12 October 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for writing to me. I really enjoyed hearing about your experiences from this last week. I'm glad that you had a good week. Whoa, Oreo churros sound AMAZING! {You can get them at Taco John's.} I've been missing the Fall colors. There are some changes in the leaves here, but most trees are pines so they don't really change. I really miss the North Shore {of MN, along Lake Superior} with all of the changing leaves. It's such a pretty view! Here it's been... well I don't know what the temperature has been, even if I would have known I still wouldn't have understood because it's in Celsius. I'm still horrible at the metric system. But it's been "colder" by some people's opinion, but it's perfect weather if you ask me! Everyone else is out in sweaters and jackets, and I'm loving it in my short-sleeves! It'll be a hard change to switch to long sleeves, but I know that the change is coming soon. I'm super excited because we get snow here in Gjakova. I'm super, super, super excited to see snow again! Yeah, I've also heard that there's a TON of fog in Gjakova during the winter, so I'm excited to see that too.

Rachel, congratulations on being called as the first counselor {in the Beehive presidency}! That's wonderful! I hope you enjoy it. Having a calling is a wonderful way to learn and to help others! I'm glad that you're still loving volunteer work, Mom. It really is a wonderful thing! That's one thing that I've learned during my mission. Through volunteer work, or service, we can learn a ton and gain a lot, maybe not in money, but in experience and love. 

Elder Frroku doesn't speak English, but we're working on that together. So this last week when we had zone conference in Prishtina, I translated for him. Man, it's so hard translating when people just talk and go on without a break. It tired my brain! After four hours of that, my mind was totally burned out! This week was pretty awesome. One awesome thing that happened was with Dardan! So Dardan really wants to get baptized. Dardan also wears an earring, so we felt prompted to give a lesson on dress and appearance. I wanted to talk to him about it before his baptism, but I was a little hesitant. I was a little afraid that maybe he might get offended, or he might misunderstand and be slightly offended. However, I knew that it was something that we needed to do. So we had a lesson where we read from "For the Strength of Youth" and listened to the talk from President Gordon B. Hinckley where he gives the counsel on piercings and tattoos. The commitment that I was thinking of giving to him was to pray to know if he needed to remove his earring. During the lesson, we got to the part that talked about body piercings. When we read the section from "For the Strength of Youth" Dardan stopped, reached up, took out his earring, and threw it in the garbage can in the corner of the room. When he did that I was stunned! I was thinking, "I thought that only happened in movies or stories." But nope, it actually happened! It was a wonderful way that Dardan showed the Lord his determination and his desire to follow Christ, through the counsel of living prophets. It is so awesome to work with Dardan! He is so prepared to receive the Gospel. He is struggling a little bit with the Word of Wisdom, but he's setting goals for how he can overcome that.

Thank you for all of the love and support that you send to me! Thank you for all of your prayers and help! Ju dua shumë. Kalofshi bukur!

Me dashuri,

Elder Watson