There and Back Again: A Missionary's Tale

19 February 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Week 3, already?? Wow. Thank you so much for the letters this week! I am very grateful to receive them. Letters are a nice little pick me up for when times are tough. Oh, and if you use Dear Elder, can you date the letters? Otherwise they don't say when they are from. It's nice to hear about others in the ward, send them my love.

As a missionary, it's business all day everyday. I didn't even realize it was Valentine's Day until someone told me! The same with President's Day, I had no idea until someone mentioned it at the end of the day. On Sunday nights they play some videos for us like General Conference talks, or Church produced films. And we also have an opportunity to watch Bible Videos and Mormon Messages. They are so powerful and refreshing! If you haven't seen any lately, I would encourage you to do so! Our Sunday meetings are very different than at home. Our schedule is broken up so we don't have the 3 hour block. We have meetings throughout the day. In sacrament meeting they call up two missionaries from the congregation to speak without prior notice, but they give you an outline of what the message is. I haven't had to speak yet, but I have played piano for Priesthood meeting once already

My teaching skills have improved a bit over the past week. Elder Bangerter and I are teaching about 8 lessons a week. Our teachers pose as investigators, so we currently have 3 progressing investigators. Then we teach returned missionaries who come to the MTC once a week. Even though we get a lot of practice, my skills have a LONG way to go yet! It gets a little discouraging when you can't understand what someone is saying, even when they slow down and repeat it several times. Yes, Albanian is VERY difficult to learn, because it has many different verb conjugations and noun declensions and all of those depend on what part of speech that word is in a sentence. There is just so much to learn about grammar, and sentence structure, and vocabulary.

I have had some great experiences this past week too! In one of my lessons, I was able to recite the First Vision in Albanian. And in another lesson I was able to say two sentences in a row without really thinking about them (I think they made sense too). I was able to recite my Purpose in Albanian in my head one night as I was laying in bed, and I didn't have to think about it too much! I am making progress, and I can feel it. For some reason, I tend to focus on the negatives of myself before focusing on the positives. I am glad that you enjoy my testimonies! I would really like to hear all of yours as well. When we share testimonies our testimony increases and the testimony of those who hear it increases too!

I learned a lot about humility and faith this week. I would highly encourage you to read Alma 32! It is amazing. I felt much like the Zoramites. Trying to learn Albanian truly has humbled me and I know that I can't do this on my own. I love praying to my Heavenly Father and He hears and answers my prayers! (Oh, by the way, I'm getting really comfortable with praying in Albanian). I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know that we can learn a lot from it's lessons. I know that life is full of rough patches, but I know that without those rough patches, we wouldn't know when things were going smooth. I love you all and I pray for you each night. I hope all is well and I love hearing from you.

Love, Elder Watson