We had a good week this past week.  Actually it was good because it was very calm and quiet.  We have experienced what so many missionaries do  - the plague of the cancelled appointments.  The missionaries work so hard to get teaching appointments and then they fall through.  It used to bother us quite a bit but now we have learned that it is just part of the missionary experience.

The lemons are coming on here.  If you  search you can find quite the deals.  This whole bowl of lemons cost about 1.5 euros or about $1.75.

This was a first ever - dark socks with gym shoes -  something Elder Jacobsen would never have done back home.

Here is our landlord - Alecos.  Very humble and nice.  He is Cypriat but speaks pretty good English.  He really likes Bill and brings us produce from his garden - prickly pear cacti, pomegranates and figs so far.

Here is a typical meal - salad, extra tomatoes and Hulumi cheese.  The cheese you can only get here in Cyprus we think.  We know they don't have it in Greece.  It is delicious fried up.

Here I am with our two darling sister missionaries. Sis. East on the left finishes up her mission this week.  Oh how we will miss her. She has been fantastic!

Panyiotis and Elder Dixon.  Elder Dixon is transferring to Athens this next week.  He too will be missed.  He is excited because he has been on the island for almost a year.  The missionaries love to serve on Cyprus but there is something about actually serving in Greece that they all want to be doing.

The is Maria and her daughter Rafaela. Both are investigators.  Maria hopes to be baptized in December.  Rafaela cannot be baptized because the father will not give his consent.  She is very sad about this.  We pray that his heart will be softened.

Sister Georgia

Sis. Anahid - she is from Romania and speaks 4 languages.

After FHE enjoying pumpkin bars.  WE had a fun night about Gratitude.

Our youth !

Pot luck after the meeting.

Three of our four primary children.  They are slowing learning what Primary is all about - exciting.   We are the only branch on the island that has Primary and YM/YW's.  It is amazing to think of all the members who really know very little about the church and its programs and what is has to offer. They love them but the struggle is to run them without anyone having had the experience of knowing wha they are.  

 It is often hard for them to merge these things into their lives and to live them.  They are good people who we teach and show and love.  One struggle right now is to get them to want to accept a calling and then do it.  They just haven't ever seen that before.  

We have a great week ahead - zone conference, CCM meeting and then District conference.  Looking forward to being spiritually fed and to leaning a lot.  All the meetings are in Nicosia this time.  They actually rent a bus to pick up members in the outlying cities to help them get to conference.  Very few members have cars.  

As we think about Thanksgiving coming up back home we are reminded of how blessed we are.  What a blessing the opportunity of serving a mission has been for us.  The refining process is taking place and hopefully we are contributing and helping the church and the members here in Larnaka, Cyprus.  Grateful to a loving Heavenly Father to trust us enough to place us here.  Grateful to wonderful family and friends for all their support.

Love to you all!!

It is hard to believe that it is November 1st already.  I think the weather knows it because it has cooled off quite a bit.  Our days are still beautiful but the nights are getting cooler and without daylight savings times it gets dark around 4:30 pm here.  This past week we had a senior couples get together and went over the border into the northern Turkish side of Nicosia.  We had to show our passports and go through a guarded boarder.

We saw lots of older buildings that were damaged in the 1973-74 war.

You can see where this mosque was hit some kind of shell during the fighting.

This map shows the center of the old walled city next to the mosque.

more damage

Stopped for lunch with the group - Wonnacotts, Gortons and Reeves.

I loved the umbrella canopy on this side street.

I know this is a strange picture to share but it tells the story of part of our week.  We woke up Tuesday and had no water.  After some detective work we found out that someone had shut our water off up on the roof of the building.  So 4 hours later we finally had water again.  Then on Thursday our power went out.  Bill would go down to the parking garage and flip it back on and then it would go off again.  We finally realized that every time we turned on the hot water heater it flipped off the electricity.  Have no idea why but tomorrow it is #1 to get taken care of.  BUT when the power went off is blew out our printer (which we had just put new ink cartridges in!!).  We have to do a lot of scanning back and forth with Athens so a printer/scanner is a must.  

Church was really good today.  Our Fast & Testimony meeting was good and we had about 35 members there.  We combined RS and Priesthood and showed Pres. Ucthdorf's talk from the Women's session of conference.  Everyone really liked it - such a good message.

We have a good week planned ahead and a busy one which we like.  Hope you all had a fun Halloween.  They really don't celebrate it here.  And since it is November we are thinking Thanksgiving but they don't do that either.  I guess we will have to wait for Christmas which they are getting ready for already.

Love to all!!

WELCOME WONNACOTTS!!

The Wonnacotts finally arrived.  We are so excited to have them join us.  They look really good for have just finished a 28 hour flight!

We spent the night in Pafos to help the Wonnacotts the next day.  We stayed at the St. George Resort. Fun get-away for us.

St George Church

St George nightclub

We visited an archeological site called Tomb of the Kings. There isn't really any royalty buried there but the tombs are fashioned after those of royalty.  It was fascinating.  We are planning on going back when we have more time and in some P-day clothing.

To think these places are approximately 2000 years old!

Saying goodbye to Sis. Indelicato. She is transferring to Theseloniki.  She is a convert to the church from Italy and speaks 5 languages.  Great missionary!!!

We think that the rainy season has started.  It is strange that since we have now been here for a year that we are experiencing things for the second time around.  The rain has been wonderful  and the cooler temps are nice too.  We hope that it doesn't get too cool too soon.

We are getting ready for District Conference in about a month.  Lots to do but it is always so wonderful to hear from our leaders and to meet with the members.  We now have 4 senior couples on the island and that is fantastic.  We know that it is quite a miraculous thing to have them all here.  We lose one in February and hoping they will have a replacement couple.  Anyone interested?????