Έλλαδα!!!!!(Greece!!!)

Mars Hill

Hey Everyone,

Holy cow what a crazy time it has been. We left the MTC at 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning to head to the Manchester airport. We were scheduled to get to Greece around 3 in the afternoon.  But our flight was delayed an hour out of Manchester and that then caused us to show up right as they closed the gates for our connecting flight to Greece out of London. So we were then stuck in the London airport for 5 hours until we could get to Greece.

We got to Greece around 8 o'clock at night and from there we drove to the mission home to stay for the night. That night we got our first gyros and they were really good. We got up the next morning and headed out for Mars hill. At Mars hill President had us all bear our testimony in Greek. There were some missionaries that were leaving on Thursday that also bore their testimony and holy cow I have a long way to go with my Greek. Then we went to the church building and had some training, and I got my new companion. Then Me and my new companion, Elder Goodwin, headed home to Ahgios Dimitrios which is the area in the heart of Athens which is crazy. That night we did some studying and a little shopping to get us through the rest of the week.

First Whiteboard

Thursday, my first full day in the mission! We had studies in the morning and then in the Afternoon we were going to visit a member named Manolis. It was interesting, his Greek is really hard to understand for everyone. So for me I understood nothing that he said but the lesson went well and I bore a little testimony, and feel it went pretty well. That night we went and did a whiteboard. We wrote the question "Does something exist after death?" and we would ask people for answers. It was good but we had no success with getting contacts which was sad but we tried so that's all that matters. 

Mars Hill with my area behind me

Friday again was studies in the Morning and then we had a Zone training in the afternoon where we talked about how to find people. Which was good because we have to get creative now with how we do our finding. Then that night we went with the sisters from our area and did some basketball finding. We finally had success my companion Elder Goodwin has a broken toe so he sat on the side. He made a friend with whom we have a meeting on Friday and I made three new friends with whom we are going to play ball with again on Friday. So we count that as some success which is awesome.

Parthenon With Elder Goodwin

Saturday, we didn't do much. We made some cookies to give to our neighbors because President wants us to know all of our neighbors by name. We had good success. We met Sophia and then Vasili.  Vasili is about 65 and he is very Greek but he let us in and we had some juice and just talked for a little about life. He said we should come back sometime so hopefully this can go somewhere. He also offered us some cigarettes. Ha ha the first time in my life I have been offered a smoke was on my mission. I thought that was pretty funny. On this night the assistants came and slept over at our house because they were out with an investigator late and would have gotten home at 10:30. So they came to our house around 9 to stay for the night. It was really fun they were cool guys, their names are Elder Viner and Elder Menis from England and Italy. That was fun to get to know them.

Parthenon With President and Sister Heder

Parthenon with APs and Elder Goodwin

Sunday, In the morning we went to church. It was good. I am assigned to the Greek branch which is interesting but it went good. Sacrament meeting was first and then Priesthood. In between Sunday School and Preisthood meeting we got pulled into a relief society meeting between the Greek and English branch so that we could translate. It was so weird and the ladies were pretty harsh to each other. After that we went to the Parthenon which was so cool. So the story is that it was free Saturday and Sunday. We got a call on Saturday from the APs that said if you want to go to  the Parthenon on either of those days for an hour you can. So we went with the APs to the Parthenon on Sunday. The funny thing is while we were there president called us and asked where are you guys? We told him, then we talked for a minute. Then he said look up. We looked up from the bottom of the acropolis and saw President waving at us. He was there which was cool so we got a picture with president at the Parthenon which is pretty cool and has never happened before.

Sorry this email is so long but a lot of stuff happened this week. I will leave you with a spiritual thought from the week, I have found that throughout 2 Nephi in the Isaiah chapters there is a recurring statement "his hand is stretched out still". That is a really cool promise that we have been given in life that it doesn't matter what happens we can still repent and the Savior will bring us back into his loving arms.

Love,

Elder Halverson

Greece!

Hey everyone,

I am going to go through my day. To start I got up at 3:15am. I actually got really awesome sleep so that was good. It was hard to leave President and Sister Bunker they were awesome people. We went to the airport and all my bags were good I got through fine. Our flight was delayed an hour so we missed our connection to Athens and got on a flight 5 hours later. While waiting I got a 10 pounds voucher from the airline. I went and got the best meal that I have had of ham and pancakes. It was awesome! We finally get to Greece and Meet President and Sister Heder and the AP's they are amazing. We went straight to the mission home because we got here late and just hung out. I love the Heders they are so amazing and awesome. I am going to love them so much. Then we found out our areas and guess who gets to serve in the heart of Athens? That is me. I have to leave now but my p-day is Monday so I will email then. Love You Guys I will talk with you on Monday!!

Love,

Brig

Also send letters and packages to

P.O. Box 66038

GR 155 10

Cholargos
Greece

Elder Halverson with President and Sister Heder

Elder Halverson and His Companion

είναι ώρα!!

This week has had some cool things happen. I will not be able to get a big email out today because President said just to email family today since it is not a p-day. If you want to add stuff on to my blog from this email feel free to do so.

Wednesday I was able to go to the temple again and was able to spend a good amount of time in the celestial room. It was just a really good and relaxing time I am really going to miss the temple. 

Thursday this was the Day that I facetimed with Daniel. We had two other lessons in the day. The one right before I facetimed Daniel was amazing I was testifing of the power of prayer and I just felt the spirit so strong. Then I had the lesson with Daniel it was amazing we taught so much from the first lesson and were able to answer all of his questions, then I testified at one point of the prophet Joseph Smith and I just felt the spirit so strong especially as I recited the first vision it was amazing.

On Friday, it was a weird day because everyone went to Manchester but us 3 Americans. President said we could do whatever we wanted. We went up and started packing and it was nice because we had to adjust weight. I really hope that goes well. That night we skyped with a returned missionary from Greece. It was supposed to be with another member but that didn't work out. So we got to talk with him and it was really awesome. He was such a nice guy. We talked a lot about how he liked the mission  all in Greek that was good.

Saturday, it was my last session in the temple until I am home. It was also a cool session we were in a deaf session. There were two people sitting in the corner and signing the whole time. It was very interesting but also cool. It was a very good last session. It was our last night with Brother Peel which was sad but also not because he is coming to Athens in a year. So some of us will get to see him when he comes.

Cool spiritual thought of the week. This morning we watched a mormon message The Will of God you should watch it. In the message once the gardener cuts down the plant it says "why did you cut me down I was doing so good on my own". I feel like that is what the lord is doing with me. I was cut down like the bush so that I can grow not as big for myself but to grow fruit for others. It has been cool to see that as I am building myself back up I am not building around my needs but the needs of others. I feel that I can testify so much more with the spirit that way it is so awesome.

I love you guys so much. Thank you for all that you have done for me and how you have helped me so far. 

Love,

Elder Halverson

Μια Ακόμη Εβδομάδα!!

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had a good week. My week was pretty much the same as last week, except now a week from today I will be on a plane headed into Greece. I am so excited to be able to go and spread the Gospel with people. Also it is weird to think that I have been here for two months that is crazy.

Three exciting things happened or really one exciting thing and two other kinda exciting things happened. One was on Saturday we were able to teach a lesson to a member in Cyprus it was really cool. I did understand everything he said which was awesome. He was nice to us and didn't use any Cypriut. I am glad that I don't have a visa for Cyprus so I don't have to learn another Language on top of Greek. 

On Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting in Greek it was pretty ruff. My talk was about Faith, hope, and charity. I used a lot of Moroni chapter 7 which is an amazing chapter on the subject. Later in the meeting all of the Greek missionaries did a special musical number. We sang The Spirit of God in Greek. It was really good actually. Granted nobody knew what we said and we didn't know half of what we said but it was good.

Today in town I was able to go in and hold an owl which is probably about the most exciting thing that you can do in Chorley but it was still really cool. It was huge! It doesn't look that big but once it expands its wings it is giant.

Other than that I have nothing exciting. We as a district all got matching ties so we took some pictures of course. Sorry for the short email but next time I should send more because I will be in Greece!!

Love,

Elder Halverson

Εβδομάδα η'!!(Week 8)

All the England MTC Missionaries

Hey everyone!!

I hope that everyone had an amazing week. My week has been pretty good, but to tell the truth just the same old MTC routine. But hey I get to leave in TWO WEEKS!! I am so excited to be able to go and share the gospel with the Greeks. Also good luck to all my buddies leaving the MTC here this week and next, and all those who already left. 

So this week was pretty uneventful except I was able to finish the Book of Mormon this week. I can tell you all that I know that it is the word of God and all of its teachings are true. They can help us all through our individual challenges it has definetly helped me.

Today we went into Chorley, just 4 of us going to Greece, and we talked to the owners of the resturant again. They are really the nicest people that you could find in Chorley. Everyone here isn't to nice but this Greek couple is really super nice. It was cool to be able to talk some greek with them. They were also really helpful. They said most people are that way so I am excited to be able to go and actually meet some more nice Greeks.

One cool Greek thing that I learned this week was the word ωραίος which means great and is pronounced oreos so that is where oreos get there names I thought that was pretty cool.

Other than that nothing else has happened that is exciting. Sorry it is so short and sorry I have no pictures for the week. But good luck to everyone in all that they are doing and I wish you all the best.

Love,

Πρεσβύτερος Χαλβερσον