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

Hello from Albania!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love
Elder Scadden