Saturday, February 13, 2010 we held the YSA Valentine Dance. And what would a good Albanian dance be without a good Albanian folkloric line dance? Yona and Juli leading the line.
We held the dance this year in Tirana. Last year the dance was held in Durres. As you can see, everybody likes to dance. Mom even got me out on the dance floor, but most of the time we were too busy serving pizza, cookies and drinks.
Well, I knew it was cold, but when it started to snow Saturday morning I was still surprised. The snow came down in huge snowflakes but nothing stayed on the ground very long. It was fun while it lasted. Picture is taken from our balcony and that is snow on my cactus.
Sunday evening, February 14, 2010, I baptized Mario Kapinova. There was a huge turnout for this baptism. Mario has dated Fatjona Priska for a couple of years. He has lots of friends in the Church and they all wanted to be there. This is a very special young man and I felt very privileged to baptize him.
This photograph taken at Mario's baptism maybe one of my favorites. Next to me is Alma Osmëni (in 2 weeks she leaves on her mission to Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah), her boyfriend, Eldorado Lubonja (who I baptized just over a year ago), Mario, Fatjona and Mom. Its a favorite photograph because I was blessed to be here in Albania and see these two great young men enter the waters of baptism. I believe we will see wonderful things happen in the future of Albania because of the faith of these 4 young people.

Last Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010 we invited the young adults from the Tirana 3rd Branch over for dinner. From right to left in photograph is Endrit Muka, Elvis Lulo, Mario Kapinova (he'll be baptized this coming Sunday the 14th) Mom, Elona Sulollari, Fatjona Priska, Argjir Muzaka, Olsi Pane and Erlind Diushnica. These are great young adults and we love them. Everyone loved Mom's lasagne. Well, almost everyone. You all remember, I don't like tomatoes.
February 9, 2010 was Almira Beleshi's birthday. We had a short visit with the family and brought her a small plant.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings Mom and I are teaching English classes. Mom teaches the beginning class at 5:00 pm and I teach the advance class at 6:00 pm. This is a photograph of my advance class. This week we discussed Emily Dickinson. Next week we'll do some Robert Frost.

Mom and I taking Elder Klein (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) and Elder Castro-Guzman (France) to the local French cafe to meet Marie, the owner, who is French. Elder Castro-Guzman used his native language skills and Marie is starting the missionary lessons Saturday. Photograph shows the elders with Brother Veliu a 1st Branch member who me met on the way.
Recently there has been some very serious flooding in northern Albania. The city of Shkoder was hit hardest with 500 families having to evacuate their homes. The Church donated $22,000 of basic food commodities to their relief. This is picture of article which appeared in local Tirana newspaper. The headline reads, "Church of Jesus Christ and Saints donates aid for Shkoder". The photograph shows the missionary Elders and Sisters loading the food.
Last Sunday, January 31, 2010, Mom and I were in Vlore to speak in Sacrament meeting and to give a lesson for their Institute aged young adults. Monday it was rainy and overcast but we walked along the shoreline near town before heading back to Tirana. The above photo shows beach side statue with fisherman in background. We stayed Sunday night at the New York Hotel which is located very near the point of land on left.
This is photograph of the Vlore young adults who were in our Institute class on Sunday.