Finding Zone Conference

Actually, Zone Conference was never lost, but the theme for our conference this time was "Finding by the Spirit." It's the second step in our climb to Korab that Marty detailed a few posts back. Various missionaries gave creative examples of ways to find investigators, many of which were developed themselves. For example the Shupe's, our Outreach couple, have been teaching English to large groups and their course is called "Better Than English" because it incorporates teaching about the gospel in many of the lessons. They teach members of the class to pray in English and by the third lesson some of the members of the class are saying the opening and closing prayers. Several progressing investigators have come from the classes.

The Zone Leaders, Elders Maddox and Hamilton, wrote a 12-lesson Bible study course that they're going to teach. Other elders spoke of the Stop Smoking program that they taught with great success. Sisters Slack and Waldron planned and held a musical fireside for investigators and new members that was lovely. We learned about movie nights using LDS videos (the few we have translated), Family Home Evenings, improved street boards, musical contacting, and ended the afternoon by showing a partial video the Assistants are developing of Albanian saints bearing their testimonies set to music. Our hope is to post the video on YouTube.com so we can tell contacts about it, as the Albanian people love the internet. The missionaries loved the video and are excited about the new ideas.

My assignment was to speak about the Emergency Action Plan for our mission and pass out revised Emergency Information Cards. (Did I tell you how proficient I have become on the laminating machine?!) All missions are required to have plans for any sort of emergency. Albanian missionaries have been evacuated twice, in 1997 and again in 1998, due to civil unrest so having a plan is essential. Later during the training I also spoke about baptismal services and the opportunity for investigators to feel the Spirit at a well-planned and reverent service. We have a new Yamaha Clavinova (electronic piano) in the chapel in Tirana where we hold our baptisms and I'm hoping to encourage better use of music in our services. I'm very excited about the new piano as the keyboards in Albania are in really bad condition.

He Loves Me

Whooee! Seven bags of marshmallows--made in the U.S. marshmallows! Marty brought 'em home from Germany in his suitcase, along with five pounds of powdered sugar, 10 lb. superfine sugar, and other goodies for me. His carry-on bag weighed 20 kg! What am I going to do with seven bags of marshmallows? What else--make lots and lots of Rice Krispie Treats for Zone Conference lunch dessert. Should make 50 missionaries verrry happy!

Code Regulations Needed

Frying dozens of pork chops Monday evening and patting myself on the back for my early preparation for Zone Conference, the electric cooktop and oven stopped working. I didn't realize it at first, just eventually noticed that the chops were not sizzling like they should. I checked the breakers to see if I had tripped one, but they were fine. I hurried and gathered up my meat and cooking supplies and finished the frying and baking upstairs in the Newhouse' apt. and got the food in my freezer for heating up next week. Today is Wednesday and the electricians have been here for a few hours. They discovered a severely burned plug and melted outlet when they pulled out the oven. Apparently when the oven was installed years ago, the workman cut corners, as the oven should have been wired into the system, not just plugged in. I'm very grateful for concrete walls, as this burn-out and another we had a month ago in the laundry/bathroom could have easily started a fire in a wood-frame house. The electricians completely re-wired the oven, and put the washer and dryer on their own circuit, so I can now do my laundry and run the heaters in the apt. at the same time! On to baking the cinnamon rolls now. Marty's gone to Germany to a Mission President's Seminar. He'll be back Sunday. The MP wives weren't invited this time. OK with me--it's cold there! As he left a day early because of flight schedules, I told him to look around the shops in Friedricksdorf and see what he can bring back in his luggage that we can't get here! Do they have marshmallows in Germany?

The Korab Project

The mission has embarked on a multi-year initiative with the overall goal of being ready to form a Stake in the country by the end of 2011. We're calling it "Project Korab". Korab is the highest mountain in Albania, and is on the border with Macedonia, due east and a little north of Tirana. The metaphor is that the faith, endurance, planning, and courage to climb a mountain is exactly what is needed to establish the first stake in the Balkans here in Albania. There is much to accomplish if we're to do this before the end of 2011!! We launched Korab at the last Zone Conferences, following meetings with all the District Leaders and others in creating a vision of the future: church owned buildings in Tirana; faithful members who take and magnify callings; better member/missionary teamwork; more focus on working with members to retain and reactivate; sending out 10 missionaries every year from Albania; and helping our young people find jobs that pay enough to enable marriage and the formation of families.

The missionaries are committing to teach-to-find, teach-to-teach, 3 lessons per week, daily contacting, baptismal calendars, progress records, and a minimum of 1 hour per day teach-to-find tracting, 1 hour per day of teach-to-find street contacting, and 1 hour per day of reactivation work. Since we're averaging about 18 lessons per week per companionship, fitting in more finding activity will be a challenge for them, but they're excited to do it. We've shared the Korab Project with the District Presidency, all the branch presidents, and now with all the members as we're going about doing branch conferences. It's very exciting! (I'm trying to see if actually climbing Korab is something that we could do---perhaps a few districts at a time....) Marty

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!!