Kurs Anglisht. Falas

I don't have a lot of time to write this week because we came a little late and I've been writing other people I"m sorry but I will do my best to tell you about everything.  

      This week was pretty amazing actually. Nothing special happened but I've just been happier. I don't know what it is but I've just had a better attitude about everything. This mission is such an amazing opportunity and I'm learning so much. The main thing I want to talk about this week is we're starting our English course over and so we print out a couple thousand fliers and pass them out to people so they'll come and usually what people do is they stand somewhere and wait for people to walk by and hand them to them but that is not how we do it! Elder Ostergaard has a different approach. We just walk around town and hand them people. The subject line is what I say everytime I try to hand it to someone. It means English course. Free. I have walked around so much in the last two days. If we have free time we're walking around trying to get fliers to people. We just walk around and hand them to literally everyone. It was a little hard at the beginning because you're walking up to strangers and hand them something but now it's made me lose all fear of talking to people. It's been great. Such a good lesson to learn. It's just talking to people and there's nothing to worry about. If they look at you weird or make fun of you oh well Keep going doesn't really bother me at all. I'm learning so much this transfer. I'm extremely grateful for my comp right now. Elder Ostergaard has personality traits that I want to adopt and I'm learning a lot from him. In mission work and just being a more sociable person. I'm just getting elevated to another level of greatness and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I have to serve with him. I just feel happy this week and ready to go to work. Writing this it doesn't sound as exciting as I thought it would be but handing out these fliers for the last couple days has taught me a lot of lessons. I wish I had more time to write but I"m doing great and will have a longer one next week. I love you all oh and we had 17 people in church again tied for the most people I've ever had. It's just going to keep growing!!! The work is going forward. Elder Szabo 

What would you do for a Klondike bar?

 I don't really know what to write this week. Feels like I'm kind of in a groove. Kind of have the hang of missionary work and am used to the ups and downs. Everyday just try to be a little better and try to find those people that are prepared. Elder Ostergaard and me are doing really well. He's my year group so I am learning a lot from him and we have a good time. 

    This week we had 17 people in church!!!! It was great. The most that has ever come since I've been here. 3 members 6 missionaries 1 member from Tirana and 7 others. It was great. Our church building isn't in a great location and is far away from the center so it's a goal we have to get a new building but for the church to notice or care to get a new building we need to get more people coming to church so it's one of our main focuses right now is to get more people in church. A new building would be so much easier because people wouldn't have to go so far and if it was in the center or closer it would get more recognition. Hopefully we can continue to keep the numbers increasing and get a new building. I plan on being here for another 3 months but you never know. Other things about church is sadly my companion is good at the piano so he's going to play now. Mom sit down for this part but I was actually enjoying it and getting better and am definitely going to get back into it when I get back. Another thing is I got made a councilor in the branch presidency which honestly means nothing. It just means conduct church if president Kraja isn't there. We wanted Pavlo to be it because he needs a calling but oh well. When I leave he'll put him in. I feel like Shkoder is on the brink of exploding and we just need to keep working hard to get there. 

     A great thing these last couple days is the member that was in church from Tirana was baptized about a month ago and he has a house in Shkoder but lives in Tirana and is selling his house but he's been up here this weekend and he brought someone to church who we had a lesson with after then later that night he called us and said he was with another guy he wanted us to teach that he'd told the gospel about and then today we were walking back from getting groceries and saw him and we walked back to our house with him and another one of his friends and he sent us his number after and said we could meet with him two. He's only been a member for a month but he's on a fire. We could really use him up here and it's too bad he lives in Tirana but he's great. We got 3 member referrals in two days. We never get referrals here. Even the referral thing on our key indicators means something different because we just never get referrals. He's been amazing.  He's really funny and great too. He's a 30 year old guy and he knows the bible really well. It's good that Elder Ostergaard is here because he had a connection with him from Tirana so we've been able to get his help. Hopefully all his friends work out and we can continue teaching them. He still has some work though he was only baptized a month ago like I said and when we had our lesson last night it was in a local and they both had a coffee. Which is word of wisdom and keeping the sabbath day holy but we just laughed about it and called the Elders that are teaching him and told them to emphasize it again. haha i know that sounds terrible but the church is super new here and new members don't know a lot of stuff. He's a good example of what a member missionary should be. 

    Other than Church not a whole lot has happened. We met with Marko and had a talk about the book of Mormon and reviewed the restoration and he just said he needs to read and learn more before he decides to get baptized. He just needs to receive an answer that it's true because he has a ton of faith. He came to church and was asking questions so we have hope for him. We haven't been able to meet with Liza for a while but we went to the hospital with her because we thought her son was in but it turned out to be her sisters baby son but it was a good thing to go and show her we care. She really needs to come to church but lives kind of far away so it's hard but once she does it will be great. The other cool thing that happened is if you guys remember that old couple I wrote about a couple weeks that was super cool and a good example of a good married couple. We were out tracting and the third door we knocked on was their house! We had stopped teaching them because they kept prishing lessons but they let us in and and we were there for a good hour and a half. They fed us a ton of food it was great. It wasn't the best lesson but they said we could meet again so I hope us running into them again is a sign and we can keep meeting with them. 

    The other thing is having sisters here has totally changed the mentality because every lady we run into now we turn over to them which doesn't bother me at all it's just a different mentality. I'm super excited we have them though!!! It'll be great for Shkoder and the work here. 

 That's it for the last couple days. Not my best email but I'm sure I'll have lots to write next week. Love you all Keep me in your prayers! Love Elder Szabo 

Family seeing your beautiful faces was very much needed. I love the fact that we can only write once a week and skype twice a year because it keeps us focused on the work but seeing you guys was amazing. It gave me such a fire to keep working hard and make you guys proud when I will actually see you next. But TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you're reading this please begin a drum roll until you read the next part............... Elder Szabo is..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Staying in Shkoder and Elder Ostergaard came here. I was a little worried just because it was my first transfer but my comp is an amazing missionary. I've actually been around him a lot because he was my old Zone leader and he came up here a couple times on exchanges. He's my year group so he's a pretty old missionary. Oh and we got sisters up here in Shkoder! Because Elder Romer was the district leader we had to find a house for them. Took up so much of our time. They don't have a yellow pages thing for Shkoder so we didn't really know what to do and were told not to tell anyone but we went to Pavlo our member and he found two but they weren't what we needed and we were getting worried because we only had 2 weeks to find it in the first place and we only had 5 days left and hadn't found a place but then our member has this realtor guy that was helping us and we found one that was perfect but it didn't have anything in it and they told us it could be done on the 10th if Januray but we needed it done on the 1st and they told us they couldn't then we talked to them again about it and they said they could. They did work on that place. They put lights in a fridge a table a washer two beds and cleaned the whole place and two air conditioners. and they did it all in a couple days. It was such a blessing. We were so worried about it and it all worked out. It's a perfect house for the sisters. It was quite an experience. Finding a house with very specific things and no internet and in Albania was very interesting but it was a very good experience. I have been having a lot of those lately. Just good life experiences. But the Sisters made it here safely and It's a dying sister Sister Maxwell and she's training Sister White. They seem great and we are all going to do work up here! Speaking of sisters I had three in the mtc and two are training and one is an STL. Crazy that that happened after our first transfer! Ok back to My transfer so Elder Ostergaard is here. He is a GREAT missionary! Him and Elder Rawlings the other zone leader are the two people in the mission I hope to be able to become like and It's great I get to serve with him. You have a picture of him. He's the red head that took a picture on my camera forever ago. He is from Michigan but went to BYU for a year before he came out. We get along really well. He's super energetic and jokes around a lot and sings a lot. But we joke around a lot and we already get along really well. He has a personality that you get along with or at least I do. I am going to learn a ton from him. We both don't feel like we're companions though because he did exchanges up here so much we just feel like we're on an exchange but it's going to be really good. We have big plans for Shkoder. Our building is in a bad location and far away from the center so people don't like coming there but in order to get a new building we need more people coming to church so we are going to do work this transfer. I think I'll be here for the next three months but you never know what happens at the 6 week mark. I hope I stay I want to see success come here. We just have to find those people. I'm excited. It's started to get cold recently and windy and it's terrible but what do you do. Bundle up! and our apartment is freezing cold and our heaters are terrible but we do what we can and we just found another heater so we're not doing terrible. Just cocoon up at night and it gets pretty warm with our little heater. 

    I sleep like garbage and being a missionary is tiring enough but when you sleep like garbage it means you're even more tired. It's hard sometimes but I'm here and here to work so no sleep isn't going to stop me. I"m leaving everything in this mission. It sucks being away from family and home and I'm only 18 years old. 18! But this mission thing is such an amazing opportunity. I was a young boy when I came out here but I'm slowly becoming the man I should be and the one who will be prepared for the rest of his life. They say you give up two years of your life but I'm gaining 60 years of knowledge in that time and I'm already grateful for the things I've learned out here and the time left I have to grow. Before I came out here the gospel was just a thing in my life that people told me was super important and I had a testimony of but since I've been out here it's become a reality in my life. It's the truth and you can't deny it once you've felt it. You can forget and move away from the path but you can always come back and try better. The cry for repentance is just an invitation to become a better person. No matter where you are on the path. If you think you're getting called as the next apostle (you should probably humble yourself) or you're struggling with your testimony this gospel is all about becoming a tiny bit better everyday. Becoming like your older brother who came here. He came here and suffered everything for you so that everyday you could use that sacrifice to become the person you should be. Everyday you should become a little better mentally, spiritually, and physically. Strive to become that great person that you know you can. Don't sit there and settle for mediocre when you've been given the opportunity and the invitation to become an amazing human being. Line upon line you can grow become and learn how to become that person. Never stop striving for it never give up on it and never forget to Look forward with a steadfastness in Christ who should be your rock and foundation and pray continually with faith that you can become that person. It's possible. It's up to you to start now. Set the goals and GO FORTH. Life is a staircase. You have to work to get to the top but once you're there the view is incredible. Push yourself to learn as much as you can, to become as spiritually fine tuned as possible, and in the best shape that you can be. Get motivated. Get happy. Get better. I love you all. Keep up the good work and keep me in your prayers. Your favorite Elder in Albania. (I'm in Albania is that still weird to anyone else???) Elder Szabo.

Family friends one and all. 

     This week was slow. Sloooooooow. We only had five lessons. If you served a mission or know a missionary ask them if that's a lot. It's not at all. The work is slow here but doesn't mean you can discourage me. The subject line this week come because I PRed(personal record) Contacting time. We contacted for five hours on Wednesday. We contact with this "He is the Gift" poster and we have not been having much success but we're out there doing what we can and that's all we can. I'm extremely grateful I was born here. It's taught me to be grateful for whatever you have and to always have a positive attitude. Contacted for five hours but always keep a smile on my face. This work is hard but I'm preaching the plan of happiness not the plan of sadness and despair so if I expect people to be excited about it i need to be. I miss home and am tired all the time and lessons prish and we only have 9 people in church but it's all about your attitude. Mom i have that little black and yellow magnet you have burned into my mind since I've been here. I've learned it is all about your attitude. There is ALWAYS a positive way to look at something no matter how far you have to stretch sometimes even if everything is against you. You chose to be here you have a God who knows you and what' best you and loves you and is watching out for you. You have an older brother that suffered for you and knows you perfectly. He is walking besides you. Think everyday am I living the plan of happiness or the plan of despair and negativeness. MEN ARE THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE JOY. You exist to have joy. So turn that frown upside down and get to work if you're not where you want to be. I  could go on for hours as you all know. Next week you'll get another rant about something or other that I've learned. This mission is a blessing beyond measure for my life. I see why Satan tried so hard to keep me from coming. He knew how much it would help me in the battle against him. 

    Anyways into my week. Not a lot to report this week because not much happened. Last Monday we had a lesson with a guy named Izmir. (eezmir) he's a super cool guy that speaks really good English which is weird here. He's a student for business and he's going to Norway after he gets done for a scholarship or something. So we showed him the video and talked about Christ and having faith in him and just kind of talked to him about his beliefs. He really liked the quality of the video which i thought he would because he's a business and marketing student and I love how well it's done so i thought he would. But he had some interesting ideas just about that there are these people and gifts that god sends but you can't put a name on it and stuff like that but we just testified and said yes it is Christ and stuff and he kind of changed a little and was like ok. Then we ended and gave him a Joseph Smith pamphlet because we didn't have enough time to explain the book of mormon and when he saw the picture of Joseph Smith he started going off about these alien people called Anonockies no idea if i spelled that right but they are a race they came here and created humans and used them to mine and work for them........ Ya weird right it was just a good lesson that ended very strange but he's just a kid who likes learning and we just need to steer that learning. When we asked him if he wanted to learn more about the book of mormon he was like Of Course! it's a book so he just likes learning and hopefully we can keep working with him and get his desire to learn in the right place. 

     The other lesson worth mention this week was with our investigator named Liza. She has been an investigator for ever and has gone through like 3 sets of missionaries and always changed her number but i told you about our last lesson we had and we text her to read a chapter in the book of mormon and she read it and two other ones so that was exciting. The lesson so the last one was crazy and totally got prished but this time it was only her a couple of her kids and her husband who we were a little worried about because he always talks about money but we started the lesson. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and they understood the whole thing and we're like ya we need to be better people and follow Christ and they just have a ton of faith but when we taught baptism and committed them and they said yes! and you're all probably wondering why I'm not more excited but it's because they said yes but we got the vibe it was more a yes baptism and following Christ is a good thing so they said yes. It's just been a while since she's got the other lessons and we don't really know how much they know. but they said yes and they had three kids well four but the oldest is 17 and married so.... But we are going to review the restoration and the plan of salvation and hit on baptism again and just talk about why this is the right church and why they need to get baptized in this church and do all these things and hopefully they will get a better grasp of it and get the whole picture on baptism and the gospel. I have really high hopes for her and her family though and I'm really excited to see how our lesson goes next time. and TWO  baptismal dates. Been here 2 1/2 months and those are my first ones so HIZZAH! AWAY WE GO! haha 

     The last thing for this week was Albania had a priesthood meeting for the whole country and we were asked to attend by President Weidmann. We had it in Durres because they have an actually church building. It was crazy to see that many priesthood holders there and have a meeting like that. The work is going forth in and it was great to see. A kids who's going on a mission spoke, a couple bishops and the stake presidency. There was probably 150-200 people there and it was Awesome! Oh. and the whole thing was in Albanian obviously so it was like two hours of language study and i didn't get a ton out of it but it was good. It felt like a meeting we used to have in America and it was cool to see that we have that many members that would come. The two hour drive there isn't great but i enjoy driving and take it from my companion so I can't complain. Definitely worth it as well. 

    Well that's all that happened this week. I love all of you and leave you with my simple testimony that Jesus Christ lives and is the true meaning of this great season and time. He lived and died and lives again so that we can all be here and experience joy in this life. Find that joy and become better everyday. Mentally, Physically, and Spiritually become better everyday. Your Favorite Missionary. ( a lot more pressure than i thought it would be)  - Elder Szabo

This letter will be a little different and I should have time to share stuff about my week at the end but I wanted to share an experience I had about a month ago. 

    I was cleaning up my stuff around the house trying to get it all organized and came upon a letter that I had received while in the MTC. I had forgotten about it but not the message inside. It was from Amy and had the typical update stuff what's going in your life type of stuff which I love to hear about but also included was one of her recent blog posts. I opened the letter again and began to read the blog post. Amy lost her husband a couple years ago while he was serving in the military and the blog post was about an afternoon she had had  battling her feelings and going to his grave and the feelings that accompanied the day and then going to a place for lunch and a song came on that had been the last song that had really meant something to the both of them and the love that she felt from her husband because he had sent the song to her and the love she felt from him. Because of the plan of Salvation and that she knew where her husband was and that she'd see him again one day. I won't try to repeat the whole story because I couldn't do it justice. She writes much more beautifully then I do. Go find it and read it. But I share this because as I finished the letter my eyes watered up a bit and I was filled with an appreciation for the Plan of Salvation that I am privileged to know and to share for the next 2 years. As I sat and reflected I didn't really know why I came on a mission honestly. I almost didn't come on one but I prayed and got an answer it was the right thing to do. I could write a whole other post about that parents you can ask about that later but as I sat there and thought about what i had just read and the plan of salvation I realized why I'm here. It's to share this beautiful message of the The Plan of HAPPINESS of salvation the perfect plan that guides our lives and gives us direction here. The plan that can comfort a young widow or strengthen a young boy 8000 miles away from home. I'm here because people everywhere need this beautiful message of this gospel and that plan that accompanies it. I found my WHY? I've come to realize while I've been here that before i came the gospel meant very little to me. I went to Church, to seminary, read my scriptures on and off. Did the stuff I was supposed to but didn't really realize the importance that it should have in my life. I almost didn't come out here but I will be forever blessed because of this opportunity i'm having right now. This plan that we know of is a blessing beyond measure. That we can all come here experience our hardships and one day return to God. Our loving father. This is all possible because of a brother that lived, suffered, died, and rose again. For each of us individually. Because of him all we must do is come unto him and become a little better everyday. Try a little harder. Learn a little more and he will comfort us, strengthen us, guide us, and so much more. I sat and reflected all of this as I set the paper down and realized the true purpose of why i'm here on a mission. To bring about the salvation of souls. My purpose as a missionary became so real and got so much meaning in that moment as I realized this plan that made the story i had just read possible was why i was here and everyone needed it. What is your WHY? for being in this gospel. Find that why and hold onto it. Strengthen it everyday. Become, learn, and grow in this gospel. If your 8 or 80 you can find something to improve on. This gospel is the most important thing in your life and you should treat is as such. I don't write this pretending to be perfect or that I have ever done this in the past. I didn't put it on the level it should of been but I know I should now and I think everyone of knows that we should but life gets in the way. Search for that WHY?  Hold on to it and try be a little better everyday because of it. People. I know Christ lives and knows each one of you. You have a loving heavenly father who knows you and what's best for you. His commandments will give you blessing beyond what your mind can imagine and you will find joy like you have never had if you hold onto this gospel and follow it's teachings. Find your WHY? and happiness will find you. Don't make what i'm doing out here be in vain. 

   "The gospel should not be a checklist or something you do out of a feeling of responsibility to others but should be lived because you have a personal why and you know your purpose here in life" Yet again this made no sense and was a ramble but I hope you got the message i was trying to convey. 

    That was long and different but I've wanted to share that experience since it happened and just got around to it. Didn't really make much sense or come out how i wanted it but oh well. 

     This week was a normal week not much happened. We've running around getting it trying to spread this he is the gift message. We made a goal for 4 baptisms when I first got here and we have a mission goal to get 300 baptisms before the end of the year. We need 86 as a whole mission and 4 here... That doesn't sound like a lot but here in Shkoder that is a lot especially when you think that we only have 3 weeks to do it now. We have two twins that the other elders are teaching that are super solid and progressing but we need two other people that we can commit. We have some hopefuls but it seems like everyone of our potentials would be hard to get by the end of the year and we can't meet with them very often and we haven't gotten any baptismal dates yet. I have no idea how its going to happen but we are trying to have faith and do everything we can to achieve this goal. I honestly have no idea how we're going to do it but Nefi didn't know how he would get the plates, Moses didn't know how he would get the people out of Egypt and so on. The Lord works in mysterious ways and We are trusting in him and not ourselves. Because the he is the gift thing isn't in Albanian our mission has kind of had to improvise so we got Albanian subtitles for the video and got Albanian pass along cards for it and these big posters posted to contact with. and We got it on this big screen that's in the middle of Tirana. It's a shortened version of the video that is about 30 seconds long that plays every three minutes!! Isn't that awesome???!! it's basically the times square equivalent of Albania! It's cool to see what we've been able to do with it even though it would have been a lot better in English because we could just say hey go watch this video you speak English! We have to get people to come to the church or carry around our little dvd players for lessons. It's been a little difficult but at least we have all this stuff. It's better than nothing! Always a positive perspective. We had a couple lessons this week that we got to share the video in but 2 of them weren't super effective because the first one was with a lady named Liza who we started meeting with again. She's met with a bunch of missionaries and changes her number then meets with another set but we actually went to her house and had a good first lesson with her but this one there was a ton of kids in the house going in and out and her husband wants money from the church so he was talking about not having work and how America is a fairy tale where everyone has work and lives on rainbows and at the end of the lesson her dad and brother came in and totally prished the lesson. So we just ended and left. We shared the video and got a little good discussion but it wasn't the right environment and didn't have the impact it could have. But the good is that she's actually reading the book of mormon and came to church two weeks ago. But the husband might be a challenge we'll see. 

    The other one was with the family that has an active member that moved. It is really hard to get all of the families attention at once and people are in and out and the five year old doesn't sit still. We showed the video but it didn't go very well. Just not the right environment again. But the grandma who is super catholic has been reading the chapters we've been leaving them. I didn't really know what do about that family because they know about the church and we just need to get them excited. We will keep working with them hopefully something happens. 

    The last one was we went to the other Elders less active who is an old lady. Not the crazy one other one but she wasn't home so we knocked on her families door who are our less actives who we called and they came to church two weeks ago and they never answer the door but she did and said to come in so we have an improv lesson and showed the video and they really liked it. It was her and her daughter but she is one of the leeches and was talking about how they didn't give her enough help and she knows better than everyone and all this stuff but we hope we can get her excited about the gospel again and the dad isn't a member so it things progress we can get him involved too. That's it for this week. Not much happening here. I love you all. Keep me in your prayers. Elder Szabo

No, Actually i'm not a J-Dub.

FAAAAAAAMILY AND PEEEEEOPLE OF AMERICA. 

    I have so much to say but not much time to write this week. We went to the castle today and had to walk and stayed longer than we thought. But I got to go to a castle so that was awesome. 

    This week has been slow as usual only a couple of lessons but You can not bring me down. Honestly I don't really get discouraged anymore I just put my head down and go to work. It's actually just normal now. This mission thing is tough and long sometimes but I learn so much in the process. 

    Since I don't have much time I'll just tell you about the two lessons that were good this week. One was with that family that we met with last week. They are great and we love going to them. I think I told you about them but honestly can't remember so if i haven't let me know. Anyways the power just goes out in Albania all the time because that's normal and when we got to their house the power was out so we had a lesson by CANDLE LIGHT! It was awesome. I love that family and want so much for them to be interested but they are super catholic so we'll see. But surprisingly enough the Grandma of the family who is super catholic was the one who read the Book of Mormon assignment we left with them. She said in the middle of the lesson that they weren't going to get baptized or join our faith or anything but they are awesome and we're at least bringing the spirit into their home and strengthening their faith. We taught them about Christ and his purpose on earth and the blessing he is for us * Huge side note. Their is an initiative called He is The Gift. Go to christmas.mormon.org and go check it out! It's awesome and that video gets me every time. I love the church's media department because they do work and their videos are amazing and I love good videos and almost want to work for the church just so i can be a part of it. Anyways go check it out and SHARE THE GIFT. * I have really high hopes for that family especially because they have a family member that is a member but she leaves far away. They are awesome and are willing to listen and agree with everything we teach them we just need to get their faith aimed in the right direction. When we close with a prayer and ask one of them to say it the grandma always leads them in the Lords Prayer and it's delightful. Gotta love them Catholics. But I really hope that as we continue to visit them and the grandma keeps reading and hopefully a couple of the other ones will read as well they will realize the truthfulness of the gospel. That was a really good lesson this week. I love that family so much and I've only met with them twice. It's amazing the love that comes when you're trying to bring people to eternal happiness. 

    The other lesson was last night with the two members that live below us. PAVLO AND MIMOZA. Good googly moogly I love them. I honestly want to stay in Shkoder for my entire mission. Not even kidding I would stay here because of them and because i want to see this place grow and we're right on the verge. Anyways! lesson. So we planned to teach them the Restoration again because Pavlo's only been baptized for a month and we found out a really good way to start teaching it so we started the lesson (which is literally the floor below us) and talked about why we need a restoration and that God is our loving heavenly father. and they just started going off on how they want to do missionary work and things that we should do to improve it and That we need to get the church in a better place and Mimoza said that she was going to go by the college and tell people about the gospel and they were just saying all this great stuff. My goodness You want to light a fire under a missionary have members talk about doing missionary work in a place that only has four members. It was so good to see them excited and wanted to help and all their ideas. It was awesome. but the main reason I liked the lesson was because I got an idea about missionary work that totally changed my perspective. This is going to sound dumb to everyone else but it fits me. When They were talking about how we need to get the church in a better place i realized what am I doing as a missionary? I'm marketing the church to people here. It's just like dropping a new product or something. This sounds dumb to everyone else but I love marketing and business and it totally changed my perspective because I'm not just a missionary who isn't having success but now It's my job for the next two years to think of new and exciting ways to market this church to people. and this brings partly to my subject line because of a ton of people think we're jehovahs witnesses and I hate it and I really want to change that and get the church super known here and get us recognized as who we are. I'm super excited about this. It's amazing what one little thought can do to your whole mission. I was excited about the work before but I'm pumped now to see what I can come up with to Market the church here and get it super known and obviously convert hundreds in the process. Everyone is thinking what is in the water in Albania but hey It's getting me excited so whatever works right. That probably made no sense to anyone but I thought I'd let you know and that I'm super excited to go through the next two years. IT's amazing what happens when you forget yourself and go to work here. You don't have time to worry about home or yourself because all you want is for people to come unto Christ and know this happiness. 

   In Nefi he describes the love of God as better than anything Lehi had ever tasted before. It was more desirable than anything else. This gospel is more desirable than anything in the world. Sure we may be a peculiar people but we have the plan of happiness. It's called the plan of happiness for a reason. It's not the plan of never ending sadness and despair. NO. It's the plan of happiness.  A perfect plan that if we follow it we can find joy and satisfaction everyday of our lives no matter what is happening. MEN ARE THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE JOY. You live so that you might find joy in this life. How do you do this? Follow the commandments and find gratitude in all you do. Everything has a positive. Go read 1 Nefi and tell me you can't find something to be grateful for. He literally never complains and neither should we. We can find so much happiness in this life and the life to come. Everyday rejoice because you have the knowledge of this plan and the way that you can be happy and return to your loving heavenly father one day. Before I came out here this gospel meant nothing to me. But having to work for it and testify of it everyday has made me realize how important it is. Don't make what I'm doing out here be in vain. Read your scriptures and pray everyday. Attend the temple OFTEN. and everyday put a smile on that face in your heart because you have the knowledge that an eternal perfect being is your FATHER in heaven and he has a plan for you. and you have the truth. Find your testimony and hold onto. Grow it everyday. The gospel is a escalator are you going up or down the escalator. Find the truth and hold it close to your heart. Search the scriptures and find them open the truths of heaven in your life. Rejoice because of this truth you have. You can find happiness everyday and become better everyday because it. EVERYDAY try to BECOME a little better LEARN  a little more and GROW mentally and spiritually. I could go on for hours but I will end with this. I know Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He came to this earth Suffered everything and raised on the cross  and rose again so you could have happiness and return to God one day. He did that for you and you and you and you and even you! He loves you and knows you better than you know yourself. Turn to him and become like him everyday and he will lift you up in this life and in the next. He is Christ and he Lives. Remember that he is the true gift of this Christmas season. 

   Much love your favorite missionary. Elder Szabo  christmas.mormon.org 

Laaaaaaadies aaaaaaaand geeeeeeeeentlemen. You're looking at the last Szabo missionary. 3 down 1 to go. Seems crazy that Jamie and Molly are home now. Seems like just yesterday we were taking them to the MTC. Ooh mtc don't miss that place. 

    Guess who has two thumbs and plays the piano? This guy! WARNING: any mothers or piano teachers please sit down for your health and well being before proceeding to the next statement* I had to play the piano in Church Sunday and boy do I wish i would have kept up with it! What's that you just heard mother? Yes I wish I would have practiced more and kept up with it after I stopped taking lessons. I really enjoy playing the piano but it was rough playing in church. I practiced a little this week but I can only play the right hand well enough and just have to sight read them. It was a little rough but we got through and it wasn't too bad but I'm going to have to play as long as I'm here or another Elder who plays better comes here. I'm going to get pretty good over the next 5 weeks though. I'm going to practice through the week so it isn't terrible for sacrament meeting. Speaking of Church we had..... 8 people this week. 4 missionaries 2 members 2 investigators. Both were the other Elders. None of ours came. Pavlo and Mimoza left town again. Mimoza's mother died so they left for Vlore and aren't coming back for a couple days. Oh and it was my week for a talk. So I had to play the piano then stand up and give a talk right after. If you've forgotten I have to give those talks in Shqip. I prepared a little and made points like I always do but I couldn't find my talk before we went to Church so I basically had to wing my talk but 15 minutes winged talk after being here 7 weeks isn't too shabby. I actually love giving talks its just hard in the language but I'm super grateful i have to give talks because it helps my language skills. My speaking ability is a lot better. My flow has increased even though I make a lot of grammar mistakes still. But those will come with time. It's hard because verbs and nouns are both conjugated. Verbs for whose doing the action and what tense it's in. So theres present simple past and imperfect and verb declinations are very hard because there are 12 ways you can change them there are three types of endings for indefinite singular definite singular indef plural and def plural. It changes based off of where it is in the sentence. One of the hard things about the language is they conjugate things with nominative accusitive and genitive/dative/ablative. It's very confusing and none of this is probably making sense but be proud of me because I'm doing decent with the language. It will come with time and hard work. My understanding is still pretty rough i can get the general idea most of the time but it's still a little rough most of the time. But the moral of this long story was that I wish I would have played the piano more and Mom always told me that I would have to use it and she was right. Mothers always know best. ALWAYS. 

    This week was slow as usual we get a lot of numbers but then people don't meet with us but cool story for the week. So we teach English course two times a week. We have the course then share a spiritual thought for those who want to stay. But we started a new course a couple weeks ago and this cun- (choon) ( c with the little tail it basically means young boy/ teenager/ young adult. don't know a good equivalent. This guy was like 22) came with another guy and two girls and he was a typical cun. Loud disrespectful and making dirty comments stuff like that. Wasn't really interested in coming. Made the whole class not fun and we didn't really want to teach him anymore but he came back a couple times. My comp really did not like him. Background to what happens next. We decided to go tracting one night and decided on some buildings and we knocked on a door and an old couple who wasn't interested then the second door we knock on guess who answers..... The annoying cun we don't like! We both really didn't want to go in but he invited us in and he was there with two of his friends. They all live there kind of like a dorm room. So we talked to them for a little and it turns out they were actually super cool and we taught a really good restoration lesson to them. The one we didn't like was the least interested but his two friends were really engaged and it was a really good lesson. We had run out of book of Mormons so we didn't have any to give them but left them with some pamphlets to read AND it gets better we invited them to FHE and the other two actually showed up and participated in the lesson and really enjoyed it. It was a really good lesson in judging a book by his cover and it was a really cool turn of events. We gave them book of Mormons at fhe and are meeting with them tonight so we are really hoping that they are still interested and have read.     We had three other promising lessons this week. One was with a guy we contacted into while the zone leaders were up here helping us out. We speaks really good English so we gave part of the lesson in English. his friend he brought didnt' speak as well so we balanced it but they seemed really cool. They didn't seem super engaged during the lesson but they looked for like 30 minutes to find the church and still came so we are hoping we can meet with them again. They live in a fshat and have to leave town early with a frigon if they come into town. Another was a guy that Elder Roemer taught a bench lesson to when we were contacting. He taught him the Plan of Salvation and he was super interested in it and believed. He has some weird beliefs but after we taught him the Restoration and were walking back with him he was talking all about how God has given us everything and we need to follow his will and we need his help and all this stuff so we were super excited for him. But We tried to call him to set up another lesson and he answered then hung up and we called back and he ignored the call then turned off his phone. So we don't really know what's going on with him or why he lost interest. We hope he'll answer when we call back. The other lesson was a family of a lady that's a member but she moved to Sweden or somewhere but she's a super strong member and we were over by her families house and Elder Roemer was like hey we should see if we can meet them so we talked to a guy on the street to see which one exactly was the house and it turned out to be the dad an old guy and he told us we could come by that night. So we stopped by. There is a grandma and grandpa a daughter and her husband and their two kids that live in the house and it was kind of crazy because people were in and out of the room and weren't staying then the Grandpa came home during the lesson but we just talked with them for a while. The kids were super cool and the little one was really cute they were probably 8 and 5. But we just shared Helaman 5:12 and talked about having a foundation in Christ and they were just all agreeing and talking about how important he is to have as the center of your life and all this stuff and I was getting super excited but at the end we invited them to church and the grandma was just like it's too far for the kids and I'm too old to walk that far and all this stuff so i was really bummed about that but they've read a little bit of the book of Mormon before and the 8 year old knew all about Joseph Smith and the dad of the two kids was flipping through the book  of Mormon the whole time and reading and they said we could come back again so we will keep working with them and at the end we invited the 8 year old to give the prayer and he was about to give an amazing prayer but the grandma started having him give the lords prayer and they all said it. The kid looked at us after like he knew that's not how he was supposed to pray though so that was super good. I was devastated when they wouldn't come to church but we'll keep working with them and trying to bring the spirit into their house. They are a super good family and I love them even just being with them that once. The grandma was hilarious and her laugh was great. I have high hopes. 

     Other things this week. It rained for two days. The first day it poured for a good 8 hours straight it came down. I'm really glad i had that nice umbrella it was very helpful. but I haven't had rain like that before and it was great. Way better than snow. it rained on and off the next day and hasn't rained since but it definitely brought winter. It's gotten a lot colder the last couple days and contacting is getting pretty cold at night. Time to layer up. Humid cold really cuts to the bone and it is cold! Going to be a cold winter. Oh and the second day it was clear in the morning so we didn't think it was going to rain but we were at lunch and it started and we had to walk home without umbrellas in the rain. It was off and on but we got pretty wet. Another thing we've been running every other morning and we always joke with our members that live below us that they should come with us and on Friday night we had a lesson with them and Pavlo said he was coming with us the next day and we thought he was kidding but the next day he came and knocked on the door and he ran with us. It was a pretty slow jog but he has to be upper fifties so it was impressive he came with us and he's super funny so It was great. It's gotten colder and my comp doesn't like the cold so we're not going anymore and he said no one else in the mission would go running so a little bummed about that but I just need to find a kettlebell. A funny thing Albania is weird and on these sidewalks they have holes in them because they are planting trees but it takes them forever but there is just like 10 holes in the side walk 2 1/2 feet wide and we can avoid them in the day but we were walking home and it was dark and we were walking and all of the sudden I hear Elder Roemer make a sound and turn around and he had fallen in on the holes. Just one of those only in Albania moments and luckily he didn't hurt his leg or anything but we just had a laugh that he fell in a hole. The last thing for this week is Motra Prena the crazy lady that tries to feed us terrible food and is crazy. We found out she had an accident of some kind and was in the hospital she fell or soemthing on her way to church so after church we found out what hospital she was in and went to visit her but Albanian hospital.... We walked in and there was no one at the front desk or anyone to help us so we just started walking and it was just sketchy and the best was to describe it is a hospital where they would film a zombie movie. It was just weird and there was no one walking around or to help you and it was weird. We were all a little scared about being in there but we found her walking out the hospital she was fine so it must not have been to bad but the hospital was definitely not an American one and I think i would die if i had to go to an Albanian hospital. That's all for this week. Not much success but we keep working hard. I love you all keep me in your prayers. OFFICIALLY the favorite and only missionary left. Elder Szabo