Εβδομάδα 18: wild storms, pickpockets, looking for the positives

Hey guys!

Really crazy week, mostly for the not so great things, but we gotta start with the positives 😉 There's been some big thunder storms passing through throughout the week. And if you're caught in one, well, ya know how that goes. Luckily for Sister Merkel and I, we LOVE them! We had just gone out to do some finding a late afternoon and it started to straight up downpour on us, all warm rain thankfully. Most everyone who was outside started to take cover but we were both enjoying ourselves, while getting DRENCHED. We struck up a convo with an older guy hiding with his bike under a bush, ended up getting a contact from him! Then we walked to the beach and did the classic, "hey can ya take a pic of us" finding trick. Some people thought we were crazy but most just laughed and gladly took our pic and then saw our tags which of course led to the gospel convos we were aiming for 😎 

Wednesday was a whirlwind. Started off super good. We met with Σωτήρης and he now has a baptismal date! He's been kinda tricky to teach lately since he always has interesting views and different questions. But he told us since he's been reading the BoM, attending church, praying, and meeting with us, his life has gotten so much better! And he even has a new job lined up! We told him we knew Heavenly Father was looking out for him and He was showing him he was doing the right things. MIRACLES! 

After that, the day kinda took a 180. On our way to Μιλένα'ς, Sis Merkel and I were on our bikes waiting to cross the street when 2 guys managed to get into my backpack and grab my phone. They tripped over my bike and I realized what happened right away. I started running after them, not realizing Sis Merkel was kinda frozen back with our bikes not knowing what to do. I waved her over telling her I could still see the guys walking with my phone so she ran over. Then the 2 guys split up and being that we had to stay together, we chose 1 guy to follow who ended up not being the one with my phone. He tried to act all innocent, and he wasn't Greek, didn't speak English, so it was really hard to communicate. We assumed the 2 dudes were refugees or something like that because a lot of people here are unfortunately. I've come to the conclusion that I hope whoever stole my phone sees my lock-screen of my family, and sees hows happy we are, and how much love there is and then wishes he could have that because 99.9% sure he doesn't. Anywayzzz, besides that point, it's hard to find positives in this situation. My phone had the sim card we share, which is one of the biggest things I was worried about. So we lost all our new contacts and a few old ones too we hadn't written anywhere... that sucked 😒 Then to add on to the day, we went back to the church later to find it unlocked. Assumed the elders were inside, they weren't. And we got a quick promoting to get out once we saw the back room's cupboards were all wide open. We got out quick and went outside to get to elders to check again. Luckily nothing was stolen that we know of, but someone was definitely in there snooping around at one point. 

Thursday we went to figure out new sim card and phone stuff at the shop and met a guy, Γέργος, who came off super flirty and called me an "exotic American beauty" because he loved my darker skin I guess. Not sure why exactly we kept the convo going but we did. Turns out that when his dad passed away last year, he wanted to know where his dad was so he googled it. Our church website popped up and he talked to missionaries online. He asked if we were the Mormon missionaries and then wrote down and gave us all his contact info because he was super interested in learning more because he liked what he was being taught by the online missionaries. So maybe it was all part of Heavenly Father's plan to have my phone stolen so we'd be at the phone shop this specific day to meet this guy because this was some of those situations when you're kinda just like, "woah, there's no way this is a coincidence." 😅

Spiritual note of the week is from D&C 64:10,

"I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men".

I've got a love-hate relationship with forgiveness. Sometimes I feel like some people really don't deserve our forgiveness for whatever reasons. But ultimately, I've realized that a lot of times, forgiveness isn't to make those who have hurt or wronged us feel better, but we are asked to "forgive all men" so that a weight can be lifted off our backs, even if that includes forgiving ourselves. As hard as it is to accept, everything happens for a reason and I know Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for each of us as we learn to accept and trust His will. Forgiveness allows us to let go of our pride, let away with feelings of anger and resentment,  and ultimately heal and find peace. I know as we choose to forgive, we can find strength in our Savior and He can heal us!

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Gale

PICS!

1. successful storm finding (;

2. If anyone didn't know where Thessaloniki was... I'm right hereee!

3. If ya can't tell, we love these thunderstorms!

4. Some more of Θεσσαλονίκη for ya