Εβδομάδα 15: BYU students, pday on a boat, and a jam-packed week!

Hey everybody!!

I'm convinced it's not possible to have a bad week here, honestly. *knock on wood* The people are so amazing! Sister Merkel and I have been BUSY.

Word of the week: Στακαλακαθούμενα (stahk-a-lahk-a-thoo-mena)! Means "out of the blue"...so fun to say. 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention this earlier. So everyone here greets each other with a hug and kiss on each cheek, girl to guy, reverse, old or young, doesn't matter. That's just what ya do, Haha I'm still getting used to that. 😅

So I'm pretty sure I've talked about my district way too much, but that's only because they're so great. We had such a fun pday this week! We took a boat to the beach but then ended up chillin on it and riding around just enjoying the ride and relaxing. The water is so blue and gorgeous when the sun's out 😍 Then we had lunch together at a pizza place, 5 stars for sure. Found out exactly why we have to watch bike safety videos riding with all our elders Haha. I'm sure it's quite the site to see 6 well dressed young people biking through town! 

There's a group of BYU students here for a month and they've been coming to all our activities and basically tripling the normal amount of people! I felt like I was back at BYU during church and FHE, I love it! 😎 So many of them know my friends and fam from back home. There's one student who said she was told a girl got her mission call to Greece at BYU and said that I'd probably see her! And then she mentioned the names of who had told her and it turns out those friends were either my roommates/hall mates at BYU and that "girl" she had been told about was me! Haha, such a small world!

Alright so now we can get to the goodies of what mission life is really about. We had SO many amazing lessons and finding opportunities this week! Σωτήρης (Sothiris) is really progressing. He comes to literally every single activity or meeting we have at the church, it feels like he's already a member. He has lots of questions and likes to talk and talk, just like every Greek. He's accepted our 21 day BoM reading challenge, loves what we teach him, and is really getting to understand Heavenly Fathers plan for us! 😇 We finally got to meet with Chrysanna again! She is so great. She even brought a friend along, Παναγιώτης (Panayotis)! They're both our age and are so fun to talk to. And now they've got a Book of Mormon (; Funny thing... I asked Παναγιώτης how old he thought I was and he said at least 24! He was quite shocked when I told him I was only 19. We also met with Αλεξάνδρα (Alexandra) a few times. She'll be gone working on an island for the summer but told us she'd love to keep talking to us through Skype lessons which is perfect! 

We also had a ton of meetings this week. One of which was Midway training, aka greenie checkup for the trainees and trainers. I'm half way through my training already!! We had our 1st transfer calls too! I'm staying in Thessaloniki with Sister Merkel! So glad, I'm not ready to leave this place or my trainer. We have so much work to do still!

Thought for the week from Alma 32:27.

"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

Sometimes it's hard to have faith, but it's the 1st principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for a reason. If we have a "desire to believe", we're on the right track. I know as you "let this desire work in you", you will be able to see more so the hand of the Lord in your life, your faith will increase, and you will recognize just how much He blesses us everyday. ☺ He IS a God of miracles. We lived with Him before, He is with us now, and we will return to His loving arms one day!

LOVE YOU ALL, have a fantastic week!! 

Love,

Sister Gale

PICS:

1. Thess is gorg!

2. Quality district bonding!

3. Meet-up with our friend!

4. Sister Merkel and I loving life!

5. Pday fun!

6. BYU @ FHE!