Dear family,

So I was looking at the list we have that has all the missionaries here in Albania and their phone numbers, and judging from what's on the sheet, I think I may be moving up to Tirana come transfers.  That still is a long ways out, but the only other cities I think I could possibly go to, I probably won't go.  That is all just my own reasoning and not really based on anything.  It would be weird serving in Tirana from what I've heard.  The branches there all have branch presidents that are Albanians, and they are pretty much self functioning so missionaries seem to only be doing missionary work instead of the branch being dependent on the missionaries for everything.  It is kind of fun serving in the outside zone (all the cities but Tirana) because it just seems more like an adventure.  In Lushnjë, it was just me and my companion, in Shkodër it was 4 missionaries total, and in Tirana, there's half the mission.  Here in Vlorë we have 4 elders, 2 sisters, and a senior couple.  I don't know if I just forget what it was like being stranded in Lushnjë, but I kind of miss being the only missionaries in a city.  I think if I end up going to Tirana, I may just spend as much time away from the rest of the missionaries as possible.

Anyways, this week we got a call from a member saying he had somebody we could teach, and so far, he is pretty golden.  He came to church on Sunday, and he actually sends us a text if he can't come for a lesson.  It's pretty cool.  We are planning on committing him to a baptismal date soon.  That would be awesome.  He also seems to already know all the members in the branch, so that is also really cool.  I talked to Elder Vance on the ride home from zone conference the other day, and he seems to be feeling good.  He and his companion in Lushnjë at the moment are just doing less active work.  It sounds like they have some good plans for the area.  I wouldn't mind going back to Lushnjë one day.  It is probably much easier when you can understand people.

I was talking to an elder here in my district while we were on exchanges, and we figured out that time on the mission just keeps speeding up because you continue improving with the language and everything, so you can do more and more.  At the beginning, I don't think too many of us are all that useful.  I have noticed that every passing transfer just seems to speed up.  I can see kind of how a mission can pass by without really noticing it.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday.  I love talks.  It is probably one of the easiest things that I could do on my mission.  I usually feel like I can speak the language just fine, but when it comes to understanding, that is usually a bigger problem.  Giving a talk is just the talking part, so that's not too bad.  Unfortunately, I've already served in the areas where I would be giving a ton of talks in church.  It is kind of fun serving in areas where the church isn't all that strong, even though it brings difficulties of its own like not being able to bring members to lessons (members are kind of preliminary to that) and church is often much shorter than it should be.

Anyways, not too much else happened this week, so I will just finish this now.  I sent the zone conference picture from zone conference even though I'm kind of hidden in the back.  You can see the tie I've been wearing practically every day of my mission in the picture though.  Anyways, have a good week.

Love,
Elder Uallentajn