December 4

Përshëndetje familja!

This has certainly been an exciting week. Back in Utah you all may have had to deal with some snow, but here the weather's been equally if not more crazy. From Thursday night until until about a few hours ago it's rained almost without stop. So basically all of Albania is flooded. It wasn't too bad here in Fier, but we had to go to Vlorë for a baptismal interview and probably about half the city was under a foot of water. We almost didn't make it to the interview because all of the roads were flooded, except for the last one we tried. So the work of the Lord presses on, the interview went great and the investigator got baptized on Satrurday!

This week was also Albanian independence days. November 28 and 29 are they days Albania celebrates their independence from the Ottoman Empire 105 years ago. So the Fier music school put on a performance for the city, and one of our members is a really good singer in the music school so we grabbed a few members and decided to go support her. It was a ton of fun, and while we were there we actually ran into a lot of less actives and investigators!

Redi's doing good too. He's going through a hard time because he feels like he can't really trust anyone and that everyone is out to get him(except us) so that's been hard. But he keeps reading and praying, and is still planning on getting baptized.

We've met with some cool new people this week. I don't have a lot of time so I won't go into a lot of detail, but mainly we've been getting and meeting with referrals. There are some really cool people here, and sometimes it's hard for us to find them. But the members know them and when they bring them they're way more likely to accept it and stay.

In less fun news. Some members got offended and decided they wouldn't come back to church. So hopefully they change their mind. That's always super sad to see, but we'll do our best to help them.

We were in Tirana again today because they finished fixing our car. We went up and got to hang out with a bunch of the missionaries, it was great. We also went bowling with Elder Larsen and Elder Lords. I won the first time, but then Elder Lords rolled a turkey in his first three frames of the second game and just steamrolled all of us. Needless to say it was a great break.

Elder Draper and I are getting along so well!!! I've always really liked Elder Draper, but I didn't know him super well, and turns out we have a ton in common! He loves Star Wars, we have a super similar taste in music, and he loves Brandon Sanderson too. But we also work super well together, he teaches really well, knows Albanian super well, and I've learned a ton from him. I'm having a ton of fun and growing a lot!

I have a few pictures to send sometime, but I can't upload them here. So I'll upload them sometime this week and send them next week.

I love you all!!! Have an amazing week! Zoti ju bekoftë!

Elder Gardiner