"It's been really good! We have two new investigators, the parents of C. from last week! But unfortunately C. had surprise news that he had to go into the army for 9 months for his National Service, so he will have to be baptised when he gets back They didn't get to church as they took him to Sparta yesterday where he has his basic training, but they want to come next week if they are back in time! We also had a meal with them at their house which was really nice."
"It's so wonderful to see lots of people in the church on a Sunday. The members here have been through so much for their beliefs and all they want is for their little family to grow. And we have the opportunity to help it to do so!"
Transfers are coming up on the 19th of March.. Any thoughts?
"I have no idea where I'll be going, and I won't find out until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday next week (the transfer is Thursday). It's exciting! I can see it happening that I'll go to Cyprus just in time for Elder Peel to come to Greece haha! He told me you sent him a package? Hahaha!"
"I don't know for definite, but I think so having been here two transfers already. I want to stay and I want to leave. I feel like I have fulfilled my purpose here and if I were to choose to stay it would only be because I love the city and the people. I think I'm ready to do the work that is waiting for me in other areas now! And no, no news, other than that Elder Johanssen who would have been going home on the 16th is extending for three weeks! He wants to help with the reading of the translation of General Conference, and it was his choice to extend."
How is the Language going?
"My language skills are doing great! Some of the people in church have started asking me how to say things in Greek (the ones from Albania for example), and every week I get lots of compliments on my translation which is really nice! , I couldn't have done it by myself!" (Referring to the Gift of Tongues) "I studied French for 5 years and I can't even have a simple conversation now!"
On the subject of Language we also learnt a new word from Elder Teal Gringlish or Greeklish. Used to enable Greek to be written on a standard Qwerty Keyboard
For example
In English: Hello my name is John
In Greek: Γεια σας το όνομά μου είναι ο John
In Gringlish: Geia sas to ónomá mou eínai o John
"Gringlish it's called, the young people use it quite a lot on the internet. It even talks about it in the Comprehensive Grammar book that we have, but because it doesn't have set rules it doesn't discuss it in detail. It's interesting though as sometimes you have to choose between what is the same phonetically and what looks the same. For example the Greek Beta has the sound of the English 'v', but looks like an English 'B', and the same with omega which looks like a 'w' and sounds like an 'o'"
" In Preach my Gospel it tells us we should very rarely have an interaction with anyone without asking them to do something that will help strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ"
"We nipped out to buy water from the nearby shops, knowing it would be our last chance to of the day to talk to people. We said a prayer that we would be able to give out 2 copies of The Book of Mormon. We saw two people and they both accepted a copy. We also got the address of the young man and the other was a young woman whose phone number we took to pass to the Sister Missionaries. Its amazing blessed we are when we set specific goals and we have faith, that we can fulfill them."
"I am excited to read about The Beatitudes even the word has so much more meaning in Greek.. It means 'The things that someone has to have for someone else to be able to see them, and know that they are happy' I love how Greek can express so much meaning with one word"
Finally, each year the church chooses a theme for the youth to learn about and follow. This year it is Embark taken from the scripture “Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day” (D&C 4:2).
