Dear family,

I think most of the branch here in Vlore consists of youth, so we have a ton of people.  Not all of them came to mutual because we hadn't announced it too well, but we had a pretty good show of people.  I'm not sure exactly, but I think there were somewhere between 15-20 people there.  We even have a seminary teacher and young men's and women's leaders.  That's pretty cool.

In like a week, the senior couple here are leaving and so Elder McGlothin is going to have to be branch president for a month or so until the next couple comes to Vlore.  That might make us a little busier as well since we have a pretty large branch here.  In church, we had 71 people come, but like 11 were from Tirana for branch conference or something.  The District President came down as well.  He's an American, and he'll be leaving soon to go to some crazy unknown eastern European country to learn a crazy named language.  He works with the embassy or something, so he moves around a bit.  I think he said he wanted to start looking for land in Vlore for an actual church building.  We have land up in Fier, but church attendance there dropped quite a bit, so we don't have a building.  I have heard recently that the members in Lushnje are now attending church each week in Fier.  So that building in Lushnje is now officially closing.  I hear the active members are all able to go to church in Fier.  That's cool.

The other day, we took a taxi out to see a family that lived quite a ways away, then when we got dropped off and started walking the rest of the way, we called them up and they said if we came we'd be working.  So we told them we'd work.  We ended up using shovels and wheelbarrows to haul all this dirt in their garden I think it was.  We also found out that our new investigator from English course was there as well with her sister who is a former investigator who stopped meeting with the missionaries because she was busy with school for a while.  I think the sister might be interested though.

This week was a little worse than last week, but it was still good compared to weeks in Shkoder and Lushnje.  We only got 17 lessons, but we had 15 lessons cancel on us, so that's why we fell short this last week.  One thing that probably hurt our numbers was that on Thursday, Elder McGlothin had a district leader training meeting in Tirana, so I went to Fier to go on exchanges with Elder Moyes from my MTC group.  Turns out he and the rest of the district don't really like his companion.  It was fun to be back in Fier for a short time though.  Got to have a little Pizza Roma as well.  When Elder Flack and I had moved down to Fier, we had started looking for a new house, but apparently that all ended with the next transfer, so there were still 4 elders in the one house.  I think president really wants them to find another house, and I think things would be a lot better there with 2 separate houses.  It's basically a party there all the time.

This morning, at around 7am, we went to the beach to play volleyball, so that was fun.  It was cool having a beach so close, and it was completely empty when we were there.  Probably because it was early, windy, and slightly rainy.  Not to mention everyone probably had school and work as well.  So that was fun.  The internet cafes cost money, but it usually isn't too bad.  We always have enough money.  Basically the only time we use internet is on Mondays when we write home.

 When my companion had migraines in Shkoder, it wasn't too bad.  I got to have a little down time to study a little more.  Although, it was a little hard to find something to keep me occupied all day.

We do get to call home on Mother's day, and Elder McGlothin told me that we use skype when we call home.  

We found out recently that one kid with a baptismal date that said he didn't want to get baptized actually does want to get baptized, but his dad won't let him.  It is mostly because some people like to get involved with everyone else's business here, and those people in this case also happen to confuse our church with another one that tells kids that they will be resurrected if they kill themselves.  So that's a little annoying.  People always mistake us with this other church when we tract and stuff as well.  It's boggling how this other church can even have any success in Albania at all because everyone just hates them.  Anyways, we're probably going to try to convince the dad that we are not from that church and that those other people are mistaken.

I think one of our investigators is going to be able to have more time in one of these next weeks, so we will probably be able to meet with them more often.  Anyways, that's it.

Love,

Elder Wallentine