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.

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.

Happy New Year 2010 from Tirana, Albania. Its hard to believe that so many rockets can be fired off in so short a time, but again this year Mom and I were not disappointed with the New Year's celebration. From our balcony this 5 minute video will give you a feeling of New Year in Albania.