"It's been a really good week! We went to Thessaloniki Friday to Saturday where we had training with the missionaries, visits with members, and then on the Saturday a trip to Edessa which I think is the most beautiful place I've been to in Greece! When we visit Greece after my mission we'll have to go there, it's not far from Thessaloniki and it was amazing, I'll send you some pictures."
(Edessa in North West of Thessaloniki, near the border with Macedonia)
Inside the water fall
"We weren't able to have any lessons this week between the trip to Thessaloniki, a service project that we did earlier in the week and our new friends all being busy, but M. was at church on Sunday which was great. And the weather is amazing now, it got up to 33 degrees at one point in the week. It's really strange to be in the car in the evening, it can get past 9 o'clock and still be around 25 degrees, and I'm sure it will get even warmer! I'm much more informed about the temperature now that we have the car which tells us, whereas last summer in Cyprus all I knew is that it was ridiculously warm!"
"It's strange to think about how different the organisation of the church is here and at home, where there are stake leaders and multiple wards! Of course it's the same basic structure, but functionally it's so different as we have so few members!"
"The training was really good. We did something similar to what we had done in Cyprus last week but adjusted it a little and it went really well. We again focused on seeking and obtaining revelation for our areas and our responsibility to do so, and we had a big focus on the scriptures. Over the last couple of weeks I've really enjoyed studying 1 Nephi from the perspective of finding the evidences of Nephi's study of the Old Testament, it's been really interesting. And yeah it was really good to see Brother Todi and President Tanto."
"I've done 34 flights during my mission now I think, it's as normal as getting on a bus at this point! You'll be fine! Just remember that any shakiness or noises you hear are supposed to be there, it's that that makes the plane work at all! And if you have a choice try to sit towards the back, you don't hear as much from the engine and mechanical noises."
"This week we have an orientation meeting at a day center for homeless people that we're hoping to start volunteering at, and then later in the week we have training here in Athens as well as a meeting for the missionaries that are coming to the end of their 12-week training program. Hopefully we'll be able to have a few lessons as well! And today is Athanasios' birthday, so tonight we're going to have cake for him at FHE at church. I'm going to make banana bread, I'm really good at it now!"
"This weeks service was at Praksis, the same organisation where we did the last service project. We were sorting donated clothing into categories so that it can be used where it's most needed! We got through way more than they were expecting us to, and we had to stop early as they didn't have anywhere to store all of the bags that we had finished!"
This week we had far too many pictures to put them all on the blog. Click HERE for the rest
In other News.... Elder Teal comes home in 100 days !!! Not that we are counting !
