A Great Week and Big Changes Coming!

This week has been as awesome as ever! I am loving it out here! The Work is moving along and I am having a fantastic time doing it!

But for real business this week I took on the Elbasan Challenge! 2 Bugace in one sitting. To our knowledge only one other Elder has done it before. We all wanted to try it though so we went out to th Bugace place for lunch. I have to start off by saying that I really don't like bugace. It is an Elbasan thing. Elbasan is the only place in the mission that has it. Bugace is this massive bun filled with byrek and all of it is soaked in butter. Half a Bugace is a good meal. They weigh a ton. We were joking about lifting weights with them. They are that big. Anyway the four of us Elders went there. Elder Richards pulled out right off the bat said he wasn't feeling it and only got one. The other three if us went for it. Elder Austin and Price both quit after one, and kept the other one for later. I wasn't about to quit though. I stuffed them both down! Champion! They called up Elder Palmer (the other missionary who did it) when I was at one and a half. He has a lot of overall size on me so he was amazed. He gave me some inspirational words and I took it down. Surprisingly I felt alright after too, and we went tracting up and down stairs. It was sweet!

We have a baptism set for this Saturday. His name is F. He has been investigating for about a transfer and a half now. His cousin has her mission papers in so she has had a really big effect on him. He is 25. We dropped him a while back, and then picked him up again on a fresh note. He comes to church every week though, and now he is just ready to progress. I think the drop helped.

This transfer is quickly coming to a close. There is a lot of open ended business here is Elbasan still. Some of our investigators are very close, but very far. Same type of thing.. if they come to know for themselves that the church is true.. get parental permission.. or decide to commit... or all or some of the above a lot more can and will be ready for baptism and life as a member of the church very quickly. I guess missionary work goes in waves a bit. The other area here in Elbasan hit the wave two transfers ago when some people committed, and converts have been bringing others to the missionaries. The area that I am in now has been kinda dry for a bit. Only two converts in the last year before we got here. We had three and hopefully four, and then hopefully spark will catch and there will be a boom. That will be awesome when that happens! Elder Austin and I along with a lot of other missionaries have put a lot of work in. The great thing is that there are some great families. I cannot wait for them to finally understand the gospel is for them. Missionaries and ward members can only do so much. They have freedom to choose, and some things just take time. The members here are really great though!

But with the transfer ending I get my new assignment this weekend. Elder Austin and I have no idea what will happen. One of us will for sure be moving. There is a very real possibility that both of us will be moving just because the mission is going to go crazy. There are 14 Elders coming into the mission and one sister. That means 14 Elder spots need to open for training. Also there are leadership spots opening right away, and Elder Austin is up for grabs for a Zone Leader or AP. Also Kosovo is expanding from 4 Elders there now to 16 Elders and 2 sisters. The President is shaking things up right before he finishes off at the end of this next transfer. Elder Austin and my future is totally unknown.

I don't know what else to tell you.. We have continued to get into a ton of homes for lessons rather than meeting at the church centers. It really changes the feel of our lessons. Pres Ford challenged Elder Austin and I to try and go a week without using the church buildings today. I am very excited to start. I love a good challenge. I am not sure if it was a mission wide, zone wide, district wide, or just companionship challenge, but it doesn't matter we are gonna try and do it! It will be sweet! 

I hope you are all having a great time! Congrats again to Dillon on his baptism.

Take Buddy on some walks!

Love, Elder Stewart

Another Great Week!

Hello Family!

Another great week! We are working hard! This week has been a highlight. It came a little late in the transfer, but I can't really complain. It has been awesome.

It kinda started on Wednesday at Zone conference. Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal. On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference. It is like a Zone Meeting on steroids. We all travel into Tirana instead of to Lushnea where the Zone leaders are, and with that the Fords are also present. in a Zone Meeting the highest leadership present is the Zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders. President Ford delivered a great message which included hastening the work continuing to work hard, but it also came with a couple of challenges. He has heard from many of us around the mission, including our companionship, that getting second lessons is sometimes hard. We aren't positive why. We have had very spiritual lessons with some peopla and then never seen them again. So he gave us two challenges. The first was choosing the venue for lessons. The second had to do with choosing the people for lessons. The third had to do with daily contact. The ones that we have really seen make a difference so far are the first and third. 

Elder Austin and I made a goal to act on his goal. We really put it into affect. We have been into five of our investigators homes this week. Usually those would have been done at the church building because it is convenient and they prefer it because they don't like showing us their homes because they are poor. As we have strived to keep these goals we have realistic baptismal dates. We have seen miracles. Actually we have seen lot of them in the last four days. We are getting into homes we never ever thought would be possible. We have been given excuses to not to for so long, and then this week the walls came down.

We got a visit in M's home, and we taught about family and the proclamation, and eternal families. Sister Tooley came with us on that one. M was fasinated, and we will be going back. We got a visit in A's home this morning. He finally caved and let us come over. It was amazing. He has told us for a very long time that he believes the church is true but he hasn't acted. He has now commited to act. He told us today that in his heart he knew that when he was baptized before it was not with authority. Tons of walls came down for him. He did not commit to a specific date, but he has given us a very open invite to teach more lessons in his home. An was a very special case. We had a lesson with her at the center before driving to her village with the Tooleys. In the lesson we had a very big scary bridge to cross.. baptism in the Orthodox Church. We had no idea how she was going to take it. We were very scared that we were going to lose the appointment with her family at her house, but we felt like we needed to teach it before we went out there so that we weren't hiding anything. We got to that point in the lesson, and explained authority from Jesus Christ connecting it back to Joseph Smith. And as it just so happens she said "yeah I need to be baptized again. When?" So the date got set for a few weeks down the road. We went out and met her family. They were all super nice, but kinda shy. They gave us tons of food and drinks. I hope the lesson touched them. It was pretty simple on the Plan of Salvation. They didn't participate much, but they appreciated the fact that we traveled all of the way out there. Another visit we had was with E and his wife. E is a less active recent conver from last transfer. I am not sure what happened, but obviously that is the worst kind of recent convert. Anyway we got an appointment in his home with his nonmember wife, brother, mother in law, and nieces, and his sons. That lesson also went very well. They are fascinated by eternal families and temples. All of them a Muslim, but not practicing. Overall it went very well, and we hope to see them all join the church. If that is the case I see no reason why E will remain inactive. Other house visits were also good. And we have some people who have commited to live lives as members of the church and be baptised. We have also seen a lot of sucess in contacting investigators daily. I felt like we were being an annoyance, but it seems to be working.

On the not spiritual side Elbasan has been a huge party! We have had the Summer Fastival, Flower festival, and Ballakume (cookie festival). It has been wild. We haven't celebrated much, but i have seen lots of stuff. The streets were super crowded. The pic of the concert thing is in the boulevard. Usually it is pretty empty. You have seen a pic of it before. This pic is taken from the same spot as my one from the beginning off the castle wall.

Also on a not spiritual not.. actually not even close to spiritual note.. I tried Alcohol for the first time this week. At A's house one of the drinks was alcoholic. One sip and it burned all the way down my throat. Needless to say we did not continue drinking that drink. They assured us it was not alcoholic and brought out the bottle. Sure enough the drink was alcoholic. It was wild I was totally drunk for like a bunch of hours, and couldn't remember anything.. haha jokes.. but it was wild!

Also I took a picture by the McDonalds sign here in Elbasan. I'm not sure if it is a joke or if they are actually trying to claim affiliation with McDonalds. It is super greasy like McDonalds food. But there are roaches crawling all over the counters and I am sure McDonalds is more sanitary than that ;)

The work is going well! I love it!

Have a blast and take Buddy on walks! Best of luck to Matt in Basketball Provincials!!

Love, Elder Stewart

This is the concert he referred to in this weeks letter.

A store named after his sister - doesn't really look like her type of store though! :)

A cookie from the cookie festival. Elder Stewart told us they are really good and about as big as his face!

Elder Stewart and Elder Riber. Elder Riber has just completed his mission.

McDonald's????

A bakery full of cookies for the cookie festival - Ballakume.

Cookies for sale on the street. Editor's not: I think I would REALLY like it there!!:)   )

Elder Stewart - cookie stand in back.

Albania Becomes a Stake!

This week was awesome! The excitement and energy was high. We became the first Albanian Stake. Elder Kearn and Elder Charles came to set it up. On Sunday morning we woke up and went to catch a bus to Tirane. The District had organized for a bus to bring in all of the Elbasan people. A ton of people turned out to head to Tirana. So many that we had to call in a second bus. We filled two buses with Elbasan people. Members, missionaries, less actives, and investigators were all very excited to be a part of the making of the first stake. The ride there went really fast! The road isn't great espescially on a bus so one person got sick, but other than that it was great. When we arrived we all walked over to the big congress building in the middle of Tirane. The church rented it out for stake conference! Elder Austin and I got stationed by some directing missionaries so that we could direct traffic. Team Elbasan beat most people to the building. Elder Austin and I stood out on the sidewalk. We were the first two missionaries from the bus station. It was a fun job. I met a lot of people from around Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia. Buses came from all of the centers. I met a lot of members, a couple of investigators, a bunch of missionaries, and some RM's and their families here for the creation of the stake. The energy level was very high.

I missed the first part of the conference because I was out on the street. But President Mema (the District President) was called again as the stake president. I don't really know him, and I don't know his counsellors at all. The talks were all really good. The theme to them all was that this is just the beginning. Keep pressing forward, setting high goals and working for them. It was mentioned that they were hoping to maybe establish another stake at the end of the next mission presidents term. That would truly be amazing. Albania has progressed a long way from where it was. President and Sister Ford bore their testimonies in Albanian! Sister Ford was extremely impressive. After the conference everyone talked for a while inside the building. There were a lot of very happy people! We then drove home to Elbasan. Elbasan will stay a branch because we are very small. Tirane all turned wards I think. 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th branches. Durres and Vlore also went into wards I believe. Those are all the strongest centers. We heard you need 6 wards for a stake? That is the word on the street anyway.

This week was also Sister Tooley's and Elder Austin's Birthdays. Elder Austin didn't want to do much for his. I "gave" him some stuff from my packages at home. The quotations are cuz we share it all anyway! He chose where we went for lunch. He wanted bugace so that is what we did. The Tooleys made him some really good cookies. It was for the most part a pretty normal day. It was what he wanted though. He is now 20. Holy cow! He is an old man!

Sister Tooley's birthday was on Saturday! We called her bright and early in the morning to wish her a happy birthday. We also bought flowers off the boullivard, and made a card. As well we volunteered to cook Sunday dinner! She loved it! We did good! We cooked a really good pasta and some chicken for the Sunday dinner.

It is party central here in Elbasan. They had teachers day on the 7th so everyone partied. It was crazy. They had Mothers day on the 8th. Again everyone partied! Next week is their spring festival and ballakume (face cookie) festival. More parties! I am not sure why all of those days equate to massive parties, no school, and a ton of festivities but I think it is pretty cool! Mothers day saved us because there were flowers on the street. Otherwise we had nothing for sister Tooley.

Today we went exploring with Elder Tooley! He drove us out a ways up a mountain where we went exploring. We checked out an old cement factory (or rather series of factories) It was very cool. We hiked around a bit. At the top was a chute where they pushed big rocks down to become smaller. Then a factory. Then more stuff. Another factory. A long cable and bins to carry the rocks. It was cool!

The work is going good here. We are teaching lots of lessons. Elder Austin is doing good. Lots of our investigators came to stake conference which was great!

Have an excellent week and take Buddy on some walks!

I love you all lots! Missions are super cool!

Elder Stewart

Sister Tooley on her birthday.

Elder Stewart, Elder Austin and Elder Pierce. Three generations...Elder Austin is Elder Stewart's trainer and Elder Pierce was Elder Austin's trainer.

Elder Stewart and two of his new friends/investigators.

Elder Stewart and Elder Eliason from the MTC. They met up again in Tirane when the stake was created.

Elder Stewart and Elder Tooley on their PDay adventure and exploring trip.

Elbasan from the hilltop.

Avash avash, pak nga pak - Slowly, slowly, little by little.

This week has been interesting. Here is how it went. 

"M".. is off the face of the planet. She was super strong, and actively participating, and excited for a baptismal date this saturday. She was almost ready as well. Anyway she is gone. Kinda weird.

"J" is going strong. He was at church. He has a lot of potential, but won't commit too fast. He is hesitant. To be honest if I were a convert (thank goodness I am not) It would take me a really long time to make a decision. He is reading and praying. he has felt the spirit in lessons, at church, and on his own. He has acknowledged it to us! That on its own is fantastic. He wants to finish reading the Book of Mormon before he commits. I think that is a very noble goal. His parents have both passed away so he has recognized for a long time long before us that something is missing in his life.

"M" dropped us. "A" is going through the lessons but not to much action.

"I" is doing great. She is already a super good missionary for her family. She shares the gospel like crazy. She has a lot of extended family there right now so we aren't allowed to teach lessons in the home. We have taught her and some cousins of hers a few times. Their family will join the church. It is a matter of time I am convinced.

Anyway.. I tried doing emails with investigator updates but I feel like it is pretty boring. Some Elders do it this way so I tried it out, but I don't like it. I will just tell stories instead.

At the end of this week, and the majority of this week we have been making a huge push to get male investigators. 90 percent (honest percentage) of our lessons this week have been with males. And it isn't as though we have't been teaching lessons. We have been finding males. The problem with male investigators is that we get dogged often and have to hunt people down. I am getting pretty good at emphasizing the importance of our message though haha. As soon as we have had one or two lessons and they have heard the truth I give it to em. The soft way wasn't working so I am trying the more straightforward approach. (They will thank me later) It hasn't worked all that great either to be honest, but they hear a very straight forward testimony and hopefully it will eat away at them for a little while.

We have had some great lessons though. Preach my Gospel states pretty clearly that we are to teach by the spirit so that is what we have been trying to do. Although almost all first lessons are the B of M, Restoration, Prophets, and God loves you we teach it differently, and sometimes different parts and angles to our investigators. Lessons are like puzzles, and we have to put it together to meet their needs. It is fun. This morning we had a young guy (20s) come up and ask us for a lesson. That never happens. The Lord is blessing us. It hasn't turnued into baptisms or priesthood holders, or eternal families yet, but as the Albanians say. "Avash avash, pak nga pak" We will keep pushing them, but things don't happen in an instant.

This week we have been tracting a few times. Usually we don't, but this week we decided to try it out! We take the elevator to the top of huge appartment buildings, say a prayer and get all of the doors on the way down teaching lessons along the way. Many people here say they are Muslim, but the reality is most of them aren't practicing and they don't know what they are talking about haha. It is kinda funny. Sometimes when teaching we talk about Jesus being the Son of God and they agree with us. That most certainly is not Muslim doctrine. They are just kinda confused, and we are here to help them.

I had my first home cooked Albanian meal last night. Us the other Elders and the Tooleys were invited to go to the house of two member girls, and their non-member parents. The Tooleys wanted to go and give them condolences because their grandmother (who lived with them) passed away. They are both very close to Sister Tooley. We had a great visit with them, and the fed us a feast of Greek and Albanian. It was very good. I haven't experienced much liver or kidney before, but we had it for the first course and it was good. We also had chicken and deep fried potatoe things kinda like french fries. We then had a pizza thing, and black bread, and a greek salad, and a traditional chocolate cake brownie thing. I was stuffed. It was my second big meal yesterday because the Tooleys fed us after church. The night went well though.

We went to Tirane one day this week to get me all legalized! They told Sister Boettinger that we had to behave and be nice to the police men. Good thing too because we are pretty crazy and probably would have been thrown out of the country. Jokes!  Anyway.. It was pretty easy. I took all of the documents that Mom put together. The mission home has them all. We didn't have to do anything at all actually. We just walked up to the table, and they said that everything was good. We will be here for a year for sure, and then I do it again. Not much to it! Bro and Sister Andrews take care of things from here.

We drove into Tirane with the Tooley's, and they had to get their car inspected so we went with them to do that. It was a good thing we were with them because they wouldn't have made it without translation. Here is how the fun part went. A guy asked us for the 200 lek initial fee so Brother Tooley pulled out a loaded wallet and handed him a 1000 lek expecting change. The guy ran away with it, and then came back and said some stuff to Elder Austin. Anyway I guess it wasn't clear or something. A miscommunication between him Elder Tooley and the man happened. The man ended up with 2000 lek due to a second 1000. I am not sure what happened. Anyway that was ridiculous but Elder Austin and Bro Tooley thought it was the right amount. So we kept going. We went into the building and the real lady who actually is the one who we are supposed to pay informed us we were robbed. So I was mad about that, and Elder and Sister Tooley were flustered, and Elder Austin was feeling down because of the mistake. Elder Austin and I went out there to make things right. We told the security guard, pointed out the guy who was probably stealing from more people. The security guard hustled him down, and drug him in by the collar. We got our money back. Elder Austin then took us to a traditional Albanian place on our way back out of town to Elbasan. 

In March they have a festival here. It is either the 14th or 15th. i can't remember. Anyway for the festival they make these huge sugar cookies. They are the size of my face! And like two inches thick. They are everywhere right now. Everyone is making them and trying to sell them. They are certainly at an excess. But they are kind of cool.

This weekend we are getting together as a branch and being bused into Tirane for the creation of the stake. It will be a two hour meeting and then we will be bussed back. It is being held at a large rented center in Tirane. Everyone is very excited. The church is certainly progressing in Albania!

Anyway life here is still awesome! I love teaching the Gospel, and I hope you are all doing well.

Take Buddy on some walks!

Love, Elder Stewart

An electrical pole near their apartment building. Safe?

P Day adventure in the forest.

Selfie...caught on film by Elder Richards???

A train in Elbasan

Old Military tunnels

A lizard!

An Albanian village

Elder Stewart and Elder Richards on P Day overlooking part of the village.

The thinker??? :)

Albanian Countryside

A New Stake, New Investigators, Police Check and Duelling!

 It has been a great week!

Thanks so much for the packages! I received one from Mom this week, and two from Aunt Carolyn! Thank you so much! The other missionaries here love the candy as well!

We have many solid investigators right now. We have some male investigators! Amazing! Six that could make awesome priesthood holders if they will commit. We have three on baptismal dates, but they need to work for it. They have to show their commitment to the gospel.  We found one man last week outside of English course. Elder Austin made up an interesting analogy for him. His brain is full of church knowledge.. only it is very weird. It is like a cup full of dirty water. We don't really know what church or combination it is, but it is a lot of empty ended theories and stuff. Anyway the more church stuff we give him the more comes out. It is like pouring clean water in a cup of dirty water. It is slowing down now though. He committed to baptism. Everything is making more sense to him now. We are certainly lucky to have the truth, and the knowledge that we can pray for answers. 

Two sisters, (11 and 8) are bringing their whole family to the gospel. We have had a few lessons with them. They are great. They read the Book of Mormon a lot, and pray every night together.We found an old investigator of ours this week. She fell off the map there for a second, but she wants lessons again. It was pretty exciting because she was doing so well until she disappeared. A is a different solid investigator. In her prayer (That she gave on her first lesson!!) she thanked God for finally bringing her to someone who could help her find direction. She has been coming to lessons, and actually came with her younger sister to a baptism. Amazing because they live in a village outside of town so that took commitment. 

On that note S got baptized. Elder Bilodo came in from Durres to do it. It was a long anticipated day for her, and it was great to get a lot of our investigators there. 

We explored the Forests of Albania today. These forests just so happen to be the ones that Voldemort lived in. Anyway took some picks dueling and stuff. It was awesome. Adventure is awesome!

We get our Stake here in Albania right away. I am most excited for them because with a stake comes a Patriarch. Most people in Albania have never had a patriarchal blessing before. The few that have had it done in English a few years back when an English speaking patriarch was here. We have our first stake conference on March 9. We are all going into Tirane. Most people will ride buses into Tirane I think. It should be very exciting. To be honest I do not know many details though.

This week I am heading to Tirane for a Police check thingy. Sis Boettinger and I are the only ones who need to go. The others were at the American Embassy last week. The Tooleys also have business in Tirane so we are headed in on Wednesday. I hope I pass!!

I had a girl at church ask me "What are you gaining from doing this? Are you getting paid? School credit? Why are you here?" I gave her a pretty standard answer about blessings and stuff, but I wanted to say "if you only knew." It would have been impossible for me to comprehend before my mission just how much I am getting out of it. I can't even begin to describe how great it is. And the beauty of it is that it was never about us (the missionaries).

The Fords were in Elbasan for a day this week. They said they really want/need more senior couples but there just aren't any to send. It kinda sounded like Mongolia is in the same boat. I know of quite a few in our ward that could do it. I really hope they decide to go because first and foremost it is awesome, and as well the Lord needs them! They have no idea how big of a difference they could make! So dad issue some words of encouragement, and tell them to write on their papers that they want to come here haha.

English course ended this week. They go a couple weeks and then break. We are on a break right now.

Take Buddy on walks!

Love, Elder Stewart 

Elder Austin, S and Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart in the Forests of Elbasan!

Elbasan in background.

Elder Stewart and Elder Austin duelling with "wands" in the forest of Elbasan. No sign of Voldemort though! :)

A Great Week and Finally an Adventure!

Editor's note: For protection of all the people Elder Stewart meets and teaches, from now on we will just use their first initial rather than their names.

This week went well! We have had a great time!

At the start of this week we had a trainer trainee meeting! I got to see my whole MTC group! That was very fun!  Everyone seemed to be doing well! A lot of them became my really good friends in the MTC. Pres Ford gave us a training on commitments and some other stuff. We then separated trainers with him and Trainees with sister Ford. We said what was going well and what wasn't. I of course said absolutely nothing along with a few others.  I think i scored when I got Elder Austin because we get along pretty well, and we have been able to teach lessons. Anyway that day was fun! We drove to Tirane with the Tooleys. All of the big Taxi wans in Albania have been shut down... Too many accidents. It is going to be a lot harder for us to get out of town now for conferences and stuff.

I gave my first Albanian talk on Sunday. I was the closer so I ended up chopping quite a bit of my talk off. I had a 15 min talk so I wrote one for 20, and then I only had to speak for 10. I spoke on conversion. I thought I did well. Afterwards people talked to me about it, and that proved that I was more or less understood. SCORE! The Tooleys fed us these awesome pancakes for dinner after church! I love their food!

We had 7 solid investigators in church. We just need to get them committed. They all loved it! 

As for lessons...we had a great few with J. Sometimes on his own, and sometimes with friends of his. His friend K comes to most everything! They also have a big group of friends. They would, and with time I hope will make great members!! Todays lesson was super powerful. Because commitments have been hard to get we reviewed everything we had taught quickly. We had a great discussion. We talked about the Plan. We talked about what we need to do. We talked about faith and testimony. We had D and S in on the lesson. They were huge assets. It is great having shqiptare (Albanians) in on lessons. Altogether there were 8 of us at the lesson. 4 investigators. I think they all felt something. Some people shed tears.. first time I have seen that in Albania.

The girl we met on the street.. M. is rocking. We have had two lessons with her.

S and A (S's friends) are both doing well. S seems the most interested, but then A came to church and S did not so I guess it is a toss up. the Tooleys and Pres Kashari have both sat in on lessons with them.

A is a man who is great. His wife died a few years back. He has a daughter. We had a lesson with him this week on the need to be baptized with Priesthood authority. He had a ton of questions and a ton of objections to it, but I think we are on teack now. He was baptized before is the thing. Pres Kashari and Bro Tooley were in on that lesson, but we have had some other ones without them. The fact is though members certainly help with lessons.

We had a lot of other lessons too, but those are some highlights.

We have three potential families. We have had one lesson with two of them, and two with the others. We have been working on having powerfull interactive lessons. It helps me out too because I don't have to speak as much, and I can just listen. Listening is way easier than speaking. We have also met with some men this week. It looks like we might even get a second lesson with some of them. It is so sad with us when we think we have a great lesson with a guy who has such great potential, and then we never see him again! We are trying so hard to get priesthood and families! The one family we got to hike out 45 minutes to their house. It is a long ways out. They have grandparents, and their children, and their children. There are a lot of people. We met a lot of kids. They are some of the most friendly people. Hopefully something good will happen! We also met with a family who lives in an apartment near the center. We tracted them out. We have only ever tracted twice for about an hour a time. There are many more effective methods of finding here in Elbasan! It was a mom and her 15 year old son. There is a 17 or 18 year old son too... hopefully he is at the next lesson. The final lesson we had was with a girl who I told you about in probably my first in field email. She is Hannahs age, and she is leading her family to the church. Two of her friends were the ones at church. They all get found through the English class that we teach. Anyway the spirit was strong in all of those lessons.

There was a move in the mission this week and Elder Acheson got taken from Elbasan, and Elder Richards came here. I miss Elder Acheson because he was a really great guy! We had fun together! He plans to be president of the USA in 2044. That would be totally cool! Elder Richards is awesome though! We get along very well! He has only been here for about three days, but we are pretty similiar. He is 18 as well. His birthday is next week. He is one group ahead of me just like Elder Acheson and Price. 

Today we went on a great adventure. I had been hungering for an adventure so we did it. We hiked up the canal to the river (well like lots of little streams) and followed it for a long ways. We hiked, and jumped over stuff so we were all super happy. Team Elbasan likes adventure!

Good to hear Buddy is well after the operation!

Love, Elder Stewart

A gypsy camp

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart and Elder Austin in front of the mission home.

Their P-day adventure. Notice the shorts in February!?!?!

The canal they explored on their p-day adventure.

News from Elbasan...After a Week Hiatus!

Thanks for all of the emails!! I apologize that I did not email last week. Elder Austin was out of commission for Monday and Tuesday and then had to take it slow on Wednesday because he still wasn't feeling well. Do you know any good doctors??

We had our record high last week of lessons. 25 on the week. Elder Austin had never been above 20 before. Mind you it is a different city, but we were happy with it. I am not satisfied, but I am happy. We are gonna break 30 a couple of times this transfer even if it kills me. This week has been a bad week for numbers because of Elder Austins illness at the beginning of the week! We have had some good lessons though.

We had our first baptism this week. He is 8, but a convert. His mom got baptized just before I got into the field. His dad is not at all interested, but he has given them both permission. We have been teaching him lessons, but in the end Elder Palmer our Zone Leader baptized him. It was good because Elder Palmer has a good connection with their family. He was in the area before us! It was the way it should be!

Elbasan has a ton of women, but hardly any men. Two more sisters got baptized this week. The other Elders were teaching them. We have very few count on one hand type deal (no joke) Melchizedek Priesthood holders. We have had a lot of meeting with Males, but they all have one thing in common, and that is that they have a very hard time looking at the eternal perspective when they don't know what or how they are going to eat tonight. Most of them drop us after the first lesson. We really have to rely on the spirit to get them to feel something. Saying that though we have had some really great lessons, and we hope to have a lot more this week!

This week at church I did not have to give my talk. Brother Arben Vogli (possibly the most spiritual man on the continent, he is widely considered the strongest member in the country.. he has been a member since before the war here) came to our ward. He is in the district presidency. He talked at the end, and my talk got canceled. As well my Elders Quorum lesson turned into his lesson. I was fine with that. He is way more spiritual than I am. He has some awesome stories... and he is only 48. He is an amazing sculptor. He has been offered jobs by many large companies in Germany for large amounts of money, but he has turned down money to live a poor life here in Albania, and to help the church succeed. Anyway.. I have to talk next week! Scary!!

On a hilarious note I ordered a pepperoni pizza this week. The titles were in English so I ordered pretty quick. I didn't read the Albanian ingredients. Whoops (see pic) Those are peppers alright! Also a highlight of the week was the three wheeler with a cow in the back, and the two buses that were obnoxious to each other and caused a huge traffic pile up outside the center.

Elder Austin and I made fresh Orange Juice this week! It was an adventure! It was good though!! We are probably going to do it again!!

Also my umbrella broke... haha.

I have met a lot of really great people here in Albania! I certainly have made some new friends with a lot of the branch, and some investigators, and I hope they will accept the goslpel. I also hope that the current parenting genereation will have their hearts softened and let their children be baptized. They have obviously been through some really tough things, and so I think they are just very tentative! They do not want to 'lose' their kids!

One girl who has been investigating for a while convinced her parents to have the missionaries over for dinner last night. She is being taught by the other Elders so they and the Tooleys went. She is so involved in the branch and missionary work, more than most members. Anyway after a 6 hour visit/debate and a really crazy story where they said they could literally feel Satans presence, and then the light of Christ overtook. She got permission to get baptized. We need a lot more miracles like that one! This generation of Albanians is gonna be sweet! Hopefully we get some appointments in homes this week! This success story might give some of our other "waiters" hope. 

Just to get things straightened up our apartment is definitely livable, and if this is the roughest week of my mission I think I can honestly say I haven't had a bad week on my mission... gone stir crazy yes... always had an excess of energy yes... tried to push the pace constantly yes... but I have always had a fun time doing it!

Good to see that Buddy survived the vet! Keep taking him on walks!!

Elder Stewart

Local butcher shop. What's your vote on what animal this is?

His bedroom. Looks not too bad! Cool drapes!

Closet we assume. So nice to see the towel hung up. :)

The "pepperoni" pizza.

They must have wind like we do! This is the fate of every umbrella in Southern Alberta.

The three wheeled vehicle with a cow in back.

An outdoor "grocery store".

Homemade orange juice. Notice the counter tops...we don't even have granite! Looks pretty ok to me! :)

Inside the church building. The Elders help clean it every Saturday. Those floors look pretty shiny! Nice job Elder Stewart!