Εβδομάδα 70: when you give a cop a cookie
I'M TRAINING SISTER KIDD! I was actually supposed to train her back in March but then the blessed Corona hit us. But she's finally here! She's my 3rd English companion now and we've hit it off, it's been a great time! :)))
After a crazy Tuesday of trying to fly missionaries back and forth between Cyprus, I ended up having 2 new missionaries with me for a day since Sister Grant ended up not being allowed to fly to Cyprus. That same morning Sister Mathis' flight home to the states got canceled and it was just a bunch of craziness all in all. But President Anderson is a miracle worker and just doesn't give up on anything. As he put it, "I'm not too happy with the church travel agency and I'm pretty sure they're not so happy with me." In the end Prez worked his magic and everyone got where they needed to! I promised the 2 new sisters I had with me that this wasn't what normal missionary work is like haha, they just came at a really wild time. But really, nothing is ever normal anymore anyways. We did take them to Mars Hill to do the mission tradition of bearing their testimonies in Greek just as the apostle Paul preached to the Athenians! What a cool experience that is! I remember being in their spot thinking how much of my mission I had in front of me, and now here I am.
There was lots of moving this week and cleaning out apartments. We had a car load of stuff we were taking to our new apartment and had just pulled up in front of our building when the cop in front of us got outta his car and came back to me. I hadn't done anything wrong so I wasn't worried, just confused. So the thing is, we aren't supposed to speak in Greek with police officers or anyone official. He starts speaking to me and since I understand him I automatically respond in Greek. So then I asked him if he spoke english because we don't speak Greek, but he didn't really speak English. But because of that "only speak english with Cops rule" I tried to pretend like I didn't understand anything he was saying. That got confusing and I ended up just having to respond to his Greek questions since his broken English was more difficult to understand. He got my registration and license and all that and was studying my license and asking me questions about it since he realized I was from the states. Again, he couldn't really understand what exactly was written on my license. He asked me if it worked in Greece, I told him it did (even though I dont think it's an international license whoops). And then he pointed to where it says "Restrictions: C" and asked what that meant so I told him it just means I have contacts. After enough of him studying it out I just showed him where it said "exp date" and told him this allows me to drive anywhere till Oct 14th this year. Think I was escaping a potential ticket here lol. He took my word for it and then I started small talking with him asking about the area and stuff. He even gave us permission to park where we aren't supposed to so we could easily unload all our stuff. Right before we left, we motioned him back over to our car as well as his buddy he was working with and offered them chocolate chip cookies we had just baked haha, they gladly accepted! We ended up giving him a pass along card and getting his insta and FB too. Now that's how ya contact when ya aren't allowed to street contact.. just give a cop a cookie ;) ... and that's the story of how we met Παύλος.
We were headed to the church to meet the elders afterwards and totally had them convinced I was getting arrested, it was hilarious. They were panicking just a bit trying to call us, tell us to not speak any Greek, get us in contact with our attorney, and were going to drive over to us to help out haha. But that was all on our drive to the church so when we walked in they were all way confused and wondering if we were alright and if everything was okay. We told em the whole story and they thought it was pretty funny.
That night we started up a group chat with Παύλος and he wanted to meet up! We arranged a time the next night but decided to also bring the elders with us because we couldn't quite tell if Παύλος was more interested in learning about us or the gospel, he's only 25 btw. We were all prepared to give him a Book of Mormon and see if he could be a potential new friend but then something happened with his friend's car so he couldn't make it. And his work schedule is a little crazy. Oh yeah he also happens to be neighbors with us too lol.
Okay, I'll close with a quote I read this week that I loved from a talk by James E. Faust, "I Believe I Can, I Knew I Could":
Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed out a tiny spot
And said, “Tend that for me.
I answered quickly, “Oh no; not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done;
Not that little place for me.”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine.
Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.
Every time we wake up and roll onto our knees we have the best opportunity. The Lord is so ready to work through us if we are humble enough to ask Him for an errand and then go about doing good however big or small. We get to be His hands down here. I can't think of a better job.
Lots of love,
Sister Gale
PICS!
1-4 Mars hill testimonies
5-7 Beach pday shenanigans
8-10 Last day w Sis Mathis
After a crazy Tuesday of trying to fly missionaries back and forth between Cyprus, I ended up having 2 new missionaries with me for a day since Sister Grant ended up not being allowed to fly to Cyprus. That same morning Sister Mathis' flight home to the states got canceled and it was just a bunch of craziness all in all. But President Anderson is a miracle worker and just doesn't give up on anything. As he put it, "I'm not too happy with the church travel agency and I'm pretty sure they're not so happy with me." In the end Prez worked his magic and everyone got where they needed to! I promised the 2 new sisters I had with me that this wasn't what normal missionary work is like haha, they just came at a really wild time. But really, nothing is ever normal anymore anyways. We did take them to Mars Hill to do the mission tradition of bearing their testimonies in Greek just as the apostle Paul preached to the Athenians! What a cool experience that is! I remember being in their spot thinking how much of my mission I had in front of me, and now here I am.
There was lots of moving this week and cleaning out apartments. We had a car load of stuff we were taking to our new apartment and had just pulled up in front of our building when the cop in front of us got outta his car and came back to me. I hadn't done anything wrong so I wasn't worried, just confused. So the thing is, we aren't supposed to speak in Greek with police officers or anyone official. He starts speaking to me and since I understand him I automatically respond in Greek. So then I asked him if he spoke english because we don't speak Greek, but he didn't really speak English. But because of that "only speak english with Cops rule" I tried to pretend like I didn't understand anything he was saying. That got confusing and I ended up just having to respond to his Greek questions since his broken English was more difficult to understand. He got my registration and license and all that and was studying my license and asking me questions about it since he realized I was from the states. Again, he couldn't really understand what exactly was written on my license. He asked me if it worked in Greece, I told him it did (even though I dont think it's an international license whoops). And then he pointed to where it says "Restrictions: C" and asked what that meant so I told him it just means I have contacts. After enough of him studying it out I just showed him where it said "exp date" and told him this allows me to drive anywhere till Oct 14th this year. Think I was escaping a potential ticket here lol. He took my word for it and then I started small talking with him asking about the area and stuff. He even gave us permission to park where we aren't supposed to so we could easily unload all our stuff. Right before we left, we motioned him back over to our car as well as his buddy he was working with and offered them chocolate chip cookies we had just baked haha, they gladly accepted! We ended up giving him a pass along card and getting his insta and FB too. Now that's how ya contact when ya aren't allowed to street contact.. just give a cop a cookie ;) ... and that's the story of how we met Παύλος.
We were headed to the church to meet the elders afterwards and totally had them convinced I was getting arrested, it was hilarious. They were panicking just a bit trying to call us, tell us to not speak any Greek, get us in contact with our attorney, and were going to drive over to us to help out haha. But that was all on our drive to the church so when we walked in they were all way confused and wondering if we were alright and if everything was okay. We told em the whole story and they thought it was pretty funny.
That night we started up a group chat with Παύλος and he wanted to meet up! We arranged a time the next night but decided to also bring the elders with us because we couldn't quite tell if Παύλος was more interested in learning about us or the gospel, he's only 25 btw. We were all prepared to give him a Book of Mormon and see if he could be a potential new friend but then something happened with his friend's car so he couldn't make it. And his work schedule is a little crazy. Oh yeah he also happens to be neighbors with us too lol.
Okay, I'll close with a quote I read this week that I loved from a talk by James E. Faust, "I Believe I Can, I Knew I Could":
Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed out a tiny spot
And said, “Tend that for me.
I answered quickly, “Oh no; not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done;
Not that little place for me.”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine.
Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.
Every time we wake up and roll onto our knees we have the best opportunity. The Lord is so ready to work through us if we are humble enough to ask Him for an errand and then go about doing good however big or small. We get to be His hands down here. I can't think of a better job.
Lots of love,
Sister Gale
PICS!
1-4 Mars hill testimonies
5-7 Beach pday shenanigans
8-10 Last day w Sis Mathis
Comments
Post a Comment