June 7, 2010

Dear Family,

Well, I guess I will start with my investigators.

Nene (by the way, it is pronounced nuh-nuh) still has her baptismal date, but we may move it. We taught her tithing, and she accepted it, and she really wishes that she could pay it, but she feels like she can't. She lives alone and is on pension. she recieves 120 dollors a month to live on, and after paying water, electricity, and the woman she pays to sleep with her (to watch over her at night because she is old), and medicine bills, she has only 30 dollors a month for food. She can't see how she could possibly pay 12 dollars a month in tithing! It is so sad, becasue she is a WONDERFUL woman. She says that she could pay 2 or maybe 3 dollars (remember how poor she is...that is a lot for her!) but 12 is not possible. If I could, I would pay her tithing the rest of her life! Most members don't pay a full-tithe, and she is honest enough not to get baptized if she feels she can't keep her covenant. We are working with her, slowly but surely. We have a member at every lesson, and all the members love her, and she loves the members! She is just a GOOD woman!

We met with Valbona and Kozeta and they didn't even start the Book of Mormon....Kozeta did read Alma 32 as we asked though. She read it and made sure that she understood it, and I was pleased with that. They say that they are working 16 hours a day, and thus literally had no time to read. Considering they work at a very tourist restaurant as cooks, I think their excuse fits considering it is tourist season. I admit that I was dissapointed that they didn't finish the Book of Mormon, but there is nothing we can do. Kozeta enjoyed that chapter, but Bona is a bit more stubborn and closed minded. They said that they won't have time to meet with us for another Month, so we will see what happens. I hope they will feel the power of the Book of Mormon.

We were tracting last night and tracted into a good family. They are Muslim and the father's name is Sadik, and his son's names are Besmir and Armando. They were SMART and they like to read, but who knows if they will change.

So it has been an interesting 2 days. Last night, we received a call from the mother of an awesome member named Algert. He is my age. She asked us if we could give him a blessing. We arrived at his house and he was...well, kind of like I was when I had a mental breakdown. He wasn't asleep, but he wasn't awake. I was weeping and talking to himself. He was unresponsive to sound and touch. We tried to "wake him" but to no avail. We gave him a blessing and hoped for the best. This morning we went by because we wanted to see if he would run with us. We brought our scriptures and a sheet so we could run up a hill near the church that is covered in olive trees. We were going to do studies there with him to take his mind off things. It was calm and quiet and we read the scriptures together and I think that a felt a bit better. I know how he feels. It is first: physically exhausting, and he didn't get up for some time, and second: embarrassing, and it takes a bit to recover. I just wanted to help him any way that I could. He is such a good person.

I finished the Book of Mormon in Albanian for the First time on Saturday! I was SO HAPPY! and I also gave the first blessing I have given in Albanian that day too, to Algert actually. He had asked for a blessing of comfort and council. I truthfully struggled with what to say, but I do know, that there were a couple of things that I wasn't expecting to say that I said. I can also see the council I gave him was what he needed because the next day he had that breakdown. I basically told him to rely on the Lord, read the scriptures, and pray. There were other things I said, that I will not mention, but again, I wasn't expecting to say them. It was an interesting experience. It is awe inspiring to see the power of the Lord at work.

It is interesting. A lot of people have been commenting on how good I speak albanian. I don't think it is as much me, as it is the gift of tounges, but if it gets the job done, I am happy regardless.

Well, Thank you sister rawlings for the E-mail. I really appreciated it. I hope all goes well with your work transition. I know you are in the Lord's hands.

I love you all! I hope everyone has a great week!