Εβδομάδα 21: CYPRUS HERE I COME! Out with the greenie days!

-
WHATS UP EVERYONE?!
Sooo I'm getting transferred to CYPRUS!☀️ My new area will be in Λάρνακα (Larnaca), aka the closest area in any mission to the HOLY LAND JERUSALEM! Crazyyyy. Transfer calls were Friday night, my very 1st one! Sister Merkel did NOT want to leave Thessaloniki, and I was really worried about taking over the area so President Anderson is quite an inspired man Haha. 😉 Being the procrastinator I am, I've got a LOT of packing to do tonight because I fly out tomorrow! Also, I finished my training and am no longer a greenie, whoop whoop! 😎
We had the greatest week! And basically visited all the branch members, less-actives, and investigators we have had since I've gotten here because I knew I would be leaving since last Friday just not sure where. Little sad, but I'm pretty sure I'll be back in Thess at one point in my mish. The Stillos sisters, Ειρήνη and Γεωργία, took us up to the roof before I left to get a real look of the city, Greece sure is beautiful! And I found an Acai bowl when we had a lesson with Graciella! Not sure if it topped Hawaii's ones my mom always got, but still, yummmmy!
2 elders "died" in our district...aka finished their mish for all who aren't familiar with mission slang. Elder Albertson and Elder Balser, they are great missionaries and it'll definitely be weird without them anymore. Little update on our mish stats: with their group going home there are now only 29 missionaries between Greece and Cyprus, so small!! But we're all like family so that's the best part. GAM FAM strong (Greece Athens Mission)!
The missionaries threw together a little 4th of July party since 4 outta the 5 of us are from the U.S.! 🎆🤩 Basically just went all red, white, and blue and did the classic BBQ on a very low key but everyone seemed to have a fun time, we got 7 friends to come which is SO GOOD! Introduced the water balloon toss which was a hit! Oh yeah, also... the watermelons here, another level of delicious wow. Got a 12 kg one and boy did that not last us long enough 😍
Thought of the week comes from our district meeting discussion!
Each of us are converted to the gospel through different ways whether it be through love, doctrine, etc. As we continue to BE the message, stand as a witness of Christ at all times, we can allow those we come in contact with to have a more positive view of the church than when we first met them. It's important to be others friend first because really, no one will care how much you know, until they know how much you care. And ultimately, everyone has their agency and can't be forced into the gospel. Yeah baptisms are great and amazing, but it's not about the numbers at all. Baptism is a step towards the end, but it's not the end goal, exaltation is. Heavenly Father won't let His sheep get lost, and it's important to trust that He will always find a way for all those who choose to come unto Him.
I'll leave y'all with that thought! 😇
Thanks for all the emails and messages! Sorry if I didn't get back to you, I try my best! I miss and love you guys! Hope ya have a fantastic week!
Next email will be comin' to ya from Cyprus ;)
Love,
Sister Gale

Ps. For all those who wanted to see the video my comp and I made for the Greek FB page!! ITS FINISHED! 

CHECK IT OUT HERE!
https://www.facebook.com/709990925689308/posts/2476584269029956/

PICS!
1. Elders A & B "died" this week, sad day, they're awesome!
2. My Russian grandma here, Μιλένα!
3. Made sure we represented the US on the 4th, Sis Merkel loves having an American comp haha
4. Little Θεσσαλονίκη branch! Saying bye to my training area :,(
5-6. Found an Acai bowl! Just so my mama can be a little jealous Haha ;)
7-8. Messing around with ukelele with Irini!
9. Up on the rooftops with the Stillos sisters!










.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHY A MISSION?

-
Image
Having the opportunity to serve a mission has always been in the back of my mind throughout my entire life. However, the decision to actually serve was not the quickest decision I’ve ever made. I have always had the desire to serve, but I wanted to be sure that this was part of Heavenly Father’s plan for me. This past summer I was thinking about a mission a lot, more so than I ever had before. But, I still didn't feel like I had received a clear answer on whether or not I should. There had been a day when I had just finished reading my patriarchal blessing and felt I needed to continue reading where I had just left off in my scripture study that same morning. I was in Alma 13 and had come across versus 3 and 4,  “And this is the manner after which they were ordained--being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God”. Following reading this, another scripture popped into my mind, 3 Nephi 22:13,  “And all thy children sha...
Read more

I MADE IT!!

-
(Kaylee's first letter home!!) HEYYY!!  I'm here!  I love it, it's so awesome! Everyone is so nice and we are all already such good friends! Well at least the 1st group of us haha. There's another group coming at 2 and then at 3! I haven't met my companion yet tho. When we got here there were ZERO missionaries! There will only be 55 of us here soon and then it'll start getting smaller as everyone starts leaving... and then it'll just be the 5 Greek missionaries left! YUPPP just 5 of us! 3 elders and 2 sisters! I met elder Hawkins when we were about to board the flight to Manchester. He's Greek speaking too! So we stuck together. They had to check our passports and that was kinda complicated... I didn't have a letter from the church but luckily he did so we just told the people we were together and they didn't ask too many more questions. and then we got our luggage and sat down to wait. So we just chilled and talked for a probably around 30 o...
Read more

Εβδομάδα 23: "Sister Gale it's Alcohol!"... WHOOPS!

-
Image
Quite an eventful week over here! Officially drove on the opposite side of the road and didn't die!! SO that's a miracle in itself! 90% of the time we still ride our bikes/walk but when we visit investigators in villages farther out we get to use the new car! English mode is officially switched ON, Greek mode just kinda flickers here and there but I think all but one mini lesson was in English. We also haven't really had time for language study, since lessons actually fell through this week, so SYL (speak your language) between Sister Kruger and I has been huge because when we are eventually transferred back to Greece we'll need to be speaking Greek again!  We had a pretty noteworthy and definitely memorable experience while finding haha. So we were walking by some homes and stopped to talk to this little old Greek lady who was mopping her patio to ask if she needed any help. She didn't want our help but invited us inside the gated patio and had her Indi...
Read more