It has been a wonderful week!
Monday started off with a wonderul haircut, drycleaning, etc. and a FHE with President, and 2 senior couples, the Whites and Ortons. Each week we rotate the location of where we will hold FHE. I was in charge of the game. We played a game about spelling words. It was really funny becuase President and Sister Weidman kept slipping into German! It is really great to get to know the couples around here. (We also talk business in the FHE,so I'm not having TOO much fun!)
Tuesday we were able to go get President's oil in his car changed, find a missing projector, set up for MLC-mission leadership conference (a meeting with all the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders and us-20 in attendance), and then start teaching. It was a busy day to celebrate Eliza Jayne's Birthday! Seeing that we had so much to do, we were wondering about how our lessons would play out. As we were in the car, leaving presidents home, Asllan called us! Perfect timing, cause he lived really close to Presidents and we had just enough time to go and teach his wonderful RC family. As follow up, he then blessed the sacrament on Sunday for the first time!
Wednesday. We had a wonderful MLC! We set some new goals for the upcoming year of 2015! Our over arching goal is to have 4 baptisms per companionship per 3 month transfer. It was a goal that we set with the spirit and we are so excited to work for it. We hope to carry forth the excitement that we all got from the He is the Gift initiative that we had for Christmas. In fact grandpa Garlick, I told everyone that instead of finding 4 different people, they could just find a family of four! They all really liked that. AFAD! Again, we were blessed to have some great lessons that night.
Thursday. We had time to go to our own Zone Training and see the Zone Leaders present the mission goals. Again, we felt the spirit testify of the inspiration of these goals. The best part of the Training was when our beloved Zone Leader, Elder Clawson (reminds me of Andrew) said, "Now we are going to do a role play...and I'm going to exercise MY authority and choose...Elder Linderman and Bangerter!" I had a great time teaching my companion why he should come to church, being devastated when he said he couldn't come, and then recommitting him to come. I feel like I'm always chosen for role plays now!
Afterwards, we ran to the air port to pick up Elder Waters! He was in my MTC group, but had to go home the day we left for Albania, due to medical reasons. It was great to see the tall, dark, and handsome kiwi walk through the airport with such a big smile on face. His trainer is his MTC companion (President didn't know that...I guess that's how the spirit works!) We spent the rest of the evening with them, showing them Tirana, and having a great meal with them and President.
Friday. We planned. While planning we discussed how we could be more obedient. Answer: Driving. The night before we got a parking ticket so we were determined to be obedient to the traffic rules. (at least those that apply in Albania) Well, we were immediately tested in our obedience as we searched the house for Elder Lindermans drivers license. We really, really needed to find it because we had an exchange that night. I was driving to and from lessons, but he needed to drive back when he dropped me off in Durres. After one lesson, we were kinda frustrated with the situation: we wanted to be obedient, but there seemed no way to do so. I noticed that I had forgotten my bags at home, so we had to run back and get those. Those extra 15 minutes gave us the idea to look one more time through the house. We said a prayer together in the car, went upstairs, and within 30 seconds Elder Linderman found it! It was truly a miracle. We hit our knees and almost laughed at how fast the prayer had worked. We were able to be obedient. He provided a way. (And I only drove 90 km/hr the whole way to Durres!)
Saturday. I had a great time serving in Durres, the coastal city just West of Tirana. I served with a great Elder, Elder Roemer, one of the kindest people I've ever met.
Sunday we were back in Tirana and had a wonderful time in sacrament meeting, having the best attendance that Elder Linderman had ever seen yet. We had a great Skype lesson with a family that lives in France, they have learned quite a bit, and were SO happy to hear Albanian! We concluded the night at the Veliu Family's house. With so many people in the house, I thought, "This lesson is just not going to be effective!" We started with a prayer, and right after more people walked in the door. "NO!" I thought, but I kept my cool, knowing that the SPIRIT knows all things. I listened to him and had an impression to turn to my right and address a question to the 8 yr old Abigail (Abi) "What does it mean to have faith in Christ?" She then went on and on in a beautiful way, telling a story of how she had invited her friend to read the Book of Mormon. The friend showed interest and said she wanted to come to church with her. Then Abi started to tear up as she told us that her friend's parents would not allow her to come to church. This sweet girl had the strongest testimony of Jesus Chirst. She understood that it was so very important to come to church. I believe she couldn't understand why people would say that going to church was a bad thing. I was so grateful that the spirit had prompted me to ask just one question. As a result of her moving answer, all the adults in the room understood and were moved as well. We then proceeded to have one of the best lessons on my mission about faith.
During the whole week we've been trying to be more dedicated...we now only speak Albanian when we are not at home or in the office. It really has changed our mindsets, we have become a lot more in tune with the spirit at able to do His will.
Thank you all so much for your letters, I love the updates. I pray for you all. Thank you all so much for your prayers.
Love, your brother and son,
Elder Bangerter
P.S. We weren't able to go to macedonia....maybe another week!
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