Pershendetie nga Shqiperia!
I hope you all are well! I do miss you all and am keeping you all in my prayers. I’d like to give a shout out to my friend Colin, because I believe his Birthday is July 31st, so Happy Birthday Colin! This week has been good, we have started to keep a tracting record to make our tracting more effective. Actually, speaking of Colin, he recently asked me in a letter what “tracting” was so I will give a brief explanation. Having grown up around missionaries, I’ve taken for granted that “tracting” is not a real word LOL. If ever you hear a knock at your door, and you see two young guys wearing white shirts, ties, and name tags, those are Mormon missionaries and they are looking for people to teach using “tracting”, so its pretty simple. I do not know why we call going from door to door sharing our message “tracting” but that is what it is. To anyone who might not be members of the Church who read my blog, I would like to say that when Mormon missionaries like myself come to your door, they probably are just as uncomfortable to be there as you are to find them there, so at least be nice to them! Getting rejected is never fun, but it is much better if people are respectful and courteous. Anyway, back to our tracting record. We are keeping track of doors that open and if people say they are not interested or not, and then we return on a different day, and at a different time. We are finding it to be relatively effective, and it is much better than what we were doing before. It also makes me feel that my time is being used more productively, I do not ever like feeling I’ve wasted time during the day!
Mr. Shafer, my AP US history teacher, was usually practical to the point of cynicism (like Dad) when considering historical figures, but I do recall him saying that at no time in the history of the world were more great men gathered together in one place than at the founding of our Nation. That I believe! Anyway, when I get home I look forward to studying more about the Founding Fathers and the many documents they wrote. As of right now it doesn’t have much import to me.
LOL this kind of goes along the same lines, but here in our mission we have several missionaries who are somewhat irrational in their belief in conspiracy theories, I believe I’ve mentioned them before. For example, they don’t think we landed on the moon (I’m sure you don’t like that one dad),LOL. I even heard one Elder say that 28 of the States have secretly seceded from the Union LOL . Whenever I hear crazy things like this and I’ve heard a lot here, strangely, I guess its because I am from NC. Out west there just must be something about the desolate, lifeless landscape of Idaho or Utah that gets to peoples brains. I usually like to approach them with the perspective of Occams razor, meaning that the simplest explanation tends to be the proper solution. Anyway, I digress, this is not really what yall want to hear!
Oh, side note, always feel free to send the Conference Edition of the Ensign, I love reading it. Our mission has still not received its copies and it isalready closer to next conference than it is to the last one.
Ah another random note. We have a member here in Albania, in Tirana, named Vellai Vogli (or in English, Brother Little) that came and spoke at our little branch yesterday. It was awesome, he has a powerful testimony. It was too bad we only had 2 members there. All the rest were off at weddings. It made me sad. Anyway, we is a carpenter/stone worker. In fact, he can carve ANYTHING out of marble or wood if he at least has a picture of what you want carved. Obviously it costs money to order things from him, but Mum, he can Custom make a nativity for you out of wood and possibly marble. I’d have to ask him how small he could go using marble, I don’t know. Anyway, if you have pictures of people from the nativity that you would like to seen turned into carvings, send them to me before my mission is over and I’ll be sure to order you your own special nativity! I’ll probably order something for myself as well, since it would be awesome to have something like a statue of the Savior handcrafted by a member here. Anyway, I’ve seen some of his work (since its all over the mission) and he is outstanding.
So I heard that Mum and Dad got to go to an NC Symphony concert with the Wongs that was Russian music. I am jealous! I love a lot of what the Russian composers have produced. I think a lot of people don’t realize it because they think of communism and tyranny when they think Russia, but Russia has an extremely rich history of literature and music.
So this week we taught two of “our purpose” lessons (I hope I explained what that was last week). Both times it was extremely powerful, the spirit was obviously present as we testified about why were are here. Unfortunately, even though the spirit was present both lessons, neither of them produced exactly the results we desired (the desired result being that the person commits to meet with us more often, but for a shorter amount of time, and we help them to find for themselves a testimony of the gospel, because we are not here to convince people we are right, but to show them that if they will ask God with a sincere heart, He will give them an answer) The first time we taught it was with Toni, and it did go well, people DIE all the cursed time. People need to stop dying so dang much so we can meet with him. So often we get ready to meet with him and yet another person has to be given a funeral. From a business perspective, Toni sure made the right choice putting his funeral service right across the street from the hospital. LOL he even keeps the hearse parked in the hospital parking lot with an advertisement in it. I still have a lot of hope for Toni, because when we had the lesson with him he seemed like he did want to know for himself and that he did want to continue to learn. The second time we taught it it was to a man named Geg Essentially he told us very indirectly that he didn’t want to try to find out if it was true because he realized it would mean he would have to repent and change his ways. However, I know that the Spirit testified to him of the truthfulness of our message, because I felt the spirit strongly, and an apostle once said that if we feel the spirit as we testify, that means they feel it also but they have their agency to choose wither or not to heed it. Oh, I’d just like to add that as we explained to Geg about authority, he made a comment about how small and ghetto our meeting room is and how great and specious Kisha e Madhe (The Great Church, down the road) is. Elder Hamilton proceeded to remind him of the humble circumstances of Christ birth and then testified to him that if our Savior was in Shkoder today (which was Sunday) that he would have come to our little room for Church. It was a bold statement but it certainly wasn’t overbearing in the context it was said. I thought it was a very powerful thing to say.
Yesterday we tracted into a women (tracted into means that we knocked on the door, and they opened and at least talked to us) who let us in to teach her. She was 81 years old, though still in decent health. She is also still willing and able to read. A lot of old people here claim they can’t read because their eyes are weak. I’d believe it on occasion, but we get it so much I think its just a cop out to get us to leave. However, she talked about how she’d probably die soon, so it didn’t matter if we taught her. Well, Elder Hamilton and I taught her a brief Plan of Salvation (The third time I’ve taught the Second lesson my entire mission), and when we got to teaching the Spirit world (the place between death and resurrection where our spirits will dwell as we await the second coming of our Lord and Savior) we explained that there are missionaries there, like us, and we asked her to promise us that she would definitely talk to them and listen to them when she got there, and she gladly agreed. It was somewhat funny but I was glad we did it. We might not be exactly sure what the Spirit world is like or how missionary work goes on there, but at least now she will have it in her mind that someone talked to her about a special message during this life that they wanted her to remember in the next life. But we will be teaching her again, which is excellent She seemed very interested in what we had to say about God's Plan of Happiness for us.
So as my mission passes, I am starting to realize that I am having really awesome experiences. During my first and second transfer I wasn’t sure I’d have that many neat or powerful stories from my mission, but looking back I have had quite a few already. I am really enjoying my mission, even though I miss my family, my future wife, and my friends. The Lord blesses me every day. I see his hand stretched out to me in mercy repeatedly. This is His work, I know it without doubt. I am so blessed to be here, to have this opportunity to give a tithe on the life I have so far lived. Jesus is the Christ, he is our Lord and Savior and this is His true and living Church.
Thank you all for your love and support. Thank you to my friends that do write me, and for their patience with me in writing them back. Thank you all for your prayers! I can feel them being answered in my life daily. I love you all!
May God be with you.
Elder Scadden
Elder Scadden
Where's Gregory?
Gregory is now home.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania ( July 20th, 2009)
Greetings from Albania!
How goes it? I hope everyone is well, I am well and healthy. This week has been another excellent week. Elder Hamilton and I are maintaining the steam. We didn’t beat last week's accomplishments, but we had what is now my second best week on my mission.
This week we had district leader training, and since Elder Hamilton is the DL, I had the opportunity to participate in the meeting. It, just like several other such meetings I have been to recently, did not report things being good. I hate to say it, but our mission has been doing very poorly for about the last 9 months. It has been a steady downward spiral of worse numbers, less baptisms, and lower sacrament attendance across the whole country. What was once the best mission in all of Europe is just now an average mission in Europe. I realized that I too was not contributing to a solution, though I am confident I have been working hard, but hard work isn’t what is most important (though it is a key ingredient). I realized that I had an “all is well in Zion attitude” you know, the one talked about in second Nephi that groups together all the individuals that will parish in fiery oblivion at the second coming of Christ?
Allow me to explain: While here in Shkoder we’ve been getting consistently above average numbers, however, we are not seeing anyone really progress to baptism. I figured out that it is because WE have not been doing our job. We’ve been finding people, we’ve been teaching tons of people, we’ve borne testimony, we’ve given the Book of Mormon, we’ve held to the schedule and done what we could, enough so that it is easy to say “we are doing our part! It is the hard heart of others that is stopping us. NO! None of what we have been doing is our purpose. Our purpose is “To invite others to come unto Christ…” and I have only ever talked to 1 person my whole time here about seriously considering baptism. Only 1. Elder Hamilton and I have discussed this, we now realize it is no wonder no one has been progressing, it is because no one knows our purpose, no one understands why we are here. They gladly hear our message, let us come back a couple of times, and reject the light invitation to come to church. We are changing things. We have committed that we are not going to let this happen anymore. We are going to INVITE people like we are supposed to.
We have developed a special lesson, that focuses on principles from the first lesson, but with a heavy emphasis on authority. We call this the “our purpose” lesson, and it is intended to be used after only the first or second meeting. In it we review the authority of God, and how it has been restored again to the earth, and then we tell them straight out that we are messengers who have been sent here, wielding that authority, and that we have come here to baptize people that gain a testimony of Christ with real power. We then will issue the commitment, if you find that what we are teaching is true, will you be baptized by the proper authority from God? We will emphasize that we don’t expect them to unconditionally commit, but that we want them to realize how real and important this message is, and how important it is for them to try to find a testimony of it. We then would propose that they begin the teaching “experiment” with us, where we meet them 3 times a week, for shorter lessons. We feel very strongly that this will turn things around. Sure, we will lose some investigators earlier than we originally might have, but people need to understand why we are hear, we aren’t doing our job if we do not invite them! I’ll tell you in a couple weeks how it is going.
We are also now tracting more and more effectively at that. We are keeping a tracting record, and the plan is to tract our a place 4 consecutive times, at different times of day, to make sure we try to get a person at every door (naturally we do not re knock the doors we’ve been rejected at, that is the purpose of the record) and then the plan is to leave that place alone for about 2 years. Elder Hamilton and I are excited about it, we were just about to start doing it ourselves when our mission president challenged us to do it. No longer do I need to lament when we tract out a staircase where not even a single door opens!
Someone asked me how many missionaries we are: In Shkoder we are 4: Elder Kushlin as branch president who is with Elder Smedley and Elder Hamilton as district leader who is with me. In all of Albania we are around 35 I believe. We just lost a lot, but we have a group of 14 coming in October.
I heard Dad got this new netbook thing, it sounds pretty cool. Its funny to talk to the old Elders here who are getting ready to go home about technology, even in two years so much has changed! Sounds like things are already changing for me.
So I believe I have soundly decided to return from my mission 1 week early to begin school. I have discussed it with my Mission President and he thinks it is an excellent idea. I have not, however, prayed about it, but I feel very strongly that it is the right thing. That is Crazy! Coming home from my mission, and two weeks later starting school. Wild. I’ll have to make sure I don’t take too many hard classes so that I can effectively adjust, and get ready for other important things, like getting married to Jenni. But Dad, you and I will discuss the details of that, such as classes and professors, next spring.
Marti Tompson is home! I’ve exchanged a couple letters with her. I did get a letter recently from her and her companion, Sister Hawks, who I was friends with in the MTC (The Hungarians, Estonians, Finns, and Albanians all rolled together). Funny thing is, Elder Hamilton remembers Marti from the MTC! Apparently they were there together. Small world huh?
On the topic of letters, I would like to thank all those who have written me letters! If you have been waiting awhile for a response, I am sorry, it takes me time to respond to people, but know that I am extremely thankful for those letters. There is little more exciting than getting a nice stack of mail when we head down to Tirana.
Ah Mum asked me how many members we had in Church yesterday, this is actually good news! We had 12 people including the missionaries! That is great, we have not had anything about 11 for over 2 months now. Unfortunately, most of our members believe that the beach is ineffably more important than Church. You know the funny thing about that? They spend money every Sunday to go to the beach (costs a furgon to ride at least), yet they still tell us they don’t have money for food and need help. I think an extremely basic finances class could do wonders for this country.
Something satisfying happened yesterday, we knocked on a door, and we mentioned the Savior Jesus Christ and we got the “I’m of a different faith” excuses. I was sick of hearing that lame excuses, so I challenged the person “Are you Muslim?” “Yes” “Great! We also believe in Jesus Christ, just as you do!” “…..(pause)…. We don’t believe in Jesus Christ….” “But the Koran talks about Jesus Christ” “Oh… I’m not actually a believer” SCORE!!! It felt SO GOOD to hear someone who used the lame Muslim excuse to admit that they were just an irreligious hypocrite! I left it at that, extremely grateful that they had the humility to disassociate themselves from a religion that has many good, devout followers, and loop themselves in with those who choose no religious belief because it conflicts with what their personal wants and desires where. That person made my day.
Anyway, I am doing well and I miss all of you. I had been suffering from getting super tired of all food that exists here, until we found a British cereal that is extremely healthy, and way delicious. The Lord continues to bless us. Even though sleep doesn’t exist here, we are constantly blessed with energy (numerically, we get a decent amount of sleep, but I think it is a fable, we don’t actually sleep, we lay down and suddenly the sun comes up and the alarm goes off. It will be nice when sleep once again becomes a reality of life) and I have felt the Spirit often as I have testified of the Savior and his Gospel. I love you all and thank you so much for all of your support!
May God be with you!
Love
Elder Scadden
How goes it? I hope everyone is well, I am well and healthy. This week has been another excellent week. Elder Hamilton and I are maintaining the steam. We didn’t beat last week's accomplishments, but we had what is now my second best week on my mission.
This week we had district leader training, and since Elder Hamilton is the DL, I had the opportunity to participate in the meeting. It, just like several other such meetings I have been to recently, did not report things being good. I hate to say it, but our mission has been doing very poorly for about the last 9 months. It has been a steady downward spiral of worse numbers, less baptisms, and lower sacrament attendance across the whole country. What was once the best mission in all of Europe is just now an average mission in Europe. I realized that I too was not contributing to a solution, though I am confident I have been working hard, but hard work isn’t what is most important (though it is a key ingredient). I realized that I had an “all is well in Zion attitude” you know, the one talked about in second Nephi that groups together all the individuals that will parish in fiery oblivion at the second coming of Christ?
Allow me to explain: While here in Shkoder we’ve been getting consistently above average numbers, however, we are not seeing anyone really progress to baptism. I figured out that it is because WE have not been doing our job. We’ve been finding people, we’ve been teaching tons of people, we’ve borne testimony, we’ve given the Book of Mormon, we’ve held to the schedule and done what we could, enough so that it is easy to say “we are doing our part! It is the hard heart of others that is stopping us. NO! None of what we have been doing is our purpose. Our purpose is “To invite others to come unto Christ…” and I have only ever talked to 1 person my whole time here about seriously considering baptism. Only 1. Elder Hamilton and I have discussed this, we now realize it is no wonder no one has been progressing, it is because no one knows our purpose, no one understands why we are here. They gladly hear our message, let us come back a couple of times, and reject the light invitation to come to church. We are changing things. We have committed that we are not going to let this happen anymore. We are going to INVITE people like we are supposed to.
We have developed a special lesson, that focuses on principles from the first lesson, but with a heavy emphasis on authority. We call this the “our purpose” lesson, and it is intended to be used after only the first or second meeting. In it we review the authority of God, and how it has been restored again to the earth, and then we tell them straight out that we are messengers who have been sent here, wielding that authority, and that we have come here to baptize people that gain a testimony of Christ with real power. We then will issue the commitment, if you find that what we are teaching is true, will you be baptized by the proper authority from God? We will emphasize that we don’t expect them to unconditionally commit, but that we want them to realize how real and important this message is, and how important it is for them to try to find a testimony of it. We then would propose that they begin the teaching “experiment” with us, where we meet them 3 times a week, for shorter lessons. We feel very strongly that this will turn things around. Sure, we will lose some investigators earlier than we originally might have, but people need to understand why we are hear, we aren’t doing our job if we do not invite them! I’ll tell you in a couple weeks how it is going.
We are also now tracting more and more effectively at that. We are keeping a tracting record, and the plan is to tract our a place 4 consecutive times, at different times of day, to make sure we try to get a person at every door (naturally we do not re knock the doors we’ve been rejected at, that is the purpose of the record) and then the plan is to leave that place alone for about 2 years. Elder Hamilton and I are excited about it, we were just about to start doing it ourselves when our mission president challenged us to do it. No longer do I need to lament when we tract out a staircase where not even a single door opens!
Someone asked me how many missionaries we are: In Shkoder we are 4: Elder Kushlin as branch president who is with Elder Smedley and Elder Hamilton as district leader who is with me. In all of Albania we are around 35 I believe. We just lost a lot, but we have a group of 14 coming in October.
I heard Dad got this new netbook thing, it sounds pretty cool. Its funny to talk to the old Elders here who are getting ready to go home about technology, even in two years so much has changed! Sounds like things are already changing for me.
So I believe I have soundly decided to return from my mission 1 week early to begin school. I have discussed it with my Mission President and he thinks it is an excellent idea. I have not, however, prayed about it, but I feel very strongly that it is the right thing. That is Crazy! Coming home from my mission, and two weeks later starting school. Wild. I’ll have to make sure I don’t take too many hard classes so that I can effectively adjust, and get ready for other important things, like getting married to Jenni. But Dad, you and I will discuss the details of that, such as classes and professors, next spring.
Marti Tompson is home! I’ve exchanged a couple letters with her. I did get a letter recently from her and her companion, Sister Hawks, who I was friends with in the MTC (The Hungarians, Estonians, Finns, and Albanians all rolled together). Funny thing is, Elder Hamilton remembers Marti from the MTC! Apparently they were there together. Small world huh?
On the topic of letters, I would like to thank all those who have written me letters! If you have been waiting awhile for a response, I am sorry, it takes me time to respond to people, but know that I am extremely thankful for those letters. There is little more exciting than getting a nice stack of mail when we head down to Tirana.
Ah Mum asked me how many members we had in Church yesterday, this is actually good news! We had 12 people including the missionaries! That is great, we have not had anything about 11 for over 2 months now. Unfortunately, most of our members believe that the beach is ineffably more important than Church. You know the funny thing about that? They spend money every Sunday to go to the beach (costs a furgon to ride at least), yet they still tell us they don’t have money for food and need help. I think an extremely basic finances class could do wonders for this country.
Something satisfying happened yesterday, we knocked on a door, and we mentioned the Savior Jesus Christ and we got the “I’m of a different faith” excuses. I was sick of hearing that lame excuses, so I challenged the person “Are you Muslim?” “Yes” “Great! We also believe in Jesus Christ, just as you do!” “…..(pause)…. We don’t believe in Jesus Christ….” “But the Koran talks about Jesus Christ” “Oh… I’m not actually a believer” SCORE!!! It felt SO GOOD to hear someone who used the lame Muslim excuse to admit that they were just an irreligious hypocrite! I left it at that, extremely grateful that they had the humility to disassociate themselves from a religion that has many good, devout followers, and loop themselves in with those who choose no religious belief because it conflicts with what their personal wants and desires where. That person made my day.
Anyway, I am doing well and I miss all of you. I had been suffering from getting super tired of all food that exists here, until we found a British cereal that is extremely healthy, and way delicious. The Lord continues to bless us. Even though sleep doesn’t exist here, we are constantly blessed with energy (numerically, we get a decent amount of sleep, but I think it is a fable, we don’t actually sleep, we lay down and suddenly the sun comes up and the alarm goes off. It will be nice when sleep once again becomes a reality of life) and I have felt the Spirit often as I have testified of the Savior and his Gospel. I love you all and thank you so much for all of your support!
May God be with you!
Love
Elder Scadden
Monday, July 13, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (July 13th, 2009)
Hello all from Albania!
Another week already? That is ridiculous… The weeks just fly by here! Especially this week, Elder Hamilton and I were blessed with an outstanding week. Now, in missionary work there are numbers, and we are instructed not to measure our success by numbers, but at the same time if our numbers are really bad we need to take accountability for them, and find out if we can do something better. We measure numbers with Key Indicators: Investigators baptized/ confirmed; investigators with a baptismal date; investigators who attended Sac Mtg.; Lessons taught to investigators with a member (member lessons); other lessons; progressing investigators; referrals received and contacted; new investigators; retention lessons; and contacts (for our mission a contact is a phone number or a way to easily get in touch with the person again). Usually numbers up here in Shkoder look like this: 0,0,0,0,0,10,1,0,0,4,5,10. That’s normal, average, maybe even slightly below average, but a total of 15 lessons is rather normal. However, Elder Hamilton and I, with the strength and direction of the Lord, got these: 0,0,0,0,0,17,2,0,0,10,9,14 making a total of 26 lessons, that is fantastic!!! Now we have made some goals and adjustments to our way of doing things to outperform even this week. We work so excellently together, and he really is one of the best missionaries in the mission. But, like I said before that numbers do not measure real success, or even effort.
So the Shkoder district has a new game of preference for entertainment: Settlers of Catan! Kristin, you especially probably appreciate this. We have great fun playing it, it is much better than 5 crown, cuz that’s too simple of a game, and its better than phase 10 cuz phase 10 makes me miss Lauren Ken Jay Susan and Jenni too much. Once Elder Hamilton and I split up I might have to get yall to send it to me, but don’t worry about it now. Ah, and Elder Hamilton is the only missionary I’ve encountered who is willing to play Blink with me LOL you had better watch out Jenni my girl, I might not actually be that rusty when I get home!... then again, I probably won’t have another comp that is interested in playing, so I probably will come home pretty slow, you will again be able to bask in a 10 to 1 win lose ratio….
So it sounds like 4th of July was blast for everyone!!!! I am jealous! The thing I miss most about home next to people (family, future wife, friends etc.) is FOOD! Dad gave me a detailed report about what was eaten, and Jenni mentioned somethings from her end as well. My mouth was watering. Oh how I miss good home cooking, with good ingredients and good company. Food here is not tons different, to be honest, it is just drastically lower quality. Oh well, I am a spoiled ethnocentric American, what can you expect? On a rare occasion, when we get on the subject of food, I wonder what meal I’d like to have first upon arrival home. I have concluded that I’ll just have to choose at random, because there are SO
Well, that is all for this week, I hope it was sufficient! I love you all very much, I miss you all, but this is the Lords work, and He is helping me to go about it as best I can. Everyday I see His hand mercifully extend to me. You all are in my prayers, and I think you for remembering me in yours! May God be with you all.
With Love
Another week already? That is ridiculous… The weeks just fly by here! Especially this week, Elder Hamilton and I were blessed with an outstanding week. Now, in missionary work there are numbers, and we are instructed not to measure our success by numbers, but at the same time if our numbers are really bad we need to take accountability for them, and find out if we can do something better. We measure numbers with Key Indicators: Investigators baptized/ confirmed; investigators with a baptismal date; investigators who attended Sac Mtg.; Lessons taught to investigators with a member (member lessons); other lessons; progressing investigators; referrals received and contacted; new investigators; retention lessons; and contacts (for our mission a contact is a phone number or a way to easily get in touch with the person again). Usually numbers up here in Shkoder look like this: 0,0,0,0,0,10,1,0,0,4,5,10. That’s normal, average, maybe even slightly below average, but a total of 15 lessons is rather normal. However, Elder Hamilton and I, with the strength and direction of the Lord, got these: 0,0,0,0,0,17,2,0,0,10,9,14 making a total of 26 lessons, that is fantastic!!! Now we have made some goals and adjustments to our way of doing things to outperform even this week. We work so excellently together, and he really is one of the best missionaries in the mission. But, like I said before that numbers do not measure real success, or even effort.
Right now Toni continues to be the only investigator who has real promise, he is a pretty awesome guy, and we are praying hard for him. Hopefully we can teach him again tonight. Anyway, I am super stoked to be working with Elder Hamilton. Usually the first week in a new companionship tends to be a slower week with less measurable success, but we totally shot down that stereotype. I hope this is an indicator of increased success in Shkoder. However let us all remember that No Effort Is Wasted, even if nothing immediate appears from them.
So the Shkoder district has a new game of preference for entertainment: Settlers of Catan! Kristin, you especially probably appreciate this. We have great fun playing it, it is much better than 5 crown, cuz that’s too simple of a game, and its better than phase 10 cuz phase 10 makes me miss Lauren Ken Jay Susan and Jenni too much. Once Elder Hamilton and I split up I might have to get yall to send it to me, but don’t worry about it now. Ah, and Elder Hamilton is the only missionary I’ve encountered who is willing to play Blink with me LOL you had better watch out Jenni my girl, I might not actually be that rusty when I get home!... then again, I probably won’t have another comp that is interested in playing, so I probably will come home pretty slow, you will again be able to bask in a 10 to 1 win lose ratio….
So it sounds like 4th of July was blast for everyone!!!! I am jealous! The thing I miss most about home next to people (family, future wife, friends etc.) is FOOD! Dad gave me a detailed report about what was eaten, and Jenni mentioned somethings from her end as well. My mouth was watering. Oh how I miss good home cooking, with good ingredients and good company. Food here is not tons different, to be honest, it is just drastically lower quality. Oh well, I am a spoiled ethnocentric American, what can you expect? On a rare occasion, when we get on the subject of food, I wonder what meal I’d like to have first upon arrival home. I have concluded that I’ll just have to choose at random, because there are SO
Oh, a Shout out to Richard and Matthew getting their mission calls! How exciting! Santa Rosa CA and Denver CO! That is awesome! Isn’t Jordon Smith in Denver CO also? The MTC is a pretty awesome place, just have a positive attitude about it. When do yall deploy? And Matthew, sorry I have not written you back yet, there is VERY LITTLE time to write letters on P-days it seems, especially when it is not your companions priority to write anyone, but thanks for the letter, hopefully I’ll get one to you before you leave.
When I heard I was coming to Shkoder I thought it would be the space of weeks before I would get mail, but it seems every week there is some reason that someone has to come up here or we have to go down there. It is very nice! I am also very blessed that I have people that will write me letters. BTW how is my friend Caitlin doing? Does anyone know?
Well, that is all for this week, I hope it was sufficient! I love you all very much, I miss you all, but this is the Lords work, and He is helping me to go about it as best I can. Everyday I see His hand mercifully extend to me. You all are in my prayers, and I think you for remembering me in yours! May God be with you all.
With Love
Elder Scadden
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (July 7th, 2009)
Hello from Albania!
I hope you all are well, I do miss you all. TRANSFERS! That’s the big thing this round right? Oh, but before we get to that I just wish to SHOUT OUT to my friend Tony (hey, how is my friend Tony anyway?) and Emily, and wish them a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (if I miss some one's birthday ever, please do not hate me, I don’t remember every one's B-days )
OK, transfers. Well, I am staying in Shkoder for another 6 months, but my pal Elder Flack has been sent to 1st branch in Tirana as Assistant to the President! What an excellent calling for him, he is such a stud! I love him dearly, we worked hard together and got along great. He will be a good assistant to the president. Elder Suell, in the other area, is getting transferred to Idaho, his next companion will likely be Lisa Rumell (roflcopter, I give him 3 months if all is indeed well when he gets home before he is married). My next companion will be Elder Hamilton, who I have had the opportunity to work with on several occasions because he has been my Zone Leader. He is awesome, and is hands down one of the two best missionaries in the mission, according to the testimonies of several, and I believe it having worked with him. We will take Shkoder by fire! He is in my year group, which means he is exactly one year older than me on my mission, so he is older than Elder Flack is. Elder Smedley (from my group) is also staying in Skhoder and his companion will be Elder Kushlon, who is also a great missionary. He will be the branch president, what a job, there is a good chance every member will reactivate for one Sunday to come and ask him for money. It is sad. Anyway, Elder Hamilton and I are super excited to be together. He has wanted to work in Shkoder for his whole mission and I was hoping that I would be sent with him for some weeks now. It is going to be an outstanding transfer! Hopefully we will really be able to get the work moving in Shkoder, and maybe prepare some people for baptism in the coming weeks.
So I heard that Lauren and Jenni got to go to the beach, it sounds like it was fun! It seems like forever since I've been to the beach. I also realized that I've missed the 4th of July 2 years in a row and will miss another one before I am home! (I was in Egypt for the last one) I hope you all had a really great time, and outstanding food. Oh how I miss good American food!
Speaking of food, those Zataran things you all sent me are amazing, we love em! The taste is so American we can hardly stand it! Very refreshing. Also, the Sees candies were well welcomed. Thank you much for the aid packages!
Dang… That’s it for my notes, lets see if I can fathom some other stuff together. OK, Mum asked me some questions that I will attempt to answer: My heath appears to be well, I am always tired, but that is what it means to be a missionary, constant tiredness. There is a difference between exhaustion and tiredness. I tend to only be exhausted when I come in at night and when I wake up in the morning, but usually after that the Lord gives me a charge that gets me through the day without any problems, don’t worry about me! Just pray for me please.
The food in Shkoder is nothing to be excited about, my favorite location is the Gelato ice cream stand, which I do not frequent too often. I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, with some changes every now and again: 3 eggs, with a piece of buttered toast and a bowl of cereal (we found a vitamin fortified cereal that actually has taste, we were stoked!). Lunch is diverse. We do not eat dinner.
I would send a picture or two, but we are still in Tirana, and this computer place does not have card adapters.
So I recently discovered something “comforting” about the Albanian language, though I imagine it is true for a lot of languages. In our text book “Lets learn Albania” it has a line that says “Some things in the Albanian language cannot possibly be logically explained in English, and the rational behind their grammar simply does not exist, and much must be learned from a memorization approach.” LOL hilarious! That’s OK though, I definitely feel that I am progressing in the language without any issues whatsoever.
There is a talk in this past conference that I have read a number of times, I believe it is simply called “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ”. The speaker discusses in the talk the “6 destructive D’s” which are: Doubt, Discouragement, Distraction, lack of Diligence, Disobediece, and Disbelief (they work like the path to the dark side, for those of you who know what that is). I realized recently that in the past couple of weeks I have been allowing myself to feel the first two of those D’s. I have been doubting myself, my capabilities, and my success as a missionary, and I have been very discouraged about the work in Shkoder. When I read this talk again it hit me, WOW I am not on the right road for successful missionary work! Since then I have had a revitalization for my excitement for the work, and have been praying specifically for the Lord to help me to be more positive, and more confident. It reminded me of the incident of negativity I had in the MTC. It is interesting how, if we do not watch ourselves, its easy to slowly slip into bad habits or negative thoughts or actions. I believe that is one of the reasons we have a semi-annual GC. Even though a lot of the same themes and topics are talked about, they are said differently and again, just to remind us to be firm, convicted, and ever moving forward. I am grateful that we have such excellent church leaders that we are able to hear from so often and I am eternally grateful that when I’m in a bad mood the solution is simply to get down on my knees. It ALWAYS makes the situation better. A lot of times we talk about how prayers are answered in God's time, which is true, but it amazes me how much on my mission God's time seems to be immediately after I've asked for the blessing. He is truly loving and merciful and I know that He is with me every step of the way. This is indeed his Work!
Anyway, I love you all, I miss you all. Thank you so much for the letters and messages, and support. I apologize if I do not respond enough or quickly enough, but missionary work is busy. You all are in my prayers. May God be with you all!
Love
Elder Scadden
I hope you all are well, I do miss you all. TRANSFERS! That’s the big thing this round right? Oh, but before we get to that I just wish to SHOUT OUT to my friend Tony (hey, how is my friend Tony anyway?) and Emily, and wish them a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (if I miss some one's birthday ever, please do not hate me, I don’t remember every one's B-days )
OK, transfers. Well, I am staying in Shkoder for another 6 months, but my pal Elder Flack has been sent to 1st branch in Tirana as Assistant to the President! What an excellent calling for him, he is such a stud! I love him dearly, we worked hard together and got along great. He will be a good assistant to the president. Elder Suell, in the other area, is getting transferred to Idaho, his next companion will likely be Lisa Rumell (roflcopter, I give him 3 months if all is indeed well when he gets home before he is married). My next companion will be Elder Hamilton, who I have had the opportunity to work with on several occasions because he has been my Zone Leader. He is awesome, and is hands down one of the two best missionaries in the mission, according to the testimonies of several, and I believe it having worked with him. We will take Shkoder by fire! He is in my year group, which means he is exactly one year older than me on my mission, so he is older than Elder Flack is. Elder Smedley (from my group) is also staying in Skhoder and his companion will be Elder Kushlon, who is also a great missionary. He will be the branch president, what a job, there is a good chance every member will reactivate for one Sunday to come and ask him for money. It is sad. Anyway, Elder Hamilton and I are super excited to be together. He has wanted to work in Shkoder for his whole mission and I was hoping that I would be sent with him for some weeks now. It is going to be an outstanding transfer! Hopefully we will really be able to get the work moving in Shkoder, and maybe prepare some people for baptism in the coming weeks.
So I heard that Lauren and Jenni got to go to the beach, it sounds like it was fun! It seems like forever since I've been to the beach. I also realized that I've missed the 4th of July 2 years in a row and will miss another one before I am home! (I was in Egypt for the last one) I hope you all had a really great time, and outstanding food. Oh how I miss good American food!
Speaking of food, those Zataran things you all sent me are amazing, we love em! The taste is so American we can hardly stand it! Very refreshing. Also, the Sees candies were well welcomed. Thank you much for the aid packages!
Dang… That’s it for my notes, lets see if I can fathom some other stuff together. OK, Mum asked me some questions that I will attempt to answer: My heath appears to be well, I am always tired, but that is what it means to be a missionary, constant tiredness. There is a difference between exhaustion and tiredness. I tend to only be exhausted when I come in at night and when I wake up in the morning, but usually after that the Lord gives me a charge that gets me through the day without any problems, don’t worry about me! Just pray for me please.
The food in Shkoder is nothing to be excited about, my favorite location is the Gelato ice cream stand, which I do not frequent too often. I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, with some changes every now and again: 3 eggs, with a piece of buttered toast and a bowl of cereal (we found a vitamin fortified cereal that actually has taste, we were stoked!). Lunch is diverse. We do not eat dinner.
I would send a picture or two, but we are still in Tirana, and this computer place does not have card adapters.
So I recently discovered something “comforting” about the Albanian language, though I imagine it is true for a lot of languages. In our text book “Lets learn Albania” it has a line that says “Some things in the Albanian language cannot possibly be logically explained in English, and the rational behind their grammar simply does not exist, and much must be learned from a memorization approach.” LOL hilarious! That’s OK though, I definitely feel that I am progressing in the language without any issues whatsoever.
There is a talk in this past conference that I have read a number of times, I believe it is simply called “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ”. The speaker discusses in the talk the “6 destructive D’s” which are: Doubt, Discouragement, Distraction, lack of Diligence, Disobediece, and Disbelief (they work like the path to the dark side, for those of you who know what that is). I realized recently that in the past couple of weeks I have been allowing myself to feel the first two of those D’s. I have been doubting myself, my capabilities, and my success as a missionary, and I have been very discouraged about the work in Shkoder. When I read this talk again it hit me, WOW I am not on the right road for successful missionary work! Since then I have had a revitalization for my excitement for the work, and have been praying specifically for the Lord to help me to be more positive, and more confident. It reminded me of the incident of negativity I had in the MTC. It is interesting how, if we do not watch ourselves, its easy to slowly slip into bad habits or negative thoughts or actions. I believe that is one of the reasons we have a semi-annual GC. Even though a lot of the same themes and topics are talked about, they are said differently and again, just to remind us to be firm, convicted, and ever moving forward. I am grateful that we have such excellent church leaders that we are able to hear from so often and I am eternally grateful that when I’m in a bad mood the solution is simply to get down on my knees. It ALWAYS makes the situation better. A lot of times we talk about how prayers are answered in God's time, which is true, but it amazes me how much on my mission God's time seems to be immediately after I've asked for the blessing. He is truly loving and merciful and I know that He is with me every step of the way. This is indeed his Work!
Anyway, I love you all, I miss you all. Thank you so much for the letters and messages, and support. I apologize if I do not respond enough or quickly enough, but missionary work is busy. You all are in my prayers. May God be with you all!
Love
Elder Scadden
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