Farewell

Remember us? We are the missionaries that haven’t written any updates for quite a while. We will try to catch you up on some of the things that have been happening with us.

At a restaurant near the village of Maliq

As September began, life in Korçë began to change. We started seeing many parents and children out buying school supplies and books for the new year. There were still quite a few tourists in town, but the number of tourists diminished a little and we expect them to reduce drastically when school starts. The weather is absolutely beautiful now.  It is warm, but not hot during the day and cool at night.

Dancing at a festival in the village of Bulgarec

One aspect of Korçë culture has caught us off guard during the past few weeks. Most of the stores are small family-owned shops, so when they decide to go on vacation, they just close the store. We were running low on toner for our printer, so we went to the only shop we had found that has the right toner cartridge. There was a sign on the door that said they were on vacation and would be back in a week.  That was a problem because we had a lot of printing to do for a Primary Program before they would be back.  I texted the owner and he arranged for me to pick up a toner cartridge at another computer shop. The people here are so kind! We also went to buy some whipping cream at the only store we have found it at, and they were closed without even a sign. The shop next door said they would be back “soon”. One morning we decided go get some kernace (spicy sausage roasted over a wood fire) for the last time, but they were on vacation that week. Even our favorite bakery shop closed for a week for vacation.

Klea's Birthday Party

A young woman in our branch has been alone all summer while her mother was working in Germany. On her birthday we decided to take her to her favorite Souvlaki shop for lunch, but we happened to walk by the shop in the morning and saw a sign that said they were on vacation for a week, so we took Klea to eat at her first restaurant instead. Later that evening after our Branch movie night watching “The Chosen”, we did a little surprise birthday party for her. She was so surprised and happy, and said, “this is my very first birthday party!” 

Baking Cookies with Klea

Kathy was called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary two months ago, and she decided that she wanted to do a Primary Program. While that may seem pretty ordinary, keep in mind that most of the time during our stay in Korçë there has been no Primary.  We do have one primary-age member, but neither she nor her mother have come much—not at all in the last 4 months – so Kathy started “recruiting”. The one member girl didn’t want to be in the program. There were 2 granddaughters of the Relief Society President that have come before, but they didn’t want to be in it either. The Sister Missionaries were teaching a woman and her two granddaughters, and we’ve gone with them a few times to help teach lessons, so Kathy asked them if they would participate. They were very excited to join us.  We have a good friend who has three daughters and Kathy asked them if they would participate, and they agreed. A sister in our branch formed an acting group of children and Kathy asked if any of them would like to participate. One family said they might be interested, but they never showed up. Kathy saw a father leaving the church building with a little boy, after he had dropped his other child off for the acting class. She ran after them, to ask if the little boy would like to be in the program.

(**Kathy writing) Of course the father was only speaking Shqip, so I struggled to figure out how to put the sentences together with some words I’d never used before, but it worked and he understood. Then he asked more questions on what I would teach his children.  Since 60% of the people are Muslim, I had already decided I would teach stories from the Old Testament, and have the children recite stories like David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Esther’s courage with the King, Ruth’s loyalty to her mother-in-law and God, etc.

David during singing practice

At the end of our conversation, I saw one of our only two English speakers, and asked for his help with translation. I wanted to make sure that father understood exactly what I would teach. I said that I wanted the children to tell the story and end with, “I can be brave and trust God like Daniel. I can have courage like Esther.”  After I finished, the father looked me straight in the eye and with very limited broken English said, “that is exactly what I want my children to learn.” I was super excited that he would let his children come, but also a teensy exasperated as I thought, “You let me struggle to put all of those sentences together and you could do a little English!”  His little 5-year-old boy, David, was adorable and totally wanted to be in it! We decided to also ask two of our youth to help us out. All of our other youth were working out of town for the summer to help support their families. Desi and Klea were great sports, and agreed to be in our Program.

It was a little tricky because we would have two children come one week, and three different ones the next week, etc.  I was worried and praying for a miracle because we only had 7 weeks when I was put in Primary. We started recruiting and then only had 4 weeks to pull it off! For the most part, people in Albania do not plan ahead. They will announce a big activity 1-2 days ahead. If it is a huge deal like the once-a-year Christmas party, it gets a 2-week notice. No one seemed nervous about the lack of time but me! Everyone said, “You’ve got plenty of time—you have FOUR WEEKS!! I’m thinking, in the USA, these programs are worked on for a YEAR, and the kids already know many of the songs! These children – our beautiful recruited Primary children – were not members, and no one in their families were members, so they didn’t know the songs or the stories, but once they heard the stories, they loved them, and they loved, loved, loved the songs!

With Enea's Family

Most of these children didn’t speak any English so we were at a disadvantage because none of the songs were available to listen to in the Shqip language. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because all of our meetings are only in Shqip, so even if all of the children could speak English, no one would have been able to understand them. Most songs that we wanted were already translated into Shqip, but you only get the English words sung with the App on your phone. None of the parents or grandparents have the LDS App, and they don’t have CD players, or recorders, or anything. Alan and I sang one of the songs in Shqip, recorded it, and sent it to their parents or grandparent’s phones so the kids could listen and learn the song at home.

Our recording of "The Miracle" in Shqip for the Primary kids

We didn’t have everyone together until the week before. Alan and I actually walked to the children’s homes and worked with them privately to teach them the songs and their parts. We also had some mid-week practices to get everything polished up. One of the mothers works a lot, so Alan and I would walk 2 miles to pick up her two children and walk them back to the church and then back home again. We also had another family who needed us to walk their children home, so our two who had the farthest walk, would walk with us to take the other family home, and then they would now walk 3 miles to get back to their apartment. Never once did beautiful Greta age 10, or our sweet little precocious 5-year-old David complain about walking so much. He kept saying how much he loved church as he bounced along beside us. Alan and I walked at least 10 miles on those rehearsal days, and it was great! You might wonder why we did not just drive those children around, but one of our biggest rules is that we are not allowed to drive children anywhere, ever! If there is an emergency, we have to have a parent or grandparent with us, and it has to be a real emergency.

Primary Program - The Miracle

It turned out that David listened to, and watched a lot of YouTube before he was 3 and he could speak excellent English with no accent! Usually children cannot translate, but David did really well switching back and forth between languages. This little 5-year-old was trying to teach his dad and mom and sister how to speak English!

Greta and David with their mother

The two girls who were listening to the discussions with their grandmother ended up not coming Sunday morning even though they were so excited to be in the program, and had attended all of the “dress rehearsals”.  Their fathers, who are brothers, came into town the night before the program, and decided to take their girls to the beach in Pogradec; but we did have 5 children, 2 youth, and 4 missionaries. The children sang 2 Primary songs alone. The missionaries helped sing the other 2 primary songs, including the song “The Miracle” which we had to translate into Albanian with the help of another musical friend of ours. I knew that song was supposed to be sung in our program, I just knew it! But the Shqip words are so difficult and long and the song was written for English words. You can’t just squish words down or add more notes, because you will destroy the meaning, or mess up the timing. It is an extremely difficult process, and Alan didn’t think we had enough time to do it. I was desperate enough to pay someone, but we found out that the only professional person that had done something like that was on a month-long vacation.

Enea, Kathy's piano student

We asked Enea, my piano student who plays the piano for several local bands, to help us. Enea had been in Switzerland for 3 months, but he had just arrived back home the week before. He spent hours with us and we thought it was finished, so we made copies. It seemed to work for us because we can read music and we were used to it, but when we practiced with our missionaries, most of the time we couldn’t make it work with the timing.  We worked on it again for a couple of hours and printed up a bunch of new copies. However, when our friend who is the Branch Young Women President heard it, she said, “There are two parts that don’t make sense. It doesn’t work. Albanians would never say that.” I was so frustrated and discouraged because I had just relearned the timing and different words from the 2nd change, and I thought, “Well apparently some Albanians would say that, because a native Albanian helped us.” I was close to tears, but Alan quietly said, “She graduated in journalism and she has the best grammar.” I swallowed back my tears, and my pride, and asked her to please help us make the song perfect.  We worked on it again—this time with her on those two parts – and then printed out MORE copies for the third and last time! That song is amazing and we acknowledge the tender mercies and power of God! The program went very well and the kids – our sweet and beloved kids – were incredible! Alan played the piano for them and I knelt on the tile floor in front of them so they could focus on me and the words—and not be too afraid. Korçë had never had a Primary program before. They had never even seen a Primary program! We were so proud of them as they looked at the 50 people in the room with big eyes, swallowed hard or took big breaths, smiled at me and started speaking. Not one of them faltered! I tried not to cry as I watched each one step to the microphone alone, like we had practiced and just recite their stories perfectly! The only child who didn’t walk to the microphone alone, or have a really large part was David, and he had memorized the well-known scripture that is spoken right before ‘The Miracle’ song is sung; “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son…” 

Our Primary Program kids

We had several children come that Sunday to watch “The Program” and they all loved it! They came into the Primary room right after Sacrament meeting and wanted to join our Primary. The following week, we had 8 children in Primary, including the 3 that had not participated in the program. The one inactive member, and the 2 granddaughters of the RS President decided they want to be in the program next year! They love to sing the songs and learn the scripture stories. Everyone’s favorite song is ‘The Miracle’ – the newly translated one. They never get tired of singing it! As a side note, Greta and David’s family started having lessons with the Sister Missionaries, and the two girls that the Sister Missionaries were teaching before, now have a baptism date! 😊

The acting group that we mentioned above had their first production shortly before we left. It was held at the church. In addition to their little play, they performed a traditional Albanian dance and sang several primary songs. We were asked to play a piano duet, so we played “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”. Since we only have keyboards here, we each played on a keyboard and it went really well. The kids all did a wonderful job with their acting show, and everyone was able to sample several of Kathy’s delicious dessert treats to boot!

The Elders in Korçë recently moved to a new apartment. We checked the new apartment before they moved in and it was pretty dirty, so we cleaned that apartment for them. Fortunately for us, the new apartment is very small so it didn’t take very long. Unfortunately for them, it is very small. The mission hired a sister in the branch to clean the old apartment, but the Mission President wanted Kathy to personally supervise her. We ended up spending pretty much the entire day cleaning that apartment.  It was old and had been used by the missionaries for many, many years—8 years in fact. It was the first apartment the church contracted when Korçë was opened for missionary work, so it hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned for a long time and it was filthy! Kathy worked so hard, and cleaned so much more than the sister that was getting paid, but we were so happy to provide the opportunity for the woman to get paid so well. Each time this woman would finish a job Kathy had given her, she would give a big sigh and sit down, Kathy would gently take her by the hand saying “Jo, Jo!” (Pronounced “Yo, Yo”) - meaning no, and showed her another job to do. She had never used a vacuum before, so we showed her how to use it, and some other cleaning products and techniques. In the end, Kathy just finished working the last 2 hours while the woman rested. The woman is 11 years younger than Kathy. The woman “worked” 10 hours and was paid $50.00, which is unheard of in Korçë. 

August Mission Conference

In August, we had a senior missionary gathering and a Mission Conference that we had to travel to, so we decided to make trips out of those to see some things we’ve always wanted to see. For the Senior gathering, we went one day early to Tirana and visited two sites related to the communist era of Albania.  One was called “The House of Leaves” and the other was called “Bunk’Art”.  The House of Leaves is the Museum of Secret Surveillance and explains how people were spied on by the secret police during communism. 

In the bunker

Bunk’Art is a former Communist era bunker that has been turned into a museum. The Communist dictator was very paranoid, so he built 750,000 bunkers across the country. Some were very small, and others were large complexes designed to protect the country’s leaders from nuclear attack.  Bunk’Art is one of these large complexes that has been turned into a museum. Seeing these museums made us feel grateful that we have always had the privilege of living in a free society. Incidentally, Kathy made 9 different kinds of desserts for the Mission Conference for everyone to eat during the day.

Berat with the Brough's

After a Mission Conference, we took a short detour to a city called Berat, which is known as the “City of 1,000 Windows”. We visited an old castle, enjoyed the beautiful architecture of the city, and spent some time with our friends, Don and Nancy Brough, who are serving there. We enjoyed our visit there but it was very hot. We were glad to come back to the milder climate in Korçë… 

A typical grave vine arbor

It's almost time for the grapes to be ripe! Many of the homes in Korçë have arbors with grape vines. We have enjoyed watching them grow during the summer, and now many of the grapes are starting to ripen and turn purple. We are a little disappointed that we will be gone before they are fully ripe.

Farewell Dinner in Tirana

It seems like just yesterday when we arrived in Albania, but a year has passed and now it is time for us to leave Albania. When senior missionaries arrive or leave, there is a welcome or farewell lunch or dinner in Tirana.  We have missed almost all of those dinners because we were just too far away, but we worked it out to attend two of them, and now it is our turn! 

We have made so many good friends here in Korçë and will miss them terribly, but we are also anxious to return home to our family and friends in America.

Dinner with the Karafili Family

One family in particular will be difficult to leave.  We met the Karafili family shortly after we arrived in Korçë. We have invited each other to dinner several times, played games, and just enjoyed each other’s company. That dear family has helped us out several times with church activities, including our Christmas Program, a Senior Missionary Conference, translation for a talk in church, and the Primary Program. It is amazing how close we can become to people in just a year with members of the church, and those who are not members. ALL are dear, special friends!!

It was pretty sad to say goodbye to Kathy’s piano students and the young man Alan was teaching to lead music. Those men were in tears when we gave them their good-bye gifts. We absolutely love all three of them!

Walking with Ylmer

We knew we had to try and visit our 84-year-old friend, Ylmer. We didn’t know if he was back from Greece, or if he was even still alive! His gate was locked and his home seemed like it was empty. We walked around his village and asked different people. One person said he was at the church. There is nothing but a graveyard in that village church. We were sick about it and walked back to his house to check one more time, and in the distance, I looked, and there he was walking on the little dirt road toward me! I started to jog toward him smiling through my tears exclaiming, you are here, you are alive! He did not want to stop hugging me. We visited for a little while and then told him we’d come back the next day with the Sister missionaries. We wanted the new missionaries to keep in touch with him, so he has friends, who will love him. He just isn’t ready for the gospel yet. It was hard to say goodbye because I know we will never see him again in this life, and I really love that sweet little old man! We gave him a framed picture of Jesus Christ, which he loved.

Favlina

We also said goodbye to Favlina, the older woman we met when we first arrived, who was sitting on a stool facing the fence. She would always talk and talk to us, and now, when we can finally understand most of what she says and add to the conversation, we are leaving. We will never see her again in this life either. She always smelled my neck and kissed it because she loved my perfume. 

Favlina

She also loves Alan! She was raising her arms to praise God for us. It broke my heart to say goodbye. We tried to think of a gift to give that would mean something to our friends and came up with framed pictures of Jesus Christ to every person in our Branch – member or not – and all of our other friends with hand written messages. That was a big project of love! 

With Greta and Klea

One of our dearest friends that we can hardly bear to leave is Greta. Oh, how we love her and will miss her! Even though we will stay in touch with her, it is not the same. We not only love her, we will worry about her, but we have plans and ideas. We also love the youth in our Branch. We pray for them and will worry about them, especially Klea. We will miss making cookies with her, and her fun, optimistic joy at trying new things with us! Some of our youth cried when they realized we wouldn’t be with them for their Temple trip to Rome in November. There are so many people who ask us if we will come back to see them again, and it breaks our hearts when we face the reality that we might not get back. It is so far and so expensive to travel to Albania, yet we don’t want the relationships and the stories to end, so we are planning to stay in touch with our friends on Messenger and WhatsApp. 

We will always have very fond memories of Albania and Korçë. Everything was not easy there, and some experiences were extremely difficult, but it was such a blessing and a great learning experience to serve in that country. 

With love forever,

Elder and Sister Manwaring