So this past week has been pretty crazy. Last Tuesday, after our interviews with the President Neil, he decided that he was going to start trying to close Lushnje. So this past week we have been in the process of moving our stuff to Fier. Fier has some awesome food. There's this place called pizza roma that is so good. They have these pizzas that they fold in half and give to you, and they're only a buck. I usually get two when we eat there. There's a lot more variety of food in Fier than Lushnje, although the suflaqe place in Lushnje did have bigger suflaqes.
Last Wednesday, I was on exchanges with one of the Fier elders and we were in Lushnje. We pretty much SYL'd all day. It was crazy. When we returned to Fier, he said how depressing Lushnje was. Lushnje has pretty much been how my view on missionary work has been based off of, so it just seems normal to not have any appointments most of the time.
Pretty much right when we started moving to Fier, it started raining for like 3 days straight. We're pretty much done moving our stuff now. Next week I'm going to have to pack my stuff back up for transfers. We're also looking for another apartment here in Fier. The apartment we're in now is great, but it's a mess. Last night we stayed in our Lushnje home, and it was so much cleaner. We stayed in Lushnje this last night because we still have to come to the Lushnje branch for church.
Yesterday I played piano in church which got me out of singing. Heh heh. However, half the people left after the sacrament, and the 2 other people who stayed talked all through Elder Flack's talk. That was another interesting meeting. That night, we went to the baptism of this guy that Elder Flack had taught at some point. Tyler and Caleb may like this part. The guy's name was Mario. So I got to go see Mario get baptized. I also got to catch up with a couple friends from the MTC.
I was a little worried at some point this transfer that I would meet up with the other MTC missionaries and that they'd all be fluent while I was struggling along. Yesterday I heard one of the missionaries get up and speak, and it made me feel better that we're all having similar struggles with the language. Elder Moyes told me how when he'd be struggling with the language that he'd picture me being fluent already. I think he thinks I'm better at the language than I am. He also told me that him and some other missionary started saying "Falemenderit pёr kokёn tёnde" which means "Thank you for your head" instead of "Falemenderit pёr kohёn tёnde" which means "Thank you for your time" to another missionary in the MTC group. It took him a while to figure it out. It was funny.
This last Saturday we had a Valentine's party in the Fier branch. That morning, while our companions were in a branch presidency meeting in Tirana, Elder Fredrickson and I prepared for the party all morning, then that night, we all had the party. I got to see some Albanian dancing which is basically doing different stepping moves while holding hands in a circle. Elder Flack and I gave a short spiritual thought beforehand, and it went pretty good.
Yesterday at Mario's baptism, I met these kids who enjoyed my last name. People pronounce it as Valentine pretty much, so they enjoyed meeting Elder Wallentine on Valentine's day. Last week when we went to Berat, we found this giant sculpture of a head. Elder Flack and Fredrickson both tried climbing it. I got a couple fun pictures.
I think I have been eating more food as of late, mostly because I realized that we have more money than I thought we had. So I'm able to eat well out here.
Oh yeah, there are these things that my companion has had that are pretty handy. His mom sent him some packages of these McCormick food package things. Some of them are really good. The packages make the sauce, and then we cook noodles, meat, and just put it all together. They have been rather handy.
Some new food I've had, is there's this pudding stuff we had at a member's house one night that was delicious. I don't know what it's called, but it was way good. I also found these cakes that are really really good, and are only like a dollar fifty.
I've heard that in Michigan there's a statue of a guy named Shkёnder Beju or something I think. He was this Albanian general guy that is way awesome. I guess there are a lot of Albanians around there, so it makes sense. It's just pretty funny.
This week we will be spending all week in Fier, but Elder Flack and I have to return to Lushnje twice a week for church and to visit members. So I guess just most of the week will be in Fier. There might be a chance that I'd stay in Fier this next transfer, but I guess we'll see about that.
I think I may be taking out money soon to buy some new luggage. It all got pretty banged up on the plane ride over, and now it's pretty destroyed. One of the handles that pull out to make it easier to drag around has completely broken out as we were moving to Fier. Luckily, I hear luggage here is probably cheaper than in the US.
I will try to send some pictures home as soon as I can. First, I'm going to have to figure out how to get my pictures from my camera onto an email or something. I just got about halfway through 3 Nephi this morning, so I think I should have the Book of Mormon finished by the end of my first transfer here. That'll be cool. I'll probably start on the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price next. At the pace I'm going, I think I might be able to finish the standard works by my first year out here. That is, if I can manage to get past Leviticus and Numbers in the Old Testament. I remember the last time I tried reading the Old Testament, those two books started making it so I wasn't able to pay attention to what was going on anymore.
I learned how to make crepes the other day. They're pretty simple and fast. It's great. One day in a furgon, there was this strange music that was like a mix of traditional Albanian music and folk metal. It was weird. Anyways, I think that's the last thing I wanted to write home about.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
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