Saturday, December 27, 2014

Christmas Came!!

Yes, Christmas came and it was wonderful.  We had a busy week starting with a trip up to the Trodoos mountains.  They look quite a bit like our mountains at a home and we felt like we were in Europe and not Cyprus.  We were looking for a less active sister - found out she has moved to another part of the island but now we know where she is and have sent her information to the missionaries there.



This was the quaint village of Kapotareia.  Our Sis. Huby who is from France said it reminded her of home.

With our three sweet sisters:  Huby, Dealy and Hall


The darling stockings that the SC 4th Ward sent us.  WE love them and certainly felt loved by the ward.

This was o
Our Christmas present to ourselves- a waffle iron!  We started looking for one the first week we got here and just found one.  YEA!


It rained for 3 days so we had to bring our dryer inside.  Took 36 hours for the things to dry!!!

Some Philippino sisters who joined us for Christmas day.  The sister on the far right is an investigator from Limassol.


This was our family on Chrismas Day.  We all met at the Reeves' apartment.  Our apartment is much, much smaller and quite a ways out from the heart of the city.


Elder Deighten opening up a package from the Young Women in his ward in England.  We were all excited to see what they sent.


Our darling sister missionaries gave us a gift - lemons from their tree, Diet Coke for Bill (YES) and a card and trinket for me.   It was so thoughtful of them.  They are all getting transferred next week. We will desperately miss them but know great sisters will take their place.



There are a lot of things we can't get here (buttermilk, pumpkin, green chilies, mapelline and a lot more)  and one is condensed soup.  Well, Thank goodness for the internet and Pinterest.  I now know how to make my own cream of chicken soup!!  Had to make funeral potatoes for our Christmas dinner and they turned out yummy.

Our Christmas was anything but what we have been used to but it was wonderful nevertheless.  We actually had a little more down time to ponder and reflect on the birth of our Savior and His remarkable gift to us.  How grateful we are at this time of year for our family and friends and for The  Atonement.

We pray that you are all had a wonderful Christmas season and a even better new year.

Monday, December 22, 2014

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

The mission is a buzz with Christmas excitement.  We had zone conference/Christmas party this past weekend.  Our mission president, President Freestone has a farm that borders Adam Ondi Ahman (sp) and he gave us a great presentation on that and we spent some time learning more about Adam.  

Then we ate lots of delicious food and played some games.  The elders and sisters loved it.  This will be the last time this group will be together because we are having a big transfer on the 29th.  Here are some pictures from the day:

Sisters Dealy and Birch.  These two are from England and were best friends growing up.  They both got their calls to come to the same place on the same day.  They will be going to university together after their missions.






the famous candy to the mouth game - we weren't very good at it but provided some good laughs


Elder Martinez, Sis. Hall, Sis.Valles and Elder Klastrup

Sisters Huby, Birch and Dealy




Some of the skits performed - enough said!



Elder Murphy from England and Elder Martinez from Spain.  Excellent piano players and we are so glad their moms made them practice!!

All is all it was a great week.  On Sunday we went to the Turkish side of Cyprus to visit Jacob.  Again, an amazing experience.  We got lost on the way - let me tell you - you do NOT want to be lost in Turkey!!!!!  But after an hour of driving around we finally made it.  He was so glad to see us.  We gelt the same.  In his prayer, he thanks our Heavenly Father for being so happy.  He has very little and only has this monthly contact with the church - talk about a lesson in gratitude.  We love going there and feeling of his spirit.  We always came away spiritually fed.

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!!



Saturday, December 13, 2014

SERVICE (Eparisea)

This week we had the opportunity to go and do service with our missionaries.  We were able to go to a place - similar to Deseret Industries - and bag up gift bags for children and sort clothing.  WE spent 3 hours and will go back next week.  The people were so appreciative.  Very humbling to see what was available and to know that we were helping people not only here in Cyprus but also in other countries where they send items to (Nigeria and others).

We started the day out at McDonald's.  The missionaries love McDonald's and to be honest it isn't bad.  Actually better than in the states (or have we just been gone too long???)


These are our cute sisters:  Sis. Hall, Sis Dealy and Sis. Huby


The Elders sorted clothes.  They worked so fast that the lady in charge told them to slow down.
Elder Boyce, Elder Deighton, Elder Reeves and Elder Jacobsen (aka Bill)


This is in front of the warehouse were we spent the morning.  They really like 60's pop art here.


We accomplished something major today - hooked up the TV through our laptop.  We don't have cable or anything but now we can watch on something bigger then the 10 inch screen - and we did it ourselves!!


We had our Branch Christmas party on Saturday night.  Had a pretty good turn out of around 35 (13 non-members) which we felt good about considering it had rained ALL day and was still raining when we finished.
The sister on the right is from Latvia and just moved to Nicosia.  Her name is Zena.


This is Brother Dixon, long time member from England.  The Sisters are talking to an investigator.  He speaks only Greek.


Sister Huby and Sister Dealy.  Sister Dealy's brother served here 3 years and baptized some of our members.  The sister on the right is Sis. Cristina from Romania.

Pres. & Sister Reeves and Sis. Jacobsen
The Elders with two investigators.


Brother Wood from North Nicosia (Turkey side) and our investigators from China.
The Elders are reading the Christmas story from Luke - Elder Boyce and Elder Deighton.

It was a fun party and everyone had a good time.  It really helped to get us in the Christmas Spirit. We watched the new video from the Church - The Gift.  Loved it!!


Monday, December 8, 2014

DECEMBER

Well, December is here and that means Christmas is coming soon.  It is so different this year but good.  We are keeping busy and that helps a lot.  One major thing accomplished this past week is that I found someone to cut my hair.  YEA!  This has been a major concern/worry since before I left.  I found a cute lady from Romania  Her name is Irini and and I was very happy.  What do you think?

Here I am in front of our Greek blue wall.

This is our little Christmas tree.  Found it in the closet.  I might trade it out with the white tinsel tree that is there also. What do you think?



One day while Bill was at the Bank I stopped by this cemetery in downtown Nicosia.  It must be kind of important because most of these people seemed pretty important.  They all have reliefs of the people engraved on them.  None of the women look happy.  The last picture is of all the previous church leaders.

BREAKING NEWS!  Bill just got back from the bank and we are in the banking business starting next week.  YAHOO!  This is major for us. Thanks for everyone's prayers on Bill's behalf.  Life is Good.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

THANKSGIVING WEEK

This past week was a very busy one but a very good one.  We went to Larnaca to pick up Elder & Sis Manning from the mission office.  Yes, we are still working on the finances but making progress.  We were lucky enough to see the flamingos. They winter here and there are literally thousands of them.  This picture is a little far away and hopefully another time I will get a better one.


We spent the week getting ready for District Conference.  Lots of meetings and preparation.  The conference was great and were all left inspired and motivated.  We had our area authority come, Elder Christopher Charles and his wife.  They are from England but he is Greek by birth and she is Muslim by birth.  They have an amazing conversion story.

On Friday, we had a Thanksgiving dinner for our missionaries.  They are all from the UK but had heard about American Thanksgiving dinners and wanted one - so why not??  Finding a turkey over here is not easy, especially at the last minute.  Next time we will order in advance.  It was fun nevertheless and they loved it.  My favorite part was when we went around the table and each said what were were grateful for - we all really focused on the important things and especially our Savior and His love for us.   

(notice Bill's beverage of choice? Yes, the habit continues)


Our two wonderful sisters:  Sister Hall and Sister Hubey

Elder Deighton

We love these young missionaries and the work they are doing.  Elder Deighton and Sis Hubey came out just 3 weeks before us so we are all still the greenies in the mission.


This is a statue of Markious - ruler here in Cyprus during the mid 1900's.  He was the political and spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church and Cyprus.  This statue is in the old city where we love to go and explore.  He was a Greek Cypriat and both loved and disliked by many.

We are waiting to go to another planning meeting.  This next week promises it be another busy one which we like.  Downtimes are hard - we like being busy and tired.  At our conference today we had quite a few investigators which was very encouraging.  WE also had a pot luck afterwards and fed close to 75 people.  All the members bring something and they really put on quite a spread.  I took spicy meatballs that you cook in the crockpot and they have become quite the hit with the missionaries along with Marilyn Roberts' banana cake.  Thanks Marilyn!  We have such a diverse branch membership that you really get a little bit of everything.

The Christmas spirit has started here.  It seems a little surreal to me.  Hopefully we will be able to experience some wonderful traditions and happenings.  love to all.