Dear family,

This week we went over to a old member's house to ask about some less active families we could go visit.  The first thing she did when we got there,  however, was say how she had some neighbors she wanted us to meet who wanted to learn English.  So on Saturday, we went over and taught English to them.  Also, one time when we were street contacting this week, this guy comes up and tells us he was coming to church on Sunday.  I called him on Saturday to remind him, and he's like "Of course I'm coming."  He showed up about an hour late, but he did come.  I taught him a little bit and gave him a Book of Mormon before he left as well.  He told me he wanted us to call him up to meet again this week, so that's cool.

This member also told us where a couple families lived and gave us phone numbers as well.  She also pointed out some families that would be good to go visit.  So now we have some more direction in our retention work.  We met the Cara (tsah-rah) family last week, who is one of the inactive member families, and they were really cool.  We asked them why they weren't coming to church, and they just kind of dodged the question.  They are a pretty cool family though.  We've talked to some other members as well, and they stopped coming because they didn't get along with a couple other members or something.  Hopefully they get over it.

On Sunday I went to normal second hour with one of the recently baptized members, and the lesson turned into a debate.  It was pretty lame.  After that, I went to the nursery where I had a small break from such loud noise.  I was a little worried because the guy who was stirring up debates said how debating was how we would develop or progress, or something like that.  We talked to some other members about it and they said that most of the time he has a good positive influence on the class and brings up discussions.  So that was good.

Last Saturday there was a branch activity, but we couldn't go because we had work and president said we couldn't.  It was near Durrës at a beach, and it was going to take almost all day.  So it's probably good we didn't go.  We were expecting to have to fill up the baptismal font that day as well, but on Friday we were told that apparently some stuff had happened, and it wasn't going down.  The investigator will be baptized at the end of July, hopefully.  She seems like she's ready for baptism.

President and Sister Ford get here on the 28th, and the Neils leave on the 29th.  There is also a meeting for all the inside zone people on the 29th where we go meet the new mission president. Hopefully that goes well and starts the Fords stay here off well.  And Happy birthday mom!

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Dear family,

This week we took p-day on Tuesday because we went to Krujë on our district trip, and the museum is closed on Mondays.  It was pretty cool.  I even picked up some nicknacks while there.  This week we had 2 baptisms; a mother and her son.  They are really cool.

There is also a little girl who is 7 years old and a baby that is now 6 months.  The lady's mom lives with them as does her brother, but her brother is paralyzed.  Her mom says she wants to be baptized, but for some reason she won't.  Hopefully we can find out what the problem is.

I did my first baptismal interview last week as well.  It was a little intimidating beforehand, but during the interview, it wasn't too bad.  I just ended up thinking about it as if it were a mission president interview, except now I was in president's place.  She's getting baptized this Saturday.  We've been having a little trouble getting work moving again.  Investigators randomly just stop answering their phones and whatnot.  It's kind of disappointing sometimes.  We've also started trying to find some families that we haven't seen in church.  We're hoping to be able to reactivate some Melchizedek priesthood holders so we can move the work forward to get a stake here in Albania.  I think we have enough Melchizedek priesthood holders for a stake, but we don't have enough active tithe-paying priesthood holders.  Hopefully we can fix that.

We had a specialized training this week that went well.  It was our last big meeting with President Neil.  On the 28th, President Ford gets here.  From what I've heard, some missionaries are worried that he's going to get here and make a bunch of changes and be really strict.  I'm not too worried.  I figure that it probably won't be too hard to make adjustments.  President Neil has also been making some changes.  Recently, he has told us that we can no longer call missionaries outside our districts without permission and we can't send text messages to anybody.  Apparently this stuff wasn't supposed to be allowed, but he didn't know or something.  So there are already things being changed, so hopefully the transition goes smooth.

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear family,

So this week was a little slower.  One investigator has started work so he said we'll rarely be able to meet, another one doesn't answer his phones.  The Xhele family is still progressing towards baptism though, and lately they have some neighbors who have been sitting through the lessons.  It's pretty cool.  They should be getting baptized this Sunday.

We haven't had power lately because the power bills still haven't been paid for the past 9 months.  We don't get the power bills either so the office has to pay them.  Hopefully that gets taken care of soon.

We had a leadership training the other day with Elder Causse, one of the area presidency.  He had come to give President and Sister Neil their release interviews.  They leave Albania on June 29 and President and Sister Ford get here on the 28th.  It seems like lately President Neil is trying really hard to get things ready for the new mission president so the transition goes more smoothly.

I heard the other day that the elders in Kosovo just had a week where they found more than 10 new investigators and had tons of lessons.  It sounds like they're running into quite a bit of success there in Kosovo.

I can't think of too much else that happened this week.

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Dear family,

So on Monday we had a meeting fall through, so we ended up at the church putting together a puzzle on p-day.  Then, a guy came and said he wanted to become a member of the church.  So we've started meeting with him.  Afterwards he went to the FHE activity and has been coming to English course.  Then, yesterday, we met with this guy named Altin.  He was really interested in learning about the church, and he was willing for us to come to his house sometime and teach him and his family.  He seemed happy to introduce us to his family.  He has an aunt that is a part of the church and she is married and moved to France, so he was willing to meet with us when I met him street contacting.  Also, on Sunday, a member brought a cousin to church who was curious about the church from what he had heard about it.  I talked to him a bit afterwards, and hopefully he ends up being interested enough to learn with us.  He's already done a lot of studying about religions, so we'll see how all this goes.

There was this Muslim guy we met this week who isn't all that interested in learning about the church, but he wants to teach us all he can about Islam.  He taught us how to write our names in Arabic and during one of our lessons, it was at one of the prayer times, so he got down and started praying in the manner of Muslims.  It was interesting to see.  There's a family we've been teaching lately that were found before I got to this area who will be getting baptized the 19 of June.  That will be cool.  Hopefully we can get a couple more of our new investigators with baptismal dates as well.

We just got a call from Sister Shupe, one of the old senior couples that served here in Albania, saying that there were some people that were interested in the gospel and that she would introduce to us tonight.  They are now the landlords of the Staceys, the new couple here, and were the Shupes' old landlord.  So we'll be having dinner with them tonight hopefully.  The Shupes are back here in Albania just for a visit, and yesterday they held a fireside where a bunch of people showed up to meet them.

Anyways, this week was pretty busy for us, and we ended up with quite a bit success. 

Love,
Elder Wallentine