Γειασος from Cyprus! Man, there's a lot that's happened. Let me start off by saying that I have restarted my mission essentially. It is SO different down here. It is also flippin hot and humid because its a desert island haha. BUT it's dope. Elder (Theo) Nilsson is such a homie and we've been vibing. I told him he's basically my trainer and he's been a huge help the last couple of days. I've learned a ton of greek which is super sick. A week ago I didn't know any greek except for how to say hello and owl. It's also a big adjustment work-wise. These areas are RIPE for the picking, we just gotta put in the effort which is so awesome. There are so many people living here from all over. Of course there's the cypriots, but there's also a lot of british people and africans and they're dope. The africans are amazing too. I haven't met very many people still, but the africans have definitely made the biggest impact on me. They are amazing.
Anyways, we finished up a busy week in Lushnjë doing some service, visiting everyone before I left, doing FHE and such, but I gotta be completely honest... Cyprus has been so eventful the last couple days that I remember almost nothing from the rest of the week. It was a good last week in Albania though. Lushnjë has taught me a lot about myself and it was and is pretty hard to leave. The last 7 months there have been long, and very difficult, but I wouldn't change that for a second. Lushnjë gave me more than I could ever have given back to it. It taught me trust in the Lord and his timing, and it taught me appreciation for even the smallest things. Truly, we can be happy and fulfilled in every circumstance. Everything can be going to crap and we can be deep in the most difficult trials of our lives, but with Christ we can keep a genuine smile on our face amd laughter in our souls. He gives us light and that light brings us more fulfillment and happiness than any accomplishment or progress we could ever achieve. I do and will miss being a part of that branch. Those are my members and I will likely pray for their wellbeing the rest of my life.
I flew to Cyprus on Saturday morning, so of course we used the opportunity to meet with good ol ex-elder Qose and Martin for dinner in Tirana the night before. I love those guys. It was a really good send off and I look forward to returning to spend time with them yet again. They inspire me and I wish them the best. The next day was a scramble of airport fun ahah. My flight from Tirana to Athens took literally forever to get to the gate once we landed, which put me free from the plane 30 minutes after I should've been. That meant I only had 15 minutes or so to get onto my flight to Cyprus. It was nuts, but by God's grace, I made it through the crowds, figured out what gate it was, went back through security, major sped walk, and made it just in time onto the last bus from the gate as the doors were closing. I enjoyed the relief I felt after that and decided to nap on the plane. Little did I know that while I had barely made it onto the flight in time, my baggage did not quite have my same speedy athletic capabilities, and so was lost in Athens. :) Yup. Long story short all is good and my luggage will be getting here tomorrow, but I have been washing the same clothes over and over again the last couple days which is fun.
My companionship here in Cyprus covers both Limassol and Paphos and this weekend we have just been in Paphos. Normally halfway through the week we switch and we also switch which church we go to each week. Pretty nuts but it means we move between apartments. I have yet to really try it but it seems like a pain gotta be honest haha. We are gonna make it work though! Something really cool that happened was that on Saturday when we got into Paphos we were calling people for church, and we decided to give just one more person a call from my sim card. I decided "lets try one of the alex's", and the guy totally picked up. Turns out he was in Paphos, had been taught by the missionaries a couple years back, and lived very close to where our branch president does. We invited him to church, and he agreed. We then got him in touch with the BP and he came the next day! Though we had the whopping attendance of like 7 or something, he loved it and even stayed after to do a potluck of sorts with us. We are going to be meeting with him again tomorrow and we are stoked. He is also an african which just shows how dope he is. We met with some other africans on Sunday too and had a really good restoration lesson! Like I said, the work is way different here. I am so happy to just focus on missionary work and teach these people we've found!
Pday has been dope so far. We went to some tombs and I got major indiana jones and the last crusade vibes.
That's all folks. Next week maybe I'll be fluent in Greek. Love you all!
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