There and Back Again: A Missionary's Tale

16 March 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for the email that you sent me! I always look forward to reading your emails on P-day and to hear about what's going on at home. It sounds like you had a pretty nice week all around. That's awesome that you had some really nice weather! It was hot here a couple days ago and I was wishing for summer dress code again. We should be allowed to start wearing summer clothes soon. That's awesome that you had the missionaries over for dinner on Monday! I'm glad to hear that more and more people are signing up for the encampment! I'm glad that you all enjoyed the fish fry. Thanks for eating some fish for me! Yeah, so the Minnesotans in the mission are gradually shrinking. Right now there are three of us. Elder Lee is from Woodbury and Sister White is from Rochester. At the end of this month I'll be the only Minnesotan and Lushnjar (missionary born in Lushnjë) in the mission! Elder Lee and Sister White are finishing up our missions with this transfer, and the only other Lushnjar missionary in the mission is dying at the transfer as well. That's crazy that the Arlington burned down {a landmark in Cambridge, MN}! I bet that it looks really weird with that building missing. I know that it's still early on, but have they decided what they're going to do with that land?

This last week was pretty interesting. So every so often, we get to go on exchanges with the assistants to the President (APs). So this week we had an exchange with the APs. I got to go to Tirana with, bet you can't guess, Elder Bangerter! It was a ton of fun serving with him again for a day. We had an interesting exchange because there was a training meeting that day. President Weidmann asked that Elder Bangerter and I go to it, so we did. It was a Public Affairs Training meeting. There we learned, and were trained, on how to be an official spokesperson for the Church. It wasn't just a meeting for missionaries, but it was to train various stake leaders as well. Some people from the Church offices in Frankfurt, Germany came and presented the training to us. In the training we learned about how to conduct ourselves in an interview, how to answer difficult questions, how to get a precise message across quickly and efficiently, and some other things. They even had us do some "roleplay" interviews, which were taped and then critiqued. I learned a ton in that meeting. Not just about helpful tips for interviews, but those same principles also apply in teaching missionary lessons as well. I actually had a chance to use one of those principles in a lesson that we had and it worked great! Elder Bangerter and I had a great exchange and we were able to have a really nice lesson with a family that will get baptized soon. So all around, the exchange with Elder Bangerter was really awesome!

This week in Durrës we found a really awesome new investigator. We found her while we were contacting outside of the center one day. We talked to her and she told us of how she has gone around to tons of different churches looking for the truth. We had a really nice conversation and we set up a time when we could meet. We had an awesome meeting with her and taught her, and her daughter, about the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith. She loves Joseph Smith! She found so many connections between him and her. She loved how he actively went around and sought the truth and how he received and answer. She has already read a substantial portion of the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and she has received and answer! She knows the the Book of Mormon is true and the role it plays in strengthening the Bible. She is super awesome, and she is really excited about her baptism! She's actually already doing missionary work. She brought a friend to church with her on Sunday. It's amazing to see how prepared she is to receive the Gospel. It's a testimony to me that the Lord really is preparing people to receive the message of the Restoration. It's amazing to see that! I know that the Lord is the Director of the Church in these days. I know that He is in control of everything, and that He has placed us in the lives of those that are prepared. We just need to seek those individuals out and show them where it is!

Thank you for the love and the support that you give to me! Thank you for your prayers! Ju dau shumë. Ja kalofshi mirë. Javë të mbarë! U nglifshi shëndosh!

Me dashuri të madhe,

Elder Watson

PS- The mission office is changing locations, so here is the new address for mail:

Adriatic South Mission

Attn: Jacob Andrew Watson

P.O. Box 2984

Bulevardi "Gjergj Fishta"

Qendra "ALPAS", Shkalla NR. 5,

Apartamenti NR.14

Tirana 00355, Albania