Well, I apparently am not destined to be in any spot for an extended
period of time. With what clearly looked like Elder Pierce and I would
be staying together in 3rd Branch for 3 more months, the "Ford Factor"
appeared and I got transferred to Lushnjë! (Looshnya) I am still a
Zone Leader, but I am in the South Zone now, which makes up the cities
of Lushnjë, Fier, Elbasan, Durrës, and Vlorë. So, I am in charge of
about half the missions in the city now instead of just 1. And the best
part was is that I am now back with Elder Foster again! He was made a
zone leader back in November at the same time as me, and he's already
been here for 2 months. So, we're really excited to be back together.
It was tough leaving 3rd Branch. I was only there for 2 months, but I
got really close to like 12 members, including 2 families. So, it was
bittersweet. But it's good to be here. By the way, since leaving
Elbasan for Fier last year, this is the 5th time I've packed my bags and
moved cities.
The Lushnjë Branch is a little different, the missionaries here
are also the Branch Clerks, so we do a lot of Branch work. So, because
of that, we are almost always busy, if not having lessons, we're at the
church doing branch work. The Branch President is an American Embassy
worker who actually lives in Tirana and makes the
hour and a half drive every week to church. So, we're pretty much
Branch Presidents during the week.
1) So, I'll explain more fully what happened
yesterday, but since I got transferred, I was in Lushnjë for New Years. Lushnjë is the smallest city in the mission, it's
pretty much a village. Like last year, I filmed the fire works. Fier last year was definitely bigger. I'll
explain more fully New Year's later.
2) My birthday was awesome! Thanks for the
sweater, it's awesome! You actually faked me out pretty good. I told
you last week that I opened my present earlier, like right when I got
it, out of an impulse, and when I saw it was a box of fruit-roll-ups, I
truly believed it was fruit-roll-ups, so I didn't open the box until
after. (I would never send fruit snacks as a birthday present!) So you got me. Good. Anyway, I did make the cake, and it
turned out really well! (Family tradition of chocolate cake with caramel icing.) All of 3rd Branch went to this Restaurant
called Juvenilja (the 'j' makes a 'y' sound in Albanian) and it was
really good. The sisters gave me a bag of beef jerky, because one of
the sister's dad sent her a ton of bags. Sister Homer gave me a bag of
home-made caramel, and Elders Acheson and Wagstaff bought me a cool
balloon that I wish I took a picture of. It was a good day, I had a lot
of fun.
3) Like I said, I'm in Lushnjë, and my move I
believe was the move that surprised everyone in the mission the most.
Like I said, I'm a victim of the "Ford Factor," meaning President Ford
pulled a transfer move that no one saw coming at all.
4) Yes, I know Knaras, but not really well. So, he
was in his last transfer when I came into the field, but I never really
talked to him, just never had the opportunity. He's a cool guy though,
everyone only has good things to say about him.
5) I have words, but not words of wisdom, so I'll just keep my mouth shut. (For Eric and Kristen's wedding.)
So,
yeah, yesterday in the morning we actually had Mission Leadership
Council. We pretty much destroyed every goal we had for the year of
2013 as far as baptisms, church attendance, number of Albanians on
missions, Melchizedek Priesthood Holders, etc. It was a good year here.
So, we just set new goals for 2014. Anyway, then Elder Foster and I
traveled down to Lushnjë and had to be inside by 4, so we unpacked and
everything (by the way, my house here is INCREDIBLE! I will never
complain again), and then we realized our balcony doesn't point toward
the main part of they city, so we had to figure out another area to go
to see them. We wanted to go to the roof, but the door was closed. So,
what we ended up doing is on the top floor, we found windows that
pointed to the main city, but they were small and had bars, and it was a
high reach. So, what we did was we got all 4 of our chairs, took them
to the top floor, and put them in 4 different locations. Then, we
opened those windows so we could stick our hands out and film the
fireworks on our camera so the bars wouldn't be in the way.
We thought since we had Mission Leadership Council it would have been
too late for us to get to Lushnjë in time and we could have spent the
night in Tirana, but no. No worries, though, last year in Fier was
good.
Alright, well, have a great week! Good luck Eric and Kristen! Be safe! Don't do anything stupid!
Ju dua shumë!
Elder Palmer
