Once upon a time in Albania (Decemeber 21st, 2009)

Merry Christmas to all from Albania!

I hope you all are well and excited for Christmas because I sure am! I first want to shout out a Happy Birthday to my sister Rachel. Oh man, I get to talk to you all on Friday, I am so extremely excited! It really doesn’t seem like it was so long ago but so much has happened and much time has indeed passed. I already feel time starting to speed up as I approach my year mark. I was commenting on how fast the time is flying and Sister Boyer, who is dying in two weeks, reminded me about how much it speeds up after a year. It is hard to believe that time could go faster but according to every missionary it does.

So Mum wanted to know how we will be celebrating Christmas. Well, on Saturday, the one that has passed, we sang at the Qender (the big square in the center of Tirana). That was a lot of fun. I actually didn’t sing at all but instead manned the table with Elder Flack and Elder Allen that had pamphlets and the like for people. We have been invited over to a member's house for a little Christmas party on the 23rd and on the 24th is our ward Christmas party (strange that it is on Christmas eve but if you ask most of the members here in T2 the idea of celebrating Christmas at home is foreign to them, they always do it at the church) and we will also be going around and caroling to many people that day. On Christmas day it is the same thing (except that there is a baptism at 11:30, again different). We also get a 3 hour lunch with our sisters and the Shupes (the couple missionaries that are in our district) are having us over to their house. And then we will talk to YOU ALL! and afterward we are going over to a member's house. It will be fun. I will also be opening my presents that are under the tree. I will really miss our big Christmas eve party that we have every year and opening presents with the family, but that is ok! I am on the Lords errand and am where I need to be. Oh, and I also wish to announce that Elder Seevers fixed the CD player so we are listening to that Christmas CD over and over again!

I forgot to thank you all last week for the conference issues! They are great! I am looking forward to opening the CDs up on Christmas (yes, guessed that one) and listening to them as well. The words of our living prophets are so powerful and moving. I especially enjoyed Elder Oaks Law and Love talk, it really expanded my understanding of the relationship between Justice and Love. I will enjoy reading the whole issue several times.

Ok, so last week I vented pretty badly about my cynicism and lack of charity. Well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot and decided that I really needed to change my attitude. One way I did this and now every morning I buy 4 mandarin oranges. If anyone asks me for money, I offer one of those. I know it really is nothing but it is infinitely better to me than snubbing them or giving them money. Doing this has also helped me to feel more compassionate towards them. I do wish that, like in the days of Alma, they poor were generally humbler and more open to the gospel because that really is the greatest gift we are trying to impart to people. Perhaps today that is still so but we do not see it here in Albania.

Elder Seevers continues to be an awesome companion. I love serving with him and I continue to learn things from him. The longer we are together, the better we get along. I am pretty sure that in two weeks we will be splitting up but it has been a pleasure serving with him. We have had an excellent time, and the Lord has blessed us with considerable success.

Grej, Kein and Donald continue to do great. On Sunday Grej received the Aaronic priesthood and will be passing next week. It would make me happy to hear about him and Donald going on missions in a a few years. Grej's mom continues to progress and come to church but I still feel like baptism is a little ways off into the future for her. We need to convince her to meet with us more than one time a week, she says she is too busy! We are happy that she does come to church and enjoys it.

Elder Seevers and I are also having a bit more time for finding, which is nice. Knocking on doors might not be the most effective form of missionary work but I like it because I find it makes me work hard. It would be very neat if on my mission the Lord allowed me to find an outstanding person who will get baptized by tracting. We still are having problems getting new investigators but the work is still progressing.

Well, I hope you all will have questions for me on Friday so that I’ll have things to talk about since I probably will be relatively blank minded by the joy of seeing and talking to all of you. I am REALLY excited! It is great that we’ve got the technology to talk to and see each other simultaneously without much cost. I again wish you all a very Marry Christmas! I love you all and I miss you all. I testify to you that Christ the Lord is our savior and through Him can all our sins be washed away. Think about me as you eat wonderful food. I will talk to you SOON!

Love
Elder Skadi