One Year!

Marty and I have been here one year now! We arrived last year on Sunday, June 29. As they say, time flies when you're having fun!

When our visitors or missionaries fly home to the states, their flights are usually at 5 or 6 a.m. which means we have to arise between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. to get them to the airport in ample time for their international flights. In the last five days, we've made the early morning airport run three times.

Friday, June, 26, we took Sadush Malku, who was leaving for the Provo MTC before going to the Italy Milano mission, and Elder Vail, who sadly, had to leave to go home to Alpine, Utah because he was experiencing an eye problem that couldn't be treated here in Albania. Fortunately, Elder Vail and Elder Malku were able to travel together. We hope Elder Vail will recover and be able to be reassigned to finish the remaining six months of his mission in the states.

Saturday we took Emily, Peter, and their children to the airport to go home to San Diego.

This morning, we took Elders Wilde and Whittier to the airport as they left their missions one week ahead of their normal release date so each could attend family events.

Also today, we said a sad goodbye (another airport run--but this time at noon) to Elder and Sister Chatfield, who served an 18-month mission as a proselyting couple in Vlorë. Elder Chatfield was branch president in Vlorë, and also gave patriarchal blessings to English-speaking members throughout the country. The Chatfield's are returning home to the Boston area. We will greatly miss them. There are only two couples besides ourselves left in the mission.

Five Very Important Visitors

Emily, Peter, and their three children, Jack (7), Andrew (6), and Eliza (2 1/2--the 1/2 is important!) visited us for almost two weeks June 14-27. We had a wonderful time together and managed to fit in some great sight-seeing despite some unseasonable rainy weather. We took a day trip to Kruje, and another day trip up Mt. Dajti, taking the long gondola ride up, eating at a nice restaurant on the mountain, exploring, and kicking balls around the meadow.

We attend church in the little branch in Fier, where the children joined one other child for Primary. Then we continued on from Fier to Gjirokaster where, alas, we ended up having to spend the night in the Relax Hotel where in April, Marty and I had spent a sleepless night on a rock-hard bed listening to bar music all night. Marty found it ironic and funny. I was not amused, but our stay was a bit more "relaxing" this time. The bar closed earlier this time, but we were awakened at midnight by the most fantastic half-hour thunder and lightning show we have ever heard and seen, with the noise ricocheting off the slate roofs, streets, and mountainside of Gjirokaster. Amazingly, the children slept through the storm. In the morning, the boys (big and small) loved exploring the underground rooms of the huge fortress. Emily was amazed at the openness of the castle. Unlike any other castle in Europe, tourists are free to roam the ancient stone tunnels and rooms, which are not restored. There are WW I cannons and armaments in the main hall. We ran into 13 missionaries at the castle, who were on their two-day "senior" trip (they call it their "dying" trip that they earned by finished the progression program in a year's time.) After exiting the castle, we drove on to the site of the "blue eye", a deep natural spring and grove, and continued on to Saranda, a picturesque bayside town on the Ionian Sea. There we found a very nice hotel for the night and toured the ancient Roman ruins in Butrint the next day. The kids didn't swim on the Ionian but had a great time skipping rocks. The beaches in Saranda are gravel and rock.

The kids were real troupers throughout the long drive and were happy as long as the snacks kept coming.

On the 19th of June, Emily and Peter celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by going off by themselves to a nice restaurant while we babysat.

Some other activities of the visit included a Family Home Evening with a young convert family; walks through town; ice cream at Rudi's; Peter going with the missionaries to contact (and finding three interested investigators); the movie "Night at the Museum 2" at the new Krystal Center Theater (in English, with Albanian sub-titles); a visit to the Monument to the Martyrs, where Elder Oaks dedicated Albania for preaching the gospel in 1993; game playing; trying out my new Wii Fit they brought as a birthday gift from all our children; more ice cream; Emily and Eliza having a dress and skirt for Greg's August wedding, custom-made for them by a seamstress in one of our branches; and drinking lots and lots of Ivi Orange and Lemon soda.

Eliza and I were best friends, and as her mom was packing to go home, she kept saying, "We have to leave. Grandma will be so sad. She will miss me!" Indeed I do.


Jack and Andrew loved visiting Hassan, a shopkeeper across the street who gave them free Snicker's, and all three children had their cheeks pinched and kissed many times by complete strangers. Here are Jack and Andrew keeping Marty company in his office.

Elder Christofferson's Visit

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and his wife Kathy visited us from May 28-31. Our Area Seventy, Elder Wondra and his wife Ursula were also visiting. After their arrival in Tirana on Friday afternoon, we whisked them off to the U.S. Ambassador's office for a half-hour visit, then went to the opening of a Roma (gypsy) pre-school where the Snow's had arranged some LDS Humanitarian Services aid of kitchen appliances, desks, chairs, and supplies. It was a colorful cultural event! That evening we hosted a dinner at the Tirana Sheraton so Elder Christofferson could meet several people here in Albania who work on goverment religious committees, the diplomat Michael Gray, from the U.S. Embassy who deals with religious affairs, and our attorney here in Albania.



At the Roma school, Sister Christofferson was drawn into the traditional line dancing and we were treated to dancing by the Roma children.

I had been concerned that I had not purchased flowers for the conference meetings in Elbasan and Durres on Saturday and Sunday, but the Roma people gave us three large bouquets of flowers. Problem solved!

We left the mission home early Saturday morning for the exciting and beautiful drive to Elbasan where we held an all-mission conference in the brand new Elbasan chapel. This was the first all-mission conference we've held since we've arrived. It was thrilling to be all together and had a wonderful two-hour session. I arranged a small choir of missionaries who sang an arrangement of "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands" by David Naylor. Elder and Sister Christofferson loved the music and requested that they sing it again for our closing song.

After the mission conference, we sent the missionaries into the streets of Elbasan to find lunch and investigators, while we drove our guests to a Greek restaurant where we were the only diners and the owners rushed to serve us a delicious lunch. Then we returned to the chapel for two afternoon sessions with members of the district. At the end of the afternoon session, Elder Christofferson dedicated the new Elbasan chapel. We now have two church-owned chapels in Albania. The other is in the city of Durres. In Tirana where missionary work began in the early 90's, we still do not have a church-owned building. The four branches meet in three leased buildings. Back home that evening in Tirana, the Baird's (Marty's counselor and diplomat of military affairs at the U.S. Embassy) hosted a reception so the branch presidents and district presidency could meet and mingle with Elder Christofferson.



There were two sessions of conference in Durres on Sunday, and Elder Christofferson was the featured speaker at an evening meeting with the Young Single Adults in Tirana where he gave them an Apostolic Blessing. Throughout the conferences, Elder Christofferson was very generous with his time and shook every person's hand who wanted to meet him, and posed with several for pictures. The Albanian members were thrilled to have an apostle visit Albania. It has been five years since the visit of Elder Nelson.

Marty was able to arrange a meeting with the Albanian President, Bamir Topi, on Monday morning, and then we said goodbye to our guests. They took our personal mission van with a professional driver to Macedonia to visit with a few saints who live there, and after a night's stay, the Christofferson's headed back home to Salt Lake City, and the Wondra's to Vienna. Our van arrived back on Tuesday morning. We were also supposed to have gone with them to Macedonia in our larger mission van, but the clutch on that van burned out last week and was in the shop. We were so tired by Monday morning (I don't know how they kept up their busy schedule on this two-week tour!) that we were grateful to be staying behind.

We barely had time to catch our breath and then we held our two zone conferences Thursday and Friday. It was quite an exhilarating week!

Tangled Web

We're not quite sure what to make of this....we've heard about "free" electrical service.

It's two days later, and now that I think about it, I suppose it could be cable/internet or phone lines.  You'd kill yourself tapping into electrical lines, wouldn't you?

This is Retirement?

Here's a look at our--or rather--Marty's schedule. Mine works around his.
Monday: Office Devotional, where we get our heads together with the office missionares to coordinate work and calendars. The Assistants report on weekly key indicators from the missionaries.

Language lesson from Brisi, our 20-year old young woman tutor and friend.

Marty spends a good part of the day reading the emails from the missionaries and sending quick replies that they won't receive until the next Monday's P Day.

Monday afternoon I teach six piano lessons. The church has a keyboard program of loaning a five-octave electronic keyboard (from the U.S.) to piano students. They can keep the keyboard as long as they are taking lessons and showing progress through their practice. When the student becomes proficient enough to play for meetings, we can apply for a grant of a new permanent keyboard for him/her.

At 9:00 Marty starts making congratulatory calls to missionaries who've had a great week.

Tuesday-Thursday (for three of the weeks of the six-week cycle): Marty goes to interviews. Four of the districts are in Tirana, so this only takes half a day, but the outside districts in Shkodër, Fier/Lushnjë and Vlorë take up most of the day. I often go with Marty to interviews to chat with the elder/sister who is waiting. I always send cookies for the missionaries, meaning I am in constant need of infusions of brown sugar and chocolate chips from the states.

Friday: District Mtg. with one of the districts (four to six missionaries), and sometimes we treat them to lunch.

Saturday: P Day. Sometimes we get to relax, sometimes we don't. There are often meetings on Saturday.

Sunday: We visit a different branch each Sunday. We speak on the fourth Sunday. If it's a small branch, we always speak so the missionaries get a break. We both speak at Zone Conferences.

Tuesday-Thursday (the other three weeks) is lots of meetings: with members; with investigators; to decide on transfers; big transfers four times a year with arriving and departing missionaries; Mission Council to plan for Zone Conference and training (I provide lunch for 14 that day); Meetings with folks from Germany or Austria about finding land for buildings, the Church Education System, Public Relations, etc.; meetings with visiting authorities; Zone Conferences (two); visits with inactive Melchizedek Priesthood holders; and many more meetings that come up unexpectedly.

I attend some of these meetings. I do a lot of cooking, baking (cookies in the oven as I write), and laundry, although my laundry time has been greatly reduced since we purchased a new Bosch 8 kilogram washer and dryer. As a matter of fact, it's been life-changing! The laundries here don't do shirts, so I have to iron a lot, also. But I did buy a steam generating iron which helps. (If I have to iron and do laundry, I believe in having the best tools.) If Marty is around, he'll iron his own shirts. I am grateful. The missionaries and couples have washing machines but no dryers, so they have to hang their clothes to dry-- usually inside their apts. A laudromat would seem to be a good business opportunity here, but I think most people are too poor for it. The missionaries sure would love it!

Marty takes me grocery shopping if there is a lull between meetings. I could shop at the various little stores and fruit/veg. tregs around the mission home, but I would be going back and forth constantly with little bags of this and that and with my bad shoulder it's hard to carry heavy things. So he drives me to a Conad or EuroMax Supermarket where I can get most things in one place, and some things that are unavailable in the small shops. I buy fresh produce at our corner or down on the Myslym Shyri street where I can get better quality and more variety. There's a little store across the street that we frequent as often as we can as Hasan the owner keeps an eye on our building, and often opens and closes the gate when we're departing in our car.

Once the shoulder is totally better I'm going to learn to drive here. Eeeeek!

Marty's cell phone gets a workout every day. Mine rings when a missionary is injured or sick. We have a service doctor in Frankfurt who answers questions I can't.

We may be tired sometimes, but there are moments of great joy and we're enjoying the work and grateful and happy to be of service. Our missionaries are diligent and hard working, and we love them.

Any questions?

Mini Vacation to Saranda

After a three-day visit from Elder and Sister Collinridge, an Area Psychologist who came to talk to the missionaries about handling the stress of a mission, we took a two and a half day trip to southern Albania to handle the stress of our mission. Lavender wildflowers were carpeting the inland hills and plains, and trees were blossoming throughout the countryside. It was a delightful contrast to the noisy, polluted city and we developed a new appreciation for the beauty of this country.

We spent a night in Gjirokastër, now declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It has very steep cobblestone hills that we drove up and down, and we toured the large citadel at the top which was used during King Zog's reign and during the Communist era as a prison. We were the only people touring the fortress. Albania could use some tips on attracting tourists. A good start would be modern, comfortable hotels, and potable water. The Relax Hotel in Gjirokastër is not high on my recommendation list. Our room was very small with the tiniest TV I've ever seen. The shower in the bathroom across the hallway had no stall but just drained into the floor. The small towels were obviously line dried (read "very stiff") and the twin beds were--well...we might as well have been sleeping on the floor. At 25 Euros for the night, I think we got taken. Marty reminds me that it did have a balcony. Yes it did, and it overlooked the locale that kept me awake well in to the early morning hours. (A locale is a neighborhood bar/cafe.)

The next day we drove to Sarandë or Saranda, on the Ionian Sea, and spent a night before driving home along the coastal highway. While in Sarandë, we took a side trip to the ancient ruins of the city of Butrint, also a World Heritage Site, very close to the border of Greece. The ruins were fascinating, and we spent a couple of hours there. Again, we were alone except for a small school group which raced through and disappeared well ahead of us. Unfortunately, the nice museum we had paid for with our entrance ticket was closed. When we arrived back at the entrance, the ticket man insisted that the museum was not closed, so maybe the caretaker had taken a smoking break. We're told we missed seeing some nice objects.

At least half of the long distance of the coastal highway was under construction. The road cuts along the side of the mountains that rise out of the Adriatic. At several points the road was only one lane and very dangerous to navigate. Much of it was just dirt and rocks blocked by huge construction equipment, and extremely bumpy. We were grateful to arrive at home safely. I was so happy to be back home sleeping on my own sofa. (Our sofa is the most comfortable place for me to sleep with my painful shoulder--which is very gradually improving.)

Click HERE to see more pictures. To see them full screen, click on "slideshow" and then you can specify the speed you'd like to view them.

We've Been Booted!

Yes, we got the Boot when we parked near a  grocery store Friday evening.  Found out later it was a disabled parking spot.  There was a policeman nearby when we got back to the van, but he said that we needed the special police unit, and he called them for us.  He told them we were Americans and two cars showed up in a hurry.  One of the policemen spoke excellent English and apologized up and down for booting our car, and said he had waited for 10 minutes, but "had to do his job."  We told him S'ka gjë (it's nothing).  He took Marty to the station to pay the $30 fine (red carpet treatment, we're sure), and we were on our way in no time.  The ice cream didn't even melt.

Below is a front and back picture of two of the 100 favors I made for the District-wide Relief Society conference next Saturday.    The "mature" couples came into Tirana for the Branch President's Mtg. this morning and while we waited, the wives helped me assemble the favors.  It's a laminated refrigerator magnet (my daughter sent magnet tape from Michael's) and a small Greek dark chocolate bar with almonds (excellent!) and some gel candies.  The Anonymous quote says, "Live so that people who know you but don't know Christ, will want to know Christ because they know you."  Translated into Albanian, of course.