Dear Family,

So far, the mission has been completely different than I expected which was a little unsettling at first.  One thing that I just noticed that caught me off guard was that this keyboard in this internet cafe is exactly the same as the ones we have in America.  I figured they'd be different.

Anyways, my first companion is Elder Flack, and we are in Lushnje for now.  I still haven't had a normal day of mission life here.  The first day here, I didn't really go street contacting, but I went with an AP and other missionaries from my district to go visit a newly baptized family.  That went well.

The first two days can't really be considered normal days, then the first day that would have been normal, Elder Flack had a Branch President meeting in Tirana, so I spent most of the day in Fier with Elder Fredrickson because both our companions are branch presidents.  I had my first Suflaqe (Sue-flach-ay) in Fier, and they are delicious.  I've heard some of them aren't quite as good, but I'll find that out.  Yesterday, our landlords also brought us some traditional Albanian bean soup, which I forgot what it was called.  They also gave us this rice pudding stuff that was also way good.  Elder Flack wasn't a fan, but I found it delicious.

The daily schedule here in Lushnje is also different.  We wake up at 6 am, have our studies and leave at 9:30 am.  We then have an hour for lunch at 2pm, and we head back home at 7 pm.  It seemed like the schedule made it so we were unproductive, and it just seemed like we didn't have as much time as anybody else to proselyte.  I looked at the "normal" missionary schedule in PMG, and it turns out we have the same amount of time.  Lushnje shuts down around 7pm, so that is why we have to leave early and come in early.  I think most of Albania areas have a 2 hour lunch and no dinner, but since we go in so early, we only have a 1 hour lunch and no dinner.  I think I'll get used to things once everything starts feeling normal.

So my main adjustment hasn't really been to a different culture really, just adjusting a couple views I had about missionary work with what they really are.  Today is P-day, so it isn't exactly normal still, but tomorrow will be my first real normal day in Lushnje.

Both me and Elder Flack are new here in Lushnje, so we're figuring out where things are and trying to figure out what is most effective.  We checked out the area book yesterday, and there were no pages for investigators, but there are plenty of inactive members and former investigators I think.  From the sounds of things, a lot of people get baptized and end up not wanting anything to do with the church afterwards.  I would like to see if we can reactivate at least one member this transfer, so hopefully we can do that.  I would also like a baptism or something.  Mostly, it sounds like we'll just have to get things restarted again.  As in filling our pool of investigators so we can have progressing investigators and all those other good things.

My first thoughts of Albania was that it looked just like Belgium, but with sun, mountains, and palm trees.  The palm trees really surprised me.  I was also surprised to see a couple cacti here in Albania.

So we have no dryer, so we just hang our clothes to dry.  That's going to take some getting used to, but shouldn't be too bad.  I can't understand too much of what people say, but hopefully that will change rather quickly.  I found out one thing I should have worked on in the MTC was learning phrases that were spoken by people in Albania.  I didn't really do that, and I realized yesterday that it probably hurt me.  I'm starting to keep track of some useful phrases and stuff.

The other day in Fier, I talked to this guy named Ylli, which means star in Albanian.  It was really helpful to talk to him.  It was a little strange though.  It wasn't really a normal conversation.  One thing I need to work on is talking to people without worrying about not being able to understand what they say.  The volume here in the cafe got really loud all of a sudden.  Anyways, I guess I'll wrap things up now.

Love,
Elder Wallentine