Dear family,

So, a couple weeks ago, dad asked in an e-mail if I had any favorite Albanians yet.  Well, I just decided recently, that its pretty much every member here in Vlore.  There are tons of people that come to church, and in just the few days I've been here, We have gotten 2 new baptismal dates.  I guess we already had 1 or 2 others as well, so that's cool.  My first full day here in Vlore, we got like 8 lessons in 1 day.  I think that is right anyways.  It was at least 8.  We were so busy, we hardly had time for lunch.  That seems to be the only hard thing so far about work in Vlore; we have so much work here that we often get shortened lunch.  The 2 new baptismal dates are set for sometime in May, so that's cool.

Unlike most of Albania, I hear that like 80% of the members here are active.  That's crazy.  And I no longer have to play the piano in church, because there's an Albanian who does that, and we have sisters who are good at piano, so there is a pretty good chance I won't be playing the piano in church anymore.  In Shkoder, we would take the piano home from church with us so I could practice on P-day.  It was basically just a keyboard, so it wasn't bad.

I gave a talk this past Sunday, and it went pretty good.  The language just seemed to flow all of a sudden.  It's like it wasn't even me speaking.  It was pretty awesome.  Afterwards, this girl came up and said, "Isha shume i habitur" which means "I was very surprised".  The day before that, we had met with her, and she was arguing with Elder McGlothin because she thought I was a "fringo" or newbie missionary.  It's funny.  I've had several people think I was a brand new missionary here.  Luckily, I'm usually able to understand their first question and answer pretty quickly.

Another great thing is that I can understand people so much better here in Vlore.  In Shkoder people usually sounded like they were grunting or something.  They speak so much more clearly here.  Even some of the people who speak insanely fast are easier to understand here.  It's pretty great here in Vlore.  It's still a little difficult to understand, and it's really hard work to listen.  I have to focus pretty hard on what they're saying in order to understand.

The drive down here was like 3 hours from Tirana after a 2 hour drive from Shkoder.  The road down to Vlore was awesome as well.  You go over this hill, and there are trees and grass and stuff everywhere, and all the sudden, the city just appears amongst all these mountains right next to the sea shore.  It was awesome.

Packing seemed hundreds of times easier this past time as well.  I'm only 3 months into my mission, and I've already moved between 4 cities.  The move from Fier to Shkoder wasn't too bad packing, because I just lived out of my suitcases for 2 weeks.  I have found it is much easier when I pack my shoes first.

So, I think I may be here in Vlore for quite some time. I'd be just fine with staying here for a while. 

Elder McGlothlin has served in every area I've served in as well.  He was in Lushnje back when there were 4 missionaries there, and that's actually where he began his mission as well.  He also served in Shkoder for a transfer.  It seems like we always have quite a bit to talk about, so if we stay companions for 2 transfers it probably won't be too bad.

We went to the castle in Berat today for a district trip, and I forgot my camera.  But there was a statue of a giant head that I had seen Elder Flack and Fredrickson climb the first time I was there, so this time, I tried it out.  Of course, I climbed up the back of the head where you were basically just climbing between the statue and the wall behind it.  So it wasn't too difficult.  This time through the castle, we also got a guy give us a tour of it.  He didn't even try begging for money afterwards, and he was pretty informative.  It was cool.

I'm pretty pleased with the way I have started the mission.  I was thrown immediately into a white-washed area that was ready to be closed, then into an area where everyone has the thickest accents possible.  And now, I'm in the area with tons of success and clear accents.  It's so great.  I don't think we've had time to go tracting since I got here.  I started seeing why mini missionaries here are surprised that missionary work isn't just sitting at the church waiting for people to show up for lessons.  That was pretty much all we did my first day here.  Didn't really leave the church too much that day because everyone was scheduled to come to us.

I have realized that I really need to get better at teaching.  Elder McGlothin is a really good teacher, so I will probably just need to learn all I can from him in these next 3 months.  I think I'll probably start reading through Preach My Gospel more and do more things in personal study to be able to be a better teacher.  My first 3 months I think I got a little better at finding, and now is probably the perfect time to improve my teaching, since we actually have people to teach.

I think a big thing to be able to learn a new language is you just have to eventually feel that saying a certain thing a certain way is right.  It's starting to be more natural how much everything changes.  I've also noticed that sometimes I understand words people say, but they use them in a way I don't understand what they're saying.  At least I can pick out words now.  Although, when this 7 year old told me I couldn't hurt him because he had an anti-bullet anti-bomb force field around him, I didn't understand any of it.  The only word I know out of that is bomb, so it makes sense.

Anyways, we have many really strong members here, and not only members.  We have entire families here.  It's great. We started up mutual last Friday, and if I heard right, this is the first mutual group in Albania.  There are plenty of youth to come to it, so that's nice.  Anyways, that's about the update for the first week of this transfer.

Love,

Elder Wallentine