hot and humid

We tried to find our investigators house who always wears his waldo shirt and we asked a lot of people and none of them knew where he was. It was funny. I kept thinking "No one is going to know where waldo lives, He is waldo!"

We have this Friend, Arjan, who we have been teaching and he is so funny! He should be getting baptized on Aug. 13 and he really wants to help us do missionary work and so we have been going to members houses with him and have been teaching very simple lessons! So much fun!

The only other thing that happened was that we planned 16 first lessons and none of them came, most likely because it is so hot! It has been a very humbling week.

I will be with a mini missionary for the next 2 days! so I am kinda like a trainer right now! #TrainingMySecondTransfer!

Spiritual Though:
Our friend Arjan used to smoke, he is 24 years old. This last week he stopped all smoking and we had another lesson with him and we could see the Light of Christ in him! It was amazing! We have been teaching him for about a month and he has changed and improved so much and I know that the Gospel changes peoples lives! I am so grateful that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth through a living prophet!


I love you all! 

Love Elder Michael Ueston

Prayer

We were able to meet K's wife this week and he is amazing too!! K has been telling her about the lesson and she is very interested! It is awesome! THEY ARE AMAZING!!!

We have this guy named Visi. We always meet his in the street and he always wears the same shirt, "a waldo shirt" so it's like playing a game of "where's waldo" every time he says he wants to meet with us.

We printed 1200 English course flyers 300 pages of them and we needed them to get cut. We walked around and found this sketchy sweatshop looking place! they said they would cut it for free. They had this giant knife cutting machine to cut them and it was dope! No safety and nothing else it was sweet! Also it wasn't a sweatshop but it did have a guard dog in a cage, It was a book printing shop thing.

I did a baptism interview this week... so I mean from what I understood it was good! Just kidding the gift of tongues is real!

We have an investigator named Arjan. He is so funny! we have very simple lessons with him and they are like the best lessons I have all week! SO MUCH FUN!!

Spiritual Thought:
PRAYER! This week I really wanted to meet with some people that we had taught before. I prayed on Friday and Saturday that we would meet them and then on Saturday night we meet him in the road!!!!!! and he said he would come to church! We hadn't seem him for about 3 weeks and after praying just for about 24 hours we meet him!
God Love us so much! He wants us to be happy and he wants us to be able to feel of his love. He wants us to humbly ask him for things before he will give them too us! I know that God answered my prayers and I know that God loves me and each one of you!

2nd Transfer!!

2nd Transfer!!

I got a new companion! His name is Elder Eddings, he's from Utah (like all of them.) They call Utah the factory for missionaries! This is his last 6 weeks! He's super cool and served in Kosovo for a while so he is getting used to speaking Albanian Albanian (Tosk.)

K* got baptized!!! HE IS SUCH A STUD!!! At the baptismal service he bore the most amazing testimony and while he was doing this I thought about how we meet him..

**Flashback**
We walked some less actives home and while we were walking one of his friends started talking to us and at the end he said he knew someone who wanted to meet with us! We got K* number and meet with him. We meet with him for the first time and he just he is just looking to do the right thing in life! and now he is! #baptized
He is amazing! We had so many lessons and he we get to know his so much! I can honestly say he is one of my best friends! He is such an amazing guy and I am so grateful for his example to his family and also too me!
***EndFlashback***

So proud of him

Spiritual Thought:
The coolest thing ever was seeing K* after his baptism! He looked like he had a new light! I can't explain it! When we gave him the Holy Ghost and we said "Receive the Holy Ghost" I felt the Spirit almost like a wave. It strengthens my testimony that this Church is true! Our baptism is an amazing promise with God and is a miraculous way we can feel God accepting us into him loving and open arms of mercy!


I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Michael Uestën

Transfer

P-day! Or Free-DAY!!! 'Merica

I am finally done with my training transfer. I will be staying in Elbasan and Elder Eddings will be coming here. I am very excited! I will most likley serve in Elbasan for 3 more months! Also I kinda burnt my 12 week program book, just a little bit. ;)

This week was packed full:
We had a great lesson with our Friend Klodi about tithing and he understood it 100% and said he would be willing to pay more to the Lord!! He is amazing! He should be getting baptized next week! We are so blessed we found him too!! He got his baptism interview on his birthday!

We had an open house for the Church here and it was a lot of fun!
We had this lesson where this guy told us about the government doing all sorts of experiments and stuff and he wanted to sue the government and stuff... I really didn't understand what he was saying!! The only thing I understand was the word "experiment." sooo.... I invited him to do another experiment... the one with Moroni 10... and praying about it.... yeah.... he didn't come back! It was so funny!

Spiritual thought:
Christ will help us through all things! He died for us and wants to help us. Through the Atonement we can use his enabling power and receive strength if we are worthy of it! God often times won't change our situations, but what he can do is give us strength to withstand them, and eventually change them for ourselves.

When Nephi's brothers tied him up he prayed for strength, and he was able to break the bands with his own strengths. He prayed to use the enabling power of the Atonement to help him be strong enough to get though the trial he was facing.

We should pray for strength to change our situation, not just ask for our situation to be changed. With the strength of the Lord inside us we can do all things!

I know that God loves and we can do all things through him! I know that if we pray for strength in our lives we will come to understand the Atonement even more!


Love you all!
Elder Michael Uestën

Great week!!

Zoti in Albanian means "Lord."
Frikin mean "to be afraid"
"Frikin Zoti" is used in the scriptures!!! I laughed so hard when I saw that!!!! (I was really tired)

We had a great week!!

1. Besnik was baptized and confirmed! In Albanian besnik means: Loyal, and faithful, basically he is amazing! It was amazing to be able to see him go into the water and be cleansed! Then the next day he came to church, I tied a tie for him, and he received the gift of the Holy Ghost!!

2. We gave a blessing to our friend Klodi for work and his family. After the blessing he had the biggest smile! he is AMAZING!!!!

3. We also had a lot of lessons with some great people that we hope we will be able to help them more and more!!!!

Spiritual thought:
This week we had a lesson with a lot of members and this less active guy! The less active guy said that he left the church because he felt no one missed him when he wasn't there. He later received a message on Facebook from a member. He felt welcomed again and said he wants to come back to church!

As Alma explains Mosiah 18:9 "Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort... that ye may have eternal life—"

These are things that we should be doing if we are baptized and take upon us Christ's name! I hope you all will help someone who stands in need of comfort and help lighten others burdens that we all may have eternal life together! Everyone will have hard times and we can be the reason why those times are easier!

Love Elder Michael Uestën

#SamuelTheLamanite

Chess

This week we saw these 2 people in the street in front of their store. They asked us if we were good at Chess. Needless to say I started to play. This old guy killed me!! but, while I was playing my companion was talking to this other guy named Juxhin! He said he thinks our message is interesting and wants to meet with us!   Basically because we played chess, he now loves us! 

We meet one of our investigator's wife, and she is very interested too! funny story! We skipped 2nd and 3rd hour of church to meet them because their child was tired and didn't want to walk all the way, but it was great! We had an amazing lesson with them! I can't wait for him to get baptized! He is my best friend! He's so awesome!

Our friend Besnik will get baptized this next week! He is so cool! I will send pictures for sure next week! :) He is also my best friend! He is so funny!

Spiritual thought:

Today we went to the house of the Sadiku family. They have a child suffering from some mental problems. We gave him a blessing. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life! Christ lives His children so much that when he came to the America's he gave all the children a special blessing and angels ministered to them. I could feel that love and that Spirit today when we gave this child a blessing. That feeling is undescribable!  I know Christ loves his children! 

Love Elder Michael Uestën

I CAN DRIVE! it's like turning 16 all over again!

Highlight: ;) (kinda) We saw our investigator who is leaving for Italy soon!  He was the one who kissed us on our cheeks! and yeah he kissed us some more. Nice guy!

Also I am still in Elbasan, I had a exchange for 24 hours in Fier!

I watched the video about driving this week and then I asked what else I have to do, and guess what? I can drive now!!!!!!!!! It is super fun! Only a little scary because not everyone follows the rules! I love it though! Everyone seems to know what they are doing!

Something cool that happened this week was that we were tracting, for one of the first times, and we meet this one family and they are super nice! We taught the Restoration and it was great! But the dad, who wasn't in the lesson, didn't like us... so we can't go back... but we planted a seed of truth into their hearts that someone will harvest later!

We also have this friend, Besnik(which means loyal), who was taught by other missionaries but stopped because someone from his family died. We found him again and we are hoping he will be ready to be baptized soon!

Spiritual Though:
One of my new favorite scriptures is Mosiah 24:15 "and now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord"

I know that God will not take away all of our trials, but he can lighten them if we are willing to be obedient to Him will.  If we submit to the will of the Lord cheerfully and with patience, our burdens will be made light and we will be strengthened! Now that's a promise! 

Love Elder Michael Ueston