Refugees and Jehovah's Witnesses

I've heard that there are a number of people that have enjoyed my emails, and that makes me glad because I might be the only missionary in the world that enjoys writing them!

This transfer is coming near to a close, and it's a weird feeling, not knowing what will happen in the next few weeks. I think the biggest concern for a missionary, if they are transferred to a different area, is if the next missionaries will keep up what you were trying to do. It's a feeling I'm not super used to, to be honest.

This week started with doing a whiteboard, and it was actually a really good experience. We had some people genuinely interested and we had a number of gospel centered conversations. Whiteboards are really good to have conversations with people. The question on the board is really important. It can't be too broad or specific, but still an interesting question. Also, certain questions might work better different days and change depending on how many people are there. Our question this time was, "What do you believe in?" and we had some good answers. The highlight for me was when someone kindly came up and asked us questions about our beliefs and what is in the Book of Mormon. This was the first time I got to share a scripture to a non-member since on my mission. We had a discussion for a good while, and I enjoyed it.

I'll be honest, we don't get the opportunity to teach a lot of lessons in Greece. However, now having been in Athens for a month, I've started to notice things here and there. While doing a whiteboard, someone came up to answer our question, "What do you believe in," and she wrote the most I've seen from on person on the whiteboard. We thanked her and she made a few remarks (it was little too advanced for me to understand a lot of the Greek) and she began walking away. But she made a remark that she believed in Jesus, and did not believe in the same things we did. So, one of us Elders asked her for a bit of explanation. She explained her thoughts, and he said, "That's what we believe too!" and they continued a discussion about beliefs and thoughts of Jesus Christ. We may talk to her again in a future date, but we may not. However, I havre noticed that there are a lot of similarities between people, and the trick to getting along is listening to each other.
We members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have so many similarities to others and yet we appear so different at times. We have a lot of key things that make us different that I could write a whole email about, but a few is, we believe in modern-day prophets and revelation, we believe in angels and visions, miracles, the Book of Mormon, and that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are separate beings. Other religions might believe in some of these things, but the combination of them is what makes us the Church of Jesus Christ. However, we cannot discredit the fact that other religions believe in some truths, and that is one of the keys to living harmoniously.

So, about Greek. Greek, as I have stated in prior emails, is difficult. I think the hardest thing about learning a language is learning how to study it. I feel like I have just gotten to the point where I can spend my language studies effectively. For those of you learning languages, you'll know that learning a language is really a mental game. I have found you really have to be in the right mindset to learn. While in the MTC, we spoke to one of the teachers about this. He said, "A word repeated 10 times and applied in the mind is a lot more effective than a world said 100 times." Basically, I have found that if I'm trying to learn a word, trying to use it as soon as I can right after or throughout the day helps it stick. But also the idea of applying it in your head to certain things really helps. You have to want to learn it to learn it. It's one of those languages you can't learn by accident.

Its funny, I spent 9 years (I think) in the education system, and I've just learned how to study effectively. Languages, at least.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I woke up feeling so sore in the legs, I was honestly confused. We've walked a lot as missionaries, but I couldn't figure out why, in those moments, I started being so sore. I expressed my concern with Elder Paez, and he shared a similar feeling. We finally figured out P-Day we must have walked more than ever, and we tried to remember one moment we sat down that whole day. We could not. Sometimes, you just forget things that happened as a missionary. There are so many things going on each day, you start learning to focus just on what was happening each day. But holy crap, I was tired.

On that P-day actually, Elder Paez's and I's phones went off. Then again. Then again. Finally we found time to check what it was, and we had received 5 referals from online ads on Facebook. Referals, for this mission, are usually someone has requested a Book of Mormon online, and because of their location, we are asked to deliver them. We were excited because this never happens, and also skeptical.

Turns out, our un-ease not unwarrented. The other missionaries received a bunch too, and after contacting all of them, we concluded most of them were fake. However, it was most, not all. We have plans for later this week to meet with a few people to deliver or contact again.

This mission is full of different languages. Elder Paez and I have contacted more people this last week in French than we have in Greek. Since we are the only two in Athens that speak French, we get sent to anyone that needs contacting in French. Often, messages are the best form of communication with those that are sent our way, so our system has been me speaking something we could say and Elder Paez typing it out. I cannot write in French for the life of me, so until I can find more time to study, my French communication is strictly verbal. However, it really has been a blessing to communicate with those in French because, by God's will, my French has gained the opportunity to develop more than ever.

If you remember from last email, we felt that we should go check on our friend in the hospital from the Salt Lake Offices Mission. This time, it was only Elder Paez and I. The medical system is still deeply affected by Covid, so because of this we had to get covid tested. The mission requests that we speak in English to police officers and us missionaries usually extend this to anything medical so there is no confusion. However, most of us either understand or understand enough to get an idea of what is going on. This made for a funny situation getting tested because the conversation started in English with the secretary, but when I was actually getting tested, it switched to Greek. I paid for the test, and went into the next room to get tested by the nurse. I really try to use Greek as much as I can, but it presents interesting situations. I greeted the nurse with a 'γειά σας'(hello) and she greeted back. I say hello in Greek so often, I've nearly perfected the accent on it. She assumed I understood Greek fluently and the rest of the rapid test was conducted in Greek.

That was when the secretary walked in and heard the nurse speaking only in Greek to me. "You understand Greek?" she said in shock.

"Λίγο," (a little) I said back.

She explained the gist of what was explained to me earlier in Greek, just to make sure I understood. It was a cool moment.

Unfortunately, the person we visited was asleep, but we were able to get some information about her condition, and she will be on her way home soon, thankfully.

Also, I feel I should explain-- I do not say I have perfected the Greek accent on hello from my own understanding. As far as I know, I'm doing nothing different, but about an hour after this experience at the hospital, we went into a food place to see if we wanted anything, and yet again, I was presented a moment to give a greeting. However, they asked me a question afterwards that I did not understand and he switched into English. "Dude, I assumed you knew Greek-- you greeted me with a γειά σας, and your accent was good."

I need to be careful. It'll be cool to surprise people once I actually get more time to practice and continue to learn. We'll get there.
I feel that we missionaries are really trying to make an effort to make an established missionary work here in Greece. If felt like things kinda fell apart because of Covid and such, but we're really trying to make a good effort to do good things. Often, we have to put a lot of zeros at the end of weeks for our Key Indicators (our weekly numbers), that's not without the lack of trying. I am content right now with just trying to help people have joy and come closer to Christ.

I think we sometimes forget things like the Refugee situation is happening, but in Greece, you can't. We were helping someone who works in a refugee camp around Greece the other day, and she told us stories she's heard in the camp from those fleeing their countries that are testaments that God loves all his children, regardless of religion, race, or anything. Some may be too special to share over an email, but I can testify to you with utmost assurety God ministers to people of the Earth today, just as the times of old. Even to the point of angels ministering and aiding children of men. However, I can tell you of one.

A family this person we meet knew, explained one of the scariest moments of their lives. As they fled their home country by ship, the ship was hit by a massive storm. The water was turning and the wind  was hitting the ship, apparently, in ways that you could not imagine. One particular wave hit the ship so hard, it threw their youngest daughter right of the boat. If you know anything about being on the sea, this is horrible. She sank beneath the water and dissapeared. Frankly, the family and the others on the ship tried doing everything they could to spot her.

Something like 5 minutes later, someone shouts. At the center of the ship, the family sees their youngest daughter, drenched head to toe in water, sitting by herself.

They, the person we spoke with, and ourselves, do not know who saved her. But someone did.

Article of Faith 7 "We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth."

This is gonna sound crazy, but this whole week I've been waiting for an opportunity to talk to Jehovah's Witnesses. I was telling Elder Paez, "Next time I see them, I am going to have a conversation" and he promptly said, "Sound good!" I made sure that is something he would be okay with actually. After our last white board I saw a few of them next to a stand at Sigdagma station and I turned to Elder Paez.

"You ready Elder?"

We went up and spoke to them. They were shy at first (who can blame them, a couple of 'mormon' missionaries walked up to them) but they were really nice and one started opening up to us a little more. I asked their beliefs, and we started a converstation about that. And of course... right when the conversation was progressing, someone came up to US AND ASKED US FOR A BOOK OF MORMON.

That doesn't happen here in Greece. The guy wasn't super interested in our religion but he wanted a BoM and to talk about our beliefs. I felt so bad! I was over here trying to make a good impression on some missionaries of another faith and someone came up to us to talk about our religion! Elder Paez manned the situation with the man asking about the Book of Mormon, and I tried saying goodbye to the other missionaries of the JW faith. They were really nice about it, but they had to leave. I hope someday to meet them again and maybe finish our discussion. Honestly, that was a highlight of this last week.

Hope you all are doing well! I hope everyone in the snow has been able to dig themselves out! I wish I could say the same for here.

Elder Dylan Hansen