Εβδομάδα 49: Mafia lookout

Γειααα ξανά!

Anddd yet another week came and went. Sister Vennerholm and I just realized we could only have 2 more weeks together which is sad stuff because we love serving with each other, having a best friend in a companion seriously makes your mission either fly by or just drag on. Maybe Heavenly Father will bless us with a 3rd transfer together but... Θα δούμε!

Little tender mercy happened during my exchange with Sister Campbell on Thursday. We were walking back to the church after doing some finding with the Elders along the sea and these 3 men say, "hi sisters!" as we walk by them. To other missionaries NOT in Greece this is probably pretty normal but here that literally NEVER happens, because no one knows who we are. We turned around really excited saying hi back to them and asked them if they were members. They said, "yes we are from the Philippines!" So I was automatically 10Xs more intrigued haha. 1 outta 3 of em was a member! I told them I had a cousin and a friend in the Philippines that were missionaries like us so they asked where and I told them Cebu. Then they got all excited and say, "we are from Cebu!" AHH NO WAY! I've talked to a good amount of Filipinos but have only met 1 from Cebu so far! They asked what cities my cousin and friend were in and I told them I didn't remember where exactly because the names were sometimes hard to pronounce and they change cities too. So I asked them what city they were from so I could tell my peeps there I'd met people from where they were serving and they said, "from Lapu-Lapu!" That city named automatically registered in my head because that's where my cousin James, or Elder Chan, is serving right now! I got real excited haha and so did they, small world right?! They work between Thessaloniki and Athens are headed back home to the Philippines soon. I asked the non member men if they had seen this white building in Cebu before as I showed them a picture I had of my cousin James and friend Spencer at the temple there and they go, "yes yes we know that building, we have many Mormon churches there and friends that go there!" Then the 1 man who was a member said the last time he went to the temple was a year ago when his family was sealed and shared he still has a current temple recommend. I asked the non member friends if I could write down their number to share with my cousin so he could maybe meet them when they went home and they were all for it saying, "of course we would love to meet your family!" Sis C continued talking to the member while I carried on with the others. I asked them, "so you speak Bisaya right?" They laughed and said of course so I told them a few things I remembered in Cebuano and they were impressed I knew anything haha. I told them I had something for them to translate for me and pulled out my phone with an email from my friend Spencer, or Elder Anderson, where he had shared with me a part of his testimony in Bisaya. They started reading it and translating it and part of what he had written was about living prophets. When they translated that part they looked at me excitedly saying, "wow a living prophet?!" I told them "yes!" They finished reading the last little bit and told me, "this is very good, we like this." I bore testimony to them that I knew, just as my friend of mine had shared with me, that we have a living prophet today because God still speaks to us and loves his children. And how blessed we are to have a direct mouthpiece for him. I asked if they would like to know more about this and how they could have more joy in their lives and they gladly nodded their heads saying yes. I told them I would tell my cousin and he could even help teach them in their native language and they were very happy about that. Not a bad thing for them to translate for me ;) it was a smooth way to slide in the gospel convo with them and share some important truths of Christ's restored church! Solid quick convo and a solid referral, perfect. I love Filipinos, they're always so content and friendly. The Greeks could learn a few things from them haha. This experience was definitely a little tender mercy for me because I was just thinking of how sad it was that no body ever says hi to us, or recognizes who the missionaries are because the church is so unknown here... and then that happens! Heavenly Father is always listening ♡

Oh yeah, I also met another lady from Southern China close to where my grandparents grew up. She was on a work trip and is only in Thessaloniki once every 2 months or we would love to actively teach her, she was really kind and seemed interested. But we'll probably never see her again. Her 1st language is Mandarin but she also spoke Greek. She also knows a little Cantonese so when I starting speaking the very limited vocab I know she thought that was really cool. When I started saying some things in Cantonese Sister Campbell's eyes got way big and goes, "I didn't know you spoke Chinese?!" Haha I wish, it's times like this I wish I had listened to my grandparents and learned Chinese growing up! We actually did a good amount of finding this week but we didn't find any new friends. Finding Greek people to teach is HARD. One guy came over to us just to continuously call us a heiracy. We asked what that meant to him and he explained anything that was not Greek Orthodox and then left. He's got a thing or 2 to learn haha.

So Μπάμπης (Babis), our previous investigator. Long story short he's been permanently handed over to the elders and we only see him at activities and church and have tried not to be too involved with him. On Saturday he asked if we would have lunch with him at his work so we decided since we hadn't talked in a long time we could be nice and do that. So we did and the entire time we were with him he kept looking around as if someone was gonna attack him or something. Really weird. We asked him what was going on and he told us that he might die in a few days because the Mafia was after him so he needs to be on the lookout. Also that he was going to go the police because someone said his name in church. Oh boyyy. It was interesting catching up with him. That night the elders called us asking if we had already met up with Babis and we told em we did. Then they inform us that Babis has been carrying around a knife with him and is being really psycho lately. They forgot to mention that earlier and warned us to not meet with him without them because they didn't want anything to happen to us. Well, I made the anonymous decision that we will not be seeing Babis again regardless if we're with the elders. This guy has been going more than crazy lately and it's not worth risking anything.

Sister Vennerholm and I tried out luck and went out to drop off one of our "light the world" referrals that was farther out for Christmas CDs to a lady named Γιώτα Φουντούκι, but she didn't answer. That was unfortunate, but we left it in her mailbox. I just think the funny thing about it all is her name translates to "I hazelnut" haha.

Another funny thing: There's actually a good amount of Greek people who pretend to be dead for various reasons. Yeah, it's as weird as it sounds. There's 2 members here that have supposedly "died" but have both made their appearances again, one of which was at the Jenny Oaks baker concert we had a few weeks back, forgot to mention that. So the members who knew them and saw him there had some pretty awkward conversation starters with him. Just think about going up to someone and saying, "wait, I thought you died...???" hahaha.

We've had several lessons with our Persian family and they are doing amazing. We found out that a Persian preach my gospel existed so we printed off all the lessons to give to them to make sure they are understanding us correctly. They love being able to read in their language because it makes so much more sense. We've been going over the commandments and everything we've taught so far they are already living so that makes it easy. They haven't been able attend church recently tho because the husband has something going on with his face and is in enough pain where he can't leave the house. We're thinking he has something going on with a tooth but he's never been to a dentist nor has funds to do so we're trying to figure something out to help him so he can help his family receive the blessings of church attendance and then ultimately being baptized members in the near future!

Spiritual goodness is from 1 Chronicles 22:16 this time.
"Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee." Or in Greek, Εμπρός, λοιπόν, ξεκίνα το έργο και ο Κύριος ας είναι μαζί σου». Α΄ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΩΝ  22:16

In the Greek translation we are counseled to "ξεκίνα" or "GET STARTED"! To simply begin somewhere and then allow the Lord to direct our paths. Just like nothing will happen in missionary work unless we find someone to teach, nothing will happen if our lives if we are just sitting, waiting for the Lord to tell us to do something. He expects us to use our agency and the brain he gave us to start somewhere, and then look to Him for guidance, and that is when He shall direct our paths for good.

Any other thought of mine came from all the people who ask ask why they need to be part of an organized religion if they're already good people. Well one, it's for the Unification and perfection of the Saints as discussed in Ephesians 2 and 4. It is necessary for us to progress and learn, that's what God desires. Perfection is not achievable in solitude. Also, without a church, there would be no temples. No preaching of the gospel, meaning the prophecy in Matthew, that the gospel will be brought to all nations, would never be fulfilled. There would be no Priesthood, no keys to bring the blessings to those on both sides of the veil. Essentially, no salvation for anyone. Point being, being part of an organized Church is necessary. Cool thing that a recent convert, Πάνος, shared about the cross. The vertical line represents your personally relationship between God. The horizontal line represents the covenants, the ordinances, the relationships you have with others, the church. We need members. We can't perform saving ordinances on ourselves, we need others. The gospel has been promised to never be taken again from this earth, and it will roll forth with or without us. So question is: whose side do we want to be on? God's side or not?

ΣΑΣ ΑΓΑΠΏ ΠΟΛΎ! ΤΑ ΛΈΜΣΣΣ ;)

Love,
Sister Gale

Ps. Sis V tried Graham crackers for the 1st time that I got sent from home and and loved em. Point America. That's all ;)

PICS!
1-2. Friendly fútbol competition
3. Cebu friends!
4. Exchanges with Αδελφή Κάμπελ
5. Cuties are in season yummm
6. Elders caught us power nappin...whoops