Dear Family,
On Saturday night, while Elder Linderman was translating for all the non-Albanian speakers, he was asked again to translate for Sunday morning while I was invited to play the piano for stake conference. It's funny how things work, our bus was late to stake conference but I was still able to sit up there for the whole meeting. After one special musical number by an Albanian Choir, the Stake President stood up and wept a tear because "He had just heart a real Mormon-Albanian choir", it is so neat to see the beginnings of a stake in this part of the world. I know that he is called of God. He and President Weidmann work hand in hand to help this work go forward. Everyday there is something new going on. This week, the worldwide/church-wide initiative was launched for Easter, and THIS TIME it is in Albanian...just a little miracle.
Wow, it was a wonderful week. This week marked the one year anniversary of the first stake in Albania. Likewise, we held stake conference. The missionaries attended the Saturday morning leadership session, Saturday night adult session, and the Sunday general session. It was good because we all travelled with the members to each meeting. Thankfully, because you sent me a recorder for Christians, I was able to record the talks of both President and Sister Weidmann, and the Stake Presidency. Our amazing stake president is President Medlir Mema. He was just a teenager when the Haymonds served here. But now is the Joseph Smith of Albania. I say that because is so powerful in his teaching; he is bold, and he has to be, because he is leading a group of young saints. He is raising the bar here in Albania. I was grateful to record his talk because he will be a legend here. (I also recorded the new patriarchs as well...and he really looks like a patriarch).
On Saturday night, while Elder Linderman was translating for all the non-Albanian speakers, he was asked again to translate for Sunday morning while I was invited to play the piano for stake conference. It's funny how things work, our bus was late to stake conference but I was still able to sit up there for the whole meeting. After one special musical number by an Albanian Choir, the Stake President stood up and wept a tear because "He had just heart a real Mormon-Albanian choir", it is so neat to see the beginnings of a stake in this part of the world. I know that he is called of God. He and President Weidmann work hand in hand to help this work go forward. Everyday there is something new going on. This week, the worldwide/church-wide initiative was launched for Easter, and THIS TIME it is in Albanian...just a little miracle.
Previous to all of these meetings, we had even more training this week.
First, on Tuesday we sat down at presidents house and discussed our training for the next day. We discussed and found out what we wanted to focus on: Being Bold through 'How to Begin Teaching'. This is an overarching problem in the mission, we struggle having second lessons. The next two days were spent training the missionaries on this new vision
On Wednesday, we gave a training to all the Zone Leaders and STLs, and on Thursday they presented it to their Zones and Districts. It contained for keys to having an investigator be converted, and what they must feel.
1. They must feel the unique power of the message.
2. They must feel the unique power and authority of the missionary
3. The missionary must bear strong, personal testimony and experiences
-We emphasized teaching then testifying, and then testifying and teaching
We emphasized this by inviting them to commit to baptism in the first lesson, and then having daily lessons with the investigator. We are excited to see what comes of it.
Now, I know that for many of you this sounds likes business...but it is the Lords business. I thought I'd give you a taste of what we really think about all the time...and I'm sure, for a few of you, it brings back memories.
Well, due to all the trainings and travelings we weren't able to teach a whole ton of lessons, but we still were able to go finding! Sometimes Elder Linderman and I think, "Well, we are good missionaries, how come we can't teach more lessons together!" I really love teaching with him. Truly, he testifies and teaches SO clearly, that I often think, "He must be reading PMG or something."
Today we went down to Berat (like driving down to Beaver) to deliver some chairs for the growing branch down there, it opened at the beginning of the year and it already had 19 people at church! Afterwards we played in the mud banks on the river, pretty fun actually.
I love testifying. President Weidamnn noted that when we hear someone teach we kinda zone out until they start a story or start testifying. Last night, while were teaching some returning members, I was able to testify using a personal story of how I learned that the chruch was true while I was on Heritage Tours. I felt the spirit in the lesson as much as I have at any time during my mission. The thing is, when you share your testimony, you learn more than the others. Oftentimes you've had experiences in life that are so great, but you don't realize how great they are until you share it with others. No, we don't go around flaunting our spiritual moments at others. On the contrary, we strengthen others by giving our own personal testimony of what we know works in our lives. I challenge you to be more consious about sharing personal experiences. Dont just teach, make your teaching memorable by making it personal. There are novels and novels written, commentating the Bible, but yet the strongest testimony of the Bible is the Bible itself. I mean, personal accounts are better than 2nd hand accounts, and there are only a handful of personal accounts in the world: Scriptures, conference talks, journals, and testimonies.
I love you all and have a wonderful week! Till next time, farwell from the Adriatic!
Love, Elder Bangerter
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