Small and Simple Things

Today I'm playing Pollyanna's "Glad Game" or perhaps a rudimentary version of President Eyring's suggestion "O Remember, Remember." Here are some small and simple things I am grateful for:

1. Flowers and green plants. We have found a greenhouse and a flower shop and purchased some fresh flowers (first time since we've arrived), an orchid, and three green houseplants. Yeay!!

2. Mandarin Oranges. Seedless mandarins from Italy and Albania have come into season, are widely available, and are more delicious than any I have ever tasted! No kidding--better than California.

3. HandiGrips. I picked up two of these at the Container Store before I left California. Wish I'd brought six, so I could put them in different places to have when we need them. Everything we purchase is bagged into in small plastic bags, and since we often walk to shop, the handles of the bags bite into our hands before we get home. These hard plastic handles really help. Perfect for carrying heavy water bottles up four flights of stairs!

4. Upright kitchen faucets. For three months I struggled with back pain preparing food and washing dishes under a straight sink faucet. Our lower cabinets, including the counter, are 33 1/2 inches high--that's the inseam length on slacks that I wear! (Well, I should say "used to wear.") Standard cabinet height in the U.S. is 34 1/2" before the counter is added, which usually brings cabinet height to 36". Marty and I like our cabinets even higher. Anyway, we finally were able to have a plumber install an upright faucet which has made my kitchen life a lot happier.

5. City beautification projects. This morning I saw four people picking up garbage on the street: two men pushing the garbage can carts, and two women stooping and picking up papers and trash. I have noticed the street is much cleaner these days than when we first arrived! Hooray!

Two Convert Stories

Besmir is a 19 year old Muslim young man, who a few weeks ago was pondering life, and praying that he might know the truth. He decided that he should go buy a Bible and read it, and on the way home from the book store, with his newly acquired Bible tied to the back of his bicycle, he came across two Mormon missionaries, Elder Humphrey and Elder Monson. They struck up a conversation, and Besmir agreed to hear their message. After the first lesson, and a gift of the Book of Mormon, Besmir wanted to be baptized, and has been pushing for baptism ever since. He'll be baptized this coming Sunday! (Interesting side note: Besmir has been going with the missionaries to other investigators to TEACH! He bears a strong testimony, and has a solid understanding. We keep track of the number of lessons our missionaries teach with members, but what about lessons taught with investigators?)

Adriana is in her 30's, married with 2 small children, and lives in Shkodër (near the northern Albanian border). We've been working in Shkodër for about a year now, and have 2 members, and a very small, dark rented room that we use for a chapel. Adriana speaks fluent Italian, and was a nun for many years in Rome, and actually worked directly for the Pope for about a year. When I interviewed her, Elder Anderl asked her my questions in Albanian, and she answered to me in Italian, which I understood very well. She was baptized two weeks ago and became the 3rd member in that small branch! She's amazing, and has such a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, that she couldn't NOT be baptized. Adriana's husband Toma is also receiving the lessons. They've been receiving welfare assistance from the Catholic church in Shkoder, so that will probably go away, but she has faith that God will provide. Adriana's been out of work for about 3 months, and her husband is also out of work. She has been promised a job at the Italian Embassy in January. We're overwhelmed by the faith, and the courage of the investigators who join the church here! -Marty

Little School in Fier

We were invited to Fier today to go to school! It was four classrooms, Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. We were astonished at the condition of the little concrete building: walls and floors of rough concrete, several windows broken, and no heat or air conditioning.

The purpose of our visit was to witness the Morton's, our humanitarian aid couple, bring LDS donations of supplies to help the school. On their regular morning walk into the countryside, the Morton's had met a man whose daughter attends here, and in getting to know him discovered that the school could really use some help. After visiting the school and teachers to determine their needs, the Morton's arranged to have a cabinet maker build desks for the teachers and some storage cabinets and shelves for each classroom. Today we delivered to each classroom some maps, a globe, a CD player, soccer balls and pump, and an oil heater. The Mortons have been in contact with the superintendent of the school, and he has agreed to fix the windows--they've already been measured. The community was organized to clean up the bathroom and playground, and do some electrical work.

You should have seen the boys' faces light up when they saw the balls! We were treated to a little show of the children singing and then the three missionaries that came with us sang one verse of "I Am a Child of God" in Albanian, and the rest of us followed with a verse in English. The four teachers were very appreciative and invited us to stay for a snack after the children were dismissed. They also gave the Presidenti (Marty) and the Morton's a gift of a souvenir plaque of Apollonia--an ancient town nearby that is a major archaeological site--and a hand-made crocheted doily made by one of the teachers. They were very proud of their gifts to us.

It was the sweetest day, and so wonderful that the Morton's were able to arrange to help this small village school.

To see a few more pictures, click on the title of this post--password is "mission". Todays pics start with #35.

Happy Birthday to Marty!

Nothing like having two elders knock on your door at 7 a.m. to sing an energetic alternative "Happy Birthday" song to their president! ("Alternative" meaning like one that is sung by waiters in restaurants.)

Zone Conferences

We just concluded two amazing Zone Conferences which were part of a mission tour by Elder Erich Kopischke of the Seventy, and a member of the European Area Presidency. He stayed with us in the mission home for 3 nights, then left right after our mission council to catch a plane to London where he had to reorganize a Stake. (And I should mention that Elder Kopischke thought Liz's breakfast Smoothies were "brilliant"---to quote the British).He taught us a lot and I think it will revolutionize our mission! We are a Preach My Gospel mission, but we learned there are some things we can still work on (when Elder Kopischke was Berlin Mission President, implimenting teach to find, and really working with members, changed it from 0.3 baptism per missionary per year to 2.0 baptism per missionary per year). So, now we start doing some of the finer points---3 short lessons a week, daily contact, pray on the first lessons (which means we'll have to stop teaching in lokale's--bar's), and teach to find. Teach to find will be a big cultural change since it's teaching from the very start when contacting, and that's not what we currently do. But the most important thing is what we need to do on the member side to have them take more responsibility for helping the missionaries with retention, teaching, and fellowshipping. Five years ago, there were 500 on average in Sacrament meeting across the mission. After baptizing maybe 700 over the past 5 years, we now have about 500 in Sacrament meeting across the mission. If we and the members don't do something differently, we'll still have about 500 in Sacrament meeting 5 years from now. (One very urgent need is to be creative in helping them with employment as we lose a lot of members to other countries seeking employment. We discussed the possibility of finding a missionary couple with experience in new business creation to be called to Albania with a "venture" fund to help some of our young people start up businesses here---anyone interested??.) We've held mission council meetings, and just yesterday, an all district leaders meeting, where we've created a vision of what we believe can be in 3 years, and a plan of what we need to do to achieve it. Everyone seems very excited about doing this, which is to have 5 units ready to be wards in 2011 so that a Stake can be formed. So, now we embark on a very aggressive training program thru the Assistants, Zone Leaders, and the District Leaders to make an already wonderful set of missionaries even better! And, Elder Newhouse and I start working with our District Presidency and the branch presidents on the member side.

One of our members is a young student at the university in Tirana who joined the church a little over a year ago. He turned his papers in to serve a mission, and was called to serve in Albania. A little over a week ago, he called me and said that he wouldn't be able to serve a mission because of family problems and that his father had left for Greece. Then just a few days ago, he came to the office and I had a chance to hear the whole story. His father had sold a little land to a very good friend, who said he'd pay him later. After some time, still no payment. A couple of weeks ago, he and his friend were in a lokale (bar) drinking, when the topic of payment came up. The friend got angry and said to stop bringing it up all the time. The argument escalated to the point that his father hit his friend over the head with a beer bottle, and sent him to the hospital. (He was in a drunken rage.) Fearing revenge, the father fled the scene to southern Albania, where he then walked for over 14 hours at night thru and over the mountains into Greece, where he's now staying illegally with relatives. But, in this country revenge can be taken out on any member of the family, so his mother and other siblings are all fearful of what may happen. I counseled and urged him that he immediately visit his father's friend in the hospital to ask forgiveness, to make restitution, to offer whatever it takes (like forgiving the debt on the land) to make things right. He just shook his head and said that it doesn't work like that in this country. I hope I can persuade him to give it a try (and that he can do it without personal risk)...otherwise, I don't know what the future is for this family.

The Charme Salon

Well, I got my first hair cut in Albania today. With fear and trepidation I had Marty drive me to town to the Charme Salon that was recommended by Sister Newhouse. I had to walk through a courtyard and up some dark stairs to this little doorway. I felt like I could be entering some kind of gambling den and half expected someone to open a little window in the door and ask for my pass code. Surprise!--it turned out to be a really nice salon. The amazing thing about Tirana is that you might climb over garbage to get to someone's home or store, but inside will be immaculately clean and usually very nice, no matter how small. I think Addi did a good enough job. I usually like my hair cut better after I fix it myself, but whose complaining--it only cost $10--plus a $2 tip. Tips aren't expected, but since the cut cost a fraction of what I pay in the states, I decided to tip. My hair is pretty short, so I may not have to spend another $10 until after Christmas.

There were many very fashionable and beautiful ladies in the salon, and all were smoking. I was afraid my hair would go up in flames when Addi used hair spray on me, and now that I'm home, I smell like I came out of a gambling den.

Busy, Beautiful Week

Tuesday was transfer day. Four missionaries were "dying" (missionary jargon, meaning leaving the mission--they're "born" when they arrive) so they were given long exit interviews by Marty, were feted with an open house (I'm responsible for simple refreshments), testimony mtg., and dinner in our apt. Then the elders slept on foam pads in the office and a sister in our guest room. We left for the airport at 3:00 a.m. so they could catch their 5 a.m. flights. We were as sad to see them leave as they were to go, and they felt like they were going to a foreign country--the U.S.! It occurred to me that each had just spent one tenth of his life in Albania.

We arrived back home to catch maybe two hours more sleep, and then awoke to prepare for the new missionaries arriving at noon from the MTC--four sisters and four elders. As I caught a peek of them through the sliding door into the baggage claim area, I spontaneously clapped my hands with joy. They (almost) could have been my own kids coming to see us. They are an amazing group, filled with enthusiasm, unity, and excitement to start their missions--mingled with just a little anxiety. A few had their initial interviews with Marty and we fed them a big pancake supper, with smoothies (so glad I brought my VitaMix) and fresh-made chunky applesauce (no applesauce in Albania, but lots of apples) and "maple" syrup made with Mapleine. We took pictures, and stayed up late to e-mail each missionary's parent to show their son or daughter had arrived safely in Tirana. This morning after breakfast, we took them to the Mother Albania monument, high on a hill with a beautiful view of all of Tirana and the mountains that surround it. This is the spot where Elder Dallin H. Oaks stood in April of 1993 to dedicate Albania for the preaching of the Gospel. It was a gorgeous morning, and the sun was coming up behind the large monument, very much like the morning described in Elder Oak's dedicatory prayer. We sang a hymn (good singers in this group), prayed, and Marty read the dedicatory prayer. Then he asked each of the missionaries to take a few minutes to be by themselves to think about consecrating their efforts to help realize the blessings of that prayer for the people of Albania. Except for a woman sweeping the parking lot with a palm frond and two old gentlemen who seemed to enjoy the singing, we had the park to ourselves. We took a few pictures and left the park. The missionaries took a trip to the police station to show papers and register, and we spent the rest of the morning finishing up interviews and training at the office. The trainer missionaries arrived, we had a pizza lunch, and then the President (Marty) announced the new companionships. The new missionaries were so nervous and excited to meet their first companions, you could just feel the electricity in the room. Cheers went up and it was a very exciting moment for each. They were given big Albanian hugs and kisses (kisses on either cheek for women, left cheek first--this is important!) side to side forehead touching for men-- without the kisses, and they all flew out of the building to catch taxis or furgons to their areas, feeling very welcomed (we hope) to the mission. Marty sent off second emails and pictures to the parents telling where and with whom their son or daughter had been assigned, I threw a batch of towels in the washer (barely dented the laundry pile) and we both collapsed, exhausted. Exhausted, but spiritually high.