Week 33 Thessaloniki - Zone Conference

Its Zone conference time again. The missionaries serving in Greece form a Zone within the mission and meet together monthly for training and instruction. Elder Tornar and Teal flew down from Thessaloniki to Athens to attend and stayed at the office for a couple of nights. 

Zone Conference was a chance for the group that trained together in the MTC to have a picture together, minus their friends that are serving in Cyprus.

It is also Transfers this week, swapping companions and areas. Many missions have transfers every 6 weeks, but in Greece it is every 12. I guess with such a low number of missionaries to swap, if it was every 6, you could end up serving with the same one again! We won't know where transfers will take Elder Teal or who he will be with, when he emails next week. In fact even though it is happening this week Elder Teal didn't yet know this morning. As pre-mission parents you know from hour to hour almost where your children are, it has taken us some time to get used to not having a clue from week to week!

"So it's been a good week, unfortunately we've not had a lot of time for lessons with the trip to Athens, but things are going well. We had three people at church with us yesterday, and had a lesson with one of them after the meetings. We have also started to make notes and leave lots of good information in case we have new missionaries that won't know the area or the people too well. 

I feel like I will leave, so yesterday we had our farewells after church, which wasn't sad but I will miss the members here very much. Brother Todi called me this morning, he wanted to say again how grateful he was and to tell me that I really do have a family and a home here in Thessaloniki whenever I want to come, which I hope to do as often as I can after my mission, We also have our trip of Albania together to look forward to! I feel like I'm leaving home again! haha

And yes it is a nice place. It's not necessarily the prettiest of cities, but it has a charm and character that is unlike anything I've seen anywhere else.

I think Thessaloniki will be a top destination for family holidays when I have a family of my own haha! There's not really a beach though, it's more of a city holiday if you come here."

"Hopefully I'll see Elder Peel this week depending on how the transfers fall."

As Elder Tornar, Elder Teal or both may be leaving the branch they have been in, they said their goodbyes on Sunday after church. Of course they may be saying hello again if they stay !!

 

On P-day 

"..we went to a tourist shop to buy a T-shirt, and suprised the woman by speaking Greek to her. A man in the shop told me I look like someone from Greek television and asked me if I was Thessalonikian, which I was very happy about as it means I'm getting the accent right."

 About flying to Athens for conference 

"I figured out that today was the 10th flight since the start of my mission, many of which were this same journey.. On the plane Elder Tornar gave a Book of Mormon to the woman next to him, but she read it a bit and handed it back at the end of the flight"

Sharing

"We walked along the street for a while and had so much finding success! We gave away all our books and had only two left, one in Albanian and one in Bulgarian. I saw a man and could tell he was Albanian from his face, so we talked with him and gave him a book. Just before we came home we met a Bulgarian lady which meant we came home with completely empty bags." 

District Meeting in Thessaloniki.

"I shared some of the things that I considered to be successes, I got quite emotional and it got difficult to speak. I just wanted to express that I was grateful to the other missionaries for the work they have done in this area which is so dear to my heart. As we build up the church here we are helping the members, for whom being a church member is no easy task. I love these people so anything we have done that has helped them is success for me."

Elders Teal and Tornar have served together so well, they have done all they can to share the gospel with everyone they come in contact with, but understand their success is in lifting and building others in any way they need.

Week 32 Thessaloniki

"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).

Week 31 Thessaloniki

Elder Tornar said this outfit was "very British", so I had him take a picture

"It's been great, we had 5 new investigators.

We had 3 in church, and hopefully we'll have even more next week.

We've been really blessed this week! We weren't able to have a lesson with our Lawyer friend but he was at church with his wife for the first time in 8 years of contact with the church, so that was great!

We also had another man at church who has a baptismal date as well and is progressing really well towards it already  We had a lesson on Monday with a couple from Nigeria, and the husband is a pastor in the Pentecostal church, and he had a couple of concerns about if the Book of Mormon detracts from the Bible, so we'll talk to him about that again.

And our new investigator C. has some different beliefs, but as we teach and bear testimony you can see in his eyes that he believes what we teach, and is changing already. It's like in the Book of Mormon when King Lamoni tells Ammon that he will believe all of his words. We teach in English so that Elder West can be the member present more easily, but at one point in the second lesson I had the impression to bear my testimony in Greek and tell him that God loves him and is so happy with the progress he's making, and I could tell that it meant a lot to him, it was so amazing."

"I also enjoyed translating on Sunday, especially in Sunday School. Studying the New Testament has helped me to learn lots of words and phrases that sound really good, and I was able to use some of them this week"

"Our Teaching Pool isn't a puddle anymore, It's turning into a teaching ocean!"

"A group of stray dogs joined us for our white boarding on Tuesday, they weren't interested though unfortunately"

"So yesterday we helped Brother Todi with his FamilySearch.org as it doesn't exist in Greek, and he's not great with computers anyway. We put in the information he had and requested ordinances for when he goes to the temple with the Tantos later in the month. We were able to request 8 B,C,I,E and 3 marriages, as well as 3 sealings to parents, it was so amazing! He was really happy and grateful afterwards, and said to me that we have "put a stone into the building of his family's salvation", which meant a lot"

As Latter-Day Saints we believe that ordinances such as Baptism and Eternal Marriages need to be performed for our ancestors on their behalf. This is a Vicarious work, it does not mean that our ancestors have to accept the ordinances, but it gives them the choice. Interestingly although we are the only faith that does this, the idea is not unusual, just forgotten The title Vicar comes from the same root and a time when working on someone else's behalf was more common.

"The bikes on the front balcony, thought you might be interested to see them. We've been using them a lot more recently"

Journals. We love that Elder Teal wants to share so much of his mission. Each week he takes pictures of each days journal entry and emails them to us. He doesn't write with the intention of sharing or blogging, so often we get to see more of his daily life and feelings. As he continues to serve he is seeing success for his weeks of obedience and finding. He has always tried to live mission rules with exactness believing it would bring blessings. He is happy for us to select bits to share here. 

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"I love this country, this language, these people and I am so indescribably happy." 

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"We dropped Elder Tornars suit jacket off at a dry cleaning place, and whist we were there the lady asked Elder Tornar where he was from. I then said, and I'm from England, and she was really surprised. She said she had assumed I was Greek from my accent, which I was incredibly happy about afterwards. A goal I had for this transfer was to be easily mistaken for being a Greek, so that there exists no communication barrier at all, and I’m starting to get there." 

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"...we carried on and I asked an old lady if she knew the address. She went out of her way to walk us right to the door, and we had a lovely chat as we walked. She gave us her phone number which we will pass to the Sister missionaries, and left us by wishing Gods protection for us and lots of other nice things. Once inside the building we couldn't find the man we were looking for so we knocked a door to ask. The man who answered didn’t know him either, so we told him about the message and he gave us a phone number and said we should come again when he’s not as busy"

Week 30 Thessaloniki

"The highlight would possibly be yesterday's branch conference, we had 5 great talks! President Freestone talked about how Paul established the church here in Thessaloniki, and how there are still faithful saints here today, which is so true. It's strange to think that really we're not trying to build up the church here, we're trying to rebuild it!"

"We had two lessons this week, out of a scheduled, well, a lot more. It was really good to have those two though and they were both really good lessons, One was with the lawyer with whom I had a lesson when I was here with Elder Lyttel, who you may remember from last time. After 8 years of contact with the missionaries he finally has a baptismal date! The difficulty is that he is scared what his peers will think of him if he is baptised into another church, and he worries that people will use it against him (he is a lawyer), as his reputation is important. He tried to come to church yesterday and spent an hour and half trying to find the church (he's 83 years old). He rang us this morning very apologetic as he had said he would come and didn't, and didn't want us to think that he had lied to us. He is very keen to have another lesson this week, which is great."

"The  Book of Mormon and modern revelation support the Bible"

"I'm really loving studying the life of the Saviour in personal study though. I've started studying from the Bible in the Greek now that I can understand it, and I really love it. I've been using Jesus the Christ as a study manual, following along the story with the two, and I love it!

We have the My Family booklet in Greek as well, we are still trying to come up with ways to use it effectively in missionary work. I wonder, would you be able to send me some small pictures to stick in on each of the pages for the different people? If you have time that is!

I'm glad you had the chance to go to the temple with "Auntie Lizzy" 

It was so good when I was in the MTC and we had the chance to go to the temple every week, I miss it a lot! I plan to go as often as I can when I get back, I certainly won't take it for granted after seeing how difficult it is for the members here to go!"

"Church was really good, we had branch conference, so the Freestones and Everitts were here. I did so much translating that by the end of church I struggled to have a conversation in English with Sisters West and Everitt, it was very strange. In my mind I was still trying to translate, even though it wasn't necessary." From Journal entries we learnt that at church, Elder Teal translated the English Speakers and teachers into Greek and the Greek speakers and teacher into English. 

Elder Teal pointed out that they are mentioned in the picture section of the Bible  

"Missionaries were sent from Athens to other parts of Greece"

The cooking seems to be going well.. Pancake day was celebrate and the French skills of Elder Teals companion, at making and tossing crepes was very useful

Homemade cottage pie, made, eaten and washed up in the allotted 1 hour meal break

"I love you all, and I'm so grateful for your love and support! Have an amazing week! Elder Teal"

Week 29 Thessaloniki

"Brother Todi and I! 
If you recognize the tie it's because it's the one I
 gave him last transfer when he told me he really liked it"

How has your week been and how is church?

"Yeah I'm kept very busy translating, with Sacrament, Priesthood and Sunday school, but I love doing it though so it's no problem. As I speak Greek much more often than English now, it's gotten to the point where my natural instinct is to speak in Greek, and I have to exert effort to switch to English, instead of the other way around. it's so strange! I have moments when I finish a phone call or conversation in Greek, and I'm just so happy that I have been blessed with the opportunity to learn this language. I think I will miss it a lot when I come home!"

"It's so strange for me as well, I have some days when i don't speak English all day, and to think that all of you back home would have no idea what we were saying if you were in the room with us is so strange. Sometimes I have conversations with people in my head, like memories or something I'd say to someone (not in a crazy way, I'm pretty sure everyone does that) and it's in Greek, and then I stop and think, wait a second, that person doesn't speak Greek. it's so strange!"

"During the week Elder Tornar was ill with a cough/cold, so we were at home for most of the day for 2 days, but apart from that it was a good week. We didn't have any lessons unfortunately, despite planning 11! All of them were either no-shows or last minute cancellations unfortunately. We had a man in church though which was great, and hopefully we'll be able to have a lesson with him this week. We also had one of the best weeks of my mission so far in terms of names received, so hopefully they'll turn into lots of lessons for next week!"

"Haha it's the best mission in the world, I wouldn't choose to go anywhere else! It's so weird when we watch The District and see them planning a week with 34 lessons hahahaha, that would be insane here. It teaches us to see every small victory as something miraculous though, and give us a positive outlook on life!"

"The very English meal I cooked for Elder Tornar, 

Chicken, veg, mash, and onion gravy, it was so good!"

"An ill Elder Tornar keeping warm in the bathroom (it's the warmest room). It wasn't even cold in the house, I was in a short sleeved shirt, he was just feeling really cold whilst he was ill."

 "And he's feeling better now, this is him reading from the BofM in Greek this morning."

"The case I made for my Greek Preach My Gospel"

"The red mark on E. Tornar's head after he had an argument about 

personal space with the automatic door on the bus."

  

"and my new books!"

"Just to let you know, I got my books bound this week. When I dropped them off he said he would sort them out and didn't know how much it would be until he found the leather and things to do it, but that he would do it for a "good price". They are real leather and have fancy embellishing, probably fancier than I would have chosen. They are really very nice though and will last the rest of my life, so I will definitely make good use of them." 

Elder Teal used some money sent for Christmas and Birthday for these. The church doesn't publish a Bible in Greek, so he had his Greek Bible and his Greek Book of Mormon bound to match.

Some journal extracts about meeting people.

"...At Brother Todi's house we had some of his home made juice, then we had to leave in order to be home on time. As we were stood at the bus stop I knew we wouldn't be on time with the bus, so I said a prayer for a taxi to come. One did almost right away so we got in, and we had a really nice chat with the driver and left him a book..."

"We spoke to a man who took two copies of the Book of Mormon, one for his Mum, In return he gave us two drinking straws in packages? and told us to get coke because that's the best, or Fanta or Sprite?

Its so funny when we meet crazy people !"

"I had a man shout at me for being English. He asked me 'how many people did your Father kill in Vietnam?' Which doesn't make sense for quite a few different reasons"

"We talked to a lot of the guys who sell things in the street, as a lot of them are from Senegal and speak French. I was able to understand a couple of words from the conversations but I wouldn't be able to speak enough to start a conversation myself. So that's why its good that I have a French Companion !"

In other news Elder Teal informed me today:-

"Thess" is very English, Greeks say either Thes/niki or Saloniki! Just a fun fact ;)"

Week 28 Thessaloniki BIRTHDAY!

                          Elder Teal was 19 on the 3rd  February 2015

Elder Teal celebrated his Birthday on Tuesday in Thessaloniki, by ordering a delivery takeaway for lunch and a meal out in the evening. Then on Wednesday having only been back in Thess for just over a week, he flew back to Athens, with the rest of his District for a 3 day stay and Zone Conference. His return flight from Zone Conference brings his total flights on this rout to NINE. He will be getting to know the flight crew by now.

(As always clicking any image will make it bigger)

 

"I'm great! It's snowing here, it's crazy! My birthday was great, I got the parcel from the office when I went down to Athens, thanks so much! On the actual day of, we had food delivery for lunch and went to a restaurant for tea, it was great! I also had a really nice parcel from Auntie Steph, with pasta 'n' sauce, as well as some nice letters. Please say thank you to her!"

Birthday delivery Lunch 

 

The parcel referred to was one we had shipped for his birthday, it contained things he had missed, like brown sauce and gravy granules and some other fun goodies.

"Unfortunately I had to leave the HP sauce in my box in the office, as it was over the 100ml carry-on limit, but I have the gravy granules! Yeah I'll use it then, it will still be in date next transfer, or I might ask someone to bring it up when they come in the car."

ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΠΟΛΛΑ!

"Zone conference was really good as usual, and yeah those glasses were really strange! All of the people who have birthday's for the month have to go up and have pictures with silly glasses, and they sing Happy birthday in Greek. This month it was Elder Dastrup, Sister McKenna and myself. We learnt a lot about contacting and finding, and also watched a really good video called Scripture Legacy in the hour of scripture study with Sister Freestone"

Selfie-Stick (sent in our package to him)

 

"Selfie-stick! Haha it was a bit strange, but we had a lot of fun with it in the end. Sister McKenna was way jealous when she saw it haha! I enjoyed reading the blog entry you sent, it was interesting to see what all the fuss is about! It's great how you do links the talks and scriptures I mention!"

Greece Zone 

"Yeah we had 3 or 4 days in Athens so not a lot of time here, but we managed to do some finding in Athens, and in two hours on the evening of ZC, we gave out 9 books and took 7 names between the two of us, the most successful finding session of my mission by far! We used a few new things we've been trying, by trying to get into normal conversations rather than just showing the gospel into people's faces right away. The highlight this week was probably the two hours of finding we did the evening of Zone Conference"

Birthday evening meal out

Each week Elder Teal sends us pictures of each days journal entries for us to read

Here are a couple of extracts:

"We continued with street contacting until we had given out all the Greek copies of the Book of Mormon that we had with us. At that point we were a Frenchman and an Englishman in Greece carrying copies of the Book of Mormon in Albanian and Russian"

"Zone Conference: Elder Torner and I were asked to demonstrate a street contacting situation. It went really well and showed how it doesn't need to be complicated and awkward. We can just start a normal conversation with people and talk about the gospel as we do it."

"We had success talking to people in the street though which was good. I've learnt to be persistent and ask for someones number 2 or 3 times during the conversation, even if they say no at first. I told my companion that everyone wants this message, we just have to help them remember that they want it"

"I translated in Sacrament, Priesthood and Sunday School, but this week President Tinto wanted to make sure I had a chair in the lessons so I wasn't on my feet translating all day. Its quite tiring having to listen in one language and speak in another, and its still a very strange feeling...I'm starting to find that it takes more effort to word things when I speak English whereas wording for Greek just comes naturally now."

"Elders Leppard and Johonsson are such funny guys and we get along really well, especially with Elder Torner there as well saying things in in his really strong French accent, he's hilarious. As we traveled Elder Leppard and I sang English songs that the other 2 didnt know, and I also sang the Swedish pop song that I learnt from Elder Lyttel. Elder Johonsson said I have a really good accent in Swedish, which is surprising because I learnt it form a Scottish man"

Okay everyone I need to get going now, sorry if there are still any unanswered questions, you'll probably find the answers in my journal though.

Have an amazing week, I love you all!

Elder Teal xxxxxx