So this has been a very busy week with a lot of amazing experiences.
To start, our new mission president is super awesome! His name is President Anderson and he's from St. George. He has 6 kids, worked in investing, and served a mission in Taiwan. He is so enthusiastic about the gospel and he loves missionary work. In the years since his mission he's been able to help teach people living in China and loves inviting people to be baptized. On Wednesday we had a meeting where we met him and his wife and got to know them a little bit. One really cool thing about them is that Sister Anderson is Mr. Birrell(one of my favorite teachers of all time)'s sister, so that was a really cool connection. We had a zone conference this week and we received a ton of cool trainings about how we can bring the work further even faster. President Anderson has given a lot of focus on getting people baptized and giving them then gift of the Holy Ghost while also increasing retention and activation by working with the less actives. I'm really excited for the opportunity that I have to work with him for the next year.
So as for our work here in Durrës, we have some new investigators with a cool story. So one day we were out street contacting, so a guy and a girl passed and I said hi to them, they kept walking and then stopped and talked to each other for a little bit then came back. Their names are Regjina and Ferdinando, and turns out she used to live in Elbasan and was taught by the missionaries there, has been to church, and wants to learn more and get the Book of Mormon, whereas the guy is her Italian friend that she's translating for, he's cool but he doesn't speak English or Albanian so all communication has to go through Regjina. So we set up to meet them for a lesson the next day. They came, but they didn't have time so they said we'd meet later that week, but they don't have a phone number. So we went but they never showed up. So for they next day I kept praying that we would meet them again. Then later that night we were out on the road and we found them! This time we were able to show them where the teaching center was and give them a Restoration pamphlet. Then they showed up randomly another day at the same time we were at the center and we set up another lesson. So this week while I was on an exchange in Tirana Elder Schneider and Elder Ellsworth had a lesson with them and it went super well. Regjina said she really feels the spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon and they both had read the restoration pamphlet we gave them before the lesson. So I have a lot of hope for them, they're super great!
For other investigators, Kristi is super busy with school right now so we haven't been able to meet recently but he said he's still reading and praying. He should finish up with all his tests at the beginning of August and then he'll get baptized super fast. Fatjon has been super hard to get into contact with. We've called him a ton and he's answered a couple times, but still no lessons so far. We've started teaching the Gjergji family again, the lessons have been ok so far but it's hard to get both of the kids in the lesson at the same time. We also are teaching a guy named Nick and he's super cool. He's from Durrës but he moved to England about 14 years ago and now works with the British Navy. He used to go to our church here and he was really close to getting baptized before he moved, now he just wants to know if it's still something that he wants to do and he wants to establish a stronger relationship with God. He came to church on Sunday and really liked it, he said it was just like when he was a kid.
Other than that, Elder Cani is back! He's been living in Italy for the past few months but now he'll be back in Durrës for a while. Elder Ellsworth has also served with him so we went today and hung out with him for a while, that was a ton of fun. Also we had transfer calls on Saturday night, Elder Ellsworth and I will be staying together here in Durrës! So I'm really excited to stay here, I'm loving it so far and really enjoying being serving with Elder Ellsworth. Also Elder Schneider and Elder Lords will be staying in Tirana so our district probably won't change either, which is great because this is the best district ever.
I have a few pictures to send, but I forgot my camera cord at the house so I'll probably send those next week. But if you remember about Alex from my last email, he took a picture of me in the church so I'll send that to you.
Thanks for being so awesome, it's great hearing from all of you!
Ju dua shumë, Zoti ju bekoftë! Mirupafshim!
Elder Gardiner
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