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

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 Indian maid bring out chairs and glasses of water for us to sit with her and her husband who was just downing a plate of figs and cherries in front of us haha. The old lady just complained to us about her maid and how she doesn't speak Greek or do anything right... and we're just thinking "well when she just came from the India 3 months ago what do you expect?!" Anyways she was just kinda rambling on and then asked if we would like a sweet so we said sure and then the maid brought out 2 very strong smelling fruity-looking-ish so called "sweet" on 2 little tea plates. NOT what we were expecting. Sister Kruger and I both looked at each other after smelling it and I'm thinking, "oh this just smells like Apple-Cider Vinegar". So I cut off the smallest sliver of this stuff, since the lady was sitting right in front of us with hawk eyes waiting for us to eat, and tasted it and NOOOPE, NOT apple cider vinegar to say the least! In English Sister Kruger panickly whispered "Sister Gale it's alcohol!". The old lady had just gotten up to use the restroom so Sister Kruger frantically rummaged through her bag and pulled out some tissues and handed one to me. We pulled our bags on our laps and very quickly scooped this alcohol soaked non-edible food into the tissues while casually talking to the husband and trying to distract him from what we were doing. Luckily we successfully managed to get the food filled tissues hidden in our bags somewhat discretely I think?? We pretended we had just finished eating the stuff she gave us and put the forks and our little plates back on the platter she had brought them out on just as she was walking back out. What a reliefffff. We're suppose to be going back to do some service for her another time so hopefully we don't have a round 2 of this little stressful, but quite funny incident!

Our teaching pool right now consists of many men from Cameroon, Africa, good amount of French guys, and also several Filipinos. One of the lessons we had had to be translated into French by a member named Moshood and holy smokes was that the most dramatic translation in the history of translations, hand motions and body language at its FINEST. Moshood's french accent was also very prominent when he spoke English so you had to really be listening to understand him. Poor Henry (early 20s) from somewhere in Africa was without his buddy Mamadou, and bared through this wild translation, but I think Moshood got the point across and it ended up being pretty decent, better than the Google translate lesson we had last time! It's pretty hilarious how all the African guys we teach always have their little posse so if we find one of em and start teaching them it's a packaged deal and we have even more investigators! Honestly with the amount of Africans and Filipinos we teach we're really not serving a Greek mission AT ALL... might as well ship us over to Africa or send us down to the Philippines! 

We've had 2 video lessons with a guy named Prabhat from India who only comes to Larnaca on Sundays, but he's super awesome. The 1st call we had with him he told us his little sister, who he was really close to, had passed away. Immediately we told, "you want to know something Prabhat? We know that one day you will see your sister again, and we can help you learn how." And ever since then he has just been so amazing to teach. Yesterday he was in town so we met with him for the 1st time and the 1st thing he said was, "so I can actually see my sister again??". Ahhh my heart just felt for him! Not having the knowledge about eternal families would be SO HARD! And he asked for us to give him the "Book" we had been telling him about aka the Book of Mormon so we got him one in Hindi and he also wanted one in English. We gave the entire restoration lesson and it was INCREDIBLE Xs 10! We could feel the spirit so strongly and all the videos we watched about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he loved and you could just see all the puzzle pieces just fitting together in his mind. The gospel just makes so much sense! And then at the very end, feeling the Spirit tell us it was right, we extended a baptismal invitation and he just said, "Yes yes yes I want that!" So he is on date for August 18th and if everything progresses as it has been we think he will be ready to be baptized!

Other little noteworthy things from this week:

1. Sister Kruger found 20€ while picking up trash with the elders. We didn't know how we'd transport all the bags of garbage (dead animals included) so we used the abandoned shopping cart and just wheeled it around till we came across a trash bin. Elder Kirkman and Sister Kruger's gloves they were using were full of sweat when they dumped em out, nastyyyy.

2. 44 people in Sacrament meeting this Sunday, NEW LARNACA BRANCH RECORD!

3. We had a both authentic Bulgarian and Filipino lunches with members, love trying new foods!

4. I learned Χρόνια Πολλά (Happy birthday) in Greek! I only sang it 500 times with Sister Kruger to get it down haha but it's really fun!

5. I was studying in Acts this week, and in chapter 11 it talks about preaching the word to the men of CYPRUS... and that's where I am!!! So I wrote a little note in my scriptures that said "serving in Cyrpus RIGHT NOW 7.17.19" so I can look back at that later!

6. look in Acts 10:36! There's there's smiley face after it says "he is the Lord of all". Pretty sneaky and convenient to through that in there I think ;)

There's a lot more I could add onto this week but this email's already quite lengthy so I'll get to the really good stuff now.

Heavenly Father is SO smartttt. Right now I'm talking about just how He calls us on missions, if we are able and willing, and how perfect it can be if you are so asked to serve Him. I've come to the knowledge today that a mission is really just experiencing the Savior's pain, but on a MUCH lower scale of course. But think of it - we experience rejection, ridicule, countless stares, misinformed people, angry people, crazy people and fed up people. And we endure it surprisingly  willingly. We experience the pure joy and love of Christ that's known as charity. We experience the heart break that He did; the misunderstanding. How cool is that?? We have the opportunity to, in one sense or another, literally follow the footsteps of the Savior, but in the way that is literally called of God the Eternal Father. So spiritual is that calling, so great was the price that our Savior paid for us; He paved a clear and narrow way for us home, and now we can reach it. But only with His help. Imagine traveling from Kendrick, WA (or wherever the you're from) all the way to Antarctica for example. But all you can do, all you can possibly manage, is 3 steps. Those three steps are so minuscule and vastly nonexistent in comparison with the rest of the way there. But those 3 steps show our intent and commitment to get there. You put yourself out there. I testify here and now that Jesus can, will, and has the power to carry us the rest of the way when we take our first, and seemingly insignificant, steps. He can carry us Home...to Antarctica ;) But we need to first show Him our love for Him. We need to return the love that He's shown us. God is there. Jesus is His Son. We have a living prophet who God speaks to us through and that's why we still have miracles today. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Gale ;)

PICS!

1. Grocery cart overflowing of garbage doing service with our elders!

2. 1st drive with the wheel on the right side!

3-4. Delivered some cookies and flowers to some less-actives :)

5. Sister Kruger and I taught Sunday school to our visitors from Boston, MA!

6-8. I'm living in a literal pinterest board I swear, just look at these stunning floral draperies all over town!