There and Back Again: A Missionary's Tale

16 November 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

It's really awesome to hear from you every week. Yeah, last week was pretty crazy! It was super awesome getting to go to Macedonia though. The bus system is not very reliable here. We were told the times for the buses, but then we got there and found out that the buses just decide to go when they want. We missed nearly all of our buses only by five minutes, and we were on time for what they told us. It was pretty frustrating! Oh well, we got to go see Skopje and eat Burger King. I had a Double Whopper and a fountain drink and I nearly cried! Drinks from the fountain just taste so much like America! Every time we missed our bus, we said, "At least we got Burger King" that made it a bit less frustrating. It was a fun p-day.

Dad, that's awesome that you got a deer! That's super awesome that it was an eight-pointer too! Rachel, that's awesome that you were able to go to the Temple for the first time this week! I always love going to the Temple. I'm really excited to go back to the Temple after my mission! That's super awesome that the Wirths {friends from TX} had their baby on 11/11!

On 11/11 we were actually at a baptism. So on 11/11 we had halfway training in Tirana with all of the trainees and the trainers. So we carpooled down to Tirana with Elder Guymon and Elder Mero, missionaries from Prishtina, so we traveled back up with them, obviously. Elder Mero is from Canada, but he's actually Albanian. He lived in Tirana when he was 1-3 years old and then he left to Canada. In high school he learned about the church and then got baptized. Elder Mero still has a lot of family living here in Albania. His grandma was actually taking lessons from the missionaries when he got his mission call. So on 11/11 after halfway training, we went over to the other church building in Tirana, and watched the baptism of Elder Mero's grandma. It was a really awesome experience! It was really cool for him to baptize his grandma. That was one highlight from our week.

Another huge highlight of the week was this last weekend. So there is a member here in Gjakova named Burim. Burim is the first member of the Church in Kosovo, I believe. He was introduced to the Church through a member who has a music organization here in Gjakova. He wanted to get baptized, but back then there was no Church in Kosovo. So he waited and waited until the opportunity came to be baptized. He was finally baptized in 2006 in Slovenia. He's a super awesome member with a super awesome story that I can't do justice to in the time that I have to write today. However, he has been inactive for at least the past six months. This last week he was contacted by a member in Albania for him to take part in an interview talking about the history of the Church in Kosovo. Talking about the history of the Church really reignited his testimony. He has the calling as the Branch Mission Leader, and so on Saturday morning he came to the meeting and we discussed what we can do to forward the work along. He also came back to Church Sunday for Sacrament meeting. He also drove out to a village 15 minutes away to pick up an investigator family that was having an issue with their car. I was talking with him and he said, "With my return to Church, I'll help all the others return!" He's super awesome! He has such a fire inside him now to do everything he can for the Church. It was a huge answer to many, many prayers. I feel super excited and super hopeful for the future of the Gjakova Branch! It was such a wonderful weekend that everything else that happened during the week pales by comparison!

Thank you for all of your many prayers and thoughts. Ju dua shumë. Javë të mbarë. Kalofshi bukur!

Me dashuri,

Elder Watson

Pictures from Skopje. There are a TON of statues.

If you ever get lost, don't tell someone to meet you

by a statue of a man on a horse. There's one on EVERY

street corner--NOT an exaggeration.