Besmir is a Muslim who joined the church two years ago. He wants to serve a mission but is needed to help his family at home. His two younger brothers are members, but their father will not let them attend. He lives about 45 minutes out of Tirana and rides his motor scooter to and from work everyday. He comes to all of our functions, then rides home in the dark. Sunday, because he is dressed in Sunday clothes, he takes the bus to church which takes him 1 1/2 hours. Besmir has three sisters, one of them died a while ago of kidney failure. His two other sisters are both on dialysis and Besmir helps support his family. He is a worthy young man with a temple recommend, even though he has not been through the temple. He is one of our institute teachers and loves his calling. This is one of our young adults.
Elvis (yes that is his name but pronounced with the accent over the "v") is our YA President. He is going to college and has served a mission in Italy. He is the only member in his family. He takes time off to go and visit all the branches in Albania to talk to the YA's and encourage them to attend YA Conference in August and sets an example to all of what a righteous young man should be. He even wears a suit on Sunday which is rare among the YA's.
Many of the YA's have served mini missions where they actually go to different parts of Albania and stay for three or four months. This is a great experience for them and they get a taste of what missionary work is all about. Most of them go to college because it is free if they can get in. All they need to purchase are their books. The trouble is when they graduate, there are no jobs. There have been over a hundred young people that have served missions from Albania and only six have returned to help build up the church. Many go to BYU after and never come back. That is hard because their strength is needed.
We are excited to be able to serve these wonderful Young Adults. They certainly are choice spirits of our Heavenly Father. They have a lot to learn about the Church, and in time they will. We know that is one of the reasons we are here to help them in learning the doctrines and develop strong testimonies. They are teachable.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Dear Family:
We are finally on the internet. You don't realize what a lifeline it is until you can't use it. We have had the most frustrating week. Pres. & Sister Neil picked us up at the airport at 2:30 p.m. Albania time. We couldn't figure why everyone was so anxious to get off the plane almost to the point of rudeness, until we went inside to get our luggage and noticed the customs' lines. Nobody in Albania wants to wait for anyone. We were the last to go through with our 250lbs of luggage plus our bags with our materials in which weighed another 20 lbs each at least. We drove through traffic and decided we were very glad we didn't have a car. Much worse than Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines. We dropped off our luggage in our apartment (which is another story), went to dinner with two couples and the Mission Pres. & Wife. He gave us a phone that ended up not working (which we didn't know for 24 hours). The dinner was great, then Pres. Neil helped dad get monies out of an ATM machine that was safe, then brought us back to our apartment. Dad tried to set up the computer only to find out it needed a password which we didn't have. It took two days to find out the password, then we found out the internet in the building was down. To top it off, we haven't been able to get any monies out of the ATM since. Today has really been the downer. Still no money, no internet, plus frustration at how we are going to accomplish our calling. I was looking out our window at the city (at night it looks much nicer), feeling very down and sad, wondering why these things were happening. I decided to go back out and read my scriptures, and in a few minutes dad called and said, Virginia, were on. My heart swelled, my eyes tiered up, and I was so grateful for the blessing we had just received.
I could go on and on, but just know we are ok. The Young Adults we have met are wonderful. They are loving and kind and want to help us anyway they can. The two couples here have been a great help.The Prestons who e-mailed you, have already become great friends, we must have known each other in the pre-existence, and the Wilsons who are the humanitarian couple, invited us to dinner Sunday and took us shopping yesterday. So life hasn't been all bad. For family night Monday night I served waffles to the young adults which they loved. Most of them speak English, but the meetings are conducted in Albanian.
Anyway life is good, the gospel is true and Karen is working with the Credit Union to get our money problem resolved. It will all turn out. By the way, Pres. Neil gave us another phone which works!!!
We love you very much and are grateful for your prayers in our behalf.
Will write more later and try to include some pictures which we haven't taken any.
Love Mom and Dad
We are finally on the internet. You don't realize what a lifeline it is until you can't use it. We have had the most frustrating week. Pres. & Sister Neil picked us up at the airport at 2:30 p.m. Albania time. We couldn't figure why everyone was so anxious to get off the plane almost to the point of rudeness, until we went inside to get our luggage and noticed the customs' lines. Nobody in Albania wants to wait for anyone. We were the last to go through with our 250lbs of luggage plus our bags with our materials in which weighed another 20 lbs each at least. We drove through traffic and decided we were very glad we didn't have a car. Much worse than Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines. We dropped off our luggage in our apartment (which is another story), went to dinner with two couples and the Mission Pres. & Wife. He gave us a phone that ended up not working (which we didn't know for 24 hours). The dinner was great, then Pres. Neil helped dad get monies out of an ATM machine that was safe, then brought us back to our apartment. Dad tried to set up the computer only to find out it needed a password which we didn't have. It took two days to find out the password, then we found out the internet in the building was down. To top it off, we haven't been able to get any monies out of the ATM since. Today has really been the downer. Still no money, no internet, plus frustration at how we are going to accomplish our calling. I was looking out our window at the city (at night it looks much nicer), feeling very down and sad, wondering why these things were happening. I decided to go back out and read my scriptures, and in a few minutes dad called and said, Virginia, were on. My heart swelled, my eyes tiered up, and I was so grateful for the blessing we had just received.
I could go on and on, but just know we are ok. The Young Adults we have met are wonderful. They are loving and kind and want to help us anyway they can. The two couples here have been a great help.The Prestons who e-mailed you, have already become great friends, we must have known each other in the pre-existence, and the Wilsons who are the humanitarian couple, invited us to dinner Sunday and took us shopping yesterday. So life hasn't been all bad. For family night Monday night I served waffles to the young adults which they loved. Most of them speak English, but the meetings are conducted in Albanian.
Anyway life is good, the gospel is true and Karen is working with the Credit Union to get our money problem resolved. It will all turn out. By the way, Pres. Neil gave us another phone which works!!!
We love you very much and are grateful for your prayers in our behalf.
Will write more later and try to include some pictures which we haven't taken any.
Love Mom and Dad
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Last Day at the MTC
Dear Family:
Here we are on our last day. Each day has been quite busy, what with eating three meals a day and sitting for hours in meetings, but we have enjoyed the lessons and the presenters. We had our first lesson in Albanian last night and will have another one tonight. He taught us how to pronounce the alphabet. Oh my, I am not sure my tongue can handle all this. Tonight we have two more hours, I can hardly wait.
Tuesday night we had a devotional where Bishop Edgley and Pauline spoke. They did a great job and we were able to talk with them after. Darrell Stacey was also there, he is a branch president at the MTC. He asked us to meet with him and some of his elders after the devotional. We listened as each one bore their testimony of what they learned that night. Then Darrell asked dad and I to bear our testimony. It was a wonderful experience. The elders were so good.
Well, we leave tomorrow at 5:00 a.m. Not my finest hour, but we will manage. Dad has carried all our suitcases down stairs to weigh them and then carried them back up again. We had to repack a few, but think we are ok. We still have our peanut butter. Hope you are all doing well, and keeping us in your prayers. We will write again when we get to Albania.
Love you, Mom and Dad
Here we are on our last day. Each day has been quite busy, what with eating three meals a day and sitting for hours in meetings, but we have enjoyed the lessons and the presenters. We had our first lesson in Albanian last night and will have another one tonight. He taught us how to pronounce the alphabet. Oh my, I am not sure my tongue can handle all this. Tonight we have two more hours, I can hardly wait.
Tuesday night we had a devotional where Bishop Edgley and Pauline spoke. They did a great job and we were able to talk with them after. Darrell Stacey was also there, he is a branch president at the MTC. He asked us to meet with him and some of his elders after the devotional. We listened as each one bore their testimony of what they learned that night. Then Darrell asked dad and I to bear our testimony. It was a wonderful experience. The elders were so good.
Well, we leave tomorrow at 5:00 a.m. Not my finest hour, but we will manage. Dad has carried all our suitcases down stairs to weigh them and then carried them back up again. We had to repack a few, but think we are ok. We still have our peanut butter. Hope you are all doing well, and keeping us in your prayers. We will write again when we get to Albania.
Love you, Mom and Dad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)