Hoodlums and Hikes

This week I had a special experience on Wednesday. It was quite disturbing at the time but now it makes me rejoice in my Savior and my God! Here goes:

We just got off the bus and rounded the corner of the metro station Attiki and were walking along the back road of the station. We were on our way to an appointment with an investigator. As we walked down the road we crossed the road to the far side from the metro in anticipation of turning at the end of the road. As we walked on this side of the road we approached three young men (about 20) and the tallest of them spoke to us in English asking us if we spoke English. Elder Uhlig said "Yes" and I answered in Greek saying "Nai" because I could tell that they were Greeks from the accent and looks. They continued speaking to us in Greek and asked who we were and we replied that we were missionaries. I could already tell that this conversation wasn't going anywhere and I tried to slowly continue walking. Then one said in a very accusatory tone that we were JW, adding that he didn't like this denomination. We denied that and tried to continue walking when one grabbed Elder Uhlig and the other me by our bags and the third yelled STOP. Surprised we stopped and as we turned they said that we should stay right there and then the short one came up to us and as they were talking he backhanded Elder Uhlig, and as Elder Uhlig stared at him in surprise he backhanded him again, knocking his glasses down. As Elder Uhlig turned to and bent over to pick up his glasses the man that had been holding him kicked him in the stomach. I was watching this in horror and I turned to those people to say or yell something when the short one that had hit Elder Uhlig slapped me in the face. I stepped back still not quite comprehending what was going on. And then Elder Uhlig gathered enough of his wits about him to yell for help in Greek. As he did this one of the young men kicked me in the leg and I wanted to walk away when they grabbed me and yelled "Stay here" in Greek. Then I heard what I thought was Elder Uhlig say to me "Run". As I heard that I thought that was a very good idea, I'd better do that. So I knocked the hand away of the guy grabbing me and I turned and ran, Elder Uhlig right next to me. We reached some people further down the street. The three men didn't pursue us and turned a corner.

Well, the hand of the Lord in this story is the following. As Elder Uhlig and I spoke later in the day we recounted to each other what we remembered. As I told him about his great idea to run he said to me, that he hadn't yelled that but he'd heard it too and he'd thought it was me. He himself had thought that it was a good idea and was proud of me to have yelled it. Well, I know I didn't say anything. And Elder Uhlig is sure he didn't. But we both agree that we heard someone yell "Run". We've come to the conclusion that it must have been the Spirit of the Lord telling us to run so we would realize what we needed to do. And he had to say it audibly for us to recognize it in the time of distress. I know no other explanation. So this is a grand testimony to me of the Lord's hand in my life. I know that he's looking out for me and that he's taking care of us. We need only be worthy of His Spirit's guidance and we shall be led by the hand and He shall go before us and His angels shall be round about us.

One other miracle this week occurred this Sunday. We've had some great lessons with our investigators from Ghana. And we got them to agree to come to church with us on foot. Church attendance has been a big problem for them because of financial difficulties and also a fear of the police. So, we offered to walk with them to church and we promised that they would have no problems if they walked with us. So on Sunday at 12 we met at their house and after we said a heartfelt prayer pleading for protection we headed out. Oh, it was a long walk. Over an hour through the center of Athens. I think we made motley group of seven traipsing through narrow roads and hurrying across large crossroads. However they made it to church safely. They had a great time there and after the meetings we put on our coats and walked back with them. It was a great experience and a wonderful way to end the transfer. We also had an Iranian family come to church (Father, mother and child.) and we had two of our Greek speaking investigators come to church in the morning. So we had 9 people we'd invited attend church with us this Sunday! It was awesome! I"m excited for this area next transfer. The next missionaries better do a good job xD

Well, now I'm going to move to the office this evening. Bye bye Sepolia. Hello paper work... xD I've been called by the mission president to serve as his assistant. That means I help a lot in planning the things of the mission. I assist in training missionaries. I do many administrative things for President Freestone. The truly great part of this arrangement is that I will soon get to drive a car. xD First time in 1.5 years. I'm excited!

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The Power of the Book of Mormon

This week we had some cool experiences. The first amazing experience was on Tuesday evening. We had a lesson with Ibrahim scheduled after our Training. It was really cool. He is such a great member missionary. As we came in the door we were introduced to a lady from Nigeria who is a friend of Ibrahim's. We got to introduce the BoM to her and as we taught Ibrahim about the workings of the Spirit she was an active, contributing partaker in the lesson. It was great! She agreed to be taught and took the BoM. I'm really happy that Ibrahim has gained such a love of the gospel to share it with his friends. As you might remember Ahmed is a friend of Ibrahim's too and he referred him to us. Great missionary.

Me and Elder and Sister Coleman, the best CES couple evar!!!!

On Friday we saw the Lord's hand in the life of our investigator. His name is Blessing and he's from Ghana. We met with him and his friends all together and also with Karim there. We taught them about baptism and the Holy Ghost and we also explained the doctrine of enduring to the end. The Spirit was very strong in the lesson and I know that all there felt it. Especially as Karim shared his conversion story. That was a very powerful testimony. However, the highlight and the evidence of the Lord's hand in Blessing's life was when he shared with us his testimony of the BoM without realizing. He spoke how since we'd come and taught him and given him that book he's begun to understand more. He said he had more light in his life and he was starting to understand the teachings of the Savior. He closed by sharing his love of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I was thoroughly astounded. His life has really been touched by the Book of Mormon. This was one of the strongest testimonies I've ever heard of the Book or Mormon!

We also had a wonderful surprise with one of our investigators we hadn't really been able to teach coming to church in the morning. We hadn't planned on it because he'd told us that he wasn't too well (he's just returned from the hospital after an operation). But Sunday morning he told us that he'd come to church. Then we had to hurry to get there! What we didn't know was that the metro was striking. So we had to quickly change plans and use the buses to get to church. I was praying that we'd make it in time. The Lord answered my prayers readily. Just as we turned to corner to a connecting bus stop in Omonia the next bus was pulling up and we were able to hop on and we got to church with ten minutes to spare. What a miracle!

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Exchange and a Phone Call

The past week has been a curious one. It was completely different to what we had hoped or expected. We had only one lesson with an investigator and that was very disappointing. Without fail all of our investigators couldn't or wouldn't meet with us for one reason or another. However, we were blessed in other ways and I hope that we'll have investigator lessons again next week. We did find success in giving out Books of Mormon and that was a comfort.

We had some cool things going on. We had an exchange on Wednesday and Thursday. I went to work with Elder Neville (France) in his area while his companion Elder Bernskov (Denmark) worked with Elder Uhlig in ours. The funny thing about Elder Neville and his investigators is that they are actually all living in my area. He's the only French speaking guy and so he gets to teach all the French speaking Africans and they all live in my area of Athens. So we actually ended up spending quite a bit of our exchange in my area. xD It was a fun experience to teach in French with Elder Neville. I realized that I understand a lot of it. I almost always knew what the investigators were talking about but when I tried to say something in French only Greek would come out. So I would listen to them carefully and then speak in English and Elder Neville would translate for me xD. It was probably a very funny sight to behold.

We had an instance of the Lord's hand in our lives this last Friday and Saturday. I was inspired during our weekly planning on Friday to call Steven, a less active member who had only about two months ago told us that he didn't want any contact with the church or anything (he didn't even tell us his new address). Well, he answered the phone on Friday and he miraculously agreed to meet with us on Saturday. We came to the appointed place at the appointed time with some doubt in our minds concerning his actual appearance at the place. Lord knows what He's doing. Steven came and led us to his home and we had a great discussion with him. We learned why he didn't come to church and that he still has a testimony and we also learned that why he agreed to meet with us. He felt his heart softened because of us being so diligent in trying to meet him and communicate with him (Sister Coleman sends him a text for each activity we have). He's agreed to meet us again and we'll start working with him and helping him overcome his difficulties to come back to full activity.

I'm grateful that I was ready to listen to such a prompting and to do what the spirit tells me. I'm glad that the Lord takes such a personal concern into the matters of His children and their welfare.

We had another cool miracle this Sunday. We were on our way to church in the morning (to the Greek-speaking branch) because one of our investigators said that he'd come. As we were in the metro an other investigator called us and asked when church started. We told him. He then showed up, a little late, for sacrament meeting and stayed all hours for all the classes. It was pretty cool. I'm glad that the Lord gave us this miracle to uplift us and to help our investigator feel His love. It turned out to be a great Sunday and both branches had great services. Yes, we went to church twice yesterday. And no, it isn't as boring as it sounds.xD

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Of Trips, Books and Cups

Well, a new year has begun. I hope everyone survived. I know I barely didn't. The excitement of just sleeping through new year's eve was hardly bearable. On Tuesday, New Year, we went on a Zone trip to Delphi. Wow, that was a great trip. It only took us 3 hours to drive there and then when we got there we had great surprise waiting for us. The museum and the ruins were close for the holiday!

We even saw snow, sadly we didn't get close enough to touch it.

The hand of the Lord was in all our lives on Tuesday during our zone trip. I'm sure of it! When we got there and the museum AND the ruins were closed for the holiday it could have been a major day-breaker for all of us. But I'm astonished and happy at how we reacted to the bad news. I don't think there was one of us that started to complain and get upset as far as I could tell. We just took it in stride and decided to have a good day anyway. I know how that could have ruined any other group's outing. I'm so glad for the Lord's influence in all our lives and His guiding hand to help us deal with such disappointments and still find joy in each other's company and the simple pleasures of seeing the view and the sea. It was a grand trip.

For, we decided to go look at the little village close by and then we went down to the sea we could see twinkling in the distance. We stopped a few times on the way to enjoy the view and it was truly magnificent.

It was a dangerous shot but worth the pic...

On Thursday, being back to business as usual we met with one of our contacts. That was a really impressive meeting. We'd met him the day after Christmas last week and we'd given him a Book of Mormon then. Now as we sat down with him in his house, which incidentally is right next to the house of one of our investigators, we learned that he's read the whole Book of Mormon already. He devoured it... We spoke of what he learned and understood. He had good understanding and he shared with us how he would like to give this book to his friends. He'd felt that it was good. He told us that his priest had told him to throw it away but he then said, "why, it is good. I teaches exactly what the Bible does". He also came to church on Sunday despite some difficulties with health. I'm very impressed with him and I feel that the Lord has surely worked in his life.

We also had a great lesson with our six Ghanaian friends. They've been having trouble understanding what we mean when we say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on earth. We gave it a good deal of thought and even asked in district meeting and we came up with a way of explaining it to them. We set up some cups on top of each other forming a pyramid. On each of the cups we had something written that is need in the true church of Jesus Christ. Then we had matching scriptures to the cups. So we read the scriptures with them and explained them and set up each layer of cups until we had the pyramid. As the bottom layer we had Apostles and Prophets (as in Ephesians 2:19-20). So we asked one of them to pull out an apostle. He hesitated, "i don't want to break it"... we insisted and he did. As they saw the cups all fall to the ground I could see the light turning on in their minds. It was truly remarkable. They understood it then and we were able to help them how this same organization was re-built in the restoration through Joseph Smith. The Spirit was there, testifying to all of us present that this simple demonstration was representing the truth of the Great Apostasy and the Restoration of the Gospel. I'm glad for the Lord's guidance through His Spirit in teaching His gospel and helping people come to know the truth. How marvelous.

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