Dear family,

The other day we went to a fireside for all the missionaries, and we got front seats.  That was pretty awesome.  I think one of the apostles are coming for a devotional for Thanksgiving.  That would be way cool.

So today, when we were checking mail, I went into the bookstore with Elder Castro-Guzman so he could buy stamps.  While we were in there, I ran into former roommate Elder Walker.  That was fun.  He seemed really excited.  Turns out this is his first day here.

My district goes to the Referral Center (RC) every Sunday and Thursday to take incoming calls as well as do outgoing calls.  We are encouraged to share our testimony and make callbacks with the people, so it is kind of like we are already in the field there.

I thought of an Albanian sentence I could teach you all that could be fun for some of you to say.  Ju bëtë pup. (pronounced: you but poop)  Bëj is to do or to make, and its past tense forms are: bëra, bëre, bëri, bëme, bëtë, bëmë (pronounced: bera, beray, burry, bum, but, bun.  So that is kinda funny.  So that sentence really means: You make a pop.  Maybe next week I can send a useful sentence.

One really cool thing we've learned about Albanian is that you can take a big long sentence, and shorten it to like two words without losing any information.  I don't know how to do that yet, but it sounds really cool.

I have been learning quite a bit of Albanian, and next week me and my companions are going to try to speak only Albanian.  It will be pretty hard, but I think we can do it.  I'm pretty much used to the MTC.  It's basically the same thing every day.  Oh yeah, one thing you might like is that iriq (pronounced ear-each) is hedgehog in Albanian.  So Sonic the Hedgehog would be Sonic Iriqi (iriqi pronounced ear-eachey).  I learned the word for enough, but I forgot it.

One story you might enjoy that I've heard so far is that some people like to throw bricks and floor tiles at missionaries.  My teacher had a brick thrown at him and he caught it with one hand.  The kids throwing the bricks got scared and ran off.  It sounded awesome.

Our district is only made up of people going to Albania, so it's kinda nice.  Me and my companions are getting along pretty well, and today we got celestial in our room checks.  My part of the room pretty much stays the same every week, but this time I guess the cleaning person decided we deserved better than terrestrial. 

Here are some good Albanian phrases:
Ç'kemi (Ch-kem-ey)  hello
Si dukeni? (See dook-eni) How do you appear? (How are you)

Caleb, did you know that in Albanian the word pup (pronounced poop) is just a popping noise?  So you could write PUPCALEBPUP too!

Love,
Elder Wallentine

PS I have recently been trying to memorize the Albanian articles of faith and a hymn.  I have the first 2 verses of "Let Us All Press On" memorized in Albanian, and the first 2 articles of faith memorized.