the one where things pick up

This week has definitely been good. First, we were walking down the street and a guy comes up and wants to talk to us. He's been investigating the church for four years over the internet, and wanted to meet with us. His name is Elvis, and he's as cool as his name implies (actually, there are a lot of Elvises here in Albania). This man is only 22, but he is a psychologist working for an organization that helps people quit addictions. He's met with over 2000 people; 1000 or so of them have just stopped meeting with him, 700 of them he's helped recover, and 300 have died from their habits (smoking, drinking). He's really, really cool. On our first meeting with him, he accepted an October 30th baptismal date, and when he said the closing prayer, he asked God to help him work towards that date and he promised God that he'd be ready. I'm looking forward to working with this man.

We were tracting the other day and a man let us in. He claimed he wouldn't be converted; that he only wants to learn about what we believe like he's done with lots of other religions. But he was very eager to read the Book of Mormon, and that book alone might convert him. It's exciting to wonder what changes will happen in his life.

We got to go to the mission home on Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 pm to watch the 10:00 am sessions of general conference. It truly is a miracle that we, who were 6000 miles away, got to see and hear the prophet and the apostles. You know when they welcome those who are joining them through TV, radio, internet, satellite and stuff? I never thought I'd apply to that "satellite" category. It was a great experience; I loved all of the talks (especially Elder Holland's talk thanking everyone. You could feel that it was extremely heartfelt). I'm glad we'll be able to read all the talks in a few weeks in the Liahona, too.

Well, the only other exciting thing that happened was that we went to the local McDonald's ripoff called Kolonat for lunch (pronounced "colon-ought", as in, "your colon ought to be made of steel before you try this"). It actually wasn't that bad. The fries tasted kind of like McDonald's fries and the burger was decent, even though the meat tasted more like a sausage than beef.

I'm grateful things are picking up, and I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures.

Elder Weaver