Manwaring Mission to Albania

Dear Family and Friends, Daylight savings time has ended and it is now dark by 4:30 pm each day.  The days are cool and the nights are cold.  It has been raining a lot lately also. The only other permanent family, an older couple, in our apartment building left to spend the winter in Greece this week. However, Korçë is known for its Christmas decorations and there is currently a lot of activity around town setting up lights and Christmas displays.  We are excited to see them when they are turned on. View from the village where me met Ylmer We want to tell you about some more people we have met in Korçë.  Last Monday after we finished some of our responsibilities, we decided to take a walk up to a small village about 2 miles away before it got dark.  We had a delightful walk and greeted several people on our way up the hill.  On the way down, an older gentleman that we had greeted on the way up called out to us. He pointed to Kathy’s eyes and said some thing...

 Dear Family and Friends, Rinia Park We would like to tell you some of the experiences we have had with the people here in Korçë. First, there is a family here that have been members for a few years.  The father had cancer and had been in the hospital in Tirana since we arrived. He passed away on Monday, Oct 16. They have two daughters, ages 14 and 19. We had met the 14-year-old at church, but the 19-year-old has been working two jobs in Germany for over a year to help pay for her father’s cancer treatments. The oldest daughter’s best friend, Greta, is our only returned missionary in Korçë, and speaks English very well. She learned English while serving her mission in England.  Greta called us on Monday to tell us about the father’s passing.  It was after 10:00 at night, and she was determined to walk over an hour and a half to get to the family’s home, and it had been raining all day. We decided to go pick her up, as well as the 1st counselor in the branch presidenc...