Dear family,
So this week I practiced the hymns I was to play in
sacrament meeting a lot more than usual, and I was able to play the ones I
practiced pretty well. There was one that I didn't play well, but it was a hymn
that they had just added that I didn't know about beforehand. Then, in third
hour, I directed the meeting since I was the district leader and the
missionaries were teaching that class. It was focused on how the members could
do missionary work, and was basically supposed to be motivation for them to do
missionary work. I think it went well.
This week was a lot better than
last week. Probably in part to me not being sick and not having a specialized
training. We found 3 new investigators, so that was cool. There was another
protest kind of thing going on last Friday in Tirana. Apparently it was just a
peaceful gathering where they honored the 3 "victims" that died in the violent
protest just a week before. It still resulted in nobody coming to our English
class.
The other day, we were walking home to get some stuff after a
lesson we had had, and there were these kids that we said hi to. After passing
them, when we had our backs turned to them, they start yelling bad words and
other stuff at us. So for fun, I turned around and walked back to them. 2 of
the 3 went running off to hide and ditched their friend. I basically asked him
if his friends knew what they were saying and he seemed pretty freaked out when
I started talking to him. Then, as we were leaving, the same kids were in the
road, and the other two go darting off while the third one just walked alongside
us. The other two seemed scared to death. It was pretty funny. Even a lot of
older kids are afraid to taunt us whenever we are looking at them. They all
wait to say stuff until we have our backs turned to them. They are all pretty
quiet if we ever turn back and start talking to them. It's funny.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Dear family,
Last Friday, we went to this restaurant for district lunch, and there were TVs showing the protests in Tirana. There were quite a few police lined up keeping this huge group of people from going into the building. Eventually, people started throwing all sorts of stuff at the police. There were several methods used to disperse the crowds, but they were pretty persistent. So far, nothing like that is happening in Durrës, so we've been safe. We've heard from people that people here in Durrës are typically pretty quiet and calm. If we see any of those protests happening, we'll be heading inside. From what I've heard, angry mobs don't typically treat us religious folks all that well.
Anyways, this week we had quite a few investigators drop out of our teaching pool. That was a bummer, but hopefully we can fix that. We were pretty much out of commission for half the week last week because of my sickness and the special training we had. Lately, I haven't been doing a very good job of waking up on time and exercising in the mornings. I'm trying to change that this week. Today I was able to get up and do some exercising. I'm reminded of the talk in conference by President Uchtdorf. The one where he talked about taking things slower when we're going through a rough time. It seems like an important theme for our days.
I have been reading the Old Testament and I'm in 1 Kings now. I just read the story this morning when Solomon is judging between the two ladies that were fighting over a baby. I'm also looking through the study guide and it explains things better. Last Sunday, I was able to play another one of the hymns with both hands during sacrament meeting. My companion plays the piano well, but he is kind of like me and has never really played the hymns. He also says he can't read sheet music all that well. A lot of missionaries seem to get upset with him when they found out he wasn't playing the piano in church, because they've seen him play the piano and think that since he can play these other songs that he could play the hymns. I think it's a lot harder than many people think.
Anyways, not much else to say for this week. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Last Friday, we went to this restaurant for district lunch, and there were TVs showing the protests in Tirana. There were quite a few police lined up keeping this huge group of people from going into the building. Eventually, people started throwing all sorts of stuff at the police. There were several methods used to disperse the crowds, but they were pretty persistent. So far, nothing like that is happening in Durrës, so we've been safe. We've heard from people that people here in Durrës are typically pretty quiet and calm. If we see any of those protests happening, we'll be heading inside. From what I've heard, angry mobs don't typically treat us religious folks all that well.
Anyways, this week we had quite a few investigators drop out of our teaching pool. That was a bummer, but hopefully we can fix that. We were pretty much out of commission for half the week last week because of my sickness and the special training we had. Lately, I haven't been doing a very good job of waking up on time and exercising in the mornings. I'm trying to change that this week. Today I was able to get up and do some exercising. I'm reminded of the talk in conference by President Uchtdorf. The one where he talked about taking things slower when we're going through a rough time. It seems like an important theme for our days.
I have been reading the Old Testament and I'm in 1 Kings now. I just read the story this morning when Solomon is judging between the two ladies that were fighting over a baby. I'm also looking through the study guide and it explains things better. Last Sunday, I was able to play another one of the hymns with both hands during sacrament meeting. My companion plays the piano well, but he is kind of like me and has never really played the hymns. He also says he can't read sheet music all that well. A lot of missionaries seem to get upset with him when they found out he wasn't playing the piano in church, because they've seen him play the piano and think that since he can play these other songs that he could play the hymns. I think it's a lot harder than many people think.
Anyways, not much else to say for this week. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Dear family,
So this week was pretty exciting. We were able to get in contact with several less active families this week, and we got a new high for lessons since this area was opened. It's nice to see that in the past 4 months that lessons have steadily been increasing. Slowly but surely. We also got 2 investigators in church on Sunday which was another high for this area in the past 6 months I think.
To top everything off for the week, we were having lunch on Sunday, and we looked outside at our neighbor's house, and their couch was on fire. So we took the miniature fire extinguisher we were given and ran over to help douse the flames. They were using huge buckets full of water, and luckily it was just a regular fire that gets put out by water and not one of them grease fires that goes jumping all over the place with water. When I got there with the extinguisher, they had run out of water, and there was still a little fire there, so I put the rest out. Luckily, the houses here are still 99% cement, so not to much was damaged. By the looks of things, the only lasting damage is now to their couch. So that was fun.
Then, putting this week off to a good start, I threw up on Monday morning, and stayed inside all of Monday and Tuesday. We had district meeting today, and then we came to this internet place for internet. Thus starts the week. And tomorrow, we have a special training going down, so that'll be fun.
Last Saturday, we had a branch activity where we watched the Testaments again with Albanian subtitles. That was fun. With the leadership training thing, my companion goes on exchanges with somebody else, and they do regular missionary work. Anyways, I don't think too much else happened this week. So, yeah, that's it. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
So this week was pretty exciting. We were able to get in contact with several less active families this week, and we got a new high for lessons since this area was opened. It's nice to see that in the past 4 months that lessons have steadily been increasing. Slowly but surely. We also got 2 investigators in church on Sunday which was another high for this area in the past 6 months I think.
To top everything off for the week, we were having lunch on Sunday, and we looked outside at our neighbor's house, and their couch was on fire. So we took the miniature fire extinguisher we were given and ran over to help douse the flames. They were using huge buckets full of water, and luckily it was just a regular fire that gets put out by water and not one of them grease fires that goes jumping all over the place with water. When I got there with the extinguisher, they had run out of water, and there was still a little fire there, so I put the rest out. Luckily, the houses here are still 99% cement, so not to much was damaged. By the looks of things, the only lasting damage is now to their couch. So that was fun.
Then, putting this week off to a good start, I threw up on Monday morning, and stayed inside all of Monday and Tuesday. We had district meeting today, and then we came to this internet place for internet. Thus starts the week. And tomorrow, we have a special training going down, so that'll be fun.
Last Saturday, we had a branch activity where we watched the Testaments again with Albanian subtitles. That was fun. With the leadership training thing, my companion goes on exchanges with somebody else, and they do regular missionary work. Anyways, I don't think too much else happened this week. So, yeah, that's it. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Monday, January 10, 2011
Dear family,
My new companion is pretty cool. He's pretty good with conversing with people. He's also a really good cook. We had district lunch last Friday, and we had chicken covered in cream cheese and bread crumbs with mashed potatoes. I've learned a thing or two like how to make alfredo sauce. So now I can make multiple kinds of pasta. That's cool. Anyways, another change to this transfer is I'm now a district leader. I think it's a bit different than other missions though, because in my district we have the zone leaders and us. Thus it is easy to keep track of everyone. Also, I have to be in charge of district meeting, so I do trainings and practices and try to inspire them. If anybody has any cool inspirational quotes, let me know.
Anyways, we started up the English course again this week. We got 1 person to show up. Second day, 2 people. We sent out a text message to our students, and hopefully we can get at least 4 people next Wednesday. That would be nice.
This Wednesday, I also have this leadership training meeting, which is kind of funny because since the zone leaders go to this as well, the only person in my district that doesn't hear everything I hear is my companion. Hopefully we will make it back in time to do our English course.
So, this week, we broke a horrible trend that was happening in this area since I got here. The first weeks of each transfer was our worst week where we'd get 2 or 3 lessons, but this week, we got 7. Great way to start a transfer. Hopefully we can boost that this transfer.
Anyways, There's not all that much else I can say for this week, so enjoy the new year!
Love,
Elder Wallentine
My new companion is pretty cool. He's pretty good with conversing with people. He's also a really good cook. We had district lunch last Friday, and we had chicken covered in cream cheese and bread crumbs with mashed potatoes. I've learned a thing or two like how to make alfredo sauce. So now I can make multiple kinds of pasta. That's cool. Anyways, another change to this transfer is I'm now a district leader. I think it's a bit different than other missions though, because in my district we have the zone leaders and us. Thus it is easy to keep track of everyone. Also, I have to be in charge of district meeting, so I do trainings and practices and try to inspire them. If anybody has any cool inspirational quotes, let me know.
Anyways, we started up the English course again this week. We got 1 person to show up. Second day, 2 people. We sent out a text message to our students, and hopefully we can get at least 4 people next Wednesday. That would be nice.
This Wednesday, I also have this leadership training meeting, which is kind of funny because since the zone leaders go to this as well, the only person in my district that doesn't hear everything I hear is my companion. Hopefully we will make it back in time to do our English course.
So, this week, we broke a horrible trend that was happening in this area since I got here. The first weeks of each transfer was our worst week where we'd get 2 or 3 lessons, but this week, we got 7. Great way to start a transfer. Hopefully we can boost that this transfer.
Anyways, There's not all that much else I can say for this week, so enjoy the new year!
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Monday, January 3, 2011
Dear family,
New Years was pretty cool. Pretty much all day on New Year's Eve, we could hear explosions every couple of seconds. We were allowed to stay up to watch the fireworks at midnight. I took a video of it with my camera. It is pretty insane. Pretty much from 8:00 on, there was constant explosions, and at midnight, the whole city looks like a war zone. Pretty much everyone has fireworks and shoots them all from their houses. Luckily, all the buildings are pure cement and will not catch on fire. One time, a couple days before New Years, we were street contacting near the center, and there was somebody behind this building close by shooting off the big fireworks. Then, we look over one time, and one of the fireworks blew up on the ground. It was cool looking, and judging by the fact that we didn't hear any screaming or panicking or sirens, I think everyone was alright. Right before the explosion, we saw the guy doing it go running off.
January 1, we spent all day inside cleaning. We also had permission to sleep until 8:30 that day. That was cool. The only problem, was on Sunday, my alarms were still set for 8:30 instead of 6:30, so we woke up right at the time the bus left for church. So by 8:45ish we left and got to church in about 15 minutes when it usually takes 20-30. It was quite the way to start off the new year. We got the transfer calls last Saturday, and I am getting an elder from Mississippi named Elder Asquith. He's pretty big. I've been on exchanges with him once, and he seems like a good fellow. He talks a lot and knows his Bible extremely well. He's from the south, so that explains his Bible knowledge. He's also got quite the vocabulary. Tomorrow we all go to Tirana to get with our new companions and everything, so we'll see how all that goes.
This week, we also found this family doing some tracting in some remote area of Durrës who is really cool. They just recently moved here from a small town north of Tirana called Mirëdita, which means good day. They have 3 daughters ages 9, 5, and 1. I think they have potential. Hopefully they start reading the Book of Mormon and come to church. Luckily, they have weekends off from work, so that's one less obstacle for them coming to church. The only problem is they live quite a ways away from the church and they have no car. So, we'll see what we can do about all that. So far, they seem pretty cool.
Anyways, next week I'll probably have more info about my new companion and the new transfer.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
New Years was pretty cool. Pretty much all day on New Year's Eve, we could hear explosions every couple of seconds. We were allowed to stay up to watch the fireworks at midnight. I took a video of it with my camera. It is pretty insane. Pretty much from 8:00 on, there was constant explosions, and at midnight, the whole city looks like a war zone. Pretty much everyone has fireworks and shoots them all from their houses. Luckily, all the buildings are pure cement and will not catch on fire. One time, a couple days before New Years, we were street contacting near the center, and there was somebody behind this building close by shooting off the big fireworks. Then, we look over one time, and one of the fireworks blew up on the ground. It was cool looking, and judging by the fact that we didn't hear any screaming or panicking or sirens, I think everyone was alright. Right before the explosion, we saw the guy doing it go running off.
January 1, we spent all day inside cleaning. We also had permission to sleep until 8:30 that day. That was cool. The only problem, was on Sunday, my alarms were still set for 8:30 instead of 6:30, so we woke up right at the time the bus left for church. So by 8:45ish we left and got to church in about 15 minutes when it usually takes 20-30. It was quite the way to start off the new year. We got the transfer calls last Saturday, and I am getting an elder from Mississippi named Elder Asquith. He's pretty big. I've been on exchanges with him once, and he seems like a good fellow. He talks a lot and knows his Bible extremely well. He's from the south, so that explains his Bible knowledge. He's also got quite the vocabulary. Tomorrow we all go to Tirana to get with our new companions and everything, so we'll see how all that goes.
This week, we also found this family doing some tracting in some remote area of Durrës who is really cool. They just recently moved here from a small town north of Tirana called Mirëdita, which means good day. They have 3 daughters ages 9, 5, and 1. I think they have potential. Hopefully they start reading the Book of Mormon and come to church. Luckily, they have weekends off from work, so that's one less obstacle for them coming to church. The only problem is they live quite a ways away from the church and they have no car. So, we'll see what we can do about all that. So far, they seem pretty cool.
Anyways, next week I'll probably have more info about my new companion and the new transfer.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)