Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you for the emails you send to me weekly. I really appreciate them and I really enjoy hearing about everything that is going on back home. It sounds like you had a great week. That's a funny story from Elder Clawson. Yeah, that Motra X has brought a ton of people to church. She's in our area, but she's always in Tirana and we can never meet with her. That's awesome that Newel {Hirst, Jacob's friend from the St. Cloud, MN, Stake} got his mission call! I'm excited for him! Serving a mission is probably the best decision I've made in my life! I've been blessed in so many ways! I've been blessed with a closer relationship with my Savior, and I've also been blessed with amazing friendships with other missionaries and members. When you choose to serve a mission, you're blessed abundantly!! Yeah, there are some American made cars here. The most common type of American car is a Land Rover, but there are quite a few Fords. Every once in a while you'll see a Chevy. When you're rich in Albania, you get an SUV. So everyone wants a Land Rover or a BMW X6 (but that's not American). However, there are a lot of other cars here that aren't that common in America. Smart cars are super popular here. You know how we joke about how someone driving a smart car could just park normally instead of parallel parking? They actually do that here. It's become a normal sight to see that. I laughed so hard when I saw it the first time. Oh by the way, I've gotten pretty decent at parallel parking. It's the ONLY time I've ever used that after my driver test. There's been a couple times when I've parallel parked on the left side of the road. It's so weird! You don't know how to do it. It messes with your head quite a bit. Wait, you already had the Easter Activity {Primary activity in the Princeton, MN, Ward}? Isn't Easter a few weeks away still? Wow, Rachel that's crazy how much you've been reading! What books have you been reading? I'm also glad to hear that you're doing well with piano! Keep up with it! Learn the hymns!!! I know that they can be kinda' boring, but one day you'll be on your mission and they'll ask you to play in sacrament meeting, you'll be glad you did. Learn from my mistakes. Oh, so for Day of Summer, I was in that meeting that I talked about last week, the Public Affairs Training Meeting. But the best thing about Day of Summer is Ballokume! It's a special cookie that they ONLY make for Day of Summer. It's kinda' like a cross between a sugar cookie and corn bread... and it's MASSIVE!! It's amazing! I ate two on Day of Summer. They're so good!
So this week was pretty good. We had an interesting week with transfers. So the actual transfer date isn't until next Tuesday. (So we'll be getting transfer calls next Sunday night). However, this last week we had some interesting emergency transfers. So Elder Smoot left Durrës and was moved to Tirana. Elder Davis came here from Vlorë. Elder Davis is really awesome! He was one of the APs with Elder Roberts shortly I came into the country. It was really awesome to get to know Elder Davis a little bit, before he got transferred. Yeah, he got transferred again this week. He got transferred back to Vlorë and Elder Holm got transferred here from Pejë, in Kosovë. And Elder Smoot got transferred to Elbasan. So it was an interesting little transfer for a couple days. It really surprised me. But it's awesome to have Elder Holm here. Elder Holm is from Elder Roemer's MTC group, so he was in the group right before me. Ever since I got here last April everyone has told me that I need to serve with Elder Holm. Can you imagine... Elder Holm and Elder Watson together in a proselyting area? We'd have to rename the area to "Baker Street". This week had it's ups and downs. We have one awesome investigator named Emanuela. Emanuela is Besa's cousin, yes, the Besa that got baptized two months ago. We had a lesson with Besa one day and Emanuela came and liked what she heard, so we continued meeting and teaching her about the Gospel. She's been reading from the Book of Mormon every day and she loves it. She has an awesome testimony of the Gospel. In fact, she passed her baptismal interview on Saturday! It's awesome to see her decision to get baptized. She's really excited about it! So we planned everything out for the baptismal service, and everything was great. So on Sunday, we were really surprised when she didn't come to church. Right after sacrament meeting I called her an asked where she was. She proceeded to tell me that her parents aren't in agreement with her getting baptized. She was really upset, and so she didn't have the opportunity to go. Emanuela is 24 years old and she lives with Besa during the week in Durrës, and every once in a while she goes to her parents who live in a village near Durrës. So apparently when she went home to invite her parents to her baptism, they didn't react very well. However, I've seen her desire to get baptized and I've heard her testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel. I know that it is the Will of the Lord for her to get baptized, so I know that the Lord will help soften the hearts of her parents so that she can get baptized. I know that some times the Lord gives us these challenges so that we have the opportunity to grow and show our faith in the Lord. I'm sure that the situation will be resolved and that Emanuela will be able to be baptized pretty soon. It reminds me of a scripture in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." I know that everything works out for good for those that love God. I've seen this blessing in my life and the lives of others as well! I know that if we have that love for God, everything will work out for our benefit.
Thank you so much for the love and the support that you give to me. I couldn't do it without your thoughts and prayers. Javë të mbarë. Ju dua shumë. Kalofshi bukur. Tung!
Me dashuri të madhe,
Elder Watson
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