Finding and Waffles

We had a few great experiences this week. Most of our week we were running here and there preparing for Elder Kearon's visit this week. We had to figure out how to make the projector setup we have in the church work with an iPad, as Elder Kearon wants to show us things from his. By Sunday we finally managed to get that work.

On Tuesday evening President Freestone called us over to his house at 9.15pm  and had an impromptu meeting with us about how missionaries are using their time and how district meeting are going. It was quite interesting, but it went on so long that we got home late... What can we do? xD

The Mission Office, we live in the dungeon below.

A great experience I wish to mention happened on our exchange this week with Elders Kopischke and Smith. Elder Smith is a new missionary who came to Greece about five weeks ago. I was with Elder Smith all of Friday. It was a great opportunity to work with him and I got to feel the joy a trainer feels again as he helps his trainer progress to become a fully powerful missionary. Elder Smith struggles with speaking to strangers on the street or elsewhere, and he finds it especially difficult in Greek (in which he doesn't feel confident). As you can easily imagine that makes missionary work pretty tough. So, we decided to work on that together during our exchange. When we went out I contacted the first person we met as an example and then I turned it over to him. He didn't speak to anyone, at most a "hello" for while. I encouraged him and pointed out people to him that he might contact. As I prodded and encouraged and pushed a little he finally spoke to someone. They stopped and we spoke to them. Then we went through the same process again. Each time it took him less time to gather the courage to speak up. Finally, we got to the point where we switched after each contact and I didn't have to say more than that it was his turn.

In the afternoon we went through the same process with doorknocking. At first he wouldn't do anything. Then I told him he should say hello and introduce ourselves and I would continue. Once he'd done that a few times I just didn't speak up and after glancing at me he continued speaking to the people. It was a wonderful experience for me (and I hope for him) as he grew during the day and gained confidence that he COULD speak to people. Although he wasn't really comfortable by the end of the day speaking to random strangers, he now know that he can do it. I'm so glad for these opportunities to do exchanges and help people grow. It is one of the greatest joys! I'm grateful that the Lord inspired me to know what to do with him and how to help Elder Smith overcome some of this fears. At the beginning of the day I felt very worried about how we would approach this, but as we went out and I put my faith in the Lord things just worked and ideas came to my mind.

We had another wonderful experience on Sunday! In the afternoon after church we finally managed to meet with a less active member we've been trying to see for months. His name is Julian and he's from Albania and has been a member for about 14 years or so. We sat down with him at the chapel and spoke about why he'd left the church and what was missing in his life. He was quick to admit that he felt a big difference and something large missing in his life. He said that he didn't know why he'd left the church. He'd just missed one Sunday and then another and 2 became 3 and so forth. Now, he said it was hard to change the habit of not going to church back. But he's willing to try. He committed himself to praying every day again and he'll come to church, he said, after Easter. I'm just glad we could speak with him. He's a great person and I know he could help the church here if he just gets back in 'the game'.

On Sunday evening we were invited by President Freestone and Sister Freestone for waffle dinner! We should now call it an official tradition to have waffles on Sunday at the Freestone's. This is the second time they invited us. The waffles were super delicious and I couldn't help but eat a lot. In fact I had so much I was afraid I'd pop. It really hurt :) It was a wonderful end to this week.

Training and Exchanges

On Tuesday we had our Specialized Training in Greece. It was just as great as in Cyprus. I'm not sure that our presentation went as well as it went in Cyprus but the missionaries couldn't tell the difference. xD We had pizza for lunch from Domino's. No complaints here. xD

We did a lot of this things this week. We had a small exchange with the Elders from Thessaloniki that came down for training. I had a lesson with Harry (recent convert) together with Elder Rahal who baptized Harry. It was a nice treat for both of them. We spoke of the ten commandments and Harry had some great insights. I'm so grateful to be here and be able to learn from all these different people.

We had a great blessing of the hand of the Lord in our life this week. Elder Neville and I went door-knocking after district meeting on Thursday. As we progressed down the road we didn't find anyone who was interested. But then we just a great opportunity where we were blessed in a way that I'd never experienced before. There was a lady walking down the road with some shopping bags in her hand and I asked her if we could help her. She said no. But even as she said so, she was really impressed that we'd offer and was very grateful for the offer and was then curious to know what we were doing. We explained our purpose and our mission and she was very friendly and interested enough to take a Book of Mormon. This was the first time in my mission where an offer to help someone on the street actually had any positive consequences.

On Friday I had an exchange with the Zone Leader here in Athens, Elder Brandenburg (Holland). It was really cool. We did contacting all day except for a small while during the early afternoon where we had a lesson with a member in our area. This member is 84 and he was baptized when he was 78! He's Greek and amazing. He still works as a Physiotherapist. Teaching him is always amusing as he usually just goes on about how great Greece is and the Greek language. I LOVES Greek. xD

During the contacting part of the day we met some highly interesting people. One person bore testimony to us of the orthodox church. It was really cool to see that he actually believed what he said and had studied it out as well. I was impressed. Another cool experience was later where we met a lady and when she heard that we were Mormons she told us that we practiced polygamy. We told her that we didn't. Then she said: "Yes, you do!" We gently repeated that we don't. She insisted and told us that we should check what we believed. We tried to explain that we knew what we believed but she would have none of it. So we changed tracks and told her of the Book or Mormon and testified of it. She took one. XD It was amazing!!!!

On Sunday morning I had a great experience. We put in our newly burned CD with talks on it. The talk that came first was just perfect for me at this time. It was Elder Bednar teaching about prayer and how we can have more personal and powerful prayers. I felt like he was speaking only to me. I'm so grateful for the Lord teaching me through his Apostle in this way. I really needed to hear that talk at this time and I've already worked to apply it in my praying and I've realized that I'd become lax in them somewhat and I'm now able to move back praying as I should and more importantly to praying so I'm truly communicating with my Heavenly Father.

This Monday we went to Delphi. This time the thing was actually open, not like last time. It was absolutely great! I enjoyed every minute of it.  I hope you enjoy some of the pix below.

All the missionaries in Athens.

This is the temple of Apollo

Its the Roman invasion!

Children and Cyprus

I had a special experience this week with Harry and his children, which I know is from the Lord. He asked us if he could come over with them and have us "teach" them something little about the gospel. Obviously it would have to be very very simple. We agreed and then we had no clue what to do. I don't know how to teach children. xD Well, when he came over we ended up showing them some videos of Joseph Smith for children that we found on lds.org. It was a very simple activity. Maro (the girl) really enjoyed the videos and was fascinated by them.

General Conference

What a week! It was just crazy. We were busy, busy, busy. I'm glad the transfer is over and everyone has settled into their new areas.

I saw the Lord's hand in my life again this General Conference. I had the privilege to participate in the translation of General Conference into Greek. I'm very grateful that I got the opportunity again. It was just amazing. The intensity with which I felt the Lord's help was amazing. I recognized that I couldn't do this alone from the beginning and I prayed for the strength do read the talks in Greek at the tempo and rhythm and with the feeling that was necessary to convey the Spirit and the power of what these Apostles and prophets were saying.

This is the first session on Sunday.

I was able to translate President Eyring's talk, Elder Cook's talk, Elder Andersen's talk and I had the privilege to read the translation for Elder Holland's talk and I knew that I needed to work hard to convey that emotion he conveys when he speaks. I also knew what I wouldn't be able to do it on my own. So, I prayed for a miracle. I prayed that I could feel what Elder Holland felt as he spoke and that I could speak as Elder Holland spoke. It turned out to be an amazing experience. As I read I felt like I was giving the talk and that what I was saying where my words i.e. they came from my feelings. It was a little bit like floating. It was quite amazing. I hope that it will be a great experience for those who'll listen to it in Greek.

This is towards the end of the second session on Sunday.

That Sunday I had another experience with the Lord's hand in my life. In the morning I remembered that it was our turn as missionaries to give the Priesthood class in Halandri branch. I had completely forgotten that and because we were in Ilion and Elder Neville was in Akropoli we hadn't planned on going to church in Halandri. We called Pres. Karamboulas and he said we shouldn't worry about it. But as we were sitting in Sacrament meeting in the Athens 1st branch (Greek) I just had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to be in Halandri. At first I wanted to suppress it and make excuses why it wouldn't be practical. However I spoke to Elder Neville and we decided we would go after Sacrament meeting up to Halandri to teach that class.

So, it was and we went and we taught the class somehow (we didn't really have time to prepare). I could tell that they were very grateful that we'd shown up. I'm also very grateful that I went, because the whole time I knew I'd made the right choice. It turned out to be a little difficult to coordinate our meeting with Elder Barber and Demeyere again (who were doing translation too) and I ended up staying for the whole 3 h in the Athens second branch (English). It was pretty nice though. I was able to meet Canada again. He was in church there. We were both really happy to talk again. It worked out and I wasn't worried at all about not having time to practice reading the talks we'd be translating in the evening because I knew that I'd done what Heavenly Father wanted me to do.

Elder Holland's talk.

Questions and Caves

This was my last week with Elder Jensen. We had a lot of fun stuff to do. Also a lot of less fun stuff. We did a lot of preparation for next week. We're getting 6 new missionaries. It'll be pretty fun. Elder Jensen will train a missionary from Latvia and we have no clue if he knows any English xD. I'm getting a new companion! I'm staying as Assistant and I'm getting Elder Neville (France) to join me here. He's from my MTC group too! I'm really excited for that.

We had a lesson with Harry last Wednesday. It was really awesome. I really saw the hand of the Lord in that lesson. We tried to apply what we'd been preaching to all the missionaries in the trainings we've been doing. We prepared with scriptures and also questions that we wanted to do. We took some extra time when we prepared in the morning. We started out and it just flowed. We kept asking Harry questions and he started to answer and teach himself. We wanted him to realize that he needs to commit himself to come to church consistently. So, rather than just telling him that he need to come to church we spoke of obedience and the blessings of being obedient. Then we spoke of reasons why we are disobedient and we came to the conclusion that a great reason for disobedience is fear of man rather than of God. As we discussed this I could see in his eyes and his demeanor that he was realizing that he himself needed to work on his fear of man.

By the end he committed himself to bring his aunt to church and to be there no matter what. It seems that he had trouble convincing himself to come with her. At the end of the lesson I was sure that he 'got it' and he wanted to to what we never had to tell him to do. I'm so grateful for the Spirit teaching as we left time for Him to teach and to testify. The next part of this story is that Harry showed up this last Sunday in church with his aunt in tow. It was just wonderful that they both came and were there!

And today we had a great morning experience. We went up on a mountain behind our house with Harry and President Freestone. We got to the top and could see all around. We saw down over all of Athens (which is huge) and to the sea on the other side and to Marathon (the place the race is named after). It was a great, great view. A little further down on the mountain there is an awesome cave. It is where the ancient Greeks excavated the marble for the parthenon on the acropolis. It is quite huge and has all sorts of small tunnels. Some of those even go all the way down to Athens. It was used in the 16th century or so by a famous Greek robber. He would hide there and go down into Athens through the tunnels. XD We didn't get to go in the tunnels but the cave was epic!

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