Life.

Hello. This week has been another week. I know I say this a lot but it really feels like the weeks just fly by and nothing happens in them. This week Skerdi ( pronounced like when you call some one a scardy cat) got the priesthood and came to church in his shirt and tie. My long sleeve shirts are running a little low... Left one in America, gave one away in Shkoder, and now one away in Lushnje. :) But he is doing really good. He also gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. He is progressing really well and will really become a real strength when he gets some doctrine and time under his belt. It's nice getting to see people progress in the gospel and when he tells me he's going to the temple in a year my head will probably explode. ha. As you know I haven't had very much success on my mission so getting to see someone that was baptized the right way and is progressing nicely is a real pleasure for me. 

     The other big thing that happened this week had to do with our recent convert family. The Nezha (ne and then say duh with a j juh ne-juh) I dont' know how much i've told you about them but they are a family of four 2 parents and a 18 year old daughter and 14 year old son. The three were baptized together about 5 months ago but the son was not. When I got here he had just started sitting in lessons but would walk in and out and would play on his phone and then he started staying for the whole lesson but would play on his phone and slowly he's been opening up and he has been to church a couple times which is great because the family has some financial problems and wasn't coming for a couple weeks but they started coming again. Anyways so with that background info we can begin our story. So we usually go out there on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays but since we were in berat and had mission conference this week we went over on thursday and then since we usually go out we just figured they would be expecting us to come friday. So we go out there(about a 15 minute drive into a village) and get there and walk up to the house and Osman (the teenage son) comes out and tells us that his parents aren't here they weren't expecting us to come because we had come the day before so we went inside and sat down with him and just talked to him and then he asked for some help with his math hw (asked my comp of course you know I feel about math) so my comp sat there and helped him and we just talked and got to help him. This is the first time that we have ever been 1 on 1 with him. Then after a bit his parents come home and we had a short lesson before we had to go and a little into the lesson he asked us a question about why we don't remember anything about pre earth life and the lesson kind of shifted and we started teaching him and it ended with us committing him to read the book of mormon and pray to know if it was true. BOOM. It was a huge step and we were really excited. Little cherry on top is that he came to church yesterday(he hadn't been for a couple weeks) and stayed both hours. We are going out to tonight and going to see if hes read or not and hopefully he can keep progressing. We are hoping that he can be baptized next month if he keeps going like he is. I can't tell you how excited I would be If we could get this kid baptized. First of all we would be uniting a family that could go be sealed in the temple and second this is the first time i've really gotten to see the spirit work on someone. A change of heart we could say. It's been amazing to see how the spirit has worked on him and how he has slowly opened up. If we can get him baptized I will pack my bags and die a happy missionary. All the hours of contacting and no lessons and disappointment would be worth it. The joy that would come from being able to get this family to the temple would be undescribable for me. Tonight is going to be a big night for us. Lushnje may not be my favorite city and i'm a city boy at heart but here more than any other area I have seen the hand of the Lord for WHY I have been placed here as a Zone leader and a missionary right now and it's really cool to see. God works in mysterious ways and it's not always in the way you want him to. 

    Other fun things from last week. We went on a super exchange with the missionaries in Berat (one being Elder Bangeter) because his comp just had an operation and they haven't been able to get out much so we went down so they could get some work done in their area. I worked with Elder Holding and my comp worked with elder Bangeter. We went out for a little in the morning and did some office stuff then ate lunch and after that went inside so he could rest. So I was inside for a couple hours and got some good quality reading time. I love the book of mormon and I know it's true but 5 hours is a long time haha I had to switch it up and journal a little and read this work out book they had at their house. I realized I am not a person that can just sit for hours and do nothing. I love reading but I get restless. If i'm alone I need to be doing something. We all started reading the Book of Mormon in 1 month on the 7th and I am currently in 3rd Nefi 17! Jesus just came so it's getting really exciting!! :) 

     We also got to watch the special missionary broadcast in Tirana. We got to here from Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, and some others. It was really good and they just focused on the basics of preach my gospel. It was the first one they have done in over 10 years so it's cool I got to be out when they did it. It was a good eye opener for our companionship that we need to go back to basics and just do what preach my gospel says. 

    This week we have  a mission conference with President Kearon who is the Europe Area President and then the next day we have MLC with him... Which means that we get to sit in a room with him while he judges us and our zone!! Keep me in your prayers!!!! haha no it'll be really good and it's a wonderful opportunity to get to hear from so many members of the seventy. 

I love you all!!! Have a fantastic week. Achieve greatness and GO FORTH! 

     Elder Szabo