There and Back Again: A Missionary's Tale

11 May 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

It was really good to Skype with my family last night! I'm glad to see that they are all doing well. Mom, I'm glad that you had a good Mother's Day. Dad, that's cool that you get to go up to Many Point {Boy Scout Camp} this week. I hope that everything will work out great with the logistics stuff there at Many Point {for a multi-stake Encampment in June}. That is still super crazy that Elder Josh Braman {from the Princeton Ward} is going to be home in a couple weeks! I can't believe it. Yeah, that would be awesome if Josh was able to go because he'd be an awesome help there at the Encampment. Give the Elders {in the Princeton Ward} my regards. That sounds like a really good goal, to make Sunday services that much more reverent. Yeah, I think people being on their phones during church is a problem that's everywhere in the world, but I think that really focusing on keeping the chapel a sacred place will be an amazing change. Here when we have mission meetings, President Weidmann has asked us to be there in our seats, studying from the scriptures and praying, fifteen minutes before the meeting beings. It really brings the Spirit into the meetings a ton! It's something that has really helped me to feel the Spirit and to get more out of the meeting as well. It's really awesome!

So yeah, I'm getting transferred from Durrës, and I'll be going to Gjakova in Kosovo. I'm really excited to go back up to Kosovo, but I'm sad to leave Durrës. The members are so awesome here! I've been blessed a TON to have been able to serve here in Durrës for nine months overall. I really hope that I'll get to come back, but my chances are really slim now. It was really hard to say goodbye to all of the members on Sunday. I'll miss them a ton, but I know that the Lord will take care of them. In Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I got to see one of my recent converts give her first talk in Sacrament meeting! It was really awesome to see her do that and she did a really great job. It's funny, she speaks English pretty well, but she's still learning. So she told me that I'm really serious all the time, and she asked me how you would call someone like that in English. I told her that you call them "a boss." So ever since then she's been saying, "Elder Watson, you're a boss." It's been pretty funny! Also this Sunday, there was a Stake Leadership meeting, for what I'm not really sure, but there were a couple people that came down from Gjakova. So I was able to meet them on Sunday for the first time before I go up there. I'm excited to go up there, those members were really awesome, so I'm excited to meet the other members up there later on in the week.

This week we had a Combined Zone Conference for the three zones in Albania. We had the meeting in Tirana, and it was an awesome meeting! It was awesome to be trained by President Weidmann and the Assistants. We got some new pass-along cards too! The pass-along cards were about prophets and another about the Book of Mormon. I'm really excited to use them in contacting people! This week President Weidmann also came to Durrës to do interviews. I love interviews with President Weidmann because I learn so much! He helps me to constantly improve and become a better missionary. We spent a lot of time studying about the Priesthood and what all it entails. We were only able to talk about a small portion of it, but I learned so much from our little discussion. One thing that he told me really hit me, he said, "Elder Watson, there is so much in the Gospel, and we use so little." There really is a TON in the Gospel, and our Loving Heavenly Father has given us all of these things to us so that we can improve and come closer to Him. This interview with President Weidmann really gave me a greater desire to study, in depth, the scriptures and to really understand all of the wonderful and miraculous blessings the Lord has promised us through the Restored Gospel. God has given all of these things to us for a reason, so we should learn how to use them!

Thank you for all of the love and support you give to me! Ju dua shumë. Nuk bëj dot të gjitha këto gjëra pa ju. U nglifshi shnosh. Zoti ju bekoftë!

Me dashuri të madhe,

Elder Watson