Monday, April 29, 2019
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| I saw the Glenns! |
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Searching for members - in an industrial park!
(Fake addresses!) |
Hello,
guys! It is heating up like crazy here, and the tourist season kicked off hard
this week. The dreaded summer is upon us...
TUESDAY, April 23rd: We had a
great goodbye lunch with the Finlaysons before District Council. Shout out to
them for keeping me alive during my mission with my many hospital visits and
various health issues! They have always been on call, and I am very thankful
for their service. We had a meal at the Branch President's house (of the
English branch), and that was cool.
WEDNESDAY, April 24th: We spent
most of our day searching for less-active members (we are cleaning up the
branch membership list, and so all the missionaries need to go to the addresses
and pretty much perform a manhunt for these people) and then doing a whiteboard
with the Egaleo elders. It went decently but definitely not the greatest that I
have ever been to. We had a lesson during the day with a guy we found in
Syntagma the week before at a whiteboard and taught him and his friend. It was
really weird to have this guy ask the questions that are like straight out of Preach My Gospel. It was great though!
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| Searching for less-active members |
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| Searching for less-active members |
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Searching for less-active members
We ended up in an industrial park!#mosxatoadventures |
THURSDAY, April 25th: We taught at
the Friendship Center and then searched for more addresses. We met a nice lady
from Albania and a very strange man who really, really wanted to know where we
live... We met with our friend R. and actually made a load of progress with
her. I pretty much forced her to take a Restoration pamphlet and to promise to
read it—FINALLY. I had to tell her that it was okay if she didn't believe it
but at least read for my sake. She's great and taught us a great Greek phrase:
την έκανε με ελαφρά πηδηματάκια, which means, “he slipped away or he snuck away”
but translated literally means that he did it with light little bounces or
skips. :)
FRIDAY, April 26th: We had Weekly
Planning and then a lesson with our new friend who we taught on Wednesday. He
is amazing—simply golden and so sincere. He's been exposed to some very false
doctrine, however, so it can be interesting to teach some principles,
especially the Fall of Adam and Eve. We had a rough whiteboard in the evening,
ending with me having to distract a very upset man of a different faith while
Elder F. taught his less aggressive friend who eventually accepted a copy of
the Book of Mormon and agreed to meet
again...sometimes you just gotta take one for the team! :D
SATURDAY, April 27th: We searched
for more addresses using the tram line and ran into a very nice lady who
invited us to pass by her office in Piraeus. She's a lawyer, lol. She was
great. We also got stopped by a guy on a motorbike who knows us from online. He
accepted a Book of Mormon and gave us
his info so that we can start having lessons with him! The sweat and exhaustion
are worth it! The hills in our area are endless, and the heat is starting...We
also went to the Άγιο Φως (The Holy Light) at 11pm and got home right before 12am.
It is the light that supposedly is lit by a prayer in Jerusalem every year and
then is flown over to Greece where it travels and everybody brings a candle and
brings the Holy Light into their home and the like.
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The Holy Light
Άγιο Φως |
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The Holy Light
Άγιο Φως |
SUNDAY, April 28th: We had church,
and there were only like six members from the Greek branch there. I translated
and had a rough time because the first speaker used craaaaazy words that I
didn't know, and the second speaker is not native and has an extremely thick
accent. He had a hard time reading what he had written, and so I couldn't
understand what on earth he was trying to say. I asked after, and nobody else
understood either, so I don't feel as bad now, haha. We had lunch at a member's
home for Easter, and it was great. We all ate waaaaaay too much but enjoyed
it.
MONDAY, April 29th: We sleeeept
for an hour and a half today, which was greatly needed after an exhausting
week. We deep cleaned the apartment today, including beating one of the rugs
out on the balcony. We went to Monastiraki and ran into a couple from Utah who
bought us some pastries. I didn't want to finish mine, so I tried to give it to
one of the many beggars, and the guy got angry at me for not giving him
money and then complained because it was a sweet pastry! We ran into the
other missionaries and chilled (got ice cream too lol) and ran into another
couple from Paradise, California, who are also members. As we were headed back to
the metro station from the ice cream shop, we ran into the Glenns from
Nicosia!!! It was great to see them again, probably for the last time.
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| The kindness of unknown members traveling in Greece |
So yeah, have a great
week, guys! Greek Easter traditions include dying eggs, but only red. And then,
you try to crack the other person's egg without yours breaking. Um, there is
lots of other stuff too, but I don't really know too much about all of that.
Most of it has to do with the Orthodox religion.
Love you, guys!
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The Dictionary of Slang owned by Elder A.
I am sooo jealous |
