1st Sunday in Albania

We had the opportunity to attend our first block of church meetings yesterday.  We found the members her to be very friendly and welcoming.  They have a really nice building to meet in.  Although it is not a typical "western" chapel it is quite functional with lots of rooms for offices and classrooms.  This ward has a complete ward council that is functioning very well.  There are 4 sets of missionaries assigned to this ward and they are all working very diligently to help the work move forward.  From all outward appearances they are doing very well.  The gospel essentials class had about 20 recent converts and investigators attending.  Almost as many as were attending the Gospel Doctrine class.  The primary is relatively small, as is the YM & YW.

I'm going to attach a few pictures of the entrance of the church building.  Maybe I'll add some more of the other parts of the building later.

We have also attended the Institute class which is held on Wednesday nights.  The teacher gave a great lesson which was enjoyed by the fairly large group of young adults (25 aprox.)  We had refreshments and a chat session after the lesson and really enjoyed talking to the young people. 

We've also had one Pathway class.  The four students attending this program are really sharp and it was fun to be with them.  They are required to speak English while attending class so it was nice to know a little more about what was going on.  All of the other lessons (Institute, Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Priesthood and Relief Society) were all in Albanian.  I hope that at some point in this mission I will be able to understand a little more. 

Other than the language, the church, teaching, interaction, fellowshipping, and spirit is pretty much the same.  People have testimonies of the Gospel and express them, they know and love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they enjoy being together as they worship.

Sunday was a good day. Oh, if I could just remember names and faces a little better.....  Right now were on kind of an overload for memorizing things.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a blessing to all the world around.  The spirit is the same here as it is in our home ward.  Good people, good friends, all trying the best they can to live a good life.