Pioneers of the Church in Albania

January of 2006, as part of the Fier Albania Branch, missionaries were sent to Vlorë to proselytize.   In February 2006 the first baptisms were realized and they became part of the Fier Branch.  At the time the Fier Branch had over 200 members and Sacrament meetings were at times over 100 in attendance.  Since then there has been an apostasy and today there attendance is not much more than 15 with the former Albanian Branch President totally inactive.  That is enough about Fier which is the city just 40 kilometers North of Vlorë.   

Vlore became a Branch in January 2007 with Elder Tyler Soelburg as the Branch President.   When we arrived in Vlorë Albania and Elder Smith was sustained as the Branch President the Vlorë Branch was only three years old and now it is four years old.  The members of the Vlorë Branch are truly pioneers of Albania. 

The apartment we currently live in is where the first sacrament meetings were held in Vlorë.  Later the three story building just one block north of our apartment is where we rent a building for our Church services and the Young Single Adults Center.