Well after quite a week it ended with a huge bang of being one of the best days of my mission!! Just a bunch more days of people not showing up to their lessons, rain, and missionary life and then traveling to Durres for Stake Conference!!
So first off a little bit of explanation on how an average lesson goes here in Lezhe: We sit down with the people and start talking a little bit - eventually steering the conversation over to religion, and then end up saying no we aren't catholic... but yes we are christian. You can tell they don't really understand but we try our best to explain that we are Christian... but not Catholic. Start the lesson and then about half way through they say ya of course we believe in Jesus Christ I'm Catholic just like you. You smack your head against the wall behind you like three times and explain once again that you aren't Catholic and continue. You ask them to read the scripture in James 1:5 (ask and ye shall receive) and ask what does this mean to you? They reply ya ya ya of course we need to have faith ya Jesus Christ and then we explain that we need to pray to receive our answers. Explain the apostasy and how Joseph restored Christs true church on the earth and they say I just think that having faith in Jesus Christ is enough...then at the end of the lesson they ask -so you're with the Vatican right? And we explain AGAIN that no we're not catholic!!! And they just give you a blank stare and then they leave evidently not having learned anything and now you have a headache. :)
For real though the head banging part was an exaggeration but the rest of that honestly happens. And I know it's not a language barrier because once a week or so we really get someone that listens and totally understands our message and you know what I've decided the difference is... Spiritual muscles. The general population here are honestly just sheep that listen to the preacher on Sunday take in a good message, never really think deeply about God and live their lives. Because of that they are left unable to understand gospel truths or any sort of lesson about God. But then you get into a lesson and the person says I have read the entire bible cover to cover and it's like alright buddy buckle up because you're going to understand every word I say and it's going to take you on a journey! It's sooooo refreshing when someone says "Wow alright you're saying if I read this book I'll receive an answer from God that it's true?" And we say YES!! Anyway sorry about the rant. :)
So I read the Book of Mormon again in a month at President Weidmanns request underlining everything to do with the Atonement and it was amazing! It was probably the most rewarding experience I have had reading that book! Just so many victorious scriptures about Christ over coming the bands of death! So awesome! There is just so much in there and it's so plain and simple! I've been reading the New Testament and am almost done and it's been really awesome too! My goal is to read the whole standard works in Albanian before I leave! All I have left is 30 pages of the New Testament and then the big mama of the Old Testament!
So Zone Conference this week was super awesome! We received a training about using the members to get referrals and stuff and afterward one of the Zone Leaders came up to me and was like sorry I know that this didn't really apply much to you! But it was actually really awesome! Really the point was just ask for referrals from everyone so that's what we are going to do!
Zone Conference got really overshadowed by Stake Conference though which was amazing! They split it up so there were two sessions and so everyone south of Tirana went to the morning session and everyone Tirana and North went to the afternoon and I have been in every single city that came in the afternoon session! It was like Elder Guymon's homecoming! There were soooo many people that I wanted to talk to! I recognized almost every face I saw! It kinda made me realize I've been out here for a while now being one of those guys that knows everyone. Of course the highlight was seeing my boy B!!!!!! It was so amazing seeing him! Like unreal! I sat by him and Elder Mero the whole conference and it was awesome! The conference was great, lots of focusing on the Book of Mormon! When we were singing the hymns and stuff it was just amazing honestly the spirit was just sooooo HAPPY like that was really the main thing I felt all day was just pure joy and it was really an energy that everyone felt like everyone just had the biggest smiles!! The thought that I had was "What could I possibly rather be doing than being gathered here with the saints of Albania!" These people are just so amazing and I love them so much. I wish I could just spend time with all of them!
Also driving down there was pretty awesome because we drove down with the new senior couple, the Collins and it was so fun talking to them and getting their life stories! They have some awesome stories! I also got to give them a good taste of Albanian driving because they hadn't ever experienced it! I'm not going to lie I'm worried about if it'll be hard to calm my driving down when I get back to America because its gotten pretty out of hand out of here!
Today we had a pretty awesome P-Day we went to this way cool church up in the mountains that is famous around here because there is water that runs through the middle of it! It was funny because missionaries had never been there and so we really had no idea how to get there and just kinda got on a bus and hoped for the best! It was awesome! The church was so beautiful! The guy told us it was holy water and that we had to drink and of course I didn't.... just kidding I had to. :)
Anyway the work goes on. Nothing super significant that happened this week. Just doing our best to push on the rock and hopefully the Lord will move it for us at some point! Have a great week everyone! Remember God and fight the good fight!
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| I liked the name of this store (iContact) I saw it and I was like yes, yes I do! :) |
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