Larson Mission: Time for an Update

Orphanage Project - The humanitarian missionaries came to Vlore a few weeks ago and talked with the director of the orphanage. They identified a few ways that we (the church) could be of assistance to the children. Over the past week we have had a contractor install a nice parkquet floor over the top of their broken tile one in two different rooms. We will be having a contractor paint a couple of rooms and a roofer patch some of the leaks in their roof. We also were able to get some money approved to buy some new toys and clothes for the children. Last Saturday we gave our Young Adults some money and sent them out on the street to buy some clothing for the children. I must say, they really enjoyed the activity and found some really great bargains. They seemed so excited about what they bought and how well they did. I am sure the little ones will enjoy the clothes too.

Teaching people the Gospel - It has been our great privilege to teach with the full-time missionaries. They are talking to some really great individuals. So far only a few of them do not speak English so we have been able to share our feelings about Christ and his Gospel directly with them. When the people don't speak English the elders translate for us. But it is a wonderful feeling to testify and witness of Christ and our relationship with God. We had three people baptized this last week. It is exciting to make friends with them and see them grow in their feelings toward God and the purpose of their mission on earth.

Teaching Lessons - As the High Councilman assigned to this ward and having no Elder's Quorum president it has fallen upon me to teach the lesson in Priesthood meeting. As you know I love to teach but in this instance I don't speak their language. How do you teach something to some one who doesn't know a lick of what you are saying and then when they do respond you have no idea what they just said. Wow, what a challenge it has been. Like the rest of the church we are studying President Benson's lessons. So I decided to see if we could get the English and the Shqip translations of his lessons up on the TV monitor at the same time, side by side. That way we could both be looking at the same ideas and lesson points. That worked pretty well today as we talked about home teaching and finding the lost sheep. I hope next week will be even better.

Service Projects - We've done a couple of service projects for members this past week. The Relief Society president needed some bricks moved from the ground floor to the roof of her 3 story home. So we (the 6 elders and I ) moved bricks one morning. Another family needed some help putting in a terraced hillside. So we spent some time digging dirt and placing rock. They were pretty physical projects and I enjoyed the exercise.

So here are a few pictures to go along with some of our adventures this past two weeks.