Sunday's Activities

This is our hotel in Tirana.  We love our hotel.  It is in the middle of an Albanian neighborhood with a huge soccer field outside our window and a petro (gas) station out back and apartment buildings all around.  The Albanian people at the hotel are so nice and friendly and accommodating.  Most of them speak English pretty well and we are able to understand one another.

We had some trouble getting into the Monument of the Heroes so we ended up having to climb through a broken fence.  This monument was built by the communists to themselves.  Many communist leaders are buried here.  

This is where Elder Oaks dedicated Albania for the preaching of the gospel twenty one years ago.  My Dad read from his missionary journal the entry from that day.  He loved seeing the spot again and remembering when that happened.

This is a statue honoring Skanderbeg, Albania's national hero.  It is in the center of Tirana called Skanderbeg Square.  He was a hero to the Albanians because he fought off the Ottoman Empire when they were trying to take over Albania.