Last week's letter...

January 18, 2010

Dear Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!! CONGRATULATIONS!! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!!! I AM SOOO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Well, I am really excited to hear about Ashley’s mom! I hope that all is well. The Gospel is truly a precious thing.

Well, as for my week, we met Algida on Tuesday. She was disappointed to hear that Elder Anderl is gone, but that didn’t stop her curiosity and desire to learn. She had more questions for us. We gave her Preach my Gospel to read; we figured that it explains things simply and shows that out goal with all investigators is baptism. Next time we meet, we are going to specifically bring up baptism.Yesterday was an interesting day at church. We had 9 members, 2 nonmembers, 2 missionaries, and a random crazy man that walked in. The random crazy man, we have seen around Fier, and I think he is a former investigator (but I am not sure how accountable he is. FIER IS FULL OF CRAZIES!) This man walked in, said hi to everyone, and sat down. Then, right when church was about to start, he started yelling to Elder Shields on the stand “hey boss, come here, I want to have a word with you.” So Elder Shields went to him and he was like “Is this all the people that come? You’ve got to go on the streets and start talking to more people.” Elder Shields had never met him before, so it was interesting… I had met him before and knew he was crazy. Anyway, Elder Shields went on the stand and started the meeting. Then, right as Elder Shields went up to the podium to announce the sacrament hymn, the crazy man stood up and said, “Ok everyone, I’m leaving. Bye! Oh, but first before I go…” And he walked over to Sister Licaj and offered her a cigarette! Right before the Sacrament! Sister Gjika in the back was like “Sir, we are having sacrament meeting. Please, stop.” (Sister Licaj did NOT accept the cigarette by the way) So he left, and sacrament meeting was reasonable normal after that (with exception to Majlinda, another crazy. She is legitimately crazy, but she at least was not disruptive this time. She is one of the nonmembers.) Sister Gjika gave a great talk on Forgiveness, something this branch really needs. Any way, church was good.
We hope that Edi will gain the faith to stop smoking. He tried the stop smoking program once before, but he couldn’t do the first step of crushing his cigarettes. I hope he will try again. We were on exchanges and my temporary companion bore strong testimony about overcoming vices and weaknesses. He was inactive before his mission for several years but turned his live around and is now a fantastic missionary.

We haven’t been able to meet with Florjan. He is busy with work. We hope he will understand the blessings of baptism.Sidorela is progressing. All she needs to learn is Tithing and Chastity. However, her parents will not let her come to church. Her parents are traditionally Muslim. I’m not sure how her sister received permission to be baptized, but then again, she lives with her Grandmother who is Jehovah’s Witness.

Emili, a less active member really needs a lot of prayer right now. She is a single mother (divorced, her husband is a really, really horrible person. He is evil…) She has 3 wonderful children and is doing everything she can to provide for them. She works practically every day but she is going to try to get Sunday’s off to get to church. That would be REALLY good for her if she could come. She needs that.

Ylli is another less active member that could use your prayers. He has a very strong testimony, but he needs help to quit smoking again. Smoking is such a tenacious habit here.

Brother and Sister Gjika could use your prayers as well.

I love the branch here in Fier. These people are such good people, but pride is a very bad plague here. It has infested nearly the entire branch, and so people are having difficulty coming and staying. I hope that we can help. Most of their problems would just disappear if they lived the gospel.

I love you all. Melisa, I hope you start feeling better! Ammom, good job on taking over for Dad. I am sure he really appreaciates it. I really appreaciate the voice recorder. I need to get around to sending an audio recording of me. Give everyone my love.

The gospel is true. I cannot deny it.

Love,
Elder Fredrickson