The Hunt

If any of ya'll come here to Greece some day, you gotta try the Μπουγάτσα (Bougatsa). They are only really available before 2 in the afternoon, but it's worth it to get it when you can. Holy mackerel, they are good. *Elder Paez and I just took some of the Senior missionaries to the airport as I am writing this, and we got some as we walked to the church.*

It's actually interesting, the Bougatsa in Θεσσαλονίκη is famous for being really good, so last week I was excited to hear from Elder Huhtala and Elder Morgan how it is. It was super exciting! The four missionaries that have been in Thess came down for Zone Conference, and Elder Morgan and Huhtala stayed in our flat. It was almost like the MTC again. They stayed for 2 days.

It was really special to see them again because we spent so much time together in the MTC, and for almost 6 weeks, it was like they disapeared. Needless to say, after nine was full of telling stories of Athens or Thess and reminiscence of the MTC. I never really understood why the MTC would often come up in conversations with return missionaries at home, but I think I finally get it. The MTC experience is something you reflect on often, but it still feels like it was 100 years ago. However, as soon as you see your old MTC companion, it sudden feels like yesterday. Expecially with how small our mission is, every get-together is almost a reunion with at least one of your MTC companions.

I may have shared this experience already, but since I am not sure if I did, I am going to share it!

As you already might know, there are a lot of languages in Athens. We have a shelf in our appartment that consists of Books of Mormon, in at least 9 languages. It's a bit intense. A few weeks ago, we went through the church to find them, and I grabbed a Japanese Book of Mormon, despite the fact I hadn't ever even heard it in Athens yet. I felt like I should, so I did. My backpack was already stuffed full with Books of Mormons, so I put it in my coat pocket.

We ventured to the metro line that runs under the city, which we ride about every day. We waited for the train to arrive, which was taking a bit longer than usual.

The platform started filling up with people, and a family stood near us on the platform. I couldn't help but over hear them and --I kid you not-- this was the first time I had heard Japanese my entire time in Athens. Of course, I quickly pulled out my copy of the Japanese Book of Mormon and held it in my hands.

Though I wasn't able to speak to them before the train arrived, I vividly remember them looking at the book in my hand, reading the title, probably very confused why this American in Greece was holding a Japanese book. I will never see the fruit of that, but alas if that was something God willed to happen, he shall do the work.

God could do the work on his own-- but he's gracious enough to let us be apart of it. As imperfect as I am, I am still glad God is trying to use us and put us in the right places for his work. Just reading Abraham's story you can see God's been doing that for a while.

If you recall, Elder Paez and I played board games a bit with some Albanians near our flat. We never could communicate with them, but because of Zone Conference and some "Mission Testing" to see if Albanian missionaries could serve in Greece, the Assistants to the President stayed here for a week. So they got to speak with them!

They told us it was a really good experience and got a lot of information about our area from them. We might not be able to play games at that park anymore because the expectation is missionaries speak Albanian, but we know this was a good thing to have the APs speak to them.

The last two weeks have been an adventure to try to find, what is called, a 'Go' board. What we have come to learn is depending on what game you play outside, it attracts certain people. Like about a week ago, we played checkers, and different people came to make remarks. So I decided now was the time to find a Go board, since it's popular in East Asia. Our area has a very diverse group of people so we hoped it would open up the people we can talk to.

However, a simple need, such as getting said Go board, turned into a week and a half adventure. Literally, we have travelled so much to find one. We walked 30 minutes to a store to pick one up but found out it was closed (the website was wrong if I remember correctly). We as we walked back to the metro station, we saw a wooden toy store that looked like the shop from 'Gremlins'. But it had a hand-made Go board literally in the window! It was closed, however. (Why does everything close at 4pm on Wednesday?) We walk to another store on our way back that had a bunch of games like Dungeons and Dragons. An employee came up and asked if he could help us with anything.
"Do you have a game called Go?" I asked.
"How old is it?" he asked back.
I didn't know how to say 3,000 in Greek so I just mumbled, "...Pretty old..."
He still kindly checked his catalog, but it was pretty clear this wasn't the place we would find something like that. We said thank you and went on our way.

A number of some of the busiest days I've had as a missionary go by, and we finally find time to go back to the stores that were closed. We first went to the store we originally planned on visiting, and found a Go board on the bottom shelf. We flipped it over, revealed the price, and quickly flipped it back over out of surprise of the cost. It was not budget friendly for a missionary.

So we ventured to the store out of the movie 'Gremlins', despite our assumptions that a hand made board would cost more. We walked in and a man with hair that matched his store greeted us. I saw the board in the shelf and saw the price. It was cheaper than the machine made one at the other store!
I pointed at it, completely forgetting the words for 'we'll take that'.
"You want that?"
"Nai," I replied like a child.
The board will work well for our finding. ***Also I didn't expect this story to be the longest part of my email, but I guess it reflect the amount of time it took just to find the dang thing. It was all worth it in the end.***

Elder Gonzalves and Elder Gerrick were kind enough to accompany us to the store when we made the purchase, and we travelled back to find a place to eat. We passed a hat store that the owner was standing out in front of. He looked down at my tag and goes, "Do you speak English?"
I hesitantly said yes, and we all stopped.
"Can I write something in your book-- bible thing?" pointing at the Book of Mormon in my hand.
We started asking him a number of question and such because usually if someone wants to write in a Book of Mormon, they want to Bible Bash us (write scriptures that "prove" our religion is not true.)
Eventually, we take a shot and give him the Book of Mormon. As he talks with us, he writes a lot of verses --off memory-- and gives it back to us. He says goodbye and we go on our way.

Of course, one of the first things we do when we begin to eat, is look up the verses he wrote. We assumed he was trying to Bible Bash us, but infact, we were wrong. Each verse was highlighting a belief we believe in. We don't know if he was trying to correct us or not, but each thing he referenced was something we agree with. Someday, we hope to go back and continue our conversation with him. Sometimes things like this just happen, and you're almost never expecting it. But I guess it ended up being a good experience.

As you would expect, the area around the Acropolis is full of people trying to make money and, unfortunately, pick-pocketers. As we went to the Acropolis gate, one of the APs turns around and goes, "Bro, my phone is gone."

Elder Jenkins quickly calls it as the Ap searches his pockets and backpack. It's nowhere. But that's when the unexpected happened. Someone answered the phoned. We hear Elder Jenkins speaking to someone in Greek, and we assume they are going to ransom for it or something. However, he begins walking in a direction, and we follow him. About five minutes later, we see a woman standing to the side, on the APs phone, and Elder Jenkin's points at her, and she points back.
Somehow, two kind women found the phone somewhere, and brought it to a worker.

To give you an idea-- this never happens in places like this. The chances of finding his phone again was probably a 20% chance. However, with God willing, it was found. The rest of our experience at the Acropolis went smoothly.

Right near our apartment, there is a place that cuts hair for really cheap and does a good job. It's one person that runs it and recently it has become the go-to place for missionary haircuts. One of us missionaries went there and found out she only takes cash, but didn't have enough in cash. She said it was fine, but he promised he would pay her back. Later that night, he was telling us this. We said we would pay her the one euro on our way back to the appartment.
We walked into her salon and she turned to look at us.
"I heard one of us missionaries wasn't able to pay you the full amount," I said, holding the euro piece out in front of me
"ELLLLLAAAAAA!(Come onnnnn!!)" We handed it to her and I think it made her and our own night better. Things like this is what really brings joy on the mission. When you get to have very human and real interactions with people, it makes everything worth it.

It was actually kind of funny. Earlier that day we decided to do a whiteboard. We all agreed to meet at our usual place. We each arrived, two by two.
This has become one of my favorite moments on the mission because we all stood in the circle realizing, "Wait-- none of us brought a whiteboard."
Soo... we departed and went to Mars hill and tried to place a Book of Mormon. Sometimes with so many logistics in the week, things just slip like that. It was funny, and we still tried to make it a productive time.

As per usual, I have too many stories, and not enough time. I think that's alright though. I hope you found some of these experiences fun to read or relatable.

Love you guys and I hope everything is going alright at home! To all my friends in the MTC now-- I love you all, and welcome to the work! You are missionaries now, yall.

Θα τά πούμε!!

Πρεσβύτερος Ντίλαν Χάνσεν (Elder Dylan Hansen)