Eβδομάδα 55: too many lingos
Exchanges week! So basically we weren't in our area all this week which was kinda weird and instead we were in Athens with the rest of the Greek sisters. The flight down on Tuesday afternoon we had a really cool experience! We were seated next to this really nice guy we told us he had actually met missionaries exactly 10 years ago that day in the exact same situation on an airplane and he had accepted the Book of Mormon they gave him. He thought that was pretty cool and quite the coincidence. He hadn't done anything with Book of Mormon though so we told him he better open it up since it seems like God is trying to tell him something if he's meeting missionaries for the 2nd time. We ended up having a really good discussion about the Atonement and what that means for us and what of an expression of love that is. He was polite and liked what we were doing, contributed to the conversation, but was very reluctant to giving us any contact information which was sad. He told us if he met missionaries for a 3rd time in exactly 10 years in a plane then he will do something because then he will KNOW God is trying to tell him something.
Part 1 of exchanges was with Sister Campbell. It was kinda weird being back in my old area. We had run outta Greek copies of the Book of Mormon again so we took a handful of other languages with us when we went out including French, Tagalog, Spanish, and a few others. On the way to go visit a less active, I was passing by this cute Africa mom pushing her baby girl and after I walked by, I heard her saying something I couldn't understand because it wasn't Greek or English. I could tell she was trying to get my attention as she was pointing at my tag and the Tagalog Book of Mormon I had in my hand. After some language barrier difficulties she finally put together "I am this" pointing again to the Book of Mormon I had. So I asked if she was a member and she started nodding her head quickly saying yes! Her names Molongi, and it turns out she was baptized 3 years ago and had just moved from Africa to Athens not to long ago and had no idea the church existed in Greece. So she was super happy to see us walking the streets and made sure we got her all the details so she could attend church again! She ended up being French speaking and didn't have a French Book of Mormon with her so she asked if we had one and luckily we did! MIRACLE! We were late to Augusta's place and filled her in on what just happened and since she is French speaking too she gladly accepted helping Molongi find where church is and all that on Sunday.
Soon after we were off to visit another less-active member named Genesis. Last time I saw her she was super prego but I got to meet her new little boy this time! So she's from Venezuela but her husband is Greek so sometimes he'll help to translate. She told us her brother has a giant tattoo on his bicep saying "CTR" haha, I found that was pretty funny. She had her best friend from Venezuela there with her too and is planning on getting baptized soon! She only speaks Spanish tho. Our little lesson with then was focused on Moroni 7 and we read it in Spanish with a Greek/Spanish translation discussion. And lemme tell ya my brain has never been so confused. It would pick up little bits of Spanish I had learned from my high school days but then only Greek would come out when I would say anything. So they'd ask me a simple question like, "que te gusta?" (what do you like), completely understanding what they asked, so I responded 1st by saying, "me gusta..." ( I like...) and then stopped because that was as far as my Spanish vocab took me before Greek replaced the rest haha. Wouldn't have pictured myself in this situation 5 years ago sittin in Spanish class haha. Plus reading the Spanish versus was hecka hard too cus my brain is so Greek wired. I don't get how anyone can be tri-lingual or more when I can barely be bilingual. Anyways, our visit with their family was really good and they have improved so much since when I had been serving there which was amazing to see.
Day 2 of exchanges was with Sister Mathis! One of my favorite part of being am STL is getting to be able to serve a day with sisters I haven't been blessed to serve with or around yet! She's also from the same blessed country of America and we play the same sports, having super similar personalities, were raised pretty similar, and basically had the greatest day together. She's really fun and an awesome missionary. In the AM we taught Greek class to a group of Turkish friends. Then went back to our place for some studies and got in a convo about our missions and how they are so different then anything we had ever pictured them being. To sum it up, everyone needs to know: MISSIONS ARE HARD. Anyone who ever thinks they're just gonna go have a breeze for 18 months or 2 years is in for a real treat. Neither of us wouldn't have ever pictured ourselves 5 years ago literally being the backbone of the church. And neither of us have a single connection to Greece . So it's truly humbling to know the Lord specifically trusts us and needs us here. That night was super fun because we met up with Elders Ioannou and Sorensen to do whiteboard finding out in Pireas. It was the first time I'd ever done a whiteboard with all AMERICANS! Boy was that fun haha. I don't think I realized how much I missed being around Americans, speaking american English with no accents. It just reminded me of home and being with good friends. We didn't have a whole lot of so called "success" in finding anyone who wanted to learn but did meet this guy from Ukraine who didn't speak a hint of English or Greek. So we (us 4), all tried to communicate with him via google translate, charades, and lots of basically pure guessing. We put together he'd met missionaries before and so that's why he was really excited to see us. It was a really cool experience if we were understanding him correctly. From what we put together he had this crazy situation when a gas bomb went off in his country when he was with a friend. Apparently he had faith and prayed Jesus would save him but his friend didn't. So he lived and his friend died. So now he believes in God. I guess it takes some people near death experiences to realize the reality of God's existence.
So we all got notified by President Anderson that the Corona Virus made it's way into Greece, specifically Thessaloniki, so now we've been giving tons of precautions to follow. Zero physical contact with anyone and loadin up on the hand sanitizer. Praying we won't need to be locked down in our apartments anytime soon like several other missions but only time will tell.
Saturday we were back where we left off in Thessaloniki. It felt like a really slow day coming from 2 really busy days. We met up with the elders and some of Orestis' friends for what we thought would be a friendly game of fútbol, come to find out another group of guys were also at the field and ended up joining in and people were getting hurt left and right. So all us missionaries kinda backed off and left everyone else to get hurt because we wanted to be able to walk away all bones in tact. This is one of the things we do for service since occasionally we'll make a new friend or 2 here. We had a visit with the Chapis family the same night. If anyone needs someone to brighten their day, a visit at their place sure will do it! Their home is always full of love and energetic little spirits with their 3 kiddos running around! We watched a little snippet from Elder Uchdorf's talk, "A Yearning for Home" with the cute story he shared right off the bat. The kids loved it. We had a really good discussion about the light of Christ and and the Holy Ghost and the direction we receive as we are worthily and willingly seeking direction.
Within each of us is a yearning for our Heavenly home. Our journey there doesn't just involves ourselves but also those around us. I know I wouldn't be where I am today without the support and influence of my incredible family and my closest friends. Throughout my mission I have been trying to find in every opportunity to look out as Christ does when the natural man would turn in. I'll tell ya it hasn't been easy and I don't always succeed but that's what we have the Atonement. Christ makes up the diffidence and carries our faults to give us more opportunities to try again. A lot of times I'm at fault for jumping to conclusions, or assuming things, and instead have recognized I need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Everyone is in their own journey, has their own paths, and I would rather be a help than a burden to everyone's path to true discipleship. A quote I love that has really helped me is from Elder Dale G. Renlund when he teaches, “In the Church, to effectively serve others we must see them through a parent’s eyes, through Heavenly Father’s eyes. Only then can we begin to comprehend the true worth of a soul. Only then can we sense the love that Heavenly Father has for all of His children. Only then can we sense the Savior’s caring concern for them. … Only when we see through Heavenly Father’s eyes can we be filled with ‘the pure love of Christ’ (Moroni 7:47)."
I'd challenge each of you to strive to do just that: see everyone through God's eyes. Have a great week everyone!
Lots of love from your Greek sister,
Αδελφή Γκεϊλ
PICS!
1 exchanges with Sister Mathis!
2 view from the apartment
3-4 traveling with Sis Ahlström
5 dinner with the Athens sisters
Part 1 of exchanges was with Sister Campbell. It was kinda weird being back in my old area. We had run outta Greek copies of the Book of Mormon again so we took a handful of other languages with us when we went out including French, Tagalog, Spanish, and a few others. On the way to go visit a less active, I was passing by this cute Africa mom pushing her baby girl and after I walked by, I heard her saying something I couldn't understand because it wasn't Greek or English. I could tell she was trying to get my attention as she was pointing at my tag and the Tagalog Book of Mormon I had in my hand. After some language barrier difficulties she finally put together "I am this" pointing again to the Book of Mormon I had. So I asked if she was a member and she started nodding her head quickly saying yes! Her names Molongi, and it turns out she was baptized 3 years ago and had just moved from Africa to Athens not to long ago and had no idea the church existed in Greece. So she was super happy to see us walking the streets and made sure we got her all the details so she could attend church again! She ended up being French speaking and didn't have a French Book of Mormon with her so she asked if we had one and luckily we did! MIRACLE! We were late to Augusta's place and filled her in on what just happened and since she is French speaking too she gladly accepted helping Molongi find where church is and all that on Sunday.
Soon after we were off to visit another less-active member named Genesis. Last time I saw her she was super prego but I got to meet her new little boy this time! So she's from Venezuela but her husband is Greek so sometimes he'll help to translate. She told us her brother has a giant tattoo on his bicep saying "CTR" haha, I found that was pretty funny. She had her best friend from Venezuela there with her too and is planning on getting baptized soon! She only speaks Spanish tho. Our little lesson with then was focused on Moroni 7 and we read it in Spanish with a Greek/Spanish translation discussion. And lemme tell ya my brain has never been so confused. It would pick up little bits of Spanish I had learned from my high school days but then only Greek would come out when I would say anything. So they'd ask me a simple question like, "que te gusta?" (what do you like), completely understanding what they asked, so I responded 1st by saying, "me gusta..." ( I like...) and then stopped because that was as far as my Spanish vocab took me before Greek replaced the rest haha. Wouldn't have pictured myself in this situation 5 years ago sittin in Spanish class haha. Plus reading the Spanish versus was hecka hard too cus my brain is so Greek wired. I don't get how anyone can be tri-lingual or more when I can barely be bilingual. Anyways, our visit with their family was really good and they have improved so much since when I had been serving there which was amazing to see.
Day 2 of exchanges was with Sister Mathis! One of my favorite part of being am STL is getting to be able to serve a day with sisters I haven't been blessed to serve with or around yet! She's also from the same blessed country of America and we play the same sports, having super similar personalities, were raised pretty similar, and basically had the greatest day together. She's really fun and an awesome missionary. In the AM we taught Greek class to a group of Turkish friends. Then went back to our place for some studies and got in a convo about our missions and how they are so different then anything we had ever pictured them being. To sum it up, everyone needs to know: MISSIONS ARE HARD. Anyone who ever thinks they're just gonna go have a breeze for 18 months or 2 years is in for a real treat. Neither of us wouldn't have ever pictured ourselves 5 years ago literally being the backbone of the church. And neither of us have a single connection to Greece . So it's truly humbling to know the Lord specifically trusts us and needs us here. That night was super fun because we met up with Elders Ioannou and Sorensen to do whiteboard finding out in Pireas. It was the first time I'd ever done a whiteboard with all AMERICANS! Boy was that fun haha. I don't think I realized how much I missed being around Americans, speaking american English with no accents. It just reminded me of home and being with good friends. We didn't have a whole lot of so called "success" in finding anyone who wanted to learn but did meet this guy from Ukraine who didn't speak a hint of English or Greek. So we (us 4), all tried to communicate with him via google translate, charades, and lots of basically pure guessing. We put together he'd met missionaries before and so that's why he was really excited to see us. It was a really cool experience if we were understanding him correctly. From what we put together he had this crazy situation when a gas bomb went off in his country when he was with a friend. Apparently he had faith and prayed Jesus would save him but his friend didn't. So he lived and his friend died. So now he believes in God. I guess it takes some people near death experiences to realize the reality of God's existence.
So we all got notified by President Anderson that the Corona Virus made it's way into Greece, specifically Thessaloniki, so now we've been giving tons of precautions to follow. Zero physical contact with anyone and loadin up on the hand sanitizer. Praying we won't need to be locked down in our apartments anytime soon like several other missions but only time will tell.
Saturday we were back where we left off in Thessaloniki. It felt like a really slow day coming from 2 really busy days. We met up with the elders and some of Orestis' friends for what we thought would be a friendly game of fútbol, come to find out another group of guys were also at the field and ended up joining in and people were getting hurt left and right. So all us missionaries kinda backed off and left everyone else to get hurt because we wanted to be able to walk away all bones in tact. This is one of the things we do for service since occasionally we'll make a new friend or 2 here. We had a visit with the Chapis family the same night. If anyone needs someone to brighten their day, a visit at their place sure will do it! Their home is always full of love and energetic little spirits with their 3 kiddos running around! We watched a little snippet from Elder Uchdorf's talk, "A Yearning for Home" with the cute story he shared right off the bat. The kids loved it. We had a really good discussion about the light of Christ and and the Holy Ghost and the direction we receive as we are worthily and willingly seeking direction.
Within each of us is a yearning for our Heavenly home. Our journey there doesn't just involves ourselves but also those around us. I know I wouldn't be where I am today without the support and influence of my incredible family and my closest friends. Throughout my mission I have been trying to find in every opportunity to look out as Christ does when the natural man would turn in. I'll tell ya it hasn't been easy and I don't always succeed but that's what we have the Atonement. Christ makes up the diffidence and carries our faults to give us more opportunities to try again. A lot of times I'm at fault for jumping to conclusions, or assuming things, and instead have recognized I need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Everyone is in their own journey, has their own paths, and I would rather be a help than a burden to everyone's path to true discipleship. A quote I love that has really helped me is from Elder Dale G. Renlund when he teaches, “In the Church, to effectively serve others we must see them through a parent’s eyes, through Heavenly Father’s eyes. Only then can we begin to comprehend the true worth of a soul. Only then can we sense the love that Heavenly Father has for all of His children. Only then can we sense the Savior’s caring concern for them. … Only when we see through Heavenly Father’s eyes can we be filled with ‘the pure love of Christ’ (Moroni 7:47)."
I'd challenge each of you to strive to do just that: see everyone through God's eyes. Have a great week everyone!
Lots of love from your Greek sister,
Αδελφή Γκεϊλ
PICS!
1 exchanges with Sister Mathis!
2 view from the apartment
3-4 traveling with Sis Ahlström
5 dinner with the Athens sisters
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