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

June 4th

Përshëndetje familja!

Well this has been a really busy week for us here in Shkodër, not a whole lot of investigator work, but plenty of stuff to do.

One of the highlights was our district meeting on Wednesday. President and Sister Anderson and the APs came to our district meeting to give us a few trainings focused on family history work. He taught us about the importance of doing family history work and then showed us some new tools and websites that we can use to find people who need their ordinances done. I've gained a huge desire to do family history work here on my mission, so I'm excited to get to do that when I get home.

Other than that, we were able to meet with Pali this week. It wasn't the best lesson and he said he had stopped reading, but we gave him some assignments and hopefully he's been reading since then. He wasn't in church though, so that was disappointing. We did have a first lesson with a guy named Monti though. He is a bus driver who was here for work one day and ended up with some free time when he ran into Elder Perry. So we sat down and had a quick lesson and got to know him. He said that one of his children had passed away due to a seizure so we were able to testify that families can be together forever and that he will have his kid back one day. He seemed to be super touched by that and said he'll read the whole Book of Mormon while he's on breaks at work.

This Sunday we had a special broadcast for the entire Western Europe area where Elder Uchdorf spoke to us with Elder Patrick Kearon and Sister Joy D. Jones. It was a super cool meeting and the members really enjoyed it. One of the common themes was about us preparing to return home to our Heavenly Homes. They all talked about how much they loved the European saints and how much of a blessing it is for us all to be together. This church is so amazing and I'm so glad to be a part of it.

Then after we finished with that we headed off to Lezhe to have a sacrament meeting. Unfortunately we didn't have the technology to see the broadcast there, but church was still great. Both Denis and Danjela came again, Danjela gave the opening prayer and Denis blessed the sacrament. Then Elder Perry gave a great talk about the atonement and I gave a talk about hope. Church there is super special.

Then today we had a fun experience. We went to this restaurant that we love called San Francisco, and as we sat down and started eating our food the owner came over and talked to us for a little while. He talked about how much he loves us and our work, especially our focus on the family. He went on to explain how he makes sure to take plenty of family time and to have uplifting family activities and talked about how blessed he is because of it. And then he bought us a free Coca Cola. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met, and he has an amazing restaurant. So basically, just remember how important families are.

That's about it for me. Congratulations to Mason for graduation, and Happy Birthday to Annaka! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner 

May 28th

Përshëndetje familja!

Another good week up here in Shkoder. Some cool experiences, and we've been super busy.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to meet with any of our past investigators this week. They all have been busy and unable to meet. But as I'm sure you know by now that just means more chances to go find people. We've gotten some numbers for people that seem to have some potential and then these past couple days we've gotten a lot of referrals from other missionaries, so that's been awesome. I'm super excited to start contacting them over the next couple days.

Other than all that finding we also had our English Course start up this week in both Shkodër and Lezhë. I used to not really like English Course, but recently I've gotten way better at teaching it and it's become way more fun. We have awesome classes in both cities and I think we've got people with potential to become some solid investigators in both classes.

We met with the Jakajs again this week and it ended up being a really good lesson. We went over and they had just finished working for the day, and they said that in the past two weeks since the last time we had met that they weren't able to read because they've been so busy and tired. Which like I understand what they're saying because they really do work so hard, but of course you can always read and learn from the Book of Mormon, even if it's just one page a day. So then I felt like we needed to read Mosiah 24 together to talk about how having trials doesn't mean we're bad people and how God can help us if we put in the effort to reach out to him. It was good and they seemed to like that and then they just started asking a whole bunch of questions and it was awesome because Elder Perry and I were able to work together really well and answer all of them in a way that left them satisfied with the answers. They have a ton of potential they just need to focus a little bit more on the gospel.

One of the biggest highlights of the week happened this Sunday in Lezhe. The past two weeks no one had come to church in Lezhe, and on the way there it wasn't really looking like anyone would. But I got a feeling that someone would come to church this week. So we got there and got everything ready, and then in walked Denis and Daniela! They're both members here in Lezhe who have been less active for a while now. And since they came they were both also willing to help out in church yesterday; Denis passed the sacrament and Daniela bore her testimony. Daniela has a super powerful testimony and loves the church, her only problem is that her mom decided to not let her come to church anymore. But through some miracle her mom let her and Denis both come this week. We'll keep meeting with them throughout the weeks at English Course and through the church's Self Reliance course, but hopefully they'll also be able to keep coming to church on Sundays! Church meetings in Lezhe are super special, I love them a ton.

Other than that, things were kind of the same as always. The members here are still super amazing and we're doing our best to help them out however we can. Being a clerk is fun so far, it basically just means I get to do more things on the computer for president Zefi. We're moving apartments this week. We've started moving things little by little over the past few days and then spent today cleaning up the old apartment. We got most of it done, but we still have a little bit left to do. Moving missionary apartments takes forever.

I'm still doing great and loving it here. Elder Perry is the best, we're still getting along fantastically.

That's all for today though. I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner

May 21st

Përshëndetje familja!

Well it's been another good week here in Shkoder. Lots going on and lots of things to do. But once again, not a whole lot of time to email today, so I'll keep it short.

First off. I'm officially the Shkoder Branch Clerk now. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do for that, but I'm working on that. That means that I'll get to work a lot with the branch president which is a huge blessing. He's one of my favorite people ever.

Another awesome part of this week was Zone Conference. All the leaders gave great trainings about a whole bunch of things. But some of the things that stood out to me the most was when president talked about us as healers. We are called to heal broken souls. Also we talked about ministering and implementing it in our work which I really liked because the new ministering program is amazing. I'm super excited to be a part of that now and after the mission. It was also a ton of fun as always getting to see my friends throughout the zone. It's especially awesome getting to see the missionaries from my MTC group because I've gotten to be such good friends with all of them through these past two years.

As for investigators, Pali is still doing great. We'll be pushing his baptism back a bit so we can work more with him and his family though. As we've been working with him we've also been working with his neighbor who is a less active member and it's been awesome seeing how much it helps both of them as we teach them. And then to top it all off this week Prenda, Pali's neighbor, came to church! Hopefully we're able to keep that up too!

We have another investigator in Lezhe named Gjergj and he seems to have some potential too. He's always willing to meet with us and he said he read the whole Book of Mormon, but just didn't understand it. So we'll work with him on that and hopefully get him to read more for understanding than just speed reading.

And other than that, we've basically just done a whole lot of finding and passing out English Course fliers. English Course starts this week and hopefully we get some good people to show up to that!

Things are still going great. Shkoder is awesome and I'm loving it here! Elder Perry is still super awesome and we're still getting along fantastically. I'm super happy to be serving with him.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner

a few other fun pictures.
Pali, Danjel, and Algida.
Me with the Sherberts.
And a close up of Amadeo taken by Algida with my camera.

May 14th

Përshëndetje familja!

This has been a great week here in Shkoder. It's always a bit weird changing companions, but things are going fantastic. Not a whole lot of time to write today, so I'll keep it short.

First off, Elder Perry is awesome. I'm loving serving with him. He's from Memphis Tennessee, he's half Japanese, and he's one of the nicest people I've ever met. He just finished being trained so he's still working on the language, but he's learning really fast and he's super bold so he'll get it in no time. He's super dedicated and has no fear, I've learned a ton from him so far. He's super smart too and we have a lot in common, so it's fun getting to talk to him all the time because of all the driving we do.

As for our investigators, Pali is doing great. He came to church again this week and we've gone through all the commandments now. Now we just have to make the final push to baptism. He's super awesome and the branch loves him, we just have to make sure he's ready. He seems like he wants to be baptized, sometimes he just seems a little unsure. But he is reading and praying every day now, so we've been praying a ton that the spirit will bring peace to him and his family. And he'll be such a big blessing to the Shkoder branch too! We should be meeting with him and a less active today together. He'll be an amazing minister as soon as he gets the priesthood!

We met with the Jakajs this week and had a great lesson with them. They still love reading and praying but haven't been able to come to church because of work. But they said they should be able to come sometime in the next couple weeks! We read 3 Nephi 17 and talked about the Saviors amazing ability to heal us physically and spiritually and the spirit was so strong!

In English course in Lezhe this week we started the spiritual thought and I decided to ask the students what they believed and one of them talked about the history of their family with religion and how they were forced to change religion a bunch of times and as she has thought about that she felt like she needed to find the truth for herself. So now she has a Book of Mormon, we taught her how to pray, and she promised to read and pray with real intent and report back next week. I know that if she actually does it she'll get an answer!

This Sunday was the last Sunday for the Sherberts here and it was a very emotional sacrament meeting. They're so amazing and as they gave their talks everyone started tearing up because the spirit was so strong and because of how much everyone is going to miss them here. I got to translate for Elder Sherberts talk and it was super powerful getting to do that, seeing the looks on everyones faces as we talked. I'm going to miss them a ton!

Today we went to the Shkoder castle and then played some chess. It was awesome! I took a ton of pictures which I will send next week!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner

Here's one picture for the week. Me and my comp at the castle. Don't get this in America!

May 7

Përshëndetje familje!

This was a great week here in Shkoder! First matter of business, transfers. I will be staying here in Shkodër/Lezhë and I'll be serving with Elder Perry. Elder Isufaj will be going to Elbasan to serve with Elder Harris. I'm super excited to stay here. The work here is on its way up and I know that miracles are about to happen.

Speaking of miracles, Pali is amazing. He was kind of starting to waver a little bit last week, so we felt like we needed to change up the way we do lessons. So now we're focusing more on teaching even more simply. We've started reading from the Book of Mormon story book with him and then assigning him to read that part in the actual Book of Mormon after we read it together, and then we teach him the lesson simply and then play some cards with him at the end. That was definitely revelation because now we're meeting more often, he actually understands what he's reading in the Book of Mormon, and the spirit has really touched him. This Sunday he even came in a white shirt and tie and stayed for all two hours, and the members all love him. After church we went to his house and met with his whole family including two of his cousins, and got to talk about Pali's baptism. They're super nice people, they're really catholic but they said that the choice is totally up to Pali if he wants to get baptized again. So we actually decided to move his date up, now he'll be getting baptized on the 19th if he comes to church again this week! While we were there his cousin even asked us about the Book of Mormon and what we teach, she said she saw Pali's Book of Mormon by the tv and felt like she needed to read it, so she read a few pages. We asked her if she would like a copy and she said she would love one! We'll do everything we can to get them all to Pali's baptism, and I feel like a lot of them will follow when they see Pali get baptized.

He's our only really progressing investigator right now though. Julian still hasn't been coming to lessons or to church, so hopefully we'll be able to meet him this week. We met a really cool guy this Sunday named Arben. He had met Elder Isufaj like 5 months ago and had some questions that he wanted us to answer so he looked around and found our church in Lezhe. So while I taught second hour Elder Isufaj had a lesson with him and was able to answer all his questions. He took a Book of Mormon and said he'll deeply study it (he knows the Bible super well) and then come back with any questions on Friday.

Also there's a less active that I'm really working with in Lezhë named Denis. He's a quiet guy and it's kind of hard for the missionaries to relate to him, but luckily I've been prepared for this. He loves video games. And I've played plenty of those before my mission. So basically we've become really good friends, and he really wants to play video games with me after I leave. I definitely didn't think that playing video games would one day make me a more effective missionary, but honestly I've seen a ton of blessings come from it here on my mission. So I guess God works in mysterious ways. Our Heavenly Father knows all his children and he'll put us exactly where we need to be to use all our gifts and talents, especially while we're serving as his missionaries.

Another fun moment. My trainer, Elder Mero and his family were back here visiting Albania and happened to stop by Shkoder this morning. So we got to meet up with them and talk for a while. It was super fun getting to see Mero again and it was great getting to meet his family. They're such amazing people. Mero's mom took a picture of the two of us and I'm sure she'll send that to you, so make sure and forward that to me when you get it.

Last but not least, this Sunday happens to be Mothers day which means my last time Skyping you from Albania. I don't know all the details, but we will be Skyping on Sunday. Just let me know what time would work best for you and I'll try to work around that. It'll have to be after 5 PM(9:00 AM your time) though because we have church here in Shkoder and in Lezhe to go to. No one has really told us anything about it though, so I'll keep you updated on any important changes.

I'm doing great, and continuing to love it here. Albania is so amazing and I'm going to really make these last 12 weeks count!

Love you all! Have a great week! Zoti ju bekoftë!

Elder Gardiner 

April 30

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

Just a quick picture from my exchange a couple weeks ago with Elder Harris. Best exchange ever. Topped of with super good 10 cent ice cream.