SHE’S REALLY REALLY REALLY OLD….

We went with our young missionaries to visit a woman in our congregation/branch.  We asked them about her and they said, “well, she’s just a really, really, really old white-haired lady.”  Turns out she’s exactly 4 days older than me (Michelle)!  (Just who are you calling old??!)

Notwithstanding how “old” she was, we had a wonderful visit and she is a beautiful woman. She is someone who just radiates light and goodness (and trust me, she did not look old–guess it was the white hair?  I’ll be keeping that hair dye handy…..)  We love visiting with members of the church here, they are so kind and welcoming, even though we have a hard time communicating. Our Albanian has improved just a little, and not very many people speak English–thank goodness for the young missionaries who are up to speed on the language and can translate!

We also got to visit with the parents of Kyle and Carolina's friend Fabi (our friend too!). Fabi lives in California, but her parents live in Vlore, which is very near to us. It was so wonderful to meet them and their friend Basta, who happened to be visiting from the U.S. So small world, Basta is the mother of the woman Carolina was an au pair for and Fabi was too. The sister missionaries were kind enough to come with us to help translate and Fabi's mom made all of us the most delicious meal! They are the nicest people, we hope to see them again!

We’ve been crazy busy!  Our primary mission responsibility when we were called to serve in Albania was to be Church Education Specialists–training teachers and overseeing the institute and seminary programs in the mission. Before we left, we were also assigned to be Service Missionary Advisors for the Mission (service missionaries are young adults ages 18-27 who serve a home-based mission with the focus primarily on service).  When we got here, Cliff was also asked to be the Fier Branch President, and Michelle 1st counselor in the branch Young Women’s Presidency and Temple Preparation Teacher. Any of these callings take a lot of time, so with all of them together, we are on the run!

But it’s a fun run!  The Eastern European Area Service Missionary Coordinators came from Brussels a few weeks ago and we had the opportunity to travel with them to Kosovo, North Macedonia and Pogradec (a town in Albania) to meet the leaders and members in those areas. (The scenery was breathtaking, it’s a beautiful drive through these places!)  Service missions are such amazing opportunities, and give anyone with any challenges whether physical or emotional the chance to serve a mission.  This allows them to bless others, in addition to blessing their own lives and that of their families.  Elder James Evanson gave a great talk in General Conference about service missionaries, we encourage you to listen to it!  Here’s the link:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/10/42evanson?lang=eng

As part of our running around the whole mission, It’s been awesome doing things like hiking up and down cobbled streets in various towns (and I mean UP and DOWN and all over!), exploring the remains of a medieval fortress, and an ancient Greek city, walking along an incredibly beautiful lake, driving through teeny tiny alleyways, sitting in outdoor plazas eating some really good food (we’ve become obsessed with Greek salad and eat it practically every day) visiting places like Pristina, Kosovo where there is a statue of Bill Clinton, a George Bush plaza, a bust of Madeleine Albright and where Americans are loved! (If you know recent Kosovo history, you'll understand why).  The beauty of the landscape we’ve seen is incredible, so worth seeing.  Earlier this month, we went to a seminar in Northern Albania near the Macedonia border…the views rivaled Yosemite!  However, we’re not going to lie, Albania is not for the casual, unseasoned tourist. The infrastructure is not quite there yet for an easy travel experience. Public transportation is limited to buses, our electricity goes off periodically (at least a couple times a week) and even our water shuts off unexpectedly (twice while I was in the shower!) We were talking about this with an Albanian friend here, he just laughed and said welcome to Albania! 

We had the opportunity to participate in a service project of packing up “boxes of joy” for new, needy mothers.  These boxes contained baby supplies and some personal hygiene items for these new mothers.  The church provided the funds to purchase the supplies and partnered with the Boxes of Joy organization here to distribute them to various hospitals. (The sister missionaries packed 100 of these boxes!) The woman who heads that organization is not a member of the church, but has worked hard to create this foundation which supports so many women in Albania. There are so many good people in the world who do so much good!  We were able to take 17 of these boxes to the maternity hospital here in Fier and deliver them to a very grateful hospital staff. The doctors asked us to actually hand out a few to some patients who had just had their babies.  The first woman we approached told us she spoke English (YAY!) and when she saw my missionary badge, asked “are you from the church of Mormon?”  (that would be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but close enough!)  I said yes, and she told us that she had attended church when she was young with her mom in Tirana!  She was surprised when I told her the Church was also here in Fier. We didn’t get a chance to really talk because the nurse wanted me to see another patient, but we did leave a little card with a QR code giving the address of the Fier Branch and meeting times.  Hopefully we will meet again! Was that meeting a coincidence?  I think not!  We truly believe there are no such things as coincidences, things happen for a reason. 

(Just as a side note, the hospitals here lack so much, particularly medical equipment which the church has been helping provide.  We can assure you that your humanitarian fund contributions are literally saving lives, not just here, but all around the world! I love that the church absorbs all the overhead costs so that all donations go directly to humanitarian relief!) 

In early September, we had a baptism of a wonderful lady named Claurida.  It was interesting, she was helping out her neighbor who is a member of the church and who introduced her to the missionaries.  Claurida was immediately interested in learning more because her son had just survived a serious motorcycle accident and she knew that God had intervened on his behalf. She is now the 2nd counselor in the Young Women’s presidency and is such a blessing to our branch (congregation)!  

We also went on a service project to an olive orchard and picked olives!  It was actually fun, except for getting to where the trees are–all the orchards are on steep hillsides and again, you have to hike UP, and UP and UP to get to them.  Not so fun when it’s a little muddy, but what an amazing view from that orchard!!  We could have sat and stared out over the valley all day.  

Our institute work is going well, we’ve been able to do some teacher training and establish another in-person class in Vlore and are looking to create one in Elbasan, as well as Berat–in time! Towns are very spread out and transportation is a real problem here–very few people in church own cars. When we got here, there was only one institute class in Tirana and an online class for the rest of the country, so we feel we are making some progress!  We are working on seminary–currently it’s only an online class for the whole country and there are lots of challenges but we are working through them.  These programs of Institute for the young adults and Seminary for the youth are so important in strengthening the rising generation to withstand all the turmoil and trials in the world today. We really see that and have experienced it for ourselves in our own lives. (*for those unfamiliar with what these classes are, explanation provided below).   

Last weekend, we traveled to Pisa, Italy for some more CES training.  Our 2 Tirana institute teachers (a married couple) and our seminary teacher went as well. It was a great opportunity to get to know them better (they are awesome!!) and we all received some good training in more effective teaching. We came on Friday evening and left Sunday night.  The training was only for part of the day on Saturday so our CES director (who lives in Italy) took us for some sightseeing in Florence and also Pisa. That, of course, included awesome food and Gelato!  We attended church in a small ward in Livorno, where our CES director, who is also the Stake president of Florence and pretty much all of Tuscany, was releasing and calling a new Bishop (the congregation's leader).  It was a sweet experience to see the bishop who had served 5 and a half years, so emotional as he was released.  Clearly he loved his calling to minister to the people of that ward. It seems whenever you serve others, you can’t help but develop a real love for them which in turn, blesses your life.  Of course, just getting released from a calling doesn’t take away those opportunities–we can always continue serving and loving others, as we try more closely to follow the Savior's example.  We'll be going back to Italy in November for a temple trip with the youth and young single adults of the Stake–this time to Rome.  We’ve been to Italy before, but it’s always an awe-inspiring place to go!   We'll also go to Frankfurt, Germany next month for more service missionary training (and get to go to a temple session there–something we’ve really missed!).

We are not immune to U.S. and world news; some terrible, very sad things have happened!  But being here looking from a different perspective does immunize us from the anxiety and public discord that is so prevalent in the U.S.  Our focus on serving others, helping them know that we have a loving Heavenly Father, that we are all brothers and sisters and need to treat each other accordingly, keeps us grounded and hopeful.  I wish every governmental leader–and citizen! could read President Russell M. Nelson’s 101st birthday article in the Time Magazine on being peacemakers, what a difference it would make!   

 (here’s the link…it's not long, make sure you scroll to the end, it’s worth the read:)

https://time.com/7315003/russell-nelson-dignity-respect/

The hot summer weather left us suddenly and jumped to winter, but Fall has made its way back and it’s beautiful. Walking most of the time has become normal, and when we do take the car, aggressive-anything-goes driving has become second nature (at least for Cliff) as well!  Still so much to learn and experience here in Albania, it’s an adventure and we are certainly learning a lot, and meeting some awesome people.  To any senior couple who can, consider a serving a mission!  You won’t regret it! 

*What is Seminary and Institute?

 Institute is a gathering opportunity for young adults ages 18-35.  Generally they have a weekly scripture study class, followed by a meal together and then socialize with games and other activities. They also plan other activities and service projects that help them feel needed and supported.

Seminary is a scripture study class for high school students; in the U.S. it's generally held before school Mon-thurs.  In some places, students are given release time during the school day to attend. Cliff and I both attended early morning (before school) classes in high school and can honestly say it made all the difference to start our day that way!

Fun Visit with Fabi's parents, Nora and Asqeri

Claurida's baptism - she's absolutely awesome!

The Vlore Ward (congregation) joined us for Claurida's baptism

Delivering packages from "Boxes of Joy" foundation to a very grateful staff and patients

Olive picking near Berat...Sister missionary was excited to climb the tree, although most olives were within reach. Beautiful view of the valley below. Cliff and Elder Wilson hauled down one of the crates of olives we picked--olives are small so that one crate has a lot of olives! Random pool table out in the orchard...I guess work then play?

On our trip to Macedonia, we visited Orhid, where archeologists have been excavating and have found layers of Christian basilicas and mosques built over older Roman structures. Interestingly, they found a baptismal font, which showed that there was also baptism by immersion back in the day! We also hiked the castle in Berat..check out the ATM in the middle of it! Capitalism is alive and well at the castle! Then near us in Fier is Apollonia, which was a Greek settlement founded in 6th Century BC! Lots of interesting historical stuff here!

The beauty of Albania....and we haven't even hit the Coast yet!