Aug 25 Letter- A Move!

This week has been good.

We moved houses this week because our last house is falling apart. It
has a lot of problems (electrical, water, and many others). We had
stalagmites, and stalagtites forming on and below our collapsing roof.
We hung in there for a while, and battled it fixing things along the
way, but finally we realized that it probably wasn't worth it. So we
are out! We are in the same building one entrance over, and a couple
houses down. It is where I lived with Elder Gray.

I feel the weather is cooling down. We recaived a notification this
week from Germany about staying hydrated. It is totally true! It maybe
would have been helpful a couple of months ago haha, but they are
definitly looking out for us!

This week A completed the "Stop Smoking Program." We have had
events for him throughout the week. We set it up so we all got invited
to a member house for family home evening! It was a huge success! On
Saturday night we had a party with all of the other missionaries, and
Vellai Balla for him. It was pretty short, but it did the trick. We
ate cookies and fruit, and played ping-pong. We shared Ether 12:27
about weaknesses becoming strengths. All in all a success. Also he
came to church in a white shirt and tie.

Another man who we are working with is named A. He kind of found
the church on his own. He has been a few times before. He is in our
English course. He is a father of two little boys. They didn't have a
Book of Mormon before. We have met with them twice after English to
establish expectations and gain trust. Now we are making a huge push
to get to his house. I am pretty confident that he will get baptised.
We got him to that baptism last week, and it was great. At the start
of this transfer President Weidmann told our companionship that if we
had faith and worked hard we would have 3 baptisms by the end of it.
We are going to get them! The Gospel will be great for their family!

I promised I would tell you a bit about Albanian weddings. Before the
wedding they have multiple huge parties for the entire week before.
Weddings are a huge deal! They spend a ton of money on them. The day
of the wedding they have a huge party (around 12 hours straight of
eating, and drinking, and dancing). It lasts all through the evening
and night. On the morning of the wedding they have a car parade with
nice cars decorated. They drive around honking, and making noise! It
is really cool. They usually have a big camera sticking out of the
roof videoing the parade. We have been in a couple of videos walking
along the road and talking with people.

Also I didn't really explain Krujë. Back in the day Albania had a
bunch of cool castles. Skënderbeu had a huge thing going. Krujë was a
big base. THey have old maps with all of th cities labeled. They say
things like Paris, Istanbul, Frankfurt, and other big notable European
cites, but Krujë is also listed. It was a big deal!

Today for p-day we basketballed it up in Tirana! I had a blast. I love
playing basketball, and I really like getting together with the other
missionaries. It is good to get to know the ones that I don't know as
well also. We had 4 teams of 4. Halfcourt kings court. We played hard
for two hours straight. I loved it. I also saw Elder Holm, and Roemer,
and Brayden from my MTC group as well as lots of other Elders! It was
fun! The gym was pretty nice too!

Walk Buddy!!

Love Elder Stewart

The gym where they played basketball. Not bad!

August 18 -Late Post! :)

I have air conditioning! So I am surviving the heat!

We started off the week for the halfway training meeting. The trainers
and trainees were all in Tirana. We had a good meeting with President
and Sister Weidmann. They are both very cool. They did a great job of
giving advice and input so that we can get the most out of it. The
Church has put out a "First 12 Week" training program, and it is very
good. We then ate lunch all together at the mission home, and got to
talk with the Weidmanns.

We had two baptisms in Durrës this week. Two girls who have been
investigating for a year got permission to be baptised. It was great.

This week has been a great week. We have been doing a lot of teaching
this week! We got A started on the 7 days to quit smoking
program. I think he will nail it. Tonight we have it set up to all go
to a members house for family home evening together. It is going to be
awesome!

K is back. He leaves on the 20 to Italy so we are getting
everything set up for him so that he can get baptized in Italy. I am
pretty excited for him! I look really weird in the pic I sent haha,
but that is Kristi!

A and E are back and taking lessons. We have been to their
house twice this week. They are on a baptismal date for Sept 13. We
are going to have to work really hard with them to make sure
everything goes through. They are a member referral, and we hope the
ward will get on board.

This week we also began meeting with a man named N. He has been to
church before, but never accepted formal lessons. He is a young father
of 2. He saw the baptisms this week as well.

One interesting thing that happened in Albania at this time of year is
weddings. They have huge festivals.

I don't have much time because we went to Krujë today!

Love you all!

Thanks for walking Buddy!

Elder Stewart

These were all taken in Kruje. Looks amazing!

The BIG Picture... :)

This week has been awesome. So it turns out the big picture is pretty
big. As of two days ago five people who we worked with very closely in
Elbasan are baptized. J and K, and their friend H all got
baptized on Saturday! I am so happy for them. I guess they finally
realized it was time. It is cool to think that Elder Austin and I were
the ones who started teaching J and K! Also I already told
you that F got baptized, but R V also got baptized. He has
been on and off with missionaries for a long time, but his mom and him
had a big talk and the huge mid-20s R was left crying and saying he
needed to get baptized. Apparently he got baptized a couple of weeks
ago.

I met up with M the other day. She came back from Italy for a
little bit. She will be going back to Italy and living there,  but she
found the church in Italy. She used the addresses that we gave her for
meeting houses. She met the missionaries. She got an Italian Book of
Mormon. She was on a baptismal date when I saw her, and she was so
excited. I probably won't see her again.. maybe ever here on this
earth because I have no way of contacting her, but I think it is
pretty cool that she actually found the church!

So anyways the moral of the story is God has a plan! I hope that a lot
of our investigators stories end well!

This week we had three investigators in church! K is back!! I am
so happy! He came to a ward activity, and to church. He wants to be
baptized, but he is going to Italy on the 20th for 5 years for school.
We can't baptize him here apparently. This time I think we are going
to put in a formal referral because we have a lot more information. I
hope we can get him to church in Italy. I think everything should go
through. we fasted today just because past events have made us realize
just how powerless we are and how powerful the man upstairs is. K
is awesome though. Honestly i think we would have been great friends.
We are right now anyways.

This week we have also been working with J. He came to church, and
was very well fellowshipped. He has unreal potential, and as far as we
know he isn't going to Italy or Greece :)

Astriti is still doing great. It has been pretty crazy to work with
the Ward. Everyone has the best intentions, unfortunately so many good
intentions make it impossible for him to progress. we are meeting with
him tonight. Hopefully everything will come together for him to be
baptized.

We are also working with a cool couple we met street contacting. The
first lesson they just wanted to play us in Dominoes and tell us about
their life, and their child in America. We cooperated and had a
spiritual thought and got a return appointment. The second time it was
just the man (Avdul). We taught the restoration and he was pretty
interested. The third lesson we had both of them. He had read the
Restoration pamphlet and had lots of questions. They committed to read
the Book of Mormon. Now they are looking to have great potential.

This week we also had Zone conference. 3 out of my 4 companions were
there. That was very cool! Also this week I went on an exchange with
Elder Foster. We had a pretty fun time.

Everything is going great out here. We are being kept very busy with everything!

Have a great week! Thanks for the emails!

Take Buddy on some walks!

Elder Stewart

Some fruit purchases on the street - melon season!

Homemade peach cobbler!! (Matt wants to know where he got the Cars plate???)

On P Day they found a cool music store. This electric drum kit looks exactly like the one we have at home and that he practiced on for all his years of percussion in the GPMS band! Good memories he said!!

Melon season is on now in Albania and there are trucks full of them to sell.

Durres is Great!!

Well it has been another fantastic week out here in Albania. Elder
Rasband and I are keeping very busy and having a great time doing it!

This week we got to give two priesthood blessings. I would say that
was probably the highlight of the week. The first was quite the
coincidence, or maybe something more than that. We had a lesson
planned way out in the middle of nowhere so we walked out there to
have them cancel on us when we got there. We stood at a bus stop to
wait for a bus to take us to a different part of Durrës, but we say a
road sign and we knew a less active member lived up that road
somewhere so we called them up. It turned out he was in the hospital
with a stomache infection. the busline runs past the hospital so we
got to go to the Hospital and meet with him. Dad and Grandpa would
have loved it! I was tempted to take pics, but we aren't supposed to
while we are working as not to look like tourists. He was doing well.
It seemed to us that he really appreciated a visit from the
missionaries. He hasn't been to church in quite some time! He is 60
years old (quite old for an Albanian). Elder Rasband got to give his
first blessing in Albanian. He did a really good job!

It was the same night, and we met with A. He is super great, but
there have just been some definite obstacles. He could be a very
powerful force if he was baptized, and I don't think Satan is a fan of
that. Anyway I am sure he will get there. We got to give another
blessing. He definitely felt the Spirit. To be honest he looked kind
of stunned by it all. I think it hit him pretty good. He is awesome!

This week we met a 27 year old guy named J. We have now met with
him 3 times, and he is very promising. He met with missionaries a few
years ago, but he wasn't ready then. We hope that he is ready now. We
had A C, a member in his early 20's who is preparing for a
mission. It was great for J to see a regular Albanian member.
Members help!

We were reunited with K this week. He still has a desire to
learn. I know he will be baptized.. eventually! We had a great lesson
with him. We just really focused in on the simple stuff. The
Restoration, Book of Mormon, and prayer. R P helped us out. He
is 14, and really cool. We have been trying to get close with the YM
and single adults, and it has really worked and we have had a ton of
fun doing it!

Today we ate some qofte. It is like hamburger.. only we don't know
what animal it is from.

Yep, that was our week.

Take Buddy on some walks! Thanks!

Love Elder Stewart

Durres

The Fruit market

A cool statue

Selfie with a statue

Albanian wildlife

The coast line along  Durres

Elder Rasband and Elder Stewart

On top of the world!

Close to the Sea...

Hello! 

This week has gone very well. My favourite part of the week was the
ward party that we had at the church on Saturday night. It was a show
put on by the youth. They had practiced a lot for it in the weeks
leading up to it. It was the "Don't sleep through the Restoration"
talk brought to life with a whole lot of other entertainment
throughout. There was acting, singing, dancing, scripture quoting, and
a fashion show. It was incredibly entertaining, and it was so good to
see the whole ward come together. The whole thing started with the
youth singing as a gospel choir "Halleluia."  They had a violin and
piano as well. Quite impressive. They acted out the story of the
sleeping man. They had a couple other of quick acting clips that
applied more to implementing the talk in everyday life. They had a
seminary fashion show. At first they walked across the stage one at a
time yawning and doing the groggy early morning seminary student, and
then they walked across again rejuvenated and with the scriptures in
hand. It was so funny, made even more funny if you knew the youth.
They also danced to the 2014 World cup song. It was all choreographed.
There were quite a few scriptures quoted.. and they weren't just
quoted they were very well presented. Nana would have been impressed.
It was a great show and our investigators loved it. I was wishing more
of them would have come because of how well done it was.

This week we have really tried to work more with the Bishop. He has
been a tough man to understand. He keeps to himself a lot, and as a
result there hasn't been a lot of clear communication, so we decided
to set up a visit to his house. His son E is 9, and we get along
very well with him. He also has a teenage daughter, and a teenage
niece and nephew that are with them at their house. We had a really
great visit. They really opened up when we were with them in their
home. We had a really great conversation, and they fed us fruit salad.
They told us their conversion story. It was quite fascinating. He was
a prepared investigator. He met missionaries, and was baptized a month
later because he was loving learning, and keeping commitments, and he
and his wife both got an answer to their prayers almost immediately.
It is quite the story. They have been members for 9 years now. They
joke that E got baptized twice!

We had a surprise around the mission last night. President Weidmann
moved a ton of people around. The mini or half transfer wasn't
supposed to be for a couple of weeks so it came as quite a shock.
Elder Austin will now be serving with Elder Ashler in Durrës. So I
will see him again! Elder Linderman from Durrës is the new AP. Elder
Clawson is the new north zone leader. That is about all you would
know.

Elder Rasband and I are getting good at cooking. We made stuffed
peppers and chicken for dinner last night. They were a hit! We have
leftovers too, so that is always good. Elder Rasband is really into
trying new cooking adventures. I have to admit that often I would
rather just cook something really fast and easy a lot of the time, but
it is worth eating the good food we are making when we finish cooking
it!

Right now we are redeveloping our investigator pool. There is a lot of
sifting that goes on out here. A is going the distance. One of
these days he will get baptized. He is a great part of the ward!

It has been really fun working with Elder Rasband! We are having a
good time out here! There is a saying in Albania. Close to the sea,
close to the King. It basically means that it is awesome being by the
sea! It is beautiful out here!

Take Buddy on Walks now that you are home!

Love Elder Stewart

This week Elder Stewart and Elder Rasband got stuck in an elevator for a few hours. This is a picture of the elevator door open, looking at the cement wall.

This is a picture of the computer screen during the show at the ward party. Dave Stewart was singing!!

The harbour.

Close to the sea, close to the King. He looks so happy!

Many Great Investigators!

Hello!

We had a fun opportunity to go tabling with the youth last week. I
really enjoy working with them. We set up a stand with Book of Mormons
from all around the world, and an Albanian flag. We stood off to the
side and talked top people as they walked by. It was great to have the
youth because it made people realize that we are all real people. We
had a really fun time, and we managed to get a lot of phone numbers.
We called through  them, and one of them was willing to meet with us.
We met with X (18) and E (12). Apparently they have tried out
some other religions before, but they are still looking. Ersi helped
us out with the lesson. He is a fantastic help. The lesson went
fantastic. We hope to have more of the youth there for the next
lesson. We hope to meet with their whole family!

Guess who I saw in the road this week?? K! Well actually he saw
me.. and he yelled across the street in English "I finally found you!"
Well that sure made me feel good. He is the coolest kid. We would
honestly be great friends if we had lived lives close to each other. I
was so happy to see him. We reunited in the street and talked for a
bit. He said we can start meeting again. Hopefully the K story
has a good ending.

This week we were talking with E, and he had been down for the last
few days it seemed. We decided it was probably best to sit down and
talk to him, and see what is up. Life has been tough for him. He gets
bullied and stuff. He is a reporter, and had been 30 straight hours
without sleep. His parents are always at work. He lives a wild life.
He had a lot of reasons to be down, and what did he tell us... He told
us that to remedy it he was trying to develope charity. It was mind
blowing. Not the reg response from a 15 year old boy. He is so cool.
He gets bullied a lot, but he gets all of the ladies. It is pretty
funny!

A is still the man. This has been a long haul with him. We hope
baptism is close! I am sure it is. he continues to come to church
faithfully. This week we had a pretty cool experience with him. One
night he didn't show up to an appointment. We hadn't been able to
contact him at all that day or the day before. It was really weird,
and we were a little bit worries about him. We decided to go find him.
We said a prayer, and took off looking for him. We found him within 10
minutes. That is proof that prayer works. We didn't just find him, we
found him within 10 minutes. It turns out his phone had been broken.

This week we went finding out in the private house section of Durrës.
It was my favourite night this week I think. We got out there and had
one arranged appointment with a man named F. We found him one
night. He has very strong family beliefs, and is happy to learn. It
was our second lesson. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation. We
have talked a lot about prayer. He understands prayer, but he is
asking for signs. He told us if they happen he will come to church
every week for the rest of his life. I am still unsure as to what to
do. We told him God answers prayers, but we can only get things in
line with his will. Anyway it is an interesting case.

That night though we continued the contacting tracting approach. Most
people are out in their yards on summer evenings. We had a gang of
youth helping us out. At first they were kind of laughing and giggling
at us, but then we went up and started to talk to them in Albania, and
got to know them for about five minutes. They were all super nice
after that. We explained whet we were doing, and they loved it. They
came with us from house to house talking with their neighbours. We
didn't get any lessons, but we had a lot of great conversations. A few
times one of the kids would run into opn house doors and bring out the
owner of the house. Everyone thought it was hilarious. We got a good
reputation in that neighbourhood. At the end of the night we said
goodbye to everyone, and the kids were begging us to come back another
day. It was so much fun.

I think I told you that one of the ways we are getting closer with the
ward is by being in the choir. I love it. Not all of the missionaries
stay, but the few of us who do have a great time. As a rule we do not
sound great, but it is so much fun, and the ward loves it.

The work goes on! I also got back in contact with B and X
this week. We saw B in the road, and she was very happy to see
us. We also saw their dad/grandpa, and before he was against us, but
this time he talked to us for quite a while, and it was very nice. E
and G showed up at English course this week. E was the one who
said an amazing first prayer. They aren't in Greece. We aren't going
to press to hard, but they were very open and happy. I am kind of
realizing now that there are a lot of open ended stories.
unfortunately I don't have a ton of control over if and when they wrap
up. I am also realizing that I have had a ton of great times out here.
Hopefully some of these people will come to realize that all of this
stuff is true.  We have faith!

It was great to hear from all of you today! I hope things continue to go great!

Walk Buddy somebody!

Love Elder Stewart

Elder Rasband's idea for P Day activity this week. They had a great time! Elder Stewart said he is pretty rusty!!

Fruit, Figs and Fantastic Adventures

So it has been a crazy week, but for the most part a good one!

It started with a bit of a downer. Elder Befus (Elder Gray's new companion) went home on Tuesday.
That was a hit to our district. It was obviously toughest on him, but
it was a rough go for Elder Gray too. Obviously it will all work out
for the best. Elder Gray is up in Gjakova, Kosovo now. There was a mini
missionary serving up there so the mini went home, and now Elder Gray
is there. He was excited, but nervous for the language change. It is
harder to understand people up there. He will be fine though. It was
tough to see him go. we are really good friends, and were looking
forward to training together, and serving together in the same
district. Life goes on though and Elder Befus will be back in 6
months.

The Weidmanns (New mission president and his wife) were in Durrës on Saturday, and they came to our
house with the AP's and we had an hour long get to know thing. It was
really nice. I think it is great of them to try to get to know all of
the missionaries.
I have failed to mention in my emails just how awesome I think the
fruit market is here. We stop by weekly and stock up on good stuff.
The thing that blows my mind is the seasons of fruit. In Canada if we
wnt strawberries we just go to the store and get them. It is the same
way with every fruit. Here we can only buy certain fruits at certain
times. Every week there is something new, and something missing. Elder
Rasband is huge into figs. I didn't even know what a fig looked like,
but they are super good. Personally I think they are natures
equivalent of a big mac.They taste similar in my opinion. No one else
thinks so but... I am right and you should all try a fig. This week at
the market they have grapes and pinapples and lemons. They didn't
really have those last week. Strawberries are over. Lemon season is on
and there are lemons everywhere. The watermelon here is so good! There
is just something about the fruit market that I think is awesome.
Anyway.. end of rant.

We have been blessed with people to tech this week! Brother Farrici
introduced us to a family this week. He brought the son E to church
last week. This week we had a lesson with him and his dad, and then
another one with their whole family. They all committed to be
baptized! Right now they are on track for August 23. We will work with
them a lot. They have a lot of desire. They are from very humble
circumstances. Their house is euivalent to my bedroom at home with a
cupboard kitchen/entry way off of the side. We are so looking forward
to working with them. At church we learned about the Sabbath day. He
asked the techer about it and explained that he has to work on the
Sunday or his family won't eat. I had no idea what the teacher was
going to say, but she said try it once and you will see. The Lord will
provide a way. After church he did not work. We saw them that night,
and he was all smiles. I am confident the Lord will uphold his end of
the Sabbath day promise. That took a ton of faith for him not to work
though!

We are now working with A. He is the greatest.. EVER. I  don't
know what to say more. He quit smoking! He has been a full week
without smokes. He did it all through prayer and sheer willpower. He
says he is never going back. He is now moving through the Book of
Mormon at lightning speed. It is weird to think that just a few months
ago Elder Gray and I were walking out of a very unconvincing first
lesson. We weren't sure it was going anywhere, but man... he is
awesome!

Joani is often with drugs and alcohol. It is so sad. He has potential.
We will keep trying. We have some other investigators, but those are
the highlights.

Elder Rasband and I started what we are calling the "Milka quest". We
set up a bracket of milka chocolate bars, and we are trying them two
at a time to see which one is best. So far Oreo is the predicted
winner. It is weird they have oreo chocolate bars here, but not oreos!
Thanks to Mom I have Oreos though! The "Milka quest" is fun. Milka
makes some really good chocolate!

I have heard from many people that Buddy has been walked so I
congratulate and thank you! Keep up the good work throughout the
summer! Happy travels!

Love Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart's shirt after being pooped on by a bird. His third time while in Durres. Elder Gray especially got a laugh out of this as he was with Elder Stewart all three times and avoided getting hit each time! :)

Elder Stewart and Elder Rasband at the end of a day when they got rained on all day. They look a little wet! They both think their ties are wrecked now!

Elder Stewart, Elder Rasband and Pres and Sis Weidmann.