Leonidha Pope, Luçi Xheka, and Sotir Ceqi worked in a factory where members of the Communist Party held talks for all the workers, promoting Communist ideals. One day during a talk about evolution, Leonidha and Luçi stood up and said: “No! Man did not come from monkeys!” The next day both were taken away from their families and sent to work as exiles in distant cities, a punishment Albanians called internim (internment). Luçi was sent to the mountains of Gramsh.

Nonetheless, the brothers in internim gave a remarkable witness to whomever they met. The people of Gramsh would say: “The ungjillorë [evangelizers] are here. They don’t go into the military, but they build our bridges and fix our generators.” These loyal brothers gained a glowing reputation that remained for decades.