Monday, November 26, 2018

Homecoming: August 12, 2018

        Good morning brothers and sisters. It is a huge pleasure to speak to you today. As a returned missionary I’ve had the opportunity to give plenty of talks recently, but they’ve all been in a foreign language and the audience was a bit smaller. I’m so grateful that I get to be here in this sacrament meeting today, I’ve known the other speakers for a very long time and love and respect both of them greatly. For all of you who don’t know me, my name is Austin Gardiner and I returned about a week and a half ago from the Adriatic South Mission where I served in the country of Albania. Now for all of you who don’t know where that is, and I didn’t before I got the call, my mission covered the southern part of the Balkans including the countries of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, and Cyprus. It was an amazing and beautiful place full of amazing people who have impacted and changed my life immensely. While in general the people can be poor and oftentimes proud, at the same time they are so loving, thoughtful, and welcoming. They truly will give away everything they have to serve a friend. While serving the Lord in that very select part of his vineyard my testimony has been strengthened and changed. It has grown from a pool of untested beliefs into a very real knowledge that God truly stands at the helm of this great church and that the things he has taught us through his words, past and present, guide us through the storms of life to true peace and joy.
I would just like to start by thanking all of you for being here. Truly the brilliance of this church comes into play as dedicated, faithful, men and women get together to share their beliefs and to strengthen and uplift one another. As Bishop Causse stated in his talk this past general conference “the name given by revelation to the restored church binds together the two most important elements in each gospel covenant—Jesus Christ, and us, the saints of the latter days. … Our sole aim is to invite each son and daughter of God to come unto Christ and to guide him or her along the covenant path. Nothing is more important. Our work is all about people and covenants.” I love these quotes and as such I would like to focus my talk today on what I feel is the driving force of the gospel—God’s love for us, his people, and His power to change us.
To start out I would like to talk about something that I feel is sometimes forgotten, individuality. While I do think that we do understand that we are not the same as each other I don’t think we fully understand how amazing that is, and far too frequently we just end up focusing on the negatives. Too often we drift to the dangerous “Oh I’m not as good as this person” mindset, which I believe not only makes us less able to accomplish the great things that our loving Heavenly Father has in store for us, but also makes it harder for us to feel His love for us. Each of us is imperfect, but God has promised that as we each try our best that He will give us the spiritual gifts necessary for our progression and for the strengthening of others. This principle is illustrated beautifully in one of my favorite scriptures D&C 46:9 which says “For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts.” One of my favorite parts of this scripture is the merciful phrase “and him that seeketh so to do”, because unfortunately, despite my best efforts I’m not perfect yet, and without God’s help I know that that’s not something that’s going to happen. But this scripture gives me peace because I know that as long as I am honestly trying my best and I have good intentions that God will make up the difference, and not just for me. I know that he’ll help me so that I can help you, and he’ll help you so you can help me. One of the greatest things about serving a mission was being constantly surrounded by amazing people who are doing their best to serve God. I had the opportunity to serve with 14 different companions from all around the world who have each taught me something new. Each one was unique and had their own way of going about missionary work, but the most effective times of my mission were always when my companion and I were working in harmony and when I could feel the love that my companion had for me and the people we were serving. It’s such a small thing but I feel like that gift of Christlike love brought the spirit in a tangible, undeniable manner. 
One thing that I’ve loved about my mission is the way that God has taught me. It always seemed that as soon as I thought I understood how God worked something unexpected would happen. So for this story we go to the end of my mission where part of my assignment was to cover the city of Lezhe, where there were only 3 members, all of which were less active when I got there. The oldest of the 3 is named Denis, he enjoys church but is a very shy person and as such has a hard time becoming friends with the missionaries, but there was one thing that was really able to help us form a connection; video games. Before my mission I loved video games and played them all the time, but then as I left for my mission I figured that all that time had been practically wasted and wouldn’t help me over the next two years, but sure enough God proved me wrong. Denis loved video games and played a bunch of the same games that I had played before my mission, so as we talked about that we were able to form a great relationship where we were able to meet more often and he quickly started coming back to church. Now I’m not saying that video games is the answer to everything, but it was one way that God was able to show me that he knew me and use something I loved to serve him. And I do know that as you all try to do everything we can to serve God and his children He’ll use you and your special talents in ways that you could never expect. For me one time it was playing video games, another time it was listening to people, or maybe even a love of Star Wars. All good things can be used by God to serve his children because just like us all of them are different. I believe that one of the main reasons that missionaries go out two by two is because sometimes one companion just isn’t right for that person. And God will lead us into situations to use these talents if we’re willing to trust him and follow.
But things don’t always have to be such dramatic one time events. Often times you just need to try your very best and be a Christlike person so you can have the Spirit with you. One of the best examples of this came while I got to serve as branch clerk in Shkoder. I loved getting to do that because I got to work even more with the branch president there, president Zefi. He’s only been a member for about 3 years, but over the course of those three years he’s become an amazingly strong, humble, patient, loving, and diligent leader. He was just barely put in as the branch president and due to the youngness of the branch he has a lot of work ahead of him, and while doing our best to work together I was able to learn a ton from his example. He reads the scriptures for hours a day and when he’s not studying he’s at his job, working in his orchard, or learning English all so he can better serve his family and the members of his branch. And the members can tell. They love him and support him, he prays for them and they pray for him, and because of this the spirit is so strong in church on Sundays. You can really feel the love they have for each other and everyone leaves spiritually uplifted, just because everyone tries their best and forgives each other for their weaknesses. And this allows everyone to help each other in their personal path back to our Heavenly Father.
Now even though we are all different and we all have our personal weaknesses we can’t let this become an excuse for complacency. God loves us too much for that. He can’t let us settle for what we are right now, he knows that there is so much more out there for us. And as such, one of the most important things about the gospel is that it requires constant effort to produce permanent change. My favorite scripture is found in Ether 12:27 which says “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Now the Lord makes us two great promises in this verse; the first is that if we come unto Him He will show unto us our weaknesses. This isn’t a He might show unto us our weaknesses or he could show us our weaknesses, but he will show us. And the answer why is given right after the promise—So that we may be humble. I feel like humility is one of the most critical christlike attributes because without it we will never accept the need to change. In Mosiah 3:19 “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” So as this scripture says we need to put off the natural man and as such we must become as children and we need to accept everything that our Father sees fit to give us. Sometimes this can be so hard because we always think that we know better, but in my life as I’ve looked back on some of the hardest times of my life they’ve all had a purpose, when things haven’t gone as I hoped I’ve always looked back and found that it ended up being for the best and I’ve been so grateful that God didn’t let me just wander following my best instincts. I love that our Heavenly Father tells us that we need to become as children because they truly are the best examples of humility. One of my favorite Mormon messages is called Earthly Father, Heavenly Father and for those of you who haven’t seen it it shows a day in the life of a father in relation to his family and then likens it to the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father. At one point in the video the father talking about his kids says “I work that they may grow. They trust so deeply. How I yearn to do the same. They see so little of how it all came to be—never questioning, only trusting.” One thing that I quickly understood on my mission was that the only people who would really accept the gospel were the people who were humble and childlike. As we would be out on the street everyday we would encounter countless people who would reply to our invitation to learn more that they already knew everything. And because of that they are completely unable to learn! On the other hand some of my favorite investigators were three girls from our English course in the city of Fier. They were between the ages of 11 and 15 and after coming to English course and branch activities for a little while we gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon and decided to invite them to church as well. Very quickly they became some of the most active people in the branch; and why was this? I believe that in a large portion it was due to their humility. Whenever we invited them to do something they did it with a smile, they studied the Book of Mormon every day and took notes, they came to church at least 30 minutes early and then studied reverently on the first row until church started and became great friends with the members. Unfortunately their parents won’t let them be baptized right now, but yet they still continue to come and to read and pray just waiting for the day that they can be baptized. And so if we follow the examples of these remarkable youth God will grant unto us the second promise by making weak things strong unto us. After all, as stated in Moses 1:39 God’s work and His glory is to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”.
So now I would like to talk a little bit about our personal responsibility to share this wonderful message. Because God loves all His children He wants all of them to be as happy as possible, the answer to which comes only through the gospel. Now in kind of a silly comparison, if you had a plate of brownies that never ran out you’d probably want to share them right? After all it’s not like by sharing them you lose anything, and plus by doing so you would make someone’s day better. Now imagine how much more sharing the gospel can change someone’s life than just a dessert. And this is something that was made strikingly clear on my mission. I grew up for my whole life here in Utah, a place where most people are members and it’s generally expected to live a good Christlike life. But now all of the sudden I was thrown into a completely different culture in the middle of Europe, in a place where most people not only hadn’t heard of our church, most people weren’t even Christian. And while I do love and truly respect all religions for the good they do and for their effect in bringing people closer to God based on the truths that they have, no one else has the full picture. And that is why it is so crucial that we invite everyone to take part in this. But of course that can often times seem like a scary thing to do. Sometimes we are afraid that we’ll offend people or that they just won’t listen to us, but as long as we’re living like we’re supposed to we should be providing the example necessary to give us power in our invitations. In one of his talks President Uchdorf has said “preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” And that “the most powerful sermons are unspoken.” But as I’m sure we all know nothing usually happens until an invitation is extended. And the result of this sometimes isn’t immediate. In my second area, Vlore, there were some members with a ton of desire to do missionary work who really understood the idea of invitations. One member in particular, Anxhela, had a good friend, Kristi, that she really wanted to get to come to church. So she invited her, and she didn’t come. So she invited her again, and she didn’t come again. And this went on and on for about three years, but in the mean time, she continued to do what she was supposed to. She lived a good life as an active member, and then finally one Sunday she was assigned to give a talk. So seeing this as a golden opportunity she decided to invite her friend she made the invite, and this time she came! She enjoyed church and liked her friend’s talk. So sure enough the next week she was in church again, and then again the week after, and the week after that. And then after getting in contact with Anxhela we were able to set up a lesson with the two of them and another member Leo, who is also a great member missionary. We gave her the Book of Mormon and taught her about the amazing message of the restoration. And I was blown away by how well the lesson went. She was comfortable there, she had a lot of super good questions, and the spirit was super strong. So then she started reading the Book of Mormon gained a super strong testimony that it was true, saying that if she ever doesn’t read it her day will automatically go bad. And now just a little later, she’s been baptized and is currently serving as the gospel principles teacher in the ward. But now lets think back at what would have happened if her friend had given up after the first or second, or maybe even tenth time. I don’t know, but maybe she wouldn’t be a member right now and she wouldn’t have all the blessings that have come into her life because of the gospel. So just remember the impact that your actions can have if you have faith and you are determined. After all not everyone is going to be ready the first time they received an invitation or the first time they meet with missionaries. Such was the case with another amazing person named Kristi, this time from Durres. He he met with the missionaries about three years ago. He was a nice guy and he enjoyed meeting with the missionaries but he wasn’t really ready to commit or join the church at that moment. But while he was living in Italy for school he decided to do some more studying of our church and on his own gained a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the word of wisdom and Joseph Smith’s call as a prophet. So then when he returned to Durres he had set out to find the missionaries again, and a few days later he did and was later baptized. So just remember that as you invite people that you are showing them that you love them and that you are showing God you love him too. And never get discouraged, just as God has a personal plan for you he has a plan for them and he will help prepare the hearts of those who are ready to hear your message, even if it’s not in our timetable.
And now lastly I’d like to talk to you about the joy and love that comes into our lives as we embrace the gospel and share it with others. As Lehi tells us in 2 Nephi 2:25 “Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy”. So how can we achieve that joy in a world that is becoming more and more turbulent day after day. In this day and age many people worry every day about the state of the world and live in a state where they can not have true peace. But as I’ve learned on my mission peace is always available if we turn to Christ, the prince of peace. As we learn to look unto Him in every thought, to doubt not and to fear not we being to understand the true brilliance of God’s plan and we trust in his all knowingness. So how can we achieve this? I believe that in order to truly have this we have to receive a witness from time to time that we are living a life that is in harmony with God’s will. And if we aren’t sure then we need to ask him, and he will always tell us, and show us how to improve. And then we will feel of his amazing love for us, which is described in 1 Nephi 11 as “Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things… yea, and the most joyous to the soul.” And to illustrate this point I would like to talk about the first investigator that I had on my mission, Lindis. He had met the missionaries just a couple days before I got into the country. So by the time I got there they had had a few lessons with him, he had already started a habit of daily Book of Mormon reading and was meeting with the missionaries every day. So even though I didn’t really understand him for the first little while I quickly grew to love this person. I remember being in the lesson where he finally accepted to be baptized. He had refused every time for the past few lessons because he had been baptized as a child into the Orthodox Church to which we always just responded by saying “then just pray and ask God if it’s something that you need to do”. Then one lesson as we were getting to that point of the lesson I remember him saying “I don’t need to pray anymore, I prayed last night and God answered me, I need to be baptized”. But the remarkable thing about him wasn’t just that he was baptized, it was the journey afterwards. For my first 6 months in country he did not miss church once, one time he even came home early from vacation just so he could be in time for church. He also continued to read the Book of Mormon every day, out loud so his whole family can hear, which actually ended up in having his two younger sisters get baptized as well. He also became good friends with the local members and often times they go do fun things together with the express intent of finding new people that they can invite to join them and share the gospel with. He has received the Melchizedek priesthood and is now the Sunday school president in his branch. And all of this was just to say that I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father allowed me to be a part of this amazing man’s conversion. I was with him from the beginning and I love him like my own brother. I have seen a miraculous change come over him, he looks happier, he has friends, he’s healthier, his life has purpose and joy, and I know that all of these things are blessings given to him from God because he has joined this church and has developed a personal relationship with his Father in Heaven. Seeing this has strengthened my testimony and confidence that God knows and loves me too. And now I can say with complete surety that the gospel will make everyone happier. It’s not something made for just a select few people but a gift offered freely to all those who want it and are willing to work for it. And the prize is amazing as it says in 3 Nephi 28:10 “And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one;” That is what God in His infinite love wants for each and every one of us—a fullness of joy and the opportunity to live with Him again for eternity. And there’s no better gift we could ask for.
Now just to close I would like to bear my testimony in my mission language. Something that was always my favorite part of these as a kid, because even though you may not understand the words I hope you can feel the spirit testifying that they are true.

Deshmia

And I say these things humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.



Stake High Council Report:  Elder Hunt, Elder Madsen, Elder Gardiner, Elder Williams


Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Welcome Home Elder Gardiner


Last Night in Albania


July 30th

Përshëndetje familja!

Well as I'm sure all of you know by now transfer calls came in this week, and sure enough I'll be transferred to Highland Utah. It's been a beautiful two years and I'm so glad that I was blessed enough to serve in this amazing mission. As I've been thinking back on this past phase of my life I've been filled with immense gratitude for the many amazing people that God has put into my path. Whether it's been investigators ready to be converted, people I've taught who still haven't reached that landmark of baptism, less-active members I've served, or just strong members who have strengthened me with their love, diligence, and faith; I could sit here and try and write out all their names, but I don't have that much time, and I'm not sure even an email could fit that much, truly all of them have changed me. I love this amazing country and the awesome people here, Albania will always have a very special and unique place in my heart.

Now as for my last week in Shkoder I would like to share a little about a miracle that has happened over these last few weeks of my mission. It has to do with our amazing friend Elsuid. He's been searching for the truth for all his life, he's gone around to all the religions just trying to find it, but he just couldn't ever find the one. Until now. As we've been meeting with him and he has studied the Book of Mormon and the amazing doctrines of the Restoration of the Gospel, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Word of Wisdom it's caused him to cry out in joy that he's finally found the end of his search. That God truly has directed his path and brought him to His true church. In one of our lessons this week he shared an extremely powerful testimony saying that he has sought God all his life, praying every day to find the truth and that now that he's found it he will sacrifice everything to come unto Him. Right now he is working on saving up for a bicycle so that he can come to church every week and then his next plan is to serve a mission so that he can share this wonderful message with everyone else. And he's already started, this week he brought his best friend into a lesson with us (and he loved it too) and then he invited us to his birthday party so that we could get to know his family better and share the gospel with them too! He truly is a miracle.

Before I end I would like to share a scripture from Omni that one of my companions shared with me at the beginning of my mission that has stuck with me throughout my time here "And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." I would just like to testify that these words are true, and not only that we will be saved, but we will be changed. I love the Lord and I love the time I've had to serve him here in the country of Albania, the cities of Elbasan, Vlorë, Durrës, Fier, Shkodër, and Lezhë; and I look forward to serving wherever the Lord may call me.

I love you all! See you on Wednesday!
Elder Gardiner

Monday, July 23, 2018

July 23rd

Përshëndetje familja!

Hey hopefully I'll have a little more time to write later. But just a quick update, I'm in Kosovo right now. I was on an exchange last week with Elder Richards and we were talking about how I never went to Kosovo, so he said I should go visit Elder Murray and long story short I'm in Prizren, Kosovo. We just had a super fun day hanging out with the Gjakova Elders. I took a bunch of pictures and bought some fun stuff while we've been here. Hopefully we'll catch a bus quick and have more time to email when we get back, but we'll see.

So other than that, highlights of the week have been: exchange with Elder Richards, awesome lesson with Elsuid(our media referral from last week), stake clerk and his wife came to church with us and it was awesome!

It's been a great week. Super busy and a little crazy. Today is the first time I've left Albania in almost two years, and probably the last until I go home.

Love you all!
Elder Gardiner

Now we're back in Shkoder

I have a bunch of pictures from my excursion to Kosovo, but I don't have my camera cord so I can't upload them. So I'll try to send those next week, and if not then I'll just show you them when I get home.  In Kosovo, there were a ton of mosques.  But like other than that, we went to a museum and then visited the castle. the drive there was super pretty though. You go through the mountains and there are a bunch of lakes, rivers, and canyons. It's amazing.  Yeah and one of the biggest reasons that we went is that if Elder Murray doesn't get transferred then today would've been my last time to see him, so I wanted to get to hang out with him at least one more time before I go.

Thanks for the info about my talk at church, yeah I'm kind of used to talking in church now, but I'm used to doing it in Albanian. So it'll probably still be as hard as ever now that I have to do it in English again!

Monday, July 16, 2018

July 16

Përshëndetje familja!

This has been an exciting week here in Shkoder/Lezhe! So here are some of the highlights.

For the first time in my mission we got a media referral! For those who don't know what that is, that's when someone goes to one of the church's websites and requests to meet with the missionaries. The next day we were planning on going to Lezhe but the guy lives in Shkoder, so we called him, but he didn't answer. Then when we got to Lezhe we got a call back from him, he told us he was actually in Lezhe right then. So we met up and had a great first lesson. He's been around to a bunch of different churches and religions trying to find the truth and every time he's gone away disappointed. So we talked about the restoration and about how two hundred years ago a young boy had the same question and he was so sincere that God himself appeared to him and told him what to do, and that if he's sincere as he reads the Book of Mormon God will tell him the truth. We shared a lot of scriptures with him and he kept saying that they were true, so hopefully he reads and prays about the Book of Mormon! Hopefully more to report with him next week!

We finally got to meet with that guy I talked about a few weeks ago, Pjeter. We had a great talk about Jesus Christ and his power to change us and shared a bunch of scriptures from the Book of Mormon about Christ's power to change people through the atonement, shared our testimonies, and then gave him a book. He said he'd like to meet up again sometime.
We had a super exchange with Elders Miller and England. They came up to Shkoder on Wednesday night through Thursday. We had some awesome discussions about the mission and it's power to change people, and just reflected on the past year and what's happened since they came into the mission(they're in Elder Murray's group that came in like a year ago). They're both super good missionaries and it was great getting to work with them. Elder England and I went to Lezhe and just did a lot of finding, and we found a ton of cool people. We went out and there weren't very many people out so we just walked around the city talking to people and met some great people, and got a ton of phone numbers. Now we're just working on actually meeting with all of them again.

Then on Sunday we got to church early, we had invited a ton of people who had all said they were coming to church that day. And then no one came. So that kind of stunk, but because one of the members didn't show up I got to give a talk, again, and I'm so glad that I got to do that. I looked out into the audience and just felt the spiritual power of the people there and thought about how God had prepared and blessed them, and I thought about their commitment to God and his church and how much each of them sacrifice to be there each week and it was a very unique feeling. I was able to give a really good talk and I just got to think about how much each of the people there had changed me. I'm so glad that I get to serve here. It truly has been a blessing. And I'm glad that I still have two more weeks to serve these amazing people!

That's about it for me today. I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Gardiner

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

July 9

Përshëndetje familja! 

Well it's been another good week here in Shkoder. Not a whole not of new stuff to report, this week has kind of just flown by.

As for investigators, we had a really good lesson with a family that lives in a village just outside of Shkoder. I had met them a long time ago, but after calling them a few times they seemed to not be interested. But as we were planning Saturday I felt like I needed to give them one last try, so I called them up and they said we could come over at 3:30. Right as we were walking back from another lesson at 2:30 it started pouring rain so hard that the city instantly started flooding, so we weren't sure we would be able to make it to the lesson. But then right at 3:15 the sun came out and the weather was beautiful for the rest of the day and we were able to go. We had the lesson with the dad, Artan, and his mom, his son, his wife, and a few neighbors came out and listened too. The spirit was strong in the lesson and they seemed to be listening really intently, and they said they'd definitely read the Book of Mormon. We'll go back some time this week.

I contacted this one lady in Lezhe and as we were talking I felt like we needed to just sit down and have a lesson right then, so we did. As we were talking about the restoration and testifying of the importance of families she said that her husband had actually just passed away unexpectedly not too long ago. So we testified of the power that the atonement has to bind families for forever. She wants us to come to her house and teach her whole family once her kids come back from working in Velipoje for the summer. Unfortunately they don't come back until the end of August, but they seem like they'll have a lot of potential when they come back.

Also this week was an amazing 4th of July celebration. That day we had district meeting, so we all showed up decked out in red, white, and blue, said the pledge of allegiance and sang the patriotic hymns. One of the best parts of the day was a spiritual thought given during the meeting by Elder Miller about freedom. He taught about the miracle of freedom provided through our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that only through him can we have freedom in this life and in the next. Then we all went out to the Stephen's Center, a restaurant made by American missionaries and had the most American meal we could with all the Tirana missionaries. It was a great day and a good last holiday here in Albania.

Other than that, we got to meet with Denis and with Amadeo this week. It had been a little while since we had gotten to meet with them so that was really good. Amadeo, who for the past little while had been working 20 hours a day, said that he feels so much better now that he got to talk to us again, and that he'll be able to come to church this Sunday! Then yesterday after church we stopped by Prenda, who's a less active here. We had a great lesson about charity and got to talk about all the stuff she's been reading and learning from the scriptures recently. And as a fun little thing, we found this authentic Japanese sushi restaurant here in Shkoder. The workers are both from Japan and they have a special offer where the sushi is 20% off on Saturdays so we've made it a fun tradition, also cause Elder Perry is half Japanese.

Things are going well, still loving it here. Sounds like you all had a great 4th of July, and I hope you all have a great week! 

Love you all!
Elder Gardiner

July 2


Përshëndetje familja!

Another good week in Shkoder, not a whole ton of new stuff going on, but we have had a few awesome moments this week.

I'll start out with one of the best contacts I've had here in Albania. So we started walking to go contact and we had picked out a place that we were going to go, but when we got there we just kind of decided that we needed to be somewhere else. So we started walking and just no place really felt right, so we just kept walking. Eventually we had be walking for a little while and felt like the place we were was good enough so we started contacting. This was the day after zone conference so I was feeling extra excited to talk to people, and I said hi to this one guy and he stopped but didn't seem super interested, but we kept talking and I felt like I needed to find out more about this guy so we started talking about his life. Turns out he had lived in America for 27 years, he just got back a year ago, he had made some mistakes and spent some time in jail before getting sent back to Albania. But then we got on the topic of religion and said he was protestant and that while he was in jail that he had pleaded for forgiveness and he said he really felt Christ take away his pain and his sorrow. He loves studying the Bible and loves Christ with all his heart. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met and he said he'd love to meet again this week to talk more. As we were talking I felt the spirit so amazingly strong, just another amazing testimony that Christ lives.

We also had a great zone conference. We have some great leaders here who all did a great job giving us some new ideas and inspiration. It was sad with that being my last zone conference, but it was cool getting to have 4 of us from our MTC group there.

On Sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting. The branch president's wife, daughter, and granddaughter (who is like 2 years old and is the cutest) all came (they're all non-members) and they had a great time. The members just love them so much and I think they could really feel that. His daughter even stayed for both hours. Then over in Lezhe Danjela and Denis both came to church again! It's super unique having a fast and testimony meeting where literally everyone in the congregation stands up to bear their testimonies. And they were all great testimonies!

In other fun news, the mighty Adriatic South Mission now covers 5 countries. President and the APs went to Greece today to start a mission tour and then they'll be off to Cyprus later on in the week.

Then for P-day today we learned how to make a traditional chicken and potatoes meal with one of the members, and it was great. I guess now is as good a time as any to learn to cook before going off to college!

That's about it for me today. I love you all and I'm sure going to make this last month count! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner
Photos from Zone Conference




June 25

Përshëndetje familja!

Well this has been a great week up here. Lots of time for finding, but also some first lessons!
To start out with the people. We found a new investigator this week named Ardian. He's a really cool kid who lives in a village near Lezhe. I met him a little while ago and then we were able to meet up and talk about the restoration. He seemed like he was understanding what we were teaching, and he had actually already started reading the Book of Mormon before we met. He'll be in Tirana for a couple weeks but when he gets back we'll meet up with him. 

Then we also met with a family that lives near Shkoder this week. We called them and they gave us a rough address so we decided to just go give it a try and find it. So we went out and after calling them a few times and driving all around a village we found them. Then we went in and had a good lesson with the family! They took a book and said they'd read it. So we'll go follow up with them sometime soon too.

Other things from the week: We have a new district, and two of my favorite missionaries just got moved into our district, Elders Richards and Miller. So District meeting was super amazing and powerful, and then it was fun hanging out with all of them at district lunch afterwards. President Zefi's daughter is in town visiting him for a month, and she came to church on Sunday. She's super cool and fits right in with the branch. Denis, Danjela, and Danida all came to church on Sunday! That means we had 100% Lezhe church attendance! We did service at a less active members house, that's a bunch of fun and brought a huge smile to her face.

Today we went and played some ping pong and then ate some traditional food. We decided to be adventurous, so we tried head meat stew, dirt casserole, and then just got the regular rice and french fries. I'll send pictures of that next week. All of it was surprisingly good too.

This week we have Zone Conference. I'm really excited for it, but it's also my last Zone Conference. So that'll be really weird.

That's about it for me, love you all! Have a great week! 
Elder Gardiner

June 18

Përshëndetje familja!

Well once again it's been a fun week up here in Shkoder. But before I get into that, as the biggest matter of business, transfer calls were this weekend. Luckily, everything turned out as I had hoped. I'll be staying here in Shkoder/Lezhe with Elder Perry for my last transfer. I'm super pumped for the time we have and we're going to make it count. Unfortunately I'm a little low on time today so I'll make this short.

A lot of great things happened this week, including an exchange with the Zone Leaders which always makes things even better. We've done a ton of finding this week and managed to get a lot of numbers. We've set up appointments and had a couple lessons, hopefully more to come. While on exchange with Elder Mortensen, who I've now gone on exchanges with in 5 different cities through Albania, we were able to have a great lesson with some people from our English Course in Lezhe. They go to a school with American teachers so they decided to ask their teachers what they think about Mormons. And it turned out to be mostly positive, so that was great, and the negative things we were able to clear up easy enough, and then we were able to bear a powerful testimony that they can know personally if what we teach is true or not if they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

It rained super hard and even hailed a few times this week, which was pretty unexpected. Luckily it didn't really even interfere with our work. 

We've been working with a guy named Gjergj for a little bit now. He said he wants to be baptized and become a member, and he always seems really committed to do what we say, but he still hasn't shown up for church. Hopefully this week we can change that. 

This Sunday was fantastic and full of miracles. I was assigned to give a talk in Shkoder but forgot until that morning, but I was able to find a bunch of scriptures and talks that were exactly what I felt like I needed to talk about. Also, about 15 minutes before church started we heard the door open and someone start talking in English, and then in walks a member from Taiwan! She's been baptized for 10 years and was here on vacation for one day, which happened to be Sunday, so she looked up where she could go to church from LDS.org and was able to find our church. One of the members translated for her and it was a super powerful spiritual experience for all the members. It was awesome to see how quickly all of them cheerfully brought her in and made her feel at home, a great example of Christlike love for our brothers and sisters of the gospel. Then Denis and Danjela both came to church in Lezhe, rounding out the perfect Sunday. 

Then today we got up early and went down to Tirana to hang out with the other missionaries and do a few other things. I bought a suit and then we went and got some lunch with the Tirana missionaries. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them, some of them possibly for the last time. And then as another example of God's care for us, we were walking back to get a bus to Shkoder but turns out I don't know the bus stop for buses that go that way, so we were lost. Some people pointed us the way and as we were walking we saw a bus just ahead of us with a sign for Shkoder, so we were able to get quickly back to Shkoder!

I'm super excited for these last 6 weeks, and I feel like some miracles will happen over this next little while. I love these cities and the people here, it's been such a blessing to serve here.

I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Gardiner




Sunday, June 17, 2018

June 11

Përshëndetje familja!

Another good week up here in Shkoder. On the bright side, we've completely finished moving and working everything out with the apartments! So that means we've had a lot more time to go finding and to meet with people!

So it's summer right now, and it's super hot and humid, so naturally people don't really like being outside and instead they just sleep all day. So that makes finding a little bit harder, but we've been making it work. We've got a bunch of numbers these past couple days that we're working on calling and meeting up with. We've actually run into a bunch of really cool people, hopefully we can actually set up some lessons!

As for other people that we're working with, we met with the Jakajs again this week. We had a good lesson with them, they still aren't reading or coming to church though. They said that they're almost through the most busy time of the year though, so hopefully as soon as that passes they'll start progressing more. They love learning with us and you can tell that they really feel the spirit, then they just don't do the small things every day that they need to keep a testimony going.

Other than them, we've got two people named Gjergj. One of them lives in Lezhe, we've met with him a couple times but he still hasn't come to church. So we met and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the lesson went really well. He seemed to understand what we were teaching. So hopefully something comes out of that. The other lives in Shkoder and has been meeting with the missionaries for years, so we do spiritual thoughts with him every once in a while. His only problem is keeping commitments. Sometimes he'll do what we tell him, but he's kind of unreliable. So if he just starts coming to church and meeting with us a little more often I can see him progressing.

And then other than them we still have the Beqiris. They're the members in Lezhe and both Danjela and Danida came to English Course this week which was fun because we hadn't seen Danida in a few weeks. We played games and taught English then had a quick lesson at the end and it went really well. They said they would try to come to church on Sunday, but for some reason they weren't able to come this week.

Church was really good this week though. It was fast Sunday and the members here never cease to amaze me. There are only 8 active members in the Shkoder branch yet every fast Sunday there is never a moment of awkward silence waiting for someone to come up and talk. They have super powerful testimonies and they love sharing them. This week President Zefi even had me conduct the meeting so I got to share my testimony too. The members here are so amazing!

Then today we had a fun P-day with the Tirana 4th ward Elders who came up to visit us. We gave them a tour of the city and the castle and then got lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. It was a lot of fun and it was great having some other missionaries in the city with us. And as a bonus, while we were at the castle this tourist from Spain came over and talked to us and said that he has a ton of respect for our church and that all the missionaries he's talked to have all been super polite and respectful. So that was fun.

Well that's about it for me. Elder Perry and I are still doing great, serving with him is great. This is the week of transfer calls, and we're both really hoping to not get a call. But we shall see.

Love you all! Have an amazing week!
Elder Gardiner