Vlorȅ Branch Clerk

The Vlorë Branch now has a Branch Clerk. Not only has Elder Smith been President of the Branch but he has also been the Branch Clerk, Branch Executive Secretary and too many other positions to list. This is the first time the Vlorë Branch has ever had a Clerk since it was organized. Yes, this means President Smith has been doing all the Clerk responsibilities along with being President, financial and everything else a Ward Clerk does. Brother Bardhyl Rrokaj is now the Branch Clerk. Brother Rrokaj is a retired police officer and is a faithful member of the Branch.

This call went a little different than what would happen in a Ward or Branch in the United States. After interviewing Brother Rrokaj for worthiness President Smith called the District President, President Kashari, “who speaks English” and talked with him about calling him to be the Clerk. President Kashari or any of his Presidency would not be able to come to Vlorë for quite some time to interview and call Brother Rrokaj to be Branch Clerk. President Kashari gave President Smith the authority to call, sustain and set apart our new Branch Clerk.

This is one of the reasons Elder and Motra Smith fill they have been called to Albania and to the Vlorë Branch, which is to help the Albanian saints become more self reliant. This is a huge step in helping the transition of Senior Missionaries and for a new Branch President. Sunday night President Smith and Elder Hixson did some training for Brother Rrokaj on the financial processes. Up to this point the President and Elders have done the Branch finances, Brother Rrokaj will be a great asset to the Branch.

Six Months In

Today we awoke realizing we were into our mission six months, a third complete. It is hard to believe that six months have gone by so quickly. When we look back we have been able to accomplish much but there are so many important tasks still to be accomplished. We do not think we will ever be done even with another year to go but we will do our best.

The Church in Albania

In Albania there is one Mission, one District and 9 Branches in Durrës, Elbasan, Fier, Shkodër, Tiranë and Vlorë. We have a little over 1000 members in all of Albania and our branch of Vlorë has 101 members. There is about 50 percent attendance in most places with some in the 20 percent and ours 70-80 percent.

There is only 4 High Priests in the entire country, the Mission President, President Neil and three Senior Elders, Elder Preston, Elder Wilson and myself President Smith.

The District President, President Kashari is an Elder and the other Branch Presidents other than myself are all Elders. They have had 110 Albanian's serve missions and only 20 have stayed in Albania, the others have moved and are living in other countries most in America.

Our Mission has President and Sister Neil, Six Senior Missionaries and 43 young missionaries. The Senior missionaries are one Humanitarian couple, one Church Education System couple and us who are the Center for Young Adults couple.

The young missionaries are broken up into two Assistants to the President, four Zone Leaders, two office Elders, nine District Leaders.

The Lord's protecting Hand

Eris had received a cell phone call, just before the baptism was going to start, from an investigator who had missed the bus. He had driven in his Makinȅ with a friend to go and pick up the investigator and come back for the baptism. Eris was in a hurry and when he got back he was going too fast and ended up running into a metal electric pole. In the first picture up in the center top behind Morta Hall and Elder Eckel shows the brown pole that Eris hit pretty hard. You can tell how hard he hit because of how the makine looks. We are very grateful that he hit the pole because if he had been two feet to the left would have gone off the edge of the road and down the rocky embankment. There is a good possibility that he, his friend and the investigator could have been killed. This hill is well over 75 feet high and if the makinȅ would have rolled it could have hit many who were down below at the spot where the baptism was to happen. We are so thankful for our Heavenly Fathers constant care.

Baptism Excitement

The Baptism of Rinald Zeqirit has some excitement and some great blessings from the Lord. Motra Smith and I felt like we were baby sitting the nursery again because over 50% of those in attendance were under 14. There was a busy road where we had to park and then walk down to the Sea. The youth were all over the road like there was no way they could be hurt and they were honked at many times as we arrived and when we were returning to Vlorȅ. Then the walk down the 7 stories to the Sea was on old cement stairs with no hand rails. Just try to imagine what it would be like next to the Sea with two foot waves and 20 children running around with very little supervision and supervision who cannot speak their language. I only have a small Makine(Car) so we had them all ride the bus to the end of the route and then Brother Lusho, Eris and I drove them the next 5 miles to the baptism site. Some times I had 8 people in the Makine a one time. Fun!!

Baptism in Sea

.................. Elder Wallentine, Rinald, Motra Hall and Motra Leit.


....................................... View from the road.


................... Rinald's Brother, Sister, Rinald and his Cousin.


............... Elder Wallentine, Rinald and Elder Hixson who taught him.


Saturday 6 November 2010 our Branch had a baptism in the Adriatic Sea where Rinald Zeqirit was baptized. We had 32 people in attendance and about 20 of those were investigators. . Besides the missionaries there was only three adults, Motra Smith, Brother Lusho and I. Elder Wallentine who was is now serving in Durres was given permission to come and do the baptism. Elder Wallentine was instrumental in Rinald’s conversion and Brother Lusho, who is my councilor, was the one who introduced him to the Gospel. On Sunday Brother Lusho confirmed him a member of the church and gave him a wonderful blessing.

A Missionaries Life, Senior

Today we took a drive to find a new way to visit the Fetollari family. When it rains the old way is to hard to get to their house without a boat. We then went with the Sister Missionaries to visit Aurora Demaj who had not been to church for two weeks. We then went with the Elders and Sisters to visit the Grabova family. Vini Grabova is in our YSA group and we are trying to get him and his family active. Sister Grabova had been in the hospital for 4 days trying to figure out if she has a heart problem. The family asked me if I would give her a blessing which I did gladly. I then updated our YSA attendance roles on the computer, did the monthly financial report and the monthly Branch attendance report. I sent some emails to the office Elders and the Mission Medical Doctor in Germany for one of the Branch members having problems. We decided on some callings for the Branch members and put together the Agenda for our Branch Presidency meeting. In the middle of all this I went fishing with Eris Mustafaraj, one of our young single adults, and we caught two octopus and three little fish. It is November so it was a little cold after being in the water for over an hour. All in the day of a missionary, senior missionary that is. Motra Smith took the pictures and set in the sun and read books.

Meetinghouse Locator

When we first arrived in Vlorȅ Albania I checked on the Church web site under “Meetinghouse Locator” to see where our building was located. To my dismay I found that the locator pointed to the main and oldest Muslim Mosque in Vlorȅ. I sent in a message to the church showing the actual location, latitude 40.463714 / longitude 19.490417 of the building and within a week it was updated.

http://new.lds.org/maps/index.jsf?lang=eng#x=find/places&m=microsoft&lat=40.46580344438552&lng=19.490416646003716&z=12&t=3&places=meetinghouses&assign=wards&find={c:%22Vlor%C3%AB%22,s:%22Vlor%C3%AB%22,n:%22Albania%22,lat:40.46580344438553,lng:19.490416646003723,z:12}