"It's been a great week yeah, and another busy one! We had another new friend to teach this week, so soon we'll be very busy with lessons, things are already getting busy now! We're also aiming for another two new friends to teach this week, so we're going to be struggling to find time for all of the lessons soon, but there are much worse problems to have!
Church was interesting, due to there being no public transport and most people having left town to visit family, we only had one member at church! We were the four elders, President Heder, and a lady called Ourania, and that was it!
I conducted the meeting, and with President on the stand behind me and the other three elders doing the sacrament, I was stood talking to a congregation of one! However we had a really nice testimony meeting, and it was great to see how church still functions even with such small numbers! And it was a great reminder that the Atonement is for individuals."
"On Saturday we had permission to go to the midnight Easter service for the resurrection of Christ. There is a candle light which is brought all the way from Jerusalem and to every church in Greece, and then at 12:00 midnight they pass it out to the people who light each other's candles and take the light to their homes to burn for 40 days, until the Ascension. It was a really interesting experience, and it was nice to be part of something which is so important to most Greeks. We went with friends, and we had such a fun evening."
(Easter in Greece falls on 1st May this year as the Greek Orthodox church follows a different calendar)
A short video Elder Teal took. The bangs are fireworks
"Well it's a bank holiday so none of the shops are open, so we have some time to get things sorted in the apartment and maybe to write a couple of letters as well."
"Kipselli is an area with lots of immigrants especially from Africa and in the square they had a big celebration for Palm Sunday where they were singing gospel music and dancing, it was great. There were so many people there and it was great to see them expressing their their love and appreciation for the Saviour in such an expressive way, and I kind of wanted to join in.
Our district meeting was good, we talked about helping people make and keep commitments.
We had our lesson with A. He had read about the church online and is a big fan of famous Mormons. He's never been able to find the church here in Greece until he found the Facebook page, so it was great to see that it's having a positive effect.
We got the bus to the Praksis warehouse where we have set up for us to do service every Thursday. Elder Mead and I were assigned to put duvets and duvet covers into black bags in groups of 3 and 4. It's surprising how heavy and cumbersome things like pillows can be when you have to carry a huge pack of 50 or something and it was tiring work. We all worked well though and we got an awful lot done during our 4 hours there."
