Heder Mission Moments: Elder Ballard's Visit to Athens

Hello Family and Friends, *this letter is late because we have been soo busy with so many wonderful things

We had an amazing opportunity to learn and be taught by one of the twelve apostles last week. Elder Ballard was on a trip to take a closer look at the scope of the refugee situation first hand. We were in Cyprus doing a round of zone conferences and a mission tour with Elder Charles of the 70 when we found out he was coming. All of a sudden Bill started receiving phone calls from Frankfurt Germany to outline security and travel plans, etc., making him step out of our zone meetings repeatedly.

We got home to Athens just in time to receive our new missionaries and get them oriented, to Mars Hill for their first testimony in Greece and off to their new areas, then we had a day to go over driving routes to refugee camp areas, how to get our visitors to and from certain places and their hotel, looking at alternate routes just in case there was a demonstration, etc. What a unique and wonderful opportunity (with a bit of nerves) to go to and from the airport, to the hotel and other sites in Greece with such a kind and wise man.

President and Sister Kearon, the Europe Area President and two security men were in the van with us also. We showed him a video that Alinda made with pictures we had taken of the refugees in Victoria Square in Athens and our Humanitarian Service Project and they appreciated the photos and info. We met that evening with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She is a very kind and brilliant--but also a very over whelmed lady, considering that at this time there is so much conflict at the Greek borders where stranded refugees are beginning to get restless.

The following morning we had the opportunity to escort Elder Ballard to Mars Hill where we read from Acts 17 together and let him enjoy standing where Paul had taught. We then took him directly to the Acropoli chapel where the missionaries greeted him and we felt of his great testimony as he challenged the missionaries to be like Paul and be bold and put a smile of your face and just talk to people. One comment particularly touched me as I had been thinking about how hard it must be for him to keep up this pace and travel schedule. He said, " I will never have to do what Christ did, so I can still do much more . . ."

Bill is going to tell you about our great time with the Doxey family. We saw a lot of "rocks with meaning" and packed lots of good times into their 3 day stay.

I spent Friday preparing for our Thanksgiving celebration here. Shopping was a project for the girls and I. Though we found most items, we had to be creative in a few substitutions. Bill spent hours exploring to find a store where we could buy simple but necessary things like cranberry sauce, pecans and powdered sugar for the orange rolls. We never did find or see a turkey, but we bought 6 turkey breasts and made do. Alinda and Bill peeled and chopped at least 25 lbs of potatoes and Marie was also my chopping su chef and she broke up our 4 loaves of dried bread for the stuffing/dressing. We had fun and were anxious to have our European missionaries enjoy this Thanksgiving meal with us. I had 3 American missionaries who were the most excited about getting together and for one of them I searched far and wide for sweet potatoes. The sisters had a lot of fun learning how to make orange rolls. They had never heard of this crazy idea, but we had 4 batches of roll dough for them to learn how to roll them out. Now they will go home to their countries in Europe and they will make these again for their families, and then teach their children,...and this orange roll thing could get really big in Europe too! What a fun thought of how things get passed on. When they make them I think they will think back on their mission and remember how we got flour all over and laughed and made orange rolls at the mission home. As tired as we were at the end of so many great things we were excited to stay up and see Austin play a cold football game up at Utah State. Go Cougs, great win!

Grateful for all of you,

LeeAnn

The highlight of the past week was the visit of Elder Gary B. Doxey and his wife Debbie and their two sons Joshua and Michael. As part of his work with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Elder Doxey had participated in a world religious conference in Istanbul, Turkey the previous week. We were very grateful that the family was willing to extend their trip to come see us. It was a refreshing boost to be with them again. On the second night of their stay, after they'd had a day of seeing sights in Athens, rain threatened, but the Athens missionaries gathered in the Acropoli chapel and Elder Doxey taught them. It was a great opportunity and a blessing for all of us.

After the meeting, the rain came in a furious torrent. Sister Heder had parked her little car in the alley behind the Acropoli building. Their boys and our daughters and I had come into town on the metro. As we left the building, the little alley where the car was parked was running several inches deep in rainwater. By the time we got our umbrellas open and got the Doxeys into the car with LeeAnn, we were already wet above our ankles, and our shirts, jackets and pants were completely drenched. We tried using the umbrellas as we splashed our way to the nearby metro station, but with the heavy water hitting the water running around our feet so hard that it was splashing up, it was practically apocalyptic the way we were being rained on from below and above. By the time we reached the safety of the metro (underground) my relatively new suit had lost every crease and hung like so many rags. The girls were similarly soaked, but we were laughing at the memory this would be for all of us.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Doxeys, traveling down a portion of the Sounio coast on our way to the airport. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on a beautiful, secluded beach. The weather was beautiful, the water was blue, just like the sky. The only other time I've ever spent a Thanksgiving Day in such warm temperatures was when we spent one holiday with the Graves family in Arizona.

As we left the beach to take them the rest of the way to the airport, on the highway approximately 10 miles from the airport the rear- left tire on my car suddenly went flat. I'd somehow punctured it. We had already pressed our available time by stopping to show the Doxeys the Temple of Poseidon, so when I had to pull over with the flat tire, it was all we could do to switch all their luggage to the other little car that Sister Heder was driving, and send them off to the airport to catch their flight. Hugs and well wishes were shared, and we said goodbye. Sister Heder took them on to the airport and I stayed with our two daughters and Marie and Alinda got another opportunity to do an emergency tire change on the roadside. Then we limped back to the tire shop in Halandri to get a new tire put on the car. I put on my blinkers and stayed to the right side of the roads all the way into the city. I was honked at repeatedly and nearly run over by several un-observant truck drivers. An eventful Thanksgiving Day all around.

Bill O. Heder
Greece, Athens Mission