Εβδομάδα 10: How do you say napkin?
Γεια Σας (Hello) from Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloniki)!!
Mars Hill! Thessaloniki! Gift of Tongues! Sis Merkel! Lots to fit in from my 1st week here in GREECE! Real mission life is so jam packed but so great at the same time, I LOVE IT!
TUESDAY 4.16.19 President and sister Anderson picked us up from the Athens airport along with the APs from Albania and we went straight to the church! All the missionaries were there waiting for us and they all ran out to us with the biggest smiles and warmest welcome, Greece hasn’t gotten new missionaries since January! I got interviewed 1st and the first thing President Anderson told me was he'd been praying for a Chinese sister for a long time haha... well he got half of what he was praying for (; He served his mission in Taiwan and says he's gonna call me "Chan Jyémei" now haha. Anywaysss I love President and Sister Anderson so much! We had our first Greek Euros with all the missionaries for dinner, food here is another level of amazing WOW. Then we were told we'd all need to consolidate to 1 bag since if we went to Cyprus or Thessaloniki (which we'd find out tomorrow) we could only take 1 bag, that was a little stressful.
WEDNESDAY 4.17.19 All us newbies went to Mars Hill with the APs and Zone leaders! It was a gorgeous outlook over Athens and we got to bear our testimonies in Greek where Paul preached to the Athenians. One of the coolest and memorable experiences I've ever had. Looking out over the giant city, the scripture, "the field is white and ready to harvest" has never taken such a literal meaning. Athens is beautiful!! We lucked out and had Zone Conference today so we got to meet all the missionaries in Greece! There are 20 of us now, everyone is awesome and amazing missionaries. My trainer is Sister Merkel!! She's from Germany and has been out 6 months already, I LOVE HER!!! We'll be the only sisters serving in Thessaloniki! My MTC district got split up to 3 areas: 2 in Athens, 2 in Thess, and 1 in Cyprus. Elder Hawkins will go to Thess with me! We are officially a technology mission as of today, with Facebook! Kinda crazy but really great and it sure does help to simplify some things in the work here!
THURSDAY 4.18.19 My district took a flight to Thessaloniki last night, i got to know them a little more and they are all great! Our district consists of 4 elders and 2 sisters. Elder Amos (France), Elder Albertson (ID), Elder Kirkman (CA), Elder Hawkins (TX), Sister Merkel (Germany), and me (: we did service for a few hours this morning organizing clothes and diapers for refugees, we'll get to do this every Thursday. Oh yeah, we have bikes! Biking here is crazy tho. We're literally in the middle of the swerving cars and unorganized traffic. Jaywalking is a sport here too. Double parking is a general pass time, street lines are only a suggestion and rarely followed, motorcycles drive on sidewalks, and stoplights are absolutely mandatory, but stop signs are kinda just ignored completely. There are so many dogs and cats too, never seen so many stray Saint Bernards in my life. We stopped a women at an intersection and asked her "ποσ να πο Napkin??" *how do you say napkin" and it led to a great conversation! She said she was actually wondering what 2 girls on bikes were up to so we got to share a little bit about why we're here. She loved I was learning and speaking Greek and said she was really impressed with how I could speak with her, so that made me feel a little better since I’m kinda getting slammed with the language right now. She even offered to help teach me!
FRIDAY 4.19.19 We did a whiteboard finding activity in the Center where we went around asking everybody "how do you celebrate Easter". Surprisingly I was able to contribute to this fun activity even though i could barely understand the people. Definitely another time I have absolutely recognized the gift of tongues! Afterwards Sis Merkel taught a German class and I taught piano to 2 girls in the church. I told them I’d be speaking in Church this Sunday and they could listen to me try to speak Greek and they both said they'd come! We visited the Tanto family and they are so cute! They have 3 little kids and I’m so excited to get to know them!
SATURDAY 4.20.19 I have a Greek teacher! The women from Thursday! In our meet-up today she asked us a lot of questions about missionary life and what we believe since she is Greek Orthodox. She even said she'd bring an original Greek bible to lend us and then we could exchange books and she'd read the Book of Mormon. She also said shed teach us all the fancy Greek words so we could know some words the Πρεσβιτεδει don't, she's great. Summer schedules here are kinda wack, we can be out till 10 now! A lot of people take naps in the middle of the day so we can too and then stay out later! Tonight we joined in the weekly soccer game with the elders and a few investigators, its a great way to have fun with them!
SUNDAY 4.21.18 I got welcomed right into the branch today by being asked to give my testimony in Ελληινικα (: but the branch is tiny, only 18 members today, and 6 were missionaries. But we're working on that don't worry (; may be small but the members are awesome. We taught Grasiella, a new convert, after church more about temples and it was an amazing lesson. Not having a temple anywhere around here is kinda hard, but being able to share are testimonies about how they have played a huge part in our lives in America and Germany (in Sis Merkel’s case) was amazing. She told us that we got her really excited to go to the temple one day because of the experiences we shared with her. Later we shared a spiritual thought with the Stilos family, they're kinda going through a rough patch right now. They asked me to speak in Greek since the mom only speaks Greek so I did the best I could. And somehow, the sounds that were coming out of my mouth made sense and the Spirit we felt in that room was undeniable and incredible.
Have an awesome week everyone! Love ya!
Mars Hill! Thessaloniki! Gift of Tongues! Sis Merkel! Lots to fit in from my 1st week here in GREECE! Real mission life is so jam packed but so great at the same time, I LOVE IT!
TUESDAY 4.16.19 President and sister Anderson picked us up from the Athens airport along with the APs from Albania and we went straight to the church! All the missionaries were there waiting for us and they all ran out to us with the biggest smiles and warmest welcome, Greece hasn’t gotten new missionaries since January! I got interviewed 1st and the first thing President Anderson told me was he'd been praying for a Chinese sister for a long time haha... well he got half of what he was praying for (; He served his mission in Taiwan and says he's gonna call me "Chan Jyémei" now haha. Anywaysss I love President and Sister Anderson so much! We had our first Greek Euros with all the missionaries for dinner, food here is another level of amazing WOW. Then we were told we'd all need to consolidate to 1 bag since if we went to Cyprus or Thessaloniki (which we'd find out tomorrow) we could only take 1 bag, that was a little stressful.
WEDNESDAY 4.17.19 All us newbies went to Mars Hill with the APs and Zone leaders! It was a gorgeous outlook over Athens and we got to bear our testimonies in Greek where Paul preached to the Athenians. One of the coolest and memorable experiences I've ever had. Looking out over the giant city, the scripture, "the field is white and ready to harvest" has never taken such a literal meaning. Athens is beautiful!! We lucked out and had Zone Conference today so we got to meet all the missionaries in Greece! There are 20 of us now, everyone is awesome and amazing missionaries. My trainer is Sister Merkel!! She's from Germany and has been out 6 months already, I LOVE HER!!! We'll be the only sisters serving in Thessaloniki! My MTC district got split up to 3 areas: 2 in Athens, 2 in Thess, and 1 in Cyprus. Elder Hawkins will go to Thess with me! We are officially a technology mission as of today, with Facebook! Kinda crazy but really great and it sure does help to simplify some things in the work here!
THURSDAY 4.18.19 My district took a flight to Thessaloniki last night, i got to know them a little more and they are all great! Our district consists of 4 elders and 2 sisters. Elder Amos (France), Elder Albertson (ID), Elder Kirkman (CA), Elder Hawkins (TX), Sister Merkel (Germany), and me (: we did service for a few hours this morning organizing clothes and diapers for refugees, we'll get to do this every Thursday. Oh yeah, we have bikes! Biking here is crazy tho. We're literally in the middle of the swerving cars and unorganized traffic. Jaywalking is a sport here too. Double parking is a general pass time, street lines are only a suggestion and rarely followed, motorcycles drive on sidewalks, and stoplights are absolutely mandatory, but stop signs are kinda just ignored completely. There are so many dogs and cats too, never seen so many stray Saint Bernards in my life. We stopped a women at an intersection and asked her "ποσ να πο Napkin??" *how do you say napkin" and it led to a great conversation! She said she was actually wondering what 2 girls on bikes were up to so we got to share a little bit about why we're here. She loved I was learning and speaking Greek and said she was really impressed with how I could speak with her, so that made me feel a little better since I’m kinda getting slammed with the language right now. She even offered to help teach me!
FRIDAY 4.19.19 We did a whiteboard finding activity in the Center where we went around asking everybody "how do you celebrate Easter". Surprisingly I was able to contribute to this fun activity even though i could barely understand the people. Definitely another time I have absolutely recognized the gift of tongues! Afterwards Sis Merkel taught a German class and I taught piano to 2 girls in the church. I told them I’d be speaking in Church this Sunday and they could listen to me try to speak Greek and they both said they'd come! We visited the Tanto family and they are so cute! They have 3 little kids and I’m so excited to get to know them!
SATURDAY 4.20.19 I have a Greek teacher! The women from Thursday! In our meet-up today she asked us a lot of questions about missionary life and what we believe since she is Greek Orthodox. She even said she'd bring an original Greek bible to lend us and then we could exchange books and she'd read the Book of Mormon. She also said shed teach us all the fancy Greek words so we could know some words the Πρεσβιτεδει don't, she's great. Summer schedules here are kinda wack, we can be out till 10 now! A lot of people take naps in the middle of the day so we can too and then stay out later! Tonight we joined in the weekly soccer game with the elders and a few investigators, its a great way to have fun with them!
SUNDAY 4.21.18 I got welcomed right into the branch today by being asked to give my testimony in Ελληινικα (: but the branch is tiny, only 18 members today, and 6 were missionaries. But we're working on that don't worry (; may be small but the members are awesome. We taught Grasiella, a new convert, after church more about temples and it was an amazing lesson. Not having a temple anywhere around here is kinda hard, but being able to share are testimonies about how they have played a huge part in our lives in America and Germany (in Sis Merkel’s case) was amazing. She told us that we got her really excited to go to the temple one day because of the experiences we shared with her. Later we shared a spiritual thought with the Stilos family, they're kinda going through a rough patch right now. They asked me to speak in Greek since the mom only speaks Greek so I did the best I could. And somehow, the sounds that were coming out of my mouth made sense and the Spirit we felt in that room was undeniable and incredible.
Have an awesome week everyone! Love ya!
PICS TO COME! ;)))
Αδελφή Γκεϊλ
Αδελφή Γκεϊλ
PICS!
1. Sister Merkel and I!
2. Only missionaries in Thess! I love my district!
3. Got a little rainy today but we stuck it out on our bikes (;
4. YUMMMY GYROS!
5. Official Greek tags since they snapped our Greek/English ones in the MTC
6. The view we get everyday from the Center where the church is, its gorgeous!
7. We hiked up a little today to get a cool view of the city, so many good memories with em and we were always laughing!
8. More sweet pday views!
9. 1st Thess Gyro, don't know what could beat this
10. President and Sister Anderson!
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