July 3, 2010

Today was a historic day in Vlore, Albania with the first ever baptism at a lake. Elder and Motra Smith were sent to Albania to work in a outreach center for Young Adults. They have never had a Young Adult program in Vlore so our mission was to set it up before our mission ends in 18 months. We went right to work and started the program with-in the first two weeks of arriving in Vlore. We have between 6 and 15 young adults coming to both Family Home Evening (on Monday) and Institute (on Wednesday). Today we had our first baptism come from this program. We went to the lake Zvȅrhex about a 35 minute furgon ride away from Vlore. I baptized Aurora Demaj because of our association in the single adults program. She is such a sweet young woman and will be a great asset to the Branch and the young single adults. She has already been called to be the secretary for the young single adults.

Those in the 2nd picture from left to right are: Fioreta Demaj (Mother), Motra Larson, Aurora Demaj, Morta Hall, and President Smith. The witnesses are Elder Smith and Elder Thorpe

Mission Conference

We had our Albania Tirana Mission conference on Friday 9 July 2010. We had Elder Gerald Causse of the First Quorum of Seventy teach us about "Desire" and that our mission for the Lord will never end even in the spirit world. This is the full size of the Albanian mission force. This picture was taken in front of the mission home in Tirana. We had a 3 1/2 hour Furgon ride going to Tirana and then again going back to Vlore. The temperature that day was 95 degrees with 79 percent humidity. The furgon has no air-conditioning the seats are hard and naugahyde. There were 12 missionaries and the furgon driver, Llazar.

Gjrokaster

This is inside a huge castle in the city Gjrokaster. This castle sits in the middle of the city and covers the entire hill in the center of the city.