Dear Mom,

Today I exchanged the money in my wallet for lekë, so I should be able to finish up my shopping today.  Then, one of the couples are taking us down to Saranda for our trip, so that will cut our costs significantly.  I'll keep an eye out for my card, but there's no real problem there.  Hitchhiking probably isn't the safest way to travel, but when we're 4 Americans that get confused with the CIA and FBI, I think other people would be more afraid of us than us of them.  However, we probably won't do it again.

So, we're probably not going to be getting any more baptisms while I'm here, talking for my companionship.  We do have 3 people who will probably be getting baptized shortly after I leave though.  So that's cool.  There were 3 baptisms last weekend, there should be more this next weekend, and then there are 8 scheduled to happen in October.

This next week should be good.  Our house is now in working order, so we can focus more on missionary work again.  Last week we had water, but we were still kind of recovering from a month without water.  So this next week should be a lot better.

I'm not too sure if I will be sending you all emails next week due to the trip to Saranda that we're doing, but if anybody is sending emails, I'll send one too.  I just don't really know what's going on next week.  I'm hoping that I will somehow be able to stop by Vlorë sometime before returning home so I can see one of the boys I baptized while I was there.  I'll probably ask President Ford today.  I thought about it last night, and it seems like I put together a plan that sounds reasonable.  So hopefully it works out.

Anyways, thanks for everything and I'll see you all in about a week.

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear mom,

So almost right after we moved back into our house, the whole building has been having water problems due to the lack of rain here in Tirana.  It hasn't rained for almost 6 months now.  So hopefully we get some rain soon.  I hear it's supposed to start getting cooler now.  That means fall and winter are coming, meaning rain should be coming too.  We're still probably going to find a new house this next week.  The house has been bearable up to now, but we're both just kind of sick of it.  Everything else seems to be going fine though.  Hopefully we'll be able to find a house as well as new investigators again this week.  This past week, my companion was sick for 2 days of the week.  I was also exhausted throughout the week.  We'd been walking a ton and sleeping not so great up to then, so it was probably just getting to us.

Yesterday I missed 2nd and 3rd hours of church so we could go meet with Taipi, the dad of a family who had gotten baptized recently, and we were meeting with him to see why he hadn't been coming to church for the past month or so.  He kept using excuses, but we managed to get him committed to come to church next Sunday.  We all went home, and then we came back with the other 2 missionaries to have a lesson with their whole family.  We got out there around 7:00pm, and at 8:00 we caught a bus that dropped us off halfway to the next city and told us to catch the next bus.  We just ended up hitchhiking.  We also managed to arrive home on time.

Last Saturday there were 3 baptisms in Tirana.  They were from 1st and 3rd branches.  There were supposed to be 2 for 4th branch, but they didn't go through.  Hopefully we can start working with our investigators and get them baptized.  There are now 2 people who we are teaching that I am pretty sure will be baptized, I just don't know when they will be baptized.  It may not be while I'm here.

Well, there isn't too much more to say for this week.  It was eventful, and hopefully we'll be able to find a new house this week.

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear mom,

So this week I was at some investigators' house while they had baptismal interviews, and I got a call from the elders in Vlorë saying that a boy I taught about a year ago wanted me to come down to baptize him.  So on Saturday, I baptized him down in Vlorë, and then we went up to baptize the 2 boys who were previously interviewed.  At the baptismal service, there were 5 people baptized, 4 of which were in 4th branch.  It was awesome.  This next week, the brother of the 2 boys who were baptized will be baptized along with 5 other people that same day.  That will be busy.  I believe there are also going to be a good amount of baptisms the Saturday after that as well.  We'll see how all this goes.

Today my companion reminded me that I only had 3 more p-days left.  That was weird.  I always forget how much time I have left.  It's probably better that way.  The other day, I was a little worried about packing my bags to go home, because I didn't think everything would fit in my luggage.  I have quite a few books I want to take home, so I was worried about those.  I started packing things up last week during lunch just to see, and I was able to fit all my books into my backpack and small bag, and then I am getting rid of 3 pairs of shoes, so that frees up a ton of space.  I'll probably take a picture of my shoes so you can all see them.  I haven't worn my third pair of shoes yet, so I'll just wear those on the ride back home.  Those will hopefully last a while.

We moved back into our own house this week.  We cleaned it up and got it all in order as well.  It's nice to actually be living in our area once more.

This week, there was a meeting with Elder Clayton from the First Quorum of the Seventy, and at some point he said he was an attorney.  During one of the breaks I talked to him, and he told me some useful stuff I could do to prepare to become a lawyer/judge.  He verified that I would most likely have to be a lawyer before being a judge, and he said I'd have to know people to be a judge.  He also told me I could go into the courthouse and watch a court trial go down to see how it goes.  I might have to do that after my mission.  Also, it'd be nice to have a job for a while before going to college, so have everyone keep their eyes open for me.

Today we should be meeting with this guy who will hopefully be baptized before I leave Albania. His name is Fati.  It's pronounced just like "Fatty", but it means "luck".  Also, people here will tell each other (and us) that they've grown, shrunk, gained weight, lost weight, etc.  I tell my English classes that it is an insult in America to call somebody fat.

Anyways, have a good week.

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Dear family,

So this next weekend, at some point, 9 baptisms were scheduled to all happen at the same time.  I'm not sure how many there are now, but it should be really cool.  Also, my companion and I are teaching 4 people who should be progressing towards baptism.  Hopefully they get baptized before I leave.  The sisters in 1st/3rd branch have also gotten 6 new baptismal dates for the month, so that's cool.  It's going to be a great month.

Last Saturday, a guy from Shkodër was baptized, so that was cool.  We've been having a hard time finding time to find new investigators this past week due to how long it takes to travel to our area from Laprakë, and we've had things going on a lot meeting with people and trying to get our water fixed.  We found out that the office accidentally messed up and only paid $2 instead of $200, so that's why our water got turned off.  Oh well.

Last week we traveled to the mission office 2 times trying to get the water situation fixed, and one more time for zone leader council.  That was my last zone leader council for my mission.  I only have 1 month left.  I've been busy enough where I can hardly think about it though.  Possibly in part to the water situation.

Anyways, I can't think of too much else that happened this week.  Also, my last couple days in the country will be the death trip on October 3-4, the farewell on the 4th, and then we leave early on the 5th.  Then my companion and I are budgeting our money so that we will be able to have about $200 our last week.  We're still eating pretty well, but that last week we're planning on eating at some good restaurants and getting the kind of snacks and stuff that we can't reasonably get on a regular basis.  So that should be fun.

Love,
Elder Wallentine