Spring in the Balkans

For a while, we were wondering if winter would ever end.  Finally, however, near the end of March the weather started warming up.  Unfortunately, this first Spring only lasted a couple of weeks and the cold, rainy weather returned. Over the past couple of weeks, however, we have had beautiful weather with sunshine and temperatures in the 70’s.  It still gets a little chilly when the sun goes down, but we like that. We hope this second Spring lasts until summer…

There are a lot of ice cream shops in Korçë, but all but 2 have been closed since we arrived because most people here don’t eat ice cream when it’s cold.  They think it will make them sick.  A couple of weeks ago that all changed.  We’re not sure what the magic day was, but all of a sudden, all of the ice cream shops opened and everywhere we go people are walking around with ice cream cones! Most soft-serve cones cost just 50 cents, and even the nice gelato cones only cost $1.00, so we have indulged several times ourselves 😊

Near the end of March, we were surprised and blessed to be visited by our son, Jason, his wife Nicole, and their children, Emily and Michael.  We received permission to meet them in Rome and spend a day visiting the Vatican and Roman ruins in the city. 

From there we flew back to Albania and were able to visit a beach on the Mediterranean coast, explore a very old castle, visit an Orthodox Christian church, drive on a lot of crazy, windy roads, hiked up a mountainside and stood on top of an old bunker to see the best view of Lake Ohrid, and walked all around Korçë for a day to see where Grandma & Grandpa have been living and working. 

We ate lots of good traditional Albanian food, and loved catching up with their lives! We tried to make the drive more interesting by making some travel books with coloring pages, word scrabbles, word finders, and facts about Albania. We searched for and counted the bunkers from the Communist time, we tried to be first to spot the Minaret towers on the mosques, and Alan and I loved listening to every single word they said! The kids were troopers and walked and walked, and even Nicole walked mile after mile with her newly healed broken leg. Jason carried a heavy backpack with a big smile on his face!

Everyone loved the different food, and the quaint hotel rooms. No one complained about anything; and everyone kept smiling and saying how amazing everything was! It is truly a memory we will cherish forever!  One of the bonuses of having Jason, Nicole and family here in March was the chance to celebrate Alan’s birthday with them! It made it so much more FUN!   We were so blessed to have gorgeous weather! It was supposed to rain, but it was lovely.

One of the hardest things about this mission is the huge time difference. It is so difficult to talk with our family, and we are really missing out on their lives. On weekends when school is out for our grandkids, and our children aren’t working, when we could Zoom—we have baptisms and church meetings; and our Mission Leaders have planned weekly Mission Huddles and meetings on Zoom. We have missed a couple of Mission Huddles, but mostly we stay up until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, or we don’t get to talk with them.  We sure wish Jason’s family could have stayed longer, but we appreciated their sacrifice to come, and the time we were able to spend with them in this beautiful country.

Kathy was very busy teaching piano lessons and had 7 students age 11 to 18, and asked the Branch President to stop announcing free lessons every week. One student stopped taking lessons because his father didn’t like the noise in the house. We tried to help, and Alan found headphones to plug into the keyboard to silence the noise when his father came home, but his dad said he just didn’t want the keyboard around which was pretty sad. An 18-year-old girl was doing really well along with her 11-year-old sister, but they weren’t allowed to come when it was snowing. It is a 45-minute walk to the church each way for them, and we aren’t allowed to drive anyone in our car unless it is a big emergency. They were always at least 30 minutes late, so we told them we would come to their house for piano lessons, but then the oldest sister had to work to help support the family. She is really busy trying to study and finish high school, work, help her mother, and help her grandparents. We were so disappointed, but piano lessons had to stop. Now Kathy teaches 2 men who are not members of the church, and 1 man who is in our Branch. All of them are doing very well! She also teaches 3 younger girls at their grandparent’s home, and the girl who is 10, is very talented and doing well.

We were so surprised to learn that people here still believe in curses— and traditions are a huge part of their lives as well. If someone curses you that you will always be poor, or you won’t be able to have children, the people really believe it! They worry about their curse, and they mourn for their bad luck and sad times that are coming.

When I (Kathy) was walking one of our beautiful young woman home from church, (the one who lost her father last fall) she was saying how she would be glad when it would be a year since her father’s death. She didn’t elaborate so I asked why. She said she really misses cooking and wants to make cookies and bake something. She said the tradition is that no one in their house is allowed to do anything like that until the year mark. I asked if it was against the rules if she helped me make cookies at my house and she said no, she can go somewhere else, but everyone is too busy. I told her we weren’t too busy and I would love to have a friend make cookies with me. This sweet young teenager is all alone for most of the day. Her mother is doing the best she can to provide for them and pay off the medical bills. Her mother works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Her older sister is still in Germany working and going to college. The grandmother used to spend time with her, but is so overcome with her grief of losing her son, she just stays inside her house and never comes out. Hence, our cute YW is very lonely.

On April 1 we moved into a new apartment here in Korçë. The young sister missionaries needed a place to live, so the couple in charge of housing decided to give them our old apartment and we moved into a new apartment just down the street.  We were allowed to choose whether to stay or move. This apartment is in an old building, and doesn’t look very nice on the outside; but the apartment was just renovated so everything inside is new and beautiful.  There are some things we really like about this apartment, like having a double kitchen sink, an oven that actually works, 2 bedrooms instead of one, and a dryer, but some things are a little difficult, like a smaller fridge, no usable balcony, and everything in the kitchen is built for a 6 ft. 6-inch person, but we are adjusting well and Kathy has a new friend—a nice brown step stool.

The family that owns the building is very nice and we have become good friends with them.  In fact, this building used to be their house! A single daughter, age 38, lives on the floor above us and she is very sweet and friendly.  She speaks pretty good English so we are able to communicate easily.  When we first moved in, we noticed that she was walking so slowly and carefully. We asked her if she was okay and she told us she had fallen down the marble stairs! Apparently, the builders who were renovating this house put a lot of boxes of things on the stairs, and our friend didn’t know, so when her arms were filled with her laundry, she tripped and fell and landed on her back. We decided we’d take dinner to her each night. It is no different to cook for 3 instead of 2 and we didn’t even have to walk miles to give it to her- she is only upstairs. She was so appreciative and loved everything we took. She told us, “I prayed that this house would be for God, and now here you are!” She has come downstairs several times to ask questions and we have talked with her a lot about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we gave her a Book of Mormon. We have invited her over to play games once, and she comes with us to watch The Chosen at the church. She is excited to go to church with us. She is charming, sweet and funny, but we were so worried about her because she could hardly move. We tried to get her to go to the Dr. and offered to walk her there and stay with her, but she was too afraid. She told us that once she went to the Doctor to have her tooth checked and they accidentally broke her cheek bone. Each day she would tell us she would go get an x-ray and each day, she would back out. Her only sibling, a sister, was so frustrated with her she told her she wouldn’t speak to her again, until she went to the Dr. We just decided to not bother her about it because she is a grown up. We would take dinner, and just be her friend. We told her we would pray and fast for her. About a week later, she woke up and moved the wrong way, and her back cracked really loud and she felt no more pain! She was totally better and she has been fine ever since.

When we had a very busy week, we decided to take a P-Day on Friday and visit a small town called Voskopojë. In the 18th century, Voskopojë was a major commercial and cultural center, but after being destroyed THREE times by war, fire, and earthquake, it is now a small tourist town.  It is a beautiful town with cobblestone streets nestled in the mountains. Taking a day to visit and hike in this beautiful town, and enjoy the beauty that surrounded us was a boost to our souls and we felt renewed and ready to go back to work!

We want to end with this quote by President Russell M. Nelson.

“No one on this earth loves you as much as Jesus Christ does. No one here understands you better or really knows your sorrows and weaknesses. No one on earth has the power that Jesus Christ has. No one here is more eager for you to become everything you can become. No one pleads with the Father on your behalf as He does.”

We are so grateful for the opportunity to be here to learn, to work, to stretch, to serve, and yes- even to sacrifice. We love you all so very much and we pray diligently for you and your families!

Elder and Sister Manwaring