The Darkest of Rooms have the Brightest of Lights

Quote of the Month:
"I think now is a good time to say, mountain climbing is not an approved Preparation Day activity" - President Burdon as we descended Mar's Hill, which was getting particularly steep. Safe, but just a bit steep at certain times. It made us all laugh.

I am struggling where to begin with this email, mostly because so much happened.

As a missionary, something happens everyday, and everyday contains the possibility of exciting proceedings. For better or worse, but usually for better.
I guess, let's start with our whiteboard experience for this week.

So far, at least once a week, most of us missionaries will go out to Syntagma (pretty much the center of Athens) for about 2 hours with a white board. We will write a question such as, "Τι σας φέρνει χαρά;" (What brings you joy?) on the board, and let people write their answers on the board. It leads to quite a few good conversations. If a person seems particularly interested, we have been giving them "Light the World" Calendars or cards. We had a particularly notable interaction offering the calendar to a group of young adults. After they wrote some stuff on the board and had a conversation with us, Elder Jenkins offered a calendar to them."What is this?" one of them asked.
"It's a calendar that gives you something good to do each day until Christmas." (Of course I am summarizing the explanation, it was in Greek and I struggled to understand it all).
"Oh I see. Thank you, but we are not good people. Thanks anyway!" They proceeded to wave to us all and walk away. That's one to go to the books, that's for sure.

We meet people like that, and people from all over the world during whiteboarding. A correction from last email, I said we used every language except Finnish at the last whiteboard activity. That was indeed false. Apparently, Elder Huhtala did end up using Finnish. Which would meet that in that activity, we used every single language we knew. Greece really has people from everywhere.

Just to say simply, there are quite a few protests going on in Athens right now. The mission had sent out a statement to remain cautious, and to avoid them if possible. When passing by a protest, we are asked to remove our tags, out of safety for ourselves, and the church. It sounds kind of scary, but really, as long you stay smart, remain aware of your surroundings and the spirit, God will protect his missionaries. I have already felt that in a number of ways.

I have found we spend quite a bit of time contacting via the phone. It's not something I was really expecting before I left to the field, but it makes sense now. I try to participate as much as possible, but when the call is completely in Greek, I struggle to understand. Elder Paez had to come in and saved the day on multiple occasions. The number of members often listed that lives in Greece is about 600. However, our sacrament attendance usually consists of about 50 members, and I can't imagine much more than that meets in Thessaloniki. A lot of our time is spent trying to find members that have not been to church in a while and contact them. We also try to contact old friends of the church, just to see how they are doing and if we could meet with them again.

Honestly, at first, this felt like it wasn't really worth the time. People would either be working, not interested, or in one occasion, plain out upset. I did in time realize that this is good because we are updating our lists of friends, and updating the member list with correct information and such. One notable experience was when a man we called didn't realize we were "Mormons". Once he realized this (he also switched into English at this point because he felt he could get his question better across), he asked the, "Million Dollar Question", he called it. He asked, "Why does God seem so different in the Old Testament than the New Testament?"
It's a difficult question, but I remembered what I had learned in seminary (Thank you Bro Black), and answered with what I could. We, later in the week, sent a message to him with a bit more of an answer to his question. I really like this, because it really felt like what missionary work is all about. We try to bring others to Christ. I think I might have surpised companion because how much energy I bursted into trying to answer his question. Unfortunately, in this mission, situations like that are not very common. Most often, people will ask what the difference between the Orthodox Church and our church is, but even that question is quite rare. Most people are respectful to our different beliefs, but speaking honestly, some people think of us as heretics. I truly believe part of our mission is to try and encourage more acceptance of differences, and show that we, members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, are just people too.

Some of the missionaries here had the awesome idea of doing a "Light the World" stand. Elder Paez and I were only able to arrive at the tail end of it, but it was fun. We met a man who had travelled the world, and yet he was amazed by missionaries ability to learn languages so well and so quickly. He speaks English, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and I think maybe a couple more. He's been trying to learn Cantonese as well, and while in France, he ran into a missionary speaking perfect Cantonese. We explained the Gift of Tongues to him, and he was deeply interested in the idea that God could help us to communicate with others. Very nice guy.

Athens is a pretty city for sure, but I didn't really understand what people meant by that until we met a friend of the church a little ways from the center. Once you step out of the bustling city and into the more quiet areas, it truly is beautiful. This friend we met, needed help sorting some books. Of these books, it felt that her husband wrote almost half of them! For confidentiality reason, I don't think it would be the best idea to share her or his name over email-- but I will say that if you are a fan of Star Trek, it would have been pretty exciting. She's very well spoken and it's a great deal of fun talking to her. Her husband was a fairly big name in Sci-Fi world, so most of her books were science-fiction.

We were walking to Institute on Friday, and we had a hoot walking past the American Embassy. It was actually really cool to see. It's probably one of the most protected places in Athens, and it almost looks like it belongs in a movie. There was a GMC SUV parked there, and in that moment I never felt more at home here in Athens. Haha! I have found, the more time I've spent outside the US, the more I've come to appreciate it. Don't get me wrong though, I have felt each country has had its own cool or special qualities. The world is a very diverse place, I can tell you that.

We had a Christmas party on Saturday, and it was remarkable. Having all the members there socializing, new friends we invited from whiteboarding actually coming, and some returning members coming as well, was remarkable. And of course, the food was wonderful. The primary did a nativity, and it was very cute. Who knew, the nativity is twice as fun when it is in Greek? It was really quite cool.

On Sunday we went Caroling in Sigdagma, which I would only use the word, 'funny' to describe it. We sang a few Hymns and casual Christmas songs. About half way through singing, a Othodox Priest walked by. We did what we should, and kept singing. However, I think he might have been offended by this because he turned around and began shouting at us in Greek. Quite loudly, he was shouting things like, "This is Greece! Here we have Orthodox!" and something about our Church isn't 'Αλήθεια' (true). That's all I and everyone could really understand or paid attention to. We did what we should and kept singing. He eventually walked away, and a few minutes later, the sisters had to make a phone call. For a moment we took a break and started handing out some 'Light the World' cards to whoever wanted one.
Not 15 minutes from our first interaction with a priest, another walks by. With 'Elder Jenkins' boldness, Elder Jenkins said 'Καλησπέρα' (Good evening), and the priest responded with much more positivity compared to the interaction from before. Elder Jenkins gave him a Light the World card, and we said 'Καλησπέρα' as he continued by.

Just like our church, everyone is different. God loves all of his children equally, and we all can, in Sis Hall's words, "Choose Happiness." I would change this to "Choose kindness," for this situation. Everyone deserves the light of Christ in their lives and regardless of who they are, we can invite all to come unto Christ.

This week I discovered a regular service activity we will be doing in the start of January is teaching refugees. It is a 4 month program for them to gain a GED (basically a highschool diploma). The organizers of the foundation found us, the missionaries, and asked if we could aid in the classroom. For those of you that know me well, this brings me some joy. I enjoy the idea of teaching English to non-english speakers, but this comes as a close second. My guess is we'll be doing this through the next year at least. We met the organizers at the Christmas party (they are not members), and one nearly began to cry from how much she believes this can help these people. And she's right, it's deeply impactful because it is fast, free, and gives the the ablity to tell employers and colleges, "I know how to learn." I think I speak for us all missionaries that we are honored to be part of something like that. I'm excited to see how it goes.

A lot of people from the Middle East and or Refugees are the nicest, must hospitable people I have ever met. Some might not be super interested in our religion when we speak to them, but they are the most willing to talk to us out of everyone. After Caroling on Sunday, we met/getting to know this group of guys and one said, "You all... we are friends now. We are friends, and if you need anything, you let us know." We extanged numbers, and might be meeting with them again sometime soon. I would say we have had some negative interations, but everytime, there have been fruits of that labor. Singing in Sigdama might have been awkward, but look at all the things that happened during that. It wasn't really the singing that was impactful, but the Lord will use our efforts. As Brother Turner would say, "God could do his work all by himself. But, he has given us the opportunity to be a part of it."

For those of you prospecting missionaries, you will do great. The Lord is preparing people for you to meet. But I want to give some advise. Do not look for the 'Golden Investiator'. If you get the chance to teach someone already living the commandments of God and is pretty much ready to get in the waters of baptism, great! But at least here, they are few and far between. Those are not the only people that deserve the Light of Christ in their lives. You have being guided by the spirit, God may have you bring joy to people you might not expect. Love them. Jesus Christ loves them and he doesn't love them any less than you. They may not follow the commandments of God, but that is part of why we are here. To give them the opportunity to know the commandments, and I say again, to bring Christ's Χαρά (joy) to them. Even if they don't accept it. If anything, you have shown them what living in God's Church is like, and how it is a blessing.

I hope you all are doing well, and those of you back at home, I hope you are surviving the snow! We've needed it. Apparently it'll get a bit colder here in January and February, so there's a chance we might get snow. At least, last year it did.
In the darkest of rooms, you will see the small light clear. Find the small bright light.

From,
Elder Dylan Hansen

P.S. If you're a missionary getting my emails, please add me to yours! I enjoy reading them. My email is hansen.dylan@missionary.org.