This past week was wonderful, mainly because of this:

My brother and sister-in-law, Dennis & Linda, came to Cyprus to do a fireside on family history with their connection to Family Search.  Dennis retires on Oct. 1st so we are so glad this was happened.  He has done an amazing job and will be gently missed.  They were on their way to Israel so we invited them to stop over.  And they did!!  It was fantastic and the members here were so appreciative and loved the whole evening.  We hope it lit a fire in them to want to do their family history.  It will be a challenge for some because they come from where there are little if any records kept or they are so far from family and have little or no contact.

Here is I am with Sis. Reeves.  We served with the Reeves in Nicosia.

Dennis connected with Elder Dastrup from Chicago.  Dennis served with his grandfather in New Zealand 45+ years ago - I know, small world right?

The night before the fireside with Dallas & Addie. It was so special to see family here and that they would take the time to come see us!

Not sure when Bill snapped this picture - some early morning scripture reading?

What do you do on a Saturday night?  Football, of course.  We actually had to settle for watching a game from last year off the internet (no cable) but enjoyed it.   This was BYU-Texas.  We were excited to wake up Sunday morning to learn that BYU beat Nebraska.  Go Cougs! plus Notre Dame won - it is a good day in the neighborhood.

Such a fun week.  Now back to the real world :)  Life is good!

This week was a pretty calm week - hence the lack of pictures.  As I look back at my planner (yes I have to keep one to make sure I'm where I need to be - doesn't always work though!), We went to the airport three times, to Nicosia twice, to Limisos once and lots of meetings in between.  We like to stay busy and so it was a good week.

We had transfers and lost Sis. Linekar and picked up Sis. Loydsinger (phonetic spelling) from the German part of Switzerland.  She is brand new but her Greek is very good.  She is going to be a good missionary :)

Here she is helping to clean up after planning meeting.

We also had a zone meeting to train the missionaries on how to take care of their bikes.  There had been a lot of abuse and lack of responsibility concerning bikes.  You know from previous posts how much time and effort Elder Jacobsen spend on those bikes!!  From now on the missionaries are responsible to take care and fix their own bikes (within reason).  They all met with Pres. Heder (an avid biker) and he demonstrated how to change and fix flat tires, fix and lube the chain and many other bike related issues.  They are now armed with portable pumps and tire repair kits and the skills to make it happen - we will see.

We are busy getting ready for our big Family Search Fireside this Thursday, Sept. 3.  We are very excited and hope for a good turnout - more on that next week.

Today I am working on my English lesson for this week.  Our new primary president speaks very little English and the manuals and training we can get is all in English. I'm going to have the class learn the first lesson in the Primary 1 manual.  Hopefully it will help her and them with some gospel basics.  How blesses we are back home to have everything at our fingertips plus more.  I have come to realize how much I have to be grateful for and that it is the simple, little things that I take for granted.  As I sit in our planning meetings, which are done all in Greek, I get a glimpse of what it is like for new members/investigators to attend meetings and not know the language.  I so appreciate their dedication and commitment to keep coming.

The following pictures are from our planning meeting:

This is Panyiotis & Georgia - our Branch Mission Leaders.  They are also in our Temple Prep class planning to go in October/November.

Since I don't understand the discussion, I usually reading a lesson or the scriptures.  Here I studying  Daughers in my Kingdom.  Quite often I am trying to stay awake - it is mid afternoon and they always feed us a delicious meal right before the meeting.  Can't tell in this picture if my eyes are open or closed - probably closed!

Love to all - have a great week.

This week was a fairly calm week leading into next week when we have transfers.  Elder Jacobsen did a lot of traveling back and forth to Nicosia but that has just become part of our normal routine.  The weather is still HOT and HUMID but everyone says that it will start cooling off soon - which cannot come soon enough!

We started the week with a field trip to the small village of Dochno.  It is the home of the mother of our Branch Mission leader.  It is amazing how they build these villages on the hillsides and everything is so close together.  We, as you know, love the narrow streets and quaint buildings.  How they did all this so long ago is amazing.

Sisters Linekar, Indelicato and Sis. Georgia in front of the local church.

The mosaics here are beautiful.

Did you know that McDonalds delivers??  Quite the business.

I buy fresh spinach each week for my morning smoothie.  Right now the water coming out of the tap is so warm that it wilts the greens so I have to put ice in it to cool it off!

Another quaint narrow street.

We had the opportunity to go back to Nicosia and speak today in church.  It was so nice to see all the members there plus some new ones that we got to meet.  The branch is growing which is exciting.  A family with the US Embassy just moved in and will be there for 3 years which will give them some wonderful members.  WE all think he is a spy but of, course, he can't confirm or deny.

have a great week and love your way!