Teaching and Finding

This week was awesome. We had some great experiences. We don't have that many investigators anymore, so we've been focusing mostly on finding and making sure that the people we DO teach are being taught to the best of our ability. We had some amazing teaching experiences which I know were led by our Heavenly Father.

We met with San, from Cameroon, who's been learning for quite some time on and off. She'd been doing fairly well in reading the Book of Mormon and she's been keeping all the commitments we've given her with one exception. She's been struggling to come to church. For some reason she missed quite a few Sundays. So we decided to focus on the Sabbath and the importance of everything that goes on in church. We'd planned to teach about how we learn and stuff in church and how we go to renew covenants. As we taught, however, we somehow started speaking of the Holy Ghost and the covenant of baptism. We spoke of how it is essential to attend church to keep the Holy Ghost in our lives. We were 100% guided by the Spirit in what we taught and she participated and shared how much she wanted that blessing of the Holy Ghost in her life. It was quite special. She committed to come on Sunday and every Sunday after that. I think she really understood that lesson. And she came this Sunday! It was amazing. I know that the hand of the Lord was in that lesson.

We had another wonderful experience in finding. We were doorknocking close to the Christensen's house around noon. We were in one of these very small narrow streets with small little houses. As we progressed a small open garage came into view with a man working on something there next to his (fairly nice) car. For some reason I felt prompted to speak to this man about his car, instead of just approaching him about the gospel. So I spoke about where he got the car from and what he'd fixed and done on the car. He opened up and we suddenly got speaking about why we're here in Cyprus and we were able to speak of his faith in God and how God guides us in this life. He opened up quite a bit and was more that happy to have us come over to visit with him soon. I'm convinced that Heavenly Father inspired me to speak about the car first so as to allow this man to open to our message.

Sunday was wonderful this week. We had a great Sacrament meeting. One of our recent converts, Daniel from Nigeria, blessed the sacrament for the first time in his life and he also shared his testimony with the congregation. President Freestone came to Larnaca for church. He came to Cyprus for interviews with the missionaries during the week. My interview with him was great. We spoke mostly about going home xD...

Anyway, he shared a great message about he Book of Mormon. He shared his testimony and taught us about it's importance in the gathering of Israel. He also shared how reading the Book of Mormon will bless us in our lives. He said "The more we read [the Book of Mormon], the more we will recognize the Spirit"! I know that this is true. He was speaking under the influence of the Spirit when he shared that. May we all follow that admonition and read the Book of Mormon daily and as often as we can. We WILL be blessed.

Sorry about the lack of pix..The upload isn't working today. I'll compensate next week.

Baptism and Kykkos

Archangel Reading

We just had an epic day. We went to Kykkos monastery in the Trodos mountains. It was awesome. It is a working monastery you can go look at and we saw some crazy cool mosaics on the wall and lots of orthodox paintings. The best was in the chapel they had. Sadly we couldn't take any pictures. There was so much gold in that chapel that you could probably buy a nice mansion with it. It was crazy! It was great fun. We went with all the missionaries in Cyprus. After the monastery we met up for lunch at a restaurant nearby. It was a great way to spend our day. I hope to keep up these great activities the rest of my stay here. 

The good samaritan

We had a very good week. We had a baptism! It was a very beautiful baptism. Sister Merlien from the Philippines got baptized. She's married to a Dutch man that lives here and we had the baptism at their house (they have a pool). The setting at Sister Merlien's house was really nice and private. We had about 28 people from the branch and also a fair number of non-members there. We even got some less active members to come out too. It was great. Sister Merlien loved it. Elder Watts was able to baptize her and he did an amazing job. Elder Christensen (senior couple) did a wonderful confirmation on Sunday at church.

I think I saw the hand of the Lord in my life this Sunday. I saw it twice within a very few hours. We had a lesson at the Christensen's house with Mirasol (new investigator) after church. She'd had a small zero lesson with us on Thursday and she'd come to the baptism and church. She's a referral from Sister Janice who is a recent convert herself. As we sat down for the lesson Sister Lucy (who'd been at the Christensen's for lunch) decided to stay in the lesson with us. We didn't complain as Sister Lucy is a great member and a good help in fellowshipping. We wanted to speak about the Godhead and how Heavenly Father loves all his children. As the lesson progressed it developed a bit beyond what we'd expected and Mirasol was very concerned about why we are allowed to have trials even if we believe in God and try to do His will. This is where I saw the Lord's hand in Sister Lucy's presence. She shared a deeply personal account of one of her own trials she had when she was first learning about the gospel in 2001. She shared how she'd felt and how she'd overcome that trial. It was a very moving moment and it touched Mirasol's heart, I believe. I'm sure that was the most important part of the lesson and it was the reason Sister Lucy felt prompted to stay in the lesson with us. I'm grateful that she was ready to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost to help one of Heavenly Father's children.

In the afternoon we had a lesson with a few of the members from the branch together with the Christensen's again :) We spoke with them about personal revelation. This time the Lord inspired Elder Watts to share an experience he'd had with personal revelation to help one of his family members. He asked for inspiration to know what to pray for to help someone in his family and after time the answer came to him. The members had been a little bit lighthearted and distracted before this but when Elder Watts shared this the Spirit came into the room very strongly and everyone was touched. Then some of the sisters shared when they or their friends had felt personal revelation and everyone was edified. The lesson didn't go how we'd planned it but it went how the Lord needed it to go to teach everyone present something. That is how I know it was the Lord's hand in our lives to bring us closer unto us.

The Cyprus Zone

Dying Elders and Larnaca

This week has been crazy. In the office time just goes by too quickly! I can't really believe it. I'm in Larnaca now! The city of my birth xD I'm excited to work here and do my very best! I hope to make a difference here. We had transfers today. I'm now with Elder Watts. He's from Sheffield, England. We're gonna have a great time here in Cyprus.

The Lord always influences our lives.

The hand of the Lord in my life was that I got my hope and wish for transfers! I really wished to come to Larnaca. I've always had a great love for this city. I was very sad to leave Larnaca in my first transfer so much earlier than I'd expected. I'd always hoped to return one day and "finish what I began". Well, I'm glad the Lord saw fit to let me have this wish and now I'll make the best of it. My desire is to serve the Lord (and the people who live here) as well as I possibly can. I'm going to give everything I have. I'll go ALL OUT!

Elder Neville has to stay in the office, I am set free! xD

We had the departing missionaries (Elder Rahal, Nicholls, and Brandenburg) with us the last few days. They came in Thursday evening. When we picked them up we went out for dinner with them and Elder Rahal's mother who came to pick him up. We also invited Tasos and Sypros who are the same that I did translation with for General Conference. IT was a great time. I ordered squid and it was delicious. Then we also got these small fish and we ate them whole. Head and tail and everything! It was actually really yummy but somehow everyone else didn't really want to eat them. I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me two years ago but I really enjoy sea food nowadays. xD

Elder Nicholls, Elder Brandenburg, Elder Rahal

We had a great time with those three Elders. We tried to make the last few days with us as enjoyable as possible. It is sad to see missionaries leave. These are people you've worked with and had a fun with for almost two years and now they leave and you don't know if you'll ever see them again. It is strange. It was also weird to think that I would be the next one to leave after them. I'll be sure to work so as to be ready when the time comes.

On Saturday we had another miracle. Vasilis, a non-member we taught once before, who'd come to church on his own showed up at the mission office for a lesson. That was definitely the Lord's influence in his life. We sat down with him and had a great lesson on the restoration and how the Book of Mormon will bless him. We tried hard to help him discover the truths he needs to know rather than just lecture him. I'm realizing more and more how challenging that really is. It is a lot of work to properly involve your investigator and guide him rather than just throw truth at his face. I'm glad for that training we had and I'm excited to become a better teacher by mastering this technique.

My last time driving as a missionary.

Conference and Exchange

This week went by like lightning. We didn't have time to say "boo" before the week was over. We prepared for the meeting with Elder Kearon (First Quorum of the Seventy) to come visit us on Thursday and Friday. It was quite amazing. Elder Neville and I worked hard to clean the chapel together with some other missionaries for the occasion. We also had to get all the electronic equipment to work properly. We organized multiple backup systems so that he could use his iPad. (luckily, in the end it all went without a hitch.)

He came and had a zone conference with us on Thursday. I tried to prepare myself spiritually for this meeting. I pondered and prayed for before the meeting and I prepared two questions that I would have on my mind during the duration of the meeting with Elder Kearon. Both questions were answered! I know the Lord love me and He cares about me enough to guide me through His chosen servants. I asked how I could gain and retain my conversion and I asked how I could make the most of the upcoming two months I've got left on my mission. The answer came to me over and over again throughout the meeting. It was wonderful to feel the influence of the Spirit guide my thoughts to understand and apply what Elder Kearon was saying to my own personal situation.

I learned some great truths that I need to apply in my life to successfully navigate the river of mortality. I'm quite grateful that I prepared myself. Elder Kearon was really great! He went to great lengths to make us feel comfortable enough to share our thought throughout the meeting. He said that he prepared carefully to not ask any questions that we could get wrong. It was really wonderful. He emanated an aura of kindness and love.

Elder Kearon and I.

On Friday we had some great surprises! We had an extraordinary leadership meeting with Elder Kearon in the morning. I'd never seen anything like it. He made us share what we learned and then we spent 2.5h discussing and thinking how we can condense the list of things we'd  mentioned into 3 terms. These we will now use to convey what we want the mission to focus on. It seems quite strange to me but I already noticed how it works. This process made these terms stand out as something special to me because I connect them with the feelings I had in the training.

We had an exchange with the Elders in Sepolia (my old area) and I was with Elder Nicholls (who's going home next week) and we just had the greatest 4h exchange ever. It was just amazing. We were on fire for some reason xD We went out and we spoke to practically everyone and we had success with almost as many as we spoke to. It was a very uplifting experience for me as I don't get to go out and contact that much right now. We just had a great time going about the Lord's work.

This Sunday we attended church in the Athens 1st branch (Greek-speaking). It was a treat to meet the members there and chat with them.

Tasos, I, President Spyros Dimitropoulos