Εβδομάδα 24: "MAN YOU BEEN ORDAIIIINED?!"

We about traveled all around Cyrpus this week it was so crazy! Pday was really fun since we went to Λευκάρα (Lefkara) with the elders and explored this super cute village up there. Literally felt like we were walking through a real-life pinterest board!

The next day Sister Kruger and I picked up the Elders again and we drove down to Λεμεσός (Limmosal) for Zone council. It was really great! We did lots of role plays in Greek answering questions about the 10 commandments and then answering and linking our answer to teach the Restoration. Point being made that the Restoration needs to be the basis of everything, no wonder it's the 1st lesson we teach! We haven't had language study all week since we've been so busy so when we were up for the role play I panicked a bit since I haven't taught in Greek for for so long, but we bared through and taught simply which is also extremely important. That night we had a HUGE combined zone finding activity and put together a soccer tournament. We invited our friends from Larnaca and Nicosia to come down to Limmosal and lucky for us our friends showed up! Tournament was a blast and everyone was super into it. It went a little longer than expected so we didn't end up leaving till late. Thankfully Elder Nicolis said he'd drive since I was way tired. We made a pitstop at McD's @10 since none of us had eaten since lunch, found out Elder Nicolis is not a fan of drive throughs haha. I forgot how fun road trips were and it definitely made me miss going on them with friends and family back home. I felt like we were just a bunch of friends on a fun trip together but then reality hit when we woke up and were still missionaries the next day haha.

After a late night the night before, Sister Kruger and I were back on the road the next morning, Thursday, heading to Λευκωσία (Nicosia)! President requested we spend a day up there to scope out how the work would be for sister missionaries. The elders up there pretty much planned out our day which was really nice. We had extra time before a lesson so we called up an old investigator named Ernest who Sister Kruger had taught a while ago that moved to Nicosia and he was free. So we quickly met up with him and had a mini lesson and actually ended up setting him on a baptismal date! Elders in Nicosia hadn't had time to meet up with him so looks like they've been missing out big time.

Next lesson was with a guy named Stephen, he's from Ghana, Africa. Super cool guy. He's been meeting with the missionaries for quite some time, but only elders. He had a lot of questions about what faith actually is so we had a really good discussion on that. He also didn't think baptism wasn't important but then when we straight up told him, "you have to be baptized to be saved and go to the celestial kingdom". He thought for a sec and then replied, "wow, nobody has said it like that before". I think he kinda had a rain check on that and it might have hit him that yeah baptism is pretty dang important. He also said he can't wait to go back to Ghana and tell his friends about the kingdoms of glory since he had always wondered what happens to people after they die. Like he loves everything about the gospel and wants to go to the celestial kingdom but I don't think he quite understands how you exactly get there. So after the lesson he said he wanted to study more about baptism and had a different perspective about it all. And asked us to send us scriptures each day about it.

Then we did some finding. Went all the way to the Turkish border, kinda sketch. I'm pretty sure more than 1/2 the population there is Filipino. The Elders even recommended we carry around Tagalog copies of the BoM because of that and I'm glad we did! We met with a bunch of Filipino ladies in their 30s later at night, they all share an apartment. Only one is a member and the rest study the BoM with her. The missionaries have been visiting a long time but only elders so they really want sisters. One lady, Melinda, said she loved the gospel but didn't want to be baptized because she couldn't go to church every Sunday and fulfill all the church responsibilities she'd have to. But she loves the BoM and studies it daily. All the ladies are single moms and work and send money home to their families. They made Filipino food for us! One dish was Pansit noodles and the other was Buko salad, love their food! I definitely hope a sister area opens up in Nicosia soon! We got home late again that night, missionary work can be so exhausting!

We had a kinda weird meet up with an old investigator who is very very pregnant. Her name is Priya. She hadn't contacted us for a while and then randomly messaged us saying she needed help so we met up with her. We asked her what we could do for her and she said she needed her baby to be Christian so she didn't have to pay for a C-section so she wanted to be baptized...uhhhh yeah this was the weirdest request. We explained to her that baptism isn't something you jump into and it's really important. Then she proceeded to tell us she's been taking lessons for months from previous sisters and knows everything about our church already and has been to lots of activities. So we ended up going through the baptismal interview interview questions with her and she surprisingly knew her stuff. But that's the thing. Yeah she knew her stuff and could pass the interview, but we felt like she was just giving us the answers we wanted to hear and it wasn't because she genuinely wanted to be baptized and understood the significance of it. She asked to be baptized 2 days later but we told her that wouldn't be able to happen and she needed to really pray about baptism and start reading the Book of Mormon again since she had stopped a few months ago. So we'll see what happens with her. She came to church tho, so maybe she will actually be ready for baptism in a few weeks.

The rest of the week was kinda a blur since we had so much going on. It was just one of those weeks that we just couldn't fit everything we wanted in the time we had! We had some amazing lesson with our Cameroonian African investigators. They are honestly so solid and I know will make such strong members some day! I LOVE teaching them, their desires are so pure and they are such gentlemen. They soak up everything we teach them so quick and you can see all the puzzles pieces just fitting together for them.

The funniest little convo happened at FHE (Family Home Evening) between a recent convert, Fortune and an Investigator, Leonel aka Leo for short.
So you just gotta picture 2 African guys with their African accent and hopefully you can picture when happened!
*Fortune goes up to Leo*
Fortune: I'm gonna baptize you man!
Leo: Man You been ordaiiined??
Fortune: Ya man I been ordained!
*continues to argue about whether or not Fortune has actually been ordained lol*
Maybe you had to be there to actually think it was funny but anyone in a hearing radius of this convo just died, it was the best thing ever.

We had 8 FRIENDS and 5 INVESTIGATORS in church!! What the WHATTT!! So great! They all sat and struck up convos with members from their countries lol. Africans found their Africans and Indians found their Indians haha. Church was amazing, just the messages that a lot of investigators needed, personal revelation and word of wisdom. We went and visited some older ladies who are LA (less-active), and then had a lesson with 2 other investigators, Inder and Balli. They're from India. Basically told then we were gonna have to take a long break...aka drop them... if they weren't willing to accept any of the commitments since we've been meeting a long time and they still haven't started reading the BoM or praying, UGHHH. We were super straightforward and very blunt. Hopefully it sunk into their thick skulls. They said they were waiting for a sign and someone to be sent from God so they would know what to do with their lives and we're just sitting in front of them like HELLLOOOO WAKE UP WERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE. We're basically praying for a miracle for them at this point, long story short. BUT no matter who we teach, we still love them...or try to love them... that's something Sis Kruger and I are learning together as we teach some investigators that can be really frustrating. We find ourselves frequently repeating to ourselves, "we love being a missionary...we love being a missionary" haha. Why can't people just understand that we are giving them the greatest gift on this Earth that will bless them for ETERNITY yet they still just look at it and never open it?!

Really great reminder that I needed from one of my closest friends: you can't know the good days without having the bad. As weird as it might sound, I am grateful for the days I fall short, get a little discouraged, and feel like I'm just dragging my feet and I can't do it. That's when I learn to turn to my Savior, because He knows EXACTLY what I'm feeling. It makes me even more grateful for the good days I'm blessed with! Where everything just seems to go perfectly! There is power in the Atonement of Christ, its undeniable and I wouldn't make it a day without it. I testify that Heavenly Father's plan for us is PERFECT. And even though sometimes I wish I could've changed a few things in my life, reversed life a bit and done things better or made a different choice, I know that through everything, good and bad, I've come to learn how incredible His plan is for me personally. He lifts me up wherever and whenever I fall short. I know without a doubt that this is where I'm supposed to be right now, and I am reminded of that over and over again. I love being a missionary and can honestly say I have never been happier!

Have the greatest week everyone!

Love, Sister Gale

And for everyone else that lives through my pics since my emails are literal essays sometimes... whoops!

Well here's a whole load of em for ya and more to come!

1. Sis Kruger is a literal angel I love her!

2. Found a giant pot...so...

3-4. More with Sis K

5-6. Broke just about every safety rules but the view was 10/10

7-8. Larnaclan 😎

9-15. More pretty pics of the village in Λευκοσία! 

16-18. Soccer tournament in Λεμεσός!

19. Our Cameroonian friends! 2 are recent converts, 2 are investigators, and 1 is a member! All at church together!