Once upon a time in Albania (September 28 2009)

Hello everyone!

Se pari. I'd like to congratulate my sister Kristin and her Husband John on the birth of their new son and my new nephew, Malachi Fareday South!!! How exciting! It is good to hear that he and his Mom are healthy.

Ok, I am tired!! I have this mild cold, so I tried to sleep it off during lunch yesterday. Ended up sleeping far too long (our lunches are 3 hrs during the summer, so there is plenty of time to sleep too long) and therefore I did not sleep last night at all. Kind of backfired, but what can you do? I'll just spend this week trying to get back on track. We'll get an extra hour of sleep this weekend anyway and then the schedule changes so that we are not getting our night's sleep cut short. That will be nice! I actually don't really like our long lunches. So that's how I am, I hope all of you are healthy and well, I miss you all!

Great week this week! We will have a baptism on Saturday! A young boy we have been teaching will be baptized with his sister on Sunday. He is an extremely quick boy, a concert pianist in fact that has performed in Germany. It is somewhat of a miracle that they are getting baptized. Their parents were against his older sister getting baptized because she had already been baptized in the Orthodox church. They said it was ok for Roni to be baptized but we weren't going to do that without his sister. Then yesterday there was a baptism from 1st branch at our building and Roni and Elbas parents passed by and talked to our senior couple, the Shupes and Elder Abley. Theydecided it was a good thing for their kids to be baptized. It seemed like it was going to take so much longer but it was, just a little meeting in the road and their hearing that a whole family was being baptized that day made them realize it was a good thing. We are very excited!

On top of that, Ermal is progressing great. He is still headed strong towards his baptismal date of the 11th October. We will be meeting with him a lot in preparation. Whoever my trainee is, he will be walking into a baptism is first week in the country! That’s a good thing to start with. Yesterday was the first time Ermal stayed for all 3 hours of church. The Lord works in mysterious ways because since he stayed he was able to be introduced to tons of the older members (he knows a number of the YSA kids because of institute and the like). As we introduced him, one member asked what he studied in university and he told them he had just graduated in finance and accounting. This member told him he knew another member who owned a big super market and he was looking for someone to be the store accountant or something of the like and the member said he would introduce Ermal to this other member (it is pretty cool, but members here that own businesses always seek out to employ other members before they go into the rest of the world for employees). Ermal was very excited about the prospects of getting a good job like that. I hope that he gets it, it will be wonderful for him and it will greatly aid in his integration into the church! We had a somewhat funny experience with Ermal. While he was at the YSA conference in Vlore he heard a speech about staying away from places and situations that cause temptation, like a person going to a bar who has a problem with drinking. Now, bless his heart, he took this to somewhat of an extreme. He said to us ‘if I have to stay away from temptations and things, does that mean that I shouldn’t have a girlfriend? (this guy is 22 years old, he needs to be married)’ we kind of laughed to ourselves, and explained that we actually really wanted him to have a girlfriend, especially one that was a member and that he could apply the same idea to that relationship. The two of them could stay away from situations and places that would tempt them. We also explained that if he dates a member girl, he will probably be dating someone who desires to be married in the Temple and has high standards, though we told him it was not against the commandments to date a non-member girl. We were pretty impressed, because he was totally read to accept whatever we said. Its good to know he probably won’t be having any law of chastity issues! He is a great!

Lol it’s the end of P-day and someone was kind enough to bring me mail. Better late than never! I am across the city from the mission home, you’d figure I’d be getting my mail more consistently than I did in Shkoder, but not so! When people come here to our side of town rarely do they think “oh, I should take them their mail!” That’s ok, I have a plan for getting my mail consistently again at the beginning of next transfer. We will see how that goes. I am so extremely grateful for all the Emails and letters I get! Thank you all for giving me such support, I never fathomed that mail would be so wonderful to receive. I’m also lucky I’ve got such an amazing future wife who writes me so very much!

General conference next week! I am very excited! We only get to watch 2 off the sessions, but that is much better than none at all! I would like to request to Mum and Dad to send me an issue of the conference Ensign as soon as they can, as they did last time, because we will not get our magazines here until close to Christmas day.

Wow, speaking of Christmas, I am going to blow your minds away with rumors. So we all know that I am anticipating coming home a week early. Well, a week early is only 3 days after Christmas. President is considering allowing members of my group to go home yet another week earlier than that. Now, I am not going to come right out and say that I want to go home yet another week early (though being home for Christmas of 2010 would be out of this world awesome), but it may end up that President will send my whole group home together at that time since all but 2 of us are asking to go before Christmas. Can you believe that we are already thinking about this? I just need to be home a week early to get ready for school, which president has already given me the green light on. But I thought I would just mention to you all that President might just send us home even earlier, but don’t get your hopes up! Besides, whats one week anyway?

Wow, I heard a story this week that I found unbelievable but it comes from the Area Presidency themselves. It was on the topic of being a successful missionary which sometimes missionaries worry too much whether or not they are successful when they are doing just fine (yes, I’ve been in that boat before). Here we get plenty of lessons, new investigators etc. Often I feel the spirit of the Lord working through me and I strive to be obedient which are essentially the keys to being a successful missionary regardless of numbers. We were told of a missionary who just recently finished his mission in Germany. His entire mission he only had 7 meetings. 7 times in 2 years where he sat down and taught one of the lessons to non-members. That is insane. I already have been blessed to teach hundreds of lessons to nonmembers. But he still, according to his feelings and the feelings of his mission president, was a successful missionary because he strives to be obedient and many a times he felt the spirit working though him, even if the door still shut in front of him after it moved upon the person opening by the spirit. I don’t think I will feel quite the same level of disappointment on empty days anymore. I have nothing to complain about. So far I feel very strongly that my mission has been successful and I feel like the Lord is blessing me with quite a bit of outward success, or fruits of my labor, and I hope to continue to work with all my strength that I might see the arm of the Lord continue to be revealed. What a blessing it is to be here, in the service of my God!
Yes, so yesterday we had an outstanding meeting with the Shima family (Shpetim and his kids, his kids are the ones that got baptized earlier this transfer). I feel very strongly that their mom and their cousin/niece are progressing quickly to the point of receiving the lessons. I hope that in my time here I can see the family be completely in the church with the baptism of their mom and their cousin and that there will be a road toward the conversion of Shpetims brothers! How exciting it is to see the gospel change and bless people's lives here!!

Anyway, I hope you all are well. I miss you all, I pray for you all often. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I love you all! Until next week, may God be with you!

Love,
Elder Scadden