Zone Conferences with the missionaries are held every 6 weeks and they come around fast. This is mom with the 4 sister missionaries here in Tirana at this week's Zone Conference. Sisters Bentley, Seaman, Kennedy and Boyer
Picture of the Tirana Zone waiting for the "official picture" of the Zone to be taken.
We celebrated two birthdays this week. Sister Kennedy (England) and Entela Buzi from the 3rd branch.  Entela is an architect and one of the young single adults here in Tirana. Also pictured on far left Sister Boyer. We all enjoyed lunch together before heading out into the summer heat.

Every week mom and I try to spend some time, one on one, with some young adults. We will often have a lunch or dessert with them. Some are members of the Church and others are friends we've made while here in Tirana. This photograph was taken this past Tuesday with two sisters Sonila, a lawyer, and Suela her younger sister who is still in school. We're at a great little french cafe which mom just loves.  Behind us is an old abandoned home probably built for one of  the communist bosses. 



I've always wanted to play the bagpipes,but have never had the time or the equipment. I may have found the answer on how to build a good bagpipe. This is picture of man playing his "bagpipes" made from a sheep. The sound was little off, but passable.

I just had to post some more pictures of all the produce you find on the streets of Tirana. Vendors set up everywhere. The ladies with scarfs are sitting on the sidewalk on Myslym Sheri while the man next to the trash bins is in front of our apartment. Our bedroom is center top with A/C unit at the bottom of the window. 

We had Family Home Evening Monday in our place. As usual it was crowded and fun. The lesson is taped to the cupboards on left. Everyone just loved Mom's chocolate chip cookies.

This past month Mom has been teaching the Book of Revelation. She has some real expertise teaching this, the last book in the Bible. The young adults love it. Yesterday, Saturday, there were 35 in her class. After the class we showed the movie "Night in the Museum, 2". Even with many of the young adults being away on vacation now, we're having many show up to Institute on Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Monday, July 13, 2009, the weather turned hot and humid in Tirana. It was our "Preparation Day" so Mom and I decided to catch a bus to Durres and have lunch on the beach with the Durres Elders. The above picture is looking up main Durres road towards the town center. You can just see the large mosque which dominates the main city square.
Lunch with Elders Monson (Provo, Utah) Harline (Edmonton, Canada) and Hagan (Salt Lake City, Utah). As you can see, this little restaurant was right on the Adriatic. The sea breeze really helped with the summer heat. 
The view was better than the food, but just visiting with the elders was fun. That's Elder Thackery (Missouri) sitting next to Mom. 
This summer there are lots of fruit and vegetable stands on the sidewalks of Tirana. This lady has the best cantaloupe I've ever tasted. 

This past Saturday, July 11, 2009, we took some missionaries and young adults up to an elderly home to visit with some of the residents. It was a pretty good event all the way around. The old folks loved the visit and the young adults had their hearts touched. The above photograph shows Sister Niel playing her guitar and leading everyone in singing, "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain." 
After sharing some songs, we all visited with these wonderfully old Albanians.  Above Sisters Boyer and Seaman visiting with new friends. 
Erina, Sister Kennedy and Marsida visiting with one of the "xhaxhi" (uncles). For those of you who would like to pronounce xhaxhi properly, the "xh" sound in Albanian is pronounced like a "j".
They really loved the singing.
While walking the streets of Tirana, Mom and I will often meet people we know. This is Edmond Dukaj's mother. We just ran in to her on the Unaza as she was heading home.  About 3 months ago her husband passed away. Widows in Albania always wear black.

A belated Happy 4th of July from Tirana, Albania. Lots of American flags were out on Saturday. The Albanians have a real love for the USA. Photo above was take on the 4th with Elders Allen (Utah) and Elder Abley (Manchester, England). Elder Abley wished us "colonists" well.  Notice we all celebrated the day with appropriately colored ties.

Its hard to describe how dangerous the roads are in Tirana and the rest of Albania for that matter. Before 1991 Albanians could not have driver licenses and they could not own a car. Only the Communist Party officials had cars.  Since the fall of the communists, all Albanians want to have their own "makinë". Its kind of like "every man for himself" attitude on the road. You never worry about the "other guy". First one into an intersection wins etc.  You never back down and let the "other guy" go first.  So this all leads to many wonderful traffic jams. Above and below is a picture of the the intersection you can see from our apartment (Rrugge Kavajes and the Unaza).  This is what happens when everyone believes "I'm first!".
You just have to love these drivers, but you also have to look both ways, even on one way streets. No one backed off this traffic jam and it sat this way for nearly 15 minutes until a police officer showed up and helped get the mess untangled.
We've been having a very strange weather pattern for the past week. Sunny mornings followed by torrential rain with thunder and lightening in the afternoon. It really helps keep the temperature down, but lots of streets and sidewalks flood. Photograph below is taken looking down from our apartment on to the Unaza. Above photograph is my little garden getting wet. You will note I've got my string beans climbing the electric wire that runs next to our balcony. Picking my beans in the rain could be a shocking experience.

Last Saturday we had a little outing with our 4th Tirana Branch youth. After playing some soccer in the park, we got pizza at the local "Mcdonald's" look alike. There is no Mcdonald's in Albania. 

Two weeks ago Mom and I took a Preparation Day excursion with the Elders and Sisters from the Tirana 3rd Branch. As usual, it was an exciting 3 hour furgon ride from Tirana. Berat is one of the oldest cities in Albania. Its ancient mosques and churches were protected from the worst ravages of the communist atheism campaign (you may remember that in 1967 Albania declared itself the world's first atheist state and banned the practice of all religions) and in 1976 the communist government designated Berat a "museum city".  This is photograph looking up at the castle wall at the top of the hill. The part of the city you see climbing up the citadel is called "Mangalem" and was the Muslim quarter in the Ottoman times. Christians lived in the citadel itself.
Mom at the entrance to the castle which was built in the 13th century by a Byzantine despot named Michael II Comnenus Doukas.
In side the castle walls with two Albanian women.
There are some 12 churches located inside the castle walls. Apparently none are used for worship purposes and most are considered "museums."  This is picture inside the Church of  St. Mary. It is now the Museum of Onufri. Onufri was a very famous 16th century Albanian painter. The photograph shows 3rd Tirana Branch missionaries with Mom. Behind them a wooden iconostasis (alter screen) carved in 1806.
This is close-up of painting of Madonna and Child by Onufri found in the Church of St. Mary.

This is the close up view of the painting over the entrance to the Church of St. Mary.  
Near the Church of Constantine and Helen built in 1639 there is this very large head of Constantine. Mom is reaching for some banana bread baked by the elders for our trip to Berat. Photo shows Elder Huellet sitting next to Mom and Elder Thackery standing.
Within the citadel's walls there are numerous residences and lots of narrow streets.
Mom standing on the old battlements of the castle with Sisters Kennedy (from Manchester, England) and Waldron (from Ohio).
Just to give you some perspective of the battlements.  This wall goes all the way around the citadel. The first traces of buildings on this very high hill date from the second half of the 4th century B.C when an Illyrian tribe controlled the area. Berat was a very strategically important castle and town because all the trading routes coming from the south (ie Greece and Macedonia etc.) had to come past it. If you controlled the castle, you controlled the trade.