Contemplations with Philosophers

My original title for the email was going to be "Mario Kart In Real Life" because I didn't think this week could get any crazier.

I was wrong.

To begin with what I thought was going to be the only interesting thing from this week, we moved! We are still to serve in the same area of Athens, but we have switched apartments with the Sisters. Just to say simply, attacks against church buildings have been, sort of, trending in Europe right now. This results in interesting situations. Our Missionary Leadership has decided that it would be best to have the Elders in this apartment for safety.

And I can safely say it is a good apartment, but an adventure when you realize you can't flush the toilet paper. So that waste bin in every bathroom ever? Yeah. But honestly though, if it means the increased safety of others, this is definitely a welcomed move. We also found stuff in our apartment that had been expired since 2020. That stuff had served a mission not only because it was so old, but the apartment it was in had been aquired by the church in 2022. That would mean, someone took it from another apartment and moved it into that one. Kinda crazy.

What was not welcoming was the road to take everything from one apartment to another in the mission van. The roads in big cities are notorious for having busy and crazy roads, but it feels as if the roads in Athens are particularly inclined to it. Lines-- they can be disregarded.

The move was even more intensive than driving on the roads because the only place we could stop was a small one-way road outside of the apartment. There was no way to pull over out of the way of cars if they were to show up behind us, so two missionaries would remain downstairs with the van, while two others would take stuff from the van, into the apartment on the 3rd floor. If someone was to come up behind the van and need to get by-- which happened about 3 times in this adventure-- we would have to take the van out of the one way, back onto the road, take a right turn, go around two blocks, and go back onto the one-way street to start unloading again. it was crazy. To drop off stuff in the other apartment was a similar process, but simpler.

Also, at the start of this week, we had to go to the airport. That was an adventure in itself. Around that time is when I concluded and remarked to Elder Paez, "Driving in Athens is a little like Mario Kart-- except when you drive off the track, no little cloud guy comes and saves you."

Actually, that reminds me of last P-day. Due to a shortage of time, I was unable to make any remarks on it.

I'll be honest-- I was a little hesitant when I heard the missionaries wanted to go see a cave. I was thinking, "Why don't we see something in Athens while we're here, you know?" But I respected wanting to get out of the city. Walking around a city all day can get tiring. HOWEVER, we got up the side of this mountain, and it was a beautiful view! We continued and saw the mouth of the cave, with a small little church next to it. It rekindled a love to explore. I believe it's good to see big tourist-y places, I feel like if you are anywhere in the world, you need to go to places with less people around and explore the places that are not catered to you. "See behind walls," so to speak. I will say however, areas that get a lot of tourists tend to be the kindest to us because they think we are tourist. We often get surprised faces as we speak in Greek to them, and remarks such as, "Μιλείς ελληνικά;" (you speak Greek)

Our remarks are often, "Μόνο Λίγο." (just a bit)

Traveling around Athens, we have our fair share of weird experiences. This last Saturday was one of the weirdest days as a missionary.

During our daily planning, I concluded that we had nothing to do that day. We had one thing planned in the morning, but that was it. We finished Daily Planning like that, and I prayed that we would find or know what to do that day. We departed on our way to meet with some of the other missionaries to try a new way of Chess-finding. We travelled to a club building to possibly play with some other people.

I learned that when you pray with true faith, God can surprise you.

We left the chess club with --honestly-- little success and went to a place for a bite to eat. Right after we ordered our food, our district leader called Elder Paez and I. He informed us of someone that was in the hospital, and needed a blessing. "You got it right?" he said to us.
"Yup." We got up there, and left without our food. The other missionaries said they would take it back to the apartment so we could have it later.
"That's missionary work I guess, Elder," Elder Paez said to me as we began our way to the hospital.

After receiving our Covid Rapid tests, we went to the front gates of the hospital, spoke to the desk guy who gave us detailed directions, and administered the blessing. It was special and a good experience. However if I speak honestly, I was hungry. I thought to myself as we left, why is it always us that has to get up on whim to do stuff like this? I recognized how special it was and was very very thankful to be there and partake in the blessing, but I was hungry. Why are we the ones out here?

That's when my thoughts where interrupted by a man. As we were about to enter the metro station, a man walking aside us turns and goes, "Oh, it's you guys! Do you recognize me?"
Elder Paez states, "Yes! I remember." The man looks at me and asks in a typical European comical way, "How about you?"

I had no idea who this dude was. He kept walking with us and prodding me to guess. FINALLY it clicked.
"OOOOOOOHHH!" we both said, me saying it out of realizing it was the guy from the desk at the hospital and him saying that I finally recognized him.
It was a remarkably funny exchange, and I thought what would be the end of it. However, he began asking question about our beliefs as we boarded the metro. No one asks us questions like that, but alas, he was. I tried my best to explain and soon we realized he was really into philosophy. And man, did he know his stuff. He was proud of Greek history of philosophy and would often remind us that it started here in Greece.

"The birth of these conversations-- they started not more than a few kilometers from here" he would say. He wasn't completely wrong either, it was cool.
Regardless, our conversations continued and Elder Paez and I agreed non-verbally, we would follow him wherever he was going so we could continue to talk.
We found ourselves at stop and a road we had never been before, and he said, "Do you want to get a coffee or something?"
"Sure!" I said, "but we don't drink coffee, but we can get something else."
Then he said something I have not heard one Greek say since I've been here. "Oh, I don't either-- just green tea usually."

So we went to a coffee shop, non of us ordering coffee, and discussed Religion and philosophy. He would say we argued religion and philosophy, but even if that is what we were doing, I would call it a discussion. He spoke honestly, and we spoke honestly about our beliefs. Though he believed certain things, he always attempted to remain as respectful and not attact us personally. He would often clarify what he said to make sure we knew he was not attacking us directly in anyway, just stating beliefs.

3 hours later, he thanks us for talking with him, stating, "This was not a wasted time. This was good." We thanked him as well and planned another meeting. He was deeply interested in meeting again, discussing when would work best for him despite his work.

I like to have deep conversations, and that was one of the deepest conversations I have ever had in my life in a lot of ways, I really enjoyed it, and my faith has not waved one bit. But there was one thing he said that bit me.
"I say this with respect completely, and this is my own thought, but I do feel like you're wasting your time here," is a remark he said as we were walking to the coffee shop.
Getting a little personal here-- but this is something I think deep in the back of my mind-- I have been struggling with. What if I'm wasting my time here?
It wasn't even his fault that it came to my mind. It was already there, he just called it out.
I laid in bed, and began a prayer to God.
"Lord, tomorrow is fast Sunday, please give the missionaries strength over remarks such as this. Lord, am I wasting my time?"

We didn't have much time to do anything else that day, which was God seeing it right to fulfill my request from my prayer earlier. Honestly, there was so much to do, our day almost didn't end until 10 at night. Other missionaries, don't let this happen if you can manage. However, an emergency is an emergency, and there were two just in that one night God had us handle.
Needless to say, the next morning, my head was spinning. From the 3 hour conversation of religion and philosophy, to my deep question (Am I wasting my time here?), I was a bit at a loss for words a lot of that morning.
But yet again, God answered my prayer, and I owe him everything for it.
The entire testimony-sacrament meeting felt directly targetted for, if not all missionaries, at least at me.
The entire meeting felt as if I was back home. The spirit flooded the room like hot steam from a shower. It seemed as every person in that room was lit by the light of God.

One of the members no one had seen since 2020 came to sacrament, and even bore her testimony. She explain how she finially had the opportunity of coming to church this Sunday, but had bad pain. She couldn't sleep that night. So, in the morning, she prayed she could come to church. A few hours later, there she was. In sacrament. Without pain.

Another member came to the pulpit and told us about her week. She explained how she is very thankful for our prayers and the faith behind them. She has been battling cancer for a while now, going through a lot of treatments and operations. She went into the doctors to check up where she was at in her progress of getting rid of the cancer from her body. The doctor lifted the scans to the light and said, "(Member's Name), you are fine! It is gone!"
She was in utter shock. There was still a few things to take care of, but there wouldn't even require medicine. They should pass with time.
Miracles are real, even in the biggest and smallest of things. Even if they are small, they are special.

I felt honored we had such a special experience. It will be something I honor and treasure. Many more things could emphasize how special these things are, but maybe they are not for an email. The most special thing for me this week was this, and I feel it best to explain it in comparison to the bible.
Genesis 16:13"And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me."
I love you all and hope you have a good February! It's snowing here, I hope you all are surviving the weather you're in!

Πρεσβύτερος Ντίλαν Χάνσεν

From the Mission President (02/06/2023):
"You are probably aware that there has been a catastrophic earthquake in Turkey. This tragic event highlights the need for our missionaries to be prepared for emergencies. We have a missionary emergency plan which we updated in October and sent out to every companionship. We have sent it out to every missionary again today with an instruction to study it in companionship study this week. We will follow up through our Zone Leaders and at Zone Conferences.Thank you for your prayers and support!

"Some missionaries serving in Cyprus felt the Turkey earthquake but none were injured and no damage has been reported."

President and Sister Burdon - Adriatic South Mission"