Εβδομάδα 29: got chased...and brought home a pup

Γεια σας!! (Heyyy!)

I just gotta say, we have the BEST investigators! Francis and David are BOTH going to be baptized together next Sunday, September 8th!! They are READY and A, double plus, kinda solid. It has honestly been the greatest joy of my mission teaching them each from the very beginning. Sometimes I ask myself what I did to deserve to play a role in these miracles, why am I so lucky. And honestly, I don't know. All I know for sure is I love doing the Lord's work. I feel so much joy and happiness as I see all our friends preparing to make these special, sacred covenants with Heavenly Father. There is truly no greater work to be a part of. I am so blessed. 

TOP EVENTS:

• got chased half way home riding our bikes and luckily made it to live another day

• brought home the cutest puppy

• 2 of our African investigators are READY and prepared to be baptized NEXT SUNDAY!

• my better half, aka Sister Kruger, came back and we set another baptismal date together! We have 8 total for September now!

• not really an event BUT it's really pretty disgusting walking outside and recognizing what a dead cat smells like... think I'm kinda used to it now

NOTE WORTHY QUOTES (either just solid good ones or funny)

• *Francis taking about getting baptized*

"a yes is a yes, and I am in for life"

• *telling Martin our next lesson was about Priesthood*

"ooh I like power! Does that mean I need to bring a bowl or something to hold it?" He keeps a straight face for about 2 seconds before he cracks himself up and of course we are already right there laughing with him!

• *talking about being bold with our investigators while still loving them*  

"We can't push people into the baptismal font BUT if they run away from us INTO the baptismal font well..." -Elder Free

• *Martin imagining he was assigned a Greek speaking mission*

"I'm just gonna shake everyone's hands and say, "Ευχαριστώ, είσαι καλα;, εντάξει, ναι, παρά καλό"

His African Greek is something else I'm telling ya!

Here's 2 fun stories for ya'll:

1. PUPPY IN OUR APARTMENT!! 😍

Sister Kruger and Sister Stulen came down from Nicosia to help us out on Friday!!! So we doubled the missionary work! Sister Baird and I were on our way back home after doing some finding in the am when the puppy that is usually on the other side of the fence in front of our apartment complex got out and was running around. And of COURSE she was in need of some puppy love from the Larnaca sisters for sure ;) we knocked on the door of the owner's... no answer. Then the Grovers had just gotten back and we told them what was going on and they told us, "well you can keep it on your balcony till they get back!" YESSS!! so we get back to our apartment, and the Nicosia sisters are inside doing their personal study and they open the door for us and and we're just like, "look what we found!!" We all have a soft spot for cute puppies haha. Even tho technically we aren't suppose to have pets as a missionary rule BUT... what would Jesus do right?? Would he take care of the dog temporarily or let it run around in the streets and risk it getting run over like all the dead kittens we see everywhere?? Pretty obvious answer here. Anyways we kept it out on our balcony while we had lunch, her name is Princess. We eventually had to get back to missionary work and found a way to get Princess back over the fence and block the hole where she got out. 

2. GETTING CHASED 😅

After finishing a lesson late Monday night, I looked out the window and saw this guys, made eye contact, and smiled. But then he got a creepy evil grin and continued slowly walking and stopped in front of the church. Determined to be confident and not act like this dude was intimidating me, I walked out, shook his hand, and introduced my self and said have a good night. That was it. He didn't speak very well English. I haven't seen him before but all bets in that he's Muslim. Some people you just know. He continued to stand there as we unlocked our bikes, as well as Elder Grover, who joined our lesson and wanted to make sure we got going all right. As soon as we get going this guy starts chasing us and I start yelling at Sister Baird to pedal faster as she starts to slow down unaware that this guy is on us, and wanting to turn on her bike lights. No time for those! The guy was yelling at us and as we round the corner he's still on us and I'm just telling sister Βaird, "faster Sister Baird! we have to GO he's right behind us!" She finally realizes why I'm so panicked and picks up the pace. The adrenaline kicked in and I don't think we've ever biked faster. My heart was pounding so hard and we took another way to get back to our place to make sure the guy wouldn't know where we lived as we finally lost him. We got back and Sister Baird goes, "I'm so grateful you realized what was going on because I didn't. I honestly don't think I'd be alive without a companion." Haha oh boy. Another close call and I'm glad we got back safely. Elder Grover was walking back so we went into see Sister Grover and wait to make sure he made I back alright. Elder Grover got back and told us as were were unlocking our bikes, he could see the guy was eyeing us and when he took off after us, Elder Grover started chasing after him. Then once we lost the guy, he started walking back towards Elder Grover, so he confronted him and asked why he was chasing us. The guy responded saying he didn't speak good English and he thought we had asked him out for a drink. Elder Grover was very clear to make sure he understood that was NOT what we had talked to him to about at all. And the guy, clearly drunk, apologized. Oh my days, these mission stories are crazy. 

We have started teaching a cute couple from Argentina that are so receptive to learning about the Gospel. The husband is very knowledge about the Bible and has super deep questions that even Sister Baird and I don't completely understand or have the answers to. All we are thinking is simply, "READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!! We KNOW it will answer your questions!" Sometimes we feel so inadequate for the job of being Heavenly Father mouthpiece, and we wish we could have a greater understanding on specific doctrinal topics. But the fact of the matter is, we don't need to understand everything, WE KNOW ENOUGH. Our testimonies are more powerful than we think. As we bore our testimonies to them, we knew they could recognize the Spirit. We just worry too much about wanting to say everything perfectly and to give them all the answers to everything when sometimes we just need to exercise faith that the Lord will soften their hearts and help them understand. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT coming from...

2 Nephi 9:39! 

"O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal"

If ya look real closely at the last line... "Spiritually-Minded Is Life Eternal" you see SMILE!! See, even the scripture remind us to do this! 

Have a blessed week I love you all! 

Τα λέμε!

Love, 

Sister Gale 

PICS!! 

1,3,7,14 seriously in my top 3 fav flowers, they are EVERYWHERE!

2,11,5 pday today! exploring around town

9,10 our garbage bags suck... and do does watermelon juice. we've had a snail trail of it stained on the road for the past 7 days...whoops!

4 sister Kruger came back to visit!

6,12,13 pretty view in Larnaca!

8 our favorite Filipino, Lucy!