Four wonderful, experienced missionaries left us in the last two weeks, and two excited elders joined us. Elder Owen, our wonderful, creative, enthusiastic, and spiritual Assistant left a bit early so he could enter BYU Provo on Jan. 5 and Elders Fisher and Behling, and Sister Nygren left on Jan. 7. Elders Foulk and Shields came that same day. The eyes say it all. "I am happy. I have served a good mission. The Lord is happy with me." And, "I am here, Lord--here to do my best. Lift me. Strengthen me. Help me in this hard thing."

The Way Prepared

This evening, in a period of about fifteen minutes, we experienced intense emotions at both ends of the spectrum. Marty received an email from a secretary in the Provo MTC that one of our Albanian young men, Enea Rrokaj, who had been called to the Italy Rome Mission, had not appeared at the MTC as scheduled and was now classified as a "No Show!" Enea came with his parents (who are members) on Sunday to be set apart by Marty, and then went to the airport very early Monday morning to depart for the States. It is a long trip to Utah, involving at least two plane changes, and we were nervous that Enea would have difficulty navigating the airports. Then we learned later in the morning that he was still at the Tirana airport as all flights out were cancelled due to fog. Elder Newhouse picked him up, and he stayed with the Assistants Mon. night and spent all the next day in the mission office while we dealt with transfers and departing missionaries. He spent Tuesday night with some other elders and worked with them all day Wednesday, and was finally able to get out of Albania Thursday afternoon. We learned just today that he had called his parents and branch president (Elder Chatfield, couple missionary) and told them that this time with our missionaries was very good for him and made him more excited for his mission. Then we received the email tonight. We were panicked and worried. Had Enea missed a connection? Did he get cold feet and bolt? Was the MTC not notified of the flight delays and had they left him alone in the SLC Airport? Marty called the woman who sent the email, but she was not at her desk. He left an urgent message. We scoured all our resources and found a number for the Information Desk at the MTC, and the phone was picked up by a Brother Clayton Cook. Marty quickly told him of the situation, and Brother Cook said, "Oh, I checked Elder Rrokaj in early this morning at 1:30 a.m.!" We were so thrilled. But here's the best part: Brother Cook told us that his own brother, Kevin Cook, had served a mission in Albania, had opened the city of Vlorë where Elder Rrokaj is from, AND had taught the Rrokaj family the gospel! We were speechless with emotion, and amazed at the wonderful blessing for Elder Rrokaj, traveling alone to a strange place, to have such a tender and warm welcome to the MTC!

Automobile Problems in Albania

Well, after 6 months of escaping any kind of auto troubles and accidents (really, pretty remarkable, given all the daily opportunities for disaster), the last 10 days have been a time of catching up! In this short amount of time, in 3 separate incidents, I've (Marty) mangled a wheel rim (driver's side front), destroyed a tire, mangled another wheel rim (passenger side front), and destroyed a tire, had an accident involving our only other automobile in the mission(he hit me, though), and had another flat tire (passenger side rear)!! Right now, the VW Sharan van that Liz and I normally drive around in is not really in condition to go very far (no spare tire, rim on order, one tire with an ugly bulge in the side wall, and no 195/60 R16 tires in the whole country of Albania!!). Tomorrow, we'll see if we can get some 205/55 R16's.

The rest of the story: on the biggest shopping day before New Year's (a Sunday), we offered to drive the Saraci sisters to the furgon (private bus) station in order to get to Durres for the funerals of two cousins of a close friend. But everyone was on the roads of Tirana buying last minute food, fireworks, and fun...we were totally stuck in traffic, and decided to try some back roads known to the sisters. With their guidance, I started off to short circuit the whole mess, only to end up "stucker" than ever. Patience wearing thin, I set off to do a trick play that involved going over some 8 inch high concrete barriers in the road, only to discover that I'm not driving my trusty Dodge Dakota, but a wimpy VW, and the drivers' side front wheel went crunch, the wheel cover flew off, and the tire popped. I maneuvered to a spot off the road, and tried to change the tire, only to discover that the wheel lugs had been over-torqued, and I couldn't get enough leverage to get them off. A young boy selling Albanian pens came by to help (and to sell us a couple of pens), but no luck! Finally, I gave up and called for help from the assistants and Elder Newhouse, who showed up with a longer wrench, and we finally got the tire changed!

Not too many days later, we were invited to attend FHE at the home of Sister Xheka in Durres. We met another family going to the FHE at the train station and began following them to her home. It was very dark and raining, the streets were filled with water, and we were going slowly but unfortunately I couldn't follow them precisely. Suddenly the van was jarred violently, and the entire passenger side took a deep dive downward! Since we were in 15 inches of water, I didn't know what it was, but I guessed that it was an open manhole, and I've now mangled my second wheel rim, and destroyed my second tire! We drove on to Sister Xheka's home for a very interesting 3 hour FHE (I wasn't the only one asked to give a lesson, but the other lessons were all people reading complete conference talks from the Liahona, followed by a complete formal dinner! Amazing!!). We had parked on the muddy edge of a dirt road that was very close to a 20 foot chasm, and I spent the whole meeting worried that 1) the van would roll down the calvert and 2) both tires would be flat and we wouldn't be able to get home. I call it the FHE miracle, because the van didn't roll, and we were able to get home (although the steering wheel shook violently at about 40 mph!). The next morning, both the front and rear passenger side tires were flat!!

Then yesterday, driving two newly arrived missionaries home from the airport, we were hit on the side in the mission van (the only auto working in the mission at the time) by a Mercedes that was entering traffic, and got too close. The driver claimed that I had hit him, and went running for a policeman to sort things out. The policeman came and clearly saw that he was in my lane, and hit me in the rear, and that it couldn't have been my fault. He asked me if I wanted to press charges against the driver, but the damage was minimal and I said no (to the great relief of the driver of the Mercedes, whose whole demeanor changed incredibly when he saw that the policeman was on my side). Then the policeman asked me if I was satisfied with the service, and when I said "yes", he saluted and we shook hands and parted. I hope we've gotten this all out of the system now, and can go the next couple of years with no problems!!

New Year's Eve in Tirana

You just cannot imagine, nor can words describe, what New Year's is like in Tirana!! There are fireworks going off all day long, but at about 11:45 PM, things begin to intensify, and people are shooting off amazing fireworks from their windows, from the ground outside their apartments, and from the rooftops. Around midnight, the fury and intensity of the fireworks is deafening, and it appears as though the entire city has erupted in war and conflagration....this lasts for about 20 minutes, then gradually dies down. We climbed up a ladder thru the ceiling to get access to the roof of our bulding (Liz viewed the whole thing from the safety of the apartments, which was still amazing). It was an amazing panoramic view!

Morning in the "treg" (think farmer's market!)

We spent this morning looking for American style bacon in the treg right next to the Stephen's Center cafe, where we had a wonderful breakfast---waffles, eggs, bacon, toast,hot chocolate. After eating their bacon, we asked where they purchased it, and they pointed us to the next square over in the treg at a proschute and salame place called Hako. These are some of the colorful sites along the way.

The traditional New Year's meal in Albania is turkey, and there were turkey's everywhere this morning. Last year one of our missionaries was invited to New Year's dinner, and was given the honor of killing the turkey, which was done by slitting it's throat in the bathtub. Speaking of grisly things, much of the slaughter takes place right on the streets, usually on Sunday's. When the meat stores advertise "fresh meat", they really mean it! (Posted by Marty)

Singing in the Qender Christmas Eve

Motra Neil organized a wonderful Christmas eve activity with all the Tirana missionaries, young adults, and other branch members. There must have been 50 of us all together. We drove into the center of the city, beneath the giant statue of Skanderbeu, and after meeting up with everyone else who walked, we set up with several tables (nicely draped with red tableclothes), tracts and Books of Mormon, and a large picture of the Savior. We also brought a guitar and a small battery operated keyboard. After handing out Liz's homemade collection of all the translated Albanian Christmas carols (eight of them), we started singing, as loud as we could, because in the open air, and without amplification, the sound doesn't carry very far. As we sang hymns, missionaries did street contacting and wished passers-by a Merry Christmas.


I don't know that we sounded very great, but it was wonderful fun! We did have to take a few minute break, when the mosque right behind us began broadcasting the call to prayer (adhan)---they had major amplification!

The center has a very large, decorated Christmas tree, not too far from where we were singing...in fact, Christmas decorations are eveywhere! But, to our surprise, we learned that it's all about New Year's here. (It's not a Christmas tree....it's a New Year's tree!) They give gifts on New Year's as well. And, they do fireworks! So much so, that we instruct the missionaries to be in their apartments by 5 PM New Year's eve, and not to come back out until the next day----it's dangerous to be on the streets. (By Pres. Neil)

Gate Keepers

If the Assistants happen to be outside when we're loading up the car to exit the mission home grounds, they run to the open the gate for us. There they stand at attention with stone faces like they're Secret Service. They look up and point at the windows and roof, speak into their "watch radios" and salute us as we drive past. This morning as we exited to visit the Tirana 3rd Branch, we noticed a large group of men standing at the lokalë (cafe/bar) across the street (just out of view to the right) watching our little exit ceremony. We laughed and wondered who they think we are to deserve such respect!