Life Goes On

I'd like to share a few pictures with you

Small Donkey - Heavy Load

When we travel through some of the small villages to get to the larger cities we run across some pretty interesting things.  We've often see these small burros pulling a cart heavily loaded with sticks or hay or other farm products.  It's a real paradox to see the farmer on top of the wagon talking on a cell phone or even working on a laptop computer.  I'm not sure what they use the sticks for - either as firewood or fence building.

YSA Dinner and Devotional

                                                                         
This year the stake president wants us to hold a dinner for the YSA group every other month.  At that dinner we serve a small setdown dinner and watch the world wide YSA devotional or other YSA broadcasts.  The young people really enjoy the dinner and being together.  I think they have been very successful.

Fun Afternoon at the Beach

We really enjoyed the Monday beach party a couple of weeks ago.  Some of the YSA and the sister missionaries just decided to bring some snacks and a few sausages and cook them up on the beach.  We played volleyball and had a nice time eating and talking.





Last time we went to Tirana Dixie said that we needed to get a picture of that :"Dr. Suess" building and send it home.  So here it is.  Some interesting architecture right in the heart of downtown Tirana.

Nice looking valentines

The YSA Valentine dance and conference was held in Durras again this year.  We had a couple of workshops, a dinner and a dance.

Which one is the real Albanian?

To celebrate Valentine day Dixie and I went to Logara (a national park) and on our way home we stopped at this restaurant and had some fresh sea bass.  The restaurant was decorated with old Albanian stuff.  This is a picture of one of the corners in the restaurant.  Traditional Albanian costumes but couldn't tell you from what period they are.

New Adventure Every Day

I thought that I should mention a couple of things we have experienced this past week.

The father of a member of our ward, (Gentian) passed away last week.  Since he is a good friend of ours we thought that we should skip the stake training meeting and go to the funeral.  He lived in Berat a town about 2 hours away from here. As we were trying to find out where and when the funeral was beiing held we discovered that the missionaries in Berat were participating in the funeral by dedicating the grave.  Gentian is the only member of the church in his family so we were quite suprised that the Elders in Berat were even aware of the funeral.  But it seems as though Gentian had called on them to administer to his ailing father last week.  We were pleased that the family and especially Gentian could receive some solace from that blessing as their father and grandfather passed away.

To describe in detail all that transpired in the hours leading up to the burial of this man would take a few pages; so let me just touch on a few things and add a couple of pictures.  When we arrived at the home of the family the body was in a small casket in the middle of the small living room.  The room was lined with women sitting in chairs.  The lid was off and all were welcome to view the body.  The men were all setting, smoking and talking in another room in the front of the house.  We brought flowers laid them on the casket and Dixie stayed in the room with the body and the women while I and the elders went to the other (men's) room.  There we talked while the elder's interpreted until it was time to move the casket down the street to the hurst.  6 or 8 men after closing the box lifted it up on their shoulders and walked down the street with other family members following.

The cemetery was quite a ways from the house so most everyone (about 30 people) road in a bus following the herst.  When we arrived at the cemetery the men loaded the casket on to their shoulders (there were no handles on the side of the casket) and walked a 100 yards or so to the grave site.  After a man read something (I believe an obituary of some sort) the missionary dedicated the grave and the box was lowered into the ground.  They also placed along side the casket a couple of bags of clothing or somethings, I couldn't really tell what was in the bags..  Then someone came forward and threw a shovel full of dirt into the hole.  Then everyone else came forward and threw a shovel full of dirt into the hole.  Then it was over and people started leaving. Or so I thought. but just before leaving the cemetery the principle members of the family lined up in a reception line and all the rest shook hands and kissed and hugged these people.  There was a long porcelin watering trough just as you left the cemetery and everyone stopped there, washed their hands and threw water over their shoulders.  We got back into the car and bus and went to a restaurant downtown where everyone was served a huge meal.  More food than I could possibly eat in two meals.  We had a YSA activity back in Vlore so we left the meal early to get home in time for that evening.

The other event started out as an early morning walk with my friend Emiljano.  We went up this fairly steep stair way to a place where people light candles for their deceased loved ones.  There is also a nice sheltered grave of an obviously important person there.  Just behind this "holy place of worship" is a large building and standing out front was this man all dressed in religious clothing.  Emiljano asked if I would like to talk to the man.  Of course I would. So we went up and introduced our selves and he invited us inside.  We set and talked about 10 minutes about what I'm really not sure (Emiljano didn't interpret it all for me) and stood to leave.  I told him that I appreciated the time he took to talk with us and that I would like to give him the gift of a book that was very special to me.  I told him I didn't have it with me but would bring it back the next day.  The next day Dixie and I wrapped up a Book of Mormon, picked up Emiljano and drove up to the building on top of the hill overlooking Vlore.  We spoke with this same man for about an hour as he showed us around the building and talked about how we were both involved in the same great work of teaching people about God and their relationship to Him.  We found him to be very cordial and respectful of what we were doing and we in turn attempted to show our respect for his position as leader of the Muslims here in Vlore.  The visit has caused me to read a little more about the Koran and consider it's message and impact upon the people here in Albania or the world for that matter.   My views have been expanded and my appreciation of the Bible and the Book of Mormon has been reinforced.  There are lots of good and honorable people all over who want to see peace and love overcome evil and hate.  I am grateful to have met one.

Something New Every Day

Pictures associated with the above story.

Enjoy........

New Year's Fireworks

The horn that you here in the background is the Ferry docked in the harbor.

A thousand words

We've talked on the phone and over skype about the"walk abouts" the people here in Vlore do every night and tried to describe how the sidewalks a full of moving people.  But to save a few thousand words of description I thought I would try to drop a video of this activity into this blog. ....  (I think I could have typed a thousand words in the same amount of time it took to upload this video).

I was thinking about adding a video of the New Year's fireworks but it is way too big to fit here.  Sufice it to say they had fireworks all around the bay.  We could see them all from our balcony.  The ones that were set off just below us on the dock were magnificant.  Better than watching them from Adams Field because we are 6 stories high.  What I'm trying to say is they exploded right in front of us.

Temple Trip to Switzerland

Someone asked about our trip to the Swiss temple.

It was an awesome experience.  A really "out of this world" experience.

Simply Beautiful

We left Vlore at about midnight to catch a 3:30am flight to a town and country I've never heard of (Lithuania something).  We spent and hour there and then flew to Zurich.  From Zurich we took a bus to Bern.  There were two groups of stake members ~ about 15 in our group and 6 in a group that took another flight to Vienna and then to Zurich.  They were to meet up with us there but they missed their connecting flight in Vienna and had to spend about 4 hours there waiting for another flight..

Looking out the front door toward the Alps (can't see them)

   When we arrived at the temple dorms the Stake Relief Society President greeted us with a trunk full of groceries and instructions for the week.  Most were quite tired and the temple was closed (Monday) so we had a snack and went to bed.  I think we, Dixie and I did a couple of sessions on Tuesday and decided to take a bus ride to down town Bern.  A most interesting experience...But we are getting used to being in a place where few speak your language.  The temple was beautiful.

One of the two marriage sealings

 The endowment sessions were usually provided in 4 or 5 languages ~ Shqip, German, Swiss, Italian, and English.  It was a joy to be with the Albanian saints in the temple.  We were so impressed with their diligence and desire to be there.  The two wedding\sealings were very impressive.  To view a mother, father, and two children be sealed together for all eternity was a marvelously touching experience for everyone in the room.  A testimony of the reality and effectiveness of that sealing was instilled deeply in my soul.  A recollection of my own covenants with my family was reaffirmed and I am most grateful that God has made such covenants and promises to me and mine.

We had a double wedding celebration

 These things are no lightly given nor are they frivolously received.  They have an eternal nature and are recognized as never ending covenants.  They contain beauty and fulfillment beyond words or descriptions. I can't emphasize enough how deeply I was touched by the "beyond this world" reality of what takes place in the temples of our God.

We were at the temple Tuesday through Friday and flew home Saturday.  We did endowments, sealings, and baptisms.

A truly marvelous and uplifting experience.  We've never done 4 endowment sessions in one day.  They just kept getting more and more revelatory as the day went on.

I can't get this picture to turn upright in this program.  Sorry,  turn your computer screen.

One Activity Right After the Other

Let me just catch up on a few things and add some supporting pictures.

First the flood.   Well, it started raining about 3 in the afternoon Saturdaz and rained hard all night long until about 5:00 in the morning.  When I say hard it's like buckets full.  The city was filled with water.  The streets, many homes, underground parking, businesses lower than 3 feet and all buildings close to any drainage..

Note the high water level on the house 

this is a street just outside our apartment

 The pictures tell the story better than the words.  A few of our church members had their homes flooded and one's home was destroyed. I mean they lost everything.  But here's the good part of the story... Members of the church in Durras and Tirana hearing about the flooding and loss in Vlore started collecting clothing, bedding and other things in an effort to send some relief.  After a week of donations they filled a truck full of stuff and sent it down here.

The Bishop and the Relief Society are still in the process of distributing it to needy families.  It was a tremendous outpouring of generosity and charity for their fellow saints in Vlore.

4 weeks later things are pretty much back to normal.  All the mud has been picked up and hauled off and the flooded businesses are back doing business.

We had a mission conference last week which was most inspirational.  A councilor in the Area Presidency was here and spoke to us for about 2 hours.  We met the new missionary couple replacing the Whites.  They take over the responsibilities of the mission office.

We have had a couple of really good youth activities this past two weeks.  The bowling party was fun and the Halloween party went off quite well.

 Again some pictures will help more than the words.

We continue to teach Institute class in Lushnje and Fier each week along with attending the one here in Vlore.  I am still serving on the High Council and spoke in sacrament meeting last Sunday.

We spent a week with the Europe Area YSA leaders and enjoyed learning from them all the thiings that are going on with

YSA's in all of Europe.  They are a great couple serving in Frankfort Germany and are from Utah..

I won't take time to mention the fantastic game night, the workd wide broadcast for YSA, general conference, or sharing family home evening with ward members.

Lots of love to all our friends and family in Lewiston, etc..........