Dear family,

So this past week went pretty well.  We had our baptism yesterday, and it went really well.  I directed the baptism and Elder McGlothin baptized her.  Her sons were there, and they have a baptismal date for the 6th of June. These kids that have been recently baptized also have this cousin that is 7 years old that is always with them it seems, so he comes to church and all the lessons with them and stuff. 

We talked to this member family the other Thursday, and we asked them to make a list of people who we could meet together.  We are going to follow up with them tonight, so hopefully they have some people in mind for us.  Also, the 14 year old of that family said he was going to start bringing the brother of the previously mentioned 7 year old to church and to activities and stuff as well.  That is really cool.  Apparently a lot of people in the branch are trying to get that whole family to learn about the gospel, and I think it will start with this brother of the 7 year old.  I think this brother is supposed to come tonight when we meet with this family as well, so that will be cool.

There are also these 2 friends of the 2 sons of the lady who was just baptized that we are going to try to start teaching as well.  They have been showing up for meetings with them, and they are all well behaved.  We are also trying to meet with these boys we met a week or two ago who never seem to be home when we go to meet with them.  We seem to be getting a lot of people who seem really promising as of late.  It's pretty cool.  It's a pretty good ending to my companion's mission.

We had transfer calls on Saturday, and it seems like we just barely had last transfers.  I am staying here in Vlore which means I will be here for at least 3 more months since Elder McGlothin is going home this July and they most likely will not white wash this area.  President even told us that I would probably be here for quite some time, so the only excitement for next transfer will be my future companion.  Elder Roney, Elder Smith's current companion here in Vlore, is leaving to Tirana, which is kind of a bummer for everyone.  Elder Thorpe, however, will be coming down which is fun because we were both up in Shkoder in the same district as well.  The mini missionary that has been with Sister Hall here in Vlore is now going back home in Tirana, and she almost wasn't able to endure the whole mini mission.  She wants to serve a full-time mission, but president told her to do a mini mission first.  Lately, she seems a lot happier than usual, but she seemed pretty upset or miserable a lot of times before.  So now a new sister is coming down to Vlore that will also be heading home in July.

Oh yeah, the other day as we were walking from the church, we were getting shot at.  Well, sort of.  It was just a bunch of little kids with toy guns pointed at us and pretending to shoot us.  That's basically the most dangerous thing I've contacted here in Albania.  Other than the gaping holes in the ground.  Those hurt when you fall in them.  I haven't fallen in one yet, but I saw someone who did, and that didn't look fun.  

The other day, we got to the church where 3 kids were trying to bug the sisters as they were waiting for a lesson.  We were also starting to wait for a lesson, so naturally, they turned on us as well.  Little did they know, I have played their game many times before.  They were just doing what many kids do here, and I pulled out a small piece of paper and began making a cootie catcher.  I gave it to one of the kids, and told him to destroy it, knowing that he wouldn't if I told him to do so.  And he didn't.  As I began making a second, they kept asking me questions, so I just said, "Ugh" to them.  They all laughed, and told me to do it again.  So I held out my hand and said "5 bucks" in Albanian of course.  They apparently didn't think it was all that amusing, so when I gave them the second cootie catcher, they just left and stopped bugging us.  It was pretty cool.  They are usually really difficult to get to stop irritating the missionaries.  Although, at the moment, I don't think any of the missionaries here in Vlore get too frustrated with the little kids, so that's good.

Last Saturday, we had a branch activity to Berat, and it rained almost the whole time.  Luckily, everyone seemed to enjoy it.  It was a pretty good activity.  On the bus ride home, they were playing lots of Albanian music and tons of people were dancing in the aisle of the bus.  It was pretty funny to watch.

We planted flowers outside the church recently, and we found out somebody was taking flowers from the church.  Luckily, they returned them, although they also pulled out almost every flower and left them on the ground.  A little girl, that is apparently rude at times, replanted all of them for us though.  That was cool.  So now hopefully they are all going to survive.  I can't remember exactly when it was, but we saw something exciting the other day at the church.  We were on the second floor, and these two guys ran by.  One guy stopped and went into one of the apartment buildings while the other one kept running.  Then, two other guys came, grabbed rocks, and followed the guy in the apartment building.  We heard a little tussle, then the 2 guys left in a run, and the other guy came out with a knife.  That was pretty intense.  I don't think that's that common here in Albania.

A fun Albanian phrase that I learned yesterday is "Të hëngërtë mortja" which means "May death eat you" and pronounced: "tuh hungert mor-tya".  I'm thinking that is probably not a very nice thing to say to people.  Anyways, that's it for now.

Love,

Elder Wallentine