Brough Family Update 2023

Gëzuar Krishtlindjet!  That is Merry Christmas in Shqip, which is what Albanians call their language.  In fact, Albanians call their country “Shqipëria” and refer to themselves as “Shqiptare”.  We are serving for 18 months as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Albania Tirana Mission!  We were originally called to the Adriatic South Mission which comprised the countries of Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece and Cyprus.  About a month before we left for our mission they notified us that come July the boundaries of our mission would be changing and would only include Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia and would be called the Albania Tirana Mission.  The mission headquarters are in Tirana, which is the capitol of Albania.  We have been assigned to serve in the city of Berat which is pretty much in the middle of the country.    

The beginning of the year we submitted our mission papers but we are going to back up a bit and tell the sequence of events that led to our receiving our mission call.  Ever since we were newlyweds, actually even when we were just dating, we had decided that we wanted to serve a senior mission when we were OLD!  And now, here we are!  We had always planned to request to serve as an office couple in an English speaking foreign country since we didn’t know a second language. In November of 2022 as we were starting to get ready to fill out our mission papers Dalton showed us a Facebook post from someone we knew.  Before the pandemic Nancy had worked with a sister, Penny Hanson, in the Gilbert, Arizona temple.  She and her husband, Drew, were now on a mission.  Dalton was friends with their daughter and she had reposted a post that Drew had written on Facebook.  We read his post and he told all about the wonderful experiences they were having serving in Pogradec, Albania, as Member and Leader Support Missionaries.  And also, that their mission needed more senior couples.  We were so inspired by his message so Nancy messaged Penny to ask her some questions about their mission.  She messaged me right back and about an hour later we were video chatting with them!  We loved their stories and were so inspired and for the first time started to think that maybe we would like to serve somewhere other than in a mission office.  We were surprised, though, that they could serve in a country where they didn’t know the language. They explained that as senior couples you didn’t have to learn the language and that the young elders and sister missionaries would translate and that a lot of the younger people in the country know English. So, this opened up a whole new opportunity for us.  At the end of our conversation, Penny said that she thought that their mission leaders would like to talk with us and asked us if we would want to do that.  We said we would.  So, we hung up and about five minutes later Penny messaged us back and said that they would like to talk to us the next day!

We video chatted with President and Sister Burdon the next day and we really felt like we would love to serve in Albania.  President Burdon told us that they could use us in the mission and if we were interested that when we had our interview with our stake president to tell him to write in his notes that we had talked to him.  And then to let him know that we had submitted our papers and then he would notify the mission department that he had talked to us about coming to Albania. Of course, we would be willing to go wherever we were assigned but we listed this mission as our first choice and were very grateful when we received our call to serve here in Albania!  However, compared to when our sons opened up their mission calls, it was a little anti-climatic since it seemed likely that was where we would be called.  President Burdon had told us that when mission presidents request seniors to serve in their mission that usually 90 percent of the time it works out.   We have since learned of several couples that had gone through a similar process, one that was even asked by a mission president if they would be willing to come to his mission and after submitting their papers requesting his mission got called somewhere completely different.  But, of course they loved their mission anyway.  The Hansons have been instrumental in “recruiting” other senior couples besides us.  Some that came out before us and one that started their mission here a few months ago.  So, if any of you seniors are interested in serving in Albania let us know!  It could happen!   But I do know that Albania is not on too many people’s bucket list!  It wasn’t on ours but we are loving almost every minute!  We know that Elder Renlund’s talk from October conference about the need for more senior missionary couples was inspiring to many and we just want to say that serving either a full time mission away from home or a service mission at home there is such a great need for your testimonies, talents and wisdom!

So, it was the beginning of February when we received our call and our date to report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo was April 10^th.  We had a lot to do!  We made a visit to Washington to spend some time with Zach and family one last time before we left for the mission.  We also got to visit with some friends, the Hakes.  Then it was a mad scramble to finish up three baby quilts, for Russell, Graham and for Caleb and Mollie’s daughter who was due to be born in early May after we would be gone.  I had to get these done quick so we could move all the things in the rest of the house that we wanted packed away while someone lived in our house while we were gone (you’ll see later in this update all about that!).  Thanks to a dear friend, Gina Steinacker, who binded the quilts, Nancy was able to get them all done.  Nancy also needed to see if she could be successful in dehydrating her two sour dough starters and then if they could be rehydrated.  And it was a success!  Don and Nancy continued to go to a temple once a week and there was a new emphasis on this since they knew they would not be able to go very much at all for the duration of their mission.  We were able to squeeze in several tutoring sessions in Shqip from a friend of Zach and Dalton’s (and ours as well), Rob Skousen, who had served in Albania 10 years ago.  Some dear friends, Tiffni Lacek, Rebecca Smith and Gina Steinacker put on a very nice open house at the Lacek’s for us, we got to watch April conference and make one more Dutch Baby (our traditional April Conference brunch) and got set apart on conference Sunday night. Then the next day Jordan and Caleb took us to the airport for us to fly to Utah, one week before we reported to the MTC, so we could spend some time with Don’s sister and family and Dalton and Sarah before we left.  Zach and Tara were in Utah to spend Easter weekend with Tara’s family and they also stopped in at Dalton and Sarah’s on Easter, the night before we left.  And they got to say goodbye to us (again) the next day, April 10^th, across the street from the MTC, along with Dalton and Sarah, who let us use one of their cars for the two weeks we were in the MTC.  The MTC was a great experience!  It had been 40ish years since we were there on our young missions!  A lot had changed but some things were exactly the same.  We got to go to the Saratoga Springs temple open house the day we finished at the MTC, before spending our last weekend at Dalton and Sarah’s and getting to have our last Sunday dinner with Don’s sister, Joye and family, as well as his brother, Mark and family. We also got to stop by and say goodbye to Nancy’s nephew, Matthew and family as well.  We actually missed two events while we were at the MTC.  The day we entered the MTC, all the senior couples and mission leaders in our mission went on a senior retreat to Meteora, Greece!  So, we barely missed that!  AND…before we got our mission call, there was an opening for a week at Ashlin’s parent’s AirBnb cabin in northern Arizona that we had planned for our family to go stay at.  We knew there might be a possibility that we might already be on our mission but it was kind of sad that we barely missed that one too.  It ended up that Zach’s family missed it too, due to kids being sick.  Don had secretly arranged with Casey to have a photographer take family pictures of each family while they were all together which turned out great and was a wonderful surprise for Nancy when she found out about them when we were here!  So, the pictures on the back of our card are from that photo shoot, except for the one of Zach and Tara’s family (since they didn’t make it) and the one of Caleb and Mollie’s family (because Chloe wasn’t born yet).  On Monday, April 24^th, Dalton dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way to Albania!  We arrived in our mission on April 25^th.       

We are Member Leader Support (MLS) missionaries assigned to live in the city of Berat, also known as the City of a Thousand Windows, due to the Ottoman era style architecture of the buildings along the mountainside.  It’s also referred to as the City of “One above another Windows”, City of “One on One Windows” and also the “White City”.  There is also a “famous” castle in Berat (most cities in Albania have some kind of old castle or fortress) and we have a view of a portion of it from our apartment.  It is really more of an old walled city and is considered a “living” castle and is more like a small village with homes, restaurants, museums, churches and hotels inside the walls on the top of a hill.  It’s also a Unesco World Heritage site.  There is just one main road that runs through Berat.  It is parallel to the Osum River which is between two mountains and historically one side of the river was traditionally the Muslim side and the other side was the Christian side.  Most people in Albania will say they are Muslim although a very small percentage are actually practicing.  A much smaller portion claims to be Christian.  After 4Oish years of a Communist reign it has only been a little over 30 years since religion of any kind has even been allowed.  Our Christmas card features a mosque on the right side, the lookout point from the castle on the top left corner, a few of the thousand windows behind us, the city Christmas tree to the left of us and a couple of random Albanians to the right of us!  We don’t love the picture of us but love everything else that is going on in the picture and it totally gives out the vibe of this charming city we have grown to love so much!  We love our sweet branch (a smaller geographically defined congregation) so much.  Our branch president is only 32 years old and single.  Don is his first counselor.  It is not a fully functioning branch but we are doing what we can to help out while we are here.  It can be frustrating at times but we (mostly Nancy) have learned to be a little more patient.  Everyone knows that Don is the patient one in our marriage.   We have grown to love the members so much and already know that it will be so hard to leave them when our time is up here.  Our attendance for sacrament meeting is 25/30 people.  Not as many stay for the second hour.  As far as youth goes we only have one Aaronic priesthood holder and four primary children.  We were able to convince our branch president to let us have a Primary program this fall and he ended up telling us thank you and that he loved us!  That was a major milestone!  Albania is a very poor country (3^rd poorest country in Europe) and they have had so many challenges.  Most of our members struggle financially and it is so sad.  Our hope and prayers for them is that they can continue to grow in the gospel and hold onto the peace in knowing that if they put their faith and trust in the Savior that He will help to comfort them through their challenges.  When we first arrived here there were also four young missionaries, elders, serving in our branch.  They were so welcoming and helped “train” us in so many things and were and are our translators!  After a couple of transfers we now only have two elders.  We love them so much and are so in awe of how they can learn this very difficult language.  It is a testament to us that Heavenly Father is providing a way for His children to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to ALL of His children throughout the world.  As we had mentioned earlier, the Hanson’s had told us that most of the young folks know English (not true!)  and that we would have the young missionaries to translate for us (very true!).  The church provides tutoring for us if we want it and we did and had one session a week for four months and will resume that again in the new year.  There is also a language app the church has that we (mostly Don) have used as well.  Nancy can read it and know basic greetings and is in the process of memorizing her testimony.  Don studies every day with the app and knows a lot more words and phrases than I do.  Nancy can help him sound out words and Don can tell her the names of things or translate simple phrases for her.  It is a hard language and we will never speak it fluently but we try.  We love singing the hymns in Shqip!  We feed the missionaries every Sunday.  Don says that sometimes he feels like we are on a cooking mission!  There has been lots of time spent looking for familiar ingredients or making ingredients or learning how to make substitutes for them.  There have been several baptisms in our branch since we have been here so the work is slowly moving forward.  We were blessed to be able to go to the Rome temple when two members (Arjan and Aragon – father and son) from our branch went for their first time.  Although it was so special to go and be there with them and finally see that beautiful temple, the trip did not come without its challenges.  But it was worth it.  We are looking forward to hopefully being able to go again next year when Edlira (their wife/mother) and Albon (younger son/brother) can go with them to be sealed.  Edlira was baptized in July and she has to be a member for a year to be eligible.   We have one family of four that was sealed in the Rome temple right after it was dedicated.  There are only four other members who are endowed at this time.  We are hoping that some other members of the branch will be able to go next year.  We will be starting temple preparation classes at our branch in the new year.  We also love our neighbor”hood” and have made friends on all our walking routes in the morning.  We just love the Albanian people so much!  

Since arriving in the mission we have also been called to be Assistant Area Auditors (AAA) and this assignment has taken us to Gjakova and Prishtina, Kosovo and Skopje, North Macedonia, as well as Elbasan, Lushnje, Fier, Pogradec and Korcë in Albania.  We also attended an area auditing seminar in Madrid, Spain at the end of October.  Training the members on the use of sacred funds in a poor country can prove to be challenging. We have two more audit cycles before we come home, one in January and one in July. 

We also have an assignment to teach Institute (religion classes for adults) once a week in Vlorë , a city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, every Friday night.  There was previously a senior couple serving in Vlorë but they didn’t replace them with another senior couple so our mission president asked us if we would teach an institute class once a week which we do on Friday nights (it is a three hour round trip drive from Berat).  Then they asked the missionary couple that is over the YSAs (Young Single Adults) who live in Tirana if they would go to Vlorë (about a 4 hour round trip for them) one weekend a month to spend some time with the YSAs in Vlorë doing an activity with them and attending church with them.  So, the other couple and us each have a room and bathroom in the vacant senior apartment we can stay in when we are there.  It has been such a blessing to be with the sweet members in Vlorë.  We have a beautiful young Albanian sister who previously served a mission in Albania (originally was called to the Washington DC Visitor Center but due to the pandemic ended up serving here).  She speaks perfect English and is our translator.  The four elders that serve in Vlorë also help with translation.  One of their friends, Lola, that the elders had been teaching and comes to our Institute class, got baptized recently and we were able to be there for that.  What a special experience that was.  She asked Don to confirm her and when he asked her if she was sure, since he didn’t know Shqip she said, “It’s fine, God will know what you are saying”.  He ended up reading the ordinance in Shqip but gave her the blessing in English.  I jotted it down and then the elders translated it into Shqip to give to her.  Lola is amazing and has such a grasp of the gospel and such a strong testimony.  She will be a such a blessing to the church here in Albania. We have loved this assignment and we enjoy our Saturday morning walks along the Adriatic Sea!

It has been such a blessing to serve here in Albania.  We aren’t going to lie!  There are challenges for sure.  Nancy had a hard time at first which really surprised her because she is not a homesick type of person.  She didn’t even really get homesick on her young mission.   She decided that it is harder to leave kids and grandkids than it was to leave parents and friends when she was young.  She also decided that being homesick is just part of this mission experience!  But it is SO worth it!

What the rest of the herd have been up to:

MESA on PLATA HERD    

Jordan, Casey and the girls are loving their fun neighborhood in Mesa.  Jordan had a career change this year.  He is now a high school Spanish and English teacher at Gilbert Classical Academy where he is also a swim coach and was voted “coach of the year”!  He continues to do real estate as well.  Casey is our favorite hair stylist and believe me, my hair misses her so much!  In my opinion, she should be awarded the “hair stylist of the year”!  She cut and colored my hair shortly before we left for our mission in April and it hasn’t been cut or colored since!  I’m scared to go to anyone else!  She is an amazing mom to their girls.  Lindy (9) is in 4^thgrade.  She loves gymnastics, got 20^th place in the school spelling bee and is a social butterfly.  Jade (7) is in 2^nd grade.  She is great at drawing, loves video games and animals.  She unfortunately broke an arm and while her cast was still on fractured her elbow on the other arm!  Fortunately, when the second incident happened the cast on her other arm was ready to come off.  She seems to have made a full recovery from both now!  Blair (4) is in preschool.  She loves dance and gymnastics and she made the local news due to a freak coyote bite!  She and her sisters had just gone outside to play with the neighborhood kids, she sat down on the grass and a coyote ran over and bit her on the side.  She was the only calm one when the other girls ran inside in hysteria and calmly said, “I was bitten by a dangerous animal”.  Game and Fish was able to hunt down and kill a coyote in the neighborhood although they didn’t know if it was the exact one that bit Blair but they did test it and it did not have rabies.  Meanwhile, the cops came to emergency and retrieved the clothes that she had been wearing and took them to do DNA testing to determine if the coyote they killed was indeed the same one that bit her.  As of the typing of this update the testing has not been completed.  So, fortunately the wound wasn’t too bad (only a couple of stitches) but unfortunately, she had to get a series of rabies shots and getting those was the only time she cried.  They are painful AND expensive.  Other than the shots she has enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame and all the gifts she received!  Several people commented to us and also on Jordan’s posts on social media saying, “She now has something for the game ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ in her future life!  

MAPLE VALLEY HERD  – Zach, Tara and their family are still in beautiful Washington in the darling bedroom community of Seattle, Maple Valley.  Zach had a job change as well.  After working at Amazon for five years he is now working for Chewy (an online retailer of pet food and pet related products) as an associate director of category management.  He manages the Chewy-Royal Canin relationship (pet lovers may be familiar).  Tarais such a fun mom and so creative.  You should see her fun Halloween decorations in their yard every year!  She gets to share her musical talents as their ward choir director. She has been creating some new home systems to keep their busy home running smoothly and shares them on social media.  Her girls trip this year was to Park City, Utah.  Porter (11) is in 6^th grade. He is looking forward to being a deacon next year but has lucked out and been able to go with Zach on all of the campouts and activities already since Zach is over the deacons in their ward.  He loves playing the piano and recently also started playing the cello this year at middle school.  He’s a natural at all the racket sports and also loves basketball.  He has developed an interest in Greek mythology and he, Piper and Beau all went with Zach and Tara to see Hadestown when a traveling broadway cast came to Seattle.  He will be coming to visit us with Zach and Tara next year when they will be taking him on a trip to Greece (the beginning of a family tradition of them taking their kids individually on a trip when they turn 12).  Piper (9) is in 4^th grade.  She keeps herself busy with all things music, arts and crafts and especially loves drawing and making flip books.  She is in her school’s honor choir and played a Cyclops in the school’s production of Hercules.  She is very smart and funny and loves to negotiate – especially at bedtime.  Beau (6) is in 1^st grade.  His imagination is as big as ever.  He’s an emerging reader.  He loves building and creating, especially Legos. He also loves Pokeman cards and was devastated when he ruined a few of his cards when he decided to wash them! Poor guy!  He played his first season of soccer this year, did great and loved it.  Brady (4) is in preschool.  He also played soccer this year but didn’t really love it but made it through the season.  He’s doing great with pre-school and is speaking really well now after having some speech therapy in the past.  He is such a cute, smiley kid.  Carson (2) is also a cute and smiley kid.  He loves books and cars.  Piper always says that he is their “CAR”son!  He is saying a lot of words lately.  He sleeps through the night and takes a solid nap everyday!  

GILBERT on RYAN HERD – Landon, Ashlin and their family are loving the “farm” life!  Their home on their acre lot has allowed them to start up a little hobby farm, complete with chickens and ducks.  Sadly, their beloved cat, Ruben, passed away this year from leukemia.  Ruben was everyone’s favorite cat, especially mine!  I’m so sad that I won’t get to snuggle with him when we get home.  They still have Ruben’s sister, Maple, who is a sweetie!  They recently acquired a “re-homed” one year old golden retriever lab mix named Marshall, our newest grandpuppy! We can’t wait to meet him when we get home!   Landon is still working as a veterinarian at Power Road Animal Hospital BUT is in the process of starting his own animal hospital called Sonoran Sky Pet Hospital and they recently started the renovation process in a space that was a former hair salon in Mesa and they are hoping to be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2024. Ashlin is a such a creative mom and loves crafting with her kids, their friends and cousins.  She is Nancy’s go to for designing invitations and other things for her church callings.  And she is her tech guru.  Her degree in Graphic Information Technology has worked out well for Nancy!  She is loving their hobby farm. Dora (8) is in 3^rdgrade.  She was baptized this year by Landon and thank goodness for technology because we were able to zoom in for that.  It was almost midnight here but that’s okay!  Nancy seriously doesn’t think she could have served a senior mission if she wasn’t able to facetime, video chat or marco polo with the grandkids!  Dora is still doing gymnastics and piano.  She tried volleyball and took some cooking classes.  She loves reading and crafting and learned how to ride a bike without training wheels!  Theo (6) is in 1^st grade.  He is also still doing gymnastics and tried soccer and baseball this year.  He loves riding his bike and wrestling with Marshall.  He also learned how to ride his bike without training wheels!  Charlie (3) is in preschool.  He loves Disney’s “Cars” and loves helping with the outdoor chores.  He is shy and a good friend.  Graham (1) loves animals and eating everything all day.  He was blessed in March by his dad.  He is a busy body and very curious.  He also is a super smiley guy with big dimples!  Landon and Ashlin came to visit us in early November and were able to be here for 8 full days.  We showed them Tirana, then they got to spend some time in Berat and meet our branch, see the castle and other things that are part of our life now.  We took a little road trip with them to Korcë, then on to Meteora and Ioannina, Greece (we got permission from our mission president to leave the mission), then back to Albania to Gjirokaster and other sights around there.  Then back to Berat for a few more days at “home” with us.  We also took a short road trip to a Fier to see some old Roman ruins nearby.  It was so wonderful to share this place and the people we love so much with them.  

SARATOGA SPRINGS HERD – Dalton and Sarah are loving life in Saratoga Springs, UT.  Dalton enjoys his job at Neighbor. He ran the St. George marathon again for the second consecutive year.  He’s ridden over 700 miles on his e-bike, commuting to work and taking Russell on rides all over Saratoga Springs.  Sarah loves her job as a full time mom and working part time at June Rings.  She has made a lot of new mom friends in their neighborhood, plays pickleball and is in a monthly book club.  Russell (1) loves going on bike rides with Dalton and Sarah and walks and playdates with Sarah and friends.  His favorite toy is Tupperware and loves putting his building blocks and other small toys inside the containers.  His first word was “No” and he is chatty and fluent in “Russellese”.  He loves his Little Tykes basketball hoop and slide.  In May, Dalton and Sarah enjoyed a trip to London, to visit where Sarah served her mission.  They have also done several ski trips.  They have also watched a lot of their favorite show, Survivor.  As a family they have gone on lots of road trips to St. George, Island Park and Arizona.      

GILBERT on SERENO HERD – Caleb and Mollie had a change of plans with the house they were building in Queen Creek, which ended up being a blessing to them and us.  They ended up getting back their deposit as well as Caleb being paid for the “sweat equity” he had put into the house. And at the time they decided not to proceed with the house was the same time we were trying to figure out what to do with our house.  SO, they are staying in our house while we are gone.  However, shortly before we left they ended up buying an existing home in Mesa which they are renting out until we get home.  And shortly after we left, baby Chloe Paige (Paige is Mollie’s middle name) joined their family!  She was actually born in our house as Mollie chose to have a water birth this time.  All went well and we are so in love with this darling little granddaughter although we are so sad we are missing out on all her adorable babyhood!  But Mollie is the best at sending us frequent pictures of her.  Nancy’s dear friend, Rebecca Smith, made an “It’s a Girl” banner for her out of the scraps from Chloe’s quilt for Caleb and Mollie to have when she was born.  Caleb is still working for his father in law at Builders Flooring and Design.  He has continued his tradition of making wooden toys for the kids for Christmas. Mollie works part time as a speech pathologist along with being an amazing mom to the boys and baby Chloe.  She is dedicated to exercising daily.  She has become an expert at making sourdough bread using Nancy’s dehydrated starter which she was so happy to know re-hydrated just fine!  She has also taken up embroidery as a hobby.  She is embracing the mini-van mom life.  Bennett (4) is in preschool and loves it.  He loves transformer toys and legos.  Preston (2) learned how to ride his balance bike and loves it.  Chloe (7 months) is just sweet and as Mollie says, a “chill” baby.  As a family they went to Seattle and visited Zach and family and got to go crabbing with them and enjoy a crab boil.  They love camping and have been on several camping trips this year with friends.  They also get to enjoy boating with Mollie’s family.                    

And that’s a wrap for the update for 2023.  It is our “journal” entry for the year so we can document our life for future posterity.  IF anyone suffered through reading this whole thing this is our Christmas message to you!

OUR CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We are grateful for our associations with each of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and wonderful 2024! 

Email:  brough7@q.com – email us if you would like a monthly update on our mission from Don

Instagram:  @herdofbroughalo (our regular Instagram)

                  @herdadriatic  (where we post about our mission)