Dear family,

So 2 days after the snow day over there, we had a rain day!  Kind of.  Friday mornings are when we do weekly planning, and as we were planning, the rains came incredibly strong.  There was about as much rain as there was a couple weeks ago when we went out and all the roads were flooded.  I guess all the roads were flooded again.  Luckily, both times this has happened, we have been inside because of p-day and weekly planning.  Although the first time it happened, my companion's umbrella was annihilated because of the wind.  It was pretty cool. I was not using my umbrella, and I decided not to use it after that.  It went inside out, and was completely destroyed before it was ripped from his hand.  Luckily, the floods go away after a couple hours, so it has never really affected our work too much.  The flooding did get kids out of school though.  Shkodër on the other hand is in a bit of trouble I hear.  They are all over the news (that we can only get a small glimps of when we have a meeting) and people have to go around in boats.  We also hear a lot about all the flooding from people.  I think parts of Vlorë is flooded as well.  I'm not sure if the flooding is affecting work in Vlorë, but from what I hear, the elders in Shkodër are now in Tirana.  Also, at some point, the road from Durrës to Tirana was under water.  This all sounds pretty crazy and exciting, but life for us seems somewhat normal here in Durrës.  The floods are pretty exciting though.

This week, we were heading out from lunch, and I looked out from our house, and I saw some old cement buildings a little ways off in the distance, and I decided we should go tract there.  I don't think I had ever really noticed them before, but we went there, had a couple people tell us to come back, and then we got in with a guy named Bardhyl who said we could come back next week.  He has a wife and 2 kids, so hopefully we can teach the whole family next time.  We ended this week with more lessons than we've had here in Durrës since I got here.  We also have started finding success with the English course we have.  The first day, we had 5 people in class, 2 stayed to hear religion.  We also had a member there to help.  The next time, we had only 4 people in class, but all 4 stayed for religion.  I think they all seem at least intrigued by what we've taught.  The members we've had come have also been a big help.  It's great to have members helping out.  When we did English courses down in Vlorë, we always had members, so I think that's what we'll do here as well.  I guess the other elders here have been finding a good deal of success with their English course as well.

I find a bit of enjoyment watching the exchange rate whenever I pass the electronic signs they have.  The dollar for a while was at about 98ish lekë, and the other day, the dollar got up to 106 lekë.  That was cool.  I think it has gone back down to 103 now.  I have also enjoyed 20 minute naps.  Sometimes, the 20 minutes seems like forever, and it is very relaxing.  Whereas naps for 30 or more seem to go by really fast and I'm exhausted afterwards.  I've stopped those.

We've been tracting more often lately, and one thing I've noticed, is I enjoy the meetings we get from tracting more than with street contacting.  With tracting, we go to their house, and either they're there, or they're not.  With street contacting, we meet them, get a phone number, call them another day, wait for them to show up, call back if they don't, end up leaving if they don't come.  If they do come, they usually come late.  So tracting appointments seem much easier.  We did find quite a bit of success last transfer with street contacting, but I think it's time for a change.  So far it's been working pretty well for us.

Well, I am starting the beginning of the last winter in Albania.  So far, it has been getting steadily more and more enjoyable as time goes on.  Thus, time also goes faster and faster.  It's cool.

Love,
Elder Wallentine