Εβδομάδα 13: Eat your flowers, mini miracles, the Andersons, and EXCHANGES!
HELLO EVERYONE!!!
And pics are to come soon as always 😉
1st off, we had 15 members in sacrament on Sunday! Coming from the US that might seem like nothing but here in Thessaloniki it's a miracle. The church may be small but every member is absolutely amazing.
Also something I've taken note of here: If you forget a man's name you basically have a 20% chance of guessing it right because everyone is either 1. Νικόλης (Nicolis) 2.Κωνσταντίνος (Konstantinos) 3.Κόστας (Costas) 4. Ντεμίτρις (Demitris) or 5. Βασίλης (Bill) 😂
So Tuesday morning we were told we'd have a dinner appointment with President and Sister Anderson! I was SO excited because they are seriously the sweetest humans ever. Then we were also told we'd have to cancel any plans from 3-9 on Wednesday since we'd be having a temple/family history meeting as well as be taking part in the senior couples conference with all the senior couples in our mission (from Albania, Kosovo,Macedonia, Greece, and Cyprus). It was a good thing we were able to easily reschedule those appointments we had that night. But yeah, we had a yummy dinner with the Anderson's and then the next day gave a little chapel tour for the senior couples, and then even got to join them at the Macedonia Palace for the fanciest dinner 😍 The desert had edible gold decor and flowers, who in the world think to put that on food?? One of the sisters kept telling us to "Eat your flowers!" Well tasting that was a first and kinda funny to say now. At one point Elder Albertson said, "I wonder if this is what it's like to be Trump" haha.
Another little miracle we witnessed was during whiteboard finding! A younger girl came up to Elder Kirkman and I and told us she was so happy she found us because she had been baptized in Albania and been living in Thessalonki for a year but hasn't been able to find where the church was here...so of course we got her filled in on all that info! 😁
Thursday was basically the most fun day ever!! The STLs (sister training leaders) from Athens came to Thess for EXCHANGES!! Ahh it was SO FUNNN! It was great to be with sisters again!! I got to be companions with Sister Vennerholm for the day!! She's from Sweden! I learned so much from her, she is such a great missionary and we clicked so quick! We did finding along the beach and had so many contacts and BOTH had the opportunity to give out our Book of Mormons! 😎 One to an older guy who showed us a picture of his grand daughter and talked about how much he loved being a grandpa. He loved that we were so happy and stopped to talk to him and told us we were the kindest and sweetest girls. He admired what we were doing and appreciated that we gave him something that was so special to us because we knew it would bring joy and happiness in his life and for his family. A little bit after we kept walking and I suggested we ask someone to take a picture of us and see if a good conversation and possibly a contact could come out of it. So next person walking towards us we stopped and quickly asked if she'd take our picture, she actually almost ignored us and kept walking. But I think our smiles were contagious because she quickly started laughing with us over random things we were saying. At first I don't think she thought we only spoke English and she tried speaking English but it was so difficult to understand. So then she ended up writing down her name, number, and address and said in her broken English that she wanted to see us again. But then we started talking in Greek with her and she got so excited and just went off in Greek haha. Then it got a little hard to understand because she was just talking and talking and we kinda just kept nodding or heads and going with it because she was happily talking about something she obviously loved but she used a lot of words we didn't understand haha. I think we kinda got the jist of it and the conversation shifted to family and then she asked why we were here and we kinda smiled and looked at each other like "welp there's our que!" 😉 We talked about our families and what they mean to us. And how we knew that our families could be together forever and testified of simple truths of our faith and the Book of Mormon. And when we told her we would love to give her own copy of the Book of Mormon to read she happily accepted and said she was excited to read it since it appeared to make us very happy and she wanted what we had. Then she asked if she could take a picture with us and of course we said yes! I am so excited to meet with her again! It was so crazy how easy it was to just talk to people. Both of us were so happy, laughing, and saying "Γειά σας" (hi) to literally everyone! We were having the greatest time and it was almost too good, we're like 2 peas in a pod and I loved it 😇 During service we aren't allowed to proselyte but can answers questions if we're asked. And Thursday there were 5 new volunteers helping out that were our age and they all starting asking away and we had the chance to share a little bit about what we were doing and about our beliefs. A few of them had even said they remembered seeing the Copenhagen Temple, since they're from Denmark, and thinking it was so beautiful and wondering what it was. And one of the volunteers said she even had a Book of Mormon at her home and had always wanted to read it. It was like a little miracle after another and we just had so many wonderful opportunities in a few hours. It was AMAZING.
1st off, we had 15 members in sacrament on Sunday! Coming from the US that might seem like nothing but here in Thessaloniki it's a miracle. The church may be small but every member is absolutely amazing.
Also something I've taken note of here: If you forget a man's name you basically have a 20% chance of guessing it right because everyone is either 1. Νικόλης (Nicolis) 2.Κωνσταντίνος (Konstantinos) 3.Κόστας (Costas) 4. Ντεμίτρις (Demitris) or 5. Βασίλης (Bill) 😂
So Tuesday morning we were told we'd have a dinner appointment with President and Sister Anderson! I was SO excited because they are seriously the sweetest humans ever. Then we were also told we'd have to cancel any plans from 3-9 on Wednesday since we'd be having a temple/family history meeting as well as be taking part in the senior couples conference with all the senior couples in our mission (from Albania, Kosovo,Macedonia, Greece, and Cyprus). It was a good thing we were able to easily reschedule those appointments we had that night. But yeah, we had a yummy dinner with the Anderson's and then the next day gave a little chapel tour for the senior couples, and then even got to join them at the Macedonia Palace for the fanciest dinner 😍 The desert had edible gold decor and flowers, who in the world think to put that on food?? One of the sisters kept telling us to "Eat your flowers!" Well tasting that was a first and kinda funny to say now. At one point Elder Albertson said, "I wonder if this is what it's like to be Trump" haha.
Another little miracle we witnessed was during whiteboard finding! A younger girl came up to Elder Kirkman and I and told us she was so happy she found us because she had been baptized in Albania and been living in Thessalonki for a year but hasn't been able to find where the church was here...so of course we got her filled in on all that info! 😁
Thursday was basically the most fun day ever!! The STLs (sister training leaders) from Athens came to Thess for EXCHANGES!! Ahh it was SO FUNNN! It was great to be with sisters again!! I got to be companions with Sister Vennerholm for the day!! She's from Sweden! I learned so much from her, she is such a great missionary and we clicked so quick! We did finding along the beach and had so many contacts and BOTH had the opportunity to give out our Book of Mormons! 😎 One to an older guy who showed us a picture of his grand daughter and talked about how much he loved being a grandpa. He loved that we were so happy and stopped to talk to him and told us we were the kindest and sweetest girls. He admired what we were doing and appreciated that we gave him something that was so special to us because we knew it would bring joy and happiness in his life and for his family. A little bit after we kept walking and I suggested we ask someone to take a picture of us and see if a good conversation and possibly a contact could come out of it. So next person walking towards us we stopped and quickly asked if she'd take our picture, she actually almost ignored us and kept walking. But I think our smiles were contagious because she quickly started laughing with us over random things we were saying. At first I don't think she thought we only spoke English and she tried speaking English but it was so difficult to understand. So then she ended up writing down her name, number, and address and said in her broken English that she wanted to see us again. But then we started talking in Greek with her and she got so excited and just went off in Greek haha. Then it got a little hard to understand because she was just talking and talking and we kinda just kept nodding or heads and going with it because she was happily talking about something she obviously loved but she used a lot of words we didn't understand haha. I think we kinda got the jist of it and the conversation shifted to family and then she asked why we were here and we kinda smiled and looked at each other like "welp there's our que!" 😉 We talked about our families and what they mean to us. And how we knew that our families could be together forever and testified of simple truths of our faith and the Book of Mormon. And when we told her we would love to give her own copy of the Book of Mormon to read she happily accepted and said she was excited to read it since it appeared to make us very happy and she wanted what we had. Then she asked if she could take a picture with us and of course we said yes! I am so excited to meet with her again! It was so crazy how easy it was to just talk to people. Both of us were so happy, laughing, and saying "Γειά σας" (hi) to literally everyone! We were having the greatest time and it was almost too good, we're like 2 peas in a pod and I loved it 😇 During service we aren't allowed to proselyte but can answers questions if we're asked. And Thursday there were 5 new volunteers helping out that were our age and they all starting asking away and we had the chance to share a little bit about what we were doing and about our beliefs. A few of them had even said they remembered seeing the Copenhagen Temple, since they're from Denmark, and thinking it was so beautiful and wondering what it was. And one of the volunteers said she even had a Book of Mormon at her home and had always wanted to read it. It was like a little miracle after another and we just had so many wonderful opportunities in a few hours. It was AMAZING.
I'll wrap this up with a little thought from Alma 27:18-19.
"18 Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.
19 ...the joy of Alma in meeting his brethren was truly great...their joy was not that to exceed their strength."
We can always find true happiness as we seek it, and it can always be found living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I don't realize how blessed we are. We have a knowledge of eternal families and eternal life. Not everyone has that. For me, those are 2 irreplaceable blessings that I know only a loving Heavenly Father could give to us. As we are living through a world of changing directions and values, and as we continue to turn to Him, to learn of Him, we can always find the one path that will bring us joy and give us the strength to keep going.
Thanks for keeping me updated with all the pictures, emails, and messages!!
Love you guys! ❤
Love,
Sister Gale
PICS!
1. Exchanges with Αδελφή Vennerholm from Sweden! ♡
2. One of the random elephants around Thess (no clue why they're here)
3. Beautiful sunsets on a daily 😍 Πολύ Όμορφη!!
4. Fancy desert from the senior couple's conference
5. Tuesday dinner with President and Sister Anderson
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