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

Greetings from Albania!
How goes it? I hope everyone is well, I am well and healthy. This week has been another excellent week. Elder Hamilton and I are maintaining the steam. We didn’t beat last week's accomplishments, but we had what is now my second best week on my mission.

This week we had district leader training, and since Elder Hamilton is the DL, I had the opportunity to participate in the meeting. It, just like several other such meetings I have been to recently, did not report things being good. I hate to say it, but our mission has been doing very poorly for about the last 9 months. It has been a steady downward spiral of worse numbers, less baptisms, and lower sacrament attendance across the whole country. What was once the best mission in all of Europe is just now an average mission in Europe. I realized that I too was not contributing to a solution, though I am confident I have been working hard, but hard work isn’t what is most important (though it is a key ingredient). I realized that I had an “all is well in Zion attitude” you know, the one talked about in second Nephi that groups together all the individuals that will parish in fiery oblivion at the second coming of Christ?

Allow me to explain: While here in Shkoder we’ve been getting consistently above average numbers, however, we are not seeing anyone really progress to baptism. I figured out that it is because WE have not been doing our job. We’ve been finding people, we’ve been teaching tons of people, we’ve borne testimony, we’ve given the Book of Mormon, we’ve held to the schedule and done what we could, enough so that it is easy to say “we are doing our part! It is the hard heart of others that is stopping us. NO! None of what we have been doing is our purpose. Our purpose is “To invite others to come unto Christ…” and I have only ever talked to 1 person my whole time here about seriously considering baptism. Only 1. Elder Hamilton and I have discussed this, we now realize it is no wonder no one has been progressing, it is because no one knows our purpose, no one understands why we are here. They gladly hear our message, let us come back a couple of times, and reject the light invitation to come to church. We are changing things. We have committed that we are not going to let this happen anymore. We are going to INVITE people like we are supposed to.

We have developed a special lesson, that focuses on principles from the first lesson, but with a heavy emphasis on authority. We call this the “our purpose” lesson, and it is intended to be used after only the first or second meeting. In it we review the authority of God, and how it has been restored again to the earth, and then we tell them straight out that we are messengers who have been sent here, wielding that authority, and that we have come here to baptize people that gain a testimony of Christ with real power. We then will issue the commitment, if you find that what we are teaching is true, will you be baptized by the proper authority from God? We will emphasize that we don’t expect them to unconditionally commit, but that we want them to realize how real and important this message is, and how important it is for them to try to find a testimony of it. We then would propose that they begin the teaching “experiment” with us, where we meet them 3 times a week, for shorter lessons. We feel very strongly that this will turn things around. Sure, we will lose some investigators earlier than we originally might have, but people need to understand why we are hear, we aren’t doing our job if we do not invite them! I’ll tell you in a couple weeks how it is going.

We are also now tracting more and more effectively at that. We are keeping a tracting record, and the plan is to tract our a place 4 consecutive times, at different times of day, to make sure we try to get a person at every door (naturally we do not re knock the doors we’ve been rejected at, that is the purpose of the record) and then the plan is to leave that place alone for about 2 years. Elder Hamilton and I are excited about it, we were just about to start doing it ourselves when our mission president challenged us to do it. No longer do I need to lament when we tract out a staircase where not even a single door opens!

Someone asked me how many missionaries we are: In Shkoder we are 4: Elder Kushlin as branch president who is with Elder Smedley and Elder Hamilton as district leader who is with me. In all of Albania we are around 35 I believe. We just lost a lot, but we have a group of 14 coming in October.

I heard Dad got this new netbook thing, it sounds pretty cool. Its funny to talk to the old Elders here who are getting ready to go home about technology, even in two years so much has changed! Sounds like things are already changing for me.

So I believe I have soundly decided to return from my mission 1 week early to begin school. I have discussed it with my Mission President and he thinks it is an excellent idea. I have not, however, prayed about it, but I feel very strongly that it is the right thing. That is Crazy! Coming home from my mission, and two weeks later starting school. Wild. I’ll have to make sure I don’t take too many hard classes so that I can effectively adjust, and get ready for other important things, like getting married to Jenni. But Dad, you and I will discuss the details of that, such as classes and professors, next spring.

Marti Tompson is home! I’ve exchanged a couple letters with her. I did get a letter recently from her and her companion, Sister Hawks, who I was friends with in the MTC (The Hungarians, Estonians, Finns, and Albanians all rolled together). Funny thing is, Elder Hamilton remembers Marti from the MTC! Apparently they were there together. Small world huh?

On the topic of letters, I would like to thank all those who have written me letters! If you have been waiting awhile for a response, I am sorry, it takes me time to respond to people, but know that I am extremely thankful for those letters. There is little more exciting than getting a nice stack of mail when we head down to Tirana.

Ah Mum asked me how many members we had in Church yesterday, this is actually good news! We had 12 people including the missionaries! That is great, we have not had anything about 11 for over 2 months now. Unfortunately, most of our members believe that the beach is ineffably more important than Church. You know the funny thing about that? They spend money every Sunday to go to the beach (costs a furgon to ride at least), yet they still tell us they don’t have money for food and need help. I think an extremely basic finances class could do wonders for this country.

Something satisfying happened yesterday, we knocked on a door, and we mentioned the Savior Jesus Christ and we got the “I’m of a different faith” excuses. I was sick of hearing that lame excuses, so I challenged the person “Are you Muslim?” “Yes” “Great! We also believe in Jesus Christ, just as you do!” “…..(pause)…. We don’t believe in Jesus Christ….” “But the Koran talks about Jesus Christ” “Oh… I’m not actually a believer” SCORE!!! It felt SO GOOD to hear someone who used the lame Muslim excuse to admit that they were just an irreligious hypocrite! I left it at that, extremely grateful that they had the humility to disassociate themselves from a religion that has many good, devout followers, and loop themselves in with those who choose no religious belief because it conflicts with what their personal wants and desires where. That person made my day.

Anyway, I am doing well and I miss all of you. I had been suffering from getting super tired of all food that exists here, until we found a British cereal that is extremely healthy, and way delicious. The Lord continues to bless us. Even though sleep doesn’t exist here, we are constantly blessed with energy (numerically, we get a decent amount of sleep, but I think it is a fable, we don’t actually sleep, we lay down and suddenly the sun comes up and the alarm goes off. It will be nice when sleep once again becomes a reality of life) and I have felt the Spirit often as I have testified of the Savior and his Gospel. I love you all and thank you so much for all of your support!

May God be with you!
Love
Elder Scadden