1. Orphanage - We have been working with the Humanitarian Missionaries to identify, budget, and provide a new floor for two rooms in the orphanage here in Vlore. Also some clothing and toys for the children. Getting an accurate cost for the project has been a real chore. One would think that you just ask a contractor to come in and give you a bid for the job. It has not worked out to be that simple... 4 weeks now and we still haven't obtained a solid quote.
2. Missionary Housing and transfers - Two of the companionships have needed new places to live so we have been helping them find and close a deal on an apartment. That sounds pretty routine. Throw in the language difference, the currency exchange difference (euros, dollars, and lek) and it gets complicated real fast. We have a couple of people that go with us to interpret the conversation but when they start to throw in their own opinion of how things should be negotiated it gets confusing to say the least.
3. Ward leadership assistance - Ever sat in a meeting and your only clue as to what was going on was the body language, the volume of the exchanges, and the rapidity of the words? It's interesting and a real challenge to offer any kind of germane or meaningful input. So planning for the meeting, reviewing the agenda, preparing something to present, and translating that into Shqip gets a little time consuming.
4. Language learning - I continue to spend a little time each day going over new words, grammar, and communication skills. But the old brain is not very absorbing and it takes a lot of repetition to finally get something to stick.
5. Church meetings - We watched general conference this week end. The lds.org website finally had all the video and audio and downloading features of the translated (Shqip) conference available Friday afternoon. It takes about 40 minutes a session to get them onto my computer. But we were ready Saturday morning to show all the sessions including the women's session. So we set up the TV
in the Seminary room and ran the broadcast 10, 2 and 5 Saturday. Sunday we set up the TV in the Chapel and ran the Sunday Sessions. Saturday the women watched their session in the chapel while the men were in the seminary room watching priesthood.
6. Pathway - We are finishing up the winter semester. We have been preparing lessons and finishing up the registration for the spring semester. Looks like we are loosing one student, which is discouraging but coming up with the registration fee is quite a challenge for these kids. On the average they are earning about $1.50 and hour. So the semester fee of $125.00 is pretty much a whole month's wages. And who's going to buy groceries for the family that month?
7. Missionary work - We've had the opportunity to be with the Elders and Sisters as they have taught the Gospel. It's something very enjoyable to see people think and ponder about their relationship with God. To testify of the truths found in the Book of Mormon and share feelings about why we are here on earth and the personal meaning of the life of Christ is a wonderful experience. We find expressing our feelings about the restoration to be very satisfying, especially when the spirit confirms our words to the investigator.
There are several other activities we are engaged in (feeding the missionaries, outings to the sea, trips to Tirana, invitations to homes, & ward clerk work) that occupy our time but this is sufficient mention for this time.
We appreciate your interest, prayers, and comments.
Elder and Sister Larson
P.S. Thought you might enjoy looking at a picture of this foot bridge leading across the water to an island containing a 4th century church building. Sad thing is that the last 50 feet of the bridge has washed away and we were not able to get to the church.
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