Once Upon A Time In Albania

Home from Albania

2010-04-03T16:22:00.004-04:00

Gregory came home from Albania on Tuesday, March 31, due to medical issues. He has received an honorable release. For now we are working on having him restored to full health. The option exists for him to return to a mission to complete his term. This is dependent on his physical condition, his desires and especially the will of the Lord.

Anyone wishing to contact him may do so on his gmail address or you may call him at home. There are no restrictions on his social interactions.

Further posts to this blog will be suspended for the time being.

Thanks to all of his friends and family for your wonderful support.

Once Upon a time in Albania (March 29th 2010)

2010-03-30T11:06:00.002-04:00

Hello my dear friends and family!

I hope you are all well. I first wish to thank you all for your many prayers and much fasting on my behalf, the Lord has indeed been merciful and loving these past few days.

Well, it appears that you all have not yet heard from president yet. I will be coming home. It is decided. Today he will be communicating with Germany to start getting things in order (that is probably why you have not heard from him yet) We do not yet know when or how I will be returning, but after much prayer and fasting we both arrived to the same conclusion, it is the will of the Lord that I leave. I would be lying if I said that these past days have not been difficult, but the Lord has indeed poured His love out on me. On Tuesday last week, while I was in Tirana, President pulled me aside just before district meeting and gave me the news that the next step was going home. I was very stunned by the news, the thought hadn't really even crossed my mind. Afterwords we decided that we would wait until Sunday to make the final decision, both of us wanting to seek out the will of the Lord. Throughout the week I tried to prepare myself to go humbly before the Lord, for my own personal desire was to stay, but I had to accept that there must have been another way the Lord wanted me to take. I did receive it to my ears that my foot is all healed, though, which is great news. The following day we went out and worked in the morning, primarily as a test to see what my working capacity was with the pains I was having. I'll not really try to describe it other than to say that the pain became ridiculous and rather than working the whole day I had to go in and just lay there in my bed. The greater pain caused by the walking cause me to hurt more than ever yet for the next 3 days. Today things are somewhat better, but generally there are good times of days and other times that are not so good. Overall the pain seems to be deepening. Hopefully the doctors in America can figure it out quick. I will laugh when it is some little quick fix. Right now I have really come to terms with the fact that I am leaving. Now I just suffer from frustration that I continue to waste time consecrated to the Lord as I await my travel home. However prayer has been a powerful tool and great has been the love of the Lord that I have felt! Again I thank you all for your prayers and fasting. I feel it added to the clarity of answer that the Lord blessed me with. I cannot dispute it. I need to go home. The Lord works in mysterious ways. This understanding has helped me to not feel dishonor, a weighty feeling that I am often illogically prone to. So on a brighter note, I am extremely excited to see you all!! I hope that today we will know more about my return and that you will hear from President Neil. If you don't hear anything so fast, know that President is very actively concerned for me and that he is handling the situation.

So lets talk about this week. Earlier this week we met a young women named Anisa with the other Elders because they could not get a male member and since we had nothing to do. She is a friend and employee of Eriola Xhejka (infact we met at their office building, and Eriola asked me "Elder Skadi, have you been writing things about me?" LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL The story that I had told to you about the dinner we had at President Pinas house came up on a google search one of her friends did LOLOL) and a very sharp girl. She asked some great questions and actually understood and accepted our answers. She clearly understands that she must find the truth for herself through earnest seeking and prayer. She has a desire to be baptized and I think she would be a good addition to the Durres branch. The main reason I recount this is because it was the one of the very few non-member visit lessons I have done in about 8 weeks. I had the opportunity to testify about how I received my own testimony of the gospel and I could feel the spirit flowing through me. It was so refreshing to feel the spirit give power and meaning to the words leaving my mouth. PMG states that a missionary is successful if he feels the spirit testify through him.

On that note I do wish to let everyone know that I am extremely satisfied with the mission I have thus far served. The Lord has blessed me to be a successful tool in His hands. While I still will bring my report before the Lord in the temple upon my return. I feel very strongly that the Lord is pleased with the work I have done and I am leaving without regrets. With exception to perhaps wishing we had figured out my health issues earlier, that I would not have eaten so much time being confined to the house. I forgot to recount to you all an experience that I had a zone conference two weeks ago. I was sitting in the front row in the chapel and the Shupes were giving the Large group training. They were talking about creating an effective teaching environment and certain skills that we must execute if our investigators are truly going to be fed during the lessons. I believe she was talking about helping our investigators understand the scriptures and was specifically discussing relating the scriptures to them. She turned to 1 Nephi 21:22: which reads: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the ^aGentiles, and set up my ^bstandard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their ^carms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. She then pointed at me and said "Elder Scadden, I will always, when I read this scripture, imagine you carrying our cuna (boys) Grei, Kein, and Roni upon your shoulders." Never before had that scripture had any personal meaning to me but the overwhelming feeling I felt at that time I will never forget. Indeed I feel that my mission has been a success. It has truly been a blessing to serve here!

I haven't included anything about future plans for when I arrive home, though I have received excellent and detailed council from President Neil. I have set some goals, the primary of which is recovering. Once I am home we will discuss more the future of the time I have left, the options that lay before and how I will again be seeking the will of the Lord on those matters.

Well, this is all that I have for today. I hope you are not discomforted or disheartened by any of this news. I hope that President will quickly be getting a hold of you with some clearer information. Thank you all yet again for your love, support, prayers and fasting. This is the work of the Lord, it is in His hands, and oh how I love the Lord our God! Take care, I suspect, though I cannot say with 100% certain, that we shall get seen in person before the week has passed. I love and miss you all! May God be with you all.

With Love

Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (march 22 2010)

2010-03-22T08:31:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope you all are well, I am doing just fine. I am in Tirana today. I am staying with the office elders while Elder Thackeray goes on his death trip to Saranda. It is great because I get to be with Elder Smedley and Elder Allen, both from my group and both awesome elders. I heard that the socialized medicine bill passed (NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO), this comes to me very badly, very very very badly. Like MacDuff from Shakespeare's MacBeth I cry "O my beloved country, what will become of thee??" sigh... Well, I suppose that people's bad ideas come through sometimes. I thought most of America's population was against this unfortunate bill? Sigh... well, it is still my country and I shall fight for it.

Anyway, aside from that little bit of news, this week has been really great. Do you all remember an investigator that I had talked about several times in November and December named Julia? She got baptized!!!! It was so great. I got to be there, as well as elder Seevers. She was so excited to see us because we were her first missionaries. I remember the lessons we had with her were so excellent, the spirit was always present, and Elder Seevers and I were so sure that she would be baptized and finally she has entered the waters and been baptized! It is so exciting when those individuals with whom you've had spiritual experiences choose the right road and get baptized. The spirit was very powerful and she was so happy. Man, this is why I am here, I am here to help others come unto Christ and to enter the waters of baptism, looking towards the temple. What a blessing! I am very glad to be here.

Mum recently asked me what I have been doing for study since I have much more free time. Well, for some months now I have been studying the Old Testament with the church published manual and will soon be moving out of part one and into part two. At this time I am getting to the end of Saul's life as he chases David all over the place. I am amazed by the number of fallen heroes in the Old Testament: Samson, Saul, David, Solomon etc. I do not know the whole story of David or Solomon yet, but it Saul started off as such a great guy but he fell so fast as he allowed his authority to go to his head. It is astonishing that he goes from being the representative of God in political matters, to a mass murderer who just kills anyone he even thinks has helped David. I am grateful for the great examples from the Old Testament though, like Joseph, Moses and Samuel. I did not realize how extremely cool both Moses and Samuel were before this time. I think my tendency is to always like the military characters more but as I have studied the stories of these prophets in greater detail I have learned how amazing they were and how we can learn from their faithfulness. Beyond that I am also reading the new Gospel Principles book, underlining key things and writing my thoughts in the margins, just as I mark my scriptures. I will always love studying the basics. Deeper knowledge of the gospel really doesn't matter if we are not striving with all our might to know and live the basic commandments of God. I also read from a church study manual that focuses on preparing for an eternal marriage. It is organized by topic and only uses citations from prophets, apostles and seventies. I have found that I actually have learned more about living the basic principles of the gospel, and how to be a good, hard working and charitable individual, than I have learned about marriage from that book. I am surprised how applicable many of the things I've read there apply to me as a missionary, not just as a future husband. Lastly I have made a goal to read the BOM every transfer til the end of my mission. It is a lofty goal but since I've been inside I am ahead of the game and will probably start next transfer early. 13 pages a day does the job and that's only about 45 minutes of reading so I can get it done during lunch even after I am back to normal work. That has been really amazing. The book of Mormon really is more important than any other of the books we have. Studying it has allowed me to feel and recognize the spirit much more powerfully this past transfer. I am excited to read it again and again. I love how much I am able to study here. I hope to maintain a good fraction upon my return but I know that I will lose a lot of that time to other necessary things! I'll take advantage of the blessing while it lasts.

Mum also asked if I felt myself drawing close to the Lord. Yes, in powerful ways. Yesterday at church I had a profound experience. I was just sitting there, thinking during the investigator class, and suddenly I was hit with an overwhelming love for the people around me, for the people of Albania. It was very much related to the feeling I feel when the Lords love is poured out over me by His spirit. I truly am learning and growing as the Lord blesses me more than I can explain.

I must go. I love you all and miss you! Take care of each other, and be kind. You are all in my prayers. Thank you all for your love and support. May God be with you!!

Love

Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (March 15 2010)

2010-03-15T14:17:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope everyone is doing well! I especially hope that Mum is recovering nicely from her surgery. It mustn't be fun to be confined to a bed for a long time. This week the weather has been great outside but I have probably spent a total time of 2 hours actually outside in the fresh air and that is just the adding up of brief travel time to various locations LOL. I am excited that winter is dying and that spring is on its way. I think that winter will always represent death and suffering to me, which is probably why I dislike the season so very much. This week I got two great packages!! One from Mum and Dad and one from Jenni. They were great! You all spoil me too much.

The highlight of this week what a visit from Elder Ford, a member of the area authority 70s from England. He had a special meeting with us missionaries where he tried to encourage us to put more into the hands of the members and to make more, but shorter visits to our investigators. It was really a great meeting. We were all able to share our concerns and the like, since, unfortunately, the Albania culture fights strongly against the things they want us to do, but that doesn't mean they are impossible! They are encouraging us to make 15-20 minute lesson visits.

A large problem we have here is that it often takes 15-20 minutes to get the lesson started because Albanians demand small talk. We just have to be more stern with them. Fortunately it is hard to offend an Albanian with a blunt statement. As for the members, it all falls under trying to get the members of Albania to become a more Zion people and adopt a Zion culture. We can do it, albeit one step at a time!

It was also the weekend of District Conference. We had two sessions in the Durres chapel. The meeting was really excellent and my favorite part by far was President Baird's (our district president) talk. He shared the story of the two snipers in Somalia (as Elder Eyring did 2 conferences ago) and the 3 boys of the Martin and Harris handcart companies. He then referred the stories of reaching out to the lost members of the church, those who have fallen away, and doing everything we can to bring them back. He then challenged that every member bring 1 less active back to church this year. It was a fantastic challenge. I really hope that the members respond. Even if only a third of those attending yesterday succeeded then church attendance and activity here would grow by 120 people Which is huge when you consider that weekly church attendance is only 400-500 people per week, out over 1500+ baptized members. I have hope that this will yield strong results. I also got to see my boys and many of my friends from 2nd branch again. It was a great day, though I think there are some members that need to be reminded that we don't buy things are Sundays. You would be surprised how many members don't realize that it is against Gods commandments (they view it like this, if we're not going to a mall, or to stores to buy cloths or fun things, we aren't breaking the sabbath, but food is something that can still be bought). They fail to realize that it would be better to buy it all Saturday, so to keep the Lords day Holy).

Anyway, nothing else has really happened. I'm staying off my foot and we are hoping for a speedy recovery. I miss you all and I hope that all of you are well. I love you. Thank you for all of your support and prayers. May God be with you!

With love

Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (March 8, 2010)

2010-03-08T08:59:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

I would like to begin by wishing my niece Keira and also Matthew Bray a very Happy Birthday! Edhe nje qind! Well, you all are probably wondering if we've made any progress medically. So I went to the American hospital and the orthopedist there asked me to bring my xray. The next day I brought it, he (btw he was a German doctor) took only a 3 second glance at the xray (the same xray I had gotten 2 weeks before) and said "oh... you obviously have a stress fracture, look, right here" LOLOLOLOL the other doctor at the other place completely missed it.

Well, anyway, we are very happy now that we know what is wrong. I have to say completely off that foot for 3 weeks and then cannot run for 6-7. I am now using crutches and we have been confined to quarters. We are now only doing member visits and helping the Ahlburns transcribe and translate 2010 A Brand new year. I actually feel more useful than I did during the time we didn't know what it was because we are making great progress on the 2010 movie and the Ahlburns are very excited about it. Especially after how well the piece we had already translated was a blast at the super Saturday that just happened. Anyway, I am sad that I am not able to do any finding (other than looking for referrals), but I am enjoying hours of scripture study and really feel myself strengthening spiritually daily. Its a great feeling. As president put it, now is the time for me to "sharpen the saw" that I might be a better tool in the hand of the Lord. The translating we are getting ready to do on the movie will also be great for my language.

Just so that you all know, I also had a check up with a urologist because of some very unusual testicular pain I have been having. No cancer, that is clear. The doctors seem to think I have some sort of testicular infection, so I am taking antibiotics (NOOOOO I will now probably die of influenza in a year or something as this dang pill destroys my immune system for the rest of my life) to get rid of it. The pain has subsided dramatically but immediately after my examination it was ridiculously painful. Once I got home I just fell on my bed, not moving for about 30 minutes as the pain slowly subsided. I won't lie, it was hilarious, which wasn't good because every time I laughed about it they hurt more. Anyway, don't worry about that, because it is not causing me any more problems. Its actually kind of nice that I got hit with both of these things at the same time.

In terms of attitude I have felt great these past few days. Now that I know I can be freed from the house on the 26th, I can now patiently await it rather than waking up every morning guessing my status. Elder Thackeray seems to be going a little stir crazy, but today he's doing an exchange with Elder Loose so he can be out and about for a few hours. I can soundly say that I haven't been in such a good mood for over a month now. The Lord has truly answered our many prayers and I am extremely grateful for His tender mercies. You know, it is funny how something so small as a stress fracture can cause such inconveniences.

By the way, if you ever come to Albanian and have a medical problem (aside from trauma) go to the American Hospital! It is an extremely nice facility and most of the employees understand a decent amount of English. They are also all, for the most part, very nice. Actually during my numerous doctors visits there this past week I had the opportunity to share the gospel with numerous people. Unfortunately nothing directly came out of it but more people have been opened to the light of the gospel and maybe will let us in when we knock on their door.

I also got to spend a good deal of time with President Neil. I would just like to say that I have a great deal of respect for him and he really does have a great deal of compassion and concern for us missionaries. He has been extremely helpful during this time, as has his wife. I also got a great package from Jenni this week, that made me very happy :)

Oh, I have a question! So I have been counseled to not bother myself with Kleon Skousen's stuff. I am now curious about how you all feel about Truman Madison or Hugh Nibley? I don't have any of their material, though I did hear a Truman G. Madison talk on Joseph Smith that was amazing when I was with the assistants. What do you all think? All in all I know it is better to pay attention with the words of the living prophets, but I am curious to know to what level of validity I can hold their words when others quote them.

So tomorrow we are having a mini transfer. Elder Celaj has served his time and because he is an Albanian he is on a different track than other missionaries. So one of the assistants is being sent to Vlore to replace him and Elder Allen, from my group, is now assistant. Elder Allen is an absolutely great missionary. He is very hard working and strong in his testimony. It has been a pleasure to interact with him here on the mission. When I was in the MTC with my group, I thought that we were some of the most immature, unprepared, and future problem causing missionaries. However, every missionary from my group has proved to be outstanding in their efforts and work. I am friends with them all and have learned things from each. Its hard to look at some of these elders and believe that they were once the person they were when they first entered the MTC. Well, it is a lesson to me about judging people, and also a testimony to me about how powerfully people can change on their missions. I do hope that similar positive changes are taking place in myself, though it is much harder to see such change in ourselves. I guess that is really one thing that the gospel is all about is change, isn't it? We are always trying to change ourselves and take on the countenance of Jesus Christ.

Anyway, I must go now. I hope you all are well. I thank you all for your prayers on my behalf, and for all of your support. I love you all and miss you all. You are remembered in my prayers. I know that this is the Lords work, and that He is watching over us. take care, and may God be with you all.

With love,

Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (March 1 2010)

2010-03-01T07:46:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope everyone is well. I am doing just fine. This entire week I've been inside in the mornings, still because of my foot ridiculousness. Today I'll be speaking with the doctor in Germany to explore some other options of finding out what is wrong. Hopefully we will start to get over this this week. I am starting to lose weight because of the muscle mass I'm losing from not working out! That's alright, its all replaceable (btw when I say losing weight I'm not talking about a huge amount of weight, don't worry). Earlier this week I was getting really frustrated and irritated with the situation and was ready to just go out and work the whole day without a cane and just see if it would get bad enough that we could obviously tell what it was (not really logically, but I was pretty dang frustrated). Through this whole ordeal I've been seeking for guidance from the Lord but up to this point I hadn't received anything I'd term direct instruction. Finally, at this time of rashness, I asked Elder Thackeray for a blessing of council. That indeed was the answer to my prayers and pleadings. It was simple: Endure and be patient. It was a powerful moment and a testimony builder for me of the power of the priesthood. Since then I have been in a much better mood about the whole situation.

Have any of you heard of a new film produced by the church called 2010, a Brand new year? It is a film based around For the Strength of Youth with segments for each topic. We've had the opportunity to watch segments of it as we help the Ahlborns get ready for the up coming super Saturday. I just wanted to say that it is awesome. The church is really starting to produce well done, enjoyable films. I would highly encourage those involved with the youth (like dad) to see that it is at least occasionally used. I am hoping that we will get an opportunity to watch all of it soon. As I watched it I received a much greater hope for my generation in the church. We all are growing up being told that we are a special generation and after watching segments of this film that has members all over the world I really started to believe that. My cynicism for my generation was dampened somewhat, though not for those outside of the church (LOL) I always enjoy reading the things produced for the youth because they emphasize the basics and the firm foundation that is really important to a life time of faithfulness.

Man, some days It seems like I have too much time for emails, and others that I have too little. Today is one of those too little days. Anyway, I think that I will just end here. I apologize for the shortness, don't worry, you aren't missing anything special. Just a story about busting a huge dresser as we tried to get it into a communist apartment building in a very poorly thought out manner. Fortunately Elder Thackeray only got mud all over his hands and not all over himself.

Oh, briefly I do just wish to say that days are a lot better when we don't complain, even if we have good reason. Yesterday I made the goal to not talk about any of the pains that I've been having throughout my body (now that I am off my ridiculous Advil dosage, I think my body is going through withdrawal, so everything was hurting for a number of days). It was one of the happier days I've had recently. Its funny how our words reflect our attitudes and then tend to deepen the feelings that we are expressing. I don't know if that made sense. Anyway, I know that this is the lords work and it is a blessing to be here. The Lord is watching over us. I thank you all for your support, love, and prayers, and may God be with you!

Love

Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (February 22 2010)

2010-02-22T07:46:00.002-05:00

Hello all!
I hope you all are well. I was so excited about the new Gmail features we have but the computer I am on won't read my pictures! Geez, better luck next week! Ah, well, you all are probably wondering what happened at transfers. Well, I am staying with Elder Thackeray here in Durres. I would be lying if i said we were not all surprised by this happening. That means I will be here for the next transfer also. That piece of knowledge is good to know. Also, sorry if it is someones B-day, I forgot to check so you'll hear from me next week if it is.

Well, I didn't mention this last week but I will now. For the last 3 weeks I've had some crazy pains coming out of my heel. There is some kind of hard orb forming underneath the skin. I got an xray and that showed nothing so it is not a bone spur. Some have said it could be a wart or a callus but the surface of the skin remains relatively unchanged. Some have said it might be a boil forming under the skin?? Anyway, It really started to cause problems a week and a half ago so I started to stay inside off of it because of the pain. Finally I got an old man cane which was really styling but killed my hand to use for an extended period of time. I also was put on a ridiculous dose of Ibuprofen. That seems have really helped with the swelling (because it was getting quite sizely). As it now stands, since we have no idea what it is, I am working half days, wearing tennis shoes and using a medical cane. Things seem to be improving but the going is slow. Inevitably I might have to go to the American hospital to get a more in depth check up if I continue to have difficulty. Needless to say, I am really quite irritated with this current condition, but am learning to live with it. So don't worry yourselves too much, but just keep that specifically in your prayers, that this strange growth will go away and that I'll be able to work like normal again soon.

Other than that things have been good. We found some new investigators this week (well, elder Thackeray and Elder Mugleston did while I sat inside with a sick Elder Loose) and we are hoping that something positive will come from them. We are about done tracting out the section of the city we had targeted for our primary efforts. We are about done with the second time through and will probably only go once over in the morning since we have talked to most of the households. Don't worry, we keep a record of every door so we don't re knock doors that rejected the message. This area has not been the greatest tracting area so we are looking forward to moving on to a different part of the city that may have some really prepared people. I've got to say, the more I do tracting, the more I love it. It really beats trying to talk to people in the road but that is just my opinion. We are going to reopen our English course this month too so it would be wonderful if some new investigators came from that! Ermal, Donald, Grei and Kein back in 2nd branch all came into the church because of English.

We went to Vlore on exchanges. Vlore is a pretty city nestled away in a valley on the coast. Nothing really amazing happened there though. Oh, I did go to the doc. That was an interesting experience. It was a private clinic suggested by Germany for us. When I arrived there were lots of people in the waiting room. I went up to the desk and said I had an apt. with Doc. Cela at 1 (it was 1230). In 2 minutes I was in a room talking to Dr. Cela. 3 min later I jumped to the front of a line of 10 people waiting for xrays. 4 min later my xray was getting looked at by Dr. Cela. 5 min later I had some kot (worthless) medicine in my hand. I do not know what got me the special treatment but I jumped tons of people. We talked about it and we figured it was because we weren't there on the governments bill but were paying right there with cash. Everyone else just tells them to get their money from the government. Anyway, it was much less ridiculous than I thought the experience was going to be, though my radiology technician, they guy taking my xray, told me he still had 1 yr of school left before he was fully certified. Now I don't know what that really means but it made me think he wasn't the most qualified individual to be using large machine that gives off radiation. LOLOLOLOL.

Well, the week has been somewhat uneventful. I must now go. I love you all and miss you all. I thank you all for your constant prayers and support. Keep the faith and may God be with you.

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (February 15 2010)

2010-02-15T10:39:00.003-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope you all are faring well, I am alright. I would like to congratulate my niece Kinsey on her baptism and my nephew Jordon on his receiving of the priesthood. I also would like to give a big TRASHGIME to Fred and congratulate him on the birth of his two twin girls. Lastly I would like to wish a Happy Birthday to Lauren Bray and wish everyone a Happy Valentines day!

So, big news for this week: We are switching over to Gmail!!! Woohoo! The Church made some big deal with Gmail, and now the email system is going to be tons better! The new system is way better and it won’t take 5 minutes to send pictures anymore, so expect more pictures. Gëzohem!

The work was still slow this week, but what can you do? We’ve been doing a great deal of tracting, but didn’t get in once. Our phone numbers we are getting are all falling through too. However my spirits remain high and the less active work that we have been doing seems to be taking some root. This past Sunday every less active member I have visited here came to church. Some have come several weeks in a row. Sometimes I suppose people need reminders of where their priorities are. One weird thing happened while tracting. We came to a house and hanging directly across from the door way was a framed picture of John the Baptist conferring the Aaronic priesthood on Joseph Smith and Oliver C. We both were really taken aback but the women who answered the door didn’t seem to know anything about the church, the book of Mormon, or missionaries. We asked her about the picture. She said it had something to do with baptism. We asked her where she got it. She said she didn’t know and that they had lots of pictures hanging up of Christ. She legitimately seemed totally ignorant of the pictures real implications or that we were the only church it could be associated with (despite our efforts to convince her so) . We wonder that she might just have been a totally inactive member who was just faking it. She gave us her last name. It didn’t check out on the records. Though while we were talking to her a young man in his 20’s started to come around a corner, saw us and quickly retreated. She said it was her brother. We now maybe think that while she has nothing to do with the church, her brother might. She had children which = married which = different name than the brother. It remains a mystery to us. It was a huge surprise to see something so blatantly Mormon in a house that seemingly knew nothing about the church.

This is the last week of the transfer so next week you all will find out if I am staying here or going somewhere else. I am putting my money on going to 4th branch, which would be AWESOME because I would get to see all my boys again (Roni, Grei, Kein, and Donald) and I would be companions with Elder Hagen, from my group, who is an awesome missionary and probably the best at the language in the whole mission, minus our natives. We will see what happens.

Yesterday we ate lunch at president Pina's house. He is the president of Durres branch. Besides us, a women named Eriola Xheka was there. She is a member, but it is important to note for the story that President is 24 yrs old and seriously dating someone else and Eriola is 26, without anyone. She is the owner of a huge company and is extremely wealthy. It was valentines day so you can expect that the topic between Eriola and President got onto the subject of the Vday dance that had just happened and those sorts of intrigues. Well, one thing led to another and they all started trying to convince Elder Thackeray that he needs to move back here and marry and Albanian girl. Please keep in mind that Elder Thackeray is a really lock hearted missionary, so such joking does not worry me (some Elders you don’t want to joke about this with because it will cause them problems). Anyway, we have discussed it before and he is very seriously considering returning after he completes college to live here for good (which would mean getting married here) and I give him a hard time about it. Always his defense is “well, what work could I get? There would be no good work for me to do to support my family!” Well, as they joking continued, he pulled out that defense saying that there is no good place a mechanical engineer could work here. Eriola made the quick reply “I’ll give you a job, all my engineers are foreign and you speak Albanian. And you’d get paid so well you wouldn’t even feel your rent” LOLOLOLOLOL I died, Elder Thackeray was stuck. What's funnier is that is Motra Xheka is 100% serious. She has hired tons of members here and wouldn’t hesitate to hire an ex-missionary if he had needed skills and did OK in school. They tried to pull me into the target zone but fortunately a solid commitment to the US Army and the girl of my dreams made me totally immune. Perhaps none of you find that amusing since you do not know Elder Thackeray but for me it was hilarious.

So I got a Liahona a read about the new Gospel Principles book, it sounds really awesome. I love that they church has decided to go back and review the basics. It will be outstanding for the church here in Albania and for me personally. The fundamental doctrines and practices of the church are really what help us along the path to salvation. The reminder is well welcome.

Well, I’ve got to go. I love you all and miss each of you. Thank you for your prayers and support. Oh, can someone tell me when Luis’s birthday is? Anyway, take care, and may God be with you!

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (February 8 2010)

2010-02-08T10:33:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope you all are well. I am well. Just wanted to shout out to my Brother in Law John: Happy birthday! Going to probably be a little shorter of an email because we decided to go on our district trip today and it was awesome! We saw on a map a castle called the Castle of Turres. It looked like it was only 30 min away from Durres on the coast. We asked some people about it but they had never heard of it. We called up Landi the furgon driver, who has been used by the missionaries since the beginning of the mission, and asked him to take us in that direction. It was quiet an adventure. Fortunately, when we got into the neighborhood, people knew what it was. We had to trek on foot through back passes for about 30 minutes. On a hill, from a ways a way, we saw an old run down house and decided that that must be out castle, so despite the immediate disappointment, we continued on. Well, the house really wasn’t part of the castle and what we were looking for indeed was not a castle either but an old underground communist fortification. We explored the tunnels, and found many empty boxes of ammunition. The tunnels came out on the other side of the mountain and they connected a serious of old artillery positions. All in all, we were really surprised and it was extremely fun. We also saw an old tower down on the coast so we found our way down and got to the castle. On top of all this the scenery was beautiful. The trip was a number of hours long, lots of hiking, climbing, and running: all well worth it. So, it is now one of the two best P-days I have had on my mission (the other being the time Elder Flack, Smedley, Soule and I climbed the random mountain). And fear not, I took many pictures, just no time to load up today.

I have some sad news. This week Sister Charma died in the hospital. We helped with her funeral service at the church and then went to the graveyard for the burial. According to Albanian custom the body must be buried with in 24 hrs. It was a real surprise how fast they moved. About 80ish people came to the funeral and the speakers all talked excellently on the Plan of Salvation. It was really quite beautiful. I also heard my first grave dedication that I can remember. While we were sad, we all very much knew that she was in good hands on the other side.

I wanted to pose a random question to John and Ken. On your missions, how much did the missionaries speak the mission language to each other? Were all of the meetings (district mtg, zone conference, etc.) all in those languages? I know John was in a multi-lingual mission so how much would you Spanish elders speak to each other in Spanish? I am just curious to know.

Did the church just come out with a new Gospel Principles book? Mum mentioned it in the last email and on Sunday the Elders Q. president said that soon we would be getting new copies of GPs and that we would begin to use them in first hour.

Wow, that’s crazy that you all got snow. I am glad I wasn’t there! LOLOL! Last week, just after emails, elder Thackeray and I got stuck in a hailstorm…. More than getting stuck I just told him we were going to not be babies and just troop through it because it was time to eat. It was pretty intense. Other than that it has been raining almost everyday this week, with a very large thunderstorm a couple of nights ago. It was excellent tracting weather.

Speaking of tracting, we’ve been doing a lot of that. Last week was my lowest numerical week on my mission but that is ok. It didn’t down my spirits at all. We are trying our best and the Lord is blessing us. This week was actually a very good week. It was very spiritually refreshing, especially the way we ended it with a fast. I do not understand why, but every now and again I have a short period of time on my mission when I get into a really bad mood for a couple of weeks and finally, through much prayer, scripture study, and self examination, the Lord pulls me out of it. This week was the end of another one of those times and it felt like a very good refining period. Missions truly are our own Zion's camps.

Alright, I must go. I love you all and I miss all of you. I promise pictures next week. I know it has been awhile. This is the Lord's work and this is His true church. Thank you for all your prayers and your support. Take care, and may God be with you!

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (February 01, 2010)

2010-02-01T08:10:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!
I hope everyone is well. I miss you all! Last week I got a lot of really great emails. I feel quite informed about home this week which is not necessarily always the case (just because 2 or 3 people couldn’t possibly tell me everything that’s going on in everyone else's lives). This past week has been good. We had our first Zone Conference with me conducting. Let me say that I learned many things about conducting a zone conference. The Assistants gave Elder Thackeray a hard time for not really explaining to me at all the things I would need to know or be ready to announce during the meeting. Needless to say, having seen many meeting conducted, it really was not that rocky. I simply did not know the information that people expected me to know. As a whole, zone conference was Great! Very uplifting, with a focus on finding. President has said that the year of 2010 will be the year of finding.

Last night we went to go visit Sister Charma, the old women who reminded me of Sister Hodge. We she has been sick and last night was in a really terrible way. This morning we came with an ambulance, put her on a stretcher and carried her down 6 flights of stairs. Since it was planned (it was not an emergency) the EMS guys refused to come and carry her down and since all of the men in the church were working, we were asked to do it. It went well and we were glad to help. She decided to go to the Hospital because she has no one except friends to take care of her and she needed more constant care. I hope that she will get better. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had passed away in the night last night but this morning she seemed to actually be doing a little bit better. A good sign.

I would like to inform everyone that according to people, animals and things do not make all the same sounds all around the world. Where in America a dog goes Bark Bark, or Woof Woof, here in Albania a dog goes Hahm Hahm Hahm Hahm and a gun goes Tak tak tak tak. LOL. I guess it's not a surprise that such things wouldn’t be the same around the world but I just had never thought about it before until it came up (somehow) in church yesterday.

Dude, it has rained like no tomorrow this week. We went tracting a couple of days ago and it was raining pretty hard. While we tracted the rain got even harder. After the time came to leave, we left the neighborhood of apartment buildings we had been tracting and found that we were trapped, the main road had flooded about 5 inches LOL! Clearly passable but we decided to walk around a ways and finally found a place were we could get across mostly unsplashed. It could have been worse.

I would like to say that I really love the testimonies of others. I find them so very refreshing. Last week one of my sisters bore testimony to me about something and I really found it energizing. I had a similar feeling at church yesterday as the people were giving their talks. I rejoiced in their love for the gospel and faith in their savior. As I have been on my mission I feel like my love for the testimonies of others has greatly increased. Maybe part of it comes from always worrying about if a member will just suddenly apostatize for some totally random reason. Hearing their testimonies gives me assurance that they are trying to stand on good ground. I am reminded by Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference where we are encouraged to bear testimony far more often in our homes. We really can draw greater strength as we hear other's testimonies and especially as we bear testimony to others. I am truly blessed that daily I am given the opportunity to directly bear, to many people, my testimony of Christ and the prophets that he has called in our day. Its hard to believe that I have less time left to do that than I have behind me…
Well, I must go. Thank you all for your prayers, I feel your love and support even across these many waters. I miss you all, and I love all of you very much. I know that this is the Lords work. All of you take care and may God be with you!

With love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (January 25, 2009)

2010-01-25T07:02:00.002-05:00

Hello to all from Albania!

Wow, it has been cold this week! Over all though, Albania seems to be less cold than NC. The other real issue is that I am outside for much longer hours than I would be in the states. It's also good to hear that Grandma is alive. I’d just like to shout out to Amanda and Stephanie Bray who have their birthdays this week, Happy Birthday! So the sickness was quite cumbersome. I was confined to quarters until Thursday. It was extremely refreshing to be out working again. I do not understand how I’ve managed it but I sure do seem to get sick a lot here. It is somewhat dishonoring. Maybe I need to be better about using that hand sanitizer that you all sent me for Christmas. I still find it difficult to use often. I sometimes wonder what kind of super bacteria I am helping to create when I use it. When the scriptures talk about the pestilences of the last days, I tend to think that they will come because we started relying too much on strong antibiotics that really are just making us weaker in the long run. Anyway, enough of my ridiculous medical opinions.

Last week I mentioned Elder Turley going home. He is home now and our retention, Zef, has been chosen to take his place. He has been in Elbasan for 4 days now as a missionary. He was super stoked about going. We talked to his comp yesterday and he seems to be doing great. This is an excellent opportunity for him to prepare for a full time mission. One year from now he will be getting ready to leave. That is pretty exciting. However, now our teaching pool has been reduced to zero. We’ve been doing tons of finding and have several new investigators but we will have to wait and see if they progress anywhere. None of them seemed out of this world prepared but at times the prepared can be hard to see. I am ever hopeful. Due to the sickness, and our lack of teaching pool, we got 4 lessons this week, my least yet on my mission! We had more new investigators than lessons though, which was somewhat entertaining to report, but I hope that this week will remain the weakest, number wise, on my mission. Though, I must say, while our numbers were low the days we were actually outside the house were really quite good days. I feel like the Lord is helping me to become a better, more effective finder.

During my time inside I remade my language study plan. My language study had been kind of weakening in effectiveness and consistency, but the new plan I’ve set out is good. It is surprising how much more we are able to accomplish when we just do a little planning. As for my language itself, it is doing OK. Elder Thackeray and I only speak in Albanian to each other outside of the house. I’m certainly improving but have a long way to go. Fortunately I have a year left to continue to improve, more time than I have had in the country. I feel like I’m in a good spot.
I’ve also been reading the New Testament. I have always found it intriguing how the devils and evil spirits always testify of Christ. At times, at least according to the record we have, they even run up to Him, declaring Him to be the son of God. However, Christ always quickly silences them. I do not recall if James E. Talmage address this in Jesus the Christ (I’ll find that out when I reread it here soon), but I wonder why Christ resisted the testimony of devils. There is one obvious possibility, even though they spoke the truth they were still evil and enemies to Christ and their testimony was viewed as something wicked. I don’t know really. It was just an interesting thought I had while reading. If any of you have any insight into that, I’d love to hear it.

So here in Durres there is a Sister named Motra (sister) Cherma. She is bedridden and we bring her the sacrament every week. She reminds me a great deal of Sister Hodge. She is kind, loving, full of stories and wisdom. Our visits with her make me miss Sister Hodge and I am sad that in this life I will not be able to meet with her again. One of the best things about current Albanian culture is how the old women act and treat others. They are all like a bunch of fairy godmothers, especially those that are members. Unfortunately, it is a culture that is dying with the rising generation. The majority of the youth are embracing most of the negative aspects of western European culture without taking any of the good. I am glad that the Church exists here because I have seen very strongly the way it is helping many youth avoid the destructive behavior and influence that is becoming so prominent in their country.

Mum and Dad, I do just want to say that I chuckled a little when Dad told me you all go to the empty nesters family home evening. But it is a good thing that it exists!

I have a complaint that I would like to share. It is that many of our Albanian young single adults leave Albania to go to school and then get hitched to Americans and never come back! I therefore have decided to always encourage my nephews, nieces, friends and children to never think about marrying someone who should be going back to their country, marrying someone there and building Zion in their place! I NEVER thought that something like this would bother me. I’ve always had the attitude that it's great if members from other countries are able to come together and get married but it is one of the most damaging qualities that exists in the church here in Albania. So many good members, male and female, have gone off to BYU I-do and never come back! Thus, even the oldest branches continue to struggle to find effective, young members who have more or less been raised in the church culture. Roflcopter. Really random, I know, but we missionaries mourn a great deal over the many that have been lost to American marriages.

Well that is all for today. Something that I realize about my emails is that I don’t share tons of spiritual experiences. Allow me to say that I have them but that I just do not often feel compelled to share. A lot of them are little, small, unexpected blessing from the Lord.l Others are really great events. When it is something that I really desire to share, I will share them, but I simply didn’t want any among you to wonder if I wasn’t really having any because I don’t write about tons of them. Fear not!

You all take care, I love you all and miss you all very much. I feel the power of your prayers daily and am ever grateful for your love and support. May God be with you!

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (January 18 2010)

2010-01-18T08:11:00.003-05:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (January 11, 2010)

2010-01-11T07:39:00.003-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

Congratulations Sarah and Luis! I wish you a long, successful and happy marriage! I am disappointed I could not be there but the Lord’s work waits for no one. I am glad that Matt Bray took my place and wore my face for the pictures. That was very awesome of him so now I can pretend I was there LOLOLOLOL!

Just to clarify something for Dad. He asked me what an outside zone leader was. We only have 2 zones in our mission, the Inside and Outside zones. The Inside Zone includes all of Tirana and Shkoder. The Outside zone includes all the other cities in Albania. So I am an Outside zone leader because I am a leader over the outside zone.

So, a funny thing happened this week. I must preface it by saying that in the MTC we heard tons of stories about how horrible the mud is here in Albania. In Shkoder and Tirana I didn’t really encounter bad mud, so I wasn’t really sure what they were talking about. Now I know what they were talking about. We were going to a recently baptized member’s house to do a retention lesson. He lives right near the church in an area called Kanet. In Albanian Kanet means Swamp. It lives up to its name. The roads were like soup and were barely traversable. Elder Thackeray got both shoes completely covered with mud by missteps. One such misstep resulted in the loss of his shoe but we were able to get it back. After the lesson we asked if there was a better way and he indicated where it was. The road was much better but still a little muddy… and very slick. So as we walked along, Elder Thackeray took a mighty tumble and got mud ALL over his left side. On top of that a whole group of men were watching while it happened. I tried really hard not to laugh, after I made sure he was ok. Then we had to walk half way across the city, with him covered in mud, to the Couple’s house and they helped clean him up. It was hilarious.

Hey, so our Senior Couple here are named Ahburn. They said their son used to live in Raleigh. Did any of you know them? On top of that, Brother Ahburn has been working for CES for his whole life and he worked with Brother Lee in Idaho quite some time ago! It’s pretty cool to see how small the world can be sometimes as we meet people that have met people in the most random places.

Church in Durres was great! Not only is it in a real chapel but we did not have to do ANYTHING to make sure things ran smoothly. People fulfilled their callings, people had the things they needed and it was really great. More people here speak English than in Tirana but here they prefer to speak to the missionaries in Albanian. That is no real problem because I need to learn Albanian better. Right now here in Durres we don’t have any investigators. We had some, a woman, her daughters, her mom and her sister in-law but they didn’t answer their phones for a few days so we went over there to find out what was up. Apparently the woman’s brother came back from Italy for the holidays and was enraged that they had been investigating the church. He ripped up all their books. We could not understand everything the mom was saying because she was talking fast and hushed, but for some reason the Mom and the sister in-law are now hiding the sister in a different house that the brother doesn’t know about for her protection. It’s really jacked up if you have to be hidden from your brother for physical safety. They told us they still have a desire to be baptized but that right now it is too dangerous for them to even meet with us or talk to us on the phone. We had a special fast for them this Sunday, and have been praying much for them. I hope that things turn out ok for them.

Since we do not have any investigators, we have been doing a lot of tracting and street contacting. That has yet to yield much success but we have two potential investigators, college students. They are girls so we could not go in and meet with them at that time, but they were willing to meet with us later when we could bring a member along with us. We will continue to tract and street contact.

The weather here has been really crazy. We had a day where the temp was in the high 60s and now it is freezing again. We’ve been getting tons of rain too. I guess since Durres is on the coast it has this sort of wildness.

We also had a professor accuse us of enslaving people. Fortunately, after talking to him, he was accusing religion at large and not just our church. He had some pretty insane ideas about contextual verse universal knowledge. It was an interesting discussion but in the end we took his argument that he has to find proof for himself if something is true and turned it back on him, offering him a BoM and telling him that by it and prayer he can know for himself. He did not take it, proving the hypocrite in light of his claim as a man on a quest for personal knowledge. But he has his own choice.

The work continues to be great even though right now the fruits are slow in this area (I heard that Grej and Keins mom has a baptismal date, woohoo!). I know that this is the work of God and I am truly blessed to be a part of this work. I hope you all will take care, I love and miss you all, may God be with you all!

Love
Elder Skadi

The following was sent by Gregory’s mission president.

Dear Parents of Albania Tirana Missionaries,

You may have heard news reports of flooding in Albania, homes underwater, and forced evacuations of people. I want you to know that all of your missionary sons and daughters are safe! The entire country has been receiving a lot of rain over the last weeks, but the main problems have been in the north, in the areas surrounding the major city of Shkoder. In a number of small villages around Shkoder, homes have been inundated, and people have been evacuated to the city of Shkoder.

We have four missionaries in Shkoder, and I've been in frequent contact with them, as well as with the US Embassy, and locals who are aware of the situation. Our missionaries are in no danger, and are fine. They are continuing to work, and everyone in the city itself seem to be carrying on normally. It's reported that nearly 5000 persons have been evacuated from the outlying villages, and have been brought into Shkoder for care. The national highway connecting Tirana to Shkoder is underwater, and transport is only by military vehicle. The highway connecting Shkoder to the north is open, and there should be no problem with bringing water and supplies into the city as normal. Just in case, I asked the missionaries to get a 5 day supply of food and water.

The missionaries have checked on our members, and the members are doing ok. It doesn't seem that the weather forecast is going to help us out much. We will continue to monitor the situation with our missionaries, to ensure that all are safe.

Warm Regards,

President Neil

Once upon a time in Albania (January 05, 2010)

2010-01-05T11:25:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year to all from Albania!

Wow, 2010! We continue to not be sending space ships to Jupiter, but what can you do? I hope you all have a really great new years, I will talk a little more about mine later. Ok, transfers have occurred. To my dismay I have been transferred out of 2nd branch. I will now be serving in Durres with Elder Thackery as outside Zone Leader. Out of all of our guesses, this is not one that we had predicted. Being a Zone leader is basically just more work without many perks and I hope I am able to fulfill all of my responsibilities but I am excited about being in Durres and I will get to see every city in Albania now! We also have our own car, though I may never drive it because my driver's license is expired. However this is Albania, so President may choose to wave the rule of having an up to date drivers license. That’s ok, driving in Albania is INSANE! I do not know much about Elder Thackery, he only has 3 months left on his mission and he sounds like he is an obedient missionary. Plus, he LOVES to cook, for this I am also excited. So the reason I was dismayed about the transfer was mainly leaving behind 2nd branch and our 4 boys. I never thought that I would have a difficult time saying goodbye to an area, but yesterday was a pretty depressing day. Fortunately I will have other opportunities to see those boys and the other members that I have become great friends with. Now it is time to give all I have in a new area!

One cool thing that occurred last week was that we went to the CIRCUS! Woohoo! It was basically awesome. It is not nearly as big as the circus that comes to NC but they still had some neat performances and we were only a foot away from the ring, so we were right up with them. Elder Allen, from my MTC group, got lathered with shaving cream and sprayed by an Elephant. That was quite a bit fun!

The mission continues to go flying by. My year mark is close to coming and I will be home less than a year from now. It is hard to believe that the year of 2009, with exception to 3 weeks, was dedicated to my mission. And now it is over. I still do not feel like I have been here that long but I am definitely growing still. The language is coming along but I am often surprised by how little I really know about it.

Man, I really did not take notes on things to talk about this week so I am having a hard time writing! Some updates on investigators from my old area: Grej and Kein's mom is getting close to baptism and I hope that it will happen within the next transfer. LOL on Sunday, after I shared my testimony because I was leaving, she said quite loudly from the audience (in Albanian) “can I please say something?” she wanted to protest my leaving. She wanted to talk to President Neil to try and convince him that both Elder Seevers and I must stay, because we were like her sons. Those around her explained to her that it really isn’t the mission presidents decision but is more God's decision. She finally grudgingly accepted it.

Well I suppose I can say a little about what I know of Durres. The branch here has one of the two church constructed buildings in Albania. The branch has slightly less sacrament attendance than 2nd branch (btw we had 88 in church on Sunday, woo!) but the branch functions more autonomously and people more effectively fulfill their callings. Of course, it still has its problems but I have also heard that it has already endured the great apostasy that every branch seems to have to suffer here in Albania. Hmmm I do not know much more about it than that…

Ok, I give up. Its one of those p-days when I cannot think of anything to write! That is ok, though, because by ending early we will have time to get some other things done since our p-day sounds like it's going to be extra short today because we must teach an English course at 3.

Anyway, I do wish to testify that this is the Lords work. His Angels are around us, bearing us up. Today there is a living prophet and he has authority from God to lead this church. I am blessed to be on a mission! I love you all, thank you all from you prayers and your love. I miss you all and I hope that all is well. May God be with you all!

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (December 28, 2009)

2009-12-28T12:27:00.002-05:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (Decemeber 21st, 2009)

2009-12-21T09:26:00.002-05:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (Decemeber 14th 2009)

2009-12-14T08:50:00.002-05:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (December 7th, 2009)

2009-12-07T09:29:00.002-05:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (November 30th 2009)

2009-11-30T06:53:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope you all are well, I miss you all. HILARIOUS PICTURE WITH MY FACES!!! Lolololol. I view this as a gift, thank you all for including me in Thanksgiving, I am going to keep these. I also wish to congratulate Tony on his team's victory over mine, State is doing bad this year. It is not so bad of a blow since VT is my second team, thanks to tony, so at least someone I like won the game. So I hope thanksgiving was an excellent meal and a good time. Our thanksgiving was excellent, good food and a fun time but it still was nothing like our mighty Scadden family thanksgivings. The sisters did a bunch of decorations and they asked me what I was thankful for, for the purpose of writing it down on some random paper cutouts and they said it could not involve my family or Jenni, or religion so what do you think I said? The U.S. Army! Elder Esplin and I had a good time together discussing such things during dinner. Our meal was pretty standard, turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. There was a large variety of desserts. It might surprise all of you but I actually made a cheesecake, a very large cheesecake, and it was completely devoured and got good reviews from all. The only issue was that it didn’t chill quite long enough so it was a little runny. Pretty amazing for a first time. We then watched this new Pixar movie called Up. Apparently it did very well? I enjoyed it, it was a good movie, except for how sad it was. In the first 7 minutes they just break your heart and they whole rest of the time you are waiting for it to be repaired and it doesn’t really happen. So we didn’t get our football, but I approve of the alternative.

In Dad's last email he asked me how my Mission President felt about my army recruiting efforts. Well, I really don’t know. Usually though he likes missionaries to have something of a plan when they are going home and I feel that by encouraging them to look into the military it gives them some semblance of potential paths they might take when they get home. I am surprised by how many people have no idea what they are going to do when they get off their missions! I suppose that is a lucky thing about ROTC and having a beautiful future wife, 2 of the biggest post mission problems are well on their way to being solved. It doesn’t work too well on Elder Seevers, he just wants to live in the middle of nowhere Nevada and be a baseball coach at a high school.

The work is slowing down a bit as I suppose is to be expected when your investigators get baptised. Donald's parents continue to be stalwartly opposed to his baptism but Grej and Kejn are now members! That is very exciting. Their mom is learning from us but we had a somewhat disheartening lesson on the Word of Wisdom. She is convinced that red wine is good for you and that there is no alternative. I don’t care what doctors say it does for your heart! The best doctor, the creator of all and most professional and educated of all scientists insists that we do not drink it and He also gives us a promise far greater than any doctor could promise about any diet. We will continue to pray for her and to hope that her heart will soften.

So I have been studying the Old Testament with the LDS college student manual. I have been thoroughly enjoying it. The strict punishments exacted in the Law are pretty intense. I would have been executed years ago for blasphemy or for trespassing the Sabbath. However, I have learned that the Law of Moses is so much more than a list of laws that exact harsh punishments. The law constantly points towards Christ and His coming. Within the law there is also much instruction on what we need to do to be better, not just things that we should not do (though personally, I find DO NOT DO laws pretty great because it tends to be more difficult to find gray areas in keeping them and also it is more difficult to justify not keeping them). I also do not think so badly of the Children of Israel anymore, now that I have been reading their account. Previously I always thought they were the most hardened, illogical, completely stupid people in the history of the world, seeing right before their eyes the manifestations of God and still hardening their hearts. I now realize that while they fell short of the blessings God wanted to give them (I.E. appearing to them that they might see Him with their own eyes) , they still were quite faithful and even were so excited to build the tabernacle that they had to be commanded to stop contributing gold and silver because they just had much more than was needed. From the example of the patriarchs and Moses I am learning a great deal about the mercies of God and the diligence of His servants in fulfilling His commandments. The Old Testament has much more value than I ever thought it did.

Ok, so this is a pretty lame email, I hope that next weeks will be better. Thank you all for your emails, your prayers and your support. This is the Lords work and I feel blessed to be a part of it. I miss you all, and I love you. Until next week, may God bless you!

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (November 23, 2009)

2009-11-23T06:41:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope you all are well! I miss you all. I want to congratulate my niece, Kinsey, on her being allowed to be baptized, that is exciting! I also just wanted to shout out Happy Birthday to Brother Bray, his birthday happens this week. So, remember last week how at internets I was complaining about being a little sick? Well, I got home and found I had a fever of 102.2, and was condemned to stay indoors for the next 4 days. That was horrible! And being sick was pretty sucky too, it got worse that night, but improved a great deal the next day, yet I still had to stay inside for some time. One thing I really did not expect about my mission is how many sick days I’ve had. I suppose they are not exceptional compared to normal life, but in a day of mission life I feel like so much more valuable time is lost. What can you do? I am completely better now. The Lord blessed me with a quick recovery, considering that it was probably the flu.
Grej and Kajn's baptism was awesome! The water was freezing because the gas tank that had gas wasn’t working so the heater wasn’t working but it was still excellent. 2 of their cousins, their aunt, and their mom came. I think the best part of the service was at the very end the mother asked if she could stand up and say a few things. She said a lot of thank yous and the like, but then she said “I had no idea how amazing this church was, how amazing this would be, and I know that I too must follow the same road that my boys have chosen.” It was a great thing to hear! So we are going to start for real trying to teach her again and her boys will be able to help her. It is amazing the way the Lord works. She went from being a very kind, but quite indifferent women to the gospel, to realizing that this is what must be done in her life. I hope to be reporting on her progress in coming weeks.

Donald, our investigator who did not get baptized because of the hardness of his parents hearts, did give a talk in 4th branch on Sunday and it was amazing! The whole audience was stunned by how well this 15 yr old boy delivered his talk and how doctrinally sound and powerful it was. It was a really great thing for Donald to do since he was not able to be baptized that day. I am glad that President Apostulli thought he was a member of the church and asked him to speak. I hope that soon his parents will allow him to be baptized. We are praying much for him.

OH! I have a story! So I have been having mad crazy dreams recently and I do not think that they are fever induced but I would like to share one. It is a good reminder to all of us! So, in the dream, I am driving the Pilot, backing out of our drive way. I am taking grandma to her hair appointment. As I am backing, I see a big black SUV parked at the top of our driveway in the rear view mirror so I stop and I look into my left side view. In the mirror I see Denzel Washington. He is wearing a completely white suite like that of a temple worker and sunglasses. He grabs the edges of the opening of his suite (you know, the V of the suite? He takes them with his fingers) and lifts up his suit jacket a little as though he is indicating it and then says to me “Remember your covenants”. LOLOLOL! The moral of the story, Denzel Washington says, Remember your covenants! Man, I laughed so hard after I woke up, as did my companion when I explained it to him.

THANKSGIVING! We are going to the mission home and having a huge meal on Thursday, so fear not, I will be partaking of some home cooked goodness. However, do think of me because I am sure that it still will not be as amazing as the out of this world cooking that is commonplace at our family meals, especially on so great an occasion as thanksgiving. Now, I asked president if we could play football but he said no, so all those going to the turkey bowl, please play your hearts out for me! Now, I do think we have successfully warded off all the silly movie ideas, like Lion King, a good movie, but thanksgiving and football are inseparably connected, and therefore football must be watched! I think we are going to watch Remember the Titans, great movie!

Dad recently shared a story with me about how his temple shift coordinating always works out regardless of the obstacles that they face. It is a simple testimony builder to me that the Lord will always provide that His work will go forward. It is really miraculous, however small it may seem sometimes, to see His hand revealed. I have seen many miracles, like the one at the baptism last night, as I have been here on my mission and it is a blessing to be a part of so great a work. Anyway, thank you all for your love and your support, and your prayers. I know that this is God's work. I miss you all, and I pray for you often. I love you, may God be with you!

With love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (November 16, 2009)

2009-11-16T12:21:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!!

Time for the exciting news: Elder Seevers and I are staying together! There is nothing I wanted more than for us to continue working together, he is a great missionary and a good friend. This past week we had a 24 lesson week, only 2 less than the most I have seen in any of my companionships and these ones are worth a lot more. The Lord is blessing us with great success and I hope that it will continue. Graj and Kajn are still set to be baptised on Sunday. They are so excited! Donald's parents have not relented but that is ok, he is aware that he can continue to grow and learn in the gospel until the day the Lord blesses him with softened hearts from his parents. This week might end up being pretty hard because I am getting what at first glance seems like the flu. Not throwing up but I am sore from head to foot with sinus problems and I feel on fire. But because we had to go to the mission home this morning (so that Elder Seevers could get his lejtrendrimi, his right to reside here) I didn’t test my temperature. I’ve had worse on my mission! I bet it will pass in a day or two. Please pray specifically for my health this week, it would mean a lot to me, thanks!

Wow! Thanksgiving this next week! That will be exciting, great food! It will probably be the last time I see my good friend Elder Esplin, the Elder I worked with on Boys Camp. Recruiting efforts continue to go well. We are convincing many getting ready to leave to very seriously look into the Army on their return home. Lol I’ve been so concerned with Elder Seevers language and progress as a missionary that I didn’t start military pitches until about a week ago. Come to find out that he would love to serve in the marines but because he injured his shoulder so bad there is little chance he will be able to but he is going to try when he gets home, A satisfying answer for me. It is a real shame Elder Esplin and I did not get a chance to serve a transfer together, it would have been awesome, but that is ok. Maybe we will see each other in the mountains of Afghanistan or where ever we might be in coming years. I seem to be getting to the point on my mission where the friends I have made among missionaries start to go home. Both Elder Esplin and Elder Hamilton leave next transfer! At least Elder Seevers and I will be here in Albania for a while together. When it comes down to it though, I didn’t come here to make friends (though I am making many more, both foreign and Albanian than I ever expected) and the Lord is blessing me greatly with spiritual strength and growth.

The Branch continues to do well under the new president, he has a lot to learn, but he is doing well. Ermal, our just baptised, is being considered as branch secretary because he graduated in finances. That would be a great calling for him! I hope they decide to give it to him. He needs a responsibility.

Darn I had notes that I wanted to write about but I forgot them at home. What can you do? Well, I’ll talk a little bit more about Donald Graj and Kajn. So when they come to church they give awesome answers. They even quote scriptures they have read etc. It blows our members away! They get a great deal of strength and encouragement. Last Sunday, Presidenti Apostulli (president of 4th branch, and yes his first and last names in English are Apostle Apostle) did not realize that these kids attending his ward (just so that they could learn more) giving great answers were not members and he assigned Donald a talk for next Sunday! We are going to help him. Presidenti still wants him to do it even though the confusion has been cleared up. He is excited, it will be great for him because that same day his 2 friends will be getting baptised and he will not so he feels he is still are part of the church. They also attend seminary twice a week and give outstanding answers. They love this gospel. It is amazing. I do not think I have found such excitement and zeal in a person their age (except my friend Erik Wells) ever in my life. It is wonderful!

Ok, sorry for shortness this week, this was a hard one to write without notes! I am very grateful for your prayers, I feel them daily. I miss you all, you are in my prayers, I love you, may God be with you all!

Love,
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (November 09, 2009)

2009-11-09T08:42:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Shqiperia!

I hope you all are doing well! I am doing well. This week I want to shout out to… My self and Jenni! This week we have been together for a year!! Time just continues to fly. Also I was asked to tell Bej Fala (which means give my regards) to Mum from Motra Balilari. We visit her house once every two weeks and she feeds us a ridiculous amount and tells us she is our temporary mother while we are away from our moms. She is the head desert chef at one of the two nicest hotels in all of Albania, so you can imagine that the food is pretty good. But I will be honest, it is nothing like the good cooking I had grown accustom to at home.

I had a question about disciplinary councils in the Church, since I just read the section instituting the way they should be carried out in the D&C, but all I wrote as a reminder was "disciplinary councils", so I have no idea what on earth I was going to ask about them.

Hey! I had a really outstanding idea for Sarah's wedding! So I am her only brother and it is a big disappointment (at least for me, I’m not really sure how much it disappoints you all) that I will not be there. However, I decided that I could at least be there by proxy of a life sized cardboard cut out of me. There are places that make those in our area! I would be thrilled to get a picture taken with my sister in her wedding dress. What does everyone think? If you think it is tacky, you can hid me in a closet or the kitchen or something. just want to be in some pictures. If you all didn’t have any worry, it would be even better if I could stand in that welcome line thing the family does at the reception where all the guests shake our hands upon entering. Anyway, it was just a thought. It is your day Sarah, so if me being there via proxy doesn’t flow with your plans, don’t worry about it, I am unoffended hahah!

Ok, an update on our great investigators Donald, Graj and Kejn, they are still great! They are progressing really well and have such a desire to feast upon the words of Christ. They love coming to church and to seminary as well as English class (though it is less spiritual). They ask us outstanding questions. Graj and Kejn's folks continue to be supportive of their decision but Donald's parents are skeptical. We have a date set for the 22nd of November but Donald fully understands that if he does not have permission from his folks he will have to wait but that he can still be fully active in the church. I am very excited for the 3 of them!

Next Monday is transfers. There seems to be a great deal of risk that one of us will be transferred. We are both very sad about that, Elder Seevers and I make a great team, and have enjoyed working together. I suppose we will just have to wait and see what happens. I do not want to leave but I will willingly go wherever the Lord sends me. Due to the great necessity I have to be further educated in the ways of Charity, I would not be surprised to go to Fier, a very small city that once had a branch of close to 70 active members but they all apostatised from the church in the matter of about 4 weeks. There are now something like 8 active members. I think I would have a lot to learn there. I also would hope that I would be able to work hard and see that place be better than when I left it. That is only a thought! This transfer everyone, and I mean every missionary, could potentially get transferred. The entire board can and has to change (because 1 transfer from now we need 4 new branch presidents that are missionaries, a new assistant, a new office elder, a new zone leader and they don’t want the brand new half of the mission to have to fill those spots). Exciting!

Anyway, it is that time again. I hope this email was sufficient. Today we are going to go eat American cuisine at a restaurant called Route 66. That is about as American as you can get. I’ll let you know how it is. I miss you all, thank you very much for your prayers and your support. I love you all, please take care. May God be with you!

Love
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (November 2 2009)

2009-11-02T11:23:00.002-05:00

Hello all from Albania!

Woohoo!! I got a GREAT package this week! I am very pleased with its contents, you all are wonderful! I also want to wish Grandma a happy 89th birthday. Wow! Grandma has seen many of recent history's most important events. Oh, back to the package, what was up with sending me vitamins especially for people 50+ yrs old?? Lol, no problem, I compared them to the other ones I had and they are essentially the same, so no worries. I just thought it was funny.

Well dang, I forgot to take notes about what I should talk about. I hope this email is not too lame. It is getting cold here in Tirana, I’m not too excited about that but I have plenty of good items to keep me as warm as possible. So what happened this week? Well, we are still teaching those two awesome boys I think I talked about last week. (Hey, did everyone like how I told the same story to weeks in a row with Elder Seevers telling me I needed Charity? I’m telling you, all is as one day here. I is so hard to distinguish one day or week from the next.) Well they are still awesome! Now we have another boy with them, Gray's younger brother, who is also great. All three of them want to be baptized. However, seeing how 2 are 15 and one is 11, we wanted their parents in on this. We visited the family of Donald. They are quite a wealthy family for Albanians and live in a very nice house but they had all the usual, lame Albanian excuses about learning more about the gospel. They are the kind of people that would have answered the door, said they were of a different faith (when in reality they don’t know anything about their faith and don’t ever go to services) and then closed the door. They claimed they had such a huge faith in God but I told them they had no actions to show for it and that this faith is worthless if they do not act the way God has commanded. (I said it in nicer words) We discussed their son getting baptized but they were skeptical. They said they would talk about it. They were kind, respectful people but quite willing to parish in their ignorance. I think it was one of the hardest lessons I have been a part of yet on my mission because they threw so much stuff out there that usually just stops a lesson dead. But because of Donald’s requests we were permitted to push onwards. The Lord certainly helped us to get through that lesson as well as we did, there is no way I could have done it on my own. Gray's family was somewhat different. His Mom is the closest thing I have found in Albania to a hippy. She is a really energetic, kind lady and told us pretty much straight off that her sons had total permission to be baptized and become members in our Church. She is also willing to learn from us, but I think it is more out of respect for us and her sons than anything, but a willingness to listen is a step, I believe. So our plan to see their families baptized is not so close of a goal. We will continue to teach the boys and gage their readiness for baptism.

So we are not the only missionaries in our area who have great people right now. All of Tirana e Re (which is 6 missionaries: us, Elder Turley, Elder Loose, Sister Bojer, and Sister Bentley. So there is no confusion, the ZLs are also in our district but their branch is fourth branch) is having huge success with finding and teaching. The Lord is really blessing us with many miracles.

Our branch president was replaced on Sunday. Sparti has been called to serve in the District Presidency so he could no longer be a branch president. We were all extremely surprised when Shpetim Shima was called as the new BP (he is the father of the two kids baptized when I first came to Ti-re). The surprise is that he has only been a member for 8 months in a branch full of older members. I think it is great!! He has such a huge amount of faith. I believe he will make an outstanding BP and his counselors are all experienced men. It was fast and testimony meeting so after the counselors and BPs had born their testimonies, it was opened to the congregation. Immediately s women in her late twenties rushed to the microphone, absolutely balling, and told us she was never coming to church again (which is ironic because that was the first Sunday in a couple of months that she had been at church). I will admit that that was super awkward, especially because we had 3 investigators in church. However, it got tons better when every other person got up giving large thanks to Sparti and declaring their support for the new BP. They were mostly the stronger, older members of the branch but I believe that a majority of the active branch agrees with them. Brother Shima is well loved. Still, having talked to a few of the members who are younger, they all worry that this will ruin everything. They just haven’t experienced changes like this before. The Lord's work will go forward.

Well, shorter email for this week. Next week might be my last P-day in Tirana e Re. I talked to the Assistants today and it looks as though there will be huge changes this transfer. We have to prepare for January when 14? Missionaries are leaving. 4 Branch presidents, an assistant, and a zone leader need to be replaced because of the changes coming in January and so they need to start getting that set up now. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found myself in a different city next transfer but I really hope that I do not move and that I get to stay with Elder Seevers. He is such an outstanding companion. Anyway, that’s all for this week. I love you all. Thank you for your support and prayers. You are all in my prayers, may God be with you!

Love,
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (October 26, 2009)

2009-10-26T10:12:00.002-04:00

Hail all from the shores of Albania!

I hope you all are doing well! So I do not read my emails when I do email, instead I print them off and read them later. Though, while I was copying and pasting the emails to Word, I caught something about Sarah and Louis getting married?? I hope there are more details and I hope I am not jumping the gun by saying Congratulations!!! To them both. I am now feeling somewhat left out that the marriage will probably occur while I am here. Char me boh? I hope to hear more from Sarah and anyone else.

OK order of business number 2: Mum asked me to start asking for things for Christmas: Shoe inserts that give great arch support, and I mean GREAT inserts. I have some OK ones as we speak but with all the walking we do they aren’t the most fantastic. Fear not, I do not go in everyday suffering from huge amounts of pain, I’m just looking for a greater level of comfort and better flat footed prevention. Also Advil, it can be purchased here in Albania, but for the equivalent of a $5 bottle in American you must pay $350+ dollars here in Albania for it. Heinous, I know, or a potential commercial endeavor with which to make bank, unfortunately the Whitehandbook says not to engage in commercial enterprises or I probably would have already sold my remaining 10 pills for $15 each. Lastly, I do not know if I told you this so it might already be coming, but more daily vitamins, I am almost out! Alright, so enough selfish asking.

This week has been GREAT! Thanks to the many hours of English Advertising we did, we now have two outstanding investigators. They are two friends, both 15 years old, and both very exceptional boys. They learn English in school and take a private course but on top of that they come to our English course just for extra practice. On Saturday they came by even though there was no English. Elder Seevers and I were standing outside the church waiting for a retention that we were pretty sure wasn’t going to come (mainly because we had failed to set up the appointment and he doesn’t have a cellphone and he wasn’t with his sister, so we were just hoping he would pass buy, which isn’t actually that far fetched of an idea if you know Roni) and they came around. I told them that we would have institute in an hour and they were welcome to come. They said they would and we continued talking. It turns out one of the boys had been tracted into before 2 years ago and had the BoM still but for some reason his family never met with the missionaries again. We asked them if they wanted to come inside and watch a movie about Joseph Smith and we would talk a little more about the BoM, they quickly agreed. They were so excited about the film and its message! They agreed to meet with us consistently and to come to church the next day. The spirit was very strong during the lesson. Later that night I introduced them to Sister Shupe (the senior sister who runs the institute program) and learned as Donald (the boy tracted into) told his story that after the missionaries had found them, he had wanted to come to our church for 2 years because there was just something about it but he could never work up the courage to come. Until he saw the missionaries advertising a free English class for all ages and he said it was just what he needed to break the ice so that he could start learning about the gospel. How awesome is that! In church yesterday, Gray, the other one, came dressed in a shirt and tie and Donald took notes during all the classes. Who are these kids? People prepared by the Lord as I see it. I hope that the many bad examples from members of the church that are in their same age will not draw them away from their fire and desire to learn and progress in the Gospel. The beginning of their teaching is truly a miracle from the Lord, how blessed are we to be a part of His higher plan! So please pray for these 2 kids, Donald and Gray, that they will continue to progress and that, if they choose to accept Christ and be baptized, that their families will be open to the decision.

So I have decided that I enjoy tracting far more than I enjoy street contacting. More people get mad at you tracting, people tend to be ruder, but it also forces us to work harder and also if someone is welcoming to the message it is an immediate lesson instead of waiting a day or two to call a phone number you got on the street. But when we are on the street it is easy to let inhibitions prevent you from being most effective. Oh that person doesn’t look like they want to be stopped, oh that person clearly doesn’t want to listen. But while tracting you knock on every door and speak to every person that answers. Does anyone understand what I am saying? Essentially, I am a bad street contacter and thus tracting makes me feel like a more effective finder, LOL! But the best way to find new investigators is through our members. I hope that soon we will be getting some good referrals.

Elder Seevers is an awesome companion. One of the many reasons I loved Elder Flack so much was because he was never afraid to tell me how I could improve and what I could do better. He was always blunt and straight forward. I am finding that Elder Seevers is very similar and I am extremely grateful that he also has that quality. Early this week I was in a bad mood while tracting because we were getting hit with the most irritatingly dumb excuses for not listening to the most important message in the world and he just straight told me “Elder Scadden, you need to have more Charity for these people!” It was a good reminder. So even though I am teaching him and helping him (he himself is also very good at taking constructive criticism), he is teaching me and helping me to be a better, more effective missionary and member of the church. It is a pleasure to serve with him.

This past Thursday was Zone Conference. We had the pleasure of watching part of Elder Hollands BoM talk that had been dubbed over with some music and some pictures. It was extremely powerful. What a testimony! I hope to get permission from president to watch the whole talk during lunch this week. While Elder Holland is much more eloquent, powerful, and convicted, I do wish to add my testimony to his that I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It contains the words of ancient prophets of God. It is not a fake. It is not a farce. There is no way that a book that brings men so much closer to God could be frauded into creation. I have read it and many times repeated the promise given by Moroni in the end to pray and ask God to know the truth and every time the spirit whispers with undeniable affirmation that it is True! And I could never deny it.

I love you all, I miss you all. Thank you very much for your prayers and your support. I am seeing miracles on my mission, I am growing and I am seeing people around me grow. It is a blessing to be here in the Service of the Lord. Until next week, may God be with you all.

Love,
Elder Skadi

Once upon a time in Albania (October 19, 2009)

2009-10-19T08:31:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

I hope everyone is doing well! First I would just like to wish my niece Kinsey a Happy Birthday!

So what do I talk about this week? This week has gone by fast, it is Zone Conference, which means that this transfer is already almost done. We’ve started to hear Christmas music on the road. It is hard to believe that it is almost here! Fortunately we have Thanksgiving first. We will all go to the mission presidents house and Sister Neil will cook us a meal, how lucky we are! We are also going to watch a movie. Last year they watched Remember the Titans. I would like to watch that this year. So would over half the mission. But some people are proposing lame ideas like Harry Potter. Not that that is bad, I’ve heard this one is really good actually, but its Thanksgiving!! That means Football! Well, I guess we will have to see how things play out. It won’t be long before I get to talk to yall over Skype!

So I will tell you all a little bit more about my companion. Elder Seevers comes from a little town called Pioch, in Nevada. 800 people live in his town. There is a full, strong ward there. In a nearby town of 700 people they have 2 wards. These little towns were all founded by the Pioneers. But Elder Seevers himself is a convert to the church, he has only been a member for 4 years. He played football in High School as quarterback and actually went to Boise State to play ball there. If I remember correctly Boise has a pretty good team! But he injured his shoulder really badly. And then, after a surgery and therapy, he injured it again. He finally decided to leave Boise because he felt like he was wasting their time. In reality the Lord just had other plans for him, like a mission to Albania. He has done 3 years of school, majoring in History. He wants to be a high school teacher and baseball coach (he played that too). Now he is here, stunning people with his 6ft 6in of height. He is just as I was when I came into the country, weak with the language, but not terrible. Already in 13 days or so that he has been here I have seen dramatic improvement in his language capabilities. He is also really good at calling me out on things I need to do better, in a non-holier-than-thou sort of way. Last night I was getting really irritated with the excuses and rudeness of people at doors and he very blatantly reminded me that we need to have charity for all these people. It was a good reminder. In any case, he is a great companion and I am learning many things from him. I hope he feels he is learning many things from me.

This week we went tracting for my first time in a number of weeks (I think this is why I was getting so irritated with people, I had forgotten the sort of emotions and rejections that come along with knocking on people's doors). I think the most amusing thing that happened was when we knocked on a door in a dark stairwell and the people came to the door, turned the outside light on, looked through the eye hole for about 2 seconds, and turned the light back off, leaving us in darkness, and walking away. Some people! We laughed about it though, at the utter ridiculousness of it. The J-dubs (Jehovah's witnesses) have waged Jihad on Tirana for years. Tracting really is not the most effective method here. They are uses to seeing J-dubs at their doors once ever few months or so and they confuse us with them. It makes me sad that such an obstacle has been placed in the way of a good finding method. It surprises me how strong a force the J-dubs are here. I had always thought they were a random ridiculous sect of religion that just existed, but in this part of the world they are very prominent. Elder Layton (one of the zone leaders) and I might actually be attending one of their services to represent the Church this week (we have been invited). The best thing that happened was when we knocked on one of the last doors we planned on knocking on that night and a man opened the door and invited us in. We first clarified that we were missionaries and that we had a message to share with him and he said “I know! Please come in!” His name is Ismiel and he is a really great guy! He doesn’t trust the self proclaimed religious leaders of the world because he feels like they don’t have the authority to speak for God. He disapproves of the mechanical prayers preached by various faiths and believes that we must pray from our hearts. He is not well learned with the stories of the Bible (having grown up in communism) and does not frequent any places of worship. But when we told him the story of Joseph Smith and told him that we have a prophet on the earth today with Authority from God he was very interested. I feel like he has been prepared to receive the message. We will see. He has agreed to meet with us 2 or 3 times a week for the next 3 or 4 weeks. He is aware that we are here to help him find the truth for himself and he knows that if he indeed finds that testimony, we will be inviting him to be baptized. Let us hope he progresses.

We also have another new investigator named Elida. She is catholic, but seems to be very interested in the church. We had an excellent first lesson with her and 2 member girls, but of course, as usually happens when using the untrained in lessons, later topics of discussion that at first appear strange, like baptisms for the dead, were brought up. It doesn’t seem to have weirded her out and she stayed for all of institute. If she indeed starts to progress we may hand her over to the sisters as it would just be simpler for them to teach her (we would always have to find back up when teaching her). Regardless of who ends up teaching her, I am excited for her. She had many good questions. As with Ismiel, I hope to see her walk towards the waters of baptism!

Anyway, enough of that random subject. Oh, I wanted to leave a message for Jenni, who has not yet received a letter from me this week: I indeed sent one, but I do not believe it was sent until Thursday of that week because while I was with Elder Vail in his area, while we were waiting for our trainees, we could not find a post office to save our lives, so I had to wait til I got back to my area on Thursday. Sorry its coming late, I hope it comes soon!

Alright everyone, it is time for me to go. Until next week! It will be here before we know it. Time is just flying! The crazy thing about it is people keep telling me, "You think time is flying now? Just wait til your year mark, then it starts to Rocket by." I cannot even imagine that! Time already is rocketing by! I guess it will increase to warp speed then. Well, I know that this is the Lords work and even though time is flying, I know that I am being successful. It is such a blessing to be here. Thank you all for you prayers! I love and miss you all, may God be with you!

Love
Elder Skadi

(The following are excerpts from an email Gregory asked be forwarded to his last companion who has completed his mission. Gregory indicated it would be ok to post this.)

Hey man, life is excellent! The fringo, elder Seevers, is a great guy and is trying hard. Already in the first little while that he has been here I have seen great improvement in his language capabilities. The branch is doing well, Sparti will be released soon as branch president because he is now part of the district presidency. Bro Baird is now district president. I got the photo I wanted from you, so don’t worry about that.

Ermal's baptism was awesome! The spirit was very strong there and Ermal was so happy to be baptized. The confirmation was this Sunday and it went well. He just showed up a few minutes late. Elder Shupe did the confirming. I didn’t know this, but apparently Ermal has been on the active search for the true church for the last 10 years of his life. He grew up Muslim, but decided pretty early it was wrong. Sparti is considering making him assistant to the branch clerk, or just all out branch clerk, because he is a finance graduate.

As for the gossip around the mission, I’m trying my best to stay out of it by not saying anything about anyone and not participating in listening to other people. President really wants to kill this whole gossip thing. I’m sorry to hear that you hear it is still a problem. I hope that by the time my trainee gets done with me he’ll only know mostly good things about missionaries.

The Shima family is well. Soni still doesn’t have the Aaronic priesthood but he should get it soon, Sparti has been working with him. Ermal is set to get it in just a couple of weeks and Sparti agrees with our assessment that that would be good. Ani is working hard at the Crapery. The sisters are teaching another young man that works there with Ani and now the whole crapery staff is planning on coming to English course on Wednesday. What a crazy thing it would be if the whole crapery converted?? Roni is helping us teach Ray, but I’ll be honest, I doubt we will baptize him. He lacks the desire. Elderado is good, Kitio came to district conference and Edi Losha is well… A Frenchman.

Thanks for your prayers Abli, I hope that home starts to get a little more exciting soon! Edi leaves in like 3 weeks, it'd be great if you got to see him every now and again. You have a good one, may God be with you!

Sincerely
Elder Skadi
P.S. I knew the dark knight would blow you away!

Once upon a time in Albania (October 12, 2009)

2009-10-12T08:48:00.002-04:00

Hello All From Albania!

Wow! What a great week! 2 baptisms this week! Roani and his sister on Monday and Ermal yesterday. What an exciting week! However, this week I am going to direct my email as a mission report to my bishop and stake president. I hope you all still enjoy it, Before I begin I just want to let everyone know that our church building got ransacked. It looks like someone came into the building while it was open, hid, and than sacked it, because there is no evidence of forced entry but tons of evidence of forced exit. Crazy! Fortunately nothing of great value was stolen. Whoever this thief was, they were looking for raw money but didn’t find anything and were clearly not wise enough to realize that our church amplifier and projector were worth hundreds of dollars. Thank goodness! My new companion: Elder Seevers from Nevada. He is awesome! I’ll talk more about him next week.

Dear President Maxwell and Bishop Council,

I apologize that I have not written sooner. Today I will give you a brief report of my mission up to this point. I hope you enjoy it.

Current Status: Successful! Albania is a small, poor country that is still suffering from many side effects of communism. The church is small here but the work is moving forward. There are about 1500 baptized members but only about 400 are consistently active. The District recently took several steps backwards in its progression when a Foreign Service Officer from the US had to be made district president because the current president went inactive. There are 11 branches, 5 of which are in the capital city of Tirana. The Church has built two buildings so far, one in Durres and one in Elbasan. We have many faithful members who are fulfilling their callings and slowly we are adding active Melchizedek priesthood holders towards the qualifications of stakehood.

Personal Development: I am growing beyond that which I could have imagined! Every day I see the hand of the Lord revealed in this work. I have seen the holy spirit work in the lives of the people I have interacted with. I am slowly learning the language of the spirit and my knowledge of the scriptures continues to grow as the Lord enlightens my mind with greater insights throughout my studies. I am surprised at how we can always have more faith, we can always be more diligent and more Christlike. It is a life long development. My testimony of the Savior and his Atonement has deepened since I have been here, as has my testimony of the restoration. I continue to learn patience, charity, and love, as I have had to pray for a great deal out here. I did not realize how self-centered I was until my primary responsibility became the spiritual well being of those around me.

Language: I am OK at the language. I have seen amazing progress over these 6 months and it has been all due to the Lord and his mercies. It is hard to believe that I once could barely construct a sentence when I can now express my self in complex ideas and phrases. I still have a long way to go, I am far from mastering the Albanian language. I have begun training another missionary and I already can tell that this will take my language capabilities to my limits. Indeed the gift of tongues has been a powerful ally here in the country. At times I am extremely surprised at the things that leave my mouth, not realizing before that I had the knowledge to say them.

Successes: My first 3 transfers in the country did not have a great deal of what might be called outward success. In fact, the branch I was in, Skoder, had 30 people in Church my first Sunday. 5 weeks later we had 2. Fortunately at least 1 member always showed up. My time in Skoder can be summed up easily in two words: Enduring Apostasy. That is not to say that I feel my time there was wasted. I felt the spirit work strongly through me numerous times, many people were called to repentance, though such calls were rejected. I challenged people to change their lives, I developed Christlike attributes and I came to love some of the most dishonest and selfish people I have ever met, as Children of a Heavenly King. I have spent 1 transfer in Tirana e Re, in the strongest branch in all of Albania, 2nd branch. Here I have seen people use their agency for good rather than evil. The hand of the Lord has been outstretched to them in love and they have gladly accepted it rather than turning from it for the pleasures of the world. The Lord has blessed me in allowing me to take a direct and central role in the conversions of 2 individuals to the gospel, Ermal Llaha and Roani Kallopi. I have also felt the holy ghost work through me as I have taught people about our Lord and Savior.

Conclusion: I have felt that thus far my mission has been incredibly successful. In the MTC they told us many times that our mission was a success if the only person that changed or was converted to the gospel was us, then we had successful missions. I have been blessed to see much more than that. I know that this is the work of God. Nothing can stop it. I am but a tool in his hands and it is a blessing beyond that which I deserve. However, the Lord in His mercy has allowed me to be in His service. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Almighty God, and the Jehovah that rules this existence. I know that His Atonement is full and complete, I have felt its powerful effects in my life and through it I have been redeemed. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration and Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of our day. This Church is Gods kingdom on the earth, I know this without doubt. May God be with you.

Love,
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (Oct. 6 2009)

2009-10-06T08:18:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

Wow another transfer is over! That is crazy! I have been on my mission for 9 months now. That is enough time to have a baby! Kristin is an excellent example. I hope mother and baby are still doing well. Hey, about this! I forgot to put this in my last email! So Elder Abley had 2 nephews born in the same week as Malachi and the crazy thing is that one of them is named Malachi as well! Crazy! So, exciting news, ROANI has been baptised with his sister Elba! How exciting is that!? I suppose if one were to count baptisms this would be my personal first that I had a large impact on. I walked in on Soni and Anxhelas but I was there from the beginning with Roani's teaching. It is awesome to see the atonement of Christ work in peoples lives. I am so blessed to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to help bring His children His words. Next Sunday Ermal will be baptised. That is super exciting! He is so ready! And the Church will bring him so many blessings in his life. Teaching him was so simple, he has such a desire to learn. I believe it is that desire that made it so easy for him to receive an answer of the truth. He doesn’t show much emotion. He is pretty stone faced in fact but sometimes when we talk about the gospel or he sees/hears something at church you just see him light up with eagerness and excitement. I am very happy for him! It is so wonderful to see people accept the gospel of Christ into their lives. OK, let me go on before I repeat myself some more.

Wow! Training! I do not have my trainee yet. For today, tomorrow, and Thursday morning I will be with Elder Vail who is another missionary who will be opening a new area in Tirana and will be training. I could get any one of 12 Elders (since 1 is sick in the MTC and has already been assigned to a companion and one other of the 14 missionaries is a sister). I don’t really know anything about any of them. I have only seen their pictures. I do know that none of them are prior service US military. Sadface. That’s OK, I still have enough time on my mission, I may yet serve with one such person! The task of training is somewhat daunting. I feel inadequate and unprepared but I know the Lord will help me. Last week was one of those weeks were I just felt like my language got worse. I’ve had about 3 such weeks in the country. I think the Lord was just humbling me up some, just so I’d be that much more prayerful and reliant on his arm before the new missionary comes. All in all, my most apparent emotion is excitement! Its going to be awesome! It will be outstanding for my language and also for my work ethic. You will hear about him next week.

So they are putting 2 more Elders in 2nd branch. I believe that the work certainly exists to keep these elders here, the only problem is that this is no clear way to divide the branch between us due to the location of the 2 missionary houses. Tirana e re is essentially shaped like a big rectangle, a narrow, but very long rectangle. Our house is at the far left hand side of the rectangle (the left and right sides being the shorter ends and the top and bottom sides being the long ends) and in the middle of that side. The other T-re house is at the far bottom left hand corner, right at the extreme edge. So, we have a huge area extending out to the right of us, but not much above us, below us, or to the left. There is no way to divide it long ways, and if we divide it short ways that means one companionship will be traveling quite a distance everyday. We will hold a council of war to decide the best way to handle the situation, but I believe we will just be calling it free for all and have tracting zones to make sure we don’t tract over each other.

Was general conference not AWESOME? We only got to see 2 sessions, the morning sessions of both days, but I loved the talks. Elder Bednar's extremely excellent (one of those that I’ll probably write down to read for when I get home), and I particularly liked Elder Uchtdorf's and Elder Scott's talks the first session. The second morning session had good talks too, I enjoyed Bishop Burton's talk about ity attributes. Developing the attributes of Christ is so very important! If we focus on our own personal improvement in those areas, I think we will find keeping the commandments and magnifying our callings and responsibilities as members will come easily. I also learned from Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar's talks that I need to tell my companions that I love them. The only companion that I tell that to often is Elder Flack but that is probably because I really do love him very much. I think, like Elder Bednar said, I tend to be embarrassed to say it and also because I don’t like to just say those words if I actually don’t mean it. However, I hope to try and do better at coming to love individuals. I know that as I continue to pray for Charity and I work on my attitude and also look for opportunities to serve others, I will gain that love for them that I want to gain. I hope you all learned a lot, it is such a blessing to learn at the feet of such inspired men.

OK, I am out of time. I love you all! I miss you all fiercely! This is the Lords work. Everyday I see His hand extended to me in love and mercy. I could not do this work without His help. Thank you all for your prayers. May God be with you!

Love,
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (September 28 2009)

2009-09-28T12:47:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone!

Se pari. I'd like to congratulate my sister Kristin and her Husband John on the birth of their new son and my new nephew, Malachi Fareday South!!! How exciting! It is good to hear that he and his Mom are healthy.

Ok, I am tired!! I have this mild cold, so I tried to sleep it off during lunch yesterday. Ended up sleeping far too long (our lunches are 3 hrs during the summer, so there is plenty of time to sleep too long) and therefore I did not sleep last night at all. Kind of backfired, but what can you do? I'll just spend this week trying to get back on track. We'll get an extra hour of sleep this weekend anyway and then the schedule changes so that we are not getting our night's sleep cut short. That will be nice! I actually don't really like our long lunches. So that's how I am, I hope all of you are healthy and well, I miss you all!

Great week this week! We will have a baptism on Saturday! A young boy we have been teaching will be baptized with his sister on Sunday. He is an extremely quick boy, a concert pianist in fact that has performed in Germany. It is somewhat of a miracle that they are getting baptized. Their parents were against his older sister getting baptized because she had already been baptized in the Orthodox church. They said it was ok for Roni to be baptized but we weren't going to do that without his sister. Then yesterday there was a baptism from 1st branch at our building and Roni and Elbas parents passed by and talked to our senior couple, the Shupes and Elder Abley. Theydecided it was a good thing for their kids to be baptized. It seemed like it was going to take so much longer but it was, just a little meeting in the road and their hearing that a whole family was being baptized that day made them realize it was a good thing. We are very excited!

On top of that, Ermal is progressing great. He is still headed strong towards his baptismal date of the 11th October. We will be meeting with him a lot in preparation. Whoever my trainee is, he will be walking into a baptism is first week in the country! That’s a good thing to start with. Yesterday was the first time Ermal stayed for all 3 hours of church. The Lord works in mysterious ways because since he stayed he was able to be introduced to tons of the older members (he knows a number of the YSA kids because of institute and the like). As we introduced him, one member asked what he studied in university and he told them he had just graduated in finance and accounting. This member told him he knew another member who owned a big super market and he was looking for someone to be the store accountant or something of the like and the member said he would introduce Ermal to this other member (it is pretty cool, but members here that own businesses always seek out to employ other members before they go into the rest of the world for employees). Ermal was very excited about the prospects of getting a good job like that. I hope that he gets it, it will be wonderful for him and it will greatly aid in his integration into the church! We had a somewhat funny experience with Ermal. While he was at the YSA conference in Vlore he heard a speech about staying away from places and situations that cause temptation, like a person going to a bar who has a problem with drinking. Now, bless his heart, he took this to somewhat of an extreme. He said to us ‘if I have to stay away from temptations and things, does that mean that I shouldn’t have a girlfriend? (this guy is 22 years old, he needs to be married)’ we kind of laughed to ourselves, and explained that we actually really wanted him to have a girlfriend, especially one that was a member and that he could apply the same idea to that relationship. The two of them could stay away from situations and places that would tempt them. We also explained that if he dates a member girl, he will probably be dating someone who desires to be married in the Temple and has high standards, though we told him it was not against the commandments to date a non-member girl. We were pretty impressed, because he was totally read to accept whatever we said. Its good to know he probably won’t be having any law of chastity issues! He is a great!

Lol it’s the end of P-day and someone was kind enough to bring me mail. Better late than never! I am across the city from the mission home, you’d figure I’d be getting my mail more consistently than I did in Shkoder, but not so! When people come here to our side of town rarely do they think “oh, I should take them their mail!” That’s ok, I have a plan for getting my mail consistently again at the beginning of next transfer. We will see how that goes. I am so extremely grateful for all the Emails and letters I get! Thank you all for giving me such support, I never fathomed that mail would be so wonderful to receive. I’m also lucky I’ve got such an amazing future wife who writes me so very much!

General conference next week! I am very excited! We only get to watch 2 off the sessions, but that is much better than none at all! I would like to request to Mum and Dad to send me an issue of the conference Ensign as soon as they can, as they did last time, because we will not get our magazines here until close to Christmas day.

Wow, speaking of Christmas, I am going to blow your minds away with rumors. So we all know that I am anticipating coming home a week early. Well, a week early is only 3 days after Christmas. President is considering allowing members of my group to go home yet another week earlier than that. Now, I am not going to come right out and say that I want to go home yet another week early (though being home for Christmas of 2010 would be out of this world awesome), but it may end up that President will send my whole group home together at that time since all but 2 of us are asking to go before Christmas. Can you believe that we are already thinking about this? I just need to be home a week early to get ready for school, which president has already given me the green light on. But I thought I would just mention to you all that President might just send us home even earlier, but don’t get your hopes up! Besides, whats one week anyway?

Wow, I heard a story this week that I found unbelievable but it comes from the Area Presidency themselves. It was on the topic of being a successful missionary which sometimes missionaries worry too much whether or not they are successful when they are doing just fine (yes, I’ve been in that boat before). Here we get plenty of lessons, new investigators etc. Often I feel the spirit of the Lord working through me and I strive to be obedient which are essentially the keys to being a successful missionary regardless of numbers. We were told of a missionary who just recently finished his mission in Germany. His entire mission he only had 7 meetings. 7 times in 2 years where he sat down and taught one of the lessons to non-members. That is insane. I already have been blessed to teach hundreds of lessons to nonmembers. But he still, according to his feelings and the feelings of his mission president, was a successful missionary because he strives to be obedient and many a times he felt the spirit working though him, even if the door still shut in front of him after it moved upon the person opening by the spirit. I don’t think I will feel quite the same level of disappointment on empty days anymore. I have nothing to complain about. So far I feel very strongly that my mission has been successful and I feel like the Lord is blessing me with quite a bit of outward success, or fruits of my labor, and I hope to continue to work with all my strength that I might see the arm of the Lord continue to be revealed. What a blessing it is to be here, in the service of my God!
Yes, so yesterday we had an outstanding meeting with the Shima family (Shpetim and his kids, his kids are the ones that got baptized earlier this transfer). I feel very strongly that their mom and their cousin/niece are progressing quickly to the point of receiving the lessons. I hope that in my time here I can see the family be completely in the church with the baptism of their mom and their cousin and that there will be a road toward the conversion of Shpetims brothers! How exciting it is to see the gospel change and bless people's lives here!!

Anyway, I hope you all are well. I miss you all, I pray for you all often. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I love you all! Until next week, may God be with you!

Love,
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (September 21st, 2009)

2009-09-21T13:45:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

I miss you all! This past week has been an interesting week, with some good things and some bad things. But first I wish to shout out to my sisters Sarah and Lauren and wish them a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I think I should also be getting a new nephew soon, I hope that Kristin's delivery goes well! And WOW Mum was released! I didn’t think it would ever happen, she made such an outstanding Relief Society president.

Ok, so let me get the less good things out of the way. This week Elder Abley and I got food poisoning! It was really exciting. We went over to a members house for lunch. She is actually a professional cook at one of the nicest hotels in Tirana. However, she made us a dish of kos (yogurt), milk, and eggs with meat in it. I don’t think it was cooked properly or something. That is the only thing that Elder Abley and I feel like we can point to as the cause of the poisoning. Anyway, we went home not feeling too hot and slept for the remainder of lunch. Upon waking up at the end of lunch, we both were talking about how we were feeling absolutely horrible. I then went into the bathroom and threw up hard core. We then went and got a Coke. Coke is not good for your stomach. I do not know why we were thinking that it would work. I think it is because the MTC says that when you eat meat that you think might be a little spoiled or something to immediately go and down a bunch of Coke, because it kills a bunch of junk. Anyway, so I threw all that up not too long after but that time it was in the sink because I was on the toilet with crazy business on the other end. At this point I successfully got all that badness out. We got some other elders to come over and give us blessings. I felt assured that on the marrow I would be healed, but I knew I would have to endure the night. I warned elder Abley that usually when I have fevers I hallucinate like crazy just to give him a heads up. Well, such was the case Thursday night. I don’t think I slept at all until 5am. The whole time I was tripping out of my mind. Sometimes I would remember who and where I actually was and would try to convince myself of the reality I actually lived in. It’s a good thing that usually when I have these hallucinations my body hurts so badly and I am so exhausted that I cannot move off my bed. But at 5 I finally fell asleep and woke up an hour later without a fever and slept a good sleep for most of the next day. I am better now! It was crazy! Elder Abley is better too. And so as a testimony of the power of the priesthood. When I received the blessing I felt very strongly that it would it would be the next day that I was back to operational capacity. Sure enough, that belief was answered quite miraculously, since Elder Abley said the last time he got food poisoning he was confined to the house in Durres for 2.5 weeks.

Ok, bad news out of the way! Good things that happened this week. So, we were able to meet with Ermal and teach him about baptism. It was an outstanding lesson, especially because we had Grisi there to help us out. Ermal totally got it and his only concern with being baptized was how important of a decision it was and how he had to be sure. So we committed him to go and pray about it, whether or not it was the right thing to do. Well, we met with him 2 days later. I asked him how his prayer had gone. We were ecstatic with his response. He told us that as he prayed he felt this amazing, exciting feeling. He felt certain that this was what he had to do and that he wanted to live the rest of his life according to God's commandments. It was awesome that Lord answered his prayer so clearly and quickly. I believe that the Lord had been preparing Ermal for some time. He is planned to be baptized on Oct. 11, but we might have to push that back a week due to district conference and because he wants to make sure he is well aware of all the commandments so he knows he can live them. I am so excited for him! The gospel will bring such wonderful blessings into his life!

We also had an excellent meal at a member's house yesterday after church. They are Americans. Brother Baird is a foreign service officer. Since I am interested in service in the state department as a possibility for post mission, I asked brother and sister Baird lots of questions about his work. It sounds pretty awesome! But I also found out from him that I can do pretty much the same job as he does as a military foreign affairs officer, which is a kind of MI specialization, which is a direction that I already want to head in. There are many choices to make with my career! Fortunately I don’t have to worry too much about those right now. But the meal was excellent. Even good Albanian home cooked meals are nothing like American home cooked meals. It was nice of them to have us over.

Insight from personal study: A question that has been on my mind a lot is if the nation of Zion would be founded before the coming of Christ, and I do not mean our stakes of Zion, but the actual massive city and the lands round about. The reason I have wondered is because inevitably everything is going to hit the fan. Nation will fight against nation and wherever people are it will be dangerous because of the wars and destruction that would be going on. But if the country of Zion existed, then that would mean that one stable nation existed that no army or military force could mess with. I have always envisioned and entire army full of righteous priesthood holders, nothing would be able to defeat it! Well, I found my answer in D&C 44, 45, or 46 (can’t remember which LOL). But I read that while the world is going to the dogs, Zion will be the banner of safety and that NO man will dare go up against that city for war because of their fear of its strength and any man that refuses to take up arms against his neighbor, in order to defend himself, will have to flee to Zion for refugee. So the nation of Zion will be raised up before Christ's coming and it will be a powerful nation that no army will dare to attack. How intriguing! I have no theories about when all these events will happen, wither it is in my life time, the life time of my kids, or further, but I do believe it would be quite awesome to be an officer in the organized Royal Army of Zion.

Its very cool that Elder Jensen came to your Stake Conference, I heard a talk from him in the MTC and it was absolutely outstanding. He is a very good teacher.

Well, I hope you all are well, I miss you all, I love you all. Thank you for your prayers and for all the support that you give me!! May God be with you.
Love
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (September 14th 2009)

2009-09-14T12:56:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

I am exhausted! I hope that this email will still be good. This week was a very fast week. We had District Leader Training on Tuesday (even though I am not a DL, I still go to the training because my companion is). We talked a lot about accountability, which is an important part of missionary work, however we discussed it an extremely long time. I think accountability definitely needs to be improved a little, but what I am realizing about the struggles the mission is having has a lot more to do with us as missionaries and not because of procedure. We, as missionaries, need to be fundamentally trying to improve and gain greater companionship from the spirit. It is a shame, but, as with the last group that went home, the mission is kind of gritting its teeth and just toughing it out until this group goes home. Most of them have decided to quit so close to the end rather than finishing strong. Dad once sent me a quote that said something like this: A weak ending ruins the entire journey. That is very strong language, but it really is unfortunate to see the side effects of their quitting. All I can learn, I suppose, is to NOT be like that. How I hope that that does not happen to me. I do apologize, my morale is somewhat down today. Do not worry though, the Lord will help me and grant unto me strength. I just need to change my attitude and not think about the negative things that are going on…. LOL meaning that I probably shouldn’t even email home about them. It will be wonderful to get new blood soon, I think it will be so revitalizing. But, despite all this, I am excited to be here! Albania is a wonderful place, a crazy place. There are many people who are ready for the gospel and I need to remember why I am here. It is for a reason that far exceeds my own wants or desires. Ok, enough complaining!

Good news: Shpetim Shima, he is the man who's 2 kids were baptized a couple weeks ago. His wife is not a member, but we really feel like she is warming up to the gospel. She had received all the lessons at one point, but was very skeptical of organized religion because of some run ins that she had with J-dubs. Now, after the baptism of her children, her interest is being rekindled. I believe it helps that Vellai Shima is a very strong and faithful member who continues to progress. Last night it came out that they have family prayer (which is outstanding, I am sure there are many families throughout the church that need to do that!) every night and that the Mom reminds them if they have forgotten to have it (she obviously joins them also). It is really wonderful. So last night we went over to their house and watched something called Deshmi 2, which is a youtube video (if you don’t think you fully know how Albanian sounds, check it out!). The video is about 7 minutes long and is simply some of Albania's greatest members bearing testimony of the simple truths of the gospel. It is a powerful film! Afterwards we discussed the importance of gaining a testimony through Moroni’s promise and then went on to talk about how important it is to share our testimonies with others because it strengths them and us. It was a powerful lesson and I feel very strongly that she is one step closer to being open to the lessons again. She also committed to start coming to church at least twice a month. How exciting!

This past week we also went camping with the priesthood quorum. President gave us allowance because we were bringing one very new member and two less actives, all of which are around the same age. In total there were 11 of us. We got to the beach kind of late, so we had to set tents up in the dark, which was a challenge due to the wind and not being able to see. However, I did see a beautiful sunset. The sunsets here are amazing! I think there is just enough pollutants in the air to magnify the beauty of the sun. Anyway, we made a fire and had a very nice devotional that ended up being directed at the young men and I think several things may have been said that they needed to hear. It is wonderful to be in a branch that has older members of the church with strong testimonies and positive life experiences. The next day we attempted to fish (well, they fished while Elder Ably and I took down the mess of tents and other junk that had been tossed everywhere by the wind, but at least we were contributing!), but nothing was caught. We figured out that a huge net was actually strung across the entire bay where we were fishing, making it impossible for fish to come in. Oh well! We then tried to teach them how to play ultimate Frisbee and even though they didn’t quite get it, they had a good time! In the end the activity was a success.

Ah, and more good news! Our investigator Ermal went to Vlora with all the young single adults for a big conference and he came back with some excellent friends! It just so happens that the two closes friends he made are 2 of the best, most faithful YSA kids in all of Albania. We hope that that will be yet another step that sees him towards baptism. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with him this week because he was very busy, but our regular meeting schedule will begin again with him this week. We hope that we will be able to get a baptismal date with him.

What else to talk about? Oh I remember! This week Elder Hixson (from my MTC group) and I went out on exchanges (because Elder Tracy and Elder Abley were doing death visits). Well, we did a cool thing! But allow me to preface. The day before, Elder Abley and I had been out street contacting. As we were walking to our location of contacting, we passed by a group of hippies (ok, they weren’t hippies, but they were a bunch of young kids wearing the same tee shirts, singing with a guitar, that’s pretty hippy in my book). We did not got far before we stopped and began trying to talk to people. Well one of the group of hippies started handing out pamphlets to people sitting on the benches and then came up to us. Turns out he is from Portugal and was here on a mission trip with the 7th day Adventist church. He told us about a cultural event they were having the following night and invited us. Well, I wanted to go and represent the true church of Christ! So that is what Elder Hixson and I did and it was a really excellent service! They had a theology professor speak and he was talking about how Muslims and Christians believed in the same God. He had some good things to say and some good points, but he missed the memo that Albanians have the One God idea down to a science. It is the biggest excuse to not let you in, to not listen to you, and to harden their hearts that they employ! That’s ok though, the mission trip group sang beautifully and we were extremely warmly welcomed, which was a nice change of treatment from another religious sect. As we left, Elder Hixson and I overtook one of the girls from the group walking with an Albanian friend she had made. As we passed, she said something to us, so we stopped and talked to her and praised her for how beautiful they had sung, along with other things, After talking to her for a minute or two, we had to dismiss ourselves because we had to hightail it across Tirana. As we turned to walk away, she turned to her friend and said in relative surprise “wow, they were really nice!” she will now have a more positive attitude and outlook on Mormons. All in all, I feel like the night was successful, I think we really left a positive impression on a number of people by attending .

Anyway, that is all for this week! Thank you all for your prayers and your support. I miss you all, I love you all very much. You are in my prayers! This is the Lords work, I know it without a doubt. Until next week, may God be with you!

Love
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (September 7th, 2009)

2009-09-07T12:02:00.002-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

Hi all! First I want to Shout out to my sister Heather and my niece Audrey and wish them a Happy Birthday that will be happening this week! I also wish to say Happy Anniversary to my folks! I do not know which one this is… Also, I would like everyone to consider and remember that this week 8 years ago many American lives were lost at the hands of terrorists. Remember that this is why our soldiers are abroad. Remember for who and what they are fighting and do not let the lies of politicians cause you to withdraw your support.

Most exciting thing that happened this week: I experienced my first sizable earthquake. It was about 11:30 PM. I still hadn’t fallen asleep (don’t worry, I am sleeping well, this was just a random night were I wasn’t falling asleep easily) and my bed started to freak out and everything in the room could be heard shaking as well as the whole building. Not really knowing how to respond to earthquakes, I just laid there and prayed that my 11 story apartment building would not come toppling down on us. It subsided relatively quickly. Nothing was destroyed, which was nice. It was such a strange feeling! Guess there is a first time for anything.

So it sounds like the house that I remember is changing like crazy! Dads got his man cave upstairs. The down stairs has been turned into mums room and grandma is now living were I use to live! It will look so different when I get home! That’s OK, when I left I wasn’t really sure if Jenni and I would get that apartment, but now it does indeed sound like mum and dad are planning on letting me then us stay there after my return. That is a nice thing to know! I suppose a lot could still change in a year and some months, but I’ll remain confident.

This Sunday I conferred the Holy Ghost for the first time in my life and gave my first blessing in Albanian. Soni and Angela were baptized last week and it was time for them to complete their baptism with the gift of the Holy Ghost. I had just assumed that both of them would choose elder Abley because they knew him for 9ish months and me for only 3 weeks. The thought had not even crossed my mind until 11 year old Angela looked up to me with her big bright eyes and choose me to do the conferring. I had about 5 seconds to think so I did my best to turn it all over to the lord. I think I sweat several pints of water in that two minutes but at the end I felt that, despite some grammatical errors that I had made, I had indeed given the blessing through the Holy Spirits guidance. However stressful it was in the moment, afterwards it was really quite awesome and a definite honor to confer that gift upon her. On that note, Dad I might soon have to participate in the conferring the priesthood upon some individuals and I realized that I do not have my line of Authority to give to them. I was hoping that you could send that to me, so that I would have that to give to them. Thanks!

This week has been a good week. It started off pretty bad, I just was down and I didn’t know why. I realized in the middle of last week that I had just been thinking too much about my wants and desires and not so much about the Lords will. I recommitted to following what He wants me to do. I guess every now and again we need to be reminded to keep our attitudes in the right place or that we need to be trying harder to focus on the Lords will. This is why we have GC twice a year or why we are commanded to pray often and study the scriptures over and over again. How easy it is for us to forget! Anyway, I am maintaining a much more positive and happy attitude now regardless of the fact that today I have been missing family and future wife like crazy today. I miss you all pretty much all the time but it is not a home sickness feeling. Only every now and again does it get intense to where it actually interferes with how I feel over all. Does that make sense? I suppose that happens from time to time! But I already feel much better than earlier in the day. The Lord is ever blessing me!

A really horrible Metalica remake just came on the radio. Why do people have to ruin good songs? A women who doesn’t even have a good voice cannot take a wonderful Metalica song and liberally change it how she desires. You get a lot of this sort of music in Albania. Good songs taken, murdered horribly from their original goodness, and then represented as some sort of undead creature and they expect people to like it.

So in missionary work we work with a lot of numbers and names. I suddenly had the thought this week “was I ever a number or a name in a missionaries planner?” I can think of a period of time in my life when I very well might have been. Its kind of a weird thought. I know that I was more than just a number or a name, if I was one of those things in a planner, but the thought is still strange, now seeing how everything is done.

Oh I got my package from Mum and Dad! Thanks for the CDs and the Starbursts. It came just in time, all of the goodies I got from Jenni are starting to run out, with exception to the peanut butter, which I am trying to make last. I am looking forward to listening to the CDs. Its so hard to believe that it is already time for next conference! Crazy!

Dad asked me recently for a language update and I really didn’t give a good one. I don’t give myself a good rating on my language, so let me give one from someone else's perspective. Several people have told me recently I am doing great and they think my greatest asset is how confidently I speak and how I am never afraid to try to say what I have to say. They say that because I speak with a loud, clear, confident voice that even if I am saying something really grammatically incorrect, Albanians understand it because they aren’t second guessing what they think you are trying to say because you are second guessing it. So I guess that is a very good thing to be. I am still really bad at this language but the Lord is constantly helping me to improve and teaching me daily.

Well, I hope you all are doing well. Thank you all for your emails, letters, prayers, and all the support that you give me. I miss you all, I love you all very much. I remember you all in my prayers. I know this is the Lords work. He is watching over it and He is sending his angels to help us. I hope I can do what He wishes for me to do. Until next week, which is already almost here. Weeks here begin and end like the passing of only a day. Strange how time does not really exist here.

May God be with you all!

Love,
Elder Scadden

Once Upon a Time in Albania (August 31st 2009)

2009-08-31T14:08:00.002-04:00

Hello from Albania!

Wow! It is September! Fall is about to begin! That means its just going to become cold and wet here, since all the rain comes in the winter time. I’m not too excited about that. My only consolation is that I will be able to be here for another beautiful summer but for really only 1 winter (since winter begins December 21st, and I’ll be home like a week later!) That is lucky! Even though I really like the summers here I am baffled by how much I sweat. Shkoder is about 10 degrees cooler than Tirana and I sure can tell. Its not less bearable, I just am in a constant state of sweating. It is somewhat amusing. I think Tirana is the only place and time in my life where I’ve been able to sleep consistently on top of the covers and get a good nights sleep. For some reason I usually like to be under something, but no more!

So it is only a month and then I train. Talk about daunting! That’s alright, it will be really exciting to train a new missionary. Besides all the things I’ll learn from him, I’ll be forced to develop my Albanian wether I like it or not. Maybe I will actually speak this language by the time I go home? Thank goodness I’ve still got quite a bit of time.

Ah, yesterday we had 2 baptisms! For those who are into counting baptisms, these 2 do not count as mine. I was here only for their last two weeks. They already had been taught everything and had a date. I suppose I will be the missionary of their retention, which is cool. They are the kids of a 6 month member and he was able to baptize them both! That was very exciting. Soni, his son, is 16 (and now the oldest kid in “young men's”) and his daughter, Angela, is 11. I meant to send some pictures home with these emails, but I forgot my camera. Oh well! Soon I am just going to stick all my pictures on a DVD and send those home. That way you all can see all the pictures I have been taking.

So mum asked some specific questions about what 2nd branch has. We have 3 hours of church, which is amazing. There is a young men and young women's group but there are only 2-3 mostly active young men. We have tons of young women but that also includes girls as old as 21 because they don’t like the relief society. The relief society is run by two opposing sects of crotchety old women (they could use some women like Mum!) and they just bicker about what should be done and then nothing happens. There are some younger women but I am not really sure what they do (usually about half the branch has gone home by 3rd hour). We have a Melchizedek priesthood class but there are at best only 10-12 active Melchizedek priesthood holders. However that is better than any other branch in Albania. There is also a primary, which has maybe 10-12 kids but 7 of those are American children.

On the note of children, I’d like to mention that it is stupidly hard for Albanians to get married. According to “Albanian” traditions they have to have 2 huge weddings and also have a house of their own before they are allowed to be married. There are several young couples who have been waiting several years to get married. It makes me mad, whats so hard about living at one set of parents house. Gunaf! (meaning shameful) so at this time I believe there is only one child in the whole of Albania who has been born into the convent. That needs to change.

Anyway, we also have institute and it is awesome. The outreach center brings so many young people to the gospel. Last institute class we had 49 people, it was amazing. These people are the future of Albania! Now if they would just get married faster…

Visiting teaching, I believe, does not happen (since only 1 of the 2 sects think its important, so the other half refuses to do it, so the half pro-visiting teaching doesn’t do it either because they don’t have the support of the other half).

A shadow of home teaching occurs, but its more like the missionaries going out with the branch president (who is awesome ) and the ward mission leader (who is another awesome guy, speaks perfect American English, just got his call to the London North mission, leaves in November) and we go around doing less active work. In the way of less actives there are tons. There are tons all over Albania. There are 400ish active members in the whole of the country but there are 1500 total members. However, compared to the statistics of the world at large, that’s an average percentage to have apparently. Once winter starts that number should climb somewhere in the 500s because there are a chunk of members who view summer as a time to take a break from the gospel, since they take a break from everything else (how does a country survive where its people are use to going on 2 or 3 month vacations, when they don’t even make the money to pay for all their expenses?).

Our branch presidency members are all very strong, and Sparti Kashari, he is the president, does way more than this call of duty. He is an excellent man. I think that’s all the questions mum asked about the branch and its structure.

Anyway, Elder Ably and I went to the young Sunday school class because the adult class filled its room and at the end they asked what would be needed for a stake to be here. Sparti told them that they would need 5 or so branches that had at least 30 active Melchizedek priesthood leaders, +a stake presidency, 12 high priests, and a patriarch. Albania will get there, but there is unfortunately quiet a ways to go. We do not have anything close to that yet.

I like to tell Albanians about NC and how it began with only 2 families and now has a temple. I tell them Albania will be that way one day too, if they hold fast and live faithfully.

This week Elder Cosseh (phonetically, I can’t spell French, usually a single word has 5 or 6 useless letters thrown in there, so I am easily confused by it.) of the 70 came and visited us. We had a mission conference that was excellent. He gave us a new format for teaching that lets people know right from the start that we intend to meet with them a number of times and gives a quick overview of what we plan on teaching. I was super excited because it was essentially our idea of an “our purpose” lesson put into a much better, less in your face way. He also attended 2nd and 4th branch and delivered and excellent talk to the members. How blessed we are to have inspired men that lead this Church! Wow, only 1 month till next general conference, that is TOTALLY whack, it just seems like we had this past conference. Is this how the rest of life is? When I get home, will my life never again slow down, but just go speeding towards its inevitable end at an exponential rate? If that’s the case that’s not big deal, the end of this life is merely a beginning!

We have an investigator named Ermal, I do not know if I have told you all about him. He comes to English and institute and we teach him after those too. He is just soaking the gospel up and he keeps all of his reading commitments we give him. He has been to church once, now we just need to convince him to come consistently! If we can. I feel certain that he will be baptized.

One Saturday we heard a presentation from a man who worked with NASA for 40 years. He was talking about the glorious universe that Christ has created, and continues to create. He showed us pictures from the Hubble telescope that are amazing! He explained that Stars are made from nebulae and when a star dies it explodes and creates a new nebula, which gives birth to more stars. It is a continues process!! Science used to think that stars that had planets would be an extremely rare occurrence. I don’t remember the ratio he gave us but it was extremely small. However, NASA now believes that EVERY star that has been created has planets surrounding it like our sun based on things they have found through the Hubble space telescope. Which means there are probably billions of planets that are similar to ours. Just a couple years ago, NASA launched a ship that would go out a ways to where it could better read the changes in light emanations from stars. Essentially this ship can tell when a planet passes in front of a star. On top of that it can calculate where in the star's orbit the planet is and can therefore determine what stars have planets that are orbiting in a distance away from their star (based on temperature) which would allow them to develop a livable atmosphere like our planet. Is that not just insane? Lastly, he told us about a zone in the sky where scientists could never find any light coming from. They pointed Hubble at it and they saw many lights. But the thing that surprised them is that they weren’t stars, they were Galaxies, 10,000 of them, in a zone of space that is as big as the hole made with your thumb and pointer figure held to the sky (hope that makes since). There is not end to the glorious creations of our God! We were not the first, nor will we be the last as His works continue to go forward in power and great glory. How marvelous and intriguing a thing it truly is! And despite all these many trillions of uncountable creations, He is still mindful of each and every one of us. In the vastness of space, God still listens to our prayers and daily sends his Angels to watch over us. What love!

Well, I love you all, I hope you all are well, I miss you all. Thank you all for your love and support, for all your wonderful messages. I know that Jesus is the Christ, this is His true church on the earth and today we are lead by a living prophet. It is only through Christ that we can receive the greatest reward that can be offered us: Eternal life. Let us all sacrifice our sins for something so much greater, for a happiness that never ends. Until next week, may God be with you!

With Love
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (August 28th)

2009-08-24T14:57:00.001-04:00

Hello from Albania!

I am exhausted! Fortunately the Lord helps me out with such things at all times. This week has been probably the longest week yet on my mission, which is funny because my toe week seemed pretty long. But that is probably because the freshest memories over come older memories. Besides, in about 3 days I won’t remember much about last week as a period of time, because everything is as one day here

Boy’s camp was a great deal of fun! Our obstacle course was a huge success and Elder Esplin and I had a great time together. I forgot what it was like to be with other people who came from the Army! I would not have minded serving with Elder Esplin. I will not get that chance. He goes home in January, and next transfer I have a 96.6% chance of training and I’ll probably stay with my trainee for 3 months. But no body knows for sure I suppose! Anyway, the best of the obstacles was a barbed wire course where the kids had to get down and dirty to get through. We also had a grenade course (that was funny, no one could throw them right, you throw a grenade like a shot-put), a wall and swinging rope, some critical thinking things like a spider web (hard to explain), and some other stuff. We threw some PT in there which was hilarious to watch. Between every few obstacles we had a spiritual thought which turned out really good. It was a success! Some kids were punks and decided they were too cool to participate. I do not like people that lack respect and discipline. At camp I got to work with Elder Flack again. As I mentioned last week, I miss him a great deal. I had a great time with him up in Shkoder.

So let me tell you about my new companion, Elder Ably. He definitely cares about people. That is already apparent. He pays a good deal of attention to the members and the investigators and how they are doing. He SYLs (that’s speak your language, talking to your comp in the mission language) quite well from the hours of 4 to 9. It is easy to hold a good conversation with him. He has a lot of good attributes and I think in the end I’ll have enjoyed serving with him. He comes from Lanchestor England I believe. He has 11 siblings. There are 6 brothers and 6 sisters. He is the 4th child. He lives in the Birmingam England mission.

Language update. Well, it is hard for me to tell how I am doing but my companions tell me I am improving and I believe it is true. I am getting better at Albanians though people here in Tirana are hard to understand because I am used to the thick, hick accent of the north, LOL. Lots of things are starting to come out of my mouth without me having to really think about what they are in Albanian. My reading comprehension is really quite good. I am only limited occasionally by lack of vocabulary. It is hard to believe I will be training next transfer, but that will HUGELY improve my language. It will be painful for awhile, but in the end it will result in tons of personal growth.

So we do have one promising investigator. His name is Ermal and he is awesome! We told him he could get an answer from God to know if something is true and he said that’s great, but shouldn’t I study it out first before I ask? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to get an answer from God if I had done everything I could to find out the truth of things with what I’ve been given? It was music to our ears because he understands that he needs to receive an answer from God but he also understands that the scriptures have the answers to tons of his questions. We are confident he will be baptized. We hope that is the case.

Anyway, I love you all! I miss you all. Thank you all for your love and support, and for your prayers. May God be with you!

Love
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (August 16th, 2009)

2009-08-16T09:20:00.002-04:00

Hello from Albania!

I imagine you are all going to be surprised to receive this email! Well if you remember that boys camp I mentioned last week, that is why I am emailing home today.

SO! Everyone probably wants to know what happened with Transfers! Well, I’ve left my birthplace, Shkoder. I admittedly am rather sad to leave despite the struggles of the branch. I really grew to love the people there. I am now going to Tirana, 2nd Branch! Supposedly the strongest or 2nd strongest branch in the mission. I will be companions with Elder Ably, he is from the UK. He will be dying this transfer, so I will very likely remain in 2nd branch for at the very least 2 transfers, but I‘ll probably stay there for awhile. Our area, known as Tirana e Rajë, was once an extremely great area, I hope to contribute to the revival of its previous success. It will be such a relief to be able to go to Church on Sunday, not having to worry about running the branch, giving talks every other week, and teaching Sunday school! I’ll get to focus more on getting our investigators to come and less on wondering if any members will come at all! It's pretty exciting. Also I’ll actually be able to look forward to eating lunch, since Tirana has way better food than Shkoder!

I came down from Shkoder Saturday, which is extra early, to start setting up boys camp. I am staying with the Assistants to the President, Elder Oki and Elder Flack, 2 of my favorite missionaries. It has been great being with Elder Flack again, we really became such good buds while we were together. It has been crazy trying to get boys camp set up, but it is all coming together. I’m quite certain these boys are going to have a blast with the camp.

Today I attended a normal functioning branch for the first time on my mission. I had forgotten what it was like! It is wonderful to be surrounded by strong members. There is one young man here in 1st branch that is extremely amazing. He is the Erik Wells of Albania. His name is Grisi. He is helping us organize boys camp and he is doing a great job. He has a strong testimony and powerful drive for missionary work. While he will be turning 19 very soon, he has 1 year left of high school but he is extremely ready for a mission and already preparing heavily for it. He does tons of less active work by himself and goes out with the missionaries often. These are the kind of young men that the church needs! I’m ashamed that I did not spend my teenage years better in a like fashion but at least I came around I suppose.

My last day in Shkoder, Adriana, one of our members, decided to cook for us (she has a Darkën e Fundit tradition, meaning last supper, for elders that are leaving) but we offered to help her pay for the meal. So we went shopping with her before district meeting. When we got back, she asked us if we could go to her moms house to move just a little wood because her mom is old. Well, her house was close and we called the other elders and had them meet up with us just to be sure we could finish quickly. Now, picture four elders, dressed in shirt and tie, coming around a corner to see not just a small pile of wood, but an entire oak tree cut up sitting in the road in front of this house. A man was cutting the wood, he asked Audriana if she had called any workers to come. She pointed to us and said “these are my workers!” The man laughed. Well, we de-tied and got to work. For 1.5 hours we moved big sections of tree. We all got filthy, but nothing got ruined. It felt good to do such hard, physical labor. I miss doing that kind of work! At the end, it was very satisfying. It reminded me of a quote Dad once sent me that talked about how we need to be ready and willing to render service, even when it is not convenient. Because of this service we completely lost our lunch time, could have ruined cloths, and got super dirty, all really inconvenient, but I was glad we did it.

Anyway, I realize this is a short email, but I’ve got to give Elder Flack some time on the computer (we are at the mission office.)

I know that the church is true, that God answers our prayers, and that Jesus is the Christ. I miss you all very much, I love you all. Please take care! And may God be with you!

Love
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time from Albania (August 10th, 2009)

2009-08-10T08:47:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Albania!

Hello everyone! I hope y'all are doing well. I am alive, my toe has not rotted off. Actually I am doing much better, tomorrow will be my full normal day of work, I believe. I had to stay inside for 3 straight days! RIDICULOUS! It was really quite painful, not being able to go out and work. Then Saturday and Sunday I worked only some of the hours, but after working yesterday evening I believe I am in good shape. Thank goodness! And I didn’t have to get surgery, or take any life-threatening antibiotics (for those who don’t know, I have an irrational fear of antibiotics, and the likelihood that they could totally crush my immune system).

So in terms of overall time working this week, its been a pretty slow week, though we had 2 fantastic lessons with Toni, he is really coming quiet a ways! Now we really just need to get him to come to church! It sounds like I will be leaving Shkoder next week (next Monday is transfers, emails will still happen on that normal day, but might be late). Admittedly, I’m really quite sad about that. I’ve gotten close to some of the members (the active ones, essentially), and I am extremely excited about Toni. I think it still might take some time before he progresses to baptism, but I feel very strongly that he will arrive there. It will be sad to not teach him anymore. I do not know where I will be going, though everyone is betting on Lushnja for me, for this reason:

Next week is Boys Camp. The theme of boys camp is Stripling Warriors, therefore, I have been assigned to work with Elder Esplin at boys camp because we are the only 2 US Army people in the mission. He took the reserves path and still participated in ROTC for a semester. He's been to basic training and AIT for driving Bradlys, he is a Cav. Scout.). So we have been trying to plan something good for them, since we have 2 hours assigned to us. We also found out that we are supposed to be the highlight of the camp. Oh boy. Anyway, it's a lot of fun to talk to someone who more fully understands army things. The reason people think I’m headed to Lushnja is because that is where Elder Esplin is senior companion right now and if we weren’t together that would mean there would be some difficulties working out what would happen with our brand new companions. However, anything can happen at transfers, even though president said I probably would not be staying in Shkoder, there is still a chance. Guess you all will know next week!

Oh, I would like to Shout Out to Andrew Everett, and congratulate him on his mission call to a service mission in Wake Co. NC!! That is very awesome that he gets to focus all his time and efforts on service, what an excellent way to spread the gospel! I wish we got to do more service here. We’ve done a total of 3 service projects, none of which took much time. Its funny, but a lot of people here will straight up ask you for money but when you offer to help them in ANY other way, they refuse. So strange.

And I’d also like to wish Jenni Good Luck on her CNA test that I believe she will be taking today! I’m certain she will do outstanding, good luck!

Mum asked how the members get to know each other since we don’t have home teaching or visiting teaching. We have FHE every Friday and usually a good number of members come to that. Also, our members just visit each other, not out of assignment, nor, probably out of an intent to strengthen another spiritually, but they are just becoming friends.

So I’ve been listening to the wonderful classical music that got sent to me. One of the CD sets I got was a series of pieces from some of Mozart’s most well know works. When I first said I was putting Mozart on, my companion was not very excited, only to find out that song after song were classical pieces that he had heard before and loved and never realized that they were written by Mozart. I think he likes those CDs more than myself now!

So I thought that I’d just mention that one of the things I’m learning on my mission is more fully my relationship with my family members. I miss my family! When I left, I did not think I would miss all my sisters, brothers in law, nephews, nieces, and my parents this much. Sure I’d figured I’d miss them some, but now I am realizing just how much I enjoyed interacting with my family members, spending time with them, and doing things with them. It is funny how when you are used to having people around its easy to take them for granted, and I don’t mean to say that I didn’t realize how much I loved my family, but just not how much they were a part of me. Anyway, I thought I’d let everyone in my family know that I love you all very much! And I miss you all! But don’t worry about me, its not trunky missing, I am here and focused on the work. BTW for those of you who don’t know, trunky is a state of mind of a missionary who just wants to be home and is heavily impaired by homesickness and his lack of desire to be a missionary. Most missionaries have trunky moments, they can last from a minute to a day, and that’s not a terrible thing. Its when missionaries have that attitude and mind set day in and day out.

I’d also like to thank everyone that writes me letters or emails or dearelders. I also did not realize how awesome getting mail would be on my mission, in fact I thought I wouldn’t care at all. On the contrary, getting mail is such a wonderful thing. I do apologize that it often takes me a long time to respond to letters or dearelders, but I do try. I also would like to throw a light rebuke out to a couple of my friends *cough cough andyandjed cough* who have received return letters from me, but haven’t written me back! Fear not, you are still my friends, as are those who have not written me at all.

I would just like to testify of the power of prayer. How merciful is God that he not only allows us to openly communicate with him, but has great desires that we call upon his name often! Prayer has helped me on my mission more than anything else. Whenever something is difficult, or contrary to what is prime, or when something is sorely desired, I do not hesitate to lift my voice up to my Father in Heaven and I cannot recount to you all the many hundreds, literally hundreds of times that my prays have been answered almost as soon as they were uttered. I would like to point out, though, that we must be full of gratitude and thanksgiving to God. Some conferences ago Elder Bednar encouraged members to occasionally say only a prayer of thanks. To add to that, when Elder Christofferson was here, he told us that when he is having trouble feeling the spirit while praying, he pours out only thanks until he can fully feel the spirit. Taking both of those counsels, I have felt the powerful spirit that comes when we give thanks to our God and it is so very refreshing! There are also times when were are out, when for seemingly no great reason I feel prompted to pray. But usually at these times I can only say it to myself, in my mind, or under my breath, but I always try to harken to these promptings for “the devil teacheth a man not to pray” and I never want to give him the satisfaction of dissuading me from prayer, regardless of what is going on! (Hope that doesn’t sound holier than thou…. Not what I’m going for here!). I know with assurance that God does answer our prayers, and I would encourage all of you to pray more often, or, if you have never prayed, to try. A prayer is not a memorized, repeated thing, it comes from the heart, it is a conversation with God and He desires to have you speak openly with Him. You will find a great light in your life.

Anyway, that’s all for today. Thank you all for your love and support! Thank you for your prayers! I feel the effects of them. The Lord is blessing me every day here, His hand is ever present. I am grateful to be here, this is indeed the Lords work. Until next week, may God be with you!

With Love
Elder Scadden

Sore Toe

2009-08-05T08:53:00.002-04:00

Just got a call from the wife of Gregory's mission president. First words out of my mouth were "OH NO" but she assured me it was not serious. He has an ingrown toenail that hurts and a little infection. They want him to have an antibiotic and he mentioned having a reaction to augmentin once. She wanted to check on that. He will be staying home for a couple of days and soaking his foot in salt water.

She will keep us updated by email and I will post as I get more info. I asked how he was doing otherwise and she said they love him! He is positive, hard working, obedient and doing a great job and she thanked us for sharing him.

Once upon a time in Albania (August 3rd, 2009)

2009-08-03T07:47:00.001-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

Anyway, this was a long week! I don’t know why, but it sure was. However, despite its length, it was a good week. Oh, my picture last week where I was wearing shorts! We are only allowed to wear shorts when we do something very active, like play soccer or something. I wasn’t even thinking when I threw my shorts on when we went to the castle, so you were right Dad, I was not supposed to be wearing shorts. Funny that no elders called me out on it, but I had to send a picture home for someone to remind me of that rule.

Alright, moving on, This week we were able to teach Toni again, but he is not progressing the way I would hope. I think he is realizing it is true, but I think he is also realizing that it means changing. Hopefully we can help him to understand that no matter how much change will be required, it will be worth it in both this life, and the next!

We found a young family to teach, however we have only taught them once, hopefully they will progress! This branch needs families! Ah, so speaking of the branch, we have two families that are related (the mothers are sisters). When I first arrived they were active, and had testimonies. Now they have fallen far away from the church, and I have not seen them in church for almost a month and a half. Well, we called them to invited them to Family Night, but when they answered they said they could never ever come again… We were really surprised by that because just 2 days before they promised us they would come to FHE and Church that weekend. Later that night we passed by, none of the members were home, only the grandma (who loves us) so we stood in the yard and talked to her for a few minutes. While we talked the 2 sisters and their kids arrived, immediately a strong spirit of contention rushed in. You could see the darkness in their countenances. They then started to argue with us why we weren’t buying them food, because they were so in need, and why we weren’t giving them money. I wanted to ask them why they were baptized but the spirit retrained me. Elder Hamilton wanted to ask them why they don’t use the money they use every Sunday to go to the beach (because that is what they do) to buy food, but he was restrained by the spirit. Essentially they attacked us, and we simply said to them that we don’t pay people to come to church. It was a sickening experience. They don’t want us to come by anymore. Its very strange to see people fall so very far. Well, that was a negative experience.

Outside of that the week was great. I actually feel like the family that tried to get the other members to not go to Durres to see Elder Christofferson are now some of our strongest members. I think the baptism of their daughter really helped them to desire change. So on the flip side of how crazy it is to watch people fall, it is amazing to watch people stumble and fall, only to find the atonement in their lives and walk towards the path of righteousness again. Audriana, the Mom in that family, bore her testimony on Sunday and I felt the spirit very strongly. She knows it is true.

So I had a thought this week, inspired by Elder Hamilton. I have always be slightly confused at the relation between the Plan of Salvation, and the calls to repentance that we find in both the book of Mormon and the Bible, and how they line up. For those of you who do not know, the Plan of Salvation is Gods plan for us to come to this earth, receive bodies, accept Christ's atonement and do all we can to return to live with our Father in Heaven. The point under main consideration here is where people will go after Judgement. In the restored gospel, we know that there exists not a heaven and a hell, but rather 3 kingdoms of Glory: The Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial kingdoms. The Celestial kingdom is the highest, most glorious, but only the righteous, who have received the proper ordinances and obeyed the commandments will go there. The Terrestrial kingdom is for all people who were excellent, or good people in this life, but who fell short of the greater glory either by not keeping all the commandments or by not accepting Christ. The final kingdom is reserved for the wicked of the world, who committed heinous crimes, the murderers and whore mongers of the earth. There is another place, called Outer Darkness, it is not a kingdom, it is where Satan dwells and VERY few individuals will go there, Cain for example. The qualifications for outer darkness are very intense, so don’t worry about it. All 3 of the kingdoms, even the lowest, are all a more glorified state then this earth. Is that not Merciful?? Even the wicked will be given something greater than this life, but it will PALE in comparison to the higher glories. There, though, lies my question of how the fears of the next life can be declared with such vivid and fiery imagery, and yet be so merciful. However (this is gospel according to Elder Scadden! If it is not doctrinal, don’t even bother posting it) I have come to a better understanding of the word Damnation. Part of the great plan that Heavenly Father has for us is Eternal Progression. In the Highest kingdom, we will be able to continue to grow and expand. Its hard for us to comprehend, but its sufficient to say that we will continue to progress. However! Damnation means to stop, to dam up, to prevent from progressing. In the other 2 kingdoms, there is not progression, or if there is, it is of a dramatically lower and less rewarding kind. Therefore, when the Prophets speak of damnation, and such things, they literally mean a stop of progression, and the sorrow of the know that those individuals will have that they could have achieved something greater. I hope that makes sense. If I am off, please correct me in an email.

Anyway, I hope that Ryan is over the swine flu, I’ve been praying for him. CONGRATZ to Fred and Yukoko Salatino! They will be having a babe in the coming months, I am very excited for them! Thanks Dad for the info on Charlie. I have also received the CDs that you all sent to me, and the pictures, they are all excellent, it has made me very happy to have that music and I am already displaying some of those pictures. We have also already eaten one of the red beans and rice, YUM! Thank you very much for those Mum and Dad! Anyway, I hope you all take care, I love you all very much and you are always in my prayers. Thank you for remembering me in yours, I definitely feel the merciful hand of the Lord here daily. Thanks for all your support, I love you all and miss you all very much!

Love
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (July 27th 2009)

2009-07-27T07:45:00.004-04:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania ( July 20th, 2009)

2009-07-20T08:19:00.001-04:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (July 13th, 2009)

2009-07-13T07:28:00.000-04:00

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.

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

Once upon a time in Albania (July 7th, 2009)

2009-07-07T07:02:00.002-04:00

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

Once upon a time in Albania (June 29 2009)

2009-06-29T07:56:00.002-04:00

Hello from the streets of Albania!

Elections have passed and we are still in the country! Except it was very loud last night as people drove around screaming and yelling, honking their horns and shooting off fireworks. We believe that Salli Barisha has won. We will see today if there are riots, there were on Saturday in Tirana. Yesterday we stayed inside except to go to and from church, they didn't want us getting involved or getting mistaken for people from the political parties.

OH and everyone remember that Next week Emails will indeed be late. They will come sometime on Tuesday because we are having a big transfer (every other transfer happens on a Tuesday). It is almost certain that I will be losing Elder Flack and staying up here, but in reality we really don’t know for sure. I think he is going outside Zone Leader (Outside zone is every city other than Tirana and Shkoder, those 2 are in the inside zone). I also think that my next companion will be Elder Hamilton, he is an outstanding missionary with 6 months left, and is finishing his service as inside Zone Leader. The reason I think it is him is because he has hinted at coming up to Shkoder. President may have already told him where he is going (He does that sometimes). Anyway, this transfer only 2 missionaries are coming into the country and we are losing 12, but 3 months from now, when the next batch comes in from the MTC, we will be receiving 14 missionaries! There will only be 4 missionaries that are not in leadership, or training! Yikes! Anyway, I’ll let you all know whats up for real next week.

I have a request! It can be filled whenever, but I am longing for some CDs of great classical music, things like Tchaikovsky, Mozart (preferably songs from Amadeus, and my marching band show my junior year), New World Symphony, Of Sailors and Whales, Bernstein, etc. Essentially just good, powerful, moving classical music. If it is too difficult, don’t worry about it, I have some GREAT CDs that I can listen to here!

Who among you has read 1984 by George Orwell? Do you recall that in the book they are developing a language called newspeak? In newspeak there is a very limited vocab when it comes to description of feelings, only plus, double plus, and something better, or minus, doubt minus or something like that, anyway, guess what? Albanian is very much like newspeak! Something is either good, or very good, bad or very bad. That is it. Words exist for greater description, but most people do not understand them at all. Don’t get me wrong, they do have plenty of descriptive words for how things appear etc., but when it comes to most things its either mire, shume mire, keq or shume keq. LOL! I laughed when I realized the relation between it and newspeak.

Hey, since we are talking about the language, I do have something very positive to say. I had a very great experience in church yesterday. Our most active member, Alma, gave a talk. She is preparing to go to the temple, and gave her talk on that. As she spoke I understood entire phrases without translating them in my head, I completely comprehended their meaning outside of English, it was so extremely awesome! It was a realization that caused me quite a bit of exhilaration, that I am beginning to understand this language beyond straight translation into English. The Lord is most certainly blessing me with the gift of tongues, the rate at which I am learning this language is amazing, and it is far beyond my personal capacity. This is truly the Lords work!

In our scriptures we have a phrase that appears often, “the Lord of Hosts”. Now, I've always just kind of accepted that phrase, not really thinking about its meaning. But as I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Albanian I have come to see the obvious meaning that I never realized before. In Albanian they translate it as “Zoti e Ushtrieve” which more specifically means the Lord of Armies. I just thought it was a very intense title, I am glad that I now have realized it!

We met a man the other day called Toni Marku, or Tonin, not sure, that’s what it sounded like, but that would be a very strange name considering Albanian grammar. If congregated into accusative it would become Toninin, which would be confusing. As a matter of fact, because my name ends in an N Albanians have a really hard time understanding it because it doesn't make sense to them grammatically. In a week or two I’ll be getting a new name tag that says “Elder Skadi”. Anyway, I digress. 30 years ago he escaped from communist Albania by swimming across the HUGE lake that divides Shkoder from Montenegro during the World Cup when the guards were distracted. He did not tell us how long it took him, but he said he was somewhere in the middle of the lake after about 4 hours of swimming when he cramped up and started to drown. He didn't know much about religion, but he knew something of who Jesus Christ was, so he cried out for Christ to save him and immediately his body was granted renewed strength and all cramping left. Since then he has seen the Lords hand in his life so very much as he travelled to America and experienced many diverse things. Now he is some kind of artist in California, maybe someone can google search him. He says he is writing a script for his story, which sounds like a powerful story. He does have a very personal view of religion, the kind of person that believes in their own way. It will be interesting to see if his story comes out.

Anyway, I don’t have much to report about the work here. We are still hoping that our investigator Toni will progress, it has been hard to meet with him recently! I have high hopes for him. We are working hard. We hear reports that even though the work appears to be slow here we are actually doing a lot better than most of the areas in our Zone. The Lord is indeed blessing us with progress in the difficult time we are having with our members! Anyway, I hope you all are well, I miss you all and think of you often, though the Lord blesses me with strength and dedication. May God be with you all!

Love,
Elder Scadden

Once upon a time in Albania (June 22, 2009)

2009-06-22T07:09:00.004-04:00

Hello all from Albania!

We are having thunderstorms today, hopefully the power doesn't go out! I am doing well, I've been sick with a cold this week, but I am quite over it by now. I continue to be exhausted, it is one of the traits of a missionary I believe, especially here in Albania during the summer because we lose 30 minutes of sleep (which is supposed to be made up later with napping, but its not the same!) However, the Lord continues to bless me with strength and energy beyond my power.

Still no word on calls from the guys in our ward? I am very excited to find out where they are going! Maybe next week.

OK so I have a story. Elder Suell, who is in the other area here in Shkoder, and is Elder Smedley's companion, is going home this next transfer. He has served his time and his two years are up (just as a side comment it is transfer 16, and the girl that was waiting for him (who he encouraged to date around while he was gone?!?) might be interested in a new guy, yikes!) is on a trip to one of the nicest cities in Albania called Seranda, because at the end of your mission you get to go on a special trip with everyone you went to the MTC with. Well, because he was going to be gone for several days, it was necessary that one of us go down to Tirana with him and then stay there the three days. Well, we were told that that Elder should come prepared just to study the whole time, because they would be in the office with little to do. That is actually a somewhat exciting opportunity! Well Elder Smedley could not go because they have things here that needed to be done, so it was either Elder Flack or myself. We both wanted to go. It was decided that fate would decide by playing a game called 5 Crown that we play here a lot. The winner would be able to go. So we got back from working Saturday night, and buckled down to duke it out. It was an extremely close game, in fact the winner was not apparent until the very last round (there are 13 rounds) and elder Flack won! He told me to call the other Elders and tell them, so I called, and Elder Smedley answer. At this point I had accepted defeat, and said “Guess whose going to Tirana?” He replied, after a pause “um.. Elder Scadden, no one is going to Tirana, the office told us Elder Suell could come alone, didn't elder Flack tell you?” As the look of realization passed over my face, Elder Flack burst into laughter. It was actually pretty hilarious. He had me thinking the whole time that this game was for real. Even afterwards he told me that even if someone had to go down with Suell he would have stayed because it wouldn't have been wise to leave two junior companions here. Now that I am typing it, its not so funny. It was hilarious at the time. Anyway, Elder Flack and I have had some good times, its hard to believe that in two weeks I’ll probably not be serving with him anymore.

Hey, so some Albanian told me there were race riots going on in the United States, is that true? What is the state of the Union currently? The few messages I hear about the States is that they’re falling apart.

So this week I was reminded of a lesson I received in the MTC that I do not recall sharing, but I was reminded of it this week when we were planning a lesson for some of our members. It is the scripture that I totally have blanked on the reference that says “By small and simple things great things come to pass” It is interesting that the scripture, though referring to the Book of Mormon, makes no implication that by small and simple things do only great good things come to past, and therefore I believe it applies to both spectrum of good and evil. That even by small and simple things do great bad things come to past. It is on this that I want to speak. Here in Shkoder I continue to see more and more members fall deeper and deeper away. I am convinced it is because they stopped doing the small and simple things that are necessary to gain and to maintain a testimony. There are 3 simple things that together are the key foundations of a testimony, and we have heard them over and over and over again: Scripture reading, prayer and church attendance. Why do we hear it over and over again? Because they are small and simple things, but by doing them- or not doing them- are great things brought to pass. I can affirm that by neglecting scripture study and prayers the will and strength to keep the commandments is diminished. One finally falls into sin and testimony is completely smothered. The eternal salvation of the soul is truly a stake, something marvelously huge in the grand scheme of things. It all begins with giving a little here, letting yourself down off the mountain a step there, all SMALL and SIMPLE things. Now, while the three things I mentioned are the foundation of a testimony, we cannot expect to continue to grow greater if we only do those things, inevitably we must serve others, fulfill callings, attend the temple, and bear testimony to others. But the beginning and central part of gaining true testimony of our Lord and Savior and of his doctrines is by study (reading scriptures), prayer, and hearing the good word of God (church attendance). If any one reading this feels their testimony struggling, and is wondering why, examine the small and simple things in your life, they may be tearing down the truths you once understood and accepted. I know Christ is my savior, and that this is his True and Living church, and I know it without a sliver of doubt in my heart.

There is something very interesting about Albania. Because religion was so repressed for so long, people are utterly ignorant to many aspects of religion. For example: Most people here do not understand the difference between Catholic and Christian. All Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Catholic. When they ask us what faith we are with, we tell them “we are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” Oh, so your Catholic! No… we are not. Well, if you are not Catholic you MUST be orthodox (BTW most people in Shkoder do not think that Orthodoxy is Christian. roflcopter), no, we aren't them either. YOU can’t be Muslim can you?? Nope, we aren't Muslim. Well then what faith are you??? There are only those three!! I think I have seen people nearly have aneurysms over trying to comprehend that there are more than 3 religious sects in the world. Ironically, we start most of our lessons by clarifying that we are NOT with the catholic church, or any other church but our own, but still most people think we are some approved branch of the Catholic church. I would like to mention, if any of my good Catholic friends do read this blog, that I am not at odds with your religion at all. We are fellow believers in Christ, and you are my friends. But you are also not ignorant and are generally aware of what you believe. Thank you for that. Whereas I highly doubt that most of the people we talk to understand their doctrine. Few things bug me more than meeting a Muslim that says they do not believe in Jesus Christ, it makes me want to take a Koran and beat them with it. OK enough of that negativity!

Anyway, the work is hard, but I am enjoying it. It is indeed the Lords work, and it is moving forward by his hand. Keep a positive attitude, it makes such a difference! I thank you all for your prayers, I feel their support. I love you all very much. I miss you greatly. May God be with you!

Love, Elder Scadden

Chronicles from Albania (June 15th 2009)

2009-06-15T08:38:00.002-04:00

Hello from Albania!!

I am EXTREMELY exhausted right now, we woke up at 4:40 so we could go to a far away city, but when we got there we found that there was nothing to do. However, I can now say that I have been to a city named PUKE, the real irony of the name is that to get there you have to go through tons of windy, high, and dangerous roads to get there, once we arrived we all felt a little uneasy. The city, in Albanian, is actually pronounce POOKAH. Anyways… So we are back in Shkoder at noon and we are tired! I will definitely be taking a nap later.

I can’t believe that in the last 2 weeks Sister Hodge, Sister Vlazny and Sister Taylor passed away! That is so very sad! Fortunately though we do have an understanding of the plan of Salvation. What a truly amazing blessing to know we will be with the people we love again one day!

Oh please keep this in mind. Transfers will be on the 7th? Of July, or something like that. That means P-day will be on a Tuesday, not a Monday! So if the 1st or second Monday in July you don’t get emails, they will be coming the next day.

So right now is election season in Albania. Last week there were 2 political rallies here. We saw Eddi Rama speak to a decent sized crowd of people. He is currently the mayor of Tirana and running for prime minister for the Socialists. 2 days latter Salli Barisha (the current prime minister and incumbent for the Democratic party) came here, and spoke to a crowd maybe 3 or 4 times the size, upwards of 50 thousand people in the streets. We stood a ways off, but close enough to here. I got to see him drive up with his police escort. Elders Flack and Suell were quite excited to see him. I felt no excitement what so ever, and upon thinking about it I believe it is because I realized that he was one of the most insignificant of all political leaders in the world. LOL. The 2 party slogans are these. The socialists: A new party for Change! And the democrats: Albania is Changing! Yes, I also was shocked by their originality and singularity apart from each other. LOL! I am sorry for my sarcasm, I just find it amusing. Anyway, the elections are on the 24th. I do hope that you will not get a phone call from me saying that I've been evacuated to an aircraft carrier because of civil unrest. It shouldn't be a problem, while missionaries were evacuated for almost every election Albania has had, they were not evacuated for the last one, so I don’t think they anticipate any problems this time around. I hope I am not worrying anyone. I decided that I like Salli Barisha the best. Since we are missionaries I do not know anything about either candidate, but Barisha had a great many more American flags flying at his rally, so that sold me.

I haven’t really talked about the work yet. We still do not have any obviously progressing investigators. We seem to be having trouble getting people to progress beyond the first lesson, they tend to drop us after 2 meetings when they are given a Book of Mormon. However, there is no effort wasted there, many seeds are being planted by our efforts. We do have 2 individuals who we are very hopeful about their progression. One women is a very nice lady with 2 daughters and both her and her husband work. She is quite receptive to our message, but is not keeping her reading commitments. However, we are going to move on to the second lesson because she still wants to meet with us and because we believe the plan of Salvation will really get her thinking about the truthfulness of our message because she has a younger sister who died at age 18 a few years ago. The plan of Salvation could bring her a great deal of hope and consolation for her. We also are teaching a man who lived 6 years in America with his family and saved a good deal of money and upon returning to Albania has turned it into some good investments in apartments and a cleverly placed funeral shop directly adjacent to the Hospital, the closest of such stores for over a block. He is a good man, and is interested in our message. On top of that, he reads! He read the restoration pamphlet and is very much looking forward to reading the Book of Mormon. We are hoping that when we return tonight he will have read the things from the Book of Mormon that we left for him. We have hope!

Apparently tracting is a technique loathed by many missionaries, and is generally the last option because of the little success that it yields. However, we have a great deal of initial success tracting here in Shkoder. The people here are extremely warm, and I can only remember one day from last transfer where we tracted and didn't get in some place that day. I say initial success though because often people are nice, but not interested in our message. It is a blessing to live in a city with such warm and welcoming people. Of course there are exceptions, the other day we tracted an apartment building full of angry rude people, it is funny that the mood of the apartment building appeared to be the same for every person but one. Maybe they have had run ins with Jehovah's witnesses, who tend to be extremely aggressive proselytizers and are hated here and often people get us confused with them. We also have problems with kids, I do not know what the heck it is about Albanian children, but when they seen us many of them throw rocks at us if there are no adults around. I don’t know what goes through a child's head that tells them, oh look, Americans, lets throw rocks at them! Do they not know that the tax dollars of my parents pay to keep their broken country afloat!? It is alright though, we usually do a good job of keeping our cool and turning the other cheek. Sometimes Albanian adults don’t do anything to help us out, other times they chew the kids out. Recently some kids hiding behind a wall ambushed us with a volley of rocks, much to their dismay however an gjagji (old guy) was walking near by and he ran over an started smacking them with his newspaper. We have returned to that neighborhood numerous times since and have had not anymore problems. This all sounds a bit negative about Albania, but I love this country, and I am coming to love its people. In fact, I recently decided that we need to just try to talk to the kids more (since usually they have to see us more than once before they start attacking) and be friendly with them. So far the results have been a lot better, though there are still some that just need to be smacked. Patience and Kindness win out in the end I believe!

We only had 2 members in Church again on Sunday, one of whom is an inactive member who wants their just turned 8 child to be baptized. We aren't sure what to do because we would be baptizing her into inactivity, and we don’t feel very good about that. I believe we are going to set some standards that they will have to meet before her baptism, such has consistent church attendance for a period of time and reading from the BoM child's picture book, as well as some special lessons geared towards the little girl. This may be an avenue that might lead to this families activity… but it is the same family that actively tried to get the whole branch not to go see an apostle of the Lord. I do not understand the thought process of their aggressive hypocrisy.

While I rarely have great news to report, we are happy. We are working hard, the Lord is blessing us on every hand. Every hour prayers are answered. If anything I am here to plant seeds. I have been put here for a purpose, and I am confident the Lord is directing me to the fulfillment of that purpose. I love this work, though it is hard and exhausting. I love you all, and I am ever grateful for your support!

Until next week, May God be with you!

Love
Elder Scadden

Chronicles from Albania (June 8th 2009)

2009-06-08T09:49:00.002-04:00

Hello all!

So I got more packages! I do want to say that that CD I got, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, rocks, its got some of my favorite songs on it! We enjoy listening to it often. Thank you for the conference editions!! Elder Flack and I have really enjoyed the copies you sent. Studying them has become an great part of personal study. We used some taco mix you sent in some beef concocson we made yesterday, it was extremely good actually. I am going to have to figure out what sort of things I can make with the limited American like ingredients found here in Albania. For instance, they only have one kind of bean, pinto, but I can still make chili with that can't I? I think I have already decided though, my first family dinner home will probably have to be Mexican style. I do miss our food :)

What has happened this week? We had Zone Conference, which was excellent as it always is. Sister Neil made us cinnamon rolls, so outstandingly good! There was also a lot of good insight, I enjoy zone conferences, they help me to be a better missionary.

Our branch continues to struggle, we had only 3 members in church on Sunday. We had discovered that one couple of members are really becoming enemies to the church (I passively mentioned them last week) They actively sought to dissuade all of our members from coming to see elder Christofferson, calling us liars etc. I don't know who of our members listened to them, or if they just allowed other small things of life persuade them not to come. What do you do with members that actively seek to breakdown the faithfulness of other members? It is sad and unfortunate, however I believe the Lord will grant unto us guidance and love for them, if we continue to sincerely seek it.

This past week has been an extremely successful week. I'm not sure if you noticed the past few weeks, but I never really had any investigators to talk about because we didn't really have any progressing investigators to speak of. However this week we have found several individuals and families who have good prospects for progressing in the gospel. None as of yet stand out as good progressing investigators, but we are ever hopeful. All of these people need the gospel and the blessings therein! Next week we will see how things are going. It is truly amazing to see how the Lord's hand is in this work, though, and the strength that he gives us.

This past week I have begun reading M. Russell Ballard's “Our Search for Happiness”. It is a simple, and short book but it addresses the key parts of the gospel so well. It always astounds me how simple the gospel is! Every time there is a principle or doctrine that I start to make difficult or confusing in my head, the Lord tends to place the simple, plain answer before me to remind me that we need not be scholars to know the path to exaltation!

OK, brief success story. There are many diverse ways to find people, however up here in Shkoder we tend to not be very creative. We do one of 4 things: We put a table out with pamphlets etc. It tends to attract a lot of good attention, and, when used in the morning hours, often results in contacts. We put out a street sign out which from time to time sparks people's interest and they stop to read it and we talk to them. However it is less effective than a table so we usually use it on rainy days or when we don’t have too much time. We tract which is, apparently, much more successful in Shkoder than anywhere else in Albania. We get in every time we try to tract. I believe this is one of our most effective uses of time. Lastly we do giros (strolls) and try to stop people that walk past. The last choice is grossly ineffective. I believe I have only seen one or two contacts come from a giro. So, we try not to do those. However, recently as we stand with the board or table in the evening, Ully (an Albanian who is a British citizen who has become good friends with us, but won’t let us teach him. He is here because his wife and kids are Albanian and he is having trouble getting them to England) stands there and talks to us, distracts us, and makes things less effective.

Well, Elder Flack and I decided to try something new. I had heard from another missionary a better thing to do than giros is to walk far away from where you normally stand and do street contacting because the same people pass and they start to get use to you as part of the scenery. We executed this with great success. In 15 minutes we got 4 contacts, which is huge. There are entire days where we do not even get 1 contact after hours of work. We realized it is because of several factors: first we are probably in a place where there are people who have never seen the missionaries, second there are far less people around so people have less shame to stop, and third because we are standing and not walking the other direction. People feel more obligated to stop and talk to us. As of yet, none of the people we have contacted show promise of progressing, but the more contacts you get the more potential investigators there are and the more likely that there is a prepared individual amongst them. I know that there are people who are prepared here in Shkoder, we just must find them. LOL that was long! Maybe you all know a little more of what I do everyday….

Anyway, I hope you all are well, thank you so much for you love and your prayers, I do feel them. I am ever grateful for the great support I get from home from you all. I love you all, I hope you all are well!

Love
Elder Scadden

Chronicles from Albania (June 1st ALREADY?)

2009-06-01T06:51:00.002-04:00

Hello from Albania!

I’d just like to tell you all that I love you, I really do! Also I’d like to shout out to Kristin Happy Birthday! I know it’s a tad early, but I’d rather be early than late. You are 27 now? Edhe Nje Qind! (or rather, And a Hundred! Its what you say after someone tells you their age).

This weekend we had the amazing blessing of being instructed by an Apostle of the Lord! I also got to shake his hand several times LOL. However, before I talk about the awesome stuff, let me get the disappointing things out of the way. Only 2 members came from our branch, we had 4 non-members, that is sad, 2 of them aren't even investigators (though they might become that!). I did just write a long explanation, but I remember that we discouraged from writing home about problems or bad things about the area. Lets leave it that the scriptures truly say that those who have been opened to greater light fall further than those who have never had it when they revert again to sin, and become more strong opponents against the church. It makes me sad.

Anyway, Elder Christofferson! It was just an amazing experience! So many words of advice were shared with us Missionaries as we had a personal mission conference with him. 2 things stood out to me that I can remember right now. First, addressed a concern I have been having about my success as a missionary. He said “Never judge your success based on a hour, a day, or a mission… the effects of your efforts will not be known to you this life, no effort is wasted!” It was good to hear that, even though I already kind of knew that. All I must do is work, and hard, and think nothing of the fruits of my labor! I simply hope that I am working hard enough, but as my Bro-in law John shared with me today in an email, I should not even wonder that, and just work. Haha I am ALWAYS so amazed by the simplicity of the gospel! It is so straightforward! There is no secret, no elusive strategy to living it correctly, or even to missionary work. As we at least continue to strive to improve we will be good missionaries and good members of the church!

To the members most of the talks were about not getting offended, about loving and serving each other. It was really important for the members to hear that, since here the church takes heavy damage in active membership because people allow themselves to be offended.

Oh the other thing that I pulled away for myself was about the Charity question I asked last week. It is truly amazing how the Lord facilitates the answer to prayers in the most unexpected ways, like sending a great man to speak to such a small group of missionaries. Again, the answer is simple and I already knew it, and it is prayer. In Moroni 7 we are commanded to pray for Charity, and with all the energy of heart at that. I do want to thank every one's insights that you sent me as well, prayer was key to them all, just with a few extra suggestions that I also find helpful.

Prayer is so powerful, a petition before our Lord made in honest sincerity has more power than we can imagine! And yes, I will be getting a picture that has me in it with Elder Christofferson, but it also has the other members of my branch in it. I must say, he was so very willing to take tons and tons of pictures with people, his coming was truly a great blessing.

This is completely random, but about CDs, the ones that I have that are burned, they do actually work on Elder Flacks CD player, it is just because the batteries were dying that they didn't work LOL!!!! I got Come Thou Fount, the latest CD from MoTab that has American folks songs on it. Awesome CD, Amazing Grace is also now one of my most favorite songs, I’ll probably have to have it played at my funeral too,

Dad asked why the slippers are such an important part of our lives here as missionaries. Well, Albania is a dusty, dirty country. They burn their garbage in the middle of the cities during the night, and also ALL the buildings are made out of extremely low quality concrete, which is the main source of the dust. Well, out houses are not immune from the dust and the dirt, and we usually have windows open, so we walk around in slippers to keep from getting dirty or cold (since there are no carpets either, just tile, though some Albanians have carpets). If we were to walk around in socks they would be covered in dust in about 2 minutes, I've tried.

Christ is my Savior, and I testify that our prayers to the father, whether they be for knowledge or help, or other such blessings, will all be answered according to our faith. I miss you all, God be with you!

Love
Elder Scadden

Chronicles from Albania (May 25 2009)

2009-05-25T07:33:00.005-04:00

Hello everyone!

Well, that’s a real bummer that my email didn't go through. Oh well! I looked in my sent folder and sure enough it was blank! I have no idea what I wrote about last week, hopefully it wasn't too important. I can’t usually remember what has happened more than a week or so back, the rest of the events are a jumble of images and words that have no coherent place in time.

I can get most usual vegetables here, so no worry there. In the area of cheeses they have all sorts of weird things, I can get mozzarella like cheese, but nothing else is like the usual stuff we get in America, absolutely no Cheddar. We can find meat, that’s not really a problem. Just nothing steak like. There is plenty of rice and potatoes. All condiments can be found also, some, however, like ketchup, are nothing compared to the quality found in America, but you can’t really tell because I've forgotten what the good stuff tastes like. LOL ! I imagine that while I am here when I say I had something good that was like something we can get in the States, I’m probably quite wrong.

Sewage got fixed, we did not get sick from it. I do have a cold now, but I doubt it had anything to do with our sewage problem. I have received a package! I talked about that last email, I remember now. It was my birthday package, it was great to get it! I was thrilled to get it and loved the contents, they were wonderful birthday presents!

My first Sunday here we had 23 members at church. 2 Sundays ago we had 2. Yesterday, we had 6 members and 2 investigators. Many of our members are choosing to loose faith, however I have great hopes for some and it looks as though they might pull through. Anyway, with that said, we have only 2 sections of church or “hours”. The first hour is Sacrament meeting, which usually lasts for about 45 minutes. The second hour is Sunday school, which usually lasts from 30 min-45min. Usually half the members leave, or try to, when we go from first hour to second hour. I say try because they we usually protest and try to help them understand why staying is important. We do not have any of the auxiliaries, like relief society, priesthood, primary, etc. Only 5? members hold the Aaronic priesthood, only 1 of them is currently active. We did have a Sunday school teacher, but after he was called he stopped coming to church, even though we went over to his place often and helped him prepare to teach. We meet in a little room off of a back alleyway that holds about 30 people. Elder Suell is the branch president. Fortunately members do speak from time to time, and Zef (the active priesthood holder) blesses and passes the Sacrament occasionally when he arrives on time. That is a summary of our Church part of Sunday, I realize it is probably a little negative, but do not think me hopeless, I really think there are several members who are starting to realize the covenants they made at baptism. While we are losing half or more of the branch to apostasy, those members who are pulling through are growing in testimony. One day they will be the solid members that new members look up to as an example. One day Shkoder will flourish and be a strong branch. We just have to get through the early trials! So the rest of my Sunday: before church we have the usual individual and comp study. After church (which is from 10 to 12ish) we go out and proselyte on the street with a table until lunchtime at 1:30. We eat and study, I try to avoid sleeping even though on the current schedule we only get 7.5 hrs of sleep a night because we wake up earlier and have a longer lunch. Lunch goes until 4:30. If we don’t have any appointments we go tracting until about 7:30. Then we go back to the center of the city and do a table or something.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to see a baptism in Tirana, it was a man who Elder Flack had found in a previous area and taught. It was very cool and refreshing to see lots of Albanians that had testimonies of the gospel and were part of the gospel culture.

Ken wrote me a letter before coming here that gave some advice that he thought was not just the usual stuff. The part that has always struck me the most has been the part about how I should do everything I can to befriend the people, even the people I contact on the street. From the moment I begin talking to someone I am beginning to create a relationship, and I should try, even at that time, to approach them with the attitude of trying to establish a friendship with them. I have been pondering this, and I seem to have a very hard time doing this, even with the members. Of course it doesn't help that I do not speak well (LOL, most of the members are getting to the point to where they don’t try to speak to me, and if I try to speak to them they listen for about 10 seconds and then begin ignoring me, starting a conversation with someone else!), but there is more to it than that, my language is improving from week to week, but my affinity for the people and for individuals is not really changing. How does one begin to gain that mentality of trying to befriend people? All these people have stories, they all have lived lives and thus have many interesting stories. I know asking people about themselves is important, trying to find their concerns and the things that they think about as well, and I also need to share things about myself. I know all these things, I do try them, but I never think, when meeting with people, that I am trying to befriend them, I always forget. I want to desire these peoples salvation! I want to be actively concerned for their welfare, but I don’t really feel like I am. We teach them, we testify to them, we try to serve them and through this I am growing closer to members, but not to investigators. I think I allow it to get to me that we usually never see people again after the first or second lessons. I realize prayer will help me to overcome this, and I pray daily for Charity.

OK, cool experience for the week: We were having a table out on the street (it’s a table with pamphlets, a Book of Mormon, and a poster organized together in various formats that we see fit). Suddenly a Nun approached us on her bike. Nuns do not like us, they quite loath us actually, I've been told by several that I am wrong, without even a nice hello! If they stop to talk to us, they usually stop to tell us that we are liars and followers of satan. Anyway, this Nun approached, but rather than spouting fire at us, she greeted us (she was one that has always nicely greeted us as they pass, one of 2 or 3 of the younger Nuns) and then started to ask us legitimate questions. Elders Suell and Flack started teaching. In about 30 seconds there was a crowd of maybe 20 people around, listening to us because this Nun had stopped. They testified with power and authority, the spirit was clearly present. After some time, when the Nun had stopped asking questions and the crowd was, she tried to leave. Before she could though I offered her to take a restoration pamphlet, which she took. That was my contribution. It was outstanding though. In the end we didn't get a single contact or distribute a single pamphlet other than the one to the Nun, but the gospel had been proclaimed, people had listened, maybe someone was touched. Very awesome experience.

Anyway, I hope you all are well. I am in decent spirits and excited about this weekend (Elder Christofferson is coming!) I do love it here in Albania, the Lord gives me so much strength. I am a weak and hardly useful servant, but he continues to help me to grow and better myself. Perhaps one day I’ll see that I affected at least one person in a positive way. If that is the case, then I will have been successful. I will continue to try to work hard, and find ways to work harder. The Lord has given me this amazing blessing and opportunity to try and help others feel the amazing way I did at my ‘conversion’, and experience the infinite power of the atonement in their lives. This work is the Lord's, and he will see that it goes forward. I only hope I can do my part. I miss you all, I love you all very much! I thank you all for your prayers and your support, I feel it and am ever grateful. I keep you all in my prayers. May God be with you all!

With Love
Elder Scadden

Blank Email

2009-05-18T08:54:00.002-04:00

For some reason Gregory's main email this week was blank. Here are excerpts from an email he asked me to forward to another missionary he met in the MTC who went to Hungary.

I'm in a branch that is the second farthest from the center of Albania. We have a few members, most of whom are basically inactive, but I have a lot of hope for the branch here and we are working hard! My Albanian is slowly but surely getting better. Conference was outstanding, and yes, Elder Eyring's talk was awesome. We are doing a 40 day fast, essentially a long consecration week. One of the things I gave up was talking about the Army because it was becoming very distracting. I think you can imagine how difficult that is for me, Ha!!

God be with you.

Elder Scadden

First Contact

2009-05-11T12:08:00.002-04:00

Gezohu!

The handkerchiefs that Jenni gave me are extremely important, I use them tons more than I expected, mainly because I got sick at the MTC and because the Albanian definition of a napkin is this thin piece of paper that just kind of disintegrates and leaves all the grease on your fingers.

I thought I would tell those of you that are counting the months of my mission that you can count the month mark on the 5th rather than the 21st, that is how it is done when measuring the months. It's not against the beginning of your mission, but against the end, because technically our mission is only 23.5 months, not 24.

I would love some simple recipes! Elder Flack is a great cook, but I know I got pretty blessed getting him as a first companion for a number of reasons. I am sure I am going to have companions who are too lazy to make anything worthwhile. I'd like to learn better how to make some things, so please do send some simple recipes.

Story time!! After emails last P-day we headed over to a place that tons of people here say is beautiful. A place called Shirak. It is only about 4 km from the outside of Shkoder, so we hopped a furgon over there. When we arrived we were really quite disappointed, we couldn't figure out what was so beautiful about this place, it was just a little village, as trashy as the rest. We started walking up this road along the coast (it was on the big lake in northern Albania next to Shkoder) just talking, seeing what was up the road. After awhile we got pretty bored. Off to our left was a large ridge of mountains, we looked at it, and decided to climb! It took about an hour an a half to climb straight up the side. It got really steep towards the top, but when we finally reached the summit we realized how very worth it our sweating had been, you could see for miles and miles around. Albania is a country full of trash, but when you are far away it looks stunningly beautiful because you can not tell it's covered in trash. We then walked along the ridge, looking for a better way down. As we did this we found a cave, a real, random cave in the side of the mountain. Probably against better judgement, we entered. The walls were covered with thousands of these mosquito eater looking bugs we see around Shkoder a lot. We pushed forward, about 50 yards in we could see the end of the cave, and at about the right time too because we disturbed a bat that clearly wanted us to leave. We caught a few pictures and split.

Afterwards, Elder Flack told us we should just ride one of the rock slides down the mountain. I thought he was mad, or at least that he was the only one who could do it because he is a climber. Turns out it is the most fun thing I’d done on my mission, and it really is not as dangerous as it sounds. We got down about half the mountain in roughly 1 minute. It was a good day.

I am very much hoping the Assistants to the Mission President will be bringing me a package this Friday. I do not know if packages take much longer to get here than mail.

Our branch is young and struggling, as you all know. It is very interesting to go over to a members house who has missed sacrament meeting. You can tell that they missed receiving the sacrament, their whole demeanor is just slightly more downcast, less hopeful, you can’t feel their spirit coming off them as easily as you can when they have been able to partake. I do not know if it is this way with people who have been members for a long time. I've never noticed it before.
I now am really realizing the utter importance of taking the sacrament. It does so much more for us (if we take it worthily obviously) than I think we realize, it really is an ordnance of renewal for us to give us strength in the coming week. I hope that has the branch grows we are able to emphasize to people that they must come and partake of the sacrament. A number of members were baptized thinking that afterwards there did not have any real commitment to the Church, when in reality it was just the beginning!

The other Elders have a Baptismal date for later this month. Not only is that excellent, but the very cool thing is that it is going to be the first baptism of a black women in Albania!! I didn't even know there were black people here before her. She is of Libian descent, but is 100% Albanian, having been born here and lived here all her life. She has a powerful spirit, and is an extremely nice women, I think she will bring a lot of strength to the branch. Unfortunately she is very busy, having 2 jobs, but she doesn't work on Sundays, which is great, since that is the most important day. The only unfortunate thing about how busy she is is that its harder to meet with her and teach her everything she needs to hear, but she will be ready by the end of the month. How exciting!

So our house has been flooding with sewage water the past couple of days, it is really disgusting. The landlords finally have someone coming this morning. We are hoping to go home to a fixed house.

For my birthday I am buying some weights, there is a good set that is not super expensive up here in Shkoder. I am indeed planning on staying in shape while I am here in Albania! I don’t want to come home looking gross (though I’ll be coming home in the winter, regardless of how hard you try missionaries always put on some slight padding then because the body is trying to protect itself) and I don’t want to have to work super hard to get ready for the Army again. The desire is all it takes, Elder Flack and I do a good job of exercising.

I love you all very much!

God be with you
Elder Scadden

Hail!

2009-05-04T09:01:00.002-04:00

Another week has passed?? Impossible! The time just flies by here. Anyway, I am very excited about talking to everyone on Sunday! BTW Happy Birthday to Ken!

Ok, what happened this week?

...Oh Mum asked me if we eat at members houses much. I have eaten at a members house twice since I have been here, it was good food, but it makes us all groan, because they are all dirt poor and are all asking for money, therefore they should not feed the missionaries! So we try to avoid it as much as possible. The Albanian culture has a funny sort of pride. A number of papune members (work less members) are just too prideful to go out and get any sort of job to pay for the necessities, like street cleaning, but they don't have too much pride to hassle missionaries for money. Sadness, its OK though, there are a number of members that are growing and progressing, and some that are quite solid. Zion is being built here!

This week I had the "opportunity" to try Dhal. It is more like hell in a glass. Picture this: Fouled cottage cheese that has been mashed up as fine as it can be, then added to milk (warm milk usually) and topped off by an insane amount of salt. What the heck. Horrible right? Yes, you guessed it, it is one of the worst things I've tried in this world. We tracked into a couple, and since we didn't drink whiskey or coffee, they gave us Dhal. Elder Flack got a hoot out of watching me drink it, but I was a trooper, I drank the whole glass. In fact, elder Flack said I didn't even flinch until I got to the dregs of the cup. At that point it took all the discipline I possessed to not vomit. After we left we considered purging to get it out of our system. We got ice cream instead. That helped.

Actually that couple we tracked into was an older couple, and they had lost a few years ago a 21 year old daughter. They obviously were still hurting, it was a time to share the Plan of Salvation with them, but they wouldn't listen. Whenever we would start to teach it, they would say, quite politely, shume falemnaris (thank you much) and change the subject. If only they understood what we were trying to teach them, the blessings and comfort it would bring to their lives! It was very sad.

Oh I have bad news, our two baptisms have fallen through. The 2 girls have not come out and said that they didn't want to be baptised, but they have been avoiding receiving lessons from us since we gave them a baptismal calender. We now have reached the point where we cannot effectively teach the commandments of the gospel in time, so we are at the least pushing the date back. They told us that they had not read, and the older one seems like what we expected, too lazy to accept the real commitment to be baptized. However, I believe the younger one still will be, and Gent, their brother who is a member, is an excellent support. I hope he stays strong. We think the 2 girls didn't realize what baptism was, Gent got baptized way too fast and is doing quite well considering how quickly he wad taught prior to entering the waters. Elder Flack and I have made it a priority to see that they understand the covenant they are making. They both thought baptism was an end, not a beginning. That's what turned Arjeta off. It is sad to see that people are unwilling to do what is necessary to achieve salvation, but if her siblings become strong members, she will definitely join, it will just take more time.

I apologize that this letter is somewhat negative about the area, I really do love Shkodre and most of the members. They are some really excellent members, they just have a lot they need to be taught, as expected, one day there will be a foundation of members that will support new converts! Mum, you remember telling me about what happened in Fredericksburg with the 2 missionaries that got many converts just because they taught about the welfare system? That is kind of what has happened here, though not the fault of any particular elder.

OK, got to leave on a good note. One family, Terazina and her two daughters Marenla and Adolina, are struggling. Terazina is our most faithful church goer, and you can tell how she is growing slowly but surely, she also has a strong testimony of the basic, most important principles. However, her daughters and her (and her sisters family, who are also members) are all getting quite persecuted by their church and it's members and you can see the effects of that persecution mainly on Marinela, who is the oldest of all the children (14). However, yesterday we shared Helamen 12:5, D&C 121: 7-8? (my son, peace be..) and D&C 122:7-8 about enduring hardship and relying on Christ. It was an excellent lesson, and I believe it really helped Marinela, who's definitely been struggling with her testimony. The spirit was there. I hope they never lose the faith!

OK, I hope you all are well. I miss you all, but they Lord gives me great strength. I cannot wait to talk to you all on Sunday!

With love
Elder Scadden

Chronicles from Albania

2009-04-27T08:27:00.002-04:00

Hello all! I hope everyone is well! This week has been Awesome!! I also took notes, so I am not at a loss for what to say. I received lots of mail on Thursday when we went down to Tirana for Zone conference. Zone conference was very excellent, I did not think that those meetings would be so great. President Neil challenged us to do a 40 day fast, or consecration. We chose 5 things to stop doing, 3-5 things to start doing, and 5+ things to continue doing, to strengthen ourselves and kill the enemy with in us. There are a lot of excellent promises associated with this, and Elder Flack and I are very excited about it.

I have 2 stories this week.
The first happened the evening after Zone conference. We were headed over to the other area with Elder Suell and Elder Smedley to give a baptismal interview. Well, we got there and the husband said he didn't want to be baptised because he had had a dream where an old guy told him gezuar paskeut (happy Easter) and he took that to mean that he needed to remain Muslim and not get baptised (what the heck, right?) Well, I understood everything that was going on, since it is usually much easier to understand than to speak. The whole time I was praying for elder Suell and Elder Flack, that they would be able to teach with the Spirit and that the Spirit would speak to Shemci (that is his name). Well, the meeting ended without a baptismal interview, but I felt prompted to bear my testimony to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit was very strong then, and it had been powerfully present, at least for me, the whole time we were there. Even though right now he will not be baptised, I felt for sure that he inevitably would. It was an excellent experience.

Then another story.
We have an investigator who we are only able to meet with once a week, and he doesn't come to church often, but he reads the Book of Mormon tons and also the other material that we give him. He always has outstanding questions. This last meeting that we had with him was great, the Spirit was very present there as he bore testimony to us that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book for Mormon was true. He said that it was either the Catholic church, or the Church of Jesus Christ that was right, and he told us he was certain that through prayer the Lord would give him an answer. Naturally we know that if he seeks with real intent, which it sounds that he will, he will find the truth out for himself. After the lesson I felt great, I always do after the Spirit is strongly present in a lesson. On that note, I will say that one of the things I've been trying to learn this past year is how to become more receptive to the Holy Ghost, and I have noticed that since I have been out in the Field that I have had tons more experiences with the spirit and feeling its guiding influence than I thought I would so early on. It is amazing to see the power of the Lord manifested though us his agents.

Oh!!! Lets end with some fantastic news. We have been teaching 2 girls, who are sisters of Gent, a recent convert (he was baptised the Sunday before I arrived) Gesjana (12) and Arjeta (21?), but we didn't start teaching them until about 2 weeks ago. They have been progressing well, and we always have good lessons with them were the spirit is present. Last night we taught the 3rd lesson and were going to give them the baptismal commitment. As we taught about Christ's baptism, Arjeta looked at us and said "well, when can we get baptised?" That was exactly what we had been hoping for for the past few lessons, was for them to bring it up just as an indicator of there desires to be baptised. So guess what? We have 2 baptisms scheduled for the 10th of May! That is super exciting! What's even better is that Gent, their brother, received the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday and will be able to baptise them!!!! He is a super solid member, and continues to surprise us with how he is progressing. They will be a strength to each other. It is so cool to see people progress along the path of repentance towards living by the standards of the true and living Gospel.

Dude, I don't even know how long I have been here, the days just fly by. I believe this is my 3rd Pday, but I'm not counting down the days, or weeks of my mission. I did give Jenni permission to tell me the monthly tally. The longer I am here in the country, the faster the days blink by. Crazy. Anyway, I hope everyone is well, I am healthy, I don't appear to be gaining or losing large quantities of weight (I hope...) and I am sleeping at nights. Everyone take care, I love you all!

God be with you
Elder Scadden

Week 2!

2009-04-20T08:17:00.002-04:00

The 2nd week has been good. I do not think I am working hard enough. It is frustrating. The language continues to be a huge barrier, but I know that one day, sometime while I am here, I will be able to effectively communicate. It doesn't seem like it will happen, but I know it will!

Some of our members are really progressing, others are really regressing. Pride is such a stumbling block, and I also have to remember that these new members don't know anything about the gospel.

The Lord continues to bless me more than I could hope for. Missionary work is tough, but not that tough. I need to be better at stopping people on the street.

I eat TONS here, but I don't appear to be gaining weight, probably because we walk everywhere and run 3 times a week and work out too.

It is an honor and a privilege to be serving here in Shkodur. In the mission this is thought to be the hardest place to start because they speak a dialect that is different from that which they teach us in the MTC. It should pay off down the road, or at least I hope it will!

I love and miss you all, thank you very much for your prayers and support, may God be with you all!

Love
Elder Scadden

O Familian Ime, Gezohuni!!

2009-04-13T10:50:00.003-04:00

(Here are excerpts from Gregory's latest emails)

Pershindetie from Albania!! I do not know what you all might know, since I believe president Neil sent an "Elder Scadden is alive" email to you all, hope you got it and haven't been wondering.
Well, here's the big news: They have Ice cream in Albania!!! You have no idea how happy that makes me, and it is super cheap for a decent amount. Don't worry, I'll try to not eat it but every few days.

So where does everyone think I am serving? Well, It was the last place I thought I'd be assigned, I am excited and honored to be serving in Shkodur!!!! Wow!!! I did not expect that to be where I'd go. It is the farthest city north, and apparently they talk funny up here, but I seem to be able to understand ok, which is actually almost nothing. My trainer is Elder Flack, he is a very cool individual, and I am already learning a great deal from him. He has 9 months in the country, and only 6 weeks in shkodur, but the members already knew him alright by the time I showed up.

So about Shkodur, it is beautiful here, except for today because it is raining, but the rain is refreshing since it wouldn't stop snowing in that wretched desert valley out west. There is actually water in the air, I can hydrate by breathing again! I am drinking plenty though, fear not! Our living quarters are quite nice, and we are on the bottom floor which will be great for the hot summer months. Its a smaller city, unlike Tirana which was quite large (nothing like Cairo except for the smell, it was so good to smell tons of diesel in the air again!). Here the people seem to be much more spiritually minded than in the other cities of Albania because of the large mosques and the giant catholic church they have here (it is the largest church building in all of the Balkans). There are 4 of us elders here, Myself, elder Flack, Elder Smeldey(who was in the mtc with me!) and elder Suell (he has a year and 6 months in country). From anywhere in the city you can see the amazing mountains, much bigger than the Appalachians and far less barren than the Rockies, I'd say it is a nice mixture of both.

The branch here is very young, the city has only been opened for a year and a half, and recently there have been tons of new converts, but along with that comes all the growing pains of a young and small branch. Most of the members are dirt poor. All have a lot to learn about the gospel, but it is great regardless of the problems that seem to be present, I have a great deal of hope for this little branch. However, because there are so many new members, we do spend a good chunk of time doing member retention lessons, so we have less time we can spend finding and teaching new investigators, but most of the time when we do a retention lesson the members have friends over, and already we have received some new investigators because of this.

So the language is hard, who would have thought? I don't understand very much of what is said, and I'm pretty much kot in a lesson. I do always try to bear my testimony or share a thought. I really enjoy trying to talk to the members during muhabet (thats small talk) and I've actually had some pretty good conversations. One day I will speak this language! On Sunday I had the opportunity to bear my testimony. I tried to express what I was feeling and thinking at the time (dealing with staying firm and never losing the faith) and I conveyed the message, but I really slaughtered what I was trying to say grammatically. Oh well, the members understood. They tell me I sound like I am from Thropoja (probably since most of them are also from Thropoja). Its a town in the far north near the boarder of Kosovo, and there they talk deeply. That's the only reason why. I probably have a horribly strong American accent. Often the members will ask me a question, and I just have a blank stare, so they turn to elder Flack, who usually will translate it for me. Its frustrating because I do not want to members to stop trying to talk to me because I can't understand a lot of what they say. Avash Avash! Somehow I will learn this language!

So when I showed up in Tirana we were well taken care of by President and Sister Neil and the assistants. I already had mail from Jenni and Kristin waiting for me. a nice surprise. President Neil has a vision called the Korab project, it is to see a stake in Albania by the summer of 2011. I think it is very possible. The core branches in Tirana are doing well, some of them are extremely solid, but everywhere there is a problem with inactivity! We need more Melchizedek priesthood holders to see this vision come to past. It can happen though.

A short story. An old Gjagji came up and started to talk to us about the gospel. At first he seemed normal. Then we realized his was crazy. Unfortunately, as Elder Flack walked away, the guy, I thought, asked to use my pen, so I handed it to him. He said "rrofsh america!" and walked off with it......... He ninjaed my pen. I am still not over it. Oh well, never lend people anything unless you actually know their intentions.

Anyway, I love you all and miss you, but the work is keeping me very busy and I am quite happy, despite the jet lag I am suffering. This place is awesome, very awesome! Take care, God be with you all!!

Love Elder Scadden
.............

Here in Albanian there is an Easter tradition called Cherast ing and it means to treat, and whenever you enter someones house they give you food and drink. This week I've gotten like 7 painted eggs... I don't really need that many.

P-day is Monday, I have an hour to read and write emails.

Yes, I can't get my hair cut short :(

Day 2 in Albania

2009-04-09T11:59:00.004-04:00

Another email from Gregory's mission president. Here is an excerpt.

Dear Brother and Sister Scadden,

We have had the wonderful opportunity of spending more time with your son and getting to know him a little better. Your son is still functioning in another time zone, but jet lag will pass quickly for him. Elder Scadden is doing well with the language and is talking to people in the street already. This morning, we took all the new missionaries to the Mother Albania Statue and Park, a memorial to the heroes of Albania, overlooking the city of Tirana. This is where Albania was dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel in April of 1993 by Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve. The attached photo shows his MTC group with the statue in the background.

We had a short service there where we read together the dedicatory prayer, which is beautiful and becoming fulfilled in amazing ways. Then each missionary was invited to find a secluded spot to meditate and offer a prayer of consecration and thanks. After prayer and thoughtful consideration, we have assigned him to work with Elder Flack, who is a district leader in the northern city of Shkoder. Your son’s companion is a great missionary who has earned the opportunity to be a trainer by his dedicated service here in Albania. I am sure that your son will be able to learn much from him. He will also learn to rely on the Spirit to guide him daily. He will grow in ways that you can’t imagine.

..........

Again, thank you for raising such a fine son. Sister Neil and I love the Lord, we love His church, and we love His missionaries, and will do everything we can to support and sustain your son so that he can accomplish what he came here to do. We know he will have a wonderful mission, and will accomplish much good in this developing land of generous and kind people.

Sincerely,
President John M. Neil
Sister Elizabeth Neil

He has arrived in Albania

2009-04-08T23:13:00.003-04:00

Gregory is now in Albania. Here is an email we got from his Mission President.

April 8, 2009

Dear Brother and Sister Scadden,

As you can see from the attached photograph, Elder Scadden arrived safely here in Tirana. He's here with Sister Neil and me in our conference room in the Mission Office in Tirana. He is a bit tired, wrinkled and overwhelmed by the cultural shock of landing here. But other than that he is excited to get to work and to be assigned to his new companion. He has already been out to do his first street contacting (with great success!). We will assign him tomorrow afternoon to his trainer, a special dedicated missionary called to that important position. But rather than wait until then to let you know he arrived safely, we thought you might be anxious to know that he didn’t get lost in transit and that he did arrive and that all is well. Earlier today, I had a wonderful interview with him, we got him registered with the American Embassy and tomorrow, we’ll go register with the Albanian police. We just had dinner, and he and his companions are off to get some rest. We will send you another short note tomorrow with all of his addresses, the name of his companion and any other information that will hopefully make you comfortable about his status.

Please also know that we already love your son and are concerned for his well being. We will do all in our power to make sure that he is safe and that he has a wonderful experience serving as a missionary. We can say without question that he has come to one of the finest missions in the world. The people are kind, the members are so loving of the missionaries, and the other missionaries are the finest young men and women in the church.

Thank you for sharing your son with the people of this country. We know that your family will be blessed as you share in his experiences.

Sincerely,
President and Sister J. Martin Neil
Albania Tirana Mission

Last email from the MTC!

2009-04-02T10:29:00.002-04:00

We leave SLC at 8:35 AM MST on April 7, arrive JFK 3:25 PM EST, leave on Austria Air at 5:50 PM, arrive in Vienna at 8:35 AM the 8th of April, leave at 11:00 AM, arrive at 12:40 PM in TIRANA ALBANIA !! WOOHOO!!! I am so super pumped and excited! I cannot wait to talk to my first Albanian in the country! I am looking forward to my trainer, I hope they are not a scrub, if they are, I will learn them some army discipline! I am bad at the language still, but I don't care, I love trying to speak it so much! BTW if ever you see or hear the word KOT from me, it means something along the lines of worthless, but it transcends English translation. It simply can't be described with words. I will be sending my next email from ALBANIA!! Super exciting!! Very cool!! I love you all, take care!

Love
Elder Scadden

13 DAYS!

2009-03-25T22:43:00.003-04:00

I could potentially be referring to the Cuban missile crisis, but I am not. There are only 13 days left here in the MTC!!! WOOHOO!!! I will only have 1 more P-day here! How super amazing! On Friday we should get our flight plans!! I will, of course, let everyone know next Wednesday what the plans will be. Its hard to believe that it is coming up so close! I am so extremely excited, even though I am still terrible at the Language!

I don't have many notes for the email this time, so pretty soon I am going to just start rambling. However, Mum wanted to know what the real name for Albania is. It is Shqiperia, and Albanian is called Shqip. The way that is pronounced is SHCHEEPUREEAH and the language is pronounced SHCHEEP. You may notice that the Q in Albanian is a CH sound, but it sounds different than any ch the American mind would normally produce. I cannot, however, explain that in the email.

Well, that's it for notes... what should I talk about?... Mail is working funny this week, so expect letters to arrive later than usual. That's OK though, at about Monday of next week no one should plan on sending me anymore stuff, its just going to be too close to our leave date, we are actually supposed to start packing on Monday, so no fear Dad, I will get several opportunities to do practice packs and find the most effective way.

On Monday our Hungarians leave.... This is a truly sad day. I have not talked much about the Hungarians, but they have been our closest friends here at the MTC, we have done most everything together. I must admit that they do spend their class time more effective than we do. It has been said that we are behind most other groups that have come through here in our ability to speak the language, but I am not worried. The Lord will provide a way, though sometimes I am afraid I am not doing my best.

At the TRC on Thursday we had an awesome lesson. Sure, these are volunteers, but the Spirit will always testify of truth. In the TRC Elder Hagen is my companion, not Elder Fisher, and we decided that we would center our whole lesson around scriptures, since they contain the true doctrine and can speak Albanian better than we can. We were preparing to teach the Plan of Salvation as a retention lesson, because the week before our investigator (Arron) had committed to be baptised, so we planned accordingly. Must to our surprise, Micheal, another volunteer, walked in as a non-member, out the window went the lesson plan. But elder Hagen and I appealed to the scriptures very often, shared a personal experience and testified often. The Spirit was very strong. Also, Michael, towards the end of the lesson, started speaking Albanian much faster, so it was hard to understand, he apologized and said it was because we had been understanding him so well he forgot that he had to slow down for us. At the end of the lesson, Michael told us that this was the best pseudo lesson her had ever been in, on and after his mission. It was incredible the Spirit that the scriptures brought in. On that same note, we heard from Elder Kenneth Johnson on Tues, who told us that what Elder Hagen and I had been doing needs to be what we do all the time, in English, and in Albanian, even once we are good with the language. I had never realized that teaching everything from the scriptures and simply testifying could be so powerful. It was a great lesson to learn.

I have talked to Jeremy English (the elder Jenni's family knew who is going to Carlsbad Cal. mission) a number of times. He seems to be well. Elder Jordon Smith should have arrived today, but I have not run into him and I may not, it just depends on our schedules.
The Lord is blessing me so much, this is his work! I love you all, God be with you.

Love
Elder Scadden

20 days to go!

2009-03-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

So there are only 20 days to go before I am en route to Albania! We will get our flight plans a week from tomorrow WOOHOO!! It is amazing that the day of departure is finally in sight! I am so pumped! Unfortunately some of my fellow elders lack that enthusiasm (while others share it) because they are so afraid about how bad they are at the language. We keep trying to tell them that we all are terrible, me especially (I think I am one of the worst actually, but that causes me no fear). The language is coming along, and I know that once I am in the country my development in the language will really speed up.

Our first day there is going to rock something awesome. While President Neil interviews half of us, the other half will be taken out onto the streets with the Assistants and will do street contacting!! How awesome is that? I cannot wait to be talking to real Albanians even if we will have problems communicating, it will be so extremely exciting! More good news: We get to participate in the Draper Temple dedication! Wow! The assembly hall here will become an extension of the temple! It is going to be exciting, I really do not remember the dedication of our temple, this will be quite enjoyable.

Hahaha MORE good news, last night we were blessed to hear from Elder L.Tom Perry, 2 apostles in my tour here at the MTC! That was really excellent. He spoke about being unified with out companions. Its definitely something I need to work on, but Elder fisher and I get along OK. I am very interested to know what kind of person my trainer will be, I hope he is not someone I have to go Army on to get them to do what they need to do.

Even though some of our distract is intimidated about getting to the country so quickly, there exists a strong fervor to go forth and do the Lords work. We do have a good bunch of Missionaries.

Today I want to talk about somethings that are GOOD about the MTC, since I usually bellyache about it. First and foremost, the Tuesday evening devotionals, wither given by a 70 or by an Apostle, are excellent and always insightful. Here so much spiritual growth occurs, there is so much more that I know now about teaching the gospel than I did before. I think one of the coolest things is being together in a big mass of missionaries singing the Hymns of God, there is such power when 2000 missionaries raise their voices up in praise!

Gym is actually quiet excellent (btw to all incoming missionaries who read this, USE YOUR GYM TIME! You will be totally exhausted if you do not do things at gym. I've seen it reflected in a number of missionaries). In gym we run 2 out of the 5 days, do just upper body 2 other days, and run a circuit the other day, which is an awesome everything work out. I believe I have gotten in better shape here than I have been in almost a year, even with the Army.

OH one of the very best things here at the MTC is the movie time after the Sunday evening Fireside, every other week they show Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, which is SUCH a powerful and moving movie, I have yet to see it without being moved to tears. They also show the Testaments and Legacy, they alternate. They also show powerful talks by apostles and 70. I have gone to 2 of these and have been extremely well instructed. So when it comes down to it, the MTC is really an excellent and amazing place. Last week I had had my worst week at the MTC and it seems that it is the same week for most 12 weekers. Well now the end is in sight, and now that I can see the light, I realize just all the wonderful things I have experienced here and how much I have grown. I am also stunned by how fast it has gone by. Before it had felt like I had been here an eternity, but now it feels like I've barely been here at all. I am so super pumped to get there!

I know that this work is real, that this is the work of God. Jesus Christ is our savior, and today the Heavens are open, God speaks to mankind, revelation is a now and present thing. I know it to be true.

Until next week!
God be with you.
Elder Scadden

27 days left!

2009-03-11T22:58:00.000-04:00

Not a long way off before I am out of the MTC and in the country of Albania! You all should start making bets about where I will be first: Tirana, Shkoder, Durres, Vlore, Lushnia, Elbasan, or Fier. I'll tell you that most of the missionaries are in Tirana.

Anyway, not much to report this week. It was the same as the other weeks I've been here, with exception to the things that were different that I can't remember because they have all blurred into one continuous stream of events that do not exist in time or chronological order. I believe the field will be much more interesting. I continue to be bad at the language, and my knowledge of PMG is poor, but fortunately the Lord qualifies those who he calls. I know that I am helped far beyond my own capacity here by his hand. I want to thank everyone for the Dearelders, the packages, the letters and the prayers, they are such a comfort and a strength. I realize I will get many less in the field, but the days will also be much more exciting and empowering. I hope everyone is well.

I love you all!

Elder Scadden

2nd Try

2009-03-04T22:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, lost my other email, so I have half the normal time to write.

Only 4 more P-days here at the MTC! We are really over the hill now! I am worried about the language, I am terrible at it, though I would be worse if it were not for the strength the Lord is giving me. If I can leave here and really testify from my heart I believe I will be happy. It is easy to get frustrated here, but fortunately prayers help us to keep going. One of my favourite things to say in Albanian is Jam E Po Humb!!! (I am losing it! LOL) also, for those who might care, to say I came, I saw, I conquered in Albanian is Erdha E Pash E Pushtova!! Yes, I am enjoying this language, even though it is slow going.

I do not have an exact departure date yet, though we believe we will be leaving at 5amish on the 6th of April.

For Albania there is no visa here, we go there, we pay for a stamp, and then, because we will be living there for awhile, we go to a police station and fill out some papers.

Wow I really don't have much time.

Time is flying here, things are moving along. I am so incredibly excited to get into the country, you have no idea! I might not be able to speak, but it is the spirit that converts, not my words, and I know this message is true! When I get off that plane, the first thing I'm gonna say to my mission president is when do I get to talk to people! Oh it will be scary, sure, but if I trust in the Lord there is nothing to fear, nothing at all. To be honest I think the TRC is scarier than talking to real Albanians (the TRC is a practice teaching thing that we now do in Albanian and we are not very good at it. The people we are teaching are all return missionaries who know the language.) The reason it is scarier is because you think that you are only going to get negative feedback (which is not true, we are irrationally afraid of the RC) but Albanians Love to talk to Americans that try to learn their language, and they will happily, and nicely, correct you. Of course, I will also get yelled and some people will be rude, but such is the case with the human race, we all have such moods sometimes. I am so excited!!!!

The Lord is still blessing me with health and strength. Everyday I have more energy than I should.

I love you all, I get so much support from home. Thank you so much for your prayers and for your words, please, don't stop! I find a great deal of strength from the home front. God be with you all.

Love, Elder Scadden

Week 5??

2009-02-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

Wow! I've been here longer, or almost so, than I was in Egypt! Crazy. This week has been yet another excellent week. Though, the days flow together and it is hard to tell the difference from one day to the next. I hope everyone at home is well. I am quite excited because apparently I have 2 packages on the way from my sister Sarah and Jenni. BTW I do want everyone to know, that on Wednesdays I sometimes get letters off before I get Dearelders, so my letters might not have anything to do with Dearelders, but my emails will. I hope that makes sense.

What interesting thing has happened this week? This week feels like it has been relatively unremarkable... The Hungarians finally got their Kichie (young one) A solo elder. He got mobbed by 9 Hungarians today when he arrived. He will be well loved for the next 5 weeks. We do not get young ones.

They are kicking us out of our dorm, I have to pack and unpack again before my trip to Albania! Lame! It is a good thing that Elder Fisher and I keep our room pretty clean. They are going to renovate our dorm, so they are moving us to another one.

Mum asked me how to say something to the extent of I am having a joyful day in Albania. Sot, kam gazim means today, I have joy. They often speak that way. You could also say Sot, Po Gazoj which means today I am rejoicing.

I do want to let everyone know that even though it is hard work here, every day is an excellent day. Everyday I see the had of God in my life. He surely blesses us. I still sleep very poorly here, but by the graces of the Lord I am the only member of the district who has not fallen asleep in class. That isn't to say that I don't get tired, but the Lord gives me strength far beyond my own and propels my mind. Also, as we remain positive the days go flying by even faster, and we continue to grow.

This week we have been SYL'ing (speak your language) but I am terrible at it. Elder Fisher and I try hard, but often after we say something in Albanian we have to then say it in English to each other. I have heard time and time again that I need not fret about the language, that I will get it, especially once out in the field. I am trying to take that to heart, but tomorrow is the first time we have to give a lesson in Albanian, and we are all anxious about it. Hopefully it will go well.

So I am extremely excited for Bradley, Richard, John, Andrew and Matt. Bradley's papers will be in very soon, however I doubt he will be hear before I leave. But by this summer we will see all 5 of them out, that is pretty crazy! The Lord has need of willing men that wear the workers seal!

Once I am in Albania, the mail may arrive at the Mission home in a timely manner, but if I am in any other city (Lushnia, Durres, Shkodur, Vlore, or Elbasan) it may take sometime for the mail to get to me, since someone from the mission home has to bring it to us, or someone from our mission must go retrieve it. I hope the wait is not too long, but the further away the greater time (therefore, Vlorr or Shkodur would take a while)

I have been thinking about going into the field, I am extremely excited about it, I cannot wait for it to be here! I know I won't know much by then, but the language will come! What I need to know is the gospel, so I can teach it simply!

I apologize for the insufficientness of this email. I'll be honest, I am quite confident they will be immensely more interesting once I am in the field. Thank you for all the dearelders and letters. they are truly a blessing in my life. Christ is our savior, I know it to be true. Everyone take care! Next week will be here in a blink!

Love,
Elder Scadden

02/18/09

2009-02-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

OK, so what should I write about? I seem to have forgotten everything I wanted to discuss... Yes, time is flying by very fast. Sometimes the days seem to slug on, but once they are finished I look back and think wow, that day just happened! And the weeks just fire by.

Oh! WE GOT TO HEAR FROM ELDER BALLARD YESTERDAY! Talk about a blessing! It was so amazing to hear from an apostle of the Lord! He mainly talked about how we need to be positive and that we need to Hurry. He said the work was moving too slowly, we needed to have the faith to find the individuals the Lord has prepared for us and be willing to teach them. He emphasized: There is NO mission where a missionary cannot baptize. He said that if anyone had told a missionary that they probably wouldn't baptize much if at all on their mission that person was wrong. If we go forward with the faith that the Lord will lead us to those who need to hear the gospel, than it will happen! It was very invigorating because, even though I am going to a "high baptizing" European mission, it really opened my heart up to the idea that I could bring many into the Gospel.

It is amazing just how much the Lord is growing me here. I have recently learned from 1st Nephi something that I had never realized before. In the beginning of 1st Nephi he does not have much faith, but he has a desire to believe and the Lord grants it to him and helps him to believe. Then he bears the testimony that he knows that the he can do whatever the Lord commands him because the Lord will provide a way. Finally, towards the end of 1st Nephi, he has reached a whole new level when he speaks to his brothers and commands them not to touch him else they will wither as a reed, he goes on to say that he could turn the oceans into land if it was the will of the Lord, and that if he, Nephi, would command the waters to be land the Lord would grant it unto him. What amazing growth in faith, from a simple desire, to a will to obey the commands of God, to an understanding that even the most physically impossible task can be accomplished through the Lord. The important thing to know here though is that he did not reach that point of testimony until many years after he began the path. Step by step, we can all come to understand what reliance on the Lord can do in our lives.

Mum asked me if I have service projects other than the RC. Yes, every Monday morning we clean a building, its the same building at the same time every week.

Mum also asked what we missionaries here thought about there being so few of us and so many people in the world. Elder Ballard actually talked about that: So many of the worlds people live in spiritual darkness, total darkness without realizing what the light must feel like. We must go forth to them. There might be a lot of Gods children on the earth, and so few laborers, but we can bring the world the truths of the Gospel!

I am happy and this is absolutely is the Lords work! God be with you all.

Elder Scadden

Hail from the West

2009-02-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

It snowed again. Twice or three times. I stopped counting. I have decided that I am not going to live in this place if I can avoid it.

Mum asked me questions she wanted me to answer so here it goes!

What are your Sabbaths like? Do you have the traditional 3 hr block?

No, there is very little that is traditional about schedules here at the MTC. On Sundays we still wake up at 6:15, but we have breakfast at 7. Because I am currently district leader, I have a meeting at 7:30; the rest of the district has personal study in a class room. I join them until 9ish when we elders go to Priesthood meeting. There we receive instruction that you might expect in any normal priesthood meeting. Then we go back to our class rooms for an hour and a half until Lunch and then we have Sacrament meeting. After that, we go to District Meeting, which is essentially Sunday school, but the lessons are on the rotation of the Christ like Attributes. After that we are able to go back to our dorms at 2:30. We are able to change into comfier cloths if we desire. At 4:15 Elder Fisher and Elder Smedley go to Choir practice, while I become Elder Allen’s companion. At 4:30 we go to dinner without them. At 7 is the fireside, which has yet to disappoint me. Then after the fireside we have the option to go see various church films or talks. There are always four choices a week and they change regularly, but they always show either the Testaments or the Prophet of the Restoration, which is good because I deeply enjoy both of those movies. Then we go back to our dorms, plan, and go to bed.

What do you do on your typical Pday?

We wake up at 6:15, and go to psuedoclass at 7. I call it psuedoclass because it exists only to make sure we get up at the normal time. We are allowed to relax more than we usually are in the class room. Then we have breakfast at 8:15, and then back to classroom, and then we leave for the Temple as a Branch at 9:55. It’s a nice pleasant walk and I am always dressed up in heavy winter battle gear, ready to resist the fiery snow and wind darts of the evil winter demons that inhabit this valley. The Temple is always wonderful. Today especially was outstanding. Then at about 12:30 we get out and go print emails, check mail, and grab a bag lunch rather than waste precious time in the cafeteria. The day is then ours until 4, when we start laundry, but it still is ours at that time. They have computers in the laundry room, so that is when I write email, like I am doing right now. That is why Mum and dad are always at the temple when I write. Then we go to dinner at 6, and we have normal class at 6:45. Pday is then over.

Have you been able to go to the Temple yet?

Yes. I greatly enjoy it. This week was the best yet while I have been here. I miss our little Temple.

What is your typical day at the MTC?

There is no typical day, each day have a different schedule. This is the average structure, but there are plenty of exceptions. We wake up at 6:15, shower, shave, and dress. 7 class begins, we open with a song in Albanian and a prayer in Albanian. We sing and pray over 8 times a day. At 8:15 we go to breakfast. At 8:45 class begins again. That goes until 1, when we have lunch. At 1:45, we have class again, until 6. At 6:45 we go back to class, until 9. Then we plan and get ready for bed. On Mondays we have a service assignment at 630, a large group meeting after breakfast where they train us on stuff and gym after dinner. On Tues. we have gym after breakfast, and a devotional after dinner (those devotionals are outstanding, much better than the firesides). Wednesdays are unique. Thursday... hmm I don't remember when we have gym on Thursday, we go to the RC at 1130 and after dinner we have something called the TRC where volunteers come in to be our fake investigators, it is pretty real. Fridays we have gym sometime, Fridays are our longest days it seems. There’s something special about Saturdays, but I can't remember, maybe its just because its before Sundays, which are wonderful days. That is my typical day. Our teachers come in at different time and teach us things. At other times we direct our own teaching. Thank you for asking me to talk about some times, let me know what you want me to talk about next week.

The Lord is helping me out a lot, he is lifting me up when I get down and he strengthens me beyond my own arm. I am very blessed here!! Everyone take care, God be with you!!!

With Love
Elder Scadden

P.S. I am sorley jealous of your beautiful weather. I miss the weather of NC.

2 Weeks Out

2009-02-05T08:38:00.000-05:00

Here are some sections taken from Gregory's latest email to his family.

----------------------------------------------------

Chekemie!

Hello from the MTC again. I've been here for 2 weeks now, but it seems like I've been here much longer. At the same time the days go speeding by, I'll probably be out before I think I've even been here. That’s fine with me, though I am having an excellent time. We hear from many inspired people, I have more stories from them than I can easily recount. The food is surviveable, it tends to get relatively repetitive. Fortunately they have a wide selection of cereal, I will never grow tired of cereal.

I hope everyone is doing well back in NC, I am very thankful for the dearelder notes I get. Please keep them coming!

The language remains a challenge, though we are making progress.

Today I had an insight that increased my testimony of continuously reading the Book of Mormon. So, I now know that no matter how many times you read it you will always, always find new understanding and new insight.

God be with you all!!

First Email from the MTC

2009-01-29T10:04:00.000-05:00

Below you will find Gregory's first email from the MTC. I have posted it just as he wrote it. Those of you who know him well will enjoy his unique spelling and grammar. If you would like to email him or send him a note on dearelder.com, contact me at gscadden@gmail.com and I will give you his addresses. He only has email access on Wednesday but dearleder.com notes are delivered hardcopy to him daily.

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I hope that one of the random email addresses I typed in can get to someone who can send it to everyone else and post it on my blog. So this is excellent though that I do indeed have email! I am only allowed to email my immediate family, though I am told that anyone can email me, and I can read their emails, I just can't respond. If that turns out not to be true, I'll let you all know. Fortunately reading emails does not take up more than 2 min of my email time because I get to print off emails. Lastly, before I get into talking about my first week at the MTC, I wanted to tell people to PLEASE use dearelder.com as much as they please, as long as they have a knowledge that there is a slim chance I'll write a letter in response, simply because I get alot of those (which I love to recieve, I am able to find time to read them). If you would like me to write you back, please send me a snail mail letter. As for my immediate family, I can probably reply to any emails you send me, atleast briefly.

OK, The MTC!! This place is crazy. My day starts at 620 and ends at 1030. I am in class for most of that time with exception to Sundays and Wednesdays (wed is my P-day), but even on Sundays I am in a lot of meetings and on my Pday I have class til 930am and class from 6 to 9pm. Oh well, this Pday has been excellent. I avoided taking a nap, thankfully, because thats not a habit I want to get into. I am healthy, despite the serious cold and a number of people in my branch being sick, however I do not sleep well. Thats no suprise, and I am extremely blessed because the Lord gives me awareness and strength that I shouldnt have.

Albania! We've been learning alot about the place. Apparently it is terribly corrupt (controlled by the albanian mofia potentially LOL), but the people are loving and amazing. I've got some weeks ahead of me though before I find that out. The language is hard. I can't really begin to describe it, it doesn't relate well to english at all in grammer or spelling. Though I can say that learning it has been XHAM FARE (jam fareh) which literally means totally glass, or translated for meaning, Awesome! (keep in mind you must say it with the lowest voice possible). I can already bear my testimony and pray in Albania, though it is halting and quite simple.

Currently I have the privilage of serving as District Leader. It is not too tough a job, essencially I am to keep the district (those elders and sister that are learning albania with me) on task, and from doing anything stupid. I also conduct a couple meetings. My district is full of wonderful Elders and a sister, all of whom have unique personalities that sometimes led to interesting conversations, or comments. But they all have a good knowledge of the scriptures, I have already learned quite a bit from their insight, and their they also have a testimony of the gospel. Elder Fisher (my comp) and I get along alright. We are both adjusting to being around someone who is not very similar to eachother, especially since we are discouraged from talking about a number of the things we share in common (We both enjoy call of duty 4!) But we are learning to work well together, and we have not had any heavy clashes. He is a good Elder with a strong testimony, and he is neat and clean, that sure is nice!

Oh, my room. Normally its 4 Elders to a room, but Elder Fisher and I have a room to ourselves, it is very nice. The other 4 Elders in my district live together down the hall from us Everyone, you would be impressed with us, I don't think I've ever lived in a room that I've kept THIS clean hah! The beds arn't that great though. And I am also very cold most of the time. I need to get another blanket, I should get one tomorrow.

So I mentioned we aren't allowed to talk about things like CAllof duty 4. That is because we have something called The Babalonian Wall of Shame in our classroom. Whenever someone mentions something from the outside world aside from family and friends, its considered babylon "all I hear coming out of your mouth is Babylon Babylon Babylon" hahah! We started this rule yesterday, and already everyone but elder Fisher has an infraction at least. I got mine talking about the political barriers to solving world hunger. hahah!

Anyway, the food is tolerable, but not always. I am trying to eat healthy, and am doing a good job. We get gym time 5 times a day, and it is good that we have it!

I haven't shared much spiritual insight in this email, but I have learned so much in the short time I've been here (though this week as felt like forever, the first week is apparently the slowest) All I can say is that the Lord has poured out blessing after blessing upon me. I know he loves us. I know this is His work. It might be tough, but through him we can accomplish this task. I miss you all, please keep writing, or deareldering and praying for us. Take care! God be with you.

Love
Elder Scadden

The First Epistle of Elder Scadden

2009-01-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

We got a short letter from Gregory yesterday. What excitement. Here are excerpts in his own own words. He mentions Jodi Khater. She was his Arabic professor at NC State and she and her husband were the leaders of Gregory's Study Abroad trip to Egypt last summer.

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I have completed my first day here at the MTC and it as been absolutely Amazing!.....6:30 woke up in my temporary housing and attempted to shower but that building does not receive hot water, though I did grit my teeth and washed my hair and face....I have to take a 4 week pill immunization for typhoid. We heard from our MTC Presidency in the afternoon, Obedience, Obedience, Obedience! I believe I am up to the challenge with the Lord's help. There a total of 7 Albania missionaries....Elder Fisher (my companion) and I are getting along well....Our group of Albanians is called a district...I have been called as District Leader....We are not in a Branch by ourselves, but we also have the Hungarian Elders and Sisters...Jodi Khater is a good friend of the first counselor in our Branch presidency....I like the missionaries here very much, they really are wonderful people....today has been exciting, but long.

I am so happy to be here, I'm so excited for the work!...Know that I am in good hands, they take good care of us here. The food is acceptable, the people are great, and the Spirit of God is here....The Church is true, I know it, and these people here have been called by a prophet of God. I love the Lord......I hope you all enjoyed the snow!....

Lasts and Firsts

2009-01-21T08:43:00.000-05:00

Monday night all of the family that was in town got together for Gregory's last supper. We then all went to the stake center where Gregory was set apart as a Missionary by Pres. Harry Maxwell our stake president. It was a wonderful blessing filled with wonderful promises. Next was Gregory's last trip to Goodberry's followed by the last gathering at our house where we got our last hugs. Jenny got her's before he was set apart and got a last handshake instead. Then it was Gregory's last night at home.

We got up early the next morning and had our last family prayer and went to Cracker Barrel for his last meal with us. At the time we were having the worst snow storm in the last 5 years but the trip to the airport was uneventful. Linda and I checked him in and then said our last goodbyes and had our last hugs. It was a tearful time for us but Gregory couldn't stop smiling. We watched him go through security and got a last wave as he went to his gate.

Gregory took his cell phone with him so he could update us on his travels and arrival. He had a prepaid mailer to put his phone in and drop in the mail when he arrived at the MTC. We had cleared this ahead of time to make sure he was not violating the rules. It is Gregory's intent to be as obedient as possible at all times.

It is a good thing he had his phone so he could periodically update us on his status. The flight from RDU to Atlanta was delayed about 2 and a half hours due to the storm causing him to miss his connection to Salt Lake. He was able to get a seat on another flight and got to that gate just as they were boarding. I tracked his progress across the country with Delta's flight status page on the WEB. When he got to SLC he found that his baggage had not made his flight and was following on the next one. He decided to wait for it. The only thing he had eaten since breakfast was an $8 sandwich on the plane and now all of the food vendors were in the other side of the security gate. For some reason the flight with is baggage was diverted to Denver and further delayed. Gregory's baggage finally arrived and he took a shuttle to the MTC where he called us at 1:38 AM EST this morning and we had our last conversation. I could hear the happiness in his voice.

Our time of lasts became a time of firsts. Gregory's first full day as a full time missionary in service to the Lord, the first trip of his mission, his first missionary contact (he gave a pass along card to a fellow passenger) his first night and day in the MTC, ), the first day of our support, prayers and admiration for our Elder Scadden. There will be many more firsts in this wonderful journey Gregory has embarked on. We will try to keep you updated as the adventure continues.

Though we are sad to have him leave we are also joyful that he has chosen to devote himself to the Lords service and bring His gospel to the wonderful people of Albania. Our prayers, hopes and love go with him.

I'm Going On A Mission!

2009-01-13T09:49:00.000-05:00

On January 20th I will be flying out to the Provo, UT MTC to begin my missionary training. I have been called to serve in the Albania Tirana mission, and I know that is exactly where I need to go! The Lord has a work for me there, and I am eager to do it. I will be in the MTC for 12 weeks learning the language and teaching skills.

I know that the Church is the true and living church on this earth. I know that Christ the Lord is my savior and redeemer, and it is through him that we can become freed from out sins. I know that the prophet Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration, and that we have living prophets today. I know that my call is not a random decision, but chosen personally for me by a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is indeed another testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is translated by the power of God. I am honored and blessed to be embarking on this mission for the Lord.

I will miss you all while I am away, I am looking forward to getting your letters! God be with you.

~Elder Greg Scadden