This week went much better than last

Hey Mom!

Thank you so much for doing that deferment stuff for me! And thanks for the pictures as well! I love pictures. And speaking of pictures, I’ll send you some today, okay? I know I’ve been horrible at sending pictures, but we’re going sez bën today.

I’m happy to say that this week went much better than last week. We have three investigators right now that are progressing towards baptism and we’re pretty sure they’re going to make it. They are all three referrals from branch members. We finally got some good investigators out of our English class. Their names are Marin (mah-reen) and Jurgen (you’re gen). Marin is 15 and Juri is 14. They are friends of an awesome member in first branch named Henrik. It was awesome because last week we had asked them if we could meet with them after English to talk about our church and they said they would ask their parents and let us know on Saturday. So last Saturday we asked them if they had talked to their parents and they said that if we were the JW’s that their parents wouldn’t let them. We told them that we weren’t the JW’s and they said that they would go ask again. So this Wednesday rolls around and we’re kinda hoping for the best but expecting the worst as we go to ask them about meeting us. But our fears were put to rest as Marin said, “My parents want me to be registered with your church.” Awesome change of opinion! So we sat down with them that day and committed them to baptism. We met with them again yesterday and talked about the Holy Ghost and how we receive answers to prayers. They are doing well so far.

We also met the friend of Sister Isufaj from the branch. Her name is Leta. She used to be a professional basketball player in Albania. Her husband died several years ago and she has had to raise two boys by herself. She just barely moved back to Albania from Greece in the summer and she met the Isufajs through her son. She came to church one week and enjoyed it and now we’re meeting with her and her boys. The oldest one’s name is Joey and he’s a little bit more difficult, but the younger one is named Krisi and he seems like he’s about as ready as Leta. I feel bad for Joey though because that would be really hard to move somewhere when you’re 13 and not have any friends really. So hopefully we can help him find friends and find happiness in the words of Christ.

I’ll give you the update on those people as things progress. Anyway, so this week was a pretty good week for us. It was refreshing after a lot of effort with no real success. I’m grateful for the hand of God in our work. I’m grateful for the members and their willingness to share the gospel with their friends. I hope that we will continue to be guided by the spirit and help these people progress.

Thanks for your love and support! I can’t wait to talk to you in a month. It’s crazy that time has gone by this fast. It’s almost Christmas again.

-Elder Swenson

P.S. I had typed this whole thing out in Word so that I could copy and paste it into my e-mail, but then I got distracted and when I got back in the zone I thought I had already sent this to you so I erased it all and started writing Dad. I was about halfway through when I realized that I hadn't sent you your e-mail and I was thinking, "NOOOOOO! I spent all that time for nothing!" But then I go back to Microsoft Word where I had been writing dad's e-mail and decided that maybe I could recover it by just undoing everything and seeing if your letter was within the memory space that it has. And it was! So here ya go! Shyqyr for Microsoft Word!