCUUWoyFBq4J8lc6LtcK02vfnKSd8Yaajp4TDiBMq9jLOH3ruLi0xqncsUZRp84zbAdaJhqmB6CDYyvk1yJRQyjYQXAB_GGtTZqjDAe50pV7dQqQFJr2Igi4K8dG5s/s320/P9250274.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pres and Sis Weidmann and Elder Stewart with homemade birthday bread and chocolate.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDGLv2kBrF1OreOszwqcASBohUo33jPUDrsShi6WkHmm3YX9588bRKb-190x20JyPPkrvX6hznBCJXhIkMBzNmJq8osdKyUcy4FR10cLp3fdzjSN1ONL6RlrLuZGfKWMc5lhyphenhyphenJP858Tc_h/s1600/P9250275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDGLv2kBrF1OreOszwqcASBohUo33jPUDrsShi6WkHmm3YX9588bRKb-190x20JyPPkrvX6hznBCJXhIkMBzNmJq8osdKyUcy4FR10cLp3fdzjSN1ONL6RlrLuZGfKWMc5lhyphenhyphenJP858Tc_h/s320/P9250275.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birthday lunch as a district! :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyiwjmvtXB6nzrlEvoA7ffD4GwBmORxi-dcRiXqb_5aj-qJiv0Ufaf5O6QRNhkGDlZHn2uyfGo-TmJu2zQ1-lnqhkcerKx7PyaPA9Rs_c72ZjxevQNHdqH6vX3ITphwfPPbwo3SHbgfBzq/s1600/P9260277.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyiwjmvtXB6nzrlEvoA7ffD4GwBmORxi-dcRiXqb_5aj-qJiv0Ufaf5O6QRNhkGDlZHn2uyfGo-TmJu2zQ1-lnqhkcerKx7PyaPA9Rs_c72ZjxevQNHdqH6vX3ITphwfPPbwo3SHbgfBzq/s320/P9260277.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch with the Lezo family</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQbQZwt4b0Jd9iRvhe73i6sstUZ0iK6Ft8K6gETltbYO5Rbde57hFy4CJ-M5kjUw-IBQ1958Mr3SEg3lKgMiQfR6lYdYdXx1WKRA3Yehp4Zii9hJoGDIecgGpsKi7SRrGMyPnbh3A9Xq3/s1600/P9260281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQbQZwt4b0Jd9iRvhe73i6sstUZ0iK6Ft8K6gETltbYO5Rbde57hFy4CJ-M5kjUw-IBQ1958Mr3SEg3lKgMiQfR6lYdYdXx1WKRA3Yehp4Zii9hJoGDIecgGpsKi7SRrGMyPnbh3A9Xq3/s320/P9260281.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks delicious!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyY5sdTWOc6mQ0oTfz9N0i5yf7kIw-aTdjGSEvRPo9R-_38RlCmjzpFAVDheqXxBgCFmkNmIOZSlL7WWhsdZNi1_E9zL7Q8-iLAotGXuceicc8Paj3_dlv6nIHuxtnl94Su_zg97w5osaB/s1600/P9260285.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyY5sdTWOc6mQ0oTfz9N0i5yf7kIw-aTdjGSEvRPo9R-_38RlCmjzpFAVDheqXxBgCFmkNmIOZSlL7WWhsdZNi1_E9zL7Q8-iLAotGXuceicc8Paj3_dlv6nIHuxtnl94Su_zg97w5osaB/s320/P9260285.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lezo family</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RBb4iTh_XNBEI2wM9tRmFUSzM9u2dJIX0aLMc0rB1yXDugtJXAMN7lWJaniZgnxEM4bzM8hsXVKdtTWZfiq8ZE7qPtMb97pBRQ4Prs_bFahzyE5lZPgJe5Z9Kd6As_apQdPP2Zh279LH/s1600/P9260289.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RBb4iTh_XNBEI2wM9tRmFUSzM9u2dJIX0aLMc0rB1yXDugtJXAMN7lWJaniZgnxEM4bzM8hsXVKdtTWZfiq8ZE7qPtMb97pBRQ4Prs_bFahzyE5lZPgJe5Z9Kd6As_apQdPP2Zh279LH/s320/P9260289.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Redi Sheu, Sister Shehu, Elder Greener and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVLUcGlQwusvMyhL0GmUJ5rDJoTcZByfji3fr0j8lFVS7j3SMv0EovvVTM1MCExm2tm52KGBYMw5VMiB8ogmYMY8reU1f6faAB3jHB0A9TKzvrJ4ikcYWScJFTJyrFfIlnXN1-oBIZJZi/s1600/P9260293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVLUcGlQwusvMyhL0GmUJ5rDJoTcZByfji3fr0j8lFVS7j3SMv0EovvVTM1MCExm2tm52KGBYMw5VMiB8ogmYMY8reU1f6faAB3jHB0A9TKzvrJ4ikcYWScJFTJyrFfIlnXN1-oBIZJZi/s320/P9260293.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arindi Tafili and his family</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPw_zEnd4s0yftZg9iESCcpdC2vZadKKyYRVbA29mrzrfhimTMHPu-hfGjzDR5W1Eg_7IOqFicqw33HJ2pcUvzkQ0_nw8QhyphenhyphenRtt9DkIvB7NDPkf1V79hyphenhyphennUVsHVoWYEZ5niiQ-iz0cE-uy/s1600/P9270308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPw_zEnd4s0yftZg9iESCcpdC2vZadKKyYRVbA29mrzrfhimTMHPu-hfGjzDR5W1Eg_7IOqFicqw33HJ2pcUvzkQ0_nw8QhyphenhyphenRtt9DkIvB7NDPkf1V79hyphenhyphennUVsHVoWYEZ5niiQ-iz0cE-uy/s320/P9270308.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Albion. One of the boys who loves to play soccer.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9C7uGXDRQ-HR03HluePXqw6mdAlCLTMmKzFlNhmS3-jyKLH5RWN7geSTQT6U-dtfUDfGiOB1sJEFL_9FoOBQVEy0mJlRIO-Xy_vlD1u93a-We40a14jZHJ0VsTqBwKOvOHToRxjK8hpk/s1600/P9270311.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9C7uGXDRQ-HR03HluePXqw6mdAlCLTMmKzFlNhmS3-jyKLH5RWN7geSTQT6U-dtfUDfGiOB1sJEFL_9FoOBQVEy0mJlRIO-Xy_vlD1u93a-We40a14jZHJ0VsTqBwKOvOHToRxjK8hpk/s320/P9270311.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miranda and Mateu with Elder Stewart.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-75581610028808857292015-09-22T07:35:00.000-07:002015-09-22T07:35:04.456-07:00Stake Conference <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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I went on an exchange in the first ward this week. I was with Elder<br class="" />Anderson for a day. They have a new center for meeting with people so<br class="" />we did a lot of contacting people and trying to take them directly to<br class="" />the meeting center for a lesson. It has been a very sucessful way of<br class="" />finding in their area, and I really enjoyed it. We were able to meet 3<br class="" />new people that way. I quit enjoy street contacting. We meet all kinds<br class="" />of different people that way. There are certainly a lot more effective<br class="" />ways to work though... through the members.<br class="" /><br class="" />We also had an exchange with Shkoder this week. Elder Greener and I<br class="" />both went up to Shkoder. It is a beautiful city. It has a lot of<br class="" />history. The branch in Shkoder is very small even though it has been<br class="" />open for quite a few years. The members that they have though are very<br class="" />solid. We did a lot of contacting up there as well. Shkoder has a lot<br class="" />of Catholic people so we were able to talk a lot more about the Book<br class="" />of Mormon and the uniquness of our church. Albania is very interesting<br class="" />in the fact that there are many Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox, and<br class="" />Atheists. There is a very wide spread so we end up talking about many<br class="" />different points of the gospel depending on their interests. We had a<br class="" />good time with the missionaries up in Shkoder. They are hard workers.<br class="" /><br class="" />We met a new man in Germany this week over Skype. He is super solid.<br class="" />His wife speaks english so she was found/taught/baptised in the last<br class="" />few months. Her husband has been going to church. His German and<br class="" />English are still coming along so we will teach him over skype. He is<br class="" />awesome though. He accepted baptism for moms birthday. He already<br class="" />knows quite a lot so I have no doubt he will be baptised. They have a<br class="" />little daughter so it will be great to have them all baptised<br class="" /><br class="" />Transfer meetings continued this week. We are getting ready for the<br class="" />transfer calls that take place this weekend. Due to the size of our<br class="" />mission President Weidmann is actually able to make all of the calls.<br class="" />We follow up his phone calls with another phone call that includes<br class="" />travel plans and times. The transfer is all coming together.<br class="" /><br class="" />I have had the opportunity to give and to participate in giving a few<br class="" />blessings this week. It is always a great experience. I got one last<br class="" />week and it helped me a ton when I was sick.<br class="" /><br class="" />We met 2 new investigators this last week. Remember all of those boys<br class="" />that we brought to soccer a few months ago? Well we went out to go<br class="" />check on that area and see how it was. We found a lot of them. Albion<br class="" />( the little one) took us to his house. He lives in a very small<br class="" />shack. We met his father. He is a very nice guy. Albion is a great<br class="" />kid. Being out in those parts I thought of Alma 32. Poor people sure<br class="" />are humble. They didn't necessarily accept our message, but they are<br class="" />sure open to learn it. I hope that is goes well. All of those kids out<br class="" />there could benefit from it a ton because otherwise they often turn to<br class="" />drugs and alcohol. Many of them have been to a local church by their<br class="" />house. We told them that we would pick them up and take them to soccer<br class="" />again this week so we will be headed out there early Saturday morning.<br class="" />We will also be going there throughout this week to meet with this boy<br class="" />and his father.<br class="" /><br class="" />Mateu and Miranda are coming along. Mirandas father is 86 and dying.<br class="" />She is so sad, but Mateu has a ton of faith. They asked us for help,<br class="" />and we were able to give both of them blessings this week. They are<br class="" />making progress. Mateu appears a little slow, but he is fantastic at<br class="" />math. We challenged him to read the Albanian Book of Mormon in 2<br class="" />months. He agreed because he likes challenges. He worked it out to 11<br class="" />pages a day. Hopefully he will be on page 33 when we see him tomorrow<br class="" />night.<br class="" /><br class="" />Dashamir is holding on strong. He was interviewed for the Aaronic<br class="" />Priesthood and he passed so he will get it this next Sunday. Martin<br class="" />(the one who baptised him) was sustained in Stake Conference, and he<br class="" />just received the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday. He was very<br class="" />excited. He will be serving a mini-mission starting next Tuesday. He<br class="" />is preparing for a full time mission.<br class="" /><br class="" />2 boys that we work with will be getting baptised on Saturday. Arindi<br class="" />Tafili and Redi Shehu. They are both 8, and we see there families on a<br class="" />regular basis. The ward is excited. I am sure they will get a very<br class="" />good turnout. The Sisters have an investigator that is doing really<br class="" />well. She will be baptised next week.<br class="" /><br class="" />Take good care of Buddy and take him on lots of walks. I love you all!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder Stewart</div>
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Stake Conference. This is Klajdi </div>
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Stake Conference with Brother Metushi</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Congress Building where Stake Conference was held. Elder Greener and Elder Stewart were assigned to book this building just weeks before Conference. It was a miracle that they were able to and Conference was a success.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elders at Stake Conference</td></tr>
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Betim, Valmira, Egzona (Prishtina)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Shkumbin Olloni (Gjakova)</div>
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District lunch - Elder Greener, Sister Alushaj, Sister White, Sister Zollinger, Elder<br class="" />Baldwin, Elder Temple, Dunn, Elder Eddings, Elder Verushi</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-80685446807714058812015-09-21T14:27:00.001-07:002015-09-21T14:27:24.461-07:00Finally...a Baptism!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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On tuesday we had a small minitransfer. Elder Prince and Elder<br class="" />Gierisch from Macedonia went home so we had to do a little<br class="" />rearranging. On transfer days Elder Greener and I are the ones that<br class="" />coordinate the transfer. Elder and Sister White usually have a lot of<br class="" />business to take care of, and President always has interviews with<br class="" />missionaries as they are passing through. Elder Greener and I<br class="" />coordinate the times of the transfer, where it takes place, and who<br class="" />comes in to it. Knowing that the transfer would be happening Elder and<br class="" />Sister Smith booked a choir practice. There is a missionary choir that<br class="" />consists mainly of Tirana missionaries with just a few extra ones. Our<br class="" />main song is a special edition of Praise to the Man. For the most part<br class="" />it is written in 4 parts, but at a few places it splits into 8. It<br class="" />sounds really good now. Elder Bangerter is a really good singer so he<br class="" />came up from Berat to the practice. It was cool to see him again. Our<br class="" />performance is on Saturday night. We are putting on a song night. It<br class="" />consists of the missionary choir, our stake choir (which we are also a<br class="" />part of), and there is an opera singer from Durrës. He is amazing.<br class="" /><br class="" />We had a really interesting meeting with President on Tuesday in the<br class="" />middle of the day. It is always quite the experience sitting down with<br class="" />President Weidmann. The purpose of the meeting was to plan the<br class="" />Missionary leadership meeting, but we ended up talking a lot about a<br class="" />lot of different things. He always shows us cool things in the<br class="" />scriptures. One of the things I like that he showed us in one of our<br class="" />last meetings had to do with Enos. He asked me.. Elder Stewart, what<br class="" />kind of a man was Enos? I said he was a wicked man who wanted to<br class="" />repent. He explained that Enos actually wasn't a wicked man. He was<br class="" />just Jacobs' son, and he felt unqualified for the task at hand. He was<br class="" />pleading God for his enabling power. President went on to say.. how do<br class="" />you think you would feel if you were called as a prophet right after a<br class="" />fantastic prophet passed away. I answered that I would feel<br class="" />unqualified. I really like the way President analyzes the scriptures.<br class="" />I could tell he had spent a lot of time thinking about Enos, and<br class="" />applying it to his life and the lives of others. He does that kind of<br class="" />thing all of the time. Every time I am around President or Sister<br class="" />Weidmann I can tell how much they care about each of the missionaries.<br class="" />President has said a lot of times that the most terrible thing for him<br class="" />would be to see any of the missionaries from our mission go inactive.<br class="" />It sounds pretty cliche, but when he says it I can tell how much he<br class="" />means it.<br class="" /><br class="" />Tuesday night was the farewell dinner for Elders Prince and Gierisch.<br class="" />Whenever missionaries leave Sister Weidmann puts on a dinner for them.<br class="" />We go to it as well as Elder and Sister White. I love Elder Prince and<br class="" />Geirisch. I got to know them when we were part of the same zone for 6<br class="" />months when I was in Kosovo. I have been on exchanges with both of<br class="" />them. One of my favourite moments with Elder Geirisch was in Macedonia<br class="" />while contacting. An American man came up to us, and he was being<br class="" />really rude. We just stood there and kind of took it. He was saying<br class="" />all kinds of stuff against us. Eventually he said.. You believe that<br class="" />Jesus is Satans brother. Elder Geirisch said.. We believe that he is<br class="" />your brother as well. Elder Geirisch just stood there and smiled. It<br class="" />was pretty witty. Elder Prince and Elder Geirisch built a lot of<br class="" />Macedonia from the ground so they both had very interesting missions.<br class="" />At the dinner we ate tacos, and had a good time talking about<br class="" />different experiences we have had. We then had the opportunity to do a<br class="" />testimony meeting. I love the farewell testimony meetings because the<br class="" />Spirit is always very strong. It went great. We took some pictures<br class="" />right afterwards, and then went home to sleep.<br class="" /><br class="" />We woke up at 2 to take them to the airport. We got to the airport and<br class="" />everything was going smoothly. We checked their bags and sent them<br class="" />through the scanner. They then called us back over and we had to walk<br class="" />back behind the ropes and open the bags one at a time. Two other<br class="" />security guards came back to us, as well as two police officers. They<br class="" />informed us that we had very illegal things. As it turns out it was a<br class="" />few pairs of brass knuckes and night sticks that they were taking<br class="" />home. It all got confiscated, and they got a police escort through<br class="" />security. I thought it was pretty funny. They were freaking out.<br class="" /><br class="" />Wednesday was MLC. All of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders<br class="" />came in. MLC usually goes from about 10-1. Our training was on the<br class="" />Higher Law. We talked about missionary activities, and how we can take<br class="" />them up to the next level. It went very smoothly. We did a little bit<br class="" />of role-play and a little bit of brainstorming. President did<br class="" />fantastic. I don't think I have ever seen him cry, but he choked up a<br class="" />few times while talking about the importance of this work, and giving<br class="" />it our all. He definitely has an increased understanding of the<br class="" />importance of this work. He cares a lot about it!<br class="" /><br class="" />We met Dashamir on Wednesday. Brother Sula helped us. We reviewed<br class="" />baptism, and what it means. Brother Sula did a great job testifying.<br class="" />Dashamir has been on cloud 9 all week. Following that lesson we met<br class="" />with some other investigators that we have named Mateu and Miranda. It<br class="" />is a mother and son.<br class="" /><br class="" />On Friday we went to Korca with President and Sister Weidmann. There<br class="" />is a man named Sotiri that they work with a lot. He has connections<br class="" />all around the country, and he helps us find opportunities for<br class="" />humanitarian service here Albania. We had a pretty big group. The<br class="" />Weidmanns had their son and his wife, and Elder and Sister Orton the<br class="" />humanitarian couple came along. The drive to Korca is beautiful. Elder<br class="" />Greener and I were just there for translating. We went out for lunch<br class="" />when we first got there, and then we went to an orphanage for kids<br class="" />0-6. They are doing a few renovations and need some sponsors. I feel<br class="" />bad for the kids that have to live there. I realize how fortunate I am<br class="" />when I go to places like that. It is a real eye opener. We also went<br class="" />to a facility for the mentally handicapped. It was a very sad center<br class="" />to see. Most of them had been completely abandoned from their<br class="" />families. They needed washing machines because theres were broken, and<br class="" />all clothes were being washed by had. I think the church will for sure<br class="" />help with that one. korca is a very special city. It still is not open<br class="" />to missionary work however. We did teach a lesson while we were there.<br class="" />It was an internet referral for a man that met with missionaries in<br class="" />Greece. He was a great man with a huge testimony of God and his hand<br class="" />in our lives. When the church opens in Korca I would not be surprised<br class="" />if he is one of the first members. We had a lot of testimonies given<br class="" />because of the size of our group. The Spirit was strong!<br class="" /><br class="" />Dashamir. It happened. Saturday was amazing. At 3:30 on Saturday<br class="" />afternoon Dashamir arrived to the church for his baptismal service! I<br class="" />was so happy. We told him that he needed to pick a member and he had<br class="" />picked Martin. Martin is a recent convert from January, and Dashamir<br class="" />and he get along well. Martin had known since Wednesday that he was<br class="" />baptising Dashamir, and he was so excited. We had a lesson with the<br class="" />two of them before the service.<br class="" /><br class="" />The service went great. There were a lot of small miracles that<br class="" />happend. On Saturday morning Sister Shehu (one of my favourite<br class="" />members) was ticked off at a few members and missionaries. It happens<br class="" />every once and a while. Elder Greener and I tried to talk her down,<br class="" />but she said there was no way she was coming to the baptism. We tried<br class="" />to convince her to come, but she said no. She said she was<br class="" />undervalues, and she left. We told her we wanted her to say the<br class="" />opening prayer, but she said she was not coming. It has happened<br class="" />before, but Elder Greener and I had a feeling she would come to the<br class="" />baptism anyways. We wrote her down for the opening prayer and printed<br class="" />all of the programs. Right before the baptism started she walked into<br class="" />the room. She still wasn't smiling, but then she saw the program. I<br class="" />don't think she stopped smiling for the rest of the night! The second<br class="" />miracle was the speakers. Our first speaker was our 2nd hour<br class="" />investigator teacher. The second speaker was Brother Sula. Brother<br class="" />Sula pretty much walked in the door right as his turn to talk came up.<br class="" />He just walked from the back to the front, and nailed it. I was<br class="" />getting scared we has going to miss it. The third miracle was the<br class="" />witnesses. We were able to get more priesthood out by telling two of<br class="" />them that we needed them to come to the baptism to be the witnesses.<br class="" />Neither of them had ties, but I had one and another member had another<br class="" />so that they could stand as witnesses. The looked so happy to do it!<br class="" />They had to redo the baptism twice. The first mess-up was that Martin<br class="" />forgot to say AMEN. The second time Dashamirs elbow didn't go under.<br class="" />It went well though. He and Martin both did great.<br class="" /><br class="" />Dashamirs testimony was very powerful. He has a very strong testimony<br class="" />of Gods love, and of the power of prayer. He got to the pulpit and<br class="" />said he was so happy and grateful, and would be ungrateful if he<br class="" />didn't pray. So he prayed for us all, and then he gave his testimony.<br class="" />At the start right before he said the prayer I think everyone was<br class="" />really confused, but as he prayed the Spirit came, and no one even<br class="" />thought to question it. I don't know how that works as far as being<br class="" />allowed goes, but I thought it was amazing. It was a mission<br class="" />highlight!<br class="" /><br class="" />Dashamir was confirmed yesterday. Bishop gave him a beautiful<br class="" />blessing. We set up lessons at both his house and Martins house for<br class="" />Sunday night. Dashamir lives a ways out of town so it took quite a<br class="" />while to get to his house. We finally found it. He was so excited to<br class="" />present us to all of his friends from around his neighbourhood. He<br class="" />then took us to his house. We sat at a table out front of his house,<br class="" />and were just talking. His mom then came out and talked to us. She is<br class="" />a very practicing muslim, and was a little bit hostile toewards us.<br class="" />She made a lot of really mean comments, and made fun of Dashamir for<br class="" />listening to us. She went on for a couple of minutes. Finally Dashamir<br class="" />stopped her with his testimony. She kept on going and making mean<br class="" />comments as we talked, but I was super impressed that Dashamir very<br class="" />politely stood up for what he believed. He sure respects his mom, and<br class="" />hopes that one day she will come around. Dashamirs wife is also<br class="" />muslim. She wouldn't even talk to us. She brought us a thing to drink,<br class="" />and then left. I felt really bad for Dashamir. I saw how strong he<br class="" />really is though.<br class="" /><br class="" />The lesson with Martin went really well. He is very firm in the faith.<br class="" />It is pretty hard here for YSA because the people all around them are<br class="" />so not into religious things. Martin said he doesn't have many friends<br class="" />for now so he stays in his house and studies and reads the Book of<br class="" />Mormon and Bible. He is a really cool guy to so I was sad to hear<br class="" />that. HE plans on serving a mission when he completes his year as a<br class="" />member of the church so that will be very exciting for him!<br class="" /><br class="" />It is really great to be able to serve! We have been extremely busy<br class="" />lately. I feel really bad about how bad I have been at writing<br class="" />everyone. Meaning how I have hardly even writtena big letter these<br class="" />last few weeks. I haven't really had a p-day in a while. Elder Greener<br class="" />and I broke down and decided just to write today because we haven't. I<br class="" />miss you all a lot! Thanks for all of your letters and prayers! I love<br class="" />reading your letters. Lately I have been printing them off and reading<br class="" />them on Monday night.<br class="" />Good luck in school Sara, Hannah, and all cousins! Keep tearing it up<br class="" />in Thompson Matt!<br class="" /><br class="" />Take Buddy on lots of walks!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder P. Stewart</div>
</blockquote>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnlvYGw_2R6r_6DiEL2-uaRyOtvFilQF7B_0ux6RWgP7mbWM5gvfy8T4fOzuTycsDHs_-q5pd-q0cKHxBU1Sb17OV-ORKmtJ9xO17ZuniFSET7K-N_m8M8QwAqVp5JmQAzAP6qnViINM2/s1600/P8260176.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnlvYGw_2R6r_6DiEL2-uaRyOtvFilQF7B_0ux6RWgP7mbWM5gvfy8T4fOzuTycsDHs_-q5pd-q0cKHxBU1Sb17OV-ORKmtJ9xO17ZuniFSET7K-N_m8M8QwAqVp5JmQAzAP6qnViINM2/s320/P8260176.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elders Wright, Greener and Stewart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsH7QUr5dTm54vAefYJkWeSf1DqxFJStjWCal1GvP1qFxZZHAjcVAG0Jmip5iTY4Fg4jMXvzmvfo_BDc_PECgDDzkKn3-AyIrYyLV0YOIh9dWv6fnYJnPslKvDm4WsBKHubC7AtZv7AiO9/s1600/P8260183.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsH7QUr5dTm54vAefYJkWeSf1DqxFJStjWCal1GvP1qFxZZHAjcVAG0Jmip5iTY4Fg4jMXvzmvfo_BDc_PECgDDzkKn3-AyIrYyLV0YOIh9dWv6fnYJnPslKvDm4WsBKHubC7AtZv7AiO9/s320/P8260183.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Rasband and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56_uqOlOIcMfELuUm8GRVLkyXhYEb1dWiucX64NTwZt2TF-6YCAztGGpSnbfgUgfK0MEx7cHCopVj7qxxsLZoFdRLcJOCvNlU2LvedQvoZQiyTFedM9y_MqyrT04LxiHCUgE4VaK-y_qA/s1600/P8260191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi56_uqOlOIcMfELuUm8GRVLkyXhYEb1dWiucX64NTwZt2TF-6YCAztGGpSnbfgUgfK0MEx7cHCopVj7qxxsLZoFdRLcJOCvNlU2LvedQvoZQiyTFedM9y_MqyrT04LxiHCUgE4VaK-y_qA/s320/P8260191.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and Elder Griffiths</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm9ftoD9lFl5osPKk0SgKqVRr4AZwATu5V6frv2YYIzFh9Nw4otqyd21pEiZt4T_dK_uwtpGEZATMG27w2kbeFv3L9HjZJYcUnJnoQOqhKu_7S-E0tIJiPEbazpNQcVbOoL5MJnNgtityQ/s1600/P8270192.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm9ftoD9lFl5osPKk0SgKqVRr4AZwATu5V6frv2YYIzFh9Nw4otqyd21pEiZt4T_dK_uwtpGEZATMG27w2kbeFv3L9HjZJYcUnJnoQOqhKu_7S-E0tIJiPEbazpNQcVbOoL5MJnNgtityQ/s320/P8270192.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note The Book of Mormon on the top shelf beside the Vodka in a restaurant. :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDLCcdksAXsf7prCJdF7NW_6zyoDNPJn6E0qof2hJsFK_uPRUnX0tkB0N4G6eCNnavy-YPkIjux2ruE3gMvjeG1biY_xi7rTDzyaiaXDXOWQl_WcOYBxNSX6G8CeMhsadtXtCFifqSl95/s1600/P8270196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDLCcdksAXsf7prCJdF7NW_6zyoDNPJn6E0qof2hJsFK_uPRUnX0tkB0N4G6eCNnavy-YPkIjux2ruE3gMvjeG1biY_xi7rTDzyaiaXDXOWQl_WcOYBxNSX6G8CeMhsadtXtCFifqSl95/s320/P8270196.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Clemans and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzFCOTaP-t6anuFpWln4-nxKIfhxntRXOzAl_CshqxwUszDbST8u1kV1gv4jD_5rNk-G-Yccw808l8IRwSVBFD4j4PkDLjSvZy0aqkdEHL4p7v7DXXeYrTsBqaZDVe_2-Gr3l-Je1FIPg/s1600/P8280199.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzFCOTaP-t6anuFpWln4-nxKIfhxntRXOzAl_CshqxwUszDbST8u1kV1gv4jD_5rNk-G-Yccw808l8IRwSVBFD4j4PkDLjSvZy0aqkdEHL4p7v7DXXeYrTsBqaZDVe_2-Gr3l-Je1FIPg/s320/P8280199.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Waters and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweWSnaq1wDolisUWFrtHuIJvYbEsr375UoIJ5t4Ow9OePXVGpfBk3w2QZKVfdZBFVJ7RN0T7xkfb9A_ezUklBZqVAp1Oo9qCdt_panIDDY1J-Fq3sNjzy84qYCjy54IVATq7hGOaHFlb2/s1600/P8290203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweWSnaq1wDolisUWFrtHuIJvYbEsr375UoIJ5t4Ow9OePXVGpfBk3w2QZKVfdZBFVJ7RN0T7xkfb9A_ezUklBZqVAp1Oo9qCdt_panIDDY1J-Fq3sNjzy84qYCjy54IVATq7hGOaHFlb2/s320/P8290203.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and Elder Dahl</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF6II5u3f-50sIxY_uYn8vW6Ow7sgLO54c9ZWyFA_aWb5pVzLuHbymccWGnzwD6rQxgCvyCQIjXDXk7_ySSX_-0cidSIUQgGlbim-lum_u2PaNY-H5OeqprxlvKXx1Ho04ip4sRxo5U-cJ/s1600/P8290207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF6II5u3f-50sIxY_uYn8vW6Ow7sgLO54c9ZWyFA_aWb5pVzLuHbymccWGnzwD6rQxgCvyCQIjXDXk7_ySSX_-0cidSIUQgGlbim-lum_u2PaNY-H5OeqprxlvKXx1Ho04ip4sRxo5U-cJ/s320/P8290207.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt Koci and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGUvL7EuEEb5VCEIrLs5xKmJFPXfCxlJjgL1EjM_2EXjd3zHW9S8O8SVZZAP_YD5jtxHWaU0osVBnd_RGr3tLx97lQtr7LFSDIvpOUv5C09ZNd7mBWOP70JNt5sxQAplVWxoB-twB31cJ/s1600/P9010209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGUvL7EuEEb5VCEIrLs5xKmJFPXfCxlJjgL1EjM_2EXjd3zHW9S8O8SVZZAP_YD5jtxHWaU0osVBnd_RGr3tLx97lQtr7LFSDIvpOUv5C09ZNd7mBWOP70JNt5sxQAplVWxoB-twB31cJ/s320/P9010209.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sis Weidmann, Elder Stewart, Pres Weidmann</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RntTSEGRlOQENs3DjV4Nvdya8ECfDvzkKqSLsRv3zCz7RQcmc9HoxdTcAQeWzbxqatjvdnZMx893xu0rpR_3xKBH0s36lDGTl8A4tUhRK1L52QIlu3rzWddDNq18zWghl-x6qoRGCEeX/s1600/P9010213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RntTSEGRlOQENs3DjV4Nvdya8ECfDvzkKqSLsRv3zCz7RQcmc9HoxdTcAQeWzbxqatjvdnZMx893xu0rpR_3xKBH0s36lDGTl8A4tUhRK1L52QIlu3rzWddDNq18zWghl-x6qoRGCEeX/s320/P9010213.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and Elder Prince</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkU0y0b76YjwF0XbUq8zT92LPnGgq2dDYwOhwwwUv6dctv3hcfHozWXHNKOWXDuTBKxnNQi0cNmvGzOIhpLeBrLXqAtfQVuLpZG85WP3_VbjUgt6VKjuv1_JJaeFriX4FbEuRxRU-N1u4/s1600/P9010215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkU0y0b76YjwF0XbUq8zT92LPnGgq2dDYwOhwwwUv6dctv3hcfHozWXHNKOWXDuTBKxnNQi0cNmvGzOIhpLeBrLXqAtfQVuLpZG85WP3_VbjUgt6VKjuv1_JJaeFriX4FbEuRxRU-N1u4/s320/P9010215.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Geirisch and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtIsA_f5UTvd7CQcuFKQdYe4sR6051RSIsBU0ntNM05tAvrDWW8lfkzqoT0-BDf-mT90V318U91Y7itvZ8W-74pWeagz5S4QGVrJfirrIanpr7J3Ayuy7RGwZF8vOb3m3lCqahHnMa2pnA/s1600/P9040217.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtIsA_f5UTvd7CQcuFKQdYe4sR6051RSIsBU0ntNM05tAvrDWW8lfkzqoT0-BDf-mT90V318U91Y7itvZ8W-74pWeagz5S4QGVrJfirrIanpr7J3Ayuy7RGwZF8vOb3m3lCqahHnMa2pnA/s320/P9040217.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A man in Korca</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSroQT4ioDkJ2_BS3kyqOJlH5qycyhkQYJzqJk5B9DmsuTqFfD1f2vgk3u-1yvGeE3QEKXkpRbawX2wZrtThyphenhyphenCLf-6KM_wkQyI5tYQt1AFMuYZqgbd9mLmmwPViTQeFFTQ8g73P_JWQb4R/s1600/P9040218.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSroQT4ioDkJ2_BS3kyqOJlH5qycyhkQYJzqJk5B9DmsuTqFfD1f2vgk3u-1yvGeE3QEKXkpRbawX2wZrtThyphenhyphenCLf-6KM_wkQyI5tYQt1AFMuYZqgbd9mLmmwPViTQeFFTQ8g73P_JWQb4R/s320/P9040218.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A stadium in Korca</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GRjmKKGOzG7m4J0T3n5X-MZ9vW5eMpyLFhRV5_32ABff0UyeI5jd45bmcZ8_TQKmxXppc8GEUFkDhfWxC5sjJbQZD3OHMxO-YQSdmtyGtNKPO99nk-kTos3bnTCT3lm14LdlBn1sPMZA/s1600/P9040219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GRjmKKGOzG7m4J0T3n5X-MZ9vW5eMpyLFhRV5_32ABff0UyeI5jd45bmcZ8_TQKmxXppc8GEUFkDhfWxC5sjJbQZD3OHMxO-YQSdmtyGtNKPO99nk-kTos3bnTCT3lm14LdlBn1sPMZA/s320/P9040219.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Korca</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0wGbbzD8aEjh-ZAyjzAxPMXqhyj5hUaE7OiRb0wdJDIC9J9MfUFkoQx7hX-vYi9Xy7o_x2BV3pnenn7y9NOnJOmuP5RBsyfruIFV7AbKhNEnutKDn9XkCef3deHkZ8RSvl3FRUng755B/s1600/P9040224.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0wGbbzD8aEjh-ZAyjzAxPMXqhyj5hUaE7OiRb0wdJDIC9J9MfUFkoQx7hX-vYi9Xy7o_x2BV3pnenn7y9NOnJOmuP5RBsyfruIFV7AbKhNEnutKDn9XkCef3deHkZ8RSvl3FRUng755B/s320/P9040224.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Korca</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl9b1Tcw6XCvixcGA4Cqe-uU_Qtma04e-_FDtNrZFmA8Hsscob1oJT7HbwD5nqbPJ_kDjXZnhDwX0fJA-LTIW8b2eKIG8wjR1cLz_G6KutFqJjH5hP8Fi-Q_V0-yT6Gpfh6SzXF5w8_HW7/s1600/P9040227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl9b1Tcw6XCvixcGA4Cqe-uU_Qtma04e-_FDtNrZFmA8Hsscob1oJT7HbwD5nqbPJ_kDjXZnhDwX0fJA-LTIW8b2eKIG8wjR1cLz_G6KutFqJjH5hP8Fi-Q_V0-yT6Gpfh6SzXF5w8_HW7/s320/P9040227.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A man they met in Korca who was very friendly.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlckQVVRgIgje3qWu7OIq9foVO5hKt_ECj7qnZ5iycZAlj_Q1BuAph2AHRUtuMiR-X2xRSl3ZGVOztCU47UkKiUlxCiU7uhp6FJVYbtZACybuJmGkjSqaC51085xccym2vWHYwY7KgdFaf/s1600/P9050229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlckQVVRgIgje3qWu7OIq9foVO5hKt_ECj7qnZ5iycZAlj_Q1BuAph2AHRUtuMiR-X2xRSl3ZGVOztCU47UkKiUlxCiU7uhp6FJVYbtZACybuJmGkjSqaC51085xccym2vWHYwY7KgdFaf/s320/P9050229.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martin and Dashamir</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqHxXEQ2s3hyphenhyphenwkqbDSX5NWyAWEg70_aYglvxR-Rr0joCVi3dn7c72CqStH07ni_uT9s09cSGQNtnr3Q4zUSRmsPZ5M5rpvS0d08bO1AXoY7ECsNEigNgrEemNaUXTu9UyT14oeZ-fLUhS/s1600/P9050234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqHxXEQ2s3hyphenhyphenwkqbDSX5NWyAWEg70_aYglvxR-Rr0joCVi3dn7c72CqStH07ni_uT9s09cSGQNtnr3Q4zUSRmsPZ5M5rpvS0d08bO1AXoY7ECsNEigNgrEemNaUXTu9UyT14oeZ-fLUhS/s320/P9050234.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart, Martin, Dashamir, Elder Greener, Bro Lezo</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXq4EliHSMPV8dz_EE5ttuwacKtwqMrDSMiLNTQJ5B9gFEkopBJy72MJ9cZ8NYslzoLknNejnQoN5uBM0nI9sT9tzk_U-RscSWAVx4lFjJadtAgth64jJOrAKkyqMNz4UAanxybQw7LGb/s1600/P9050236.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXq4EliHSMPV8dz_EE5ttuwacKtwqMrDSMiLNTQJ5B9gFEkopBJy72MJ9cZ8NYslzoLknNejnQoN5uBM0nI9sT9tzk_U-RscSWAVx4lFjJadtAgth64jJOrAKkyqMNz4UAanxybQw7LGb/s320/P9050236.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart, Dashamir, Elder Greener</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-78590946462257679342015-09-08T09:12:00.002-07:002015-09-08T09:12:46.434-07:00Vlore Exchange<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
Things must be busy for Elder Stewart! We didn't get an email to us last week, just a quick apology and a copy of the letter he sent to Pres Weidmann. But, we knew he was ok, so that was great! This week, we just got 2 pictures of an exchange he was on in Vlore. So, we still know he's ok! His official release date is November 11. :)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9d-NamtNFc1h4dNg3ylM2LoSmdGVDogOGwOEcOKI8ml0Ga_cmonI3G8X0aXyAK4EX28NjYFBXMz832W4rOtj2P96UN4mffS31vuZ98hz8Lvz4XRFeUFdeU1Qnw7tBWF8vNU0SLcWUn8P/s1600/DSCF6956.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9d-NamtNFc1h4dNg3ylM2LoSmdGVDogOGwOEcOKI8ml0Ga_cmonI3G8X0aXyAK4EX28NjYFBXMz832W4rOtj2P96UN4mffS31vuZ98hz8Lvz4XRFeUFdeU1Qnw7tBWF8vNU0SLcWUn8P/s320/DSCF6956.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Gray, Elder Griffiths, Elder Clemans, Elder Dahl and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitaAofK57qdA3AuSIml5YR72IhBQ31IF0mC9zVIOZo_l0M7DXuCWJuZJQx4VCwf3dSvbZpQZyi8l1ehiLvFvkQmA-iVEMEM1oQMOXnE84nfK6zBBZjpW5uWqv9elo9GXb9LikVyHHUfjb4/s1600/DSCF6963.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitaAofK57qdA3AuSIml5YR72IhBQ31IF0mC9zVIOZo_l0M7DXuCWJuZJQx4VCwf3dSvbZpQZyi8l1ehiLvFvkQmA-iVEMEM1oQMOXnE84nfK6zBBZjpW5uWqv9elo9GXb9LikVyHHUfjb4/s320/DSCF6963.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><blockquote class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium;" type="cite">
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Elders Griffiths, Greener, Clemans, Wally, Gray, Waters, Dahl, Stewart<br class="" />Sister Barch, Sister Larson, Elder Larson, Sister Bezas</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-46200177983430656502015-08-25T21:12:00.000-07:002015-08-25T21:12:05.264-07:00Cool Experiences and Beautiful Vistas!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Last Monday was pretty interesting. We got a call from some of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">stake people who were all down at EFY. The person who was in charge of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">booking the Congress Building for Stake Conference had forgotten and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">so they had Elder Greener and I go get it. The people thought it was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">pretty funny that we were in there to book the building for a Sunday</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">less than a month away. Elder Greener and I made up a pretty good</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">looking form with Elder and Sister White (the office couple). I was a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">little scared they were going to be booked, but it turned out the had</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">space. It was a once in a lifetime experience to book the Congress</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Building. The Albania Stake is doing awesome by the way. President</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Mema is working very hard.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Tuesday was a good day. We saw the Tafili family. When we got there</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the parents weren't home so we spent about 15 minutes kicking the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">soccer ball around in the street. It was really fun. Those kids have a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">lot of energy. The Tafilis are doing really well. They have now been</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">members for a year. Their next oldest son turned 8 so he will be</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">getting baptized this month!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Wednesday we had a huge Zone Service Project. We all went up to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Shkodër and helped at an orphanage. We tried to build a soccer field</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">behind the orphanage. We got a lot done, but there is still a lot more</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to do. It is a process.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We were on a 3 day exchange in Shkodër. I had the chance to serve with</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elders Simons and Penrod for the majority of it. We went there with</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the Zone Leaders so we went from 4 to 8 Elders in Shkodër. We worked</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">really hard and had a very good time. We found a Dad and daughter that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">appear to have potential. We had a few devotionals together. I had a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">lot of Nerf battles with Elder Simons in the nights and during lunch.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Our opening devotional was on our mission motto. "WE serve with faith,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">obedience, diligence, and joy." I fell it was a very inspired motto</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">from President Weidmann. Without any one of those in life or on a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">mission we aren't very well rounded. We need all of them. We had four</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">missionaries move an egg with the tips of their pointer finger from</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">one place to another. If any one of them quit paying attention the egg</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">falls. It worked well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We had a cool experience last night where we found 3 new</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">investigators. Two of them we met in the road.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We had a good p-day today. We went out to the Shkenderbeu castle that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I went to last year with Elder Rasband. We went with the majority of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the Tirana Zone and the Durrës District. I hope a picture is worth a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">thousand words because this email has to be really short today.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I love you lots! Take Buddy on walks! It is s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">till 3 months before I head home, and the work is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">going really well right now. I try not to think about it. I miss you all a lot though!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Take Buddy on lots of walks!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love Elder Stewart</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Dgv4l54Y4uPo-aL8SB0vaIfEfs_DiBCYNOrZo4ZHSwGNDb_mnNttfJX6VQNe8B8_BQsDdxSraMjTbUCkk8kbbzDsZhpXYO6vJ147iXFySTmZqXz6cNEg4g6OECwpPFBV6cv6utp75H0N/s1600/P8190108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Dgv4l54Y4uPo-aL8SB0vaIfEfs_DiBCYNOrZo4ZHSwGNDb_mnNttfJX6VQNe8B8_BQsDdxSraMjTbUCkk8kbbzDsZhpXYO6vJ147iXFySTmZqXz6cNEg4g6OECwpPFBV6cv6utp75H0N/s320/P8190108.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shkoder Orphange</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG1n4i79UyKp-84OCHZNr_TpAj1MvHZYGANdIIYWKhAl5FnC-nqgUs7uwnQzNqmzMhw78XeyqD_Z6KUy4rVIhYijuuTkHUWMu_mZZs5bryBOjTWuljzvwxtOZTXnjWaQuMp9vh2MQoSSdT/s1600/P8190112.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG1n4i79UyKp-84OCHZNr_TpAj1MvHZYGANdIIYWKhAl5FnC-nqgUs7uwnQzNqmzMhw78XeyqD_Z6KUy4rVIhYijuuTkHUWMu_mZZs5bryBOjTWuljzvwxtOZTXnjWaQuMp9vh2MQoSSdT/s320/P8190112.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Service Project as a Zone</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEityIlJtBU8tkQuBPJX1zDo0-JQgXjp2u-FhVPTjoL3Imfr34mqj2E7C3FyrmagPisGEub3EeJTPUv6dHFGL36u4N9qwc7wB7XwC6j2HehyphenhyphenBP2dUc4lSEl6WaDdoqESWGczQptaV9TAeZiI/s1600/P8190113.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEityIlJtBU8tkQuBPJX1zDo0-JQgXjp2u-FhVPTjoL3Imfr34mqj2E7C3FyrmagPisGEub3EeJTPUv6dHFGL36u4N9qwc7wB7XwC6j2HehyphenhyphenBP2dUc4lSEl6WaDdoqESWGczQptaV9TAeZiI/s320/P8190113.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This may take awhile to make a soccer field here!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK9pgXk9QMghK5sPqHkcDsPZWkiZLcoFuy0rEefhOCR9g6drSZ-ItHrA8-Jd8yvdexT0J0H3nDxPg9z7DTC6Gsjo_jP4QYVhyphenhyphen8V9qZ6YAOxaeamrHGiJuUtvOpLm5Ag_r_MQAtlLJr3Rwl/s1600/P8190116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK9pgXk9QMghK5sPqHkcDsPZWkiZLcoFuy0rEefhOCR9g6drSZ-ItHrA8-Jd8yvdexT0J0H3nDxPg9z7DTC6Gsjo_jP4QYVhyphenhyphen8V9qZ6YAOxaeamrHGiJuUtvOpLm5Ag_r_MQAtlLJr3Rwl/s320/P8190116.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The whole zone.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGdzmPuQCIcXcfD17jTBqNjvZfRk3da2bQYX-uxrOKnyEi_q7qzAuG-xO2ONdZ5al2o3Uts3oZXnLfLHKo3DRYUNqG13GjkpfAvLsObOdPJ-8X1VBoJTuTs8ozQU3jErJqLMYKO8FWlTY9/s1600/P8200117.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGdzmPuQCIcXcfD17jTBqNjvZfRk3da2bQYX-uxrOKnyEi_q7qzAuG-xO2ONdZ5al2o3Uts3oZXnLfLHKo3DRYUNqG13GjkpfAvLsObOdPJ-8X1VBoJTuTs8ozQU3jErJqLMYKO8FWlTY9/s320/P8200117.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Penrod, Elder Simons</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Simons and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Near Shkenderbeau Castle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Greener and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_9fErN-JrFJ6MQpMLdKp8TpwGKhoxE_1zHmaPONcc1-vOIGe9AgIAiBrgumh_fe37ivdGz99xmdM4j5ql4BpymcUaXFxK99UCCiGkSH6Zpr0-wth320hzG6aUSZ8uKypVWoqRnmyR_MB/s1600/P8240141.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_9fErN-JrFJ6MQpMLdKp8TpwGKhoxE_1zHmaPONcc1-vOIGe9AgIAiBrgumh_fe37ivdGz99xmdM4j5ql4BpymcUaXFxK99UCCiGkSH6Zpr0-wth320hzG6aUSZ8uKypVWoqRnmyR_MB/s320/P8240141.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfQPetjtT80pjs8hx3mZTVNjxPrtm3pV5qLV1I8qWUJnOgtvOoTiXQyX21AeHeXSmQ_j9JFKZYSK5nIsJcV4N7ZxjMumRKwEeLprOJOUuGldKJz0ZSsL4R6ZV911uhTtJCkkq0aY63cWO/s1600/P8240144.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfQPetjtT80pjs8hx3mZTVNjxPrtm3pV5qLV1I8qWUJnOgtvOoTiXQyX21AeHeXSmQ_j9JFKZYSK5nIsJcV4N7ZxjMumRKwEeLprOJOUuGldKJz0ZSsL4R6ZV911uhTtJCkkq0aY63cWO/s320/P8240144.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Castle</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYokjayx1kEL9MbhpSDuBsh23fX4C0vMGekStL-ZGF72S0uIFZqIQe2Oul_9_717kV0aFYUPBLhXi7wcyWNj5RFdW6m24qt305BaAaa7sqFgr3YHbOX79R2FQ2TfSHelJ3OJQfH7aPm-gP/s1600/P8240150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYokjayx1kEL9MbhpSDuBsh23fX4C0vMGekStL-ZGF72S0uIFZqIQe2Oul_9_717kV0aFYUPBLhXi7wcyWNj5RFdW6m24qt305BaAaa7sqFgr3YHbOX79R2FQ2TfSHelJ3OJQfH7aPm-gP/s320/P8240150.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What a view!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrfai77dMU5MlgW4e9HsZ1lQQx9oQbmtdLjMfBultJ1Gruq_rYP0uS_3OAgh9KqdEc2PZNEXCzyrZcDACPp0WyEBY79KbnWjjjkB7HQzfRzeCsfBBhiDfsDIFuwVR6tKxx8Zui3pL_nbvl/s1600/P8240152.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrfai77dMU5MlgW4e9HsZ1lQQx9oQbmtdLjMfBultJ1Gruq_rYP0uS_3OAgh9KqdEc2PZNEXCzyrZcDACPp0WyEBY79KbnWjjjkB7HQzfRzeCsfBBhiDfsDIFuwVR6tKxx8Zui3pL_nbvl/s320/P8240152.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-74088568547111185762015-08-21T09:42:00.002-07:002015-08-23T16:39:56.363-07:00Never a Dull Moment!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<blockquote class="" style="font-family: Helvetica;" type="cite">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqT1eIxM6Et73yYgORwzRL12hYz1EcySFDWZjtv8FRJm6AL2SnuDaga9p16PaEiSKU_o9bVPU_ukJbprCGcqm-c9KSvDezUp5cox2_dTIe2EtvyuRjlyBTbXDrQUh-c0i8e6-omsgENaW/s1600/P8160102.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqT1eIxM6Et73yYgORwzRL12hYz1EcySFDWZjtv8FRJm6AL2SnuDaga9p16PaEiSKU_o9bVPU_ukJbprCGcqm-c9KSvDezUp5cox2_dTIe2EtvyuRjlyBTbXDrQUh-c0i8e6-omsgENaW/s320/P8160102.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Their Stake Choir - Small but growing!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="">
Dear Family! I am so happy that the bear did not eat you!<br />
<br class="" />
This week has been a very intersting week as I have been serving with<br />
two companions, not 1. Mini-transfers took place this week and as a<br />
result everyone came into tirana. Elder Wright was supposed to head to<br />
Germany that day to receive surgery for a hernia. There was a little<br />
miscommunication it sounds like, and he was not able to leave. He<br />
didn't have a flight. We spent the following days waiting for flight<br />
plans, but they never came. Every night he went to bed thinking that<br />
he might be leaving the next day, but I guess that just wasn't the<br />
plan. He was great to have around though. It was very interesting<br />
teaching with threee missionaries, but I liked it a lot. With three<br />
missionaries it also makes it possible to get a lot done contacting,<br />
and when we have to come in here to the office. As well, Settlers of<br />
Catan is pretty hard to play with only 2 people so we had some pretty<br />
intense games of it the few nights he was here. I forgot how much I<br />
love board games.<br />
<br class="" />
This last week I also went on an exchange with our District Leader<br />
Elder Verushi. He is from Durrës, and he is a very good missionary. We<br />
had a good exchange. He is madly trying to learn English so that he<br />
can continue his studies. English is a really big advantage. I tried<br />
to help him with that. He is doing really well at it now. He is a<br />
super solid teacher as well. It was fun teaching with him. We also had<br />
some time to cook some stuff together. My cooking skills are a little<br />
rough around the edges, but we had a pretty good time doing it. I was<br />
kind of hoping he would know some Albanian Traditional stuff, but he<br />
didn't Someone else will have to teach me.<br />
<br class="" />
We have been working really hard with our one investigator named<br />
D. It was quite the series of events this week with him. He has<br />
progressed a lot. He re-found his desire the other week when we taught<br />
him about the two greatest commandments. We told him that if he put<br />
God first everything would work out. His whole persona has changed. He<br />
has a huge desire to be baptised. He was already down to smoking very<br />
few cigarrettes. This week we used a member who had smoked a ton. He<br />
said that one day he just said I am done, and he prayed a lot and<br />
quit. D has a huge testimony of prayer so he did the same<br />
thing. He says he has been feeling really good. We did D's<br />
practice interview, and he passed with flying colours. He had his real<br />
interview on Friday, and the interviewer failed him saying that he<br />
wanted him to be longer and better repented of smoking. It was a very<br />
tough thing on D. I was super confident in him. He has changed<br />
a ton. He first met missionaries 7 years ago, and has never had the<br />
desire to quit smoking. His desire is now huge, and the steps he has<br />
made are incredible. I felt bad for him, but we supported the<br />
interviewer, and are now working for baptism on September 5th. I think<br />
he can do it. We are just praying for him a lot.<br />
<br class="" />
I smashed a can over my finger again at soccer. Everybody loved it. We<br />
always have a spiritual thought, and it was our week. Usually no one<br />
listens so we decided to do something awesome. I explained the lesson<br />
and smashed it once, Everyone was so surprised and they all went<br />
silent and were just looking at me. I quickly reexplained what I had<br />
just said, and smashed the can again. It went really well.<br />
<br class="" />
We saw our investigator O again. We met him in the stairwell one<br />
night. He has lived in Canada and in the States before. His Dad just<br />
passed away. He is married with two young kids. He is a very spiritual<br />
man. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. His wife sat in on the end.<br />
O heard the restoration a few weeks ago, and he is very open. He<br />
told us he will come to church. He will be busy for the next couple<br />
of days, but we will go back there at the end of the week. We are very<br />
excited for him!<br />
<br class="" />
I hope you all have a great week! Take care of Buddy!<br />
<br class="" />
Love Elder Stewart</div>
</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><blockquote class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium;" type="cite">
<div class="">
The Prishtina Zone Leaders stayed at our house one night. Elder Keck,<br />
me Elder Muncy, Elder Greener, Elder Wright.</div>
</blockquote>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-49569291044775651042015-08-12T23:07:00.001-07:002015-08-12T23:07:11.750-07:00Zone Conferences<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This week we had two Zone Conferences. We organized them. The first</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was in Durrës with the Durrës and Vlorë zones. The second was in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Prishtina with the Prishtina and Tirana Zones. They both went great. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">will send you the programs so that you can see a little bit about how</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">it worked. Everything went great. Our training had to do with inviting</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">people. We had a powerpoint and did a lot of role plays talking with</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">people and inviting them. We took pictures of people that we see on a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">daily basis and had peopl talk with them and start conversations. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">attatched a few of them. Everyone really liked it. President Weidmann</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">gave a very good explanation of the importance of obedience. Sister</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Weidamnn told the story of a man pushing a rock. God told him to go</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and push it daily. In the end he didn't move the rock at all and felt</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">like a failure. God said, "I didn't tell you to move the rock, but I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">told you to push it. Look at all of the strength you have received.I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">will now move the rock." It kind of reminded me of that scripture in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">1st Corinthians where it talks about the peopl working but in the end</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">it is God that gives the fruit. It is so true, and I am grateful that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">he has it all under control. It is sure a great work to be a part of.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We all have a great opportuniy to take part. We need to push.. not</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">lean.. but push.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This week we have been able to work a lot with D. He is the one</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">that is planning on getting baptized. He is so excited. Earlier this</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">week he was super stressed, and he said "I just want a break. I want</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to break for 2 months, and then I will learn again. We talked him</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">through it, and gave him a blessing. He is progressing again. He came</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to church an hour early to read the scriptures before church. He is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">doing great. He has been learning for 7 years. His interview should be</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">on Saturday.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We had a really cool lesson this week. We met some really cool kids.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">They are from ages 17-23. We met the one while picking up a broken car from</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the car dealership. The other 2 came to that movie we had a few weeks</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">ago. We set up a lesson with Andi from the Car dealership at 7:30, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">a lesson with the A and D at 8:30. As it turned out they all</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">called and informed us that they would be coming just after 8. We</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">called our main man Ardi Markaj (one of the members) and he came flying</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">into town. It was a 20 minute ride by moped. He came and helped us.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The plan was to show a short film with them to kind of break the ice,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">but there was no one at the church to let us into the bishops office</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to get the TV. I resorted to picking th lock because it didn't look to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">hard. As I was picking th lock a member of the Stake Presidency opened</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the door. It turned out he had been in the bishops office the whole</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">time. He is a really cool guy though so he thought t was funny and he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">let us take the TV. We got the movie going and everything was going</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">well. At that point President Kashari (of the stake presidency) walks</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">into the room and asks for the key. He had locked himself out of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">office. While he was in the room we said "Hey President, what is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">baptism?" He totally explained baptism and did a great job testifying.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Our friends loved it. I then left the room with him and we called</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">around to get someone to come to church with the key. There were so</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">many small miracles in that lesson that all came together to make it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">great.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elder Greener and I have made it our goal to get out of the way. There</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">are a lot of things that we could do for the ward, but we have decided</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to try and help them more from the background. 2nd hour teacher didn't</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">show up at church so we were supposed to take it. Elder Greener saw a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">good opportunity and vollunteered a different lady. She ended up doing</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">great. She was super scared, but we participated like crazy and she</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">did great. The same thing happened in 3rd hour, We didn't have a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">teacher. It was only missionaries, and one other man. He refused to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">teach the lesson, but i got him to team teach it with me. He nailed</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">it. We gave him a ton of praise, and I know he will be totally happy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to teach another lesson.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Have a great week.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love Elder Stewart</span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_AlJPXskzMIcLop0qOUGfhOGWpEKmm-i-HYphDd6gfyVHVTseus9v6BNHmWivOVlYwWlL_O2K1mXY99qXWC3CytnTk-2rrA91QNAAXUxyITG-lfhwezKcWNiRNkWnsfubYPab9ezTcFU/s1600/P8010066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_AlJPXskzMIcLop0qOUGfhOGWpEKmm-i-HYphDd6gfyVHVTseus9v6BNHmWivOVlYwWlL_O2K1mXY99qXWC3CytnTk-2rrA91QNAAXUxyITG-lfhwezKcWNiRNkWnsfubYPab9ezTcFU/s320/P8010066.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frozen Yogurt stop on PDay after soccer with his district.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExIypM762sqN3zO6s2I5V-Tc5_G8Jj3m7XMnkS6gLbBLvgWO6bC_RkPhEg9TU7Y3uDeQ9XJ1E0WmnDblnjO2oCPxJO9duBlkl1v-u2bgFbSEttfcCEdGO2e2cCwcvtOyuOXCooRXKtx3v/s1600/P8060074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjExIypM762sqN3zO6s2I5V-Tc5_G8Jj3m7XMnkS6gLbBLvgWO6bC_RkPhEg9TU7Y3uDeQ9XJ1E0WmnDblnjO2oCPxJO9duBlkl1v-u2bgFbSEttfcCEdGO2e2cCwcvtOyuOXCooRXKtx3v/s320/P8060074.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Cani, Elder Lesi and Elder Velushi - all Albanian elders serving in Durres. Apparently they are "ripping it up". Elder Stewart says that those who serve in their own country have an amazing connection with the people!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EK81v63-rrxXpbuFyZ2iiWm6bgtPku3BWUgo_fhTGMGQzw5NoFNPjl3i10FtuJswNFU3TQkMU7dNWAI9U7mnC8BwggSNmXNdMaxOHFxmcWej9XOSbLFp2BK4Q_4_WWYqPttbM03VwXk4/s1600/P8060076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EK81v63-rrxXpbuFyZ2iiWm6bgtPku3BWUgo_fhTGMGQzw5NoFNPjl3i10FtuJswNFU3TQkMU7dNWAI9U7mnC8BwggSNmXNdMaxOHFxmcWej9XOSbLFp2BK4Q_4_WWYqPttbM03VwXk4/s320/P8060076.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the church in Prishtina after Zone Conference.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtmuHb5oOqP-NWJp6MoNLmVz_2_cxx2J1fnQgVV4Kmr4BQsW4aCXpwtWMZdJZO_OAdM9R112owlJkNR48G9inyp1BKQcBZlJ9TfzVId78wPwm65WsWYlTo_GMXrbpN3F1BLz0TcFrykV-/s1600/P8060077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtmuHb5oOqP-NWJp6MoNLmVz_2_cxx2J1fnQgVV4Kmr4BQsW4aCXpwtWMZdJZO_OAdM9R112owlJkNR48G9inyp1BKQcBZlJ9TfzVId78wPwm65WsWYlTo_GMXrbpN3F1BLz0TcFrykV-/s320/P8060077.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the road back from Prishtina, it was totally flooded.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbT4voA7OAWG0ZlJJ9VDIklbrwM6qPeWSMI__44s04-ZVNQ7qf1VbKxlZI1rkrsedYh3FRA9ST0lkmupAtVVYEVaqNTtd24TVSjppzPhyphenhyphen_c4rYil5l0b0dF820vb0CKMerKKMguZsgNIK/s1600/P8100086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbT4voA7OAWG0ZlJJ9VDIklbrwM6qPeWSMI__44s04-ZVNQ7qf1VbKxlZI1rkrsedYh3FRA9ST0lkmupAtVVYEVaqNTtd24TVSjppzPhyphenhyphen_c4rYil5l0b0dF820vb0CKMerKKMguZsgNIK/s320/P8100086.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eating out with Elder Wright and Elder Fowles, the Zone Leaders.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_K23h3qtUSDYkc1eJeF9-ii6pbqMbj5yrGxevs9j-D1A8C0n06sK-DEOWj3393Bu-MEltmKO8M35mF9T15r7x-OMSvPAhHbcq4OT7B-Tw8kWn3Vi0LcinCKrrdPPUn4sOgD9rMzZWL1P/s1600/P8100087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_K23h3qtUSDYkc1eJeF9-ii6pbqMbj5yrGxevs9j-D1A8C0n06sK-DEOWj3393Bu-MEltmKO8M35mF9T15r7x-OMSvPAhHbcq4OT7B-Tw8kWn3Vi0LcinCKrrdPPUn4sOgD9rMzZWL1P/s320/P8100087.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Albanian fast food - suflage! Looks very healthy!</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-64885600427060646592015-08-06T21:18:00.003-07:002015-08-06T21:22:30.087-07:00Object Lessons, Skyping Lessons and Lessons from a Wise President<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Object lessons work great! </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This week we met the B family this week.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">They are one of my favourite member families here in the fourth ward.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There kids are 11 and 5. Sister B is the member that carries gospel</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">pamphlets in her purse. They have been gone for a lot of the summer</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">with vacation at the beach, but they are home now. We went over to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">visit them, and brought a can of beans. (Editors Note: This is an object lesson with the Book of Mormon and a can, where the can gets squished and it is to illustrate the strength found in the Book of Mormon.)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The rest is history, but they loved it. We have developed a pretty good relationship with them. They</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">have a huge desire to do missionary work. As most Albanian families</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">they both have non-member brothers and sisters that they would love to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">join the church. We invited them to keep praying for good</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">opportunities to share the gospel. We gave them a few good ideas. He</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">is the ward clerk, and she is the primary president. They are really</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">strong.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Sister Shehu is 72 years old, and has more energy than anyone I have</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">ever seen. We asked her about less actives, and let me tell you she</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">knows less actives. She goes out and helps us. She is willing to walk</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">around for hours with us, and visit people. She shows us where they</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">live. This week we went with her a few times. She is packed with</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">information, and loves the members a ton. She has a plan drawn up to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">get 10 less actives in church next week. We are going to try it out.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This week she went with us to an old investigator as well. She rode</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">all of the busses with us. We went way out in the middle of nowhere.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The family that we met was so happy to see us. Apparently they have</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">quite a long history, but we are going to try and teach them and see</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">where we end up. Sister Shehus son is the man that was never</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">confirmed. We are still trying to work with him. She really wants to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">help him, but he is just not interested yet.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We got a flat on the way back from Macedonia this week. It was really</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">a small miracle. We were driving down windy mountain roads, but the</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">tire went flat right by a gas station, and we had a place to pull in.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I never had to change a tire before my mission, but I have changed my</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">fair share while being out here. Maybe I will become a mechanic?? :)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We have been teaching lessons periodically over skype. They have gone</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">pretty well. There are some people in Germany and France that are</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">learning. The man in Germany was supposed to be baptised today, but</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">something happened and it got postponed. We have some pretty good</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">friends in France. He said he would teach me how to cook traditional</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Albanian food if I am ever in France. Apparently he is quite the cook.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">D came to church this week. He is a really nice guy. He is</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">scheduled to be baptised on the 22 of August. Right now statistics</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">show that almost 100% of investigators that come to church after</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">accepting baptism here in our mission will be baptised. He accepted</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">baptism and came to church so we are really hoping for him. He knows</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">the Gospel great. The ward seems to accept him as well so we are happy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">for him.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We helped Brother Skuka move this week. He used to be the Elders</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Quorum President. He moved into a different ward though now so he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">won't be with us anymore. He speaks 6 languages. It amazes me how</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">humble people live here. They moved the great majority of their house</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">and belongings in a Dodge Sprinter. He is a seemingly well off guy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">too, but just very humble. People live in pretty small appartments</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">here. They are very homy feeling. I like it.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Bishop pulled me in yesterday before church, and talked to me</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">about the situation that we had last week with the father and his</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">kids. I had a really good talk with him I am super impressed with</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bishop Beleshi. He is a very young member when you compare him to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">bishops around the world, but he is giving it everything he has. He</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">doesn't have a whole lot of the know-how, but he sure has the desire.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">He is exactly what our ward needs right now. He talked with Brother</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">G a little while later. Brother G is a great guy, and I</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">think he will come around. His family is still at the beach, but when</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">they come back I hope we can work together to help him.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I bore my testimony yesterday about eternal families. We have such a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">light in our lives because of it. People here need that so badly, and</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">the families that come to church are always so happy.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Elder Greener and I are having a great time. We cleaned our house up</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">quite a bit because President came and did interview with us there.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The interviews went good. He was really concerned about Dad. I told</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">him that Dad is doing good now. He cares a lot. President Weidmann is</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">a really good guy. He usually has a theme type thing that he takes</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">around the mission and does in each of his interviews. This time it</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">was on being Loyal. I had a really good interview.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We met President Weidmann another day this week. While talking about a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">lot of different administative things he took a second and showed us a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">few things in the scriptures. One of my favourites was where much is</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">given much is required. I had heard that a lot before, but he related</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">it to sucess of a missionary. He said that where God gives a lot he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">expects a lot, and we will be judged for the work that we put in</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">following the sucess he gives us. He had a lot of different</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">scriptures. In the end I was super impressed. I did a terrible job of</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">explaining that, but I will get the scriptures together and send them</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">to you next week.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Take Buddy on a lot of good walks. Thank you for looking out for him!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Good luck with your checkup Dad! Tear it up in Thompsen Matt! Good</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">luck at EFY Sara. You be careful! ;) Hannah and Mom I love you both</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">and thanks for all that you do! </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Have a great week!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Love Elder P Stewart</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-63512701673640130362015-07-28T09:18:00.002-07:002015-07-28T09:18:45.485-07:00Challenges make for Great Growth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Our week has gone well. On Monday night we were street contacting. We<br class="" />stopped at a fruit stand and were talking with people. We talked to<br class="" />two guys for about 10 minutes. They were pretty cool, and we invited<br class="" />them to learn. They weren't super interested so we invited them to the<br class="" />movie we would be showing on Saturday. They said maybe. On Saturday<br class="" />afternoon they gave us a call and asked where they could meet us. We<br class="" />took them to the church, and they had a great time at the activity.<br class="" />They came to church the next day and stayed for 2 hours, and loved it.<br class="" />They ended up knowing some people there as well. We will be meeting<br class="" />with them throughout the week. Theyare pretty cool guys. They are 18<br class="" />and 21. <br class="" /><br class="" />The man in our ward, whose family we have been working with, is really working hard against us. We are not sure why. He is so mad at us for continuing to meet with his 19 and 21 year<br class="" />old son and daughter and his wife. His family, especially his son have<br class="" />been doing great. His son E loves the Gospel. He is super good<br class="" />with computers, and we set him up doing Family History. His wife is a<br class="" />little mentally sick, but she lights up every time we do a lesson. She<br class="" />even prays. We invited them to the activity but they couldn't come so<br class="" />we went over there on Saturday night, and the dad was home. He<br class="" />is in Korca throughout the week except on weekends. We were really<br class="" />excited to have him in the lesson. His kids know it is true. With a<br class="" />little positive encouragement from their father they are guaranteed<br class="" />baptisms and a family in the church, but the dad yelled at me... alot.<br class="" />He was so mad. We are not sure why, but he was so mad at us for<br class="" />working with his family. We explained to him why we do our work, but<br class="" />he was so mad. Elder Greener gave a super powerful testimony to try<br class="" />and get the Spirit back, but nothing was working. We didn't know what<br class="" />to do. We tried to calm him down. We offered to give him a blessing.<br class="" />He wouldn't have it. We prayed and he walked us to the door. He came<br class="" />to church again by himself yesterday. He admitted that he had been<br class="" />acting out of line. I had a pretty good talk with him. He is a great<br class="" />guy! I figured everything was fine until I talked to him last night<br class="" />and he told me that we are not allowed to visit his home for at least 2<br class="" />weeks. We are praying a lot for him. I think he is just super<br class="" />stressed. He is maybe a bit embarrassed about his wife, but there is<br class="" />no need to be. It is a very interesting situation. We have always got<br class="" />along great, and we aren't sure what happened. He doesn't want to talk<br class="" />with us. He said some very negative things about us. He and Elder<br class="" />Greener had a bit of a clash at the door. I know he is super mad at me<br class="" />because he sees me as the instigator in meeting with his family. He<br class="" />just doesn't understand. He told a lot of the members about what<br class="" />happened. They all have come up to us asking what happened. There is a<br class="" />lot of internal gossip that can break up the ward. We just have been<br class="" />trying to keep our heads down and keep working. President called us on<br class="" />Saturday night, and talked to us about a few things. He asked us about<br class="" />our day, and we explained it to him. It is quite a frustrating<br class="" />situation. I am sure it is all just a misunderstanding because with a<br class="" />little positive energy their whole family could be happy in the<br class="" />church.<br class="" /><br class="" />D, a long time investigator committed to baptism this week, and<br class="" />we will work very hard with him! Brother Lezo (our ward mission<br class="" />leader) helped us in that lesson, and we sure saw the effect that a<br class="" />good member can have on a lesson. He is scheduled for baptism on the<br class="" />22 of August. I promise one of these baptisms is going to work out! He<br class="" />is a 45 year old man. His family is super Muslim, but he is a<br class="" />Christian. He knows the gospel perfectly.<br class="" /><br class="" />I had a super good exchange with Elder Gray this week. It was just<br class="" />like the Durrës days. We both agreed that those were probably three of<br class="" />the funnest months of our missions because they were so hard. We<br class="" />worked like crazy, and did a lot of fun stuff. We talked about our<br class="" />first lesson together with a lady named Bruna. Brother Toci helped us,<br class="" />and he was probably like 'what is going on? How did we end up with<br class="" />these two duds?' But after being energized by a ton of nutella, being<br class="" />chased out of appartment buildings, teaching awesome investigators..<br class="" /> figuring out that people would give us their<br class="" />attention if they didn't understand us and using the word "stationwagon"<br class="" />as our main street contacting approach (the whole mission started<br class="" />copying us), seeing Elder Clawson and Watson almost every day at<br class="" />lunch, being super thrifty and saving hundreds, getting rocks thrown<br class="" />at us by kids, running around Durrës every morning, taking Ersi with<br class="" />us everywhere, working with the young men, learning how to deal with a<br class="" />ward council, comparing how fat we were getting during nightly<br class="" />planning, sweating like crazy in a house with broken air<br class="" />condidtioners, going out every single morning and contacting as hard<br class="" />as we possibly could, figuring out how to survive without our<br class="" />trainers, building up an area that didn't have investigators, fruit<br class="" />for days, becoming best friends with the bakery ladies, weekly soccer<br class="" />with investigators and ym... and much more it all added up to<br class="" />greatness. My testimony grew a ton. We tried our very best to help<br class="" />everyone, and we had a lot of fun doing it. In Lushnjë we got to teach<br class="" />a few lessons together. We contacted a lot as well. He is a great<br class="" />missionary to work with because we get along great. We ran stairs in<br class="" />the morning. We played some basket ball on a mini hoop in his house.<br class="" />It was good stuff. I have certainly met many great people on my<br class="" />mission!<br class="" /><br class="" />This week we also went to Shkodër to translate for President. The<br class="" />church is looking to donate a little bit of money to help out a few<br class="" />orphanages.<br class="" /><br class="" />We have been doing quite a few skype lessons. One of the people we<br class="" />have been teaching will be getting baptized in in Germany on Saturday.<br class="" />His name is A.<br class="" /><br class="" />There was a small transfer that happened this week, and as a result<br class="" />Elder Greener and I are in Macedonia right now helping people move<br class="" />around. We will be headed back to Albania tomorrow with 3 other<br class="" />missionaries.<br class="" /><br class="" />4th ward is doing well. We have very good realtionships with most of<br class="" />the members. We are working hard to help them. They have helped us a<br class="" />lot lately. In Sunday School for example we had two young guys help us<br class="" />with our new friends that were at church. Martin and Ardi are the<br class="" />members names, and they are great. Martin is a pretty funny guy. We<br class="" />are the same age he has about 300 pounds of muscle on the average<br class="" />bear, but is super blonde haha. We get along great. It is sure fun<br class="" />working with great members.<br class="" /><br class="" />Have a great week, and take good care of Buddy!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KesKqXe4LTfAwvSJnOiYeSRXNqP0RxiWuaYGFxTk4zhV4_Hv7Y3RsVCUNDy9ndDCuj6iZoEjmFpp3TArgvjA9pDvibtQ9sMukkqdztkAETfFNEMWvy7Xk_8zkIU7vPq_4BrQhj8NIe26/s1600/P1080216.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KesKqXe4LTfAwvSJnOiYeSRXNqP0RxiWuaYGFxTk4zhV4_Hv7Y3RsVCUNDy9ndDCuj6iZoEjmFpp3TArgvjA9pDvibtQ9sMukkqdztkAETfFNEMWvy7Xk_8zkIU7vPq_4BrQhj8NIe26/s320/P1080216.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Griffiths, Elder Gray, Elder Stewart, Elder Greener</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-65972764445303167172015-07-21T17:09:00.001-07:002015-07-21T17:09:42.675-07:00Travelling through the Mission<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We went up to Prishtina this week, and we did an exchange there. I got</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to serve with Elder Rasband. The exchanger was great. We had a really</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">good time together. The Prishtina Boulivard is beautiful, and it is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">filled with people now that it is Summer. We talked with a ton of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">different people many of which were tourists seeing the city. Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Greener had never tried the famous Tango Juice so we got him some of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">that to try while we were up there. The Prishtina exchange is always</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">interesting because we stay with 4 of us in the same house so the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">amount of time that we are actually "exchanged" is less, but it is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">still really good.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We had a mini transfer. Some of the sisters moved around. We took the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Prishtina ones back with us. Part way to the border I made a comment</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">about everyone having their passport, and one of them realized they</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">had forgotten it. We had to drive back and get it, and as a result we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">had to stay the night in Prishtina again. Elders Rasband and Keck were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">on exchanges with Gjakova and so we stayed with Elders Holm and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Guymon. It was great to see them. They are in my old area, and have</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">seen/see many oof our old investigators. It sounds like the branch is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">doing pretty well there as a whole.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We have been meeting with that same family very frequently this week.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">E, X, and A. They are right on the edge. They really</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">like the lessons. They read, and pray as well. They know it is true,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">but most of their concerns about membership in the church are social.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We need to find them some friends. If the ward will help them adjust</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">in they will be solid. We are really trying to work with the ward for</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">them. There mom is great though. She is that lady who I tiold you</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">about that totally changes in lessons!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We are trying to keep the energy up in the ward. As a whole the church</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">here in Albania is still very dependent on missionaries, but they are</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">making great progress! The summer is very hot, and everyone goes to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the beach for vacation. To be honest I don't really blame them. It is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">boiling! However, we still really need them in church on Sunday!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We played soccer for p-day today.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Serving here is great. We are having a great time, and working hard. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">am so excited for Matt. You sound like you are doing great! Congrats</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to John on his homecoming! Time sure flys.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love you lots! Take Buddy on lots of walks!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love Elder P. Stewart</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-53133234774492142762015-07-16T07:56:00.001-07:002015-07-16T07:56:19.856-07:00It's a Hot One in Tirana!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggvPo9mFuDhrhFLp-ZH7dDh_idAP1e3DlHyH_AFOjLkPe-6ViF88F5LkKDviyluwZA4gr8uYkk-Yo1CuKXZMttlHPoLE5U_jgyJLUFi5vpJclgFZ9WLHYO1UfEnz5P_IRToA8ETPfqsiJq/s1600/P7100040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggvPo9mFuDhrhFLp-ZH7dDh_idAP1e3DlHyH_AFOjLkPe-6ViF88F5LkKDviyluwZA4gr8uYkk-Yo1CuKXZMttlHPoLE5U_jgyJLUFi5vpJclgFZ9WLHYO1UfEnz5P_IRToA8ETPfqsiJq/s320/P7100040.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sister Shehu's birthday party. She has been a great support and friend to the missionaries.</td></tr>
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<div class="">
It is about 1000 degrees here in Albania. Everyone is sweating like<br class="" />crazy. The summer heat is quite intense! We have to drink a lot of<br class="" />water. Even early in the morning when we go running it is hot. It<br class="" />makes for great fruit though. The fruit is incredible right now. We<br class="" />have been eating peaches, figs, and watermelons. It is heavenly.<br class="" /><br class="" />We have a good investigator right now. His name is N. He is married<br class="" />with a child, and another on the way. He is very funny! We have met<br class="" />with him 5 times in the last week. He accepted baptism on August 8th.<br class="" />Unfortunately Satan is working against us. He showed up to the factory<br class="" />where he works on Sunday morning to take his shift and they told him<br class="" />they no longer had a spot for him, and that he was to be transferred<br class="" />to the Shkoder factory. He was sent up there on Sunday. He doesn't<br class="" />know how long it will last, but for now he is apart from his family.<br class="" />His job situation will have to be worked out in order to allow him to<br class="" />meet with us and attend church.<br class="" /><br class="" />That part member family that had us over last week had us over again<br class="" />this week. We were at their house almost every night this week. E<br class="" />is 19, A is 18, X is 21, and then their parents. Their mom<br class="" />has suffered some depression and hard expereinces in her life that<br class="" />have affected her entire being. She is very solemn, and to herself.<br class="" />However, when we teach she smiles, I think I even heard a laugh. Her<br class="" />kids are happy. She is so happy. It is a really amazing thing. During<br class="" />the lesson she becomes alive again. We end with a prayer and are<br class="" />leaving, and suddenly she is back in her own world again. It is a<br class="" />tough situation, but it makes the truthfulness of our message so<br class="" />clear. I have loved working with their family. They have a few<br class="" />concerns about baptism right now. It took their dad 8 months to get<br class="" />baptised, but I think that they are coming around. Ardian is their<br class="" />cousin. I am not sure how consumed in it he is, but Ervis keeps all<br class="" />reading commitments. They are all great!<br class="" /><br class="" />This week we were trying to get our investigator, N, into a members house for his<br class="" />lesson because we don't have a place to meet him. He takes care of his<br class="" />parents, and they won't let us come to their house. We have been<br class="" />meeting in little coffee bars. I called all of the active members in<br class="" />that area, and even the less actives that we meet with to see if they<br class="" />would open their house to us. They all said no. I had a really strong<br class="" />feeling to contact a less active I had never met, but that I had seen<br class="" />on a list. Her name kept coming to my head. Turns out she is in the<br class="" />Hospital with cancer. She had a massive operation. We asked to visit<br class="" />her, and went and found her. She said she had been praying for the<br class="" />Elders to call and to give her a blessing. We had a great conversation<br class="" />with her. She has a super strong testimony. She got sick at the end of<br class="" />last year, went less active, and lost contact with the church. She was<br class="" />so happy to see us. We talked with her for about an hour, shared a<br class="" />message, gave her a blessing, and as we were about to leave she was<br class="" />just so happy. She sang to us "A Childs Prayer." She has an amazing<br class="" />voice. It was a very powerful experience. There were doctors, nurses,<br class="" />patients, and people flying all around us, and everyone just kind of<br class="" />stopped. Time seemed to stop.Her less active daughter just kind of<br class="" />stared at her in awe. Honestly can say it was a highlight of my<br class="" />mission up to this point. Elder Greener and I walked out of there very<br class="" />quietly. We have been back to see her twice since. What a lady. She<br class="" />has a huge background.. lost children, divorced. She hasn't always<br class="" />believed Jesus to be her Saviour, but now she knows, and I know that<br class="" />she knows. We told the relief society about her, and two sisters took<br class="" />the initiative! We actually saw them there. It was a fantastic<br class="" />expereince!<br class="" /><br class="" />Sister Shehu turned 72 this week. She helps us in our work all of the<br class="" />time. She is a long time member, and these photos are from her<br class="" />birthday party. She was so happy!<br class="" /><br class="" />We are teaching a members boyfriend right now. he looks like he has<br class="" />pretty good potential. We are hoping that he turns out to be like<br class="" />Patrick. That wopuld be pretty awesome. He came to church for his<br class="" />third week in a row!<br class="" /><br class="" />I can't believe Matt is in the MTC. Enjoy it while you have it Matt!<br class="" />Study hard. Go easy on those three pointers in gym time as well.<br class="" /><br class="" />Love you all! I hope you are having a great summer! Take good care of Buddy!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder P. Stewart</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-22737639104904652952015-07-12T09:00:00.001-07:002015-07-12T09:00:25.510-07:00Great Elders Heading Home and a Miracle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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This has been a very busy week! We have been running around like crazy<br class="" />arranging everything, but in the end everything went well and the<br class="" />transfer took place without any problems! I was a little nervous at<br class="" />the start of the week because I knew that Elder Bangerter was taking<br class="" />off, but Elder Greener is doing great, and he sure helped out a lot!<br class="" /><br class="" />On Monday we were running around like crazy getting everything ready<br class="" />for the transfer and departing missionaries. We had a big list of<br class="" />things, and we got it all done. We finished up all of the computer<br class="" />stuff, emailed, and were just about to go into our meeting with<br class="" />President Weidmann when I realized that we did not have a mini-bus to<br class="" />take all of the leaving missionaries to the airport. We called all of<br class="" />the potential numbers in our phones to try and find a mini-bus, but<br class="" />nothing worked out. I had no idea what to do so I just kind of said a<br class="" />prayer in my heart that it would all work out, and we went into the<br class="" />lesson with President. On the way over to President house afterwards<br class="" />we were walking and I saw a Furgon (van) drive by. I told them I was<br class="" />going to chase it down and talked to him. Turns out he is President<br class="" />Weidmanns neighbor. He speaks German. They had never met one another,<br class="" />and he agreed to drive for us. It was a great miracle. He did great.<br class="" />Elder Bangerter and I both knew that the Lord had been looking out for<br class="" />us.<br class="" /><br class="" />Tuesday was the transfer. We had a lot of missionaries here. I really<br class="" />like transfers because we get to see everyone. Everything went great<br class="" />though. We had the soon to be leaving missionaries run a lot of<br class="" />errands for us. That night they had their farewell dinner. It will<br class="" />sure be different with all of them gone. Sister Weidmann made tacos,<br class="" />and afterwards there was a testimony meeting. The Spirit was so<br class="" />strong! I had served with 7 out of the 8, and it was really neat to<br class="" />see how far they have all come.<br class="" /><br class="" />Wednesday morning we all drove to the airport. No problems, just weird<br class="" />seeing them leave. It was sure hard for the Weidmanns to say bye after<br class="" />dinner. They don't show it to much, but it sure is hard for them. The<br class="" />new missionaries came in on Wednesday afternoon. There are no Elders<br class="" />and 3 Sisters. They seem great. We met them, and drove them to the<br class="" />mission office. President Weidmann interviewed them all. He is a great<br class="" />interviewer, and so I am sure they all enjoyed it. They then had an<br class="" />introductory thing, and a dinner. They didn't look nearly as tired as<br class="" />I remember being when I first got into the country.<br class="" /><br class="" />Thursday morning was a very spiritual morning. We went with the 3 new<br class="" />sisters, and the Tirana Sister Training Leaders up to the Monument of<br class="" />the Heros. It is the place where Elder Oaks dedicated Albania for the<br class="" />preaching of the gospel. We went there and had a little devotional so<br class="" />that they could all start their missions on the right note. The<br class="" />Dedicatory prayer has some really cool things in it. There are some<br class="" />great promises. Sometimes I feel like getting baptisms should be way<br class="" />easier, but then I just have to think to myself that this work is<br class="" />going at his pace. Albania is still very mush in the begining stages,<br class="" />but it is coming along.<br class="" /><br class="" />The new trainer-trainee meeting went very well. All of the sisters met<br class="" />their new traininers, and were sent off to their new areas. I am sure<br class="" />they will do great!<br class="" /><br class="" />We are working with a man named D. He is a great guy, but he<br class="" />has a smoking problem. His self-confidence does not seem to be very<br class="" />high. We are trying to help him. He is in his 30s with one girl, and a<br class="" />boy on the way. He really wants to stop smoking, because he knows how<br class="" />much damage it is doing. We are trying to support him.<br class="" /><br class="" />There is a man that sells clothes on the street everyday, and we often<br class="" />talk with him. He invited us to his house, and we had a lesson. We<br class="" />have another lesson set up for tuesday. He is a really nice guy. We<br class="" />thought that he would come to church, but he wasn't able to make it.<br class="" /><br class="" />Our ques for the part-member families continues. We figure that is the<br class="" />best way to get quality new investigators. I sent you a picture of the<br class="" />new family that we met this week! They are great. We will see them on<br class="" />Tuesday as well. the father is a member and the rest are not. He bore<br class="" />a very strong testimony though! I love working with Elder Greener. We<br class="" />get a lot done, but we have a lot of fun!<br class="" /><br class="" />It was sad to hear that President Packer passed away. He and Elder<br class="" />Perry both gave great talks in the last conference. It is interesting<br class="" />to note that they both spoke about the reality of Eternal families. I<br class="" />am grateful for their last talks!<br class="" /><br class="" />All the best to Matt on his new experience! He is going to be great,<br class="" />and he will meet great people! I am very excited for him!<br class="" /><br class="" />Take care of Buddy!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWH5JepNwYt4czpl0pyk8IteMCUiSAQsGHVhiyF6HXjZtD27B1JWI9Cywp1ELG9AjqZfaa0IZ_C2cQcBhr7yEEvgUVkqYP2Wt_-5A2zBTgdX45w1oLA8i8_IvrIjI-EHwoY18al2-ay0Hr/s1600/P6300016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWH5JepNwYt4czpl0pyk8IteMCUiSAQsGHVhiyF6HXjZtD27B1JWI9Cywp1ELG9AjqZfaa0IZ_C2cQcBhr7yEEvgUVkqYP2Wt_-5A2zBTgdX45w1oLA8i8_IvrIjI-EHwoY18al2-ay0Hr/s320/P6300016.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Clawson and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijTEcMWsMNhbWz2TZvipmj2NHRwEzlY7kDR02ItjclomdeMH_K4qDBI7u3ekE7OgkA0cQ1ttjlnVXHt7OnQCd-1yPm3bv23fCL3LAbyf0ud151b2EEBRvZkVt0Dd-niDwPA7-DxlL3Qqpt/s1600/P6300017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijTEcMWsMNhbWz2TZvipmj2NHRwEzlY7kDR02ItjclomdeMH_K4qDBI7u3ekE7OgkA0cQ1ttjlnVXHt7OnQCd-1yPm3bv23fCL3LAbyf0ud151b2EEBRvZkVt0Dd-niDwPA7-DxlL3Qqpt/s320/P6300017.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Jorgenson and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7YM-B7QsJvDOyX6jSO9gb3bznb9LsgOsgnz56OMqLLTeqVcCoFq9IM0vnRCRgg3it1n_YsU0FJsgq9veqW9YwXYaBeZyqaiegYb6CNIIlshaGQT4eZ-eva2qc-nor8B52SbUVGdHA-i4L/s1600/P6300018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7YM-B7QsJvDOyX6jSO9gb3bznb9LsgOsgnz56OMqLLTeqVcCoFq9IM0vnRCRgg3it1n_YsU0FJsgq9veqW9YwXYaBeZyqaiegYb6CNIIlshaGQT4eZ-eva2qc-nor8B52SbUVGdHA-i4L/s320/P6300018.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Linderman and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKuho6oddmf2i4KeEW5-l8J-zzYZ63kDnAylbRjhU7GTgWp242lkswV8xwxYR9XnXNbBQOer71IbUEpUV0FE1FKoENjZA_PJeCLwbEjl_c4wAOkfLG1YrfU09G8QB6yRT7SM6LiC8cbZt/s1600/P6300019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKuho6oddmf2i4KeEW5-l8J-zzYZ63kDnAylbRjhU7GTgWp242lkswV8xwxYR9XnXNbBQOer71IbUEpUV0FE1FKoENjZA_PJeCLwbEjl_c4wAOkfLG1YrfU09G8QB6yRT7SM6LiC8cbZt/s320/P6300019.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Price and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_F2dnn3Yu6VqqqAC65eEIpEL8R0luGP7dHiR73GUpaEF0jB-bCcPk4iv8OhwVcxphASAvMocrYqEOaxq11koDoea9UEZFilIzlN96daMXQKVu8ko8V7JmUK9IQ-NBDPY8wHczwXtB68lh/s1600/P6300020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_F2dnn3Yu6VqqqAC65eEIpEL8R0luGP7dHiR73GUpaEF0jB-bCcPk4iv8OhwVcxphASAvMocrYqEOaxq11koDoea9UEZFilIzlN96daMXQKVu8ko8V7JmUK9IQ-NBDPY8wHczwXtB68lh/s320/P6300020.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Elder Ostergaard and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSb4tRlLopIGbV_muOS6Hg9V5mVWdWLovRX_rg1WYF43lAW6eXI0oYAOuu3AX7raccyp5sj1p1yfiV8lpL74XPtGy-1pOIa_KdAoCOGfSF2dckfWpW6_rN-iRU77BFMCoihbaj6anZRMR4/s1600/P7050035.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSb4tRlLopIGbV_muOS6Hg9V5mVWdWLovRX_rg1WYF43lAW6eXI0oYAOuu3AX7raccyp5sj1p1yfiV8lpL74XPtGy-1pOIa_KdAoCOGfSF2dckfWpW6_rN-iRU77BFMCoihbaj6anZRMR4/s320/P7050035.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gjegjaj Family</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-70727190190645797552015-07-03T20:42:00.003-07:002015-07-12T15:00:55.780-07:00A New Companion and More Finding!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This has been a very good week. It was the last week of the transfer.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We worked hard right until the end.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The mother of the kids who was supposed to be baptised still is not</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">baptised. It has been a work in progress. She has a lot of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">hesitations. We had a really great lesson with her last night however,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and she is doing well. We cleared up a lot of her concerns. For one</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">reason or another she just doesn't seem to grasp the value of it.. or</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">maybe she feels hopeless because her husband is inactive. I hope that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">she will be baptised. We will continue working with her. It was our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">first lesson with her in about a week and a half because she just</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">wouldn't meet with us. We could tell that she has been very stressed.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">She works very long days for not very much money. Life seems like a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">bit of a burden for her. It is sad, but she stays happy. We gave her</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Alma & to read, and gave her a blessing before we left. If anything</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">gets her it will be Eternal families, and so we figured the Atonement</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and Priesthood power would really help the cause. She has a really</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">cool brother that lives with them as well. He got home just after we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">had ended the blessing, and while we were on our way out the door. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">met him about 2 weeks ago very briefly. God helped me remember his</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">name, and so I struck a conversation with him. Their family is golden.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I hope for the best.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Sadly this week Elder Smoot, one of the Elders up in Prishtina, got</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">pretty sick, and he had to leave. He came down from Prishtina, and we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">met him in the road on his way to visit some people before heading</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">over to his interview with President. We talked with him in the road</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">for a little bit, and a man walked up to us. It was a less active that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">he had had a few lessons with when he served in 4th Ward. We were able</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to get his contact information, and we met with him the next night. It</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">is always exciting to meet new less actives. We were lucky to have</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elder Smoot with us.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This week was Mission Conference. We met in Elbasan. The whole mission</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">came. There were a few parts. Sister Weidmann gave a training. We</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">heard from all of the missionaries that are leaving. There are 8.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elders Acheson, Baker, Clawson, Jorgenson, Linderman, Ostergaard,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Price, Richards. With the exception of one, I have served in the same</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">district as all of them so it will be sad to see them leave. They all</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">gave great testimonies though. We gave a training as well, and then</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">President Weidmann had a question and answer session just like Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Bednar does. He did a really good job.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We have worked really hard with a recent convert family over this last</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">transfer. We saw them last night, and they are doing great. This</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">transfer they have become reactive, have started holding family home</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">evening, read and pray daily as a family. It has been really good to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">see the change. They fulfill a year as members in July, and their next</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">son turns 8. Hopefully his Dad will baptize him. That is the plan. We</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">are all going to talk with bishop on Monday to get it all worked out.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elder Bangerter is moving to Berat. Elder Greener from our District</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">will be my new companion. Elder Bangerter is excited to go to Berat.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">He will do great! Elder Baldwin is coming to Tirana so it will be fun</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to serve around him!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I am so happy that Dad is doing better! Take good care of him and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Buddy as well! Good luck at the Temple Matt!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love Elder Stewart</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmI1Y8e2LvLmBwQtsZ7O-iG7XgN55VGaIcjRH__TIsbn85R_mwlba3wqz-txSxXWs27EHY-SnMnnt8G0I-WsThlPoOLfdTuPlRgXcSkoNHlt95JMoeAAikeSHhXBE1fQCl7V9G7jnQtfPr/s1600/P6240666.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmI1Y8e2LvLmBwQtsZ7O-iG7XgN55VGaIcjRH__TIsbn85R_mwlba3wqz-txSxXWs27EHY-SnMnnt8G0I-WsThlPoOLfdTuPlRgXcSkoNHlt95JMoeAAikeSHhXBE1fQCl7V9G7jnQtfPr/s320/P6240666.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A good looking group of Elders! Elder Eliason, Elder Stewart, Elder Holm, Elder Roemer, Elder Baldwin, Elder Gray and Elder Braden.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwWe9bhNH6tlBbf495GdykOdQAlH0VPtYE8lMTIfL2CC3UNt94CQ0NUhjNBPaHdvko_UaLZFCWUgQAWlSy6InilLH_gXLDpxJRXlTJPUWqNTVDyBFAsqKaJ1Xc-Lw5LszTslfwqDGBF2j/s1600/P6240672.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZwWe9bhNH6tlBbf495GdykOdQAlH0VPtYE8lMTIfL2CC3UNt94CQ0NUhjNBPaHdvko_UaLZFCWUgQAWlSy6InilLH_gXLDpxJRXlTJPUWqNTVDyBFAsqKaJ1Xc-Lw5LszTslfwqDGBF2j/s320/P6240672.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He met up with Elder Lesi again. :)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik89mVM-tcYPVxRyqo3Dc2595_ZWr56gH0P0XX_koMFSG-eCD_SV4e6ZUP2j5o0VNMS-Z_8Y7dVWFWlpkWSpcaYNm1IcgCFCaZ8o671cwy7Za4ItVt139-wNbTaCnuXjeDiSgdWWUc_Xq6/s1600/P6280690.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik89mVM-tcYPVxRyqo3Dc2595_ZWr56gH0P0XX_koMFSG-eCD_SV4e6ZUP2j5o0VNMS-Z_8Y7dVWFWlpkWSpcaYNm1IcgCFCaZ8o671cwy7Za4ItVt139-wNbTaCnuXjeDiSgdWWUc_Xq6/s320/P6280690.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bjeshku family.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzjXl83lmRjx-vi5GllJtfH7fPcT9JHlonBmaf-eqJxkk-xSIFpgiqbpdtrOrKXiQhnTJhcClPJ3oeYmIY2bsmSNox07Pw39hmRxXdZmcoetodbaPnygRVdDkpxImiKW20Q7iT1LcHvGL/s1600/P6280702.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzjXl83lmRjx-vi5GllJtfH7fPcT9JHlonBmaf-eqJxkk-xSIFpgiqbpdtrOrKXiQhnTJhcClPJ3oeYmIY2bsmSNox07Pw39hmRxXdZmcoetodbaPnygRVdDkpxImiKW20Q7iT1LcHvGL/s320/P6280702.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His good friends - the night guards. :)</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-26498901985703915392015-06-23T21:05:00.000-07:002015-06-24T13:49:10.164-07:00A New Testament Miracle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Happy Fathers Day!! I hope it went well! Also Happy Birthday Hannah! I<br />
can't believe you are a teenager!<br />
<br class="" />
This week during District Meeting there was a knock at the door, A<br />
lady yelled in, and Elder Bangerter and I ran out and talked with her.<br />
We got it all sorted out, and ran back in. After a few minutes the<br />
same thing happened. This time it was a man. Elder Bangerter and I<br />
again ran out to take care of it. We were a little confused because<br />
usually we don't have disruptions in District Meeting. The man Fatos<br />
was holding a red book, and he told us that he wanted to give it to<br />
us. It was a New Testament. We weren't exactly sure what was<br />
happening, but we said thank you. He then said there are a few more,<br />
but you will need to come with me and talk with my friend. He said we<br />
would only be 5 minutes. We knew that we should be in District<br />
Meeting, but we just felt like we should go so we left. About a block<br />
away is an office building. We were taken to a spacious office with<br />
big chairs. The man at the desk greeted us, and told us to take a<br />
seat. He quite obviously had a lot of authority. He had a big desk<br />
with a big computer. We talked for a second, and introduced ourselves.<br />
He informed us that he had another office facility a little ways away,<br />
and that they were cleaning it out. He told us that in his possesion<br />
were 1000 New Testaments all freshly printed. He said that they were<br />
going to throw them all away, but he didn't want that. He asked.."Do<br />
tyou want them?" We were quite astonished. Bibles and books can be<br />
quite expensive here so most people don't have them. Members ask us on<br />
a regular basis if we can find them a Bible. We were very excited. We<br />
thanked the man! He said that he would have the man move them all<br />
over. He informed us that there would be no charge. He just wanted us<br />
to pay Fatos (the man that got us) 10$ to thank him, and for the work<br />
that he would do moving them. We happily agreed! We thanked the big<br />
man at the desk again! I don't know if it seems like a miracle to you,<br />
but it was a huge miracle for us. We ran back to District Meeting, and<br />
informed the others. They were all so excited about it. As soon as<br />
District Meeting ended we ran over and helped Fatos move all of the<br />
Bibles. We stashed them all in the church building. The Stake is<br />
currently deciding how to spread them all out.<br />
<br class="" />
We met some new people this week. One of them is a famous Albanian<br />
Composer who has two baptised children in the states. He is amazing at<br />
the piano, and so he played a little bit for us. They have pictures<br />
all over their house of their kids temple weddings so we hope they can<br />
progress. They didn't seem to have a ton of desire to learn, but we<br />
will keep trying!<br />
<br class="" />
We have met twice with a man that Elder Braden and I contacted on our<br />
exchange last week. He is a father of 1, and he is a great guy. He<br />
came to church two weeks ago, and he loved it. One of our lessons this<br />
week was in the house of a member! It was super good to introduce him<br />
to the members. The other lesson was in his home with all of his<br />
family around. The lesson with the member was cut short because they<br />
had to run out and vote before the polls closed, but for the most part<br />
it was a very spiritual experience.<br />
<br class="" />
There was an election this week. They were voting for the government<br />
repesentative of each city. I am not completely sure how it works, and<br />
I haven't heard who won yet, but it was an exciting day yesterday.<br />
Everyone was running to the polls. It appeared to me that people were<br />
taking it very seriously. It was hard to meet with many people<br />
yesterday as a result, but I was very impressed by how many people<br />
were using their ability to vote! I hope the best candidates won, and<br />
that Albania can continue to progress.<br />
<br class="" />
I had an exchange with Elder Roemer this week. I have loved serving<br />
with people from my MTC group. I have had the chance to go on<br />
exchanges while here in Tirana, and up in Kosovo, and it is so much<br />
fun. Every exchange we get a ton done as well! Elder Roemer and I<br />
taught quite a few lessons. We met some really promising families. He<br />
is a very hard working Elder! We had quite a bit of tracting time so<br />
it was fun to talk with him. He had heard about my extension, and then<br />
Elder Braden from our group extended, and he told me that he had also<br />
extended. I am in very good company! The new date is Nov 17. I miss<br />
you all a ton, but I feel like it will be a very good thing for us,<br />
and for the Albanian people.<br />
<br class="" />
This upcoming week we will have a mission conference, and then on the<br />
weekend transfer calls will be made. President Weidmann will call<br />
everyone, and a couple minutes later we will call them all with their<br />
travel plans. We are still working hard to get mission conference<br />
ready, and to be ready for the transfer. It is an exciting time.<br />
<br class="" />
I am so excited for Matt! He is going to love his mission!I am so<br />
excited to hear all about it. The pictures of his farewell looked<br />
good. He has a lot of family and friend support. I know that I have<br />
really appreciated all of the support. It is very hard for me to<br />
express it because of the limited communication that we have, but I<br />
really appreciate it all whether it be prayers or cards or packages.<br />
It all helps. I apologize for the lack of things being sent back!I<br />
promise you that I think and pray for you all.<br />
<br class="" />
Good luck with finals this week! Have a great time with Matt! He is<br />
going to be great! I am super excited. People around here might be<br />
tired of me talking about how excited I am for him haha, but I am<br />
proud of him!<br />
<br class="" />
Take care of Buddy! Take him on lots of walks!<br />
<br class="" />
Love Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5i7-qTpFRkUW7EFVNtEZQZeoOacsx1SjZc1055bOGpg4xc1VcOsYp_Zf4qZrcOfpNq19kuofSFO6cJsgwiT9KPBk6BK0eygC7uIfQt36tXKCwBPQxe0dOXDz5BRGWS5SW4bWH37ZKIAt/s1600/P6160642.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5i7-qTpFRkUW7EFVNtEZQZeoOacsx1SjZc1055bOGpg4xc1VcOsYp_Zf4qZrcOfpNq19kuofSFO6cJsgwiT9KPBk6BK0eygC7uIfQt36tXKCwBPQxe0dOXDz5BRGWS5SW4bWH37ZKIAt/s320/P6160642.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The unloading of all the New Testaments</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjXhGgXposTIz16bBu3ITqVfd_yGo8fenLE83LmZPAKboH1M1GWh4j-9o9F36doy48TwZY0yvbj8C92t3DfhXKawoAMZciVoiDINPuqElVnV12mPXqmK0IigMiaoslg6Z3qtQJKKH05yz/s1600/P6160643.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjXhGgXposTIz16bBu3ITqVfd_yGo8fenLE83LmZPAKboH1M1GWh4j-9o9F36doy48TwZY0yvbj8C92t3DfhXKawoAMZciVoiDINPuqElVnV12mPXqmK0IigMiaoslg6Z3qtQJKKH05yz/s320/P6160643.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9C-7JS7KUimzwfHv5Au5SY8CeoRzUZXBCQeHG_v7vOrXYrXyOP90LOCWVbPjgNi5nFr35dtw5bdhv1ycRjz2uNxfPC-Xxx4JQFbJ8qf1LPMcbwNAfOiOnt_PlBbdljiDBcEP0s6oN-cWI/s1600/P6160645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9C-7JS7KUimzwfHv5Au5SY8CeoRzUZXBCQeHG_v7vOrXYrXyOP90LOCWVbPjgNi5nFr35dtw5bdhv1ycRjz2uNxfPC-Xxx4JQFbJ8qf1LPMcbwNAfOiOnt_PlBbdljiDBcEP0s6oN-cWI/s320/P6160645.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GY26SuFjbu4B09hx7vrFDbsJCChuqEBUVeAfY8KVE5so1B03R8Hh4OMAwT7iwi_9-l9lNiIHMDBYsD4tyAqSXdqj2UlXIGu6TTDDuKk4V4ridmXiz1r8avhrCLPaJgxykZZ3V1rQ4hOY/s1600/P6160646.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GY26SuFjbu4B09hx7vrFDbsJCChuqEBUVeAfY8KVE5so1B03R8Hh4OMAwT7iwi_9-l9lNiIHMDBYsD4tyAqSXdqj2UlXIGu6TTDDuKk4V4ridmXiz1r8avhrCLPaJgxykZZ3V1rQ4hOY/s320/P6160646.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjiJsrmQJP_ezOl2wh0tpgEVmq5H92_L_wcl6cxBzLQ4-zSWjynAZ1omfzSoNizDdDSobHP5m9WQbc6QeU5Y-n2ILA1rHqFnCGWODUXxu4nR4PTyF9uhaYFWFhtIeJVYVNE5IusobDxuCi/s1600/P6160648.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjiJsrmQJP_ezOl2wh0tpgEVmq5H92_L_wcl6cxBzLQ4-zSWjynAZ1omfzSoNizDdDSobHP5m9WQbc6QeU5Y-n2ILA1rHqFnCGWODUXxu4nR4PTyF9uhaYFWFhtIeJVYVNE5IusobDxuCi/s320/P6160648.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqW6UM_4LQi2-qYYYq1vZ7kx-K58Zeb6AMXSeC3FqCLRJQA-g9_QqthOUljVtCXSPYqu-yk8UNfjj0nsHpaptIl7IJU1H0CUoEIC6zuFrQqR2h4CRw2xxsgNkK1SnGg7Y5JQ5Eqzaa-HnO/s1600/P6160649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqW6UM_4LQi2-qYYYq1vZ7kx-K58Zeb6AMXSeC3FqCLRJQA-g9_QqthOUljVtCXSPYqu-yk8UNfjj0nsHpaptIl7IJU1H0CUoEIC6zuFrQqR2h4CRw2xxsgNkK1SnGg7Y5JQ5Eqzaa-HnO/s320/P6160649.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celebratory meal after their miraculous afternoon. Looks good! I wonder if he shared?? :)</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-62910372810964462012015-06-11T07:34:00.000-07:002015-06-11T07:34:05.682-07:00Time Flies when you're Having Fun!<br />
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Dear Family,<br class="" /><br class="" />The days fly by, and I am loving it!<br class="" /><br class="" />This week has been filled with cool people. One day while walking out<br class="" />to the car we were talking to the car washers. There is a car wash<br class="" />right beside where we park. We have made it a goal to get to know the<br class="" />names of the people we associate with on a general basis. I think the<br class="" />idea originally stemmed from a story dad told me about how he always<br class="" />tried to call the nurses at the hospital by their names. Anyway we<br class="" />went and sat down with M. N then came up and started<br class="" />talking with us. As we continued talking we met a new guy, O. He<br class="" />goes to the Evangelical Church. He knows a lot about church stuff. He<br class="" />seems like a really cool guy. We were able to teach the Restoration to<br class="" />the 3 of them. The really liked it. N is one of my favourite<br class="" />people that I have met on my mission. He is great! He is the secrity<br class="" />of the outdoor parking where we park. His buddy L is the security<br class="" />man on the other end. Whenever we talk to one the other one radios<br class="" />across from the other side of the parking lot to say hi. They are just<br class="" />great guys!<br class="" /><br class="" />I had a funny exchange with Elder Braden on Wednesday. We had to go<br class="" />and pick up a new car for the mission in the morning. It turned out to<br class="" />be a little more complicated than we expected. What was supposed to be<br class="" />an hour long trip took upwards near 8. It really munched into our day,<br class="" />but we got the car. We took it to the inspection place to get it ready<br class="" />for the road, and it failed the inspection.. so the dealership had to<br class="" />take it and fix it again. We now have it! Thank goodness! I think I am<br class="" />going to need another exchange with Elder Braden!<br class="" /><br class="" />E came back this week. We met him and talked about The Living<br class="" />Christ. It is very powerful. E is very skeptical, but he feels<br class="" />it. We are shaking everthing he knows. I think he wants to believe. He<br class="" />is just having a very hard time accepting that Jesus is the Son of<br class="" />God. The lesson was very powerful. We had a member there. Her name is<br class="" />Arjola. She is in her early 20's and is very solid. She helped us a<br class="" />lot. Today E called me and asked if he could go to institute this<br class="" />week. He went with us once, but hasn't been since. I know he feels<br class="" />great while at church events. He is currently studying all about Islam<br class="" />in University so it will be a very big lifstyle change when he gets<br class="" />baptized. I have faith. He is astonished at the commitment of our<br class="" />members.<br class="" /><br class="" />President met a man the other day, and he really wanted to meet. We<br class="" />met with him, and he was really nice. His name is J. We taught with<br class="" />President in English. J speaks English, German, and Albanian.<br class="" />President speaks English and German, and then there is us. The lesson<br class="" />was mostly in English but switched between the 3. J was very<br class="" />impressed. He said he will read the Book of Mormon. We will be meeting<br class="" />again this week! President was a super good teacher. We are trying to<br class="" />do a lot of the stuff that he did.<br class="" /><br class="" />Brother S is coming along. We taught about the Word of Wisdom this<br class="" />week. He really liked it. We are working hard to get him ready for<br class="" />baptism. We had the opportunity to give him a blessing this week to<br class="" />give him strength. He appears to want baptism, we just have to help<br class="" />him along the way. I am sure that if I were a convert I would want the<br class="" />missionaries to be patient with me. His daughter R reminds me of<br class="" />Sara, and is really pushing her Dad to get baptised. It is great to<br class="" />see.<br class="" /><br class="" />We fasted this week and were extremely blessed. It was miracle after<br class="" />miracle. We went out to visit Sister B. She was supposed to get<br class="" />baptized next week, but she has had two deaths in her family. We tried<br class="" />to see her on Saturday night, but she wasn't home. There was a lady<br class="" />that looked out of a different door at us, but we didn't think much of<br class="" />it. We rode the elevator to the bottom, and I said.. we should have<br class="" />talked with her. She was right there. We awkwardly rode the elevator<br class="" />back up and went to talk with her. She was super interested, and the<br class="" />sisters will hopefully meet with her. We went back to the elevator.<br class="" />The door opened, and there was another lady waiting there. She asked<br class="" />where we were going. She was going up ans we were going down so we<br class="" />were waiting for the door to close so that she could go back up, and<br class="" />she started asking a ton of questions. She got out of the elevator,<br class="" />and we explained who we are, and what we do. She workd right by the<br class="" />church, but didn't know about it. She was great!! We gave her the<br class="" />book, and the sisters should meet with her as well!<br class="" /><br class="" />Last night we went to visit a less active man and his wife with the<br class="" />sisters fr the mans birthday. I had never met them, but they were<br class="" />great! They are the people in those pictures that I sent you.<br class="" />Following that we went to show the sisters where the B family<br class="" />lives. They are going to visit them this week wile we are gone. Sister<br class="" />B was there with her family, and they were all duper happy to<br class="" />see us. Apparently the funerals went well. Sister B was asking<br class="" />when she can get baptized. She really wants to get baptised. Before<br class="" />the month is over she will be. I am so happy for her.<br class="" /><br class="" />Church was awesome yesterday. We had two cool guys there. The first is<br class="" />named D. He has investigated before, and has started coming<br class="" />back to church. He knows a ton. His only struggle is smoking. We are<br class="" />going to help him overcome it! The second man was a man that Elder<br class="" />Braden and I contacted on the road. We had about 5 minuted to talk<br class="" />with people, and we met him. He was late, and didn't know where the<br class="" />church was so I left with Elder greener right after sacrament<br class="" />ordinance, and we went and got him. He caught the lad few testimonies,<br class="" />and stayed for the nest two hours. He is amazing. He loved it, and<br class="" />really wants to come again. Both are married with children. We love<br class="" />teaching families! His name is N. He is super awesome. We hit it<br class="" />off really well.<br class="" /><br class="" />We drove to Macedonia today to do an exchange. So I am here right now.<br class="" /><br class="" />I love you all a lot! We are very lucky to have the Gospel in our<br class="" />lives! Take good care of Buddy!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love Elder Stewart</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-7189855288581358682015-06-03T07:50:00.001-07:002015-06-03T07:51:10.523-07:00Futbol Unites!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This week we have had a few lessons with a family that lives on the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">outskirts of Tirana. We are always really nice to the kids there, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">they like to talk to us. One night we were standing there and talking</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to them for a couple of minutes. Within about 5 minutes there were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">about 50 neighbourhood children standing around us. We explained what</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">we were doing and told them a bit about the church. It came to their</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">attention to that we play futboll on Saturdays and we invited them to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">join us. 8 of them came!! It was great. They are Christian boys, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">they are awesome. We liked to pretend they were the stripling</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">warriors. We thought they were going to come to church, but their</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">parents said that they had to go to the church that was closer to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">their house. We picked them up at 8:15 on Saturday morning, and we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">took a 30 min travel to the church and then the field. They loved it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">though! It was great. It was one of the cooler things that has</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">happened while I have been out here. We got to the church to meet the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">other people, and we had an army. Our team won 5-0. They were pretty</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">good! They all come from very poor families and many people don't like</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">them because of their colour, but we think they are awesome. We want</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to teach their families. Their parents really seem to like us!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We were in Prishtina on Monday and Tuesday. We did an exchange. My</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">good friend B, the baker, was there. I went with Elder Temple, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elder Bangerter was with Elder Rasband. Elder Templa and I had a cool</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">experience where we met 3 really nice teenage boys on the boullivard,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and invited them to come to the church. They loved our churches</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">standards, and were very interested in learning more. I hope it works</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">out well for them! It is always good to see Elder Rasband as well!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We have been working very closely with the members. One of our better</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">lessons this week was with a less active RM. He was Albanias first</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">missionary. He is a really fun man. He is married and has a 6 year old</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">daughter. He used to hold many callings in the church, but has fallen</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">away. We aren't sure why yet, but he was a really fun man to talk to.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">He liked telling us about his mission! They have a house dog, and he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">reminded me of Buddy!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I sent you a picture of me with the T family a few weeks ago.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> Anyway we had a really great meeting with them this</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">week. We taught them how to do family home evening. I forgot how much</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">fun it can be. They have 3 small kids, and it was a blast. They are</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">becoming very strong. We need strong families!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I recieved my extension until November. I don't know exactly how it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">will all work out, but that is the new plan. I am very excited!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I love you all! Take good care of Buddy!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love Elder Stewart</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He finally found one!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart's friend, the baker.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tirana</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the neighbourhood boys with Elder Bangarter.</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-23920481535125077662015-05-27T12:28:00.002-07:002015-05-27T12:28:36.894-07:00Moving Forward in Tirana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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So I realize I wrote you on Tuesday, but I didn't include anything from<br class="" />this week. I will take it right from the top.<br class="" /><br class="" />Mondays are always busy for us, but this last Monday morning for our<br class="" />excercise we met some other missionaries at a soccer place, and played<br class="" />soccer. It was a blast. There were about 16 missionaries there, and<br class="" />President came along as well. That was definitely one of the funner<br class="" />P-days I have had in quite a while! There were some pretty good<br class="" />players, and President showed us how they do it in Switzerland! It was<br class="" />great! On Monday night FHE went well.<br class="" /><br class="" />Tuesday there was a halfway training for trainers and trainees. We<br class="" />went there and helped President Weidmann present the training. It went<br class="" />great. We have a ton of great missionaries in our mission! Tuesday<br class="" />night we had a lot of sucess. We were able to meet Sister Bjeshku and<br class="" />teach her the 10 Commandments. She will be baptised because she has<br class="" />her family backing her. She reads a lot, and has a lot of faith. she<br class="" />is great! Also on Tuesday night we met the Cara family. Brother Cara<br class="" />is our main investigator there, but he wasn't there on Tuesday night<br class="" />so we met Soni [the member] and his Mom and brother. They all love the<br class="" />lessons, and his mom has read a lot of the Book of Mormon. Her main<br class="" />concern with baptism at the moment is that she won't be able to keep<br class="" />her covenants after baptism. We are looking to overcome that concern<br class="" />with her. Her other son is 11 and he is really cool. Brother Cara is<br class="" />the greatest.<br class="" /><br class="" />Wednasday was a crazy day. One of the best parts of the day was<br class="" />helping a recently baptised family move their house. They are poor,<br class="" />and their living situation was not great. They got kicked out of their<br class="" />house, and we got to help them move into their new one. It was sure an<br class="" />eyeopener. We moved them completely in under an hour and a half. They<br class="" />moved about the distance that we did when we moved. It took one run<br class="" />with a small truck and 2 with the Opel Corsa to move absolutely<br class="" />everything they had. Elder Acheson and Elder Greener came with us to<br class="" />help them. It went great. After the move we had a lesson with Edmond.<br class="" />He is the Muslim investigator that is just a few years older than us.<br class="" />Originally the plan was to drop him and explain why we could not meet,<br class="" />but we couldn't do it. We both feel we haven't given him enough of a<br class="" />chance. We want him to see the truth so bad. I explained to President<br class="" />Weidmann last week in my letter just how hard it is for me to drop<br class="" />investigators. I want them all to accept it, and I don't want to go<br class="" />find others until I have finished the job. He set a good response back<br class="" />this week.<br class="" /><br class="" />Dear Elder Stewart<br class="" />thank you for your testimony and for your Christ-like care. I am<br class="" />wondering if Christ ever dropped someone, but He was dropped by many.<br class="" />Just as a thought, I quote Mark 10:"21 Then Jesus beholding him LOVED<br class="" />HIM, and said unto him, nne thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell<br class="" />whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have<br class="" />treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And<br class="" />he was sad at that saying, and WENT AWAY (dropped Jesus) grieved: for<br class="" />he had great possessions." The invitation to follow Christ should be<br class="" />very powerful in order to help the investigators or less actives to<br class="" />choose to follow Christ or not; but they have to know. And yes it is<br class="" />all about His infinite, incomprehensible touchable love of His: 1 John<br class="" />4:" And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God<br class="" />is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in<br class="" />him." Thank you for your efforts to fulfill your calling as<br class="" />missionary. Thank you for your prayers and your work and for<br class="" />faithfully invite others to come unto Christ. Thank you for sharing<br class="" />your testimony often and for sharing your love for the Savior<br class="" />frequently and thank you for acting accordingly.<br class="" />Love President Weidmann<br class="" /><br class="" />I thought that was quite the insight. Jesus was dropped many times.<br class="" />Jesus always made the invitation very clear as to make it their<br class="" />decision. E still wants to meet with us, and although his<br class="" />progress is very limited right now he is feeling something. He is<br class="" />always astounded as he learns more about our church. He is great! I<br class="" />usually don't ask any questions in my letters to President Weidmann,<br class="" />but when I do he always sends back a good response!<br class="" /><br class="" />Thursday started with District Meeting. I have been blessed with great<br class="" />Districts throughout my mission. For the record my District is our<br class="" />ward Elders Acheson and Greener, Sisters Cheshire and White, us, and<br class="" />Second Ward.. Elders Verushi and Guymon, and Sisters Zollinger and<br class="" />Johansen. Following district meeting we went out to a wheelchair<br class="" />thing. The church sent in a shipload of 600 wheelchairs to Albania,<br class="" />and there was a conference thing right by Tirana. We went and<br class="" />represented the missionaries. It is great to see the Humanitarian work<br class="" />of the church as well. The church has a lot of very big projects.<br class="" /><br class="" />Thursday night we had lots of lessons. We street contacted a lady on<br class="" />the road and met her family. We also got to see the B family.<br class="" />Sister B was not there so we had the opportunity to talk with<br class="" />the rest of the family about what they have to do to get their family<br class="" />ready to go to the temple. It went well. They have made that a goal as<br class="" />a family.<br class="" /><br class="" />We had a good weekend with lots of lessons. We had 7 new people show<br class="" />interest this week, and begin investigating. It was great. We stopped<br class="" />by the C's house on Saturday night. We hadn't seen Brother C. He<br class="" />is great though. He has just been really busy. He works with the<br class="" />police, and elections are coming up, and they have been working like<br class="" />crazy!<br class="" /><br class="" />We had a good Sunday. Brother C was busy. Brother S, our other<br class="" />investigator, came to the church late and without his family because<br class="" />they weren't in town. He was nervous to walk in so he went home. I<br class="" />wish he would have called so we could have ran and grabbed him, but it<br class="" />is alright! Sister B had a cousin die so she couldn't make it to<br class="" />church, but her kids came. So our investigator turnout was<br class="" />non-existent, but we had two less actives there, and the family that<br class="" />we helped move came!<br class="" /><br class="" />Last night President Weidmann had all of the Tirana and Durres<br class="" />missionaries go to a devotional put on by a couple from America about<br class="" />the Book of Mormon. It was all about how the Bof M and the Bible<br class="" />support eachother, and some ancient evidence of the Book of Mormon. It<br class="" />was really interesting!<br class="" /><br class="" />One cool thing I read in personal study this week was Helaman 4. I<br class="" />took from it.."the way to prosper" It is a great chapter!<br class="" /><br class="" />Take good care of Buddy! I love you all!<br class="" /><br class="" />Love, Elder Stewart</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXY9R6MRKyarb2Esk5fpczBK7P6CWR7VBEMCAMNAd6xs6dBZdquePYuLj8pJADbKcyAabBHVCxIpqh0yK0kgSymIVAh7ims9CBjjpO1Y3cKU_kRmqEojEmhNMkgcOByfykrqWs1Tx3_e7E/s1600/P5190597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXY9R6MRKyarb2Esk5fpczBK7P6CWR7VBEMCAMNAd6xs6dBZdquePYuLj8pJADbKcyAabBHVCxIpqh0yK0kgSymIVAh7ims9CBjjpO1Y3cKU_kRmqEojEmhNMkgcOByfykrqWs1Tx3_e7E/s320/P5190597.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart finally got the package we mailed him while we were in Japan. Better late than never!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyghqCpeoC1ODPWtpbOHJoSTTjGq55jTH09mCYYCkgC35KuY8iDntVWN7RZ4mrhbsUHabLFpLgqateJ0JXgiOwyEuDndgSGFy8kSMKCWXIOuSbK86j7VrNEt6jAfx0_2Xil07wMClm5Mdq/s1600/P5200602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyghqCpeoC1ODPWtpbOHJoSTTjGq55jTH09mCYYCkgC35KuY8iDntVWN7RZ4mrhbsUHabLFpLgqateJ0JXgiOwyEuDndgSGFy8kSMKCWXIOuSbK86j7VrNEt6jAfx0_2Xil07wMClm5Mdq/s320/P5200602.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The move.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like they had a little helper!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think everyone has had a move like this at some point. Just stuff it all in!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFvHwvWZR8lcCk8Iox_cvq-MYEQfC3O_3CTdjuKtACo4AyJZYf8lGe5IIZKDV4MF9vicwTbedIX9Z8AaiaqtRGaht6gN23B8-CvLq0cAQoVb0HhAlDktSDQVXTBIjSKv-21aGxkQ0QH83/s1600/P5240608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFvHwvWZR8lcCk8Iox_cvq-MYEQfC3O_3CTdjuKtACo4AyJZYf8lGe5IIZKDV4MF9vicwTbedIX9Z8AaiaqtRGaht6gN23B8-CvLq0cAQoVb0HhAlDktSDQVXTBIjSKv-21aGxkQ0QH83/s320/P5240608.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Stewart and a young friend from his ward.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-hEmpXwOYCerNb1dj3GWalunJj8IQsWOjJ5hUyFdQyTRWMs3cjz9nOWnat0WfzDaxKAmxz1hh28iEScNgZ1tJquZT2Pf3wm84JP6wO4Ivj2OuDQfOruhnBw81GBxXxVi-t0uSX_DhIu7/s1600/P5250609.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-hEmpXwOYCerNb1dj3GWalunJj8IQsWOjJ5hUyFdQyTRWMs3cjz9nOWnat0WfzDaxKAmxz1hh28iEScNgZ1tJquZT2Pf3wm84JP6wO4Ivj2OuDQfOruhnBw81GBxXxVi-t0uSX_DhIu7/s320/P5250609.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful Albania</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfibqQkM1XlSsuV1RAkcveVbyXDT_MS4_DlI5hvrwYBNlVTmtyYGvkKQXd3uO2Z1vHmN8HSGFlaXAk9NOP0E1TbORbU2Vaf_PpQbq_NoKnlFn_p2RQJXYKcyoDDf4HkrQY1COl-mMkjcaC/s1600/P5250610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfibqQkM1XlSsuV1RAkcveVbyXDT_MS4_DlI5hvrwYBNlVTmtyYGvkKQXd3uO2Z1vHmN8HSGFlaXAk9NOP0E1TbORbU2Vaf_PpQbq_NoKnlFn_p2RQJXYKcyoDDf4HkrQY1COl-mMkjcaC/s320/P5250610.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very old, remarkable church.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tnm2WKAUGeBZLe0I9ejNTShASlnA8fEskgbera-lmv6Z-_VFmnJBe40-af-Q12UP0pd5a1ubyKqnPUen9oAKuDclA097t0_c_54DyzibE3_tFv6G0s4ap7B2fagKWvzHSDmoDXLRh0Wy/s1600/P5250615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tnm2WKAUGeBZLe0I9ejNTShASlnA8fEskgbera-lmv6Z-_VFmnJBe40-af-Q12UP0pd5a1ubyKqnPUen9oAKuDclA097t0_c_54DyzibE3_tFv6G0s4ap7B2fagKWvzHSDmoDXLRh0Wy/s320/P5250615.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder Bangarter and Elder Stewart</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-82640063462763689142015-05-21T21:34:00.001-07:002015-05-21T21:34:21.655-07:00So busy...but Still got a Letter Off...One Day Late!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This last week has been quite busy. I am sorry I did not get a chance</div>
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to email you yesterday. We were running a ton of errands, and then we</div>
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had meetings and family home evening from 5-9. President gave us</div>
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permission to send off a letter home today!</div>
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Mini transfers happened on Tuesday. Some of the missionaries were</div>
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moving around. It all went really well though. We took two</div>
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missionaries to the airport to fly home. It is crazy seeing people end</div>
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their missions. On Tuesday afternoon we had some lessons. We are</div>
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teaching a family just outside of Tirana. We also had a lesson with a</div>
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man who we met on the street. He had a wheel chair with the churches</div>
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name on the back. He is very nice.</div>
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I went on an exchange with Elder Acheson on Wednesday. I was in his</div>
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area. We had District meeting in the morning, and taught some lessons</div>
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throughout the rest of the day. We also got to meet with Ersi. He has</div>
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been having a tough time, and I really feel bad for him. He is an</div>
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awesome kid. He is living here in Tirana at a shelter. We met one of</div>
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the ladies that works at the shelter and talked out a set of rules so</div>
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that we can get Ersi to come to church, and to come for activities. It</div>
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was a huge blessing. The lady was really nice to us, and</div>
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accommodating. Elder Acheson still wants to be President of the United</div>
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States so he took a very diplomatic approach. It was funny! It worked!</div>
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The whole exchange was good.</div>
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We have realized that there are a ton of less actives here in Tirana.</div>
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We got a list of some people from our bishop, and our ward mission</div>
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leader. We decided to go out and find a lot of them on Wednesday</div>
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morning. We took the list and went out finding them. Addresses don't</div>
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really exist here so we got in the general area, and then were</div>
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looking. We prayed that we would be able to find some. In the end we</div>
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met a man there who was happy to help us find a few of them. With his</div>
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help we were able to find two houses with less active members. One of</div>
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which was very nice to us. She just said that she had no interest</div>
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anymore. She married a Muslim man, and has been less active for the</div>
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last 7 years. It was good to meet her though. Maybe the sisters will</div>
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be able to go there and just sit with her for a little while. the</div>
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second house was a little harder to find. The man who was finding with</div>
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us thought it might be one of the stairwells so he went up to the</div>
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house he thought it might be, and knocked. It wasn't them, but it was</div>
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a man and his wife who had two children who live in the States, and</div>
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are both baptized members. They gave us their phone number, and we</div>
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will have to go back there. That was really cool! They have been to</div>
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our church. That is the second person in two weeks that we have met</div>
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that has baptised children in America. While I do think it is great</div>
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that they are members it is sad to me that they don't stay with their</div>
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families and help build the church here in Albania. The Church, and</div>
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their country need them very badly. That is one of the reasons I have</div>
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so much respect fro President Mema (the Stake President here). He</div>
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could be working anywhere in the world that he wanted, but he is</div>
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living here, and directing the church. Following that house we found</div>
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the other house with members. They wouldn't let us in, but they gave</div>
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us phone numbers so we can go back. We thanked our helper friend a</div>
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lot. We invited him to meet with us. He was not interested, but we</div>
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gave him a pass-along card with our website so that he can check it</div>
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out on his own time. We then set out to find one more family. We found</div>
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them after a lot of looking. It is a mom and daughter. The daughter</div>
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was called on a mission to Albania, and since then they have gone</div>
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inactive. That is a very hard thing I think. We really would like to</div>
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get her and her mom to come back to church. Apparently they were very</div>
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strong in the church before.</div>
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Following that less-active finding session we took off to meet the</div>
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Vlore Zone Leaders in Durres to do an exchange. I came back to Tiana</div>
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with Elder Squire, and Elder Bangerter went to Lushnje with Elder</div>
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Gray. We came back for a lesson with Brother Shehu. The man that has</div>
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not received the Holy Ghost. He wasn't home and so his Mom Sister</div>
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Shehu and his daughter Rezi went out with us to find some less active</div>
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houses. We found two more. Neither let us it, but it was great to meet</div>
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them. We hope to get into their houses this week. We went to teach</div>
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Sister Bjeshku with the promise that we would be back in an hour to</div>
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teach Brother Shehu. We tought Sister Bjeshku. She is doing great, and</div>
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I think she will make her baptism. On the return Brother Shehu was</div>
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still not there. We were a little dissapointed, but we went out to</div>
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tract. We prayed and walked and picked a building. We tracted for an</div>
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hour and got absolutely nothing. With 9 o'clock quickly approaching we</div>
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decided we had to go. We stared walking down the stairs, and all of a</div>
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sudded Elder Squire said that he needed to knock the door right in</div>
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front of him. So we knocked it and a man answered. As it turns out he</div>
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is a Melchizedek Priesthood holder and has not been to church in 2</div>
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years. He was happy to see us, and we got his number and we met with</div>
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him the next morming. On Sunday he came to church, and he loved it. He</div>
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stayed for 3 hours and said he will continue to come week per week.</div>
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Another less active success was on Thursday morning. We went to the</div>
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Second Counselor in the bishopric and had a lesson with him and his</div>
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family. His family comes pretty regularly, but he hadn't been to</div>
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church once while I have been here in Tirana. He told us he would come</div>
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to church, and he kept his word and he came.</div>
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Thursday night we met an active member family. Their last name in</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Bala, and they are "Bala-ng". They are great! We had a new idea to do</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
role plays with members. We did a role play with them on inviting</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
their friends to learn more about the Gospel through casual</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
conversataion. just normal real life stuff. We practiced with them.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
They have an 11 year old son and a 4 year old son. They started doing</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
it, and they did great. At the end they asked their friends if they</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
wanted church materials. Then they were giving them stuff. It seemed</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
pretty real to me up until that point. I kind of questioned them a</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
little bit. So if you are just talking at the store, or in the road</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
you are going to have a pamphlet or a Book of Mormon. Is this a</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
realistic situation for you? Of course they replied. I then learned</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
that their backpacks and purses and carrying bags always have church</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
materials to give away. I was shocked to say the least. We shouldn't</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
have been teaching them. They should have been teaching us. How many</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
of you carry around pamphlets and Books of Mormon?? If you don't I</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
challenge you to start, and to try and use them The take member</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
missionary work seriously.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Saturday we had Futboll in the morning. It was really good. It is good</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
to be out there in the community playing with a lot of people. many</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
have been found through simple stuff like that. We had lessons in the</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
evening.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Sunday was quite the day. We had 3 less actives, and an investigator</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
at church. It was awesome! The attendance was the highest it has been</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
since I got here. We had 92. After church we had back to back lunch</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
language study with the other 4th ward Elders. We study Albanian</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
together on Sundays and teach each other new things. It works really</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
well. On Sunday afternoon we had choir practice. Our choir is a work</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
in progress. The members really like it, and it is a good opportunity</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
to help them. The Stake President has set it up. We could use a</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
chorister like Mom.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Sunday night we had some good lessons. My favourite was one with a</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
recent convert and 2 active member men. they were supposed to have</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
investigators for us, but they didn't. The recent convert is still a</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
little bit Catholic. He believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
the Book of Mormon is true, but he also believes the the Catholic</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
church is true. it is a little confusing, but in the end Elder</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Bangerter read Ezekiel 37 to him and he said ok. It all made sense.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
One of his arguments was that if the authority was really restored by</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Peter, James, and John then that would mean we have the same church as</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
in olden times... he looked puzzled, and we all yelled yes. We think</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
it is all cleared up now, because he really is a pretty smart guy. He</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
is just a few months older than me.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The week went well. Good luck with graduation this weekend. I love the</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
air band thing!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Love you all! Take care of Buddy!</div>
<br class="" /><div style="text-align: left;">
Elder Stewart</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-19395614057598544602015-05-14T17:55:00.002-07:002015-05-14T17:55:56.536-07:00Creative Zone Conferences!<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Happy Mothers Day!!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">That was so great to talk with you yesterday. I really enjoyed that. I</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">don't really remember a lot of it. It flew by really fast, but it was</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">great to see you all!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This week has been great. We have had another busy week. Last Monday</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">we drove to Prishtina for the Prishtina Zone conference. The</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">conference took place on Tuesday, but we had a meeting and a family</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">home evening with President up in Prishtina. On Tuesday we had the</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">conference. Elder Bangerter and I had 45 minutes. We decided to change</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">things a little bit. Instead of giving a training we had a full group</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">role play. We had previously thought out a few scenarios of finding.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The first was inside of an elevator. We had two Districts go out into</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">the hall and the other District stayed inside the main room, and we</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">quickly set up the elevators (Folded up ping-pong tables and white</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">boards). The missionaries then came in, and entered the elevators, and</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">had about a minute to create a gospel conversation, and to try and get</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">the people interested. We had them switch elevators, and then we</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">evaluated it. We then did it again. We did the same thing in the store</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">situation. They were at a check out counter with a few small snacks,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">and we had the check out people with aprons, and other people in line.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We then did it with people stopped at a crosswalk. Everyone loved it.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I will send you the powerpoint that we used. I thought it went really</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">well. Elder Bangerter is a really creative guy so it all came together</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">great. We are really trying to get better as a whole mission at</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">finding new investigators. President does a great job motivating us,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">and he gave a fantastic training. He does a really good job at just</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">teaching by the Spirit. It looks to me that he goes in with a plan,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">and then just teaches by the Spirit only using his set plan if he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">feels that that is right. He knows his scriptures really well. As a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">mission we have been focusing on using Christ more in our lessons. We</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">are trying to use more of his attributes and stories about him as we</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">teach. A few weeks ago it dawned on us that it is really hard to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">"invite others to come unto Christ" when they just don't know who he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">is. President Weidmann did a great job of using scriptures about</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Christ all throughout his training. After hearing him speak I always</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">feel so energized. He is a great leader. Another highlight of the</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Prishtina Zone Conference was that we had invited one of the members</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">there to bare his testimony. He did a fantastic job. Elder Bangerter</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">recorded it, and I am so glad he did. It was powerful! Muslim to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Christian. The struggle. One thing he said was how disappointed his</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">parents were with him. He said they were devastated, and that they</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">made it clear to him he was bringing the whole family shame. He said</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">that hurt a ton, but that he knows these things are true, and that he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">knows that he will make his parents proud. He is such a great a guy!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">He said that when he first came to the church he had no interest, but</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">as he saw the pictures of Jesus Christ, and heard of the things he did</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">he wanted to learn more about him. He will be a fantastic leader of</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">the church in Kosovo. His fiance has a really great conversion story</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">as well. It was great for all of us to hear that. Miracles happen, and</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">conversion is a powerful thing.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Wednesday was a great day. We were back in Tirana. We met with a less</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">active man and his family. We had planned to meet with them two time a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">week, and to help him on his way back. One thing that we felt was</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">really important was to get him reading from the Book of Mormon again.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">When we got to his house we asked his daughter where they had read</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">to. She loves to read, and has been reading on and off with her dad.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">She said they were at 2 Nephi 32. We congratulated them, and asked to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">read a chapter together. At the end of the chapter we began talking</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">about the Holy Ghost. We then asked him how he felt when he received</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">promptings from the Holy Ghost. His answer was that he was sick that</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">day. What we said? At that point his family told us that he had never</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Sunday right after his</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">baptism he was sick and he never went to receive the Gift of the Holy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Ghost. We were quite surprised. We hope to help him get rebaptised,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">and to become an active priesthood holder.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Also on Wednesday night we saw Sister Bjeshku and her family. She is</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">great! Their whole family is awesome. It had been a while between our</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">last teaching appointments, and so we wanted to review everything with</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">her. We talked about the steps of the Gospel that are necessary to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">make the Celestial Kingdom. She totally understands it, and her whole</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">family is very excited that she is learning. It will be great for her</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">husband as well. He seems to have a really strong testimony, and a lot</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">of knowledge, but her works on Sunday and it is hard for him to come</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">to church. We hope to get him coming back to church as well. Their</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">children are very strong members. Brother Bjeshku is a very supportive</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">husband and father as well so that is great.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Some other stuff happened on Wednesday as well, but the other really</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">cool thing that happened is that we felt like we should go and visit</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">one of the recent converts in our ward. We went to his house, and he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">wasn't home.. but his parents let us in, and we talked with them for</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">about 20 minutes. They were really nice. They then started asking a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">lot of questions about the Book of Mormon. The mom had learned before,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">but is not baptised. The Dad had never sat in on a lesson before. We</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">taught the Restoration and it went fantastic. I love the dad. He is a</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">really big funny guy. I think that is the best way to describe him. I</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">loved it. They loved it. They invited us to come back and teach them.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We went back a few days ago and had another lesson with them. this</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">time their son was there. He is super solid. They have huge potential</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">as a family. We will be meeting with them again this week. The Spirit</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">has been super strong in both of our lessons with them.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Tirana Zone Conference was on Thursday. In many ways it was a lot like</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">the one in Prishtina. It was a tri-Zone conference however. We had all</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">of the Albania Zones there. Things went great. We did the elevator</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">scene with them as well as public transportation (Busses and Vans). I</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">think people were happy with how it all went.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I don't have time to finish this letter. We had a lot of things come</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">up with mini transfers.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Love you all! Take care of Buddy!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Elder Stewart</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">
</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7aRLoR8rFfKrDh9Rp5d73O0FCXdTO0RAi54l7six-rY2PLYP2qdH_SzQiQvrrTyJSAaGD9TWXnnRz5kH1tXoLjKLWdeehr7CSEroqTMgXSwQdRMt0vWlXs__2NJJHgwpSYy07mgflWrcO/s1600/P5100563.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7aRLoR8rFfKrDh9Rp5d73O0FCXdTO0RAi54l7six-rY2PLYP2qdH_SzQiQvrrTyJSAaGD9TWXnnRz5kH1tXoLjKLWdeehr7CSEroqTMgXSwQdRMt0vWlXs__2NJJHgwpSYy07mgflWrcO/s320/P5100563.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our most current family pic!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-534628095878683927.post-58077275255701464032015-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:002015-05-08T21:27:35.418-07:00Busy Times in Tirana!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This week has been very busy. We have had a lot of stuff.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">On Tuesday we had our District meeting as usual. It went very well. We</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">have been doing quite a few role plays. We met a cool man that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">afternoon. He is the one that we met by the elevator last week while</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">tracting. He still seems promising. The Restoration seemed to make</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">sense to him. He is a pretty smart guy, and he knew a fair amount</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">about the Bible.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Wednesday was crazy we ran around Tirana with Elder Lesi and to other</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">missionaries getting papers filled out so that they can get their</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Macedonian Visas. It was quite the chase. We ended up all over Tirana.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Embassy closed at 1, and so at 20 to 1 we had everything done, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">ready for the embassy. When we got to the Embassy they said that it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was incomplete. They said it had to be translated. Elder Bangerter</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">left the other missionaries there, took the papers, and ran to the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">translator to get it all translated. It took quite a while, but</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">because the other missionaries were at the Embassy they waited for us.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">When we got back they told us we had to pay a bill at a nearby bank.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We ran to the bank to pay the bill, and at the bank we met a long time</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">investigator who the ward missionary leader told us to visit. It was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">quite miraculous actually. We got the bill paid, and the embassy took</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">it all. Elder Lesi was able to go back to Gjakova and didn't have to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">stay the night. That was fantastic because everything was already</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">worked out for him to get back to Gjakova with the new Senior Couple</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and another missionary. Looking back on it there were people on the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">other side helping us a ton all morning. Everything worked out a lot</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">better than we ever could have planned. That long time investigator</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">invited us to his house. He hasn't met with missionaries for quite a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">few months so this will be a great opportunity.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Wednesday night we took Edmond our investigator to Institute. His</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">heart is not softening. It is very tough to see. He has a lot of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">doubts. His progress has halted completely. He is a really nice guy,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">but he stopped. We will see what happens. He has a lot of potential.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">On Wednesday we received a call from someone named Kurt who had found</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">our number on a bus. We met with him on Thursday, and he was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">fantastic. He is about 60. He is married. He has gone to quite a few</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">churches. He would really like to be baptised, but he has not decided</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">where at yet. He is Muslim by background, but he has always felt a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">special relation to Christ. His parents are not for it, but he wants</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to and fells he needs to. Tradition is a really big thing here. It is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">toughgoing against old tradtions. It makes me think of those</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">scriptures in the Book of Mormon where they are brought to the truth</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">contrary to what they have been taught their whole lives. We met him</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">again on Friday as well. He is great. It turns out he lives in the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">other Elders area so we had to hand him off, but he shows a lot of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">promise.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">On Friday we also met with a man named Spartak Shehu. He is married</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">with two kids, and they take care of his mom. His mom is very funny.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">She is super active at church, and Spartak is innactive so she was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">very exctited that we came to make the visit. It sounds like Spartak</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">wants to come back to church. His son just turned 8, and we presented</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the idea that he could baptise him. I think he liked that idea. It is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">very obvious that his kids really look up to him. He seems like a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">great dad. We are going to meet with him twice a week and get him</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">coming back to church. Our ward mission leader was the one who</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">suggested meeting with him. He was very exctied when he heard that we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">had had an appointment. Everything went fantastic. When we left</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Spartak seemd happy. His wife was thrilled. The kids were very</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">excited. His daughter is 12.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">On Saturday we had a meeting with President Weidmann in the morning.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We talked about a lot of upcoming events and transfers. It was very</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">interesting to be a part of. The Spirit was very strong. We took care</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">of a lot of things. Elder Bangerter have been putting in a lot of time</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">on the side getting stuff ready. President does a ton. If Stake</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">President is anything like mission President I would imagine Dad has a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">ton to do. President Weidmann does a great job! We say a lot of</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">prayers at those meetings. The power of prayer is eveident. There were</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">many time where we would pray and then remember or change something. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">learned a lot just listening to President Weidmann talk. I realized I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">should probably be writing more of this stuff down.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Saturday afternoon we made a trip out to a village to visit a new</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">family that was contacted in Tirana. we met Fatos and his niece</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Alexandra. They were great. They come from very humble conditions, but</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">thwy were very open. At first the lesson was just with him. He is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">around 40, but life really wears at some people so it was tought to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">get it going or to get him to tie it all together. We were just</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">talking about the importance of God, and how he talked with us. As we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">talked about Prophets all of a sudden a light just popped on, and he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">got it. A class with a teacher. We are the class, and we need a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">teacher. I really liked it, and so we took off with that. His niece</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">then came, and she had read the bible, and was really smart. She is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">14. From there on the lesson took of. We explained the Restoration</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">well. They were very anxious to take the book and read it. We</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">explained the power of reading combined with</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> prayer. It </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was a great</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">lesson. They want us to come back. They were supposed to be at church,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">but a few things came up and weren't able to make it. We have very</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">high hopes for them.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">On our way back from that lesson we had the feeling to stop in with a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Recent Convert who has not been coming. We stopped by his house, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">he wasn't there. They invited us in though. His non-member parents</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">were both there. We met with them. We talked for about 20 minutes and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">got to know them. They are super nice. We then had a lesson and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">explained the Restoration. The mom has learned before. She knows a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">lot. She actually received a wheelchair from the church when she broke</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">her leg so her son took her to church to say thank you. He ended up</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">being the one getting baptised. Her hand her husband were great</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">though. He told us at the end that it was the first time he had ever</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">sat in on a missionary lesson. That was quite amazing. He invited us</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to come back. He is a great guy. He is one one the top dogs with the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Tirana Police Service. He has traveled all over the world getting</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">trained.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Running from their house we made it to the baptism. The sisters in our</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">ward had a lady get baptised. Overall I would say it was the smoothest</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">and best baptismal service that I have been to here. Everything went</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">great.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Fast Sunday was good. There were a few highlights. The first was that</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Ersi is in fourth ward now! He came to church, and we met him there.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">That kid has had quite the last few months. I am very lucky to have</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">the support system that i have. I am realizing that more and more. He</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">was there though, and we had a very happy reunion. He gave his</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">testimony too. What a guy. He is the best. Sunday night our lessons</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">fell through so we went out to recontact some old contacts. they</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">turned out not being home so we tracted. We went into one appartment</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">prayed and weren't feeling it so we left. We left and walked for a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">little bit, and picked a new one. We always tract from the top to the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">bottom so we went to the top, prayed, and started making our way down.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We were pretty sure that we were at the right place, but the people</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">were treating us pretty bad. On the last door person asked who we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">were. We presented ourselves. Nothing. We told her through the door</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">that we were going to be leaving a pass-along card, and then we</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">started to place it in the door. She opened the door. We talked for a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">little bit. She got super interested. We explained, and as Elder</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Bangerter was testifying to finish the door approach she started</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">crying, asked for the book and told us she wanted to come to church.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">It was amazing. She seems super awesome.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">This whole week has been great. I have gained a very strong testimony</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">of prayer this week. I know there are a lot of times when God is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">probably trying to tell me something and I just don't listen. We</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">really tried to listen this week.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Have a fantastic week! Happy Birthday Matt! See you all on Sunday!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Take Buddy on walks!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Love you all!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Elder Stewart</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0