I’m Training this Transfer.

Hey mom!

That is way awesome that you finished the Book of Mormon! I love that book. I have been reading it in my personal study time and it has been great. I am in Alma right now. I just finished where he gives council to each one of his sons, Helaman, Shiblon, and Corianton. I think those are some of my favorite chapters ever. And it definitely shows what kind of a parent Alma was. It shows how hard it was for him to see one of his children go down the wrong path and how he pleads with him to come back. But it’s just because he knows that Corianton will never be happy without the gospel in his life. All he wants is the true happiness of his children. Kind of like what you were saying with Moroni. He is seeing all these people that might be happy for the two seconds that they indulge in their pleasures, but he knows it can’t last and he’s just begging them to come and find eternal happiness.

So you’re doing the Old Testament in church this year? That is way intense. Ha ha yeah I’ve never gotten even close to reading through the whole Old Testament. But it definitely has some way cool stories in it. Some of the most amazing miracles and people ever.

Well it sounds like you definitely had an eventful New Year’s Eve. But you got to relax, right? And that’s always good. We had a crazy New Year’s here! Every person just lights off as many fireworks as they can get their hands on and it is ridiculous. But pretty cool to see. We were kind of upset, though, because our pronari said that he was going to come open the roof of our 10 story pallat so we could see all of Tirana and watch the fireworks from up there, but he never came!! So I had to look out the back window of our apartment on the 3rd floor. Which basically means I saw none of Tirana, but it was still pretty cool. Fireworks everywhere. I got a good video of it so you can see when I get home. Speaking of which, will you send me that program because I don’t know how to send you photos without wasting like all of my internet time.

That is way cool that Eric is going to Uganda!! Holy crazy sauce! Ha ha that is definitely perfect for him. So make sure you get me that address cause I definitely want to see how he’s doing. How was his mom? That’s too bad you couldn’t see his farewell talk.

Yeah there is an Elder Vail here. There’s actually three Elders here from Alpine. Crazy, huh? But I think Elder Vail heads home in April. He’s really cool and from what I can tell a really good missionary. He had to go back to the U.S. for health reasons, but then they let him come back and finish his mission in Albania!

And as far as investigators go, everybody was out of town last week and it was just kind of a bizarre week. So we should be meeting with Danieli again soon and we actually are meeting tonight with a man named Odise. I can’t remember if I told you about him, but he does something with like the ministry of trade, but at the same time writes children’s books? Yeah it’s kinda weird, but we do half English, half gospel lessons with him. We only got to meet with him once before the holidays though and so he’s finally back in town. We also tracted into a family a couple of days ago and had a really cool lesson with them. The parents were the only ones home at the time, but the mom was like calling the boys to tell them to come home because they were going to have a family night. (Nobody does family night in Albania) So we are excited for them and hopefully we can meet with the entire family this time.

Well I’ll talk to you next week. . . .when I have my TRAINEE!!!! Ha ha I’m training this transfer. Sweet, huh? They come on Friday so I’ll tell you about him next week. I am so excited that I’m not going to the office and that I get to train. So look forward to some cool stories from this next transfer. =)

I’ll talk to you next week. I love you, mom.
-Elder Swenson