Missionary's Dream Contact

Robert Sina, a young man who is a security person at the Casa Italia mall in Tirana, saw our name tags as we passed him in a hardware store and chased us down. Robert told us (in very good English) that as a high school student eight or nine years ago, he was contacted by the missionaries and began studying the Book of Mormon and coming to church. He joined the army after high school and lost contact with the church as he served in various Balkan countries. He's been back in Albania for a month, is no longer in the army, and wants to pick up the lessons with missionaries again! Now that's a missionary's dream!

Visit with Mrs. Berisha

The Snow's and Sister Grimci, who is a long-time member and pediatrician, arranged a visit with Mrs. Berisha, the Prime Minister's wife. Mrs. Berisha is also a doctor and is interested in pursuing joint humanitarian aid ventures with our church and her own foundation, particularly the wheelchair program. We hope to bring in from 250 to 500 wheelchairs, primarily for children and disabled workers. l to r: Sister Snow, Dr. Berisha, Marty (behind), Migena Ceci (member and new physician from Fier who came to help translate), Elder Snow, and Dr. Berisha's personal assistant. April 5 Note: We've just learned that the project has been approved by the Church for 500 wheelchairs!

First Tourist Trip--After 9 Months!

Krujë, Albania. The town sits high on the mountainside. George W. Bush visited Fushe-Krujë, the town at the bottom of the mountain in June, 2007. The cafe he stopped in is named after him. He may not have been much liked in the U.S., but the Albanians love him!

Cobblestone street and reconstructed bazaar. All tourist shops, some with interesting goods. The rough woolen rugs are made in several of the shops and remind us very much of American Indian rugs. Throughout the country we see women hand-spinning wool into yarn as they walk along herding their sheep.

New castle within the old (reconstructed) castle that houses Skanderbeg museum.

We took a real outing on our P-Day, which is supposed to be every Saturday! It was a beautiful Spring day and we went to Krujë, a picturesque mountainside town famous for being the hometown of Gjergj Kastrioti (Skanderbeg), the national hero. The castle, now partly restored, was where Skanderbeg defended against the invading ottomans during four different sieges in the 15th Century. It fell to the Ottomans after his death. There is a castle-like museum built within the walls of the old castle. Among other things, it houses replicas of the helmet and swords that are reputed to have been his and are now in a museum in Vienna. The goat head helmet is very interesting and you see it on many signs throughout the country.

Home Teaching Albanian Style

I just returned from visiting my two newly assigned home teaching families, in a section of Tirana called Babru. It's located on a hill to the north of the city, and is accessed by driving over a very high dilapidated bridge that made me immediately think of an Indiana Jones movie. The bridge is badly worn, so much so that the re bar is exposed in many places, with sharp barbs sticking up in the air, ready to puncture a tire. But, I'll admit that as we started driving over it, I was more concerned about having a wheel drop through a gaping pothole, or the whole thing just collapsing. The roads in Babru are no better than the bridge, and are mostly rock strewn dirt (think Lehi Park X 10), very narrow, and steep! (Note to self: next time, wait longer after a big rain!!) But in spite of the difficulty in getting to these two families, the visits were wonderful!

In the Hamolle family, we sat in the dark (no electricity), surrounding a flashlight, as we talked and got to know each other (I was accompanied by the Branch President, the Elders Quorum President, and two missionaries, because no one of this group knew how to get to both families). The family had gone inactive sometime in 2007, following the death of the grandfather, a very strong Muslim who was converted by the power of the Book of Mormon, and led the rest of the family into the church. The 16 year old son helps his father in construction (seasonal work without a steady income), and takes a correspondence course for school. President Veliu explained that our vision for the church in Albania is to become a Stake, and that we need all priesthood holders to make it happen, and then challenged him to come back to church.

Agim Deda met the missionaries on the road late last year, and was given the Joseph Smith pamphlet. He loved what he read, especially James 1:5. He called the missionaries, and asked to be taught. He was given a Book of Mormon, which he began reading, and as he read, he said that he began cutting back on his liquor drinking. His wife was very much against this interest he had developed in religion, but as he cut back on the drinking, and stopped going to the lokale after work with friends and came home to spend time with the family, she started to be interested. When he finished the Book of Mormon, he took his last drink, and hasn't touched it since. He was baptized in September of 2008, and then baptized his wife just two months ago. He's now serving as the teacher in Elders' Quorum. Agim and Clirime have two beautiful children.. Ajvi (age 9), and Anca (age 6).

Both families are very poor, but so incredibly generous to guests....we were served candies, orange drinks, and cake (and they watched as we ate, but for us to refuse would be very rude!). They can't afford these things, but it's one of the great things about the Albanian culture that the guest is the most honored of all people. We were escorted all the way out to the auto, since the code of Kanun makes the host responsible for whatever happens to the guest until the guest is safely gone.

Elder Vondra

Did you know there is no "W" in the Albanian alphabet? So when we sent out a notice to some Albanian members that Elder Wondra wanted to meet them, we used a "V" which is how his name is pronounced anyway. He's from Vienna and is the Area Seventy assigned to work with Albania. We had very busy weekend of meetings but managed to squeeze in a couple of big lunches at nice restaurants and some American breakfasts that he said he and his wife like very much.

When visitors come, we always serve them an American-style fruit/yogurt smoothie with breakfast. When Elder Kopischke was visiting last October, he called the smoothies "brilliant--to quote the British!" Elder Wondra sent us a thank you email this morning and said, "according these two juices, I will follow the 13th Article of Faith." There is obviously a need for Jamba Juice in European countries!

Dita e Veres

March 14, Dita e Veres or Day of Summer. We understand that THE place to spend this day is in Elbasan which is famous for it's celebration. It was sunny, and thousands of people were out in Tirana enjoying the sunshine, playing in the park, sliding down the pyramid (click on the picture to see it better), and eating Ballokume, a traditional, large corn flour cookie made just for this celebration. We celebrated by going to Rudi's, simply the best ice cream place in Tirana! Rudi knows Marty's order well: two chocolate, two hazlenut (these are also the world's smallest scoops!). 80 leke--about 80 cents.

Safe House on the Lana

This east/west boulevard and river cutting through the center of Tirana is referred to as the Lana. In the summertime it can be an odorous place due to garbage and dumping of raw sewage into the river, but the mayor, Edi Rama, is trying to clean up the area. Five or six years ago, the area was a jungle of illegal, hastily built apartments and buildings. The mayor ordered the illegal buildings demolished and a green area to be developed along the river. One building that was left intact is shown here (to the left with the billboard). It is a safe house for some families involved in a blood feud. Unfortunately, there still are left in Albania several hundred feuds taken on mostly by people in the north of Albania who followed the code of the Kanun. The boys and men of these families never leave their homes because they can be killed outside of their safe house. The women and girls leave to work and get food for those inside. The young boys are unable to go to school. There are government agencies working with these families attempting to eliminate the code, but as evidenced by this unfortunate landmark, they have not been very successful. The feud ends when all male members of both families have died.

We recommend the book "Broken April" by Albanian author Ismail Kadare for an interesting read about blood feuds, or this short article in the Washington Post in 2007.