Εβδομάδα 22: Island feels... CAUTION: TOO HOTTT!

HELLO FROM LARNACA CYPRUS!

Wow this place is so NOT Greece, well at least not Thessaloniki where I just was. Walking off the plane was like going straight into a sauna, HOLY HOTTT. Humidity is a killer. My new companion and the senior couple, the Grover's, picked me up from the airport, they are so sweet! My new companion is Sister Kruger! She's from England and has been out for almost 11 months. AND, she has the cutest English accent, I LOVE IT! She's a literal angel and I'm really excited to serve with her! We clicked really quick and had a super great 1st week together! Honestly could be one of my favorite weeks of my mission so far, I feel so at home here on this little island :)

There are so many people from the Philippines and Africa here! As in Greek people: I feel like don't really exist, at least not everywhere like in Greece. And then the ones we do find are Cypriot and speak a really weird Greek, think you just call it Cypriot, so its kinda hard to understand. I get so excited to talk to all the Filipinos we come across, they are always super friendly and easy to strike up a conversation with. And then when I tell them I know a little bit of Cebuano and Tagalog from my cousin and friend serving in Cebu they always get super talkative haha, it's so cute. One of the Filipino members, Lucy, was especially excited when she 1st met me and found out I was the new sister because I had "beautiful dark skin" like her and she thought I was from some Polynesian island haha. She's adopted the role of my Filipino mom and says she's gonna spoil me as long as I am here, love her.

Also a fun thing... POMEGRANATE TREES! Definitely didn't know pomegranates grow on trees, but, ya learn something new everyday right?! They are everywhere and I can't wait till they're ripe next month and we can pick em fresh! Oh yeah, it's also pretty sweet having fresh watermelon trucks around every other corner. Little bit of a hassle having to haul that thing back to our place because they're really heavy, but they're so worth it in this heat and sometimes end up being the only thing we wanna eat.

Quick story that made Sister Kruger and I crack up. We messaged one of our investigators to see if he wanted to meet up for a lesson and he replied "Caution: TOO HOT" haha and then didn't respond after that lol. Yeah we get it but the church has AC dude! And then we have some African friends who names get me every time like "Levyou", "Ify", and "Kewel"... they're greatttt hahaha :)

Guess I might as well get onto what we actually did this week. So one of our district goals is to find new ways to simply SERVE! So we brain stormed a bit and Sister Kruger and I found some new ways. One day, we made fresh bread, well I guess more-so "attempted" to make it haha, and then only delivered one of the loaves that was soft enough and wouldn't break your teeth if ya ate it. We had all the right intentions though, but our baking skills, at least in the bread department could use some more practice. Another morning we each took a trash bag and hit the park close by and cleaned it up real good. The Indians that work at the car wash across the street absolutely TRASH the place on a daily :( But we did meet an African guy named Gomez doing this and actually taught him a lesson that night! But I think in the end he was more interested in getting to know us then getting to know the church, BUT, we'll see!

Sister Kruger took me door knocking for the 1st time because there are actually little homes here! I love it and actually felt like the stereotypical missionary I'd imagined! One thing I love about Larnaca is that there aren't crowds of people everywhere because I am so not a huge city girl.

We had Cyprus Zone conference on Friday! There are only 11 missionaries in Cyprus now. They're from all over... Scotland, Italy, England, France, and of course the US ;) Our Zone is fantastic and has some powerful missionaries that I am grateful to be a part of. We had some amazing training from our leader. One new cool thing we just got is an online area book. Way sweet, but it's gonna take time moving over all the paper records to our phones. We were also addressed on how we can enhance revelation. I think it's pretty cool how each of us receive revelation differently and uniquely. And every spiritual moment we have should be taken seriously and held sacred to us. There have been a lot of times in my life where I don't realize right away that I'm receiving answers to my prayers and have had to conscientiously choose to go forward with faith. A lot of times I'm just seeing and understanding enough to take those few steps ahead and act on any good prompting I may feel. Something I will always remember my BYU Bishop telling me is, "It's a green light till Heavenly Father makes it a red." Heavenly Father will never lead us down the wrong path. As we seek His direction, and continue forward in faith, and act on all the good promptings, He will direct our lives and help us find our way. The Holy Ghost plays a huge role in our lives and I testify of that. We will never do something against what we know to be true without 1st being warned by the Holy Ghost. It is a vital, sacred, gift we have been given and is as real and powerful as anything. We are the temples of God, and the Spirit dwells in us! I know as we live worthily, apply the Atonement of Christ in our lives DAILY, and continually seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will be able to feel and recognize it's influence more purely.

All in all I am loving being a missionary on this beautiful island and there's no other work I'd rather be doing!

Love you all! Have a fabulous week!

Love,

Sister Gale

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ps. found out I'll be driving on the opposite side of the road this week so pray I don't die plz and thank youuuu haha :)

PICS!

1-2. Last day with Sister Merkel, my trainer! leaving my little apartment in Thessaloniki

3. Sister Kruger picked me up at the airport

4. cleaning the park :)))

5. fun watermelon trucks all over town

6-7. view from our apartment in Cyprus, Palm Tree galore. The tennis courts are pretty interesting