January 1, 2016
Yes, it is past 8 here, and
yes, Pday usually ends at 6. But President Weidmann gave us a full Pday today,
and let us watch movies from a selected list! I never thought I'd watch
Chronicles of Narnia, Madagascar, Ice Age, Frozen, Tangled, and Remember the
Titans on my mission.
These past two Christmas holidays on the mission have been
the best of life, with the greatest gift being having the chance to talk to my
family. Earlier in the day the Nelsons prepared a Christmas dinner for us that
was really tasty. The sisters brought salads and bread; we brought desserts.
After we had our secret Santa gift exchange which was a blast! Then we got the
chance to Skype with our families.
The mission has made Christmas a lot more meaningful for me
being able to help spread the reason for it. The people's hearts have been
softened this Christmas season, resulting in one of the most successful months
of my mission. Our Branch Christmas Party had about 40 people attend, almost
doubling our weekly Church attendance numbers. One day, while contacting, in 30
minutes, we talked to 2 people, and had lessons with both of them. Nothing even
close to that has ever happened to me on my mission before. For the orthodox,
Jesus Christ is pretty separated from Christmas, and the Muslim don't recognize
it at all. It's been just exciting being able to share with the people here why
we celebrate Christmas, and I'm excited to keep doing it until the 7th, when
it's Orthodox Christmas.
Jesus Christ entered the world for every one of us, and
served as our master, servant, and most importantly, savior. He's always there
for me, especially in my times in need. Especially, when I don't deserve it. He
showed the greatest act of love mankind has ever known in giving us the chance
to live in happiness forever. Now that the Christmas season has passed,
continue to carry the spirit of Christ and let others get to know him through
you.
In the past week, we got transfer calls. My son (trainee)
that just finished training, Elder Dibble, will be training another missionary,
so I'm going to be a grandpa :') We are also getting another Elder from
Albania, Elder Cani, here in Macedonia, who will be paired with Elder Bischoff.
13 new missionaries came in this transfer, so a majority of the missionaries in
Albania and Kosovo will be training. I'm pretty sure that Elder Chingas and I
are the first Macedonian Zone Leaders. That means we'll have to travel to
Tirana once a month for a leadership meeting, do nightly call-ins with district
leaders, conduct zone trainings, and do exchanges. We'll be covering Macedonia
and Kosovo. It came as a huge surprise that I wasn't too happy with at first,
but now I've come to terms with it. It'll be Elder Chingas and I's 4th time
being together as companions, so I'm pretty sure we're going to set a world
record for that. We will also be opening a new area in Skopje, in a part of the
city called Aerodrom. If it were a city on its own, it would be the 7th biggest
in Macedonia, so there's a ton of people! It will definitely be a transfer of
learning!
Elder Bischoff and Cani were returning to Macedonia on
Wednesday. They were bringing back some supplies from the mission office for
Elder Chingas and me since we'll be in a new apartment. When the customs guy
checked their car, he saw the water filters they were carrying, which
apparently is a commercial good, and started accusing them of smuggling. They
detained them from 9 that morning to 8 at night, because since the filters
weren't declared at the Kosovo Albania border, they were illegal in both Kosovo
and Macedonia, so neither country would let them enter. Luckily, they finally
let Elder Chingas and I pick Elder Bischoff and Cani up so they would have
somewhere to sleep. I've never seen anyone look more tired, plus they hadn't
eaten anything that entire day. Elder Bischoff and I headed back the next day
because Elder Cani had to register his entrance in Macedonia. They had taken
care of most everything the day previous, so we just had to do some paperwork
for about 6 hours. One of the guys working there chose not to slam us with a
2000 euro fine, because we were volunteers for a church, but we still had to
pay 400 to legally import them into Kosovo. Macedonia won't let us take them
until we get them inspected by some medical officer, so we had to ditch them in
Prishtina with those missionaries, and then just go back to Macedonia without
them. A lot of things worked out just right in that process though. We had 7
extra filters than what it said on the invoice, the church got legally
chartered in Kosovo only a couple months ago so we could import the filters
under their name, nobody got thrown in jail.
Enjoy the new year! Make it a good one Elder Rigby
