18 May 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

It sounds like you had a pretty good week this last week. Dad, I'm glad to hear that everything went well with planning things out at Many Point. That's really awesome that you were able to have a blood drive at the Chapel! I'm glad to hear that it went well. Wait, is there a Walmart in Princeton? That's so awesome that Brother Magdanz got baptized!! That's awesome that he had so much support at his baptism. Tell him, "Urime" from me! It's cool because we also had a baptism here in Gjakova on Saturday too! That's crazy that Valerie {Ostvig from the Buffalo, MN Ward} is already back from her mission! Wow, you are really having crazy weather there. Hopefully everything will warm up and even out.

So this week was pretty busy for me too. Yeah, it feels like forever since the last time we skyped. (Wow, that was only just over a week ago). So leaving Durrës was a little hard. It was hard to say goodbye to all of the members. They are really awesome in Durrës! We had some awesome lessons with them after our P-day was over. The drive from Durrës to Tirana was pretty crazy because we fit in four elders in the car as well as two of the elders' luggage. Needless to say, it was a tight trip. It was a fun trip from Tirana up to Kosovo. We drove up in a mission vehicle. It was probably a 3 hour trip from Tirana. I traveled up here with Elder Asler, one of the elders from my MTC group. The trip through northeastern Albania is such a beautiful drive! It's amazing! I can't even describe how beautiful it is! Things are going well here in Gjakova. Gjakova is a pretty small town. There's about two major roads that run through it. It's maybe a little bigger than Lushnjë. It's interesting because Gjakova is about the same size of Lushnjë, but it reminds me a lot more of Shkodër. I've already learned where the important places in the city are: the apartment, the church, the grocery store, and the good restaurant. There are six missionaries here in Gjakova, Elder Baker (from Texas) and I (from you know), Elder Asler (from Croatia) and Elder Lesi (from Durrës), and Sister Davis (from Utah) and Sister Pierce (from Oregon). It's awesome to have Elder Lesi because he's such a hard worker and we talk about Durrës a lot together. We have a pretty awesome district here and things are going really well. The branch here is really small. Last week we had 17 people in church (including missionaries). However, you have to remember that Gjakova has only been open to the gospel for 3 or 4 years. We had an activity on Friday night and so we were able to make friends with the ward members. We went to a hill nearby and played some games and had some snacks. It was a nice little activity. So things are going a little slow because there were two elder areas in Gjakova a while ago, then for the past couple weeks it was only one area, so now we're splitting apart the one area back into two areas so things are moving slow, but they'll pick up. So this Saturday, we had a baptism at the church. A man named Patriku got baptized. He's such an awesome loving man! He's lived in Germany for many years, so he has a German accent when he speaks Albanian, and he also speaks Geg Albanian so it was super difficult to understand him for the first couple of days. It's fun trying to get used to the Geg again. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of it. But anyways, back to Patriku. He's such an awesome man, and the Gospel has changed his life a ton. He loves coming to Church and he loves the Gospel so much. I actually had the privilege to confirm him on Sunday! It was an awesome experience for all! Here in Gjakova, we're also four elders in one apartment which makes things a little interesting. So we're looking for a new apartment for one of the companionships. On Saturday night we were in our apartment talking and then Elder Baker looked over at Elder Asler and I and said, "Hey, you guys are giving talks tomorrow because you're new." Oh the joys of serving with the branch president. Haha. It was actually really good and I enjoyed the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting!

This week I was reminded of the power of the Priesthood. This past week I've been reading and studying a lot about the Priesthood and what it really entails. It's humbling that God would trust us so much to give us the ability to hold His holy Priesthood. For the past little while in my mission, I've served in a pretty large ward where a lot of the other members take care of things like the Sacrament. However, moving to a smaller branch has given me the opportunity to be able to exercise my Priesthood even more. I was honored and humbled that this last Sunday I was able to bless the Sacrament, as well as giving the Gift of the Holy Ghost to Patriku. I was able to feel the Spirit of the Lord close as I was officiating in those Holy Ordinances. I'm so grateful that the Lord has given us the ability to serve others in the Church through the Priesthood. I know that blessings come to us all because of the Priesthood.

Thank you for all of the love and support that you send to me! Ju dua shumë. Kaloni mirë. U nglifshi shnosh. Javë të mbarë.

Me dashuri,

Elder Watson

Three photos from a branch activity in Çabrati.

Parking lot outside of our apartment--traffic jam.