OUR BELOVED POTATO PLANT TATE

PO!

MIRESEVINI NE TE ARDHMEN!!! PO NE TE VERTETE JAM UNE ELDER MILLI DHE SAPO U KTHEVA NGA E ARDHMJA! TANI MUND TJU TREGOJ JUVE TE GJITHA SEKRETET! 

Po mire tani le te vazhdojme.

HELLO MY FAMILY 

Its a pleasure to be back. I know I haven't written consistently at all, but at least I'm writing something. In my 3 months in Cyprus I think I've written like 4 times so honestly I say thats a pretty good ratio. We've got some deep shiz to talk about though so lets all hold hands and jump in.

POTATOES 

A few weeks back Elder Nilsson and I made some bomb mashed potatoes for our district halloween party. Well, being the genius that I am and knowing that we had a dead potted plant on the balcony, I performed an emergency heart transplant and shoved the last potato in there. Close to a month later, we have a beautiful plant child growing strong in our cooler. Pictures included of course. After a little while, we had to get some more dirt and a bigger container, so we stole some from the flower bed at the bottom of our apartment complex. Please take the time to enjoy the progress and growth of Tate. 

Pday was moved to Tuesday this week because we had the APs and Sister Leads come out to Cyprus. They landed Monday so we all moved pday to Tuesday to enjoy some time together in north Cyprus. Good stuff there. 

Anyways, they came out to Cyprus with President and Sister Burdon because we had zone conference on Thursday. Great zone conference. Cyprus just has the 10 of us and the seniors, so it was a nice small group setting. Definitely way different from the combined zone conferences I'm used to having in the north countries. Very very good stuff. Because the Burdons came out to Cyprus, we had interviews with President in person. I haven't had that since the beginning of the mission which was really dope. 

I guess another cool thing that happened this week was that on Wednesday everyone got their flight plans to go to Athens for the mission tour we're having in a couple weeks! Cool stuff, except I didn't get one. Instead, I have a flight to Albania tomorrow! Ahah. President clarified where I'm being transferred to in my interview the next day. 

P.O.G.R.A.D.E.C! I'll be moving to the lake city of Pogradec with my guy Elder Wheeler. Pogradec is somewhere I've always wanted to serve so I'm super stoked. I've been to pogi on exchanges before and it's always a blast because it's pretty much the only area in the mission with 4 elders in the same house. Good things on the horizon! 

It is a little sad to be leaving Cyprus though. I've had a really good time here and met some really amazing people. Chances are, I'll never see most of them again which is pretty dang depressing. People just don't stay in Cyprus more than a few years typically. Most of our friends are asylum seekers or refugees from Africa, and none of them really know when they're going. Still though, it's been great to meet and teach them. They are amazing people. The members here as well are incredible. I've had more member meals than I can even count in the past 3 months (which is a big deal!!!!) and that's not even the best part. They have become dear friends in a short time and their testimonies have been so strengthening for me. I've learned so much from all of them. The past 3 months have been dope as frick. 

Anyways, like I said I'm stoked. I'm hoping for a nice cold winter in Pogradec with ice and snow. It's one of the colder areas in the mission. Ima boutta be getting everywhere by sliding. I leave tomorrow morning to fly on over and that will pretty much start me off on my last 6 months. Crazy I know. The sisters from my MTC group are already headed home. May they rest in peace. 

HOT TOPIC 

In the last several months I've come across a cool hebrew word: "hesed". Look it up! It's got some really cool meanings attached to it. President Nelson did an article in the October Liahona and he talks about it. It's dope! If you want some good study, definitely give it a look.

BON VOYAGE TO MYSELF! Next time you hear from me I'll be back in the Fatherland. Albania has a really special place in my heart so I really can't wait. 

Paqe.

Limassol/Paphos Week 10

Limassol/Paphos Week 11

Ja das ist dank

Merry Halloween! Hope the festivities are going well back over there in the land of spooky season. I've missed the super decked out houses and the trick or treating, but hey, there's always next year. Even though Cyprus isn't super big on Halloween, the Limassol branch put on a trunk or treat last night, and that was fresh. Got about 4 pieces of candy and I'm satisfied. The branch president and his wife are american, and they ordered tootsie rolls over. I ate 2 of them and I am definitely going to be able to make it through the rest of the mission now. I'm filled with determination and grit thanks to those candies. Eat some tootsie rolls for me everyone. 

In the spirit of Halloween we also had a party at district council. Though our costumes weren't much, we had some great food. I spent 2 1/2 hours the night before making up a ton of mashed potatoes and sloppy joe stuff. Gave us some good leftovers for the rest of the week. 

Other than that, I honestly don't have too much to report. Teaching and finding is going well as always in Cyprus. The Lord has a lot for us to do and it's a great privilege to be here doing it. We met a couple more cool dudes from Cameroon this week, and we had a good lesson with them. They even came to the trunk or treat with us last night which was way cool. So did our homie Steve. 

Our work these days requires a lot of driving back and forth between Limassol and Paphos, but it's honestly kinda nice because it keeps things interesting. We just trek back and forth teaching our friends over there and here. The Lord has a lot for us to be doing it seems. 

On a more weird and random note, Elder Nilsson and I found out we can use the projector we have as a blacklight when we reflect it off our wall, so we've been having some fun with that. Created some good album covers. 

Also I am staying in Cyprus for at least another 2 weeks I think. Κιο εστ σχουμ ε μιρ

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Driving Stick On the Wrong Side

Hey bros and not bros! In case you are bored and don't have much else to do, here is an email of some random happenings from this last week. Please enjoy. 

For those of you interested in the happenings of the work, we did a cool little experiment as a mission this week. On tuesday we had a mission-wide finding day where we did all of our studies in the morning and then between the hours of 10:30 and 9 all we did was find. No lessons, no naps, just finding new friends. It was pretty cool, though it was a long and tiring day. We had a lot of success doing a book of mormon stand by the marina and made a cool friend from afghanistan. We might not be able to teach him much since Afghanistan is not a friendly place for the church, but he loves the Book of Mormon so far. We've also been having mega success doing online finding. It's kinda been a little overwhelming really. The work rolls on. 

I also had an exchange with my homie Elder Garrick in Nicosia. In Nicosia they drive a nice manual ford van. Very fun to get the hang of, especially in nicosia which is kind of a hilly city. Having to shift gears with my left hand was kinda whack but it got my adrenaline going and it was fun. Also got to play soccer with a bunch of africans that just smoked us. I was hoping to get better at soccer on my mission, but I don't think it's working. The people we play with are just way too skilled. Nicosia is also a divided city. The north side is occupied by turkey, so we wandered up there for a few minutes for fun. Kinda cool. 

We actually went back up to north cyprus today as well. We drove over with the elders and sisters from nicosia in the van because it had the insurance, and we saw a cool castle. We also ate some relatively affordable food so that was nice. Most places in south cyprus are frickin rigged they're so expensive. Anyways, it was a party. Gotta love these pdays with the homies. 

My time in Cyprus is running out though. I think I'll probably be moved here in a couple weeks or so. We'll see!

I also got access to some calvin and hobbes I've been reading in my spare time. I included some favorites. 

Also also don't think we're apostate for not wearing tags in the pictures at the castle. Tags aren't allowed in Turkey. How inconvenient. 

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I got deported

HI GUYS yeah it's been a month or so. I could update you on the last month, but honestly this last week is all that is coming to mind because that's just how dope it was. 

So, I guess I didn't really get deported, but it seemed like it'd be an interesting title. I did however voluntarily leave the country by plane and got quite a few more passport stamps. Those few of you that are my fsithful followers will remember that a while back we heard Elder Bednar and some other seventies would be coming to visit our mission. Well that day was Tuesday haha. To keep it simple, just know that when your mission comprises 5 different countries, travel is not easy or short. We left Cyprus on Sunday, stayed in Athens, and then left for Albania super early Monday morning. Man I have missed Albania. Of course I'm enjoying Cyprus, but Albania is just built different. We had a mission-wide pday in Tirana after we arrived and it was so so so dope. Ultimate frisbee and board games with all of my mission friends in one place. A highlight for sure, but that was just the beginning.

As I said, Elder Bednar and 3 seventies came to meet with us and the albanian members on Tuesday. Early Tuesday afternoon, we had a meeting with just us and them, and it was so incredible. I have gained so much respect and love for these men. They love the Lord, and they are so genuine. The fame they have in the church hasn't gotten to their head, and it's clear that they don't think themselves better than any of us. They were loving, ready, and willing to help each of us in any way they could. Rather than just hearing them give talks, it turned into a discussion with all of us involved. We had studied different talks in preparation for the visit, and these talks became the basis for the spirit-led discussion we had. He had us voluntarily share our own thoughts and insights we learned. He spoke individually with each of us that shared, and it was so inspired. Something that he emphasized a lot was how we need to act as agents, rather than be acted upon as objects. He shared that the spirit can't speak through someone who isn't using his/her agency and how we need to share insights and thoughts of our own free will, rather than because we've been called upon. It was really cool to see how the spirit led that conversation as we shared the things we were hearing but weren't being said. Lots of insights and inspiration came from that meeting. Elder Bednar is definitely an apostle of the Lord. Amazing. 

Seeing that we were all in the same country all together, President Burdon used the opportunity to put together a mission-wide conference. Messages, pizza, a massive beach service project in the rain, and an incredible spirit-filled testimony meeting made it another great day. Definitely my highlight from that day was our bus ride after the service project. I was sitting at the front of the bus, and so I asked the driver if we could use his microphone to tell stories as we drove back to the chapel. It turned into a great hour and a half. I even did a little karaoke! I love this mission.

Anyways, it turned into a long week for us south country missionaries because we didn't fly out of albania till thursday afternoon and didn't get back to Cyprus until Friday. This meant we basically had a second pday with the AP's looking at bunkers and albanian history and then spent another night in Athens. The rest of the week kinda went to crap too haha because Elder Nilsson woke up really sick on Saturday... oh well. I guess we had already had too much fun that week. 

Other cool thing: we visited a russian church and a nordic church right next to each other. Cool pictures.

Enjoy catching up on the last month of photos!

Paphos/Limassol Week 3

Paphos/Limassol Week 4

Paphos/Limassol Week 5

Paphos/Limassol Week 6/Mission Conference

I Caulked The Kitchen!

Γεια σας τι κανετε;

There you go there's some simple greek greetings so that the email looks legit. Speaking of legit, today I rode a camel. 

But hey, Cyprus is treating me well, and when I say well I mean real well. It even blessed us with having to wage war on the bugs in our kitchen. It's not something I've had to deal with until now actually. All of the apartments in the north countries are really nice because they're cheap to rent. They don't have many serious problems. Down here it is not the same haha. These apartments look a little bit more like what I expected from missionary apartments before coming out. They are pretty good, but of course they've got their quirks. They're definitely nicer than the apartments we stayed in when I did sales though, so I'm at least grateful for that. 

Anyways, this week I have been very grateful for my father and my uncles for the service they've done for me in teaching me how to caulk. As we were cleaning the kitchen and spraying bugs trying to send them into oblivion, I was realizing that there were a lot of open cracks between the wall and cupboards and windows and such that had never been filled in with caulk or seals that had long ago been compromised, so I had the genius idea of buying a caulk gun and just taking care of it myself. (Waiting for the landlord to do stuff is the worst because it takes forever/they never do anything). We spent a grand total of 4 euro and came home with a good ol gun and some caulk and I returned to my roots. Pretty fun. There's still bugs but we are trying to starve them now by continuing to spray and keeping all food on our table on the other side of the room. We think it might be working. Updates to come.

The work is going great. We have had a lot of referrals come in since I got here and the majority of them have been really solid. We've met with a lot of them and given them copies of the Book of Mormon/taught them about what it is. Gotta say, doing so many Book of Mormon lessons has been really powerful for me. Something about doing them in English too is just really good. I genuinely love this book so much. It is powerful and changes lives and it's just so cool to be able to be giving a lesson and to look down and see the Book of Mormon in my hand. That probably doesn't make a lot of sense but I've had some really cool moments in the last couple weeks. 

I've also finally started studying some Isaiah in order to actually keep up with the come follow me manual and man, it is so good. I've been using some podcasts and other old testament student manuals for some help understanding but I am having a good time. Isaiah is so dope. 

Now I have a request for those of you that have read until now. When I first got here, I told the short story of a guy named Alex that we randomly called from our contacts and came to church. We had some amazing lessons with him after, but starting last week he told us that he has something going on and hasn't been able to make it to our meetings. We have asked him if everything is alright, and he told us that it wasn't but that hopefully it would be better soon. If you guys are willing, I'd like to ask you to pray for Alex that whatever is going on might be resolved and that he can continue to progress and grow closer to God, the best source of guidance and comfort in this life. 

Okay yup it's been dope. I miss Albania a lot and all of the missionaries up there, but it's still great down here. I'll learn to settle in with these guys here as well, given time of course. 

God bless! 

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Ω ναι

Hello my faithful following. Always a pleasure. I have now been in Cyprus over a week which is dope. I'm actually starting to remember names, but there is still so much to learn and do to get on top of things haha. It's kinda crazy having to move between two areas every 3 days, but it has for sure been an adventure. This country is beautiful and I'm excited for whats ahead. Some cool stuff that has been going down:

- I am now pretty much used to driving on the left side of the road which is nice. I thought it would take a little longer. I only drove on the wrong side of the road once and we are chillin. 

- we had an amazing lesson with Alex on Tuesday and he came to church again. We will be meeting weekly from now on and we are stoked

- did more lessons over video call than I ever did even in the MTC probably

- can now read the greek alphabet but we are far from anything else. Working hard on being able to say a simple prayer

- lots of good doctrinal discussions with Elder Nilsson

- africans are so dope

- our kitchen has bugs

- mcdonalds

- I love Jesus!

- Elder Nilsson has the ring spinning record of 54 seconds

Yeah thats about it. Talk to you guys next week! Take it easy.

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I'm Back in Modern Civilization

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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