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

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.