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