Sister Gale in the Greece Region of the Adriatic South Mission

An eternity to prepare for my mission, an eternity to reflect, but only 18 months to live it. I can't even try to express in words what my mission means because it's everything to me. I've come to learn so much more the reality of God's love, the enabling joy the Atonement of Jesus Christ has as we utilize it in our everyday lives, the power of the Book of Mormon, and SO MUCH MORE. I am so grateful he trusts me enough to still allow me to be serving him at this special time. Over 30,000 missionaries have been sent home because of COVID-19. I am lucky enough to stay. It has not been easy but why should it be? It's the Lord's work, there is always opposition, but he is on our side and the work will prevail.  All the teary goodbyes were rough but I couldn't have imagined a better final week in Thessaloniki. It has definitely become my 2nd home as I've spent more than half of my time in the field here! I don't like to think of myself as much of a cryer b...

We are down to 9 days people! 9 days until I bid farewell to the most unpredictable, joy filled months of my life thus far. We've got a busy week ahead of us as we say our final goodbyes to our wonderful Thessaloniki members and go back to Athens for our last few days.  2 noteworthy experiences for ya... 1) We ran into a guy from Canada this who is literally walking to Jerusalem! He says he has been called as a Pilgrim  and is retracing the steps of Christ. He began his journey 6 months ago in France and is working his way down to the Holy land as God directs him. Even was out in the wild for exactly 40 days and testified to us of Christ carrying him through that intense period. He has learned through this experience the reality of our Savior's individual love for us. Cool thing is he met the missionaries in Spain and had a really good conversation as well as remembered the Joseph Smith Restoration movie. So he already recognized who we were and had a deep appreciation and res...

I got to see my recent converts Kourosh and Nafas again! Their 3 kiddos are still just as cute as I last remembered too. We got to tell them it was their turn to attend church next week and they were pretty happy about that. It's so weird to think some people haven't had the sacrament for months. And yet I haven't gone a week without it this whole Corona time. Right now our church meeting is limited to 11 people so 1 set of elders goes with a set group of members that change every week. The other set comes to our place and we watch the Athens online church, have the sacrament, and then have lunch all together. And it'll most likely be the Sunday routine the rest of the transfer as far as it looks.  We still aren't allowed to do any street contacting which hasn't been too great because generally that's how we would find new people to teach. But in our weekly beach cleaning we can talk to people who approach us and believe it or not there are a good amount tha...

Guess who is back in Thessaloniki... yet again?! 3rd times the charm right?? So yeah, didn't see that one coming in the slightest since transfers already happened 2 weeks ago and I was supposedly gonna be finishing my mission in Athens. BUT I suppose this is yet another testament to me that the Lord is in charge and He's always got bigger and better plans ahead. Best part about this unexpected transfer call was that Sister Kidd was going with me! It woulda been a lot harder for me to leave Athens if I had to leave her behind too. GOD KNOWS US YOU GUYS!  Also, I'm in a trio again, this time with Sister Edwards! My MTC companion :) looks like we'll be getting to start and finish this whole thing together! So I'll get to show both Sister Kidd and Edwards the ins and outs of Thess since both of them are new to the area.  Being back has actually been really really great. Man I have missed these members so much! I've been in contact with them since being in Ath...

Not much too new on my side of the world. We're still quarantined so I'm not sure how exciting it can get.  Quote of the week from the one and only Jhoe! "Much better always pray to god every time. This is the secret weapon to protect the virus always pray to god." He's pretty sad missionaries in the Philippines are being sent home and hopes it will be a quick temporary thing so he can meet the elders helping to teach him! I sure hope he can too! I'm really grateful he is so interested in learning literally all the time! Basically every night we are in some sorta spiritual discussion and I enjoy helping him recognize truth. He tries to read the book of Mormon 30 mins a day now, how amazing?! Well we've been moving into our new apartment! It's the senior couples old apartment and super nice. We're blessed. On Tuesday I was on the phone outside and then Sister Ahlström popped her head out the window and said very sternly, "Sister Gale I n...

What a time to be alive people. Especially being a missionary during it all! It's been a wild 7 days let's just say. Anything but normal. A lot of people don't wanna meet with us at the beginning of the week since they think we're gonna infect them. We got all stocked up on 2 whole weeks of food ASAP from President's orders and we're trying to pretend like we aren't being affected at all even tho a huge weight just got put on our shoulders because all the senior missionaries got sent home. We've got huge shoes to fill in place of our senior couples, they do so much. When I 1st heard the news I kinda started to worry how we would be able to do it all with just our young missionaries, but then remembered how we did it when I was trained here nearly a year ago, we can do it again. Peace was also brought to my mind recalling the words of our Prophet and church leaders calling for the greatest generation of missionaries they have ever seen. The Lord has entru...

Καθαρή Δευτέρα (clean Monday)... another random holiday in Greece. All the shops were closed up and instead people were out flying kites! Kinda random right? Well it represents 1) the resurrection of Jesus Christ and 2) in hope that our prayers are reaching to the heavens. It always seems like there's some deeper meaning to these celebrations and it's pretty cool. Talk about findinggg because that's literally all we did all week long. Tuesday was actually bearable tho because the zone leaders came up to Thess for exchanges and we had all us 8 missionaries together for a Book of Mormon/ whiteboard activity   along the sea. That was fun. Plus mother nature flipped a switch and we hit the low 70s... wowza is that a blessing because I was about done with the cooler weather. Anyways, we were out talking to people from the end of district council at 2:30 till the end the day so we talked to a ton of people. Youssef joined us and honestly I wish he could get baptized right n...