This week really turned into an insanely busy one.

Hey Mom!

This week really turned into an insanely busy one. We weren't planning on that, but somehow it ended up that way. We had tons of random stuff we had to do along with a couple trainings and then finishing off the week with a baptism in Elbasan (one of Elder Holmes' old investigators got baptized). By Thursday we had only taught three lessons ha ha. But we rebounded somewhat and ended up having a pretty good week.

Thursday we had a specialized training about the role of the Holy Ghost in Revelation and how we can teach investigators what kind of environment they need to feel that more often. It was really a pretty good training and we got some good ideas. Whenever I talk to investigators about the Holy Ghost and how it feels, I read 3 Nephi 11:3-7 with them. It talks about a voice coming from heaven and how, even though they didn't understand it, it pierced them to the center and made their hearts burn. I love that description and I know I have felt that. It also helps them understand that they might not understand it the first time around. Or the second time. The people that heard the voice only understood the voice when they opened their ears to hear and turned their eyes towards heaven. We really have to be looking for an answer and putting ourselves in places that the answer can come. Mainly prayer, the scriptures, and church. But President also talked about how, in order to get an answer, we have to be constantly searching. We really have to want to know. I loved the way that Elder Griffith put it. He said that we can read the scriptures and then pray about it, but if we leave our house and put the ipod right in, we're not really "seeking" an answer. We have to be open to the spirit. We have to open our ears to hear and turn our eyes towards heaven.

Then we played frisbee. =)

Probably the coolest experience of this week was last night. It's always on a Sunday, I'm tellin' ya. We hadn't found a new investigator at all this week and we were pretty upset about that. Yes it was true that a ton of other random work came out of nowhere, but finding zero new investigators in one whole week is just unacceptable. Especially since last week we found nine. We had gotten back from Elbasan at around 6:00 and hadn't eaten. We went home, ate, and then left straight to a meeting that ended at a little past 7:30. Usually we go in at 8:30 for language study so we didn't have much time. We went tracting. Yay tracting. In the apartment building we went to, nobody was really answering their doors which was kind of discouraging, but lo and behold at 8:15 a door opens! And an older man named Xhaxhi Dini invites us into his home. He was quite the chatterbox, but at the same time a really wonderful man. Basically just the type we're looking for to lead the Vlorë branch. So we got in as much as we could about the Book of Mormon and how he could find answers himself from God. It was a pretty long meeting. . . .but a good one! And we're going back on Wednesday to discuss what he read. Him and his wife were our two new investigators for this week. I know they're not many, but they're more than zero. I'm grateful for the Lord's help in achieving our goals.

I love you. I can't believe we're going to give each other big hugs in a little more than a week. That's really weird. I'll see you soon.

-Elder Swenson

This week was kind of a roller coaster.

Hey Mom!

This week was kind of a roller coaster. We lost a lot of people that we're teaching and had a lot of dissapointments, but at the same time we had a lot of good experiences finding. We found new investigators almost every day and by the week that added up to nine total! We tried some new tracting ideas. We played the vocab game again where we pick words that the other person has to use in their door approach, but then we also took a more visual approach to it. We each printed off small pictures of Thomas Monson, Joseph Smith, the Salt Lake Temple, and the first vision and laminated them. As we were tracting we could show the picture to them and it would be a good way to get people's attention. The idea was actually given to us by Elder Causse when he came here. I guess one of the other missions in our zone has a first vision pass-along card that they used for it.

I realized how beautiful that picture really is. It carries an awesome message with it. We can receive direction from Heavenly Father. He even wants to give us direction. We just have to ask for it like Joseph Smith did. We met with a new member named Donald this week and talked about the Joseph Smith History for one of his Duty to God requirements. It was a really powerful lesson for me. He shared with us how God showed him that it was actually true and we shared with him how God had shown us the same thing. He asked some great questions and above all I felt the spirit. I love feeling the spirit and up until these past few days I've had a little streak where I haven't been feeling it as much as I should. It is so important and without it you just feel so worthless. I love feeling the Holy Ghost.

The week ended with our District Conference. It was an incredibly uplifting meeting. It will be President and Sister Neil's last and they both shared their testimonies about different things. Also the District President Kashari spoke about feeding Christ's sheep. His talk really hit me. And before that, two returned missionaries from our branch and a young woman from 4th branch who was recently baptized shared their testimonies. Especially the testimony of the young woman was INCREDIBLE. The huge concert hall that we met it was completely full with the spirit that she had with her. It was just such a good lineup that you couldn't go wrong. I absolutely loved it.

This next week we are going to continue working hard and trying a couple new things. Tazz inspired me. Or should I say Elder Tasso inspired me with his preaching on the bus story. That takes guts. That is so hardcore. And I realized this week, "When have I ever done anything like that?" So, we've got a couple things that we want to try this week that are a little bit more bold than I have usually been on my mission. I've got to show myself that I can be like Tazz. I can be bold. So I'll let you know next week how that went. I'm scared out of my mind, but I'm sure it will at least make for a good story. =)

Anyway, that's really all I have right now. I hope you guys have an awesome week! I love you so much! See you way too soon.

-Elder Swenson

“We rebounded this week"

Hey Mom!

Well, in the words of Elder Holmes, “We rebounded this week.” We actually did have a pretty good week. Like I said last week, I really wanted to start focusing on involving the members more in our missionary work and I believe we met that goal this week. Basically for any lesson that we had that wasn’t tracting we had a member with us. It made for some interesting moments, but there were also some really incredible moments.

Ha ha one of my personal favorites was with one of our investigators named Sajmir. We invited a member named Genti to come help us teach the lesson. Genti is a really good YSA in the Vlorë branch. We figured that he would be good for Sajmir because he’s around his age and he’s just a cool guy. He says it like it is and he’s not afraid or ashamed of what he believes. We had planned on talking about baptism with Sajmir and hopefully setting a baptismal date with him. As we were talking about baptism with him, he really wanted to know what you have to stop doing when you get baptized. Sajmir is a DJ and so I figured that he was worried that he might have to quit that and just study about church stuff all the time. Some people think that we’re asking them to become just like we are and preach the gospel all day every day. So I explained to him that back home I was a musician and it’s not like I can’t do that and still be a member of the church. He said, “Okay, but what else?” We told him that there were some commandments that we’d teach him in later appointments, but he was really insistent that he wanted to know them right then. And I could tell that Genti just wanted to tell him everything so finally we just let him do that. It was pretty funny. He started out with the Word of Wisdom and luckily Sajmir didn’t have a really big problem with that. But then he got to the Law of Chastity. After he had explained it, Sajmir was like, “Oh?. . . .that seems kinda weird to me.” You could tell that that was a hard one for him to take. We explained to him that we knew it seems weird, but if he would try it he would see the blessings of it. He still didn’t really like it and said again, “That just seems really weird to me. . .” Then Genti came back in and told him that if Genti could do it then so could he cause apparently Genti was a big smoker and drinker before he became a member. Then Sajmir said, “No, for the alcohol and cigarettes and stuff I don’t have a problem. It’s this other one that’s killing me!” We all had a pretty good laugh about that, but Genti was able to testify about the power of it in his life and how much prayer has helped him as he has tried to keep that law. It turned out to be kind of a crazy lesson, but because of the testimony of a member, Sajmir said he’s willing to do an experiment and give it a try. If it was just us teaching him that, there’s no way that he would have agreed to it. But since Genti was there, it became real for him and not something really out of this world.

Last night we had the opportunity to go visit Xhiovani’s family for the first time. It was awesome! We took Arti Hodaj, our young men’s president, with us to the lesson. It turns out that Arti is like 2^nd or 3^rd cousins with Xhiovani so his family already knew Arti. We had a short lesson about the doctrine of Christ and how we knew that the things that Xhiovani had been learning at church not only would strengthen him, but could strengthen their entire family. We committed them to baptism and they agreed! Now, I’m a retard and forgot to set a date or do basically anything else except for agree to be baptized so that will have to come in a later lesson, but hey, what can you do? But after we talked about baptism, we asked Arti to share his testimony about how the church and baptism has helped him in his family. As he shared his simple testimony, a different feeling was there. As foreigners and as missionaries, we can teach with the Spirit, but I’ll tell you what, when a member adds a simple but sincere testimony, it brings it to a whole new level. And I don’t know if the family even felt it or recognized it, but I sure did. I’m really grateful for the testimony of the members here in Vlorë. I’ve learned to appreciate them a lot more this week as we’ve strived to work with them.

I can’t forget Mrs. Potato Head. We brought a member named Ganjel to teach her this week. Ganjel is 18 or 19 years old and one of those people who is kinda the life of the branch. I was kind of nervous to bring him cause I was worried about how well he was going to get along with Liria, but when we got there and started teaching that feeling of worry just left. Liria loved him. She basically just wanted to talk to him instead of us. It was great! We really had a great lesson with her and I think Ganjel enjoyed it to. She had some questions that he was able to answer from the perspective of somebody who hasn’t been in the church their entire life. Like I’ve said before, she was baptized in 1944 into the Orthodox Church and she has a really hard time feeling like its okay to be baptized again. And we’ve explained everything we can about authority and the fact that there’s only one true church and all that good stuff, but she just reacted a lot better to someone that could relate to her.

Well I’ve definitely been blabbing for too long now. Holy cow. I hope things are going well over there. Sounds like you have some exciting things coming up! Man I bet Tim is looking forward to the Webelos thing. That’s right up his alley.

So was my room a beast to clean? It can’t have been easy after almost two years. Dad said that Bear was liking it. Bear’s not going to freak out at me, is he? He better not cause I’ll punch him right in the face. ;) You should tell him that. Sigh, I’m excited to come home, but at the same time not. There are definitely good things about home, but it’s just really hard to accept that I’m never going to be an Elder in Albania again. I’ve learned A TON while I’ve been here and it’s just weird that it’s ending. Really weird. I don’t like it. But I’ll try to focus on the positives when I get back. For right now, we’re just trying to work hard and get stuff done.

Anyway, I’m gonna go now! I love you!

-Elder Swenson