Η Αμπελόκηποι ή Οι Αμπελόκηποι

(this is his message from last week)

If you all remember, we missionaries in Greece are typically assigned Greek as our serving language, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way! I have downloaded 6 languages from Embark App to try and understand basic greetings when I get a spare moment.

But let's talk Albanian. Not in Albanian, mind you, but about our experences doing new kinds of finding. Last week, Elder Paez and I decided to try a new way of finding and contacting people. Honestly, trying to discover new ways to do finding is like trying to ride a bike backwards up a hill. Often missionaries in areas where it is hard to do findings will get stuck doing one or two things, and do that for most of that transfer. So, funny enough, I didn't know this was the 'culture' of missions with areas like that, and we seriously spend so much time trying to figure out finding activities. I really feel that God has been able to bless us in that way.

Almost everyday, we pass a park in our area, Ambelokipi, and there are older guys playing games in the park. Recently, it has been dominos. From this, Elder Paez came up with an awesome idea. What if we joined them? I had thought about something like that the first week I got here, but I honestly forgot about it. The next morning, we went out with a chess board and a Book of Mormon in hand. We got to the park and decided to play one game by ourselves to see if they would be okay with us being there.

That ended up being the only thing we did because it didn't take long before THEY joined us. One of the guys came over to watch us play, and he began giving me advice by pointing at the board (I was loosing pretty badly). After a few minutes, I tried engaging in conversation using my Greek. He didn't understand much of what I said. Suddenly I found myself questioning all the Greek I learned until-- we found out he didn't speak Greek, he was Albanian. After a few minutes, someone else came over, and began commenting on our game as well. In Albanian, of course.

While at Sunday meetings, a visitor with is family came to attend sacrament. Naturally, we went to talk with them.  About half way through our conversation, he asks, "My impression is this is a really hard mission. I mean, just from walking around I get that impression. Would you say that it is?"

It's kinda of a common things we hear, but I felt like I needed to answer it differently this time, and this is kinda what I came up with as the best answer to, "Serving in Greece is a 'hard' mission."

If you look at it in terms of numbers, it is one of the hardest missions in the world. But if you look at our purpose, it's not any different than serving somewhere else. We still have the responsibility to find people to teach, strengthen members, teach, do service, etc. Regardless how difficult it might be to do each of things, we have the same responsibility as anyone else. I think remembering that is important to keep things from getting overwhelming.

For our Christmas service project, we decided to make a bunch of cards for a care home right next to the church building. Honestly, a bunch is a bit of an understatement. We made a bunch of these hand-made and drawn cards, and it took us forever. It was a lot of fun and worth it, and spending that time with the missionaries all together was fun. It's one of those things you might never see the fruits of, but that's not the point.

Sometime last week, I prayed for us to have an opportunity to exercise a priesthood blessing. Blessings in the MTC was something I got to be apart of a number of times, and it is something I enjoy.

Three days later, we were sitting in institute class and I overheard Sister Christensen say something about someone being in the hospital. After I implied for what happened, she explained a member from a cruise had gotten sick and was in the hospital. After some talking, they asked us if we could go with them to the hospital, even though they probably could have done it on their own. That turned into a blessing because Elder Paez was able to help get into the hospital because the secruity guard couldn't speak English. They only allowed two people in, so after getting rapid covid tested, Elder Paez and Elder Christensen went in and administered the blessing. It was unfortunate she needed a blessing from her illness, but it was a funny answer to prayer.

The Greek Orthodox church does a thing called, 'Stavross'. It is where you make the motions of a cross in front of you, touching your head, center, shoulder, then other shoulder. I hadn't seen it since I had gotten here, and was wondering if we would ever. In the MTC, we were told stories about people seeing missionaries and stavross-ing because the sight of them. As we waited outside the metro, I pondered, "I wonder if they still do that when they see missionaries, because I have not seen it yet." This was as we were waiting to meet with the Senior Missionaries to go to the hospital.

I kid you not-- 7 minutes  later, we are walking up an escelator, and an older woman is going the other way, spotting us. She stavrosses on the spot, and avoids looking at us. It was a bit far away from me so I might have missed some other context, but I'm about 85% sure she saw us and felt compelled to do that. I pointed it out to Elder Paez, and he laughed.

Sometimes, it really feels like we are "Foreigners in a Foreign Land," like the Pink Floyd song. One day, we had to go out in regular clothes (still with our tags on though, of course.) I did not realize how many people stare at us until they weren't. Missionaries really can stand out at times just by the clothes we have been asked to wear. Usually people just ignore us if anything, but the other day, I felt like we really got to see what we are doing here.

While playing board games, one of the people that came up to us asked, "What are you doing here, in Greece?" We explained we were missionaries and showed him the Book of Mormon. Once he realized who we were, he left and joined the other group of people playing board games (he was kind about it). We didn't think much of it. Another situation, a man that works at a restaurant near our apartment is almost always outside taking a smoke break when we walk past. At first, he and his co-workers would ignore us or try to read our tags. We walk past this resturant almost everyday, and we see him at least every other day. Eventually, he started saying, "Υεία σας, πεδία!" (Hey guys!) and would like ask how we were doing just as we walked by. I think he would say it mostly joking around.

At the end of a tiring day, we exited the metro and began walking home to the apartment. As we were walking, someone actually says hello to us. I was so confused and asked Elder Paez if that was a member from the ward. We realized it was the man from the park that walked away when he wasn't interested. He may not be interested, but he took the time to say hello to us as we walked by. Then, not 7 minutes later, we walked past the usual restaurant. The guy was there again, and said what he usually would, but started asking questions. I felt like we should stop, and we spoke to him for a moment, and explained who we were. We gave him a fist bump before we continued on our way home.

These might appear as small things, but for our area and our mission, this is bounds of progress. It means there really is a chance people could accept us.

We were doing weekly planning and a thought came to my mind. I feel that it is the center of what we need to try to do here in Athens.

"How do we soften hearts?" We'll get there. Σιγά σιγά, αλλά καλά.

This P-Day, we went out to play chess in a new park near to the church building, but right next to a Orthodox Church. I'll be honest-- we didn't have a lot of success doing that, but after we finished the chess match (I lost, again, of course), we got up, and walked into the church. Not our church, but the Greek Orthodox one.
We walked in, and it was dead quiet. Just stepping into the building, we could see the beautiful painted walls. There wasn't anyone there, but we kept quiet because... we had no idea what we were doing, so we tried to be as respectful as possible. It was truly beautiful, and fresh paintings covered almost every surface. It's really interesting to see the different ways people represent things from the Bible. We didn't feel comfortable taking any pictures, especially when one of the priests walked in, but we might at a later date. After checking if that's something we can do respectfully, I mean.

Something I've really thought about since I've been on my mission is having an open mind. When you're out talking to people and if they are listening to you, or even being nice to you, they are accepting you in a certain way. If someone is taking the time to listen to your religion and testimony, they are having an open mind. I think it's only fair to have an open mind too. Yes, they may be smoking or, doing something or wearing something weird or come from a weird place, but the spirit can touch anyone. Your job as a missionary is to teach, and to help others to come unto Christ. Everyone needs the opportunity to come unto Christ.

One of the ways I have felt the love of Christ is through Elder Paez's cooking. He knows how to cook, and I try to pull my weight in the kitchen, but he usually saves the day.

After sacrament meeting, the Sunday School lesson was in All Greek, but we ran out of remote translators devices for the English speakers. Elder Garrett came up to me, and said, "Elder you need to go translate for the senior missionaries." I told him that I did not feel comfortable doing that yet. He just said to me, "It doesn't matter how good or bad it is, it's the effort and it's good for you to try and they will appreciate what you do." That gave me comfort and I actually was able to translate/interpret what was being taught. Kind of made me realize that you can make yourself feel like you don't know a language until you have to use it. We eventually found more translating devices so I didn't have to translate the whole lesson, but I hope more opportunities like this come. Sometimes learning is just being thrown into the deep end.

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After a missionary workshop, I felt emotions working through me about Greece and the work here. These are people full of life and culture, yet have struggles throughout their lives. I want to do everything I can to bring the joy of the gospel here. I had this feeling the moment I stepped into my area, Αμπελόκηποι. Ambelokipi (written in English) is the name of this section of Athens. Athens is big enough there are sort of cities in the city, at least that's how it makes sense to me.

I enjoy the workshops and meeting all the missionaries from around the world on Zoom, but I will say I usually leave re-realizing how different of a mission we're in. We spend so much time trying to find ways to even talk to people (even street contacting and trackting doesn't really work in Athens, we've tried haha!), sometimes it feels a bit like we are waisting time. I'm not the only missionary that has expressed this same thought from my mission.

You can take this however you want, but for me it clarified what we are trying to do here. Jacob 5:21-22 struck a cord in me.
  "21 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard."  
"22 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit."
I really enjoyed reading from Jacob 5 during the workshop, and I felt a lot of it applied to our mission. Though, I didn't realize how much it did until Elder Paez leaned over to say something.
"Do you know what Αμπελόκηποι means in Greek?" He asked.
"No, actually."
"Ambelokipi translates to 'Vineyards'."  
We're getting there. Σιγά σιγά, αλλά καλά (slowly but surely).
Especially because that the holidays are over, I can feel God's words through the Holy Ghost. Something like this:
"Let's get to work, Elder."

I love you all, and those at home, I hope you are not dying of all the snow. You guys in England too, don't freeze.

Elder Dylan Hansen

PS I love getting emails from other missionaries weeklies or even people from home! My email is hansen.dylan@missionary.org.

Pictures:
1. Mars Hill again
2. The outside of the Orthodox Church we went in.
3. I just found this picture! This was in NYC with the original group going to Preston MTC.
4. Wild tortoise!
5. All the missionaries in Athens except the Reidheads.
6. The Green Line on the way to the hospital.
7. The sea from the vantage point we hiked to for New Years Festivities.