February 12

Përshëndetje familja!

Another exciting week. To get the big unexpected news out of the way, I'm getting transferred. We had transfer calls on Saturday, and unfortunately I'll be leaving Fier to go to Shkodër. I've loved serving here in Fier a ton, there are a bunch of amazing people here that I've really learned to love. Fier is in a really good position now, so I'll make sure to keep updated with Elder Schneider. Shkodër will be really good too though, I'm excited. I'll be serving with an Albanian companion named Elder Isufaj so I'll get in plenty of practice with my Albanian. Serving in Shkodër means that I'll also be covering Lezhë which is another city close to Shkodër. I think that right now there are only 3 members in Lezhë, but I've heard that it's on the edge of really growing, so that'll be super exciting. We'll be in a district with Tirana, plus covering two cities, which means I'll be doing a ton of driving (Elder Isufaj doesn't have a drivers licence). Also I'll be district leader, so no escape from preparing trainings. I'm really excited though.

Other news, we had a district meeting with President and Sister Anderson, and the APs (Elders Benson and Draper) and it was a lot of fun. They focused their trainings on the Book of Mormon and how important it is as a tool for conversion. They're all super inspiring leaders and make me feel really excited to go and get things done here. After that the APs and the Vlorë Elders (Elders Murray and Wood) stayed the night in our house, which was a little crazy but a lot of fun. Those five are most of my best friends here on the mission and I'll definitely want to stay friends with them after the mission. 

For our area, we actually almost baptized Redi last week. Key word almost. On Monday we invited him to be baptized on Friday which he accepted, then he passed a baptismal interview, and then he really opened up with us about why he doesn't feel ready. So he'll take just a little more time. We met with Entela again this week and it was another perfect lesson. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then went through all the commandments. So she could honestly be baptized within the next two weeks. The three girls came to our Book of Mormon reading class, English Course, and all two hours of church on Sunday. They're so prepared and as long as their parents let them they'll be baptized super soon. They sent us a text after church saying they'll really miss me, which was super sweet. I'll miss them too. We met with a ton of members and I got pictures with them so I'll send those to you as well.

So today and yesterday are basically just a bunch of goodbyes and packing, hopefully we'll actually have time to do everything.

That's about all the time I have for now, I'm working on uploading the pictures right now and then I'll share them with you. They're way too many to send.

I love you all so much!

Mirupafshim, Zoti ju bekoftë!

Elder Gardiner

February 5th

Përshëndetje familja!

This was a crazy week. We just got back from Gjiorkaster so I don't have a lot of time. I took over 100 pictures this week, so I'll send as many as I can. Now here are the highlights.

So hopefully that screenshot goes through. It's a pretty basic summary of our week.

We met with Redi. He's doing ok. We'll meet him again tonight.

The Lewis' had a lesson with Entela and it was good. We'll be meeting her again on Wednesday. She came to church again!

The three girls are still super awesome. Their names are Griselda, Lumesa, and Armela. One of them hadn't started reading the Book of Mormon yet, then she came to church on Sunday with her book and said she did nothing but read all weekend and was in 2 Nephi 10 now. They came early to study again. Super awesome.

Other than that, we had exchanges. We started in Korçë, I served with Elder Ward. He's really cool. Korça is an awesome place. Then we went to Pogradec. I got to serve with Elder Miller and he's an amazing missionary. He only has 6 months in field but he already is amazing with the language and knows how to teach and everything super well. We ended up taking a trip to Elbasan to get baptismal clothes for a baptism, but it got canceled because the woman's husband won't let her get baptized. So hopefully that'll change soon. 

After that, church was good yesterday. We went and did baptismal interviews in Vlore and Radhime after church and lunch. There will be three baptisms in Vlore this week and they're all so cool.

We had our Gjirokaster P-day trip today with Elder Lewis and it was amazing. We went to the ancient castle that overlooks the city and explored the whole thing. There were so many cool things there. The castle was started in the 7th century BC, it was changed to look like it does in the 1400s. Which btw is much older than the USA. They also have an American war plane they landed during WWII. Pictures will come. Most will probably have to wait a week or two.

Other fun news, our mission is getting bigger! Greece is going to become a part of the Mighty Adriatic South Mission on July 1 this year. So that'll be cool. With any luck I'll get to go visit some day on a P-Day.

That's about it for me. I love you all!

Have a great week!

Elder Gardiner

January 29

Përshëndetje familja!

This has been a great week here in Fier. A lot of good things are happening here.

One cool experience was with a guy named Shkëlqim. He came to the last like 5 minutes of church last week and then said we could go visit him sometime throughout the week. He told us the area where his house was and after a knocking a few doors and asking some people no one seemed to know him. But then as we were leaving we went around a corner, and there he was! He said he had just gotten back from Tirana and was tired so he couldn't meet that day, but that we could come back the next day. So we did, we taught a little bit of English to him and his son and then taught the restoration and put him on a baptismal date! Turns out his wife is a devout Jehovah's Witness though, so we're hoping that doesn't become a problem.

We're still working with Redi, things are about the same, but they're looking up. We've had a few lessons about what someone needs to do to be baptized and we're working to help him get over anything that could be holding him back. Also, it's his birthday today so we'll meet him if he has time. 

We had a lesson with Nikolin this week too, and he's so awesome. He's a member here who was reactivated right before I got here. He was baptized about three years ago now and he loves to read and study the scriptures so he invited us over to study with him. He speaks really good English and actually studies the Bible in English instead of Albanian because he likes it better. He's also super strong. He has a makeshift gym that he made in his house, including a deadlift bar that he made from an old train axle and tires filled with cement. He said his maximum weight that he can lift is 440 lbs. but to do that he has to eat 4000 calories a day, and he attributes it all to living the word of wisdom. Right now he's just preparing to get the Melchizedek priesthood, which he should get at stake conference in a couple months. I'll attach a video of him to the end of this email.

We had a cool experience yesterday before church. The three girls who have been coming to English Course all came to church half an hour early to study the Book of Mormon. We came out from preparing our lesson for second hour, and they were all sitting on the front row quietly reading their own copies of the Book of Mormon that they had marked. Now if we could just get more members to do that church would be so good!

A lot of people here in Albania, especially older people, have a hard time reading and can't afford glasses, so it's hard for people to read the Book of Mormon. That's the case with one of the members here named Bilbil, he can read a little bit but because he is a welder and doesn't have eye protection his eyes get tired really fast. So we made him a big copy of the Book of Mormon, and now he can read it! We gave him the book and he was so excited! In the lesson he insisted that he was going to read the whole chapter that we were going to discuss. So now he should be able to study and learn at home too!

Then on Sunday we made a mistake. We unknowingly told two member families that we would come over for lunch that day. So we ate lunch with one and then found out we were supposed to go to the other too. So we had to eat lunch twice. Which with how much members feed us is pretty much impossible. But the food was super good. The first one made us enchiladas, which I haven't had in years now. The members here are awesome, and really good at forgiving missionaries for their stupid mistakes.

Lastly, we had a stake priesthood conference on Saturday and that was really cool. They had a general meeting and then three separate classes where they talked about missionary preparation, for the strength of youth standards, and how to perform priesthood ordinances. We actually had a lot of people come from Fier and they all seemed to learn a lot and loved the conference.

I'm loving it here in Fier, and Elder Schneider is the best. I love him a ton!

Just as a heads up, we're planning on going on a P-Day trip to Gjirokaster next week so I'm not sure how much time we'll have to email next week.

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

Elder Gardiner

January 22

Përshëndetje familje!

Well another good week here in Fier.

This week, has been good. We had that lesson with Entela last Monday, but she didn't have time to meet again throughout the week. But she came to church and gave a bunch of perfect answers in second hour at church.

We met with Redi again. It was an ok lesson, but like usual it kind of jumped around a lot, and so the spirit came and went back and forth through the lesson. So there's still plenty of work to do there.

We had a game night this week and it was awesome. There are three girls who come to our English Course and church and they came. Also a member, Nikolin, brought his friend, and they had a great time. It was a lot of fun, we had a bunch of members there and investigators and the members did a great job friendshipping them. We played bingo, hot potato, fruit salad, and a balloon juggling game. Fruit salad is one of those games where everyone has to switch chairs as fast as they can to not get caught in the center, and everyone loves it! Plus we are trying to teach the three girls, but we want to meet with the family first, and their mom showed up to get them from the activity. So hopefully we'll be able to start that soon.

I also went on an exchange to Lushnje this week with Elder Tobler. It was good, I actually got to do some street contacting and we weren't insanely busy, so it was a bit of a nice change. Elder Tobler's really cool. He's super tall, but other than that everyone says we look a lot alike. I actually have a picture of me with him from an exchange I did with him in Elbasan with Lindis.

English course has been great recently. Our class is mostly full of children and families so we've been playing a lot of English learning games, and they love it. And then we've been having great spiritual thoughts. So people have been having fun at the church and learning about the gospel, so double bonus!

This morning we went and helped a member family get rid of a ton of mold from their walls. That was a lot of fun, and wasn't actually too hard since all the walls here are actually just concrete. And plus, they made cinnamon rolls for us after.

I have a few pictures to send you from the past few weeks, I actually remembered by camera cord today!

We got to watch the special announcement this week, and it was so cool! I'm so excited that Russel M. Nelson is officially our new prophet. I felt really strongly that he really has been called of God to lead his church. He's going to do amazing things as the prophet!

I'm loving things here. Elder Schneider have had a ton of fun together this week. He's so awesome and miracles are happening with him here.

I love you all and I hope you're all doing well!

Elder Gardiner

January 15th

Përshëndetje familja!

This week was a really good week! I don't have a lot of time, but here are some of the highlights.

First off, Zone Conference. This was my first Zone Conference as a ZL which means we got to give our first training. Also the Vlore elders got to stay the night at our house, which was super fun. We were super stressed getting everything ready throughout the week and it took a lot of time out of our area, but it ended up being great. So the way it worked is we were given an hour and a half to split between accountability (where we talk about numbers and goals), our training, and a training from the sister training leaders. We started with accountability and that took way longer than we thought, but it was really good. We have a habit of setting super high, unreachable goals and then just getting discouraged because we don't hit them. So we decided to put a huge focus on the zone creating a realistic goal and holding each person accountable for our success. So we'll see how that goes. Then the STLs gave an amazing training about Christlike attributes, and then by the time they were done our hour and a half was over. So we stood up played a short video and gave a five minute training, and it was great. Then we of course had the trainings from president and the APs, which were both amazing. One of the best parts of Zone Conference though was probably getting to spend some time with Elder Murray. When we served together we didn't get along super well and it was really hard, but now both of us have grown a lot and we've become really good friends. I loved getting to talk to him, he's an amazing missionary.

Other than that, we also had Redi. He had kind of plateaued for a while but this week we had some great lessons with him. Last Monday we had a lesson just on the spirit and how powerful it is and why we want it. The spirit was so strong, he was focused super intently and and shared an awesome story about a time where he felt the spirit super strong when he was younger. And then I had the opportunity to promise him that if he prays to know if the church and the Book of Mormon are true that he'll be able to feel that again. And he listened and promised to do it. Then for our next lesson he said he hadn't had time to put himself in the perfect situation to do a prayer like that, but that his regular prayers had been super powerful and sincere that week and he said he felt different and felt the spirit more. 

Unfortunately right when we were about to invite him to baptism he had to go to work. But we'll meet again on Wednesday and I'm feeling really good about that lesson.

Then today we had another amazing lesson. We met with someone named Entela. She's been coming to the Lewis' English Course and church for a few months but we were just waiting for the perfect moment to ask her if she wants to start taking lessons. Then this Sunday while Elder Schneider and I were teaching second hour president Lewis felt inspired to lean over and ask her if she wants to start taking the missionary lessons, which after a little bit of explanation as to what those are she gladly accepted. She's so cool! She's a literacy teacher and she's super smart. We gave her a Book of Mormon and now she's working on reading two pages a day to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. The lesson went practically perfectly. She has a ton of faith in Christ and understood everything we taught, we used a ton of scriptures and we could tell she was really feeling the spirit. We kept mentioning baptism and she seemed to just light up every time we mentioned it. So then we got to the end and invited her to be baptized and she said she would love to, we invited her to be baptized on 17 February and she said there's no way she could do everything she needs to before then, so Elder Schneider shared 3 Nephi 9:20 which talks about how we need a broken heart and contrite spirit and then we're ready for baptism and she said that that was the perfect scripture for her. So she'll keep thinking and pray about that date, but so far things are looking great! 

Church was amazing yesterday too! We had had a lot lessons with less-actives this week and invited them all to come to church, and then surprisingly, they did! We had a ton of less-actives, semi-actives, and investigators in church and the spirit was super strong in church. Xhoni, the kid we baptized right when I got to Fier, gave his first talk and did a really good job. And then president Lewis shared some of his favorite parts from President Monson's funeral, and it was so cool looking at the audience as I translated and everyone just seemed to be concentrated so intensely on the words that we were sharing. It was a really cool experience.

That's about it for me now, I'm doing great. I love things here in Fier, and Elder Schneider and I are doing great. He's an amazing missionary and I'm enjoying serving with him again.

I love you all! Have a great week, hopefully this gets to you all!

Elder Gardiner

​Picture from MLC. 3 of the original 4 companionships in our MTC district

January 8th

Përshëndetje familja!

Well another week down and New Year's is over. Luckily I'm also over my annual New Year's sickness.

Things are going well here. I'm loving serving with Elder Schneider. It's taking a little bit of adjustment, but he's a great missionary and I'm super glad we get to serve together again.

This week we've been pretty busy traveling and doing zone leader stuff so we haven't had as much time for regular proselyting, but we have had some good lessons. This week we had transfers in Tirana, two district meetings in Vlorë, and MLC in Tirana. MLC was so cool though, it's a meeting for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders with president and the APs and we got to discuss the state of the mission from last year, and set goals for the new year. Last year was a good year, but we're ready to kick things into gear and get even more done this year. Also it was fun because 6 of the 9 people in my original MTC district were there. So now we'll take the stuff we learned and apply them in zone conference this week. This conference Elder Schneider and I get to give our first trainings as zone leaders, it should be exciting.

As for work in our area, we were able to meet with Redi again. He was really busy with work over the holidays so we didn't see him for a couple weeks, but then we had a good lesson with him on Thursday. We're still working on getting him to accept a solid baptismal date, but we're meeting with him again today and we're having Vëllai Gjika come help us so it should be a really powerful lesson.
Because Elder Schneider was new here we decided to go and visit some of the members and see if they have any people that we can teach. So we got to meet with a few different people, and while we haven't gotten any referrals from it yet, they did commit to think about people they can talk to and share the gospel with.

I had a really cool experience this Sunday. The Stake President, President Mema, came down for church here this Sunday and bore his testimony. Then after church he took me on a split and we went to visit some members who have been offended by President Lewis and he talked to them. I was just there to show him where they lived, but I got to sit in as he talked to them, and it was so cool. I felt his love for them and I felt the power he holds as their caretaker appointed from God he was able to connect with them and to help them in a way we as the missionaries just can't quite do. It was amazing.

That's about it for me. It was a great week, we were super busy though so it flew by.

I love you all, have an amazing week!
Elder Gardiner

January 1st

Përshëndetje familja!

This has been a bit crazy. But to start with the biggest thing, we got transfer calls on Saturday. So if you remember in the Skype we were talking about how it was pretty much impossible that Elder Schneider would come ZL with me... Well I forgot that President Anderson has no rules. So yeah, I'll be with Elder Schneider again next transfer and I can't even attempt to explain how excited I am. And as for Elder Draper he will be whitewashing AP with Elder Benson. I did think Draper would go AP, but definitely didn't see the rest of those changes coming. It's sad to see Elder Draper go, but I'll be seeing plenty of him over the next few weeks in all our meetings and conferences. Also I didn't think I would get to serve with Elder Schneider again so that was a super pleasant surprise.

As for regular missionary work this wasn't the best week for us. We had to move houses this week so the process of cleaning and moving and organizing everything took a good three days out of our work, and we both got sick. So once again I was sick for new years(fortunately not nearly as bad as last year though). Now we live in a brand apartment in the same building as the senior couple, which is a huge blessing.

We did have a really cool hand of the Lord moment though. Earlier in the week we went with the senior couple to give some cookies to a less active family and while we were there we told the son to take his best friend and come have a lesson with us some time. He said he would call us, which in Albania basically means that it won't happen, but then surprisingly this Friday we got a call from him saying he was on his way to the church. Luckily we had just gotten to the church, and sure enough a few minutes later they both showed up and we had an amazing restoration lesson. They even walked through a huge rainstorm to get to the church. They didn't come to church because they slept in, but as soon as school starts they should start coming back. So even when we don't have time to go out and contact God will bring his prepared children to us!

We had a fun service opportunity too this week. We went to an older member couple's home and got to help make cement and then went and picked oranges. Pictures and videos to come. Then we took the oranges to the retirement home and she gave us a bag too.

New Years was a lot of fun. We got to stay up to watch the fireworks, and like always it was insane. I took a video, but it turned out to be huge, so I'll work on getting that uploaded sometime and get that to you. My full year as a missionary is officially over. Now I just have to work the heck out of these last 7 months.

I'm doing great. I'm mostly better now, hopefully I won't be sick at all by the time Schneider gets here. I'm going to miss Elder Draper a lot. He's definitely been one of my favorite companions of all time and I'm hoping we'll continue to stay close through the rest of the mission and after. I love it here and I'm excited that I get to stay here in Fier. It's easy for things to look a little depressing and dismal here but recently I've just been feeling so much hope. I see the people who we have coming to church and they're perfect for what we need. If we can help them accept the gospel, be baptized and keep coming there are a lot of good things coming for Fier.

I love you all. I hope you have a great week and an amazing New Year!!!

Elder Gardiner