25 January 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for writing to me this week, it's always a pleasure to hear about what's going on back at home. That's too bad that one of the sisters {from the Princeton Ward} was sick. Yeah, being sick as a missionary is horrible. It's so boring! For the person that's sick and for their companion. Yeah, as missionaries we just want to get out and work no matter what. Wow, that's kinda' impressive that the Brickmobile did so well. Nice job Rachel and Alyssa. {Their car took 4th in the Pinewood Derby open class.}

So, I don't have a ton of time to write right now, because we will be leaving for Tirana shortly. We have Mission Conference tomorrow and Elder Kearon of the Seventy will be there. Just this last weekend I realized who Elder Kearon was. He gave an amazing talk in General Conference in 2010 that I remember really well. I remember talking about it in seminary the next day too. I would highly suggest you look it up, it's here: <https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/come-unto-me-with-full-purpose-of-heart-and-i-shall-heal-you?lang=eng> It's super good! You can also watch the Mormon Message: The Sting of the Scorpion <https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages-for-youth/the-sting-of-the-scorpion-2> which is based on the same talk. I'm super excited to learn more from him tomorrow!

This last week we also had a special Worldwide Missionary Broadcast that we watched as a Zone on Saturday. It's called "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts." In it, General Authorities gave instruction and training on how we can improve as missionaries. It was focused on the fundamentals of Preach My Gospel. I learned so much from it! It was an amazing experience. At the same meeting on Saturday I was asked to give my final testimony before the other missionaries. It was a weird experience. It doesn't seem quite real to me yet that my mission is nearly over. I don't think that it'll hit until probably my first week home. That's when it hit me that I was on a mission too, so that'll be an interesting transition. On Sunday, President Weidmann was here in Prishtina and I was sustained as the First Counselor here in the Prishtina Branch. It's really awesome working with President Teli. He's a great man, and I love him a ton! Even though I'll only be serving with him for a couple weeks, it'll be good to share with him my experiences in Gjakova as Branch President so that I can help him feel more comfortable in his calling. We've been able to work together quite a bit already and I'm excited to get to work with him even more. It's interesting to serve here in Prishtina because there are a lot of military service men that attend church here in Prishtina, so there is a lot of translating that needs to be done on a weekly basis. I had the opportunity to share my testimony on Sunday and also to translate for another brother who works as a helicopter repairman on the American military base. I also was able to translate for Sunday School. Translating so frequently in the past has given me the desire to look into becoming a translator when I finish my mission. I definitely do not want to lose the language that the Lord has helped me learned!

Sorry, time is short and we need to start getting ready to go, so I'll be sure to tell you more about mission conference next week. Thank you for all of your love and prayers! Ju dua shumë. Kaloni bukur. Javë të mabrë!

Me dashuri,

Elder Watson