Elder Scadden

Elder Scadden

Where's Gregory?

Where's Gregory?
Gregory is now home.
This is a moderated BLOG. Gregory does not make posts nor does he read or monitor this BLOG. His family maintains it for him.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Once upon a time in Albania (January 18 2010)

Hello from Albania!

I just want to shout out to my nephew Jordon and wish him a Happy Birthday! Congratulations on being 12. So, guess what? I am sick again! This time it was just a sinus infection and today I seem to be doing better but we have to wait to see if my fever will come back in the afternoon. I figured it out, I have been sick EVERY transfer of my mission. I guess I am not as army strong as I would like to be.

So let me tell you a little more about Durres. It is right on the coast so we get a lot of wind here and a considerable amount of rain, but not as much as Tirana, since Tirana is at the foot of a mountain range. It is clearly the second biggest city in Albania, at least as far as I have seen. It's primary function is as a port city. It is probably also the best laid out city in Albania, it is extremely gridded. When the communists came to power they literally bulldozed the whole city and rebuilt it in a much more comprehensive lay out.

Elder Turley, an Elder who I served with in my last district, is going home for medical reasons. Towards the middle of last transfer he started to complain about weird heart pains. After a couple weeks he started to get tests run as the pain started to get worse. Finally, with an MRI, they were able to find that it is not actually his heart but that his back is super messed up with 3 different things (none of which are scoliosis) and they require surgery asap. He is past the point of no return on his mission, which means he has less than 6 months left so he will not be able to return. This is really disappointing news, I had become good friends with Elder Turley.

Ah, so a funny story. Do you remember the mud incident from last week? Well, this is mud incident part 2. Again, we had gone out to Zef's for a lesson (who might quickly become a mini missionary because of Elder Turley's emergency situation). As we went back, we reached a part where we could not find the stepping stone. Allow me to deviate and say that Elder Thackeray had just gotten his pants back from the dry cleaners from the time he fell in the mud and was wearing them. Well, Elder Thackeray decides to grab a rather large rock, now this thing was big. I have to admit that I only made mild protestations to the action he was about to execute. He took the rock and hurled it a few feet away. Well, as you can imagine, the rock sent soupy mud flying everywhere, particularly all over Elder Thackeray and half of myself (being somewhat blocked by Elder Thackeray). His pants, again, need a good dry cleaning. He just cannot win, LOL!

Currently the work moves along slowly. We did get a new investigator this week, a middle aged women. I hope that we will be able to get her whole family involved, but she shows a a great deal of interest in finding out more about the church. Numerically this has been the worst week of my mission, potentially because we had 2 meetings in Tirana and I got sick, but those are just excuses! We are doing a great deal of tracting. Our street contacting is starting to improve. We are focusing more on trying to stop people than waiting for them to kind of stop and talk to us. I hope that next week will be a stronger week.

At this time I do just want to leave a brief part of my testimony of the plan of Salvation. For years I misunderstood the plan and its purpose but through softening of the heart and study, my blindness has been taken away. Our Father in Heaven has prepared for us a plan where by we may all have the opportunity to return and live with Him again. It is a plan of goodness and mercy. With the knowledge of this plan also comes the understanding of the importance of the family history work we strive to do. We cannot be saved without our dead! By doing our family work, we give all of our ancestors the opportunity to accept the fullness of Christ's gospel.
Well, until next week, all of you take care. I miss you all, I love you. You all are in my prayers. I thank you for all your prayers and support. May God be with you all.

Love
Elder Skadi

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