Sister Gale in the Greece Region of the Adriatic South Mission

Hey everybody!! I'm convinced it's not possible to have a bad week here, honestly. *knock on wood* The people are so amazing! Sister Merkel and I have been BUSY. Word of the week: Στακαλακαθούμενα (stahk-a-lahk-a-thoo-mena)! Means "out of the blue"...so fun to say.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention this earlier. So everyone here greets each other with a hug and kiss on each cheek, girl to guy, reverse, old or young, doesn't matter. That's just what ya do, Haha I'm still getting used to that. 😅 So I'm pretty sure I've talked about my district way too much, but that's only because they're so great. We had such a fun pday this week! We took a boat to the beach but then ended up chillin on it and riding around just enjoying the ride and relaxing. The water is so blue and gorgeous when the sun's out 😍 Then we had lunch together at a pizza place, 5 stars for sure. Found out exactly why we have to watch bike safety videos riding wit...

FRIENDS N FAM! WHAT A WEEK! everyday I'm here I realize more and more how perfect this mission and these people here are for me.  RECAP: 1 baptismal date set and 3 new investigators in church... aka more θαύματα (MIRACLES)!! Sometimes I feel like its too good to be true, everyday has been SO great!  Little side note: it's pretty funny how many people comment on my "perfect teeth and smile" and associate that with Americans haha, dentist and dental hygiene aren't really a thing here sadly. Anywaysss... We had our first lesson with Κωνσταντίνος on Wednesday...ANDDD we set a BAPTISM date for him! June 29th! He read the entire BoM in 3 months and basically taught the entire 1st lesson, pretty sure he already knows everything, it's CRAZYYY. But yeah, he's way awesome. He lives 4 hours away so we've only been able to keep in contact with him via phone calls, but looks like it was all worth it. He even said he was gonna go to Salt Lake Cit...

HELLO EVERYONE!!! Quickest and favorite week of my mission by far! The number of mini miracles I have been able to recognize within each day are INCREDIBLE! And pics are to come soon as always 😉 1st off, we had 15 members in sacrament on Sunday! Coming from the US that might seem like nothing but here in Thessaloniki it's a miracle. The church may be small but every member is absolutely amazing. Also something I've taken note of here: If you forget a man's name you basically have a 20% chance of guessing it right because everyone is either 1. Νικόλης (Nicolis) 2.Κωνσταντίνος (Konstantinos) 3.Κόστας (Costas) 4. Ντεμίτρις (Demitris) or 5. Βασίλης (Bill) 😂 So Tuesday morning we were told we'd have a dinner appointment with President and Sister Anderson! I was SO excited because they are seriously the sweetest humans ever. Then we were also told we'd have to cancel any plans from 3-9 on Wednesday since we'd be having a temple/family history meeting a...

Hey everyone!  Wow what a roller coaster of a week. Plans falling apart, learning how fun, hard, and wonderful missionary work is at the same time, and ultimately just following the Spirit and trusting Heavenly Father in everything. I'm learning to love the people here, but honestly it's easier said than done sometimes 😅 Especially when half the people we plan to meet with cancel last minute or are just complete no-shows. Either way, Sister Merkel and I have continued having great experiences together! Our go-to spot for finding is the center because there's always crowds of people walking through. This past week has been so empty tho, who knew Greece had so many holidays?! Anyways, Αδελφή Merkel and I haven't been having much luck lately and have been getting a little discouraged. We were whiteboard finding for almost 2 hours with the elders with little success. The elders had to leave and we thought we might as well leave with them and try again tomorrow. But ...

MONDAY 4.22.19 The Lion King in Greek is awesome, watched it while cleaning this morning. Hiked to some sweet viewpoints over Thessaloniki with our district, Grasiella and Anastasia (both members), really fun! I love Grasiella, she goes "we're only calling it a "hike" so you guys can wear your comfy clothes". Bless her and her thoughtful consideration of giving us a break from missionary attire!! Up top we found this abandoned zoo, kinda a bust tho since most of the exhibits were empty. Afterwards we stopped for Πρεσβúτερος Hawkins and my 1st Gyro in Thess. Recommend by Πρεσβútερος Albertson who I'm pretty sure is a Gyro expert since whatever he ordered for me was pure deliciousness. Then we ran some errands and got to email and such for 3 hours before family home evening started. We played games with our district and 8 members! TUESDAY 4.23.19 Visited with the Stilos family, they're great! They asked if I could cook Chinese food, I said I could...

Γεια Σας (Hello) from Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloniki)!! Mars Hill! Thessaloniki! Gift of Tongues! Sis Merkel! Lots to fit in from my 1st week here in GREECE! Real mission life is so jam packed but so great at the same time, I LOVE IT! TUESDAY 4.16.19  President and sister Anderson picked us up from the Athens airport along with the APs from Albania and we went straight to the church! All the missionaries were there waiting for us and they all ran out to us with the biggest smiles and warmest welcome, Greece hasn’t gotten new missionaries since January! I got interviewed 1st and the first thing President Anderson told me was he'd been praying for a Chinese sister for a long time haha... well he got half of what he was praying for (; He served his mission in Taiwan and says he's gonna call me "Chan Jyémei" now haha. Anywaysss I love President and Sister Anderson so much! We had our first Greek Euros with all the missionaries for dinner, food here is another level of amaz...

WEEK 9 Monday, April 15th Never thought the day would come but I'M FINALLY OUTTA HERE! Zero complaints there. We fly to Athens tomorrow and have 11 hours of traveling ahead of us, but at least I still got my district with me! But yeah, next email y-all will get from me will be from Greece or Cyprus!  One of the questions I've gotten a few times these last few weeks here is "how are you still normal after 8/9 weeks?!" I laugh every time haha. I just tell them "well I came out here normal and I'm still gonna be myself!" Really glad people think I'm still normal tho (; if anything, I'm just becoming a better version of myself, and I'd take that any day.  Week 9 went pretty quick thankfully WEDNESDAY 4.10.19 We had a Manchester testimony meeting! Sis Zhang and I were able to share our experiences and it was great. Thankful for technology and that we were able to translate for Sis Zhang. She is so sweet and I'm grateful to...