Dear family,

We just had a really good week this past week.  We had 18 total lessons which is only 2 short of the mission standard.  We have enough lessons planned to have more than enough, but a lot of them end up cancelling on us.  We also found a couple new investigators and we have a couple progressing.

Yesterday, we went out to do our 3 hours of proselyting on P-day, and we had to go in early because my companion was feeling a little ill.  Our phone ran out of money a couple days ago as well, so we couldn't really contact anybody.  We also didn't really have any food at the moment since we hadn't done shopping yet.  So we were basically stuck in our house all day.  Luckily we had bread, cheese, and this nucreme chocolate spread stuff, so I was able to eat throughout the day.  So this is the reason I didn't email yesterday.  Elder Fahey had to rest all day, and so consequently, I was inside all day as well.  It wasn't bad.  I just kind of continued with my normal P-day activities.

Last week, we had a really good lesson.  We were tracting this huge apartment building for the last time through before we'd be done with it, and we got in at a door that we'd been to 3 times with no answer.  We set up an appointment with them later in the week, and this next appointment was the really cool lesson.  There is an older guy named Leke, and his daughter named Tina.  Leke has pretty much lost his sight, so he has a lot of family helping him it seems.  The second meeting with them, Leke's brother was sticking around because he heard we were coming.  These people are all Catholic, and it seems like Leke's brother, named Nikol, was only sticking around to try to tell us what we were teaching was false.  The discussion that resulted ended up being different than most of these situations would end up.  Most discussions like this, the devout religious person would typically cut you off whenever you try to say anything and never let you get a word in.  This guy was different.  He was laying down quite a strong attack to defend Catholicism, but he would listen to what we said.

What was cool was that throughout the lesson, Leke and Tina would say stuff like how the Book of Mormon fulfills the Bible, and they were pretty much working with us.  At the beginning, Nikol was pretty strong against the Book of Mormon and our message, but at the end of the lesson, he told us he thought it was true.  That was pretty cool.  If he would have been there before when we knocked on the door, I'm not sure we would have gotten in and ever taught them.  We taught Leke and Tina again today, and it turns out they had tried to go to church on Sunday, but they got there too early so nobody was there, and the number they tried calling us at was wrong.  So it's good to know they tried to come to church.

Later that day, we had FHE with the branch here.  There was a pretty good turnout.  We had several less active members come including the first person baptized here in Shkoder.  It's funny because I found out later this guy was asking Elder Vail, the branch president/missionary, why nobody comes to church.  Interesting question from an inactive member.  Anyways, it ended up being pretty successful.  We had a lesson, some games, and food.  I think they all enjoyed it.

The next day, we had another good meeting with this family I may have mentioned before at some point.  The dad is blind, and they had randomly showed up to church one Sunday after the Shupes had helped contact their daughter at the castle we went to near the beginning of the transfer.  Anyways, they live in this fshat (village) called Mjed (M-yed) that was about a 20 minute furgon ride from Shkoder.  So after waiting for someone to not show up in the morning, we got in a furgon and rode down to the village.  It was a cool change of scenery.  A nice quiet village compared to the usual city.  We were able to teach most of their family.  There was the dad named Pjetri, the mom named Lindita, then 3 of their kids.  They have 5 total, but one is in Greece, and the other was at school.  It was a pretty good lesson.

This past Sunday, I was able to play a hymn with 2 hands instead of the usual right hand action.  That was cool.  I also gave a talk about reverence that I was assigned after we saw the slight lack of reverence in the last week's meeting.  I may have to be giving a lot more talks in church if I stay in Shkoder this next transfer, because there may only be one companionship here.  We'll see how everything works out.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this angry Catholic guy we tracted into one day.  We knocked on his door, and he basically yelled at us saying he was Catholic.  Another day, we were tracting the same apartment building a second time through, and when we got to the bottom, he came and yelled at us again.  To our knowledge, we weren't knocking on his door.  The third time going through the building (another day), we found out that I had made a mistake and marked that there was no answer at his door.  So he wasn't very happy.  We came out of tracting another building, and he chewed us out a little.  We also ran into another guy who yelled at us, but I marked his door down correctly.  Luckily we haven't been pushed down the stairs yet.  I hear that happened on the other side of Shkoder one time.

When the mosques sound off their prayers, it doesn't seem like anybody outside starts praying like I kind of expected to happen.  I think when muslims here pray, they typically go inside the mosque where they pray.  It's hard to learn too much about Islam at the moment because I can't understand most of what people say, and we're spending most of our time teaching about our church.  One thing I have learned is that it seems like a lot of people are confused about what their religion believes.  It seems like most people here aren't really a big part of their religion.  They just say they're Catholic or Muslim so they can have a religion it seems.

Many people here think we are Jehovah's Witnesses because they do tracting as well.  The other day, this lady was like, "You're Jehovah's Witnesses!  Leave!"  She was slightly confused when we said we had no connection with them.  Some people try to explain to us that we have to be with one of the "big" religions around here.  One person said that there are only Catholics, Muslims, Orthodox, and Jehovah's Witnesses.  Some people don't seem to understand that there are thousands and thousands of religions out there.  A problem I've heard with missionary work here is people seem to think missionaries here are Catholic for a long time, at least with Catholic people.  Even if you come out and say you aren't with the Catholic church, it doesn't really sink in sometimes.

A zero lesson is basically the first meeting with people where we tell them a little about the restoration and what our purpose is here.  It's a pretty new thing I think that Elder Christopherson said we needed to do.  It is kind of hard to get used to, but it's not too bad anymore.

Anyways, this is the last week of my 2nd transfer in the country, and this saturday, we find out if I stay here in Shkoder or head off somewhere else.  Transfer calls are always so exciting.  I don't even know why.  I also found out that I really like having shiny shoes.  I usually polish them every Monday, and they are really shiny now.  It's always a shame when it rains the next day though.  It pretty much makes the previous polishing pointless.  Anyways, I think that's all for the week.

Love,

Elder Wallentine