One Year!

Marty and I have been here one year now! We arrived last year on Sunday, June 29. As they say, time flies when you're having fun!

When our visitors or missionaries fly home to the states, their flights are usually at 5 or 6 a.m. which means we have to arise between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. to get them to the airport in ample time for their international flights. In the last five days, we've made the early morning airport run three times.

Friday, June, 26, we took Sadush Malku, who was leaving for the Provo MTC before going to the Italy Milano mission, and Elder Vail, who sadly, had to leave to go home to Alpine, Utah because he was experiencing an eye problem that couldn't be treated here in Albania. Fortunately, Elder Vail and Elder Malku were able to travel together. We hope Elder Vail will recover and be able to be reassigned to finish the remaining six months of his mission in the states.

Saturday we took Emily, Peter, and their children to the airport to go home to San Diego.

This morning, we took Elders Wilde and Whittier to the airport as they left their missions one week ahead of their normal release date so each could attend family events.

Also today, we said a sad goodbye (another airport run--but this time at noon) to Elder and Sister Chatfield, who served an 18-month mission as a proselyting couple in Vlorë. Elder Chatfield was branch president in Vlorë, and also gave patriarchal blessings to English-speaking members throughout the country. The Chatfield's are returning home to the Boston area. We will greatly miss them. There are only two couples besides ourselves left in the mission.

Five Very Important Visitors

Emily, Peter, and their three children, Jack (7), Andrew (6), and Eliza (2 1/2--the 1/2 is important!) visited us for almost two weeks June 14-27. We had a wonderful time together and managed to fit in some great sight-seeing despite some unseasonable rainy weather. We took a day trip to Kruje, and another day trip up Mt. Dajti, taking the long gondola ride up, eating at a nice restaurant on the mountain, exploring, and kicking balls around the meadow.

We attend church in the little branch in Fier, where the children joined one other child for Primary. Then we continued on from Fier to Gjirokaster where, alas, we ended up having to spend the night in the Relax Hotel where in April, Marty and I had spent a sleepless night on a rock-hard bed listening to bar music all night. Marty found it ironic and funny. I was not amused, but our stay was a bit more "relaxing" this time. The bar closed earlier this time, but we were awakened at midnight by the most fantastic half-hour thunder and lightning show we have ever heard and seen, with the noise ricocheting off the slate roofs, streets, and mountainside of Gjirokaster. Amazingly, the children slept through the storm. In the morning, the boys (big and small) loved exploring the underground rooms of the huge fortress. Emily was amazed at the openness of the castle. Unlike any other castle in Europe, tourists are free to roam the ancient stone tunnels and rooms, which are not restored. There are WW I cannons and armaments in the main hall. We ran into 13 missionaries at the castle, who were on their two-day "senior" trip (they call it their "dying" trip that they earned by finished the progression program in a year's time.) After exiting the castle, we drove on to the site of the "blue eye", a deep natural spring and grove, and continued on to Saranda, a picturesque bayside town on the Ionian Sea. There we found a very nice hotel for the night and toured the ancient Roman ruins in Butrint the next day. The kids didn't swim on the Ionian but had a great time skipping rocks. The beaches in Saranda are gravel and rock.

The kids were real troupers throughout the long drive and were happy as long as the snacks kept coming.

On the 19th of June, Emily and Peter celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by going off by themselves to a nice restaurant while we babysat.

Some other activities of the visit included a Family Home Evening with a young convert family; walks through town; ice cream at Rudi's; Peter going with the missionaries to contact (and finding three interested investigators); the movie "Night at the Museum 2" at the new Krystal Center Theater (in English, with Albanian sub-titles); a visit to the Monument to the Martyrs, where Elder Oaks dedicated Albania for preaching the gospel in 1993; game playing; trying out my new Wii Fit they brought as a birthday gift from all our children; more ice cream; Emily and Eliza having a dress and skirt for Greg's August wedding, custom-made for them by a seamstress in one of our branches; and drinking lots and lots of Ivi Orange and Lemon soda.

Eliza and I were best friends, and as her mom was packing to go home, she kept saying, "We have to leave. Grandma will be so sad. She will miss me!" Indeed I do.


Jack and Andrew loved visiting Hassan, a shopkeeper across the street who gave them free Snicker's, and all three children had their cheeks pinched and kissed many times by complete strangers. Here are Jack and Andrew keeping Marty company in his office.

Elder Christofferson's Visit

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and his wife Kathy visited us from May 28-31. Our Area Seventy, Elder Wondra and his wife Ursula were also visiting. After their arrival in Tirana on Friday afternoon, we whisked them off to the U.S. Ambassador's office for a half-hour visit, then went to the opening of a Roma (gypsy) pre-school where the Snow's had arranged some LDS Humanitarian Services aid of kitchen appliances, desks, chairs, and supplies. It was a colorful cultural event! That evening we hosted a dinner at the Tirana Sheraton so Elder Christofferson could meet several people here in Albania who work on goverment religious committees, the diplomat Michael Gray, from the U.S. Embassy who deals with religious affairs, and our attorney here in Albania.



At the Roma school, Sister Christofferson was drawn into the traditional line dancing and we were treated to dancing by the Roma children.

I had been concerned that I had not purchased flowers for the conference meetings in Elbasan and Durres on Saturday and Sunday, but the Roma people gave us three large bouquets of flowers. Problem solved!

We left the mission home early Saturday morning for the exciting and beautiful drive to Elbasan where we held an all-mission conference in the brand new Elbasan chapel. This was the first all-mission conference we've held since we've arrived. It was thrilling to be all together and had a wonderful two-hour session. I arranged a small choir of missionaries who sang an arrangement of "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands" by David Naylor. Elder and Sister Christofferson loved the music and requested that they sing it again for our closing song.

After the mission conference, we sent the missionaries into the streets of Elbasan to find lunch and investigators, while we drove our guests to a Greek restaurant where we were the only diners and the owners rushed to serve us a delicious lunch. Then we returned to the chapel for two afternoon sessions with members of the district. At the end of the afternoon session, Elder Christofferson dedicated the new Elbasan chapel. We now have two church-owned chapels in Albania. The other is in the city of Durres. In Tirana where missionary work began in the early 90's, we still do not have a church-owned building. The four branches meet in three leased buildings. Back home that evening in Tirana, the Baird's (Marty's counselor and diplomat of military affairs at the U.S. Embassy) hosted a reception so the branch presidents and district presidency could meet and mingle with Elder Christofferson.



There were two sessions of conference in Durres on Sunday, and Elder Christofferson was the featured speaker at an evening meeting with the Young Single Adults in Tirana where he gave them an Apostolic Blessing. Throughout the conferences, Elder Christofferson was very generous with his time and shook every person's hand who wanted to meet him, and posed with several for pictures. The Albanian members were thrilled to have an apostle visit Albania. It has been five years since the visit of Elder Nelson.

Marty was able to arrange a meeting with the Albanian President, Bamir Topi, on Monday morning, and then we said goodbye to our guests. They took our personal mission van with a professional driver to Macedonia to visit with a few saints who live there, and after a night's stay, the Christofferson's headed back home to Salt Lake City, and the Wondra's to Vienna. Our van arrived back on Tuesday morning. We were also supposed to have gone with them to Macedonia in our larger mission van, but the clutch on that van burned out last week and was in the shop. We were so tired by Monday morning (I don't know how they kept up their busy schedule on this two-week tour!) that we were grateful to be staying behind.

We barely had time to catch our breath and then we held our two zone conferences Thursday and Friday. It was quite an exhilarating week!