Hello all from Albania!!
Happy New Year (almost)! I hope you all are doing well and that your Christmas finished up well. I was so happy to talk to you all and see you all, it was great! It is really hard to believe that I have been on my mission for almost a year, and only have a year remaining. It is exciting to think that I still have more time left in Albania than I have yet been here. There are still many experiences to be had, trials to face and growing to do. I do think that the next time we talk to each other I will prepare one question to ask each individual, so that I can hear everyone speak at least once.
Oh, next P-day I will be writing emails on TUESDAY because it is a big transfer day. Saturday we find out where we will be going, if anywhere, and who will do what. I could be training again but we will see, these things are really impossible to call. When it comes down to it, it is between President Neil and the Lord.
Hilarious thing occurred yesterday. I have mentioned the Gjoligus before (we went over to their house for Christmas eve, also know as Christmas Adam). All their kids are American and at church on Sunday, Bekim, the oldest boy who is 8 yrs old, said something hilarious. Two Albanians came up to him at church and grabbed his cheek, it’s a big thing that people to here and I’ve had it happen to me about 40 times. Well, Bekim was somewhat unlearned with that, since it’s not a huge practice in America, though some do it. After it happened he started to cry and said to his mom “That is so messed up, why would they do that? What is wrong with these people?” We laughed pretty hard knowing that we’ve all asked ourselves those same questions in other situations. A different culture, a different place and it’s a lot different than America.
Hey, I ate my Zatarrans Red beans and rice (which was great) but I was wondering if anyone, like Mum, Lauren or the Brays, had a recipe for a good red beans and rice dish. I imagine it’s got to be pretty straight forward but I’m pretty sure there is more to it than some red beans and rice. The reason I ask is because I can get red beans in a can and rice here and if I know the extra stuff I need for it I bet I could easily mix it up myself. So if you could, I’d like to know what other people do to prepare it
2 good pieces of news this week. Our investigator, Julja, who is the girl friend of a member and who also dropped off of the face of the earth when that member broke up with her, showed up to the ward Christmas party with that same member. They appeared to have worked out their problems and she is excited to continue learning after the new year (This week is one of the slowest missionary work weeks of the year, apparently, because everyone wants to wait until the next year to meet). That was very exciting because she seems to be really ready for the gospel. Now, we had hoped she would have came and met with us even during this stuff with Harbi, but that’s alright, we have hope that she will begin progressing again soon. Also, the Kumria girls and their dad, the family that we recently started trying to work with to reactivate, came to the ward activity. They performed, which was great, and it was the first time they had been seen in the church for a number of months. Unfortunately they didn’t come to Church the following Sunday but we are ever hopeful that maybe their hearts are softening.
This week we had some problems with finances. It would seem that president Shima did not receive adequate training on the matter by the previous president and so after transfers we will be doing financial training. It’s pretty cool because I already know quite a bit about the financial ropes of a branch now and the skills learned from this further training may come in hand later on in the mission and in life. I hope that once we all get trained on the matter and also a new ward sec. is called, we missionaries can start phasing out of the financial process. I wonder what it must feel like to be a missionary in autonomous wards and branches. I did not expect that missionaries would be given so much responsibility and control within a branch. I will be happy when Albania is able to function entirely without missionaries but that is some years down the road.
Along those same lines, I was very pleased this past Sunday when the people passing the sacrament were all Aaronic priesthood holding youth. I have not seen that before I believe. If we can get 2 other boys to attend more regularly, I believe we might be able to have a completely Aaronic priesthood operated sacrament ordinance. I hope that I will get to see that before I leave 2nd branch.
As part of our helping President Shima learn the ropes of being a branch president, I recently saw a document that contained the full statistics of our branch. I was extremely surprised by what I saw. In our branch live 268 baptized males, 78 of which are Melchizedek priesthood holders. As I was just looking at it in passing, being pressed for time, I did not look up the total population of the branch, but even with just the men we have enough people for 2 full and functioning wards. Taking the potential population of women into account we probably have closer to 3 wards. I was really blown away by that. We average 70 people, including 6 missionaries in church a week. The church could be so extremely strong here! A Stake could really actually be here! But the turnover rate of new members to inactivity is so large that we really aren’t growing and haven’t really been growing, for the past 7 years. I wonder if this is the sort of thing seen all over the church, not just in new areas. I have heard that church activity is something like 30-40% of all baptized members. If that is true, Albania certainly follows that pattern. That makes me very sad, but I suppose it applies to the scripture that says many are called but few are chosen and on top of that in 2 Nephi it talks about how many members of the church will be far too complacent and will fall short of the mark. I wonder what the entire world would look like if we had 80-90% activity rate. Of course people would still have struggles and short comings, but if that missing 40-50% still tried their best imagine the huge contribution they would make to the Lords work and how much faster the work of the Lord would roll forward! (hmm I also just realized that I really over use !!!!! points in my emails. I fear I will never be able to write an effective essay again). Well, it is no use worrying about the numbers. If we do our best to do our part, we will truly be blessed and will rejoice in happiness with those we have helped and strengthened. Despite Albania’s struggles, I know that the work will roll forward here, and that one day Albania will have many strong members within the wards of her Stake. I look forward to that day.
Anyway, I am doing well. I miss you all even though I only just saw and talked to all of you (that actually probably made it a little worse temporarily, LOL). I love you all very much. I know that this is the Lords work, I am blessed to be a part of it. Jesus is the Christ, and if we will come unto him, forsaking our sins and taking up our cross, we shall be saved in the Kingdom of our God. Thank you all for your prayers and great support. May God be with you until next week!
Love
Elder Skadi
Elder Scadden
Where's Gregory?
Gregory is now home.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (Decemeber 21st, 2009)
Merry Christmas to all from Albania!
I hope you all are well and excited for Christmas because I sure am! I first want to shout out a Happy Birthday to my sister Rachel. Oh man, I get to talk to you all on Friday, I am so extremely excited! It really doesn’t seem like it was so long ago but so much has happened and much time has indeed passed. I already feel time starting to speed up as I approach my year mark. I was commenting on how fast the time is flying and Sister Boyer, who is dying in two weeks, reminded me about how much it speeds up after a year. It is hard to believe that time could go faster but according to every missionary it does.
So Mum wanted to know how we will be celebrating Christmas. Well, on Saturday, the one that has passed, we sang at the Qender (the big square in the center of Tirana). That was a lot of fun. I actually didn’t sing at all but instead manned the table with Elder Flack and Elder Allen that had pamphlets and the like for people. We have been invited over to a member's house for a little Christmas party on the 23rd and on the 24th is our ward Christmas party (strange that it is on Christmas eve but if you ask most of the members here in T2 the idea of celebrating Christmas at home is foreign to them, they always do it at the church) and we will also be going around and caroling to many people that day. On Christmas day it is the same thing (except that there is a baptism at 11:30, again different). We also get a 3 hour lunch with our sisters and the Shupes (the couple missionaries that are in our district) are having us over to their house. And then we will talk to YOU ALL! and afterward we are going over to a member's house. It will be fun. I will also be opening my presents that are under the tree. I will really miss our big Christmas eve party that we have every year and opening presents with the family, but that is ok! I am on the Lords errand and am where I need to be. Oh, and I also wish to announce that Elder Seevers fixed the CD player so we are listening to that Christmas CD over and over again!
I forgot to thank you all last week for the conference issues! They are great! I am looking forward to opening the CDs up on Christmas (yes, guessed that one) and listening to them as well. The words of our living prophets are so powerful and moving. I especially enjoyed Elder Oaks Law and Love talk, it really expanded my understanding of the relationship between Justice and Love. I will enjoy reading the whole issue several times.
Ok, so last week I vented pretty badly about my cynicism and lack of charity. Well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot and decided that I really needed to change my attitude. One way I did this and now every morning I buy 4 mandarin oranges. If anyone asks me for money, I offer one of those. I know it really is nothing but it is infinitely better to me than snubbing them or giving them money. Doing this has also helped me to feel more compassionate towards them. I do wish that, like in the days of Alma, they poor were generally humbler and more open to the gospel because that really is the greatest gift we are trying to impart to people. Perhaps today that is still so but we do not see it here in Albania.
Elder Seevers continues to be an awesome companion. I love serving with him and I continue to learn things from him. The longer we are together, the better we get along. I am pretty sure that in two weeks we will be splitting up but it has been a pleasure serving with him. We have had an excellent time, and the Lord has blessed us with considerable success.
Grej, Kein and Donald continue to do great. On Sunday Grej received the Aaronic priesthood and will be passing next week. It would make me happy to hear about him and Donald going on missions in a a few years. Grej's mom continues to progress and come to church but I still feel like baptism is a little ways off into the future for her. We need to convince her to meet with us more than one time a week, she says she is too busy! We are happy that she does come to church and enjoys it.
Elder Seevers and I are also having a bit more time for finding, which is nice. Knocking on doors might not be the most effective form of missionary work but I like it because I find it makes me work hard. It would be very neat if on my mission the Lord allowed me to find an outstanding person who will get baptized by tracting. We still are having problems getting new investigators but the work is still progressing.
Well, I hope you all will have questions for me on Friday so that I’ll have things to talk about since I probably will be relatively blank minded by the joy of seeing and talking to all of you. I am REALLY excited! It is great that we’ve got the technology to talk to and see each other simultaneously without much cost. I again wish you all a very Marry Christmas! I love you all and I miss you all. I testify to you that Christ the Lord is our savior and through Him can all our sins be washed away. Think about me as you eat wonderful food. I will talk to you SOON!
Love
Elder Skadi
I hope you all are well and excited for Christmas because I sure am! I first want to shout out a Happy Birthday to my sister Rachel. Oh man, I get to talk to you all on Friday, I am so extremely excited! It really doesn’t seem like it was so long ago but so much has happened and much time has indeed passed. I already feel time starting to speed up as I approach my year mark. I was commenting on how fast the time is flying and Sister Boyer, who is dying in two weeks, reminded me about how much it speeds up after a year. It is hard to believe that time could go faster but according to every missionary it does.
So Mum wanted to know how we will be celebrating Christmas. Well, on Saturday, the one that has passed, we sang at the Qender (the big square in the center of Tirana). That was a lot of fun. I actually didn’t sing at all but instead manned the table with Elder Flack and Elder Allen that had pamphlets and the like for people. We have been invited over to a member's house for a little Christmas party on the 23rd and on the 24th is our ward Christmas party (strange that it is on Christmas eve but if you ask most of the members here in T2 the idea of celebrating Christmas at home is foreign to them, they always do it at the church) and we will also be going around and caroling to many people that day. On Christmas day it is the same thing (except that there is a baptism at 11:30, again different). We also get a 3 hour lunch with our sisters and the Shupes (the couple missionaries that are in our district) are having us over to their house. And then we will talk to YOU ALL! and afterward we are going over to a member's house. It will be fun. I will also be opening my presents that are under the tree. I will really miss our big Christmas eve party that we have every year and opening presents with the family, but that is ok! I am on the Lords errand and am where I need to be. Oh, and I also wish to announce that Elder Seevers fixed the CD player so we are listening to that Christmas CD over and over again!
I forgot to thank you all last week for the conference issues! They are great! I am looking forward to opening the CDs up on Christmas (yes, guessed that one) and listening to them as well. The words of our living prophets are so powerful and moving. I especially enjoyed Elder Oaks Law and Love talk, it really expanded my understanding of the relationship between Justice and Love. I will enjoy reading the whole issue several times.
Ok, so last week I vented pretty badly about my cynicism and lack of charity. Well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot and decided that I really needed to change my attitude. One way I did this and now every morning I buy 4 mandarin oranges. If anyone asks me for money, I offer one of those. I know it really is nothing but it is infinitely better to me than snubbing them or giving them money. Doing this has also helped me to feel more compassionate towards them. I do wish that, like in the days of Alma, they poor were generally humbler and more open to the gospel because that really is the greatest gift we are trying to impart to people. Perhaps today that is still so but we do not see it here in Albania.
Elder Seevers continues to be an awesome companion. I love serving with him and I continue to learn things from him. The longer we are together, the better we get along. I am pretty sure that in two weeks we will be splitting up but it has been a pleasure serving with him. We have had an excellent time, and the Lord has blessed us with considerable success.
Grej, Kein and Donald continue to do great. On Sunday Grej received the Aaronic priesthood and will be passing next week. It would make me happy to hear about him and Donald going on missions in a a few years. Grej's mom continues to progress and come to church but I still feel like baptism is a little ways off into the future for her. We need to convince her to meet with us more than one time a week, she says she is too busy! We are happy that she does come to church and enjoys it.
Elder Seevers and I are also having a bit more time for finding, which is nice. Knocking on doors might not be the most effective form of missionary work but I like it because I find it makes me work hard. It would be very neat if on my mission the Lord allowed me to find an outstanding person who will get baptized by tracting. We still are having problems getting new investigators but the work is still progressing.
Well, I hope you all will have questions for me on Friday so that I’ll have things to talk about since I probably will be relatively blank minded by the joy of seeing and talking to all of you. I am REALLY excited! It is great that we’ve got the technology to talk to and see each other simultaneously without much cost. I again wish you all a very Marry Christmas! I love you all and I miss you all. I testify to you that Christ the Lord is our savior and through Him can all our sins be washed away. Think about me as you eat wonderful food. I will talk to you SOON!
Love
Elder Skadi
Monday, December 14, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (Decemeber 14th 2009)
Hello from Albania!
I hope everyone is doing alright, I am doing great! It is almost Christmas! Wow! And I will get to talk to you all on Skype! Wow! It is hard to believe that it is already time for another conversation. May doesn’t seem that long ago. I also got some wonderful packages, one from the family and one from Jenni. I was thrilled to see all the good candy (btw I just wanted to say, not that there was any in these packages, but if you send me chocolate only send me Reese's or Hersey bars, everything else is found here, I thought I would just say that before it happened) and the other great things I had. I have not opened my wrapped presents. They are all sitting under my beautifully ghetto Christmas tree awaiting the 25th. However, I did open the Christmas music, which Elder Seevers and I both were so happy to receive because neither of us had any. For the first 3 days though my CD player had stopped working completely. Elder Seevers then manhandled it a little while I was in the shower and it started working just fine again. So we enjoyed the music for the first time today and it was great! I am also sharing my goodies, not wanting to horde them all (though I only share the Reese's I got from Jenni with Elder Seevers, they are too valuable to be further distributed.). I am also saving the Hickory Farms things for the week before Christmas. I’ll be honest, I am surprised to see such traditions of the Christmas season in our home find their way to me here in Albania. Thank you all!!
OK, so I have some stories from this week. First we had Zone Conference. It was good. I always enjoy Zone Conference. Anyway, the “presiding sisters” (I really don’t know what they are called, but they are the sisters in charge of the other sisters) gave training about doing language study. They handed us a piece of paper that had various things written on it and asked us to take a little self-evaluation. I finished quickly and noticed that at the bottom of the page was written “Never give up, never surrender!” so I laughed to myself and raised my hand to ask which of the two sisters had chosen the Galaxy Quest quote. They both stood there, a little confused, and at last Sister Kennedy, from the UK, said something to the extent of if you were cultured you would know that it is actually a Winston Churchill quote. BURNED. It was quite amusing, and I wasn’t really offended because I served with Sister Kennedy for a transfer and she usually burns people in like manner. My embarrassment was somewhat softened when President Neil said from across the room “Don’t worry Elder Scadden, I thought it was from Galaxy Quest too” LOLOLOLOL. In my book, that quote still comes from Galaxy Quest. Winston Churchill has plenty of other inspiring quotes to compensate for the loss.
The other good story of the week. We have been trying to meet with an inactive family, the Komerias, for the past 2 transfers, but they have always not answered their phones or been too busy to meet. Their home teacher, President Baird (the American working at the embassy), told us he didn’t understand their inactivity because they seem to still love the church, love having the missionaries and had no apparent signs of commandment problems aside from not coming to church (which is a big one). They have only been inactive for about 5 months or so they say. Well, we finally got a meeting with them on Saturday and we decided to talk about service and try to get to know them. Sister Komeria had to stay with their store but Brother Komeria went with us into their house and we met with him and their three daughters, Jane, Anji? and Elisa, 17ish, 15ish, 12ish respectively. We talked for awhile, they were nice and welcoming and we found out they were all musicians and they showed us the electric guitar they had. We went ahead and had the lesson. The 2 older girls and the father really paid attention. There were no signs of being tired of hearing the gospel message. Elder Seevers and I felt the spirit strongly as we testified about the greatest service ever rendered in the world, the Atonement of Christ. Afterward the conversation flowed back into normal things and Jane got out the guitar to do a demo of a song she had written for us. It was really quite good. The Dad then got up and played an awesome Elvis song and then an Albanian song. Finally the Dad told Anji to go get her violin and Jane and Anji played an absolutely amazing duet on violin and electric guitar. Their unison was amazing. The music they played just flowed through me (as those of you who know me may know good music does when I hear it). I was astonished by such talent in these young girls. I will admit that the music is probably not music I would play in my missionary house being somewhat outside of white handbook standards, but at that time as we listened the music turned my thoughts turned powerfully to Christ and how this family needed His light and love and how the church needed them. We left extremely edified but with no greater knowledge as to why they do not come to church. They have been added to our reactivation projects list. I might be leaving in a couple of weeks but hopefully we will be able to find the reason for their inactivity and the missionaries that follow, along with strong help from the members and a strong spirit, might bring them back.
Another thing that I wanted to talk about. Last week Ken sent me a short email, but in it he contained some important council. He said specifically this “I hope you do not [allow your sense of compassion for others to degrade]. Cynicism is a barrier that hinders us from loving others unconditionally the way we should.” He also said he just thought he’d share that with me, not really knowing why, but I needed to hear it. Of all the things I did not expect to happen on my mission, this one troubles me most, for I feel that while I have learned greater charity for certain people and groups of people, I have also lost a great deal of compassion for the poor and downtrodden of the earth. Daily I am asked for money by the Gypsies whether it be by the youngest child or the oldest and most worn. I have raised my voice in frustration against those whose begging becomes so incessant that they attempt to stop your way of walking. In Shkoder the Gypsy kids were our friends and I did gain charity for them, but that has not been carried over to Tirana. Only one time did I give a little girl some nuts that I had gotten off the street. Though I pray for Charity daily, my Cynicism runs deep. It is against our rules to give things to the Gypsies. Some of them are legitimately poor and others earn more then $500 a month (that’s close to above average here) from their begging and you usually cannot tell any difference. At times I feel my heart moved in compassion towards them only to feel that driven away as I hear the same memorized line “Me falni qind leke?”. I have often thought what I must do to gain a greater love for the poor of this country. They refuse to hear our message of Christ, we cannot give them money and they tend to be quite disrespectful. We pay a generous fast but still I am stepping over my brothers and sisters that lie in the gutters of the street. What should I do? I could pray more specifically for them, I could try to look for opportunities to serve them more. It has caused me much trouble and often I just say to myself that I will make it up once in the States when I am no longer obligated to not offer sustenance. Now! I hope that doesn’t put a damper on every one's Christmas spirits. Our Church has done many great things for the Roma community. This summer we opened a school specifically for their instruction. This fall we opened a clinic where we teach women to sow on machines so that they have a real skill to offer people. The poor of this country are being helped, but not by me on an individual level and I do not like that feeling.
Anyway, I hope you are all doing well. You’ll hear from me one more time before we get to see and speak to each other on Christmas Day! Thank you all for your prayers and your support. I love and miss all of you! I wish all of you a Marry Christmas and hope that you are all remembering the spirit of the season. Despite my previously mentioned concern, I am still seeing miracles and the I felt the Lords spirit more abundantly this week than I have for awhile and it feels great! Until next week, take care and may God be with you all!
Love
Elder Skadi
I hope everyone is doing alright, I am doing great! It is almost Christmas! Wow! And I will get to talk to you all on Skype! Wow! It is hard to believe that it is already time for another conversation. May doesn’t seem that long ago. I also got some wonderful packages, one from the family and one from Jenni. I was thrilled to see all the good candy (btw I just wanted to say, not that there was any in these packages, but if you send me chocolate only send me Reese's or Hersey bars, everything else is found here, I thought I would just say that before it happened) and the other great things I had. I have not opened my wrapped presents. They are all sitting under my beautifully ghetto Christmas tree awaiting the 25th. However, I did open the Christmas music, which Elder Seevers and I both were so happy to receive because neither of us had any. For the first 3 days though my CD player had stopped working completely. Elder Seevers then manhandled it a little while I was in the shower and it started working just fine again. So we enjoyed the music for the first time today and it was great! I am also sharing my goodies, not wanting to horde them all (though I only share the Reese's I got from Jenni with Elder Seevers, they are too valuable to be further distributed.). I am also saving the Hickory Farms things for the week before Christmas. I’ll be honest, I am surprised to see such traditions of the Christmas season in our home find their way to me here in Albania. Thank you all!!
OK, so I have some stories from this week. First we had Zone Conference. It was good. I always enjoy Zone Conference. Anyway, the “presiding sisters” (I really don’t know what they are called, but they are the sisters in charge of the other sisters) gave training about doing language study. They handed us a piece of paper that had various things written on it and asked us to take a little self-evaluation. I finished quickly and noticed that at the bottom of the page was written “Never give up, never surrender!” so I laughed to myself and raised my hand to ask which of the two sisters had chosen the Galaxy Quest quote. They both stood there, a little confused, and at last Sister Kennedy, from the UK, said something to the extent of if you were cultured you would know that it is actually a Winston Churchill quote. BURNED. It was quite amusing, and I wasn’t really offended because I served with Sister Kennedy for a transfer and she usually burns people in like manner. My embarrassment was somewhat softened when President Neil said from across the room “Don’t worry Elder Scadden, I thought it was from Galaxy Quest too” LOLOLOLOL. In my book, that quote still comes from Galaxy Quest. Winston Churchill has plenty of other inspiring quotes to compensate for the loss.
The other good story of the week. We have been trying to meet with an inactive family, the Komerias, for the past 2 transfers, but they have always not answered their phones or been too busy to meet. Their home teacher, President Baird (the American working at the embassy), told us he didn’t understand their inactivity because they seem to still love the church, love having the missionaries and had no apparent signs of commandment problems aside from not coming to church (which is a big one). They have only been inactive for about 5 months or so they say. Well, we finally got a meeting with them on Saturday and we decided to talk about service and try to get to know them. Sister Komeria had to stay with their store but Brother Komeria went with us into their house and we met with him and their three daughters, Jane, Anji? and Elisa, 17ish, 15ish, 12ish respectively. We talked for awhile, they were nice and welcoming and we found out they were all musicians and they showed us the electric guitar they had. We went ahead and had the lesson. The 2 older girls and the father really paid attention. There were no signs of being tired of hearing the gospel message. Elder Seevers and I felt the spirit strongly as we testified about the greatest service ever rendered in the world, the Atonement of Christ. Afterward the conversation flowed back into normal things and Jane got out the guitar to do a demo of a song she had written for us. It was really quite good. The Dad then got up and played an awesome Elvis song and then an Albanian song. Finally the Dad told Anji to go get her violin and Jane and Anji played an absolutely amazing duet on violin and electric guitar. Their unison was amazing. The music they played just flowed through me (as those of you who know me may know good music does when I hear it). I was astonished by such talent in these young girls. I will admit that the music is probably not music I would play in my missionary house being somewhat outside of white handbook standards, but at that time as we listened the music turned my thoughts turned powerfully to Christ and how this family needed His light and love and how the church needed them. We left extremely edified but with no greater knowledge as to why they do not come to church. They have been added to our reactivation projects list. I might be leaving in a couple of weeks but hopefully we will be able to find the reason for their inactivity and the missionaries that follow, along with strong help from the members and a strong spirit, might bring them back.
Another thing that I wanted to talk about. Last week Ken sent me a short email, but in it he contained some important council. He said specifically this “I hope you do not [allow your sense of compassion for others to degrade]. Cynicism is a barrier that hinders us from loving others unconditionally the way we should.” He also said he just thought he’d share that with me, not really knowing why, but I needed to hear it. Of all the things I did not expect to happen on my mission, this one troubles me most, for I feel that while I have learned greater charity for certain people and groups of people, I have also lost a great deal of compassion for the poor and downtrodden of the earth. Daily I am asked for money by the Gypsies whether it be by the youngest child or the oldest and most worn. I have raised my voice in frustration against those whose begging becomes so incessant that they attempt to stop your way of walking. In Shkoder the Gypsy kids were our friends and I did gain charity for them, but that has not been carried over to Tirana. Only one time did I give a little girl some nuts that I had gotten off the street. Though I pray for Charity daily, my Cynicism runs deep. It is against our rules to give things to the Gypsies. Some of them are legitimately poor and others earn more then $500 a month (that’s close to above average here) from their begging and you usually cannot tell any difference. At times I feel my heart moved in compassion towards them only to feel that driven away as I hear the same memorized line “Me falni qind leke?”. I have often thought what I must do to gain a greater love for the poor of this country. They refuse to hear our message of Christ, we cannot give them money and they tend to be quite disrespectful. We pay a generous fast but still I am stepping over my brothers and sisters that lie in the gutters of the street. What should I do? I could pray more specifically for them, I could try to look for opportunities to serve them more. It has caused me much trouble and often I just say to myself that I will make it up once in the States when I am no longer obligated to not offer sustenance. Now! I hope that doesn’t put a damper on every one's Christmas spirits. Our Church has done many great things for the Roma community. This summer we opened a school specifically for their instruction. This fall we opened a clinic where we teach women to sow on machines so that they have a real skill to offer people. The poor of this country are being helped, but not by me on an individual level and I do not like that feeling.
Anyway, I hope you are all doing well. You’ll hear from me one more time before we get to see and speak to each other on Christmas Day! Thank you all for your prayers and your support. I love and miss all of you! I wish all of you a Marry Christmas and hope that you are all remembering the spirit of the season. Despite my previously mentioned concern, I am still seeing miracles and the I felt the Lords spirit more abundantly this week than I have for awhile and it feels great! Until next week, take care and may God be with you all!
Love
Elder Skadi
Monday, December 7, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (December 7th, 2009)
Hello all from Albania!
I hope you all are well, I am doing well. I would like to shout out to my friend Jed and wish him a Happy Birthday! I also would like to condemn his heretical actions in not ever writing me as he said he would. And also today, 68 years ago, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan. My grandmother and grandfather were there at the army base as Japanese fighters and bombers strafed the barracks. It was the event that pulled the US into the worst of the modern wars. While a terrible chapter in the history of the world, the people of America demonstrated incredible bravery and discipline against the enemies of the time. I will always admire that generation and the battles they fought.
So, what has happened this week? Well, yesterday I was asked to translated during testimony meeting for a little American boy who is in our branch and that was no problem. But as I descended from the stand a visiting American man asked me to translate for him. I had worried about this happening even though Elder Turley had specifically offered to translate for him (Elder Turley is 6 months my superior and is extremely good at the language). So he shared a powerful experience that happened in his life and used a lot of words that I had no idea how to translate into Albania. It was tough! Fortunately I don’t really feel shameful when I make such mistakes in front of our members but it definitely was a humbling experience. I have so much more that I still must learn! I need to make sure that I do not become complacent with the level of performance I am at (I can effectively teach all the lessons and basically any gospel principle but when it comes to many other facets of life, I lack the vocabulary.)
Oh could someone tell Colin that I did get his package? I got a dear elder from him in which he lamented that he had misaddressed my package. I had received it some weeks before and have written him back so he may already know. It brought up a good point that I would like to share with everyone. My address is extremely simple: Elder Gregory Scadden, POB 2984, Tirana, Albania. I know that the Mission office gives this long winded thing but let me tell you what it all means in Albanian: The first part is the name of the church here in Albania which is The Liahona Foundation (according to the government, our tags and churches all bear the proper name. The reason for this is that there are only 3 religions in Albania, according to the government, Catholicism, Othodoxism, and Islam, all other sects and denominations are called CULTS not religions. We are working on that). The rest of that address says this: The first large building you see on the road, right across the street from the 22nd post office. Super ghetto. The only information that is needed is the one I gave above, it will get here with only that! Of course, if you desire, you all may continue to use the full address.
So I heard a good story this week, about our newly baptized members Grej and Kejn. Their mom is investigating the church but she has a problem with the word of wisdom. We have taught it to her and it was also with the help of Sister Shupe (one of our senior couple missionaries, to give us more credibility). But she still refuses to accept that the promises that God has given us for obedience to that law totally outweigh any thing red wine can do for the blood. We are working on that. But she came and talked to sister Shupe one day, since they have become friends, and she told her that she decided to test her sons commitment to the gospel. She offered them red wine and then tried to order them to drink it, but both of them refused, they would not, they knew they had made a covenant with God and had to be faithful. Now its kind of jacked up that a mom would tempt her kids in such a way but it is great news for us because it just confirms out boys commitment to the gospel. We were so proud of them! We aren’t allowed to tell them though because Sister Shupe wasn’t supposed to tell us. It is difficult to explain how much joy it brought me to hear of their faithfulness. I sometimes worry that our new converts are not being as faithful as they might appear to be at church. I no longer have worries for Grej and Kejn.
So for about 5 months now I have been searching for the title of a book that I read in High School, however, I could not remember the author or the name of the book and therefore felt it was useless to write home about it. While at Grejs house yesterday, after our lesson with their mom, we were discussing books that we had read and she mentioned An American Tragedy, which immediately rang a bell. She then said it was by Theodore Dreiser and that rang a bell too. I asked her if it was about a kid that drowns his pregnant girlfriend in the 1920. Yes! It was a very unexpected way to find the title and author of the book. I would never imagine that an Albania would have read it. She also talked about another book, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and I recalled that that book was very popular in my Arabic program my last semester before I left. I wanted to know if any of you have read it, because I have heard many people acclaim it as excellent, and I am considering adding it to my “to read” list. Has anyone read it? Is it worth the read?
Hmm,what else was there to talk about and discuss? We haven’t gotten new investigators for 3 weeks now. I am sadface about that. It is clear why, Elder Seevers and I have not being doing a great deal of finding because we have not had a lot of time. About 7 weeks ago we were getting tons and for 3 weeks running we had quite a few and some good referrals and then we became very busy with all that and now they are all either disappearing, not interested, not progressing, or are baptized, have a huge desire to be baptized, or are still on the road to being baptized. That pretty much covers every possible option huh? The work continues to go well and I think we are working hard, it just does not look good that we haven’t been doing a lot of finding. This week, though, I believe we will have a little more time to do finding and I hope that will yield fruits. I feel very blessed to be in a mission where we are expected to find new investigators weekly. There are a number of missionaries that would be thrilled to get a new investigator once a transfer in other parts of the world. Crazy!
Well, the time has come. I am super excited about "seeing" my family and Jenni on Christmas! I will have details about that next P-day. We receive them on Thursday at Zone Conference. Dad you will need to send me an explanation about Skype and the account etc. I love you all! I miss you all, may God be with you until we speak again!
Love
Elder Skadi
I hope you all are well, I am doing well. I would like to shout out to my friend Jed and wish him a Happy Birthday! I also would like to condemn his heretical actions in not ever writing me as he said he would. And also today, 68 years ago, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan. My grandmother and grandfather were there at the army base as Japanese fighters and bombers strafed the barracks. It was the event that pulled the US into the worst of the modern wars. While a terrible chapter in the history of the world, the people of America demonstrated incredible bravery and discipline against the enemies of the time. I will always admire that generation and the battles they fought.
So, what has happened this week? Well, yesterday I was asked to translated during testimony meeting for a little American boy who is in our branch and that was no problem. But as I descended from the stand a visiting American man asked me to translate for him. I had worried about this happening even though Elder Turley had specifically offered to translate for him (Elder Turley is 6 months my superior and is extremely good at the language). So he shared a powerful experience that happened in his life and used a lot of words that I had no idea how to translate into Albania. It was tough! Fortunately I don’t really feel shameful when I make such mistakes in front of our members but it definitely was a humbling experience. I have so much more that I still must learn! I need to make sure that I do not become complacent with the level of performance I am at (I can effectively teach all the lessons and basically any gospel principle but when it comes to many other facets of life, I lack the vocabulary.)
Oh could someone tell Colin that I did get his package? I got a dear elder from him in which he lamented that he had misaddressed my package. I had received it some weeks before and have written him back so he may already know. It brought up a good point that I would like to share with everyone. My address is extremely simple: Elder Gregory Scadden, POB 2984, Tirana, Albania. I know that the Mission office gives this long winded thing but let me tell you what it all means in Albanian: The first part is the name of the church here in Albania which is The Liahona Foundation (according to the government, our tags and churches all bear the proper name. The reason for this is that there are only 3 religions in Albania, according to the government, Catholicism, Othodoxism, and Islam, all other sects and denominations are called CULTS not religions. We are working on that). The rest of that address says this: The first large building you see on the road, right across the street from the 22nd post office. Super ghetto. The only information that is needed is the one I gave above, it will get here with only that! Of course, if you desire, you all may continue to use the full address.
So I heard a good story this week, about our newly baptized members Grej and Kejn. Their mom is investigating the church but she has a problem with the word of wisdom. We have taught it to her and it was also with the help of Sister Shupe (one of our senior couple missionaries, to give us more credibility). But she still refuses to accept that the promises that God has given us for obedience to that law totally outweigh any thing red wine can do for the blood. We are working on that. But she came and talked to sister Shupe one day, since they have become friends, and she told her that she decided to test her sons commitment to the gospel. She offered them red wine and then tried to order them to drink it, but both of them refused, they would not, they knew they had made a covenant with God and had to be faithful. Now its kind of jacked up that a mom would tempt her kids in such a way but it is great news for us because it just confirms out boys commitment to the gospel. We were so proud of them! We aren’t allowed to tell them though because Sister Shupe wasn’t supposed to tell us. It is difficult to explain how much joy it brought me to hear of their faithfulness. I sometimes worry that our new converts are not being as faithful as they might appear to be at church. I no longer have worries for Grej and Kejn.
So for about 5 months now I have been searching for the title of a book that I read in High School, however, I could not remember the author or the name of the book and therefore felt it was useless to write home about it. While at Grejs house yesterday, after our lesson with their mom, we were discussing books that we had read and she mentioned An American Tragedy, which immediately rang a bell. She then said it was by Theodore Dreiser and that rang a bell too. I asked her if it was about a kid that drowns his pregnant girlfriend in the 1920. Yes! It was a very unexpected way to find the title and author of the book. I would never imagine that an Albania would have read it. She also talked about another book, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and I recalled that that book was very popular in my Arabic program my last semester before I left. I wanted to know if any of you have read it, because I have heard many people acclaim it as excellent, and I am considering adding it to my “to read” list. Has anyone read it? Is it worth the read?
Hmm,what else was there to talk about and discuss? We haven’t gotten new investigators for 3 weeks now. I am sadface about that. It is clear why, Elder Seevers and I have not being doing a great deal of finding because we have not had a lot of time. About 7 weeks ago we were getting tons and for 3 weeks running we had quite a few and some good referrals and then we became very busy with all that and now they are all either disappearing, not interested, not progressing, or are baptized, have a huge desire to be baptized, or are still on the road to being baptized. That pretty much covers every possible option huh? The work continues to go well and I think we are working hard, it just does not look good that we haven’t been doing a lot of finding. This week, though, I believe we will have a little more time to do finding and I hope that will yield fruits. I feel very blessed to be in a mission where we are expected to find new investigators weekly. There are a number of missionaries that would be thrilled to get a new investigator once a transfer in other parts of the world. Crazy!
Well, the time has come. I am super excited about "seeing" my family and Jenni on Christmas! I will have details about that next P-day. We receive them on Thursday at Zone Conference. Dad you will need to send me an explanation about Skype and the account etc. I love you all! I miss you all, may God be with you until we speak again!
Love
Elder Skadi
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