Once upon a time in Albania (August 28th)

Hello from Albania!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love
Elder Scadden