Time Marches On

Another month has flown by. June brought warm weather, sunshine, cherries, and watermelons.  Another change that has happened with the warm weather is that people go out walking almost every evening.  The parks here are well used. Recently we went for a walk in the park on a Tuesday evening and we were amazed at how many people were out.  They even block off the street in front of the park because there are so many people!  It was not a holiday or even a weekend – just a cool evening after a hot day. We love walking in the evenings and just wish we could communicate better with everyone we meet.

Behind the hotel in Bajram Curri

There was one evening, however, when hardly anyone was out walking.  It seemed very strange.  There is a path in the park that goes up by a forested area. It is not lit very well, but there are usually so many people walking there that we don’t feel the least bit in danger.  This night, however, the park was almost empty and we felt unsettled, so we didn’t take that path. In Korçë there are a lot of places called Bar Cafes that just serve drinks along with chips and snacks. While they do serve alcohol, many people seem to have coffee or soft drinks—but that depends on the time of day.  As we walked around town, we realized that all of the Bar Cafes were full.  They all had TV’s on and were watching Albania play in a soccer game.  Albanians take their soccer seriously!

Coffee shop in the park

About 6 weeks ago we noticed some small, round, green fruit showing up at the produce stands.  We weren’t sure what it was, but a friend told us that they are plums – green plums!  They are not a green variety of plums, but just plums that aren’t ripe yet. People here love to eat green plums!  As the summer has progressed, we have noticed that they are getting bigger, but they are still green. Lately we have starting seeing some ripe purple ones also. 

Green plums for sale!

We have the opportunity to travel to Pogradec fairly often. Pogradec is a town about 45 minutes north of Korçë on the shore of Lake Ohrid. We attend sacrament meeting there once a month and go there whenever they have a baptism, which has happened quite frequently lately.  One sweet sister in Pogradec that was baptized a few months ago loves to knit, and once when we visited Pogradec, she presented Kathy with a gift of a beautiful sweater. A few weeks later, she also gave Alan a sweater.  This sister doesn’t have much, but like most Albanians, she loves to share what she does have. 

Summer Roses

We may have mentioned that we have several youth in our ward, and only one has a parent that is a member of the church. We are so impressed with all of our youth and their faithfulness. The youth have an activity each Saturday where they have a short lesson followed by some games. Often the youth leader is in charge of the lesson, but one Saturday, a young man was assigned to give the lesson and young woman was assigned to lead the games.  The young man did an amazing job with his lesson!  He was well prepared and involved everyone in the discussion. The young woman did a great job with the games also. We feel a lot of hope for the church in Albania when we see the youth.  Occasionally we are also asked to help with lessons and activities. We always have an object lesson and then try to focus the activities and games with that object or theme in mind.

Each week we have a branch activity where we show an episode of “The Chosen” for branch members and friends.  They have to watch it in English with Albanian subtitles, but those that attend really seem to enjoy it.  One member in particular really loves it.  He is 72 years old and was just baptized a few months ago and lives in a village about 15 minutes away by car.  There are mini-busses that go to and from his village during the day, but they stop running at 4:00 pm.  The activity is at 5:30, so he rides the bus into town at 4:00 and waits an hour and a half for the activity to start. We were so impressed with him when Nicodemus realized that Jesus was the Messiah.  As Nicodemus raised his hands to Jesus, this sweet man also lifted his hands slightly and had tears running down his face.  When we saw how much he enjoyed watching the episodes, we offered to give him a ride home each week.  Otherwise, he would not be able to come. We just love him!  He comes to church every Sunday, wearing his one white shirt and tie, and blesses the sacrament.

Teaching Primary

We have become very good friends with a family here that has four generations living in one small house. They are not members of the church, but have attended and helped out with several branch activities. Kathy is teaching the 10-year-old granddaughter piano lessons. Several of the family members had birthdays in May, so Kathy invited the family over for dinner to celebrate everyone’s birthdays. It was a bit crowded in our small apartment, but we had a wonderful time with them.

Carnival Parade in Korçë

Kathy had the opportunity to give another talk in church. She wrote it and only asked a few questions for help with the translation. We are getting better with Google translation and recognize many things when they are wrong. **Kathy** I talked about the Holy Ghost, and following the promptings when they come. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so new and young here, that you can choose any subject and no one is bored.  Besides that, we have new members and friends attending. Our cute friend who lives above us was so excited to come for the first time and listen to my talk. She kept a big smile on her face—like she was encouraging me. Everyone was so quiet and listened intently nodding their heads. The people are always so kind.

Saying Good-bye to a Senior Missionary Couple

A few weeks ago, the missionaries were assigned to clean the church. Our church consists of three floors.  The chapel is on the top floor, classrooms and the branch president’s office is on the middle floor, and activity rooms and a kitchen are on the ground floor. We had a wonderful time cleaning the building, along with the Elders, the Sisters, and the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency. While we were there, we noticed that there were a lot of weeds growing along one side of the church, and they were getting very large. We happened to tell the sister missionaries that we were going to clean up the weeds and they also wanted to come. The change was dramatic, we filled 5 big black trash bags, but unfortunately, we forgot to take a “before” picture. We did create a lot of attention while we were working. Many people passed by and stopped to talk to us or say thank you. The owner of the building is supposed to keep the area clean, but it probably hadn’t been done for years. 

We don’t use our car a great deal, but it rains enough that we still have to get it washed often. A small car wash near our apartment charges $5.00 to wash our car inside and out – all by hand. We leave our car with them, and in an hour or so, it is finished and looks perfect! They love to wash our car because we always leave them a nice tip. We love them, because they always do a great job, they work hard and fast, and they are so kind.

Family in the park

In May we had the opportunity to visit the northern part of Albania with several of the other senior missionaries in the mission. There were 13 of us in total. The mountains in that part of the country are known as the Albanian Alps. We drove up on Friday afternoon through Kosovo and back down into Albania because the roads were better. The scenery along the way was beautiful! We stayed overnight near a town called Bajram Curri along the bank of the Valbona River with beautiful, clear water. It was still somewhat chilly, but it was incredible!  It was a small hotel, so we pretty much filled up the entire place.  We had a wonderful dinner in the evening, and while we were eating, five other men came in to eat and at some point, they all started singing some traditional Albanian songs. We were told that one of them was a famous singer and the others were his friends. It was so fun that they would just start singing in the restaurant!  We just love the people here!

In the morning, we drove up into the Valbona National Park.  The road ran along the river and at the top, the mountains were simply amazing.  There was also a spring at the top where we could fill our water bottles. We could have stayed in those beautiful mountains for days, but another couple had planned an itinerary so we drove back down and boarded a ferry on Lake Komani, which is a man-made reservoir.  Even though the ferry was quite small, we were amazed at how many cars they were able to load onto it!  For the next two hours or so we sailed south on the lake to the dam where we disembarked. The next hour or so of driving was a real adventure! We’re not sure why, but the road from the dam to the nearest town / highway was by far the worst road we have ever driven on. There were giant pot holes everywhere and the Senior Missionaries struggled to avoid them. We felt like we were off-roading with our tiny Hyundai cars- each filled with two couples. We had the farthest drive of all of the couples, but we made it home safely despite a torrential downpour of rain for the last two hours.

Albanian Alps

One of my piano students decided to get baptized! The missionaries started teaching him the lessons months ago after his English class. But someone in our Branch hurt his feelings the week before his baptism and he didn’t want to do anything with anyone—and even missed his piano lesson, which he had never done before. He told me he still wanted to take lessons, but needed a little time, but he wouldn’t even talk with the Elders for a week. We prayed for a week to know how to help him feel peace, and then I felt impressed to send him a text to tell him how I really viewed him as a person. I told him how impressed I was with him, how I admired his work ethic, his honesty, his loyalty, and we knew he was trustworthy, etc. Then I said, we have the greatest respect for you, and we are honored to be your friend. I had some help from Google Translate and prayed that this time it would work. I was concerned about sending it because it was 10:38 at night, but the prompting was so strong I sent it anyway. Within a minute, he put a heart on the message and started texting me back and forth. The person had questioned his integrity and hurt him deeply, but when he realized that he had friends who would stand by him, and knew he really was honest and that we respected him, his heart was softened. We had not known why he was hurt, but God knew.  I sent him the link to Elder Christofferson’s last General Conference talk. I told him I had listened to it three times that week and encouraged him to listen to it or read it—especially the part where a family was deeply hurt in a church meeting. We texted back and forth until midnight, and he told me he was coming to church the next morning- which he did. We love this young man who is full of light and goodness! He especially loves the hymns and is anxious to start learning to play the easy ones.

Valbona River

We celebrated our 46-year Anniversary in May! It seems like yesterday we were newly married, and then other times it seems like maybe it could be 15 years, but 46!! This mission has been good for our marriage, we are stronger as a couple, and we cherish and enjoy each other more. We also laugh a lot more together. God is so good! 

We will end with an excerpt from Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s talk. The father who was hurt and embarrassed in a church meeting in Hawaii said to his family, “I love you, and I want us to be together forever, as a family. And the only way that can be is for all of us to be good members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and be sealed in the Temple. This is not the branch president’s church. It is the Church of Jesus Christ. We will not allow any man or any hurt or embarrassment or pride to keep us from being together forever. Next Sunday we will go back to church. We will stay by ourselves until our daughter’s sickness is known, but we will go back.”  

"Our Savior, the Good Shepherd knows and loves us. He knows and loves YOU! He knows when you are lost, and He knows where you are. He knows your grief." Jeffrey R. Holland

We fervently and continually pray for each of you, and for your families!

With love forever,

Elder and Sister Manwaring