There and Back Again: A Missionary's Tale

1 January 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Yeah, it was really good to skype with my family last week! And it was really good to read your email this week! I really look forward to reading your emails every P-day. I'm glad that you got to have some snow on Christmas! This last week, we have been having a cold snap here. It's not as cold in Minnesota, but it's dropped below 0C a few times. It gets a little chilly contacting people outside at night. Yeah, my body has become acclimated to weather here, so this chilly weather feels pretty cold. Don't make fun of me. So our baptism wasn't able to happen here last Saturday. We got a text from her Friday morning saying that she wouldn't be able to be baptized on Saturday. This scared Elder Keck and I. We tried calling her, but her phone wasn't on. We couldn't get a hold of her all day! However, we were finally able to get a hold of her the next morning and we found out that something happened with her work which is requiring her to work from early in the morning until late at night until the end of the year. So we're planning her baptism for another Saturday soon. She'll be an amazing January baptism! Dad, I hope you had a great birthday! I hope that you have fun playing with all of your new toys {from Christmas}! I'm glad you survived the craziness of all the grand-kids being there!

So transfers happened this last week. I'm still here in Durrës. I thought that I was leaving because I've been here before. However, I'm still here in Durrës with a new companion, Elder Roemer. Elder Roemer is from Alamo, Nevada. He is one missionary group ahead of me, so he's been on his mission about three months longer than I have. Elder Keck thought that he was staying for sure, so he was really surprised when he got his call to go to Lushnjë! I was kinda' jealous. He'll have a lot of fun there. The really surprising thing that happened with this transfer is that a new zone was created. It's called the Durrës Zone and Elder Roemer and I are the Zone Leaders. It's kinda' scary because neither of us know what we're doing and we need to figure it out on our own. It's really exciting, but also kinda' scary at the same time. The Durrës Zone consists of three cities, Durrës, Elbasan, and Shkodër. It's a little weird, the layout of the cities, but it'll be exciting to go to the different cities to do exchanges and interviews and things like that. Transfers are always kinda' crazy, and at the beginning you don't really know what to expect because you've grown so close with your districts. But I'm sure that we'll have a great district here in Durrës!

It was also kinda' crazy this week as well, because it was New Years. Christmas isn't celebrated very much here, New Years is the big celebration. Fireworks are sold on every street corner and it gets SUPER crazy here. There aren't any restrictions on what can and can't be used, so you'll see little kids walking around with Roman Candles and firecrackers. A lot of time, kids will throw firecrackers at your feet to scare you. So we had to be inside our house by sundown. So Elder Roemer and I chilled out and got to know each other more during the course of the night. We also had a xhaxhi photo shoot. They're all things that older men (xhaxhi) do here in Albania. We had fun acting out some of those things.

It was New Years, however, we had to be in bed at 10:30 as usual. So when midnight rolled around, we were awoken by all the fireworks. From bed I could hear fireworks blowing up right outside of our house, so that was kinda' crazy. I can't imagine what it would be like out on the streets during that time. Oh! Also this week, there was an earthquake here in Durrës! It wasn't very bad. It was pretty calm, but it lasted for about 10 seconds. It took me about five of those seconds to realize what was happening! It was pretty crazy! Tons of crazy things happened this week! What a way to close out a year!

All the time I've been a missionary I've learned a lot about humility. As you do something for a while, you tend to get into routines and it's easy to think you know how things work. However, everyone that comes out on a mission should come out to do the Lord's will, not our own. I've learned a lot about humility and relying on the Lord in missionary work. I know that the Lord is willing to work with us, if we are willing to work with Him. I'm very grateful for the Gospel and the ability we have to be blessed because of the Gospel in our lives!

Gëzuat vitin e ri! Edhe për shumë vjet! Kalofshi mirë! Ju dua shumë!

Me dashuri,

Elder Watson