August Zone Conferences

Inside Zone

Outside Zone

Thursday and Friday were our "Inside" and "Outside" Zone Conferences--"Inside" meaning all of Tirana and "Outside" being Durrës, Fier/Lushjnë, Elbasan, Shkodër, and Vlorë. It evenly divides up the missionaries--20 each zone, not including couples.

The focus this conference was the new training that has been sent from the Missionary Department, which emphasizes increasing each missionary's ability to teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ more effectively.

In addition to the introduction of the training which will go on through next Spring, Marty spoke about what it means to have an organizational culture. He asked the missionaries, by district, to share the positive aspects of our mission culture, and come up with three ways we can improve it. These are the goals we decided upon:

1. Raise our language ability--more daily SYL (Speak Your Language 4-7 PM if you're here less than three months, and 4-9PM for all others.)

2. Have a shared vision for the future of the Church in Albania--that the Church is still very young here, but will grow large and have stakes and possibly a temple in the years to come. Do not get discouraged, and "be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." (D&C 64:32)

3. Be always finding when you're out of the apartment.

4. Speak positively about one another and halt the gossip.

I gave a thirty minute presentation on the power of positive thinking, as we're trying to help the missionaries stay positive and confident as they live in difficult circumstances and face rejection in their teaching. Elder Taylor, who is our Area Psychologist, sends the mission presidents a monthly "Mental Health Memo" with excellent ideas about how to identify negative thoughts and change them, and I used some of his notes.

I cooked lunch for the inside zone: sloppy Joes, potato salad, and chocolate cake and ice cream. The outside zone leaders made salsa with tortilla chips for the snack, and ordered roasted chicken and potatoes for the meal.

Though we crash after several days of preparation and two day's execution, we love zone conferences. It is always wonderful to come together as a large group of missionaries, sing and learn together, hear success stories, and bear testimony. Under the new directions from Salt Lake, we will be having four conferences per year instead of eight.

Wish I'd Taken Pictures

This week is our boys's and girls' camps--two days, two nights each. This afternoon I went to the camp with a few others to give some short presentations on various topics--mine was on setting priorities. The camp is a half-hour outside of Tirana in an area that was a World War II battleground (with the Germans) and has several memorials to fallen soldiers and other communist-era monuments. There is no running water, no toilet facilities, no shelters. The 30 boys and their young leaders, along with six of our elders, set up a few tents, a large, outdoor gas stove, and "Viola!" camp! Oh, and they had to get some pesticide and spray the ground for biting, chigger-like bugs. They brought in large bottles of water. It was kind of strange thinking that we were treading where so many had fallen in bloody battle.

I think it should have been preserved as hallowed ground.

There is a bar/restaurant nearby, and supposedly the owner had agreed to let the camp use his bathrooms, but the boys were just going anywhere in the fields they could find a private spot. I don't know what the girls will do. I hear there are 70 girls coming.

The young man making dinner (rice and sausages) severely burned the rice because he had only a small plastic spoon to stir it with. Apparently it was totally ruined. So the boys were kind of hungry today. They did have apples and some melons, and we brought up eggs and other breakfast foods for tomorrow morning. The bar/restaurant is supplying a sit-down dinner for the boys tonight--probably fasule--beans and rice. Today we were with the woman planning the food for girls' camp, and she seemed to know what she was doing and had made long lists of groceries, which the assistants helped her obtain. I think the girls will eat much better. Fires are not allowed as it's been dry in Albania lately, and so there could be no roasting of hot dogs or potato baking in coals. I think the missionaries found some marshmallows at the German store in Tirana, and they were going to roast them over the gas stove tonight.

I saw a few frisbees, and a couple of soccer balls, and someone had strung a volleyball net between two trees, so the boys did have some activities, and the four workshops went well this afternoon. This morning the boys took a small hike where Marty was supposed to give a "sermon on the mount," but he became very ill with fever/chills/cough and couldn't go, so two (Albanian) recently returned missionaries talked about what it was like to be a missionary.

Oddly, the leaders forgot to tell the boys what to bring, so no one brought bedding. The mission has some tents for camps, but some boys had to sleep under tarps hung over ropes, and there was a drop in temperature last night, so they were all very cold.

Amazingly, the boys were all in great spirits and seemed to be enjoying the camp.

This is the first year the Albanian members have planned boys camp all themselves. In the past the elders have totally planned and prepared for the camp, but Marty thought it would be good for the members to learn to lead it. The girls' camp has been planned by members for the last two years, with only a bit of support from the mission.

Little by little. Avash, avash, as we say here. Don't I love camp. ; ) Glad I could come home after my presentation!

The boys said were amazed by the stars, as most have never seen the night without city lights obscuring the natural light of the heavens.

Always Something New

There is always something interesting or new going on in the mission, and it definitely keeps us hopping. This last week was no exception.

On Tuesday, Ian and Sue Preston from Eden, Utah (Ogden area), arrived to serve with Seminaries and Institutes (CES) in Albania. The Prestons are originally from New Zealand and still have their wonderful accents. Marty has asked them to serve in Elbasan, where there has not been a couple for a few years. That was a change from what they had been told by the CES people in Salt Lake, but after being in Elbasan for an afternoon, they came to feel that this was the place for them. They will strengthen the branch, and especially the Seminary program there and start up Institute classes as well. They are enthusiastic and friendly, and before even putting the key in their new apartment had invited three young women in their neighborhood to a Family Home Evening the following Monday!

We learned last week that Elder Taylor Allen, one of Marty's Assistants who had gone home three months ago for medical evaluation after suffering from severe headaches, was doing better had been cleared to return to Albania! We feel really blessed, because missionaries who go home on medical release usually are reassigned somewhere in the United States. We picked him up Thursday and he's right back into the work!

Two weeks ago we received a large packet from the Missionary Department detailing some new training for the missionaries, with a focus on improved teaching. It's an eight-lesson course with an accompanying DVD showing actual missionaries from the San Diego mission applying the principles in the lessons. The instructions were for Marty to begin the training of mission leaders in July. As it was already the middle of July, that gave Marty one week to plan eight lessons. He gave the training all day Thursday and Friday, 9AM to 6PM, with a one-hour break for lunch each day. I sat in on some of the lessons, and Marty did a wonderful job. We think these are inspired lessons and should really help the missionaries. They were very receptive to the training, and two missionaries who tried it out during tracting on Friday night reported back to Marty that they were very excited about what they had learned. They found a woman willing to come back to the church for a short "zero" lesson. In that lesson they tried listening to the spirit in asking questions, and being directed in the way the lesson should go by the investigator's answers, and they were pleasantly surprised at the results.

The training packet also had a new calendar based on the month, rather than the six-week transfer schedule we've been using. Zone Conferences are to be once every three months, instead of every six or seven weeks, and interviews will also be every three months. The training is to be repeated every two months, until the missionaries are very well-versed in the methods. By May 2011, the incoming missionaries will have been trained while at the MTC. We're not sure if the Zone Conference schedule will revert back to be more frequent. The missionaries really look forward to Zone Conferences and will miss being together as often.

I provided lunch on Friday: Teriyaki Chicken/Rice/Veggie bowls with cut melons as a salad. The best compliment I received was (obviously from a Utahn) "This was better than Rhumbi's!"

Interviews begin this week. Marty is one of the few mission presidents who gives interviews by traveling to each district. Since we have only 40 missionaries, he can really spend some time with each one. Mission Presidents with 150 or more missionaries give very short interviews after zone conferences when the elders and sisters are all in one place.