2 March 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for your email. I really look forward to hearing about what's going on at home. Wow! I'm sorry that you have that cold weather in Minnesota! That's crazy. The cold has left Durrës and probably won't return, that's what all the members have been telling me. Today we had some really good weather, so we went down to the beach and played football. It was pretty fun. Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy because we were wearing shorts and t-shirts. We were walking past a group of men on the way to the beach and all of them were looking at us with dropped jaws, one of them yelled at us, "Aren't you cold?!?" It was pretty funny. It was a nice spring day. It was probably about mid to high 50s today. The weather is really nice here and it hasn't been raining much, so that's a bonus. 

Wow, is Daylight Savings Time coming already? I haven't heard anything about that. I think we might have a different time that we change our clocks. I remember that last Fall, we switched our clocks on a different week than you did. This last week was mini-transfers. Because I have been in Durrës for so long, I was afraid that I would have to leave. Thankfully I didn't have to leave! However, two missionaries left from Durrës. Elder Dahl was transferred to Peja in Kosovo, and Elder Matson was transferred to Fier in Albania. They were really sad to leave Durrës. We were also sad when they left. We have two new elders in our district. We have Elder Eddings from Centerville, Utah, and Elder Gosturani from Tirana, Albania. Elder Gosturani actually received his mission call to the Birmingham, England mission, but he was offered the opportunity to start his mission one month early here in Albania. So it's really cool to have him in our district. He speaks English very well. I was blown away when I heard how well he spoke English!

This last week has been an amazing week! It has been filled with miracles! We were blessed with the opportunity to teach a ton this week. This has been the most successful week of my mission as far as teaching lessons goes. We were blessed with the wonderful blessing of being able to teach 24 lessons during the week. When I first came back to Durrës in the beginning of October, that was impossible. If we got 10 lessons a week we were blessed abundantly. We have been blessed with many wonderful investigators who want to learn about the Restored Gospel. On Saturday we did an activity with the Young Men about missionary work. We each paired up with them and did missionary work for a few hours. We had planned it so the finale of the activity would be the baptism on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. I was paired with an awesome young man. His name is Rei. He has just turned 12 years old. (Don't worry, we got special permission from the mission president to go on splits with younger Aaronic Priesthood holders.) He was amazing! We taught one lesson together about temple work. In the lesson we were talking and I figured that he would be kinda' shy and maybe he'd give his testimony, but he found a really cool scripture and shared it with them and taught the principle really well. We also did some street contacting together, and he wanted to talk with EVERYONE! He invited every single person that walked by to listen to our message! It surprised me how outgoing and how excited he was about sharing the Gospel. He's going to be a great missionary when he gets older! It was a really awesome activity. The highlight of the week was Saturday night when Enkeleda and Alketa got baptized! It was such an awesome experience! A ton of family and friends came to the service, some of which have some interest in learning about the Gospel. The Spirit was really strong during the baptismal service. It was a really special night because Alketa asked me to baptize her. It was such an awesome experience to baptize her. She was so happy and excited about getting baptized! I was really honored that she asked me to baptize her. It reminded me about when I baptized Rachel. It's funny, in some respects Alketa is a lot like Rachel, so that was a really special experience for me. It was also really special because their older sister, Esmeralda, gave a talk at their baptism. When she was giving the talk I was just thinking about her baptism a few months ago. It's amazing to see how much she has grown and progressed in the Gospel in the past few months. If you were there you couldn't tell that she was baptized only four months ago. She's super awesome! It was also really cool because Saturday was also Esmeralda's birthday. So all-around Saturday was a super awesome day!! The Sunday that followed it was just as miraculous. The Spirit was very strong! The testimonies given in church were powerful! A member from Durrës returned from her mission as well and gave a wonderful testimony. A less active member came to church and was swarmed by loving ward members. The lessons were super good and very spiritual. Words can't even describe how amazing this weekend was!

I can't help but be grateful for all of these blessings that the Lord has given to me. This weekend my testimony of the blessings of the Restored Gospel was strengthened. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses the lives of everyone that partakes in it. I know that the Lord loves us so much. I know that He is willing to pour out blessings from Heaven when we obey His commandments. In Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21 teaches us that every time we receive a blessing, it is due to obedience. King Benjamin also teaches about this principle in his speech in Mosiah chapter 2. He teaches that God has blessed us with everything that we have and that whenever we do anything good, He blesses us yet again. God wants to bless us. God loves us and wants us to obey His Word so we can gain even more blessings. I know that God loves us. We literally are His spirit children. Like fathers love their children, God loves us. Just like a father will do anything for the welfare of his children, our Heavenly Father desires our well-being as well. I know that if we obey His will, we will be blessed beyond measure. We'll be blessed to the point that we'll think about all the blessings we have received and we will think that God has blessed us too much. God loves us and wants to bless us to the point that we don't even have room enough to receive all of His blessings. I know that we have a Loving Heavenly Father who blesses us at every opportunity!

Thank you so much for the love and support that you give to me. I couldn't do it without you! Javë të mbarë. Zoti ju bekoftë. Kalofshit bukur! Kalofshit ngrohtë. Ju dua shumë! 

Me dashuri të madhe,

Elder Watson

Homemade crepes!  Yummy!!

Enkeleda's and Alketa's baptism day.
Elder Roemer, (photobomber Rei Paja), Enkeleda, Alketa, and Elder Watson.
Elder Watson and Rei went on splits earlier in the day.

P-day football on the beach.  Temperatures in the 50s!
Elder Smoot, Elder Eddings, Elder roemer