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
Elder Scadden
Where's Gregory?
Gregory is now home.
Monday, June 29, 2009
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
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