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