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
Elder Scadden
Where's Gregory?
Gregory is now home.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (June 29 2009)
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
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
Monday, June 22, 2009
Once upon a time in Albania (June 22, 2009)
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
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
Monday, June 15, 2009
Chronicles from Albania (June 15th 2009)
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
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
Monday, June 8, 2009
Chronicles from Albania (June 8th 2009)
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
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
Monday, June 1, 2009
Chronicles from Albania (June 1st ALREADY?)
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
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
Monday, May 25, 2009
Chronicles from Albania (May 25 2009)
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
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
Monday, May 18, 2009
Blank Email
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
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
Monday, May 11, 2009
First Contact
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
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
Monday, May 4, 2009
Hail!
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
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
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