This past week we visited Durrës with Nardi and Elida Çuçi for her birthday. We had lunch at the beach and then went for a walk. Their son Edison is now a missionary in the London, England Mission. The hill at the top of the photograph is the palace of the last King of Albania, King Zog. The palace is now a military installation.
Mobile selling on the streets of Tirana.
Its not much of a soccer field, but there's not a lot of grass in this country. These teams were part of a boys' league which plays every Saturday.
Mom at Saturday's Institute class. Young man next to her is Elvis Lulo. He has just returned from his 2 year mission to Milan, Italy.
Mario Kapinova and Fatjona Priska. You may remember Fatjona from Mom's interview on Albanian television. Mario is her boyfriend. He's to be baptized on February 14th and he has asked me to baptize him. These are exciting times in Albania for the young adults. Literally 50% of the Church membership in Albania is between the ages of 18 and 30.

We've got winter's snow on Mt. Dajti and the level of water in the Lana has started to rise. January has started out cold and wet. Just like I remember last year.
Walking around Tirana on January 9, 2010 we came upon some muslim men getting ready for their afternoon prayers. Because the 18th Century Mosque of Et'hem Bey is so small many will pray on the side walks around the mosque. When the call to prayers is made this part of the Qëndor is very difficult to get around. Some days are more crowded than others.
Probably the most crowded day is the last day of Ramadan. The above photograph is of a portion of the Qëndor next to the Et'hem Bey Mosque. If you look closely, you'll see that the sidewalks and roads around the mosque are completely shut down. As I've mentioned before, 70% of all Albanians will claim they are muslim. I would call it "Islim-light". You don't see too many beards on men or burkas on women. Nevertheless, they are not very willing to listen to the Mormon missionaries.
We've made lots of friends in Albania. This past week we shared a copy of the Book of Mormon with Anisa Dygjeri who we met on the plane coming back from Frankfurt, Germany. She is a student here in Tirana.

A wonderful sunset on the last day of the year. Tirana, Albania December 31, 2009.
Everyone was getting ready for the big New Year's celebrations. As I've mentioned before, turkey is the meat of choice this time of year. Here two nënë are heading home with their birds still alive and kicking.
It was a bit chaotic at the market. The birds were just flying off the shelves.
Pedestrians have no rights in Albania so you want to stay on the sidewalks. That is if you can find a good sidewalk and you can keep the cars off it. The tall white building on the right in the background is the mission office, 1st Branch chapel and residence of the mission president.
With some of the young adults we also visited a childrens' hospital during the Christmas holidays. From right to left is Ergina, Elsa, Izara, Mom and Marsida. We handed out balloons, candies and sang some Christmas carols.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy and I haven't had time to post some of photographs of recent events. Today is New Year's Day and Tirana is pretty closed up.  I'm going to take some time and post some of the activities of the past 2 weeks.  On December 18, 2009 we held the last Family Home Evening of the year in our home.  There were some 35 YSA present in our little apartment. It was standing room only! Photograph is of Izara leading the opening hymn. Mom and I gave a "Christmas" lesson and afterwards everyone had hot chocolate. 
Between Christmas and the New Year we invited over the families of some of our newest members. We had Roni and Elba Kapallani's parents, Donald (yet to be baptized) and his parents, and Grej and Kejn and their parents. We served American brownies, which the parents didn't like, and played  tile rummy. Above photo shows families playing tile rummy in our living room/kitchen.
We also had the 1st Branch Seminary class over on Saturday December 23, 2009  for a lesson and lunch. That's Seminary teachers Grisi and Sonja with Mom in background.
There was still time to get out on the streets of Tirana. Here Mom is meeting Elders Flack and McGlothin. They are on their way to do some street contacting. Albanian entrepreneurs set up their "stores" any where they can. Notice the building ruins in background with clothes for sale.
Photograph is of Dega 4 (4th Branch) Christmas party. As usual, there was more food served than you can imagine. In photograph is President Apostali leading the Christmas story presentation.