April 23

Përshëndetje familja!

Another great week here in Shkoder. We've been way busy so this week has pretty much just blown by. 

The most exciting thing this week was the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the country of Albania to missionary work. 25 years ago today President Oaks came and offered the dedicatory prayer officially opening Albania to the fullness of the gospel. On Saturday we had a great activity in Tirana where some of the first pioneer members in Albania, one of the original 4 missionaries sent to Albania, and President Oaks(through a special video) shared their thoughts on the sacred moment when the dedicatory prayer was offered 25 years ago. It's was so cool getting to hear all of those testimonies, Albania really is the best, I'm so glad that I get to serve here now. Also I got to meet a bunch of members from all my past areas, so that's always a plus. Also it was super amazing getting to hear from President Oaks and feeling that he truly is an apostle of God and it's so evident from the miracles that have come from the day he said that prayer. One part that really stuck out to me in the dedicatory prayer is where he said " And now, in the authority of the holy priesthood, and in the office of an apostle which I hold, I turn the key for the preaching of the gospel in this land of Albania.  I open the door for thy work in this land that the gospel may be proclaimed here, that this message in its fullness may lighten this land and bless the lives of its people." And I can testify that the gospel has and continues to bless the lives of its people, day by day.

One thing that we've really seen this week is how much God has us in his hands as his missionaries. We had so many experiences this week where we "just happened to be at the right place at the right time." First example, on Monday we went contacting in a city called Laç for the first time and I got a few numbers and set up a lesson for Wendesday. We pulled into Laç got out and went to the place where we were going to meet the new potential investigator when right then Vëllai Jakaj walks right by. So he got his daughter (a member) from her English course and we had a quick lesson with them. Then that night we ran into two people that we had met days before but lost contact with. Friday we were at the church for a meeting and right then Amadeo walks up and says he wants to meet(we hadn't been able to find him for two weeks), and then as we're leaving we ran into two members who were looking for us so they could bring a friends to our English Course. Then that night there was a bit of a miscommunication which led us to have to cancel two lessons and left us with about 45 minutes to contact when right then one of the people I had called that morning walked up to me and asked if we had time right then to have a lesson. And it ended up being a great lesson, and now he wants to bring one of his friends with him next time we meet. I can't really do justice to any of these stories, but it was so awesome seeing all these miracles throughout the week.

Now for our investigators. Pali is doing great. We met with him a bunch last week including a member present lesson with Amadeo. He's continuing to progress, read, pray and learn. We're still trying to get a lesson with his whole family, but I think that may happen this week.

Julian is also doing awesome. We meet with him every time we go to Lezhe and he's come to church two weeks in a row now. We had a great lesson with him after church on Sunday where we taught the plan of Salvation. He understands everything we teach super well and is so ready to do anything we invite him to do. He's already in 1 Nephi 12 and he said he's felt something special reading the Book of Mormon and he loves it. So in that lesson we invited him to be baptized and he accepted! Lezhe really needs some solid members and he has the potential to become an amazing church leader. He's so awesome.

Well that's about it for me this week. Lots of amazing experiences, and a lot of work. I've been thinking back on my mission this week and I just feel so grateful that God let me serve here at this time. He's done so many amazing things through me and he's put me into contact with so many special people. It's an indescribable feeling.

I love you all! Have a great week! Zoti ju bekoftë!

Elder Gardiner 

April 16

Përshëndetje familja!

Another good week here in Shkoder! It's starting to get hot here, which is a big change from all the snow just a couple weeks ago. But in even better news, the work is going great here.

To start out with Pali. We weren't able to have a lesson with him this week because whenever his phone wasn't working for most of the week and then when it was either he was busy or we were. But he did come to church and brought his little sister too, and he had a great time. Now we have a lesson set with him for tomorrow so all's well that ends well. It's awesome whenever we run into him because he always gets so happy whenever he sees us.

We met with Arben again this week after a long time not seeing him and had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation. He got super surprised when we taught the part about the premortal life, because no other religion teaches that, but he got a strong witness that it's true. He said he knows that our church is the truth now. We invited him to be baptized, but he said he's way too busy now so maybe in the summer.

Then to make things even better we have an awesome investigator in Lezhe. His name is Julian, he's in his twenties and he works for the military. He's disappointed with way young people act here in Albania and says that it's because they don't believe in God. He said God has blessed him and protected him a ton of times in his life and when he saw us he was very happy to meet and talk about God. We met with him for the second time this Friday and the lesson was super powerful, he looked like he really felt the spirit. And then to cap it all off, he even came to church on Sunday! He walked to all the way to church even though he had badly hurt his foot at work that morning. And he said we can keep meeting whenever we want. That's the first time we've had an investigator in church in Lezhe since I got here over two months ago, so that's a very welcome change.

Another cool experience. Last Friday a group of girls asked if we could help them with English, but said they couldn't come to our scheduled English Course because it was too late. At first I was just going to say no, but I felt like we needed to do it, so we set it up for this Friday. About 15 minutes into the class they asked us why we were here and what we do, so we explained that we're here to serve people and God and teach people about Jesus Christ. They liked that because they're catholic and then they started just asking a whole bunch of questions that they've had about religion recently like "how can I know if God exists?" "is there life after death?" "do we know what God looks like?", which of course are all answered through the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration. So we taught them a quick lesson and gave them a book and they said they'll read it all this weekend.

Then yesterday we had to come to a choir practice for the 25 year anniversary of the church in Albania this Saturday, so we ended up staying the night and playing some frisbee and soccer with the Tirana missionaries this morning. And on our way back we decided to stop in a city called Laç which is technically in our area(it's like 25 minutes away from Lezhe) and do some tabling. People basically flocked to us and were so interested to see what we were doing, and I ended up getting more people's numbers in those two hours than I had in the past week in a half. So hopefully there's some potential there.

Lastly, we had another temple prep class this week with the Pali's(a member couple here). They're super amazing, and they're so excited to go to the temple either in May or the next temple trip after that. Being here has definitely made me understand what a blessing it is to have the temple 15 minutes away from my house instead of 20 hours away. Also the Rome Italy temple is going to be such a blessing for the Albanian members, can't wait for that to open next March.

To put it shortly, I'm doing well and still loving things here. Albania is such an amazing special place.
Have a great week! Zoti ju bekoftë!
Elder Gardiner

April 9

Përshëndetje familja!

Well this has been another great week. But unfortunately I do not have a whole lot of time. So here's a short run down on the week.

Pali is doing well. He's a super cool kid. We met with him on Saturday and had a great lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said the prayer at the end of the lesson and it was a super amazing prayer. He's definitely been practicing at home.

I had an exchange with Elder Harris who is serving as the Zone Leader here in Tirana right now and it was super fun. He served here in Shkoder before going to Tirana so we met with some of the people he knew and it was fun seeing how excited they were to see him. He's one of my best friends here in the mission so it was great getting to talk and work with him. He's a super hard worker and he loves being a missionary. While with him we had a few great lessons in Lezhe and it seemed like we would have a ton of investigators actually come to church. But they didn't. So what do you do. It was a good week anyway.

We had zone conference this week and it was super powerful. They talked a lot about conference and the things we all learned from that. One thing that stuck out to me is how important it is for us to sustain and pray for our leaders. I have a very strong testimony that if we love and believe in our leaders that they can receive guidance for us and will know how to serve us. Then most of the rest of the conference was about love and how we all need to love everyone more. It was awesome.

The members here are still super amazing. A few highlights, Amadeo loves watching conference with us and is super converted. Vellai Çermeli gave an amazing testimony about Christ in testimony meeting, I hope everyone was listening because I really felt the spirit as he talked. President Zefi is the coolest, I talked to him about apricot trees (fun fact, the word for apricot changes from southern to northern Albania, Kajsi in south and Zerdili in the north) and gardening while he helped us street contact one day and he's invited us to come work with him on his orchard (he has a ton of apricot trees) out by Lezhe some time at the end of the month.

On Sunday the senior couple from Elbasan came to church in Lezhe and because they were the only ones who came we had church in English and that was fun. I got to bless the sacrament in English and then bear my testimony in English, which I haven't done in years now.

I'm doing great and I'm still getting along great with Elder Isufaj. The mission is awesome!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Elder Gardiner

April 2

Përshëndetje familja!

This has been another good week here in Shkoder. I've been super happy and we've been working hard.

To get right into things, we have a few good investigators and are working on raising that number a bit. The one progressing the most for the moment would be Pali. He came to English Course and we had a good lesson with him and Danjel afterward about the plan of salvation. He's not the fastest learner, but he remembered more than expected. Then he even came to church on Sunday and watched about an hour of conference with us. Danjel is doing ok too, he just went to the huge Catholic Cathedral nextdoor instead of our church on Sunday. But like it was Easter and I don't think he quite understands the Restoration all the way yet, so what do you do.

We met with the Jakaj family again, and it was kind of the same as always. They love having us over and they are interested in learning with us, they just aren't willing to do all the little things throughout the week. We're going to have one more lesson as kind of a big push to act or be dropped and hopefully that'll help. But if not, I'm sure things will change when their son gets back from his mission.

We're teaching an English Course in Shkoder and in Lezhe and in Shkoder we've been having people come for the past few weeks, but no one had come in Lezhe. But this week we went out and passed out fliers for a special Easter devotional and ended up having people come to both English Course and the Easter Devotional. Our Easter Devotional was fun, we ended up having one member and four other people come so we sang some hymns and Elder Isufaj and I gave talks. I had a talk planned from our other Easter Devotional from Shkoder, but as we were planning that morning I felt like I needed to share something different. So I pondered and decided to share the story of the disciples who walk with Christ on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. I talked about how Christ is always there walking with us, we just can't always see it but sometimes we are blessed with special moments where we recognize him and feel our hearts burn within us as we remember the path we've walked together.

The highlight of the week though was definitely general conference. We decided to watch the Saturday morning session together as a branch on Sunday morning in Shkoder and Sunday afternoon in Lezhe. It was so special for all the members to get to participate in the solemn assembly. We also watched it live with Amadeo and it was really powerful getting to stand and publicly declare that I sustain President Russell M. Nelson as God's chosen prophet here on earth. We also watched the Sunday morning session live and that was a super powerful session. I loved all the talks, but the one that really stuck out to me the most was the one by Larry Y. Wilson about prayer and following the spirit.

This week should be great, we'll be having Zone Conference on Thursday which is always super fun. 

That's about it for me. Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner

March 26

Përshëndetje familja

This has been another fun week. Lots of fun experiences. But to start it all out, transfer news. Nothing is changing for us. I'll be staying here in Shkodër/Lezhë with Elder Isufaj, and I'm looking forward to it. This is going to be a great transfer.

To start out with some of our travels. Like usual we were in Tirana for district meeting this week and that went super well. I gave a training on the new European Easter Initiative (apparently we have a different one from all of you in America) and it was really cool seeing the spirit direct all of us in our discussion and I left with a lot of good ideas to implement in my work. After that President Anderson called us in to have interviews with him and it was just what I needed. Elder Isufaj and I hadn't been getting along at all recently and so I was kind of going through a hard time. But just talking to him I really felt the spirit confirm that this man is called of God to care for me and my spiritual well-being. He gave us some things to work on and committed us to make our companionship a positive experience for both of us and recently things have been going super well. Now we're working super well together and getting along really well. So hopefully that keeps up!

In our area we were able to meet with Pali and Danjel twice this week and had some good lessons. They're reading, but they don't understand super well. But when we explain things they seem to understand really well. They love meeting with us and even came to church an hour early this week! We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted. They have a ton of potential.

The biggest surprise probably happened this Sunday when we had Branch Conference. The Stake Presidency came and directed the meeting and it was so good. President Sherbert(the senior couple here) gave an amazing talk about how much his family is blessed because of their choice to join the church, and the stake president gave a super powerful talk about families and difficulty. At the beginning of the meeting though the first counselor in the stake got up and released the branch presidency, which I really didn't see coming. So now we have a local member, Vëllai Zefi, as the new branch president instead of a missionary. He's one of the most amazing people I've ever met so I'm sure he'll do a great job.

Other news. Redi almost got baptized again on Thursday. I had gotten permission to go, but in the end he once again didn't feel ready and backed out. But it actually ended up being a really amazing experience for me because the night before he called me multiple times asking me what he should do. It was amazing feeling the trust he has in me because of how much I've loved and served him and because of that I was able to testify with all my strength about the power of the gospel and the atonement and Christ and prayer. It was one of those moments where I was able to feel the strength of my own testimony. These weren't just memorized answers or a list of scriptures. I was able to say that I know that if we have the required faith and humility that God is able to change us, our hearts, our desires, and therefore our futures. I know that the gospel is the truth and that through the ordinances of baptism and confirmation when performed by proper authority we can become pure in God's eyes. So even though his fear overcame his faith it helped me strengthen mine.

We had a special devotional fireside last night where we talked about "gjithnjë pranë" (always there) which is the new Easter Initiative here in Albania. Not many people came, but it was a great meeting. We sang hymns, Elder Isufaj performed a special song(he's a really talented singer), and we all shared testimonies about how Christ has stood by us always. It was a powerful experience as I sat thinking throughout the week about all the experiences in my life where Christ has been there for me. Even when I haven't seen Him in the moment as I sat and reflected it was so easy to see that he's here in everything in every moment.

Then some fun things. Shkoder can't seem to make up it's mind and every time it gets a little bit warmer the next day it snows and rains. So it's snowed all week, which is crazy because it's the end of March. But other than that, I went on an exchange with Elder Hodson in Tirana 1st ward and it was an awesome exchange. He's a great missionary from Pleasant Grove, Utah who just finished his first 6 weeks here in country. And as a fun surprise, he's the exact same age as Mason. Born August 31, 1999. So that was kind of weird seeing that he's out here in the mission field, it's crazy thinking that Mason is really that age where he could be on a mission right now.

But that's about it for me. I love you all, I'm doing great. The mission is the best.

Elder Gardiner

March 19

Përshëndetje familja!

There were a bunch of really cool things that happened this week. Miracles every day!

A little bit of back story for the first one. There's a recent convert here in Shkoder named Amadeo and he's the coolest. He's definitely one of the best people I've ever met. He just changed jobs so he had time to meet this week and needed some spiritual uplifting. Unfortunately, his phone wasn't working and we don't know where he lives. So we did the one thing we could, pray. We had both been praying to run into him, and then right after we left emailing last Monday we felt like we needed to go tracting in a part of town we hadn't tried before. We got out of our car, took a couple steps and then heard a voice yell "missionaries!" and sure enough there was Amadeo! We had a really good lesson with him, got his new phone number, and found his house, so now we don't have to worry about that happening again!

Tuesday we had a meeting where the APs taught us about the new Easter initiative that's coming out on March 23 and it was super good. All the Tirana missionaries were there so it was fun getting to hang out with all of them for a little bit. Then after that we had to drive back to Shkoder but our car was pretty much out of gas. So we started going to the nearest gas station but then I felt like going to a different one by the mission office so we went, filled up, and then as we were about to pull out the attendant (you don't pump your own gas in Albania) asked if we were with the same church as the guys with the van (the APs). So we explained who we were and about our church and he said he really wanted to learn more. So we got his number and gave it to the APs. 

This Friday we met with a less active member in Lezhe and it was super cool. He's a really shy and quiet guy so it's really hard for the missionaries to connect to him. But he's obsessed with one video game that I used to play before my mission. So when I told him that he got so excited, and we've basically become best friends now. He even came to church this Sunday! I guess it's a good thing I played so much video games before my mission!

On Saturday we went to visit a less active named Prenda. She's an older lady so she has a hard time coming to church, but last time we visited her she asked if we could come some time to move some pieces of firewood from the entrance to her house to her roof. So we went on Saturday and ran into two of our investigators, Pali and Daniel, who live right next to her. So we got to talk to them for a little bit, and we even met their mom who's a super awesome person too! They even helped us with the service too!

Other cool experiences. We met a cool guy tracting who immediately invited us in and let us teach about the Restoration. He left yesterday to visit his daughter in Belgium for a month but said we can come back when he gets back. I gave a talk in church in Shkoder and Lezhe yesterday. Also, we had church in Lezhe which hasn't happened in the past like 5 weeks, so that was cool. I don't know if you remember Fatjon from Durres, but basically he's an investigator I worked with the whole 6 months I was there who almost got baptized multiple times, but he got baptized this week! He's such an awesome guy so I'm super happy for him. He even brought his whole family and a bunch of members came for the baptism.

Shkoder's a great place. I'm super glad that I get to serve here.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner

March 12

Përshëndetje familja!

Another week come and gone. This week was good. We've done a lot of finding and met some new people that are really cool. The rest of our investigators have all been really busy this week though, so we haven't been able to meet with them. Also the weather's been way better this week. The sun was out and shining for most of the week. Until today where it's pouring rain, but that's just Albania for you.

One exciting thing this week though was that we got to meet with Amadeo a bunch. Amadeo is a recent convert here in Shkoder, he was baptized back in August and he's still super strong. But normally he's been working 16 hours a day, so he's not really had any time to sleep, let alone meet with us. But now he's not working that job any more and working on finding a new one so we've been able to meet almost every day. It's been awesome because we actually have no way to contact him (his phone hasn't been working) but we always end up running into him at the perfect time. He has a super strong testimony and loves to study the scriptures, so we've been meeting with him and discussing a ton of really interesting connections between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Other fun things about Amadeo, he's a martial arts master and speaks really good English which he actually learned through google translate. He's super awesome.

Elder Isufaj and I have been teaching a temple preparation class for some of the members here and that's been a super cool experience. There are a ton of super awesome members here who haven't been able to go to the temple yet, who totally need to go. So we're working with them and they're super excited. There's one couple who should be able to go on the stake trip this May and some others that might be able to go in September.

We've also met some cool people this week too. One new person in Lezhe is named Edmond. He's met with the missionaries before but then he left to Italy and lost contact. Now he's back and he seems to have a lot of desire to keep learning. He's catholic and believes a lot in Christ and loves the psalms. Another is Kujtim. We had a really good Restoration lesson with him, he didn't talk a lot, but he seemed engaged and willing to meet again. And then here in Shkoder we also met some cool kids named Pali and Daniel. Pali is 16 and was super polite and seems to have a lot of desire to keep learning. Daniel is his little brother, who doesn't know how to read so normally he wasn't as interested. Hopefully we'll be able to keep meeting with all of them.

One thing that has stuck out to me this week is how much the members here sacrifice for their faith. The Catholic church is super strong here in Shkoder and Lezhe and everyone has a lot of bad misconceptions about our church so the members are all constantly persecuted by family members and neighbors. But they stay strong. They're amazing examples and super strong members.

This week we're going to have a training on the church's Easter initiative so I'm excited to learn more about that and to get to go out and share that.

I'm doing well and still loving Albania.

Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner