Changes and the Book of Mormon

We had a great week. Actually, we were surprised how well the week went when we looked back this Sunday. It was just amazing. We just went about our daily work and we were visited by small miracles throughout the week which made the whole amazing and magnificent. The first part of the week, we had the Christensens there with us helping us and when they left the Hansens took over, hardly missing a beat. They are doing a great job!

The Hansens are the new senior couple here in Larnaca. They are helping a lot already. They are from Chubbuk, Idaho which is close to Pocatello. xd They have 9 children and 36 grandchildren. They are great! They came with a how can we help attitude. We've had them with us for a lot of lessons already and they are doing great. On Thursday we wanted to meet them at our apartment for them to inspect it and then we were going to help them buy a GPS. Well, they really need it. It took us about 1.5h to find each other xD They went all around Larnaca and back and out again. But finally we were able to direct them to a street were we met them and took them to our place. After that we got their GPS and set it up and since then they've been doing a lot better with getting around. xD

The members were sad when the Christensens left.

We felt this week like we should go see President Ivanov for a lesson. The thing is, that he lives far out and we feared that we might lose a lot of time but we still felt impressed to do so. So, on Wednesday morning we waited for the but out to his house. We waited at the bus stop for almost 1.5h. The buses are terrible... We spoke with a very nice lady that was waiting for the bus too during this time, so all was not lost. Then we finally arrived at President Ivanonv's and we had our lesson and spoke with him also about how we can support the branch and what we missionaries can do to help him. We spoke of the book of mormon and it's importance in our lesson. Then going back we waited a long time for the bus again. We were able to give a Book of Mormon to a lady there and speak to another one. However, I felt like we'd wasted time. I felt like we hadn't used our time as well as we should have and I wondered why we'd felt so strongly about visiting him in the first place. My answer came on Sunday in the gospel principles class. President Ivanov spoke about missionary work in the class and helped everyone there recognize how they were missionaries. He reminded some how they'd already done missionary work and brought friends to church and he spoke of the joy we feel when we do so. Then he challenged everyone to give a Book of Mormon to one of their friends this week. He told us how after we'd left he'd found an answer to one of his question he'd had in the Book of Mormon we'd left him for his friend. We'd given him a Book of Mormon with one of those papers that has the questions of the soul on it and where to find the answers in the Book of Mormon. That is when I felt and understood why we'd gone to see him and I knew that we'd done the right thing. I know the Lord had His hand in my life in that experience.

Sister Ivanova, "Alex", President Ivanov

Well, we are teaching San, as I told you last week. She came to church again this week and is really serious about her commitment to everything concerning the gospel. She's progressing wonderfully and has a baptismal date for June 15th. I'm really excited for her. She's been an investigator in Larnaca since before I came on my mission. xD She's been around for a long time. So, I'm really glad that she's finally come to commit herself to this cause and to the plan Heavenly Father has for her. In just the last two weeks we already saw a great deal of growth.

San, Candle, Princess, Antonia

There are more changes coming to Larnaca. We've got transfers this week. I'll be transferred again... Elder Watts and I are moving to the other apartment in Larnaca. The one I used to stay in when I came into the mission. Which I find quite ironic. xD We're moving because Sisters are coming to serve in Larnaca and they'll stay in the apartment I'm in now. xD It's pretty exciting because Larnaca has so many female member that the Sisters will really be able to make a difference and help a lot, I believe.

We made a new map for the Sisters to find their way.

We met a lot of new people this week and some of them have become investigators. We'll see how they progress in the coming weeks. We met a family from Sierra Leone which seems very promising. They've lived here in Cyprus for 11 years and the father used to play professional soccer here and around Europe. I'm excited to see them progress...