23 February 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for writing me every week! It's always awesome when I get to read your emails! Wow! I can't believe that it's been so cold in Minnesota. This week has been warmer with a lot of good, sunny weather. I'll try and send some of it to you, but I'm having a hard time getting it to attach to an email. It still is a little weird to me that you only have one companionship of missionaries in your ward {Princeton, MN, Jacob's home ward}. Here in Albania, there are several to each ward and branch. It would be interesting to be the only missionaries over an entire city, or multiple cities like the missionaries in Minnesota. I'm actually really excited to talk with the missionaries once I get back to see how the Minnesota Mission is organized. That'll be really interesting! Say, "ç'kemi" to the Van de Veers and the Andersons! Give them my regards. That's so awesome that Spencer {Baker from the Sauk Rapids, MN, Ward} got his mission call! I'm excited for him!

This week was pretty great for Elder Roemer and I. We've been working really hard to get some of our investigators ready for baptism this week. We have two investigators that will get baptized on Saturday. They are the little sisters of Esmeralda, who got baptized last October. It is really awesome how it turned out. Both of them went to Esmeralda's baptism and they felt the Spirit really strong! They started coming to church as well with Esmeralda. Now they're both ready for baptism. It was kinda' stressful this week because we needed to make sure that they had received all of the lessons before their interviews. With the oldest girl, Enkeleda, it was pretty easy. She came to the center after school everyday and she easily received all of the lessons. However, it was a little more difficult to meet with Alketa (the youngest). She's in school in the afternoon, so we weren't able to meet with her as often as we would like, however, we felt like she should get baptized on the 28th of February with her sister. So we talked to Esmeralda on the phone and got her to teach her little sister the remaining lessons she needed. We ended up meeting later in the week and we were able to ask her questions and we saw that she had understood everything and had a testimony. Both of them passed their interviews easily. They're ready for baptism and they are excited, Esmeralda is excited, we're excited, and the ward is excited too! It should be a really awesome day! I'm really looking forward to Saturday. In one of their lessons, we told them that they could invite their friends to their baptism. They said that they had already invited their friends to their baptism. I jokingly asked, "how many of them are going to get baptized?" And they said, "Actually, about five of them really want to learn about the Gospel." The Lord is blessing us in so many ways! He's blessing us with investigators who are progressing and wanting to get baptized, as well with investigators that really want to do missionary work. I've been blessed by the love so much in my mission. As a missionary, I think I've been more aware to all of the blessings He is pouring out upon me. I know that the Lord loves us so much. He loves us so much that He wants to bless us. All He asks is that we follow His commandments. He's told us over and over in the scriptures that when we obey His commandments, we get blessed. I'm very grateful for a Loving Heavenly Father that blesses us. I'm grateful that He's shown us the way we need to walk through the Holy Scriptures. I know that when we read from the scriptures, we gain that strength we need for that day. Just like we need to eat food every day, we need to eat spiritual food every day. In fact we should, "Feast on the words of Christ." (2 Nephi 32:3). I know that God loves us. I know that the Book of Mormon is His word. I know that through Joseph Smith Jr. God restored His Church back onto the earth. I'm grateful for the chance I have to be part of this "great and marvelous work".

Thank you for all the love and support you send me! Ju dua shumë. Zoti ju bekoftë. Kalofshi bukur. U ngrohfshit shpejt!

Me dashuri të shkëlqyeshme,

Elder Watson

P-day mud football!
Elders Matson, Roemer, Watson, Smoot, and Richards