Once upon a time in Albania (September 14th 2009)

Hello all from Albania!

I am exhausted! I hope that this email will still be good. This week was a very fast week. We had District Leader Training on Tuesday (even though I am not a DL, I still go to the training because my companion is). We talked a lot about accountability, which is an important part of missionary work, however we discussed it an extremely long time. I think accountability definitely needs to be improved a little, but what I am realizing about the struggles the mission is having has a lot more to do with us as missionaries and not because of procedure. We, as missionaries, need to be fundamentally trying to improve and gain greater companionship from the spirit. It is a shame, but, as with the last group that went home, the mission is kind of gritting its teeth and just toughing it out until this group goes home. Most of them have decided to quit so close to the end rather than finishing strong. Dad once sent me a quote that said something like this: A weak ending ruins the entire journey. That is very strong language, but it really is unfortunate to see the side effects of their quitting. All I can learn, I suppose, is to NOT be like that. How I hope that that does not happen to me. I do apologize, my morale is somewhat down today. Do not worry though, the Lord will help me and grant unto me strength. I just need to change my attitude and not think about the negative things that are going on…. LOL meaning that I probably shouldn’t even email home about them. It will be wonderful to get new blood soon, I think it will be so revitalizing. But, despite all this, I am excited to be here! Albania is a wonderful place, a crazy place. There are many people who are ready for the gospel and I need to remember why I am here. It is for a reason that far exceeds my own wants or desires. Ok, enough complaining!

Good news: Shpetim Shima, he is the man who's 2 kids were baptized a couple weeks ago. His wife is not a member, but we really feel like she is warming up to the gospel. She had received all the lessons at one point, but was very skeptical of organized religion because of some run ins that she had with J-dubs. Now, after the baptism of her children, her interest is being rekindled. I believe it helps that Vellai Shima is a very strong and faithful member who continues to progress. Last night it came out that they have family prayer (which is outstanding, I am sure there are many families throughout the church that need to do that!) every night and that the Mom reminds them if they have forgotten to have it (she obviously joins them also). It is really wonderful. So last night we went over to their house and watched something called Deshmi 2, which is a youtube video (if you don’t think you fully know how Albanian sounds, check it out!). The video is about 7 minutes long and is simply some of Albania's greatest members bearing testimony of the simple truths of the gospel. It is a powerful film! Afterwards we discussed the importance of gaining a testimony through Moroni’s promise and then went on to talk about how important it is to share our testimonies with others because it strengths them and us. It was a powerful lesson and I feel very strongly that she is one step closer to being open to the lessons again. She also committed to start coming to church at least twice a month. How exciting!

This past week we also went camping with the priesthood quorum. President gave us allowance because we were bringing one very new member and two less actives, all of which are around the same age. In total there were 11 of us. We got to the beach kind of late, so we had to set tents up in the dark, which was a challenge due to the wind and not being able to see. However, I did see a beautiful sunset. The sunsets here are amazing! I think there is just enough pollutants in the air to magnify the beauty of the sun. Anyway, we made a fire and had a very nice devotional that ended up being directed at the young men and I think several things may have been said that they needed to hear. It is wonderful to be in a branch that has older members of the church with strong testimonies and positive life experiences. The next day we attempted to fish (well, they fished while Elder Ably and I took down the mess of tents and other junk that had been tossed everywhere by the wind, but at least we were contributing!), but nothing was caught. We figured out that a huge net was actually strung across the entire bay where we were fishing, making it impossible for fish to come in. Oh well! We then tried to teach them how to play ultimate Frisbee and even though they didn’t quite get it, they had a good time! In the end the activity was a success.

Ah, and more good news! Our investigator Ermal went to Vlora with all the young single adults for a big conference and he came back with some excellent friends! It just so happens that the two closes friends he made are 2 of the best, most faithful YSA kids in all of Albania. We hope that that will be yet another step that sees him towards baptism. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with him this week because he was very busy, but our regular meeting schedule will begin again with him this week. We hope that we will be able to get a baptismal date with him.

What else to talk about? Oh I remember! This week Elder Hixson (from my MTC group) and I went out on exchanges (because Elder Tracy and Elder Abley were doing death visits). Well, we did a cool thing! But allow me to preface. The day before, Elder Abley and I had been out street contacting. As we were walking to our location of contacting, we passed by a group of hippies (ok, they weren’t hippies, but they were a bunch of young kids wearing the same tee shirts, singing with a guitar, that’s pretty hippy in my book). We did not got far before we stopped and began trying to talk to people. Well one of the group of hippies started handing out pamphlets to people sitting on the benches and then came up to us. Turns out he is from Portugal and was here on a mission trip with the 7th day Adventist church. He told us about a cultural event they were having the following night and invited us. Well, I wanted to go and represent the true church of Christ! So that is what Elder Hixson and I did and it was a really excellent service! They had a theology professor speak and he was talking about how Muslims and Christians believed in the same God. He had some good things to say and some good points, but he missed the memo that Albanians have the One God idea down to a science. It is the biggest excuse to not let you in, to not listen to you, and to harden their hearts that they employ! That’s ok though, the mission trip group sang beautifully and we were extremely warmly welcomed, which was a nice change of treatment from another religious sect. As we left, Elder Hixson and I overtook one of the girls from the group walking with an Albanian friend she had made. As we passed, she said something to us, so we stopped and talked to her and praised her for how beautiful they had sung, along with other things, After talking to her for a minute or two, we had to dismiss ourselves because we had to hightail it across Tirana. As we turned to walk away, she turned to her friend and said in relative surprise “wow, they were really nice!” she will now have a more positive attitude and outlook on Mormons. All in all, I feel like the night was successful, I think we really left a positive impression on a number of people by attending .

Anyway, that is all for this week! Thank you all for your prayers and your support. I miss you all, I love you all very much. You are in my prayers! This is the Lords work, I know it without a doubt. Until next week, may God be with you!

Love
Elder Scadden