Εβδομάδα 34: Αθηνά on STRIKE!

Dearest everyone, 

Officially back in Greece! And boy has it been a crazy week for many reasons. Mostly because I'm now with Sister Campbell ;) She's from New Mexico, in the good ole US of A... my 1st American companion! She's been out for about 10 months already so just a little more than me. We both left Cyprus together and are whitewashing our new area, Άγιος Δημήτριος, Athens. We're pretty similar in a lot of ways so it's been a really fun 1st week! 

Also, Jimmer Fredette is in the English branch we attend now, way sweet.

P-day in ΑΓΊΑ ΝΆΠΑ! (Ayia Napa: a resort at the far eastern end of the southern coast of Cyprus.) We couldn't swim, but we enjoyed walking around in the colorful fish filled waters and just soaking up every last second of Cyprus. Coolest mission ever. 🏝🐡🌍🦀🌺🌴☀️🐠

TRIO

We arrived in Athens Monday night and were in a temporary trio with Sister Vennerholm. Being in a trio is FUN STUFF lemme tell you. After picking up all our luggage, the senior couple drove us to our new apartment to shorten our hour long metro ride since we live a ways away from the church. They dropped us off, all of us dead tired and ready to crash, and Sister Campbell asks, "do you guys have the keys?" In which Sister Vennerholm and I both look at each other like "uhhhh no do you have them??" So turned out none of us had the keys and we had forgotten to grab em from the church! 😅 We called the senior couple back and they drove us another 45 mins back to get our forgotten keys and then we took the hour metro ride all the way back to our apartment. Not sure why, but we left our luggage outside the door and luckily it was all still there when we came back! Miracles do happen ;) so yeah, that was our adventure for day 1. 

SHOPPING CART

We do so much finding on the metro since that's our main source of transportation. EVERYONE SPEAKS GREEK AGAIN! not Cyprus Greek or Thessaloniki Greek tho... Athens Greek. It's really really fast. It's slowly coming back to me but it's hard to understand sometimes, gift of tongues is in full swing right now. We had interviews with President Tuesday morning. On the walk to the church we found a shopping cart! ... andddd of course we put 2 and 2 together and I jumped in the cart and Sister Campbell ran and pushed me all the way to the church, President definitely was inspired to put us together;) its gonna be a crazy adventurous transfer at this rate! 😎

PRESIDENT ANDERSON

Interview with President Anderson was SOLID! I really enjoy talking to him, he really knows each and every missionary personally. He complemented me in my boldness with teaching and says he is amazed with the confidence I have in sharing the gospel. He also told me he loves that I'm always smiling and have such a happy countenance that is so contagious. AND promised in our next interview he'd say the prayer in Mandarin since I challenged him to it, I love President Anderson. And he gave me a first bump for being one of the only missionaries who say my interview prayer in Greek, he officially got cooler 😉

FINDING 

We took the metro back to our apartment afterwards and more finding it was! Sister C had 4 copies of the BoM and asked, "what are we gonna do with all these" and I responded saying, "we'll just give em all out" in which she commented, "you're crazy" lol. Well guess what! Botta bing botta boom, handed 3 of those out on the metro ride home. Sister C says I'm really bold with strangers which she appreciates because sometimes she has a hard time. But I'm in a mindset of, "well we have every reason to talk to people because 1. We stand out and are wearing tags and a dresses 2. We'll probably never see any of these people again so I don't care what they think of us and 3. You just give them a chance to hear about the gospel and they can take it or leave it, least we can do is try right?" Sister Campbell can get disappointed when people reject us and I can too, but Heavenly Father only cares if we're trying. She's a great missionary, we make a good team.

Sister C, V, and I went to an investigators home for dinner. Her name is Άρτεμις and her daughter, Ειρήνη! Ειρήνη reminds me of Kassi SO MUCH! They lived in Louisiana for a while so they speak English and have an american accent. But they're also Greek so their Greek is perfect. It was really hilarious because Irini has no filter and when we were eating she would make comments and then Artimis would switch to Greek and yell at her and we're all just sitting there like, "we still understand you!" Hahaha. They are the cutest little family and she LOVES the missionaries! We had lots of good laughs and if the rest of Athens is like them I'm sold!

It's hilarious because nearly every time we talk to someone Sister C will point to me and introduce me by saying "είσαι απο την Κίνα!" (she's from China!) Its SO FUNNY! 😂 So many random ways to make finding fun and an easily conversation starter for sure. 

ATHENS ON STRIKE! The entire metro station was down all Wed and most of Thurs which made it a mess for everyone to get to the church for zone conference since everyone is so far away and scattered around Athens and we use the metro to go everywhere. So Zone conference started way late, but it was still amazing. We sang "Hope of Israel" for the opening song, I was looking at the lyrics and the part of "Jesus will say all of Israel come home" really stuck out to me. One day all the Greeks' hearts will be softened and everyone will understand and accept the gospel! I can't wait for that day! There's so many people that need to know they have a Savior!

R E A D  T H I S ! ! ! 💛

Really insane analogy of the judgment day. I put myself in the role of the person being judged but you can put yourself in there. So imagine that God has a place containing 2 offices and a giant room filled with chairs. Rows and rows, completely filling every corner and inch of space. In each of those chairs is a different version of you in some point of your life. Every single one of your identities. Each version of you is called into the office of God, one by one. "Would the wife of... please come into the office...", in which that identity would then give an account of that part of their life and of their good works. Then next, "would the mother of...", "the daughter of Michael and Dorothy Gale...", "the sister of Kiera, Kassidy, and Mikenna...", "the missionary in Thessaloniki, Greece...", "the Sister Gale in Larnaca, Cyprus...", "the Laurel Class President...", "the Relief Society teacher at BYU...", "the friend of...", and so it goes. Until EVERY part of our lives, one by one, is interviewed by God in which an account of that portion of our lives is reported. And soon enough, the very last version of yourself is left sitting in the waiting room, alone, waiting to be called into God's office. But this is the version of ourselves that we don't want anybody to see or know about. This is the version we are ashamed of. The person who's imperfect, judged others, who lied, made mistakes, holds guilt, hasn't forgiven, and has so so SO many regrets. Now, "would THIS part of Kaylee Gale please come into the office." As this version slowly and shamefully makes their walk, head down and shoulders crouched over towards the office, Christ opens the 2nd office door. He comes out  and says, "I will walk with you, you do not need to walk this alone." He stands right besides us, never ashamed of us. This is when Christ truly becomes our SAVIOR ♡ The effect of His Atonement is truly made known and brought clear to the surface. I LOVE this analogy, it has given me a whole new understanding of how vital a role Christ plays in our lives. 

Love ya'll, have a fabulous week! 

Sister Gale :)

PICS

1-9 ΑΓΊΑ ΝΑΠΑ exploring

10 Mama Grover ♡

11 pulling up in a shoppin cart ;)

12 temporary trio

13 Sister Campbell!