Merry Christmas!

Jesus Christ is basically everything for me.  He is my Savior, my Redeemer, my Brother and my Friend. He has done so much for me just with His example and then He also gave us the best gift that could ever be given and He suffered more than we can ever comprehend so that we do not have to. We can never say "there isn't anyone who understands" and that is because there is, He understands everything we have ever been through. I know this because He has comforted me in my lowest times. He has lifted me when I have needed, and He has made my burdens easy to bear. He is our Savior and our Redeemer. He wants us to come unto Him. His arms are always stretched out to us and He wants us to just come into His embrace and as we choose to do this we will experience joy and peace that we could never be able to have without Him. I love my Savior and I know that I cannot do this journey in life without Him and I know He is always my source fore peace and comfort and that He will never abandon me. Christmas is not about us or gifts or giving. It is about our Savor and His humble beginnings in a manger. As we think of Him this Christmas let us not forget that He is our source of comfort peace and joy that can never be taken from us and best thing we can do for Him is to share it.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love,

Brig

Christmas!!!

Hey everyone!

I hope all is well and that you all have a Merry Christmas! This will be my last email before Christmas cause as it is Christmas next Monday I will be skypeing instead of email so yeah.

Ok so on Tuesday we made some cookies and we put some stuff on them for Christmas. Then we took them around to our neighbors and friends and it went really well. We made friends with a new lady called Maria who wants to see us again sometime that was cool.

Then on Wednesday we did finding and had a lesson with our less-active friend Manolis. It went really well he is a really funny guy he is a Greek and just loves Jesus so he loves Christmas it was a good meeting. Also this day we got a call from an unknown number and we got a call from a former Investigator from about a year ago saying that he wanted to meet up that was really cool. In the evening we ran into this guy on the street and talked for like 30 minutes about Greece and why we are here and stuff and we are going to meet up with him sometime this week which is really cool.

Then on Thursday we had a lesson with Athanasios the former investigator that called us and it went well. He is an interesting guy and has a lot of questions so it was cool. He wants to be a member of the church but maybe not for the right reasons we got work ahead of us but definitely potential.

Then on Friday we did a little bit of Christmas caroling with some of the sisters and other Elders. It was an interesting experience but we did talk to a couple people. My companion loves singing so he loved it while I got to talk to some people. Then we went to the church that night and we practiced for a big Light the world devotional that we had on Saturday.

So Saturday we had the Light the World devotional and it was really cool and we all got to let off balloons we had about 100 or so people there which was really cool and a papa from the orthodox church came and we got a picture.
​So yeah saturday was pretty cool.

Then Sunday was a good day we went to church and just had a good day and we also had a lesson with Dharmen and it went really well and he said he is going to read and pray this week.

So yeah it was a really good week and we have a lot of potential for this next week it is awesome.

The message I would like to leave with you guys today is to remember the reason for the season Christmas is about Christ and how amazing he is for us and the best way we can do that is by spreading his love and his kindness to others.

Love,

Elder Halverson

P.S. 

A little doodle on the whiteboard during a lunch, Christmas is great

Training!!

Hey Everyone!

Well this week was for sure an interesting one so lets get to this.

Tuesday, in the morning, we had to go to the church early to go and help the office couple move some things into the sisters apartment. As we were getting ready for the new group of missionaries to come in and then we had a good last district meeting as a district.

Wednesday was transfer day! So I now have a trainee and his name is Elder Gaskill from Payson Utah, he is a singer and super energetic and ready to get to work so we should have a busy 12 weeks ahead of us. That is pretty much it for that day a lot of orientation stuff.

Thursday we again went to the Salvation Army to give out clothes. It was super crazy and we ended up staying an extra two hours to help out. Oh man it was crazy but also good just to serve.

Friday was a day. We tried to visit some less actives but didn't see anyone and then that night we tried to play basketball and it didn't go great. Oh well everyone has those days.

Saturday was a great day, we talked to a ton of people and also made a friend who we are going to visit this week. Then we had a really good lesson with our less active friend Manolis and it was good. Then to cap off a great day we had the branch Christmas party with really good food. We made some sweet ginger bread houses!

Sunday was a good day it was my first day going back to church in English. I won't lie it was a little weird but also cool. We had a primary program with the 8 primary kids it was cool and still a classic primary program.

Today me Elder Balser and Elder Albertson had to finish our residencies. We basically sat outside for 2 hours to wait to sign some papers again it was weird but hey thats Greece for you. 

So something cool from this week in the last General Conference in the talk from President Eyring he said that "Faith always defeats fear." That is something really cool because it is true as long as we have faith we have nothing to fear.

I love you all,

Elder Halverson

#LightTheWorld

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week cause mine was again really good!

Last Monday and Tuesday nothing much happened we did a lot of finding but didn't find anyone.

Wednesday we have a local market that we go to and try to make friends. This week we talked to a lady selling oranges. She liked us a lot and gave us some free oranges it was really cool. In the evening we did a whiteboard with the youth for the light the world program. In Greece we are trying to get as many people as we can to fill out a card about how they can help someone and get a picture of it. It should be cool. The activity was really fun we had 3 companionships there and all of the youth in Athens and it was cool. At first they were scared to talk with people and then as time went on they did better then we did. Here are some pictures.

Thursday was just a normal day with some weekly planning so a good day.

Friday was a pretty crazy day we had 4 lessons! Our first was with an internet referral who just wanted a BoM for educational reasons. Then he just grilled us with a bunch of questions. It was interesting but he is going to read the BoM so we still have a chance. Then we had one with a referral from a Senior couple. It was weird. He was basically a JW and wanted to teach us but we talked about the BoM and gave him one. He said he would read it and wanted to come to church one day so he has some potential. Then we had lessons with some members Ralph, and then the Sankoh family. We talked about light the world which was good.

Saturday was a good day we got to go and clean Mars Hill with the other missionaries. A cool thing is that in the winter in Greece everything gets green again so the hill was starting to get green and it was pretty. Then that night we got calls with President about the transfer, I am going to be staying where I am and training Elder Gaskil from Payson Utah so it should be really cool. I am excited Elder Goodwin is also staying we are going to have a 4 man apartment it should be fun.

Sunday was a good fast Sunday and we had a good day at church. We got invited to a meal at the Thornton's house again. They are awesome and we had a good roast dinner it was awesome!

So that was my week. This week I would like to let you all know that Prayer works. If you have the desire to act when you ask you will see miracles. Well thats all I got for today.

Love,

Elder Halverson