Whew, alright biiiggggg week!
First of all on Tuesday we had mission conference! It was honestly amazing - possibly my favorite of all of them. President Kearon really impressed me just by the way he ran the whole thing! He was sooo charismatic (the english accent helps)! He started of quoting the incredibles and he pretty much had me in his hand from that point on! He hit on so many points I could never really properly explain them all over email! Some of my favorite parts were when he talked about how being happy is a choice - you can just choose to be happy and if you are out telling everyone this message can make them happier than you should BE the message! He also talked about just really simplifying our message and what we tell people. For example, he said when you promise people blessings come from reading the book of mormon just tell them the simple truth! If they read that book it will make them have a better day! It was pretty awesome! I also got to see everyone which was great! I got to see my son Elder Mero! I miss that kid, but he is doing awesome! I got to see the Hydricks too which was super awesome! I miss them a ton! They are soooo great!
After mission conference we got to teach this super awesome friend in Lezhe (we also talked about how we should call investigators friends because it's so much more natural and that's what they should be) named Geti! We have been having some really awesome spiritual experiences with him and he just seems like a super amazing kid! But right after mission conference we had a lesson with him and we talked a lot about identifying the spirit and we had just talked about that so it was really cool seeing how God prepared us for that lesson! He brought a friend to a lesson later in the week and man that was a crazy! This kid already knew some stuff about Mormons and started talking about Joseph finding plates by an angel moroni and stuff like that and we were like wohh! He also mentioned Palmyra! Turns out he is super into reading up on religions (but not all truth) and totally hijacked the lesson just talking about the most random stuff like aliens and stuff and it was tough! We finally got it back on track at the very end but he was alll over the place!
We had a super funny lesson with this guy we found off street contacting and he was pretty funny! He wasn't super sincere in his interest - like joining the church or anything he just kinda wanted to learn a little about our church but he was a Muslim and we had some pretty good respectful arguments about Islam and it was awesome! I was soo well prepared for anything he could say it was hilarious cause he was super surprised at how well I knew Islam! He also talked super fast and I just decided it'd be fun to match him and I did pretty well! I don't think I can even talk that fast in English but it was super cool just being able to pull out some language skills too! At the end he was like "listen I've really enjoyed talking to you guys and I really hope you have success but you haven't changed my mind about being Muslim at all" and I just said "that's totally fine have a great day" and he was so surprised at that answer and he told us he respected us a lot for that! I just love that our message is, listen this is the truth but we don't want you to believe us, we want you to believe God. And if you're not willing to try I'm sorry but I still love you and respect you! It makes us super special!
The end of this week was pretty crazy! The other Elders here in Shkoder ended up getting some death threats from one of their investigators and had to leave in the middle of the night - so we are going to be getting some new missionaries here in Shkoder! It's going to be Elder Lessie (albanian) and Elder Farnsworth! Because the other Elders had to leave I was acting Branch President on Sunday and man that was a very interesting experience! It didn't really hit me until Sunday came around and I realized I was going to have to preside and conduct the meeting! Definitely never really thought I would be doing that! It felt like soooo much responsibility! When the sacrament was blessed and I was the first one to take it it just felt so different. It was really something crazy!
We still haven't found a place to live in Lezhe yet but we have to soon!
Of course I have to shout out to my awesome dad who turned 48 this week! He is so awesome and I definitely couldn't be here without him!
I love you all so much and hope you have a good week!
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| Sacrament meeting program with me presiding and conducting |
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| Me in Shkroder |
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