Prophets are Definitely Important

C’Kemi!

“C’a ke bërë” literally means “what have you done?” but they basically just use it like “how’s it going” or “how have you been?” Ha ha yeah the pictures were pretty sweet I thought! =) Besmir and his bros are seriously some of my favorite people on this planet. They are such good kids. No their parents are not members, but Besmir is hopeful for them. He says, “One day my dad will get baptized.” He doesn’t know if it will be while he’s on this earth or not, but he has confidence that eventually he will accept the gospel. The other two members are Alketa and Alma. They’re around the same age, both girls, and both awesome. We’ve been struggling a lot with Alma lately. She hasn’t come to church in almost three months now and we don’t know what to do. We’re trying to do everything we can for her, but nothing seems to work. Alketa is way awesome too. She wants to serve a mission so bad. She has come to a couple teaching appointments with us and has been so good. We are going to visit her with the Sisters tonight so I’ll get a picture of at least her and I’ll try to get one with her whole family too since this is probably my last week in Kamëz. =( This next transfer is going to be pretty intense. There are 14 new missionaries coming in which is HUGE for Albania. Almost every single missionary is either going to be training or in leadership. And when I say almost, I mean like maybe one or two won’t. It’s going to be awesome though.

Thank you SOOOO much for the packages! But holy cow you need to stop sending me those!!!! They are so freaking expensive it’s ridiculous! But thanks for the stuff! I think the thing that I absolutely loved the most was the pens ha ha. I had just run out of black pens and I bought a couple that weren’t like the expensive kind and they were just horrible. They were seriously irking me so bad and then I opened that package and saw like a thousand black pens and I was in heaven. So thanks. =) And stop sending me packages!

Thanks in advance for that workout. You could have just e-mailed it to me though. Sorry I probably should have mentioned that. I basically just need it so I don’t have to go outside to run during the winter. Brrr! I am not excited for the cold ha ha. But don’t worry, I’m sure I won’t get too skinny. I think I’m kinda at that point where it just stays where it’s at ya know? But I’m trying to be healthy and eat right. Mmmmm they have some of the best fruit here ever. So you know how I always made fun of you for eating your apple pie with cheese? One of my favorite snacks now is a Boston (kind of like a honeydew, but a thousand times better) with some good old feta cheese. Oh my heck it’s so good. So I guess I can’t make fun of you anymore, huh? Right now the persimmons are just getting in to season. I had never tried one until last night, but they are pretty good! That’s what I ate for breakfast this morning. =)

I’m glad that your BofM class is awesome! Prophets are definitely important. That really is our message to the world. We have a man with the power of God that speaks with him and directs us and helps us in our lives. They have the eternal perspective that we don’t. We had a devotional at the MTC where they showed a picture of this guy on a canoe just flowing down this river and there were beautiful trees all along side the river and it was just a gorgeous picture. They asked us, “This looks good, doesn’t it?” We all obviously agreed, but then they un-cropped the picture. The man was rowing straight for a gigantic waterfall where he would obviously plunge to his death. After they had shown us that, they asked, “Is that still lookin’ good to you?” And that is kind of how the prophets see things. They have that insight that only they can receive from God. Things that we might not think are dangerous or that look really good right now can lead to dangerous things ahead. The prophets can warn us of danger and keep us on the path that will make us happy. I have really come to appreciate that doctrine as I’ve been out here preaching it every day. So we better all listen to General Conference, huh?! Yes I will be able to see some of it. We go to the mission home and watch it at like 6:00 at night. It should be cool. I’m not gonna lie though, I’ll miss watching it with you guys. But it will still be great!

Holy cow I’ve been kind of a lafazan today! Sorry about that! I better go e-mail Lindsey and dad now. They can give you anything I didn’t say here that I told them ha ha. I love you mom. You are setting a great example for me even all the way across the world.

Thanks for everything!
-Elder Swenson