Crazy Week!!

Hey Everyone,

Hope that all of your weeks this week were amazing because mine was great!

So last Monday we were able to go to Demetria's house and give her a blessing. She just wanted to know what her Heavenly Father wanted her to do. It was a good blessing. She came to church this week for the first time in a while because she has been less active for about a year so that was cool.

Tuesday we had district meeting and I had my first exchange. I went to another area within Athens with Elder Puckrin who is from Ireland and then with Elder Albertson, it was a good exchange. That night we went to George's house who is a less active member but only because the church is so far away. That is a big problem here in Greece is that the church is just so far away. But he was a really nice guy. He just kept offering us food that is what it is like with Greeks. If you say no they get offended so we had like 3 drinks a frozen banana and two gyros it was good but I was stuffed haha.

Wednesday I went back home. Then that night we went out and did some basketball finding and were able to make two new friends that want to play with us again! 

Me and my comp in our service gear

Thursday this night we were able to do some finding at Syntagma. We were able to find a new friend she even said that we should call her and have a meeting with her sometime when she isn't busy which was awesome!

Friday, so we first went out around the neighborhood and did some service which was good.  Then that night we went and played basketball and I made good friends with this guy who likes American sports. He said that he wanted to meet up again sometime so that was really cool. Unfortunately that night I rolled my ankle really bad and still today it is like 2 times as big as it should be so that is bad.

My swollen Ankle

Saturday, first we walked up the mountain to talk to our less active member, and that was not good for my ankle at all. We talked with him and we find that this member is only in Athens every two weeks because he lives on the islands and has a house in Athens. He is never here on a Sunday so that is hard. Then we had a lesson with our investigator Dharmen and he is a really nice guy from India. He speaks English and not Greek so that makes it easy for me haha. We hadn't seen him for a while actually his first lesson was before I came to Greece so we just took some time and caught up and then we talked about the Book of Mormon and he really wants to learn more so that is something cool. Then we went to Ralph's and we had a lesson with Ralph who is one of our less active members and he is a good guy but struggles to get to church so that was good.

Sunday, it was a good day and I was able to make friends with many people in the ward Then I also was able to give a blessing to a man from Oregon who had his wallet stolen and had no way to get home. That was really cool, and then in the evening we had a devotional from Elder Ballard who was speaking to all of the Adult members in the Europe area. He said what we need to do is just to find a quiet moment and contemplate the gifts that we have really been given it was awesome.

This week in my personal study I was able to read the story of Alma the older and the people he baptized in the waters of Mormon it is such a cool story. From it I saw also that Abinadi taught those same people that Alma was able to convert and I was able to learn that the lord has a plan, and because Abinadi had no success with the people. Alma was converted and he became a great prophet it is a cool thing that shows that God really does have a plan and He knows what He is doing so trust him!

Love,

Elder Halverson