2012 November 26th email

Hey what's up?  Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Day!  I did!

So, we first had mission conference in the morning, pretty much where President Ford talked about the importance of teaching, and like two weeks ago, challenged us to 20 lessons a week.  It was really good though, the Ford's are awesome.  I just gotta say, and I know I have already said this, but Brits are hilarious.  The stuff that Elder Boydell jokes about is downright funny.  It's so great, I love them.  I unfortunately could not get any pictures of the talent show because my camera died.  The entire mission was there, so I have met everyone now.  The furthest?  (a missionary traveled for the conference)  I don't know, probably the missionaries in Macedonia or Montenegro,  I don't remember what city is open in Montenegro, but they came down the night before.

Sounds like Thanksgiving was good.  Yes, we had stuffing.  In fact, I eat stuffing almost every week because the Boydells almost always make it for Sunday lunch.  It's funny, because the people that made the food (for Thanksgiving) were the Fords and the senior couples, and I think more than half the couples are either British or Irish (the Fords did a lot of recruiting), but it was really good.

Oh, the turkey bowl, oh how I miss it, as well as 7-11 breakfast, but it's all good.  (Family tradition: play in the turkey bowl on Thanksgiving morning with other young men, fathers and members of the ward followed by a trip to 7-11 for a breakfast of donuts, slurpees and hot dogs.)

(I have a clock at home set to Albanian time)  When you look at the clock and wonder what I'm doing, assuming when its the daytime in Virginia, for the most part I am probably sleeping, otherwise if you look now I am on the email.

(Has the weather started to cool down?)  We're doing good, actually it hasn't gotten cold yet, it's been very disappointing.  I'm wearing shorts right now.  President Ford told us we're in for a very harsh winter, yet it's almost winter and it's just a very cool temperature.  Albanians think it's bitter cold, though, they see us only in suits and they're like, "A s'keni ftohte?" (you're not cold?)  and we're just like, "Jo fare."  And then they're like "marshala"  (oh my gosh).  That's actually turkish, they stole that phrase.

Ok, dad:

1) Well, the zone leaders (the other companionship in Elbasan) are in Elbasan have a car, so we went to Tirana with them.  No, the senior couple's car only has 6. (Not clear, will ask next week)  I have seen train tracks, but have not seen a train yet.

2)  Christmas isn't celebrated too much, but New Year's Eve is gonna be a party.  I have been told it's insane.  We're already told to not go out that day, so we'll chill at the zone leaders house, and then this member's house is on the top of a building, so we're gonna go there and sit at the top of the building and watch the fireworks go off. 

3)  Yeah, Sister Ford told us there will be more and more missionaries coming in the next couple transfers.   President Ford said he doesn't plan on opening any other cities though while he's president, so he's gonna be beefing up a couple cities in Albania, and hopefully Macedonia and Montenegro will start to pick up soon, and then more missionaries can be put in there (only one city is open in both countries).

Alright, this past week.  As I said, we had mission conference, and then we ate food, and then talent show, and then we had a testimony meeting where all the dying (the ones going home after this transfer) missionaries all were told to get up, and then all the missionaries who have been reassigned to this mission from the Adriatic North to go up.  2 Serbian speakers came down in April, both were set with an Albanian speaker to open up both Macedonia and Montenegro, and now one of them is an Assistant, and in 6 months has become fluent in Albanian, it's ridiculous, but he's cool.  We just got another missionary from Serbia to go up in Macedonia, and he's really cool too, he's got about 10 months left.  We get our first Serbian speaker called to this mission in January, and I'm assuming he'll go straight to Montenegro, since that's the only country that's almost completely Serbian speaking (Macedonia is about 50-50).  And then, right after that, we went on exchanges with the zone leaders the next day.  I was with Elder Lewis, and Elder Knight was with Elder Kay.  Elder Lewis has about 4 months left.  It was fun though, a good experience.  And yeah, this week, again, we're gonna try to get 20 lessons done, so that'll be good, but nothing out of the ordinary happening. 

Well, that's about it.  Enjoy this week, and enjoy all the Christmas stuff that's gonna happen.

Ju dua,

Elder Palmer