It's a Monday, which means it's the best day of the week until tomorrow rolls around. Make the most of it.
This last week we had a, well I guess you could call it a building week. We have gone around and met with a lot of members (active and less active) and are hoping to really build up the member trust base here. It is a different kind of work than I have done before, but I think it is really good. I am used to more coming in and hitting the streets for many hours all the time. We are hoping that as we do this and really help stoke a missionary work fire in the hearts of the members that we will see some good success that is more lasting. The ward here is really strong and has a lot of old members as well as recent converts. Bishop Gjini is very by the book and runs a tight camp here. It is almost scary to see how smoothly stuff runs here. I don't know if most people do family home evening, though I do know that a few do.
We started up our English Course this last week here and it started really well. The second day wasn't quite as promising...but we are hoping that people will be able to come more and that we will see some good success.
Some awesome news that we got, probably the best news of the week, was from Elder Simons. He called up a few days ago and asked me to guess what was going to happen on the 12th of this month. Eda is getting baptized! I don't know if you remember who she is, but she is the twin of Ema and told us about a month ago that she didn't want her sister to be baptized. However, the Spirit softens hearts and she found for herself that what we have is true. I think a big thing is that the biggest change of heart occurred once she started reading the Book of Mormon. Seriously, the book has power. She didn't agree to read until maybe the last week I was in Fier, and now she has a testimony. This stuff really works.
We have been working with Gerti, he was actually the first person who agreed to meet at a later date from when we came into 2nd Ward. He is progressing and is great, but we just learned that he goes home to his own city every weekend. This is going to be rough for getting him to church. We also met this taxi driver named Ilir whom we invited to a baptism on Saturday. He came and we had a lesson with him afterwards. He was so cool. Just looking at him I could see future Melchizedek Priesthood holder. At the end of the lesson we asked him where he lived, and he told us a place that was just barely outside of our ward boundaries. It was cool; it was probably the most Christ-like I have ever felt about passing off an investigator. Even though we have like zero work right now, I just felt this desire for the well-being of this man. When we called the other Elders to pass him off, they tried to tell us that we should teach him anyway knowing what our work level was like. However, I felt like the widow with her two mites. We were here with very little and were casting in basically all that we had. I have no doubt that as we do all we can and do it the best we can that the Lord will bless our efforts and that those who are ready will be taught.
I had the opportunity to read the King Follet Sermon by the Prophet Joseph this week. That blew my mind. You should check it out sometime. I have also spent some solid time studying Doctrine and Covenants 88 this week. I found a lot of really cool things there that made an impression on me as to why we do certain things in the church and what kinds of examples we need to be.
Our new mission President also made it in this past week and he and his wife are awesome. They are from Solothurn, Switzerland and have a really good look on the work here. He really seeks for the missionaries to be spiritually healthy enough to do the needed work. He also asked for us to pray for our companion by name in every personal and private prayer which has been really good to do and I can see how it can really bless the missionary work.
Well, I love you all and hope that Alex, Grandpa Shurtz, and America had great birthdays!
Love,
Elder Ostergaard
P.S. And thank you so much for the package Mom, it was great!
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