The Week of Not Being in Our Area

Monday, September 24, 2018

Elder Muller had a tough week

Hey, guys! So, it's been an interesting week, but we haven't really been in our area, lol.

TUESDAY, September 18th: At 2:30 AM, Elder Müller woke up almost screaming in pain and ran to the bathroom. For 30 minutes, he was there but struggled to relieve himself. After a failed attempt to wake his sleeping rock of a companion, he chose to suffer alone and return to the bathroom. After another 30 minutes of prayer and screaming and almost passing out due to the pain inside of his intestines, he managed to crawl along the wall and wake up the Rock. The Rock proceeded to give Elder Müller a blessing while Elder Müller was on the toilet. He called the Risers, and they removed Elder Müller and took him to the hospital. 

An interesting discovery, kids, is that Elder Müller can speak Greek whilst dying and almost passing out as well as when seizing on a hospital bed due to pain. An enema was administered, and Elder Müller returned home at 6 AM. The rest of Tuesday was spent by Elder Müller in bed, due to the fact that if he so much as rolled over, he was on a direct course to the porcelain pony. However, he was able to recover, shower, and get ready to go to the Family Music Night in Nicosia. He was able to play, and it was a great event. When the elders returned home with the APs (Assistants to the Mission President) and the Pano Paphos elders and tried to order McDonald's, it didn't show up until an hour and a half after they had ordered. 

WEDNESDAY, September 19th: Zone Conference day. It was good. We learned about pride and just overall the entire thing was really good. Sister Anderson is hilarious. President gave really good training as well. The Albanian APs spent the night with us. Oh, we did the Musical thing in Limassol, but no one really showed up. But, I saw R. who came from Paphos!!!! 

THURSDAY, September 20th: The Albanian APs went out finding because we needed to do some Weekly Planning. We had service with V. and then ate all together. After a while, we managed to figure out rides for getting to Larnaca for a leadership meeting we all needed to be at. We got there eventually, and the meeting was good. 

FRIDAY, September 21st: We saw the Cypriot parents, and they were doing really well. They weren't happy about my hospital visit, haha. We saw a less active and actually were able to have a short spiritual thought with her, and it went really well. 

SATURDAY, September 22nd: We had a lesson with N., and I don't remember what happened the rest of the day, except we went contacting at night. 

SUNDAY, September 23rd: We had 24 people in church, even with a bunch of people missing. Limassol is growing, boys!!! After church, we went to Larnaca to do the last musical night. I was really sick with my stomach again and was pretty scared, if I'm honest. People were pretty worried about me having to go to the hospital yet again. I asked for a priesthood blessing from Elders F., N., and VE. about 30 minutes before the performance started. The blessing was only two sentences, and I was supposed to be healed according to my faith. Three minutes later...let's just say I was able to make it through the performance fine and didn't have pain anymore lol. So, THE PRIESTHOOD WORKS, LADS!!!!!

MONDAY, September 24th: We have our entire district here with us today because we will be doing the Voice of the Lord survey tonight and doing district meeting tomorrow morning. We ate Pizza Hut for lunch and deep cleaned the apartment. 

So yeah, it's been an eventful week. I am looking forward to this upcoming one. We are focusing on finding, something I am not very good at, and Greek! Let's go, lads!!!

- Elder Müller

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut

Deep Cleaning

Baptism!

Elder Grover, Elder VE, T. and Elder Muller
September 15, 2018
Limassol, Cyprus
Photo cred: Elder Fleming

Monday, September 17, 2018

Hey, guys! It's been an interesting week with lots of firsts for me!

TUESDAY, September 11th: We saw our Cypriot parents and talked about tithing. We had a little bit of a difference in opinion there, but we were able to talk openly like always. I love them so much. 

WEDNESDAY, September 12th: We saw J. this morning. His wife had a fall, so he was pretty distracted during our meeting. They are thinking about going back to England to be closer to their children and grandchildren. We saw N. and made the program for T.’s baptism. We went to Bible Study and got invited to a wedding. lol! Oh, Elder VE. tried the Green Detox from Nuovo for the first time today. He was afraid because it is mostly spinach and obviously green, but he loved it. 

THURSDAY, September 13th: We had the baptismal interview with T. and the Zone Leaders. They forgot the Baptismal Record to fill out, so while they did the interview, we got that sorted, lol. In the afternoon, we went to go see a guy named H. We got there, and he woke up from his hangover nap. He had us sit down—we were in his daughter's room—and he had no shirt and was cradling a giant stuffed heart with arms and legs, lol. He proceeded to tell us about how he was at the club the night before and about the girls there, so we stopped him and were like, "Mate, you are 45, married, and have 3 daughters. What on earth are you doing?" So, he told us all about his um..."personal life/frustrations" for an hour. We just rebuked him and told him to repent in a very loving but stern way. 

FRIDAY, September 14th: We saw our traveling evangelist friend, M. He is from North Carolina and is just blessed and praises Jesus, lol. We had a good lesson with him and stumped him with the baptism for the dead scripture in Corinthians, lol [Editor’s note: 1st Corinthians 15:29]. I also translated Elder Fleming’s talk for T.’s baptism. I had Elder VE. check it, and I only made two mistakes on a first try for the whole talk! I was pretty happy. We had transfer calls, but nothing changed in the entire mission!

SATURDAY, September 15th: BAPTISM DAY!!! The baptismal service went well, and we were even able to have Elder V. Skype in from England. T. was really happy to see him. The Mediterranean was absolutely amazing!!!!!! T. was so excited to get baptized that when we were explaining how he should hold my arm, he tried to dunk himself! LOL. Luckily, I was able to catch/stop him from going under. I managed to not mess up the words in Greek (εξουσιοδοτηθεί). We were able to see ΑΓΑΠΗ ΜΑΣ! P. came with his wife G. from Larnaca, and it was great to see them. Lunch after the baptism was soup as requested by T., and Sister Riser came through, and the soup was really good, lol. We went to TGI Friday's for a celebration dinner and ate huuuuge burgers. It was a great day, all in all, haha.

T. and Elder Muller
Photo cred: Elder Fleming

Elder VE and T, Elder Muller, and Elder Grover
Photo cred: Elder Fleming

The oil rig in the distance behind where the baptism was held!
See photo at the top of the blog. You can see it in the far left corner
Photo cred: Elder Fleming

SUNDAY, September 16th: We had a record breaking 27 people in church, and T. was confirmed! I taught Sunday school about Job. That went well. After church, we went with everyone up to a park and had a picnic. I pretty much only ate desserts, hahaha. Then, one of the visiting Russian couples we had at church called the Larnaca sisters (they were in Larnaca the week before), and the Larnaca sisters called us and the Risers. The couple had gotten stuck somewhere. Only the sisters’ phone was able to contact them for some reason, lol, so we were going through them to talk to the stuck couple. All we needed to know was where they were, but nobody would tell us, haha. So, we spent an hour driving around the city with the Risers and never did get to them before a tow truck pulled them out of some sand.

MONDAY (today), September 17th: I slept.

Thanks, guys!

Elder Müller

TGIF celebration burgers
Elder VE

TGIF celebration burgers

TGIF celebration burgers
Elder VE

Elder VE made me breakfast after I had already eaten breakfast.
So I had two breakfasts!

Elder VE and their friend, J.

Elder VE and their friend, J

Elder VE and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder VE and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder VE and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder VE and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder F. and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder F. and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder N. and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder Muller and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

Elder Muller and their friend, P.
P. and his wife came from Larnaca for the baptism

An attempt at making a cake in loaf pan
This for the pot luck

It was a little expired!
(But it was also in the wrong kind of pan!!)

Busy-ness

Monday, September 10, 2018

Troodos!

Elder Muller

Hey, guys! It has been another busy week in Limassol, aka, the greatest city on the island.

TUESDAY, September 4th: I’ve hit 11 months as a missionary! And, September will be very busy, so the last month until my year mark is going to FLY by, lads! We had a good lesson with J. He is doing much better again. We had District Council, and I don't remember what else happened that day, lol.

WEDNESDAY, September 5th: We had service at the Red Cross, and that is always fun. We talked to T. about tithing, and he accepted it! His faith is stronger than his fear. We went with the Risers to find a beach we can baptize him on and found a really nice one. He is getting baptized this Saturday! We saw our Cypriot parents, and they asked us to pray for their friends. We love them so much, and it is hard to see them feeling the pain of people they know. We had dinner with N. but ended up having to walk home for an hour and a half, lol. 

THURSDAY, September 6th: We went with T. and N. to the "Old Hospital." This thing is terrifying. We went inside, and it was like a movie. There were people EVERYWHERE with no organization and just people with all types of illnesses. They ran out of tickets for the queue at 7:30 in the morning! So, everyone was just jamming their way to the desks. Eventually, we had to leave because we weren't going to be able to see T.'s doctor. I had my eyes checked at a different hospital, lol, so my eyes were dilated for a couple hours, and that made me pretty much useless. We taught English class, and it went well.

FRIDAY, September 7th: We saw J. with the Risers in the morning, but that made us late to an appointment with a guy we have been trying to meet up with for two weeks. We were 15 minutes late, so he had left. We managed to get him to come back, and we had a quick intro to the Book of Mormon, and he liked it a lot. We saw T. again and talked about temples and more about his baptism on the 15th. He is excited. We saw an optometrist to check my glasses, but I am all good. We saw the Cypriot parents, and they told us that our prayers worked, and the Cypriot grandfather is not going blind anymore!

SATURDAY, September 8th: We went to an appointment in the morning, but he was sleeping, so we returned to church to do studies but decided to go to the bakery next door to get brunch. We went in, and our Cypriot dad found us in there and invited us into his shop across the street to eat in there. So, we did, lol! I love them so much. We had a lesson with a member and in the evening had a lesson with a part-member family. That went really well but long.

So, we still needed to translate a script for a musical program from English to Greek. Then, we found that we needed to correct some doctrine and change the script a lot. So, Elder VE. read the original, translated it into Greek, and corrected the doctrine at the same time. While he typed that, I translated his Greek by hand back into English. We didn't get to bed until 11:40.

SUNDAY, September 9th: We had church and then left with the Risers to go to Paphos for the musical program. We practiced and had the event. Only members came, which was a little disappointing, but it provided good practice for the larger cities. You can definitely feel the Spirit during the event. We tell the story of the Restoration through music and a script. We were with the Zone Leaders on the way back, so we passed by to see R.! Elder R. and Müller were back together in Paphos with their best friend! It was so good to see him and to see how much his English has improved. Then, we headed back to Limassol.

MONDAY, September 10th: We got up at 6 am with the Zone Leaders and left at 7 am to go to Troodos to prepare for our Zone P-Day there. We ended up playing capture the flag with balls and having lunch up there. On the way down, we were with the Risers. We took a wrong turn and ended up in Nicosia, which is on the other side of the island. Then, once we were finally approaching Limassol, there was a massive traffic jam that we got stuck in. So, our trip back took 3.5 hours instead of 40 minutes, lol.

Troodos

Troodos

Troodos
Elder on the left is a former companion in Nicosia
Elder on the right is the Elder Muller's current companion in Limassol

Elder Muller

Elder Muller

Cyprus Missionaries

Have a great week, guys! T. gets baptized on the 15th!!! Happy birthday, Alyssa, on the 11th!

Love you all,

Elder Müller

Food from the Cypriot parents last week!

A feast from the Cypriot parents last week!

How thankful they are for food!

Can you believe this feast?

Rearranged study desks and new AC unit on the wall above!

Zone Leaders spending the night in Limassol

Lessons and Food

Monday, September 3, 2018

Hey, guys! It will be a short email today.

MONDAY: We took a bus in the evening to Paphos and did the Voice of the Lord there [Editor’s note: This is a survey the missionaries do where they have people they meet read about Christ and share comments about it with them.]. We met a lady who we talked with for 45 minutes almost. She did the survey with us and then bought us ice cream, lol. As we were departing ways, she said that she had felt lonely and so had come to walk on the boardwalk, and then we stopped her and started talking to her. It is amazing to see how Heavenly Father is mindful of each and every one of his children. We slept in Paphos that night and ate Gino's Pizza!!!

Elder VE and Gino

TUESDAY: After having to get up and walk to the church in borrowed exercise clothes and dress shoes and socks, we retrieved our forgotten suitcase with all of our belongings in it. We had district council that morning and then returned to Limassol.

WEDNESDAY: We had dinner with a member at the marina at T.G.I. FRIDAY'S! Real American food is decent, guys—decent. 

THURSDAY: We had a good lesson with a member in the morning that didn't end in Bible bashing for the first time in a month. We had a lesson with T., and he is smashing it, guys. He is going to be baptized earlier than we thought! He is incredible. We had another lesson with a member as well.

FRIDAY: We had a lesson with a former investigator, and she still really wants to learn. She now has her fifth Book of Mormon in Chinese—all of them different translations, lol. We saw our Cypriot parents and invited them to participate in the 21 Day Book of Mormon challenge. We had a really good discussion about prayer and why we pray the way we do. Our Cypriot father also told us that if Arsenal (English Footie) wins the Premier League, that we can baptize him, lol [Editor's note: We know what we will all be praying for now! :) ].

SATURDAY: We cleaned the church and had correlation meeting. Then, we ran to a lesson with T. and smashed out his 2^nd-to-last lesson πραγματικά. We had a really good lesson with a part member family and finally got down to the bottom of why the husband has not been baptized yet. We are looking forward to helping him progress again.

SUNDAY: We have a new family! They are American and are here for two years with two kids! We are so excited to have them with us. And, T. came to church 30 minutes early again! My translation went better this week, except for Elder Riser's testimony talking about the Battle of Midway...I don't know the words in Greek for torpedo, or battleship, or battle flight group armada thingy, lol. We had a good church session overall. We had an appointment with a guy and ended up waiting for an hour at the bus station before heading home and eating (it was 3 pm and Fast Sunday...). We got a text at home saying he wasn’t  coming, lol. We had our Cypriot mom come in and give us two platters of food. She has a catering company and makes us platters when she has an order. She also makes the best Cypriot desserts on the island!

Thanks, guys, and have a great week!

Elder Müller