Heder Mission Moments: Halloween in Athens - Sunio and Athens Nov 5th 2015

Journal entry...

It’s 6:00 am. now and dawn is breaking over Paphos. The rain continues intermittently, and I’m looking out over an ocean that goes from a cool grey to a light green close to the base of the cliffs on which this home is built. I'm also looking at another Sunday that starts early and ends late. This time it starts alone in the guest room of a member's home outside Paphos. I’ll need to conduct some mission administrative business in sacrament meeting today and then interview missionaries and set apart a new Elder’s Quorum president afterward. Then it’s the long drive 3/4 of the way across the island back to Larnaca for a meeting at the airport with the District Presidency to review the meeting plans for the upcoming District Conference. And then we board the plan and finally fly home around 10:00 p.m. tonight, to greet my family again.

---later---It’s 9:00 pm., and I’m finally home to the family in Athens. Driving back to Larnaca I knew there were several exits, so I kept skipping them--until I missed the last exit and drove almost to Nicosia before realizing my error. We still made the airport, checked in and had the meeting with the District Presidency in time, but my assistants had a laugh. When I chided them for being blindly obedient, and asked them why they had allowed me to disregard three road signs indicating turn-offs to the airport Elder Teal, from Manchester, England, who was in the seat behind me said in a classic English accent, “I must object. I am sat behind you in a moving vehicle. I don’t have much choice but to follow you, do I?” I think I'll remember that line for a while. There's a gospel lesson in there somewhere.

Bill O. Heder
Greece, Athens Mission

Hello and hugs to all!

It blows my mind how fast the weeks go by and I know that many of you feel that way also with the pace of the world and life these days. I was driving without my GPS this last week thinking, "wow I never thought I would figure out where I am or where I need to go." My phone died coming home from Sunio, a coastal area almost 40 miles from our home, and luckily some things looked familiar so I made it home, even though I wasn't always sure where I was. It was a day too beautiful to ignore and I know cooler days are ahead, so I called Bill and told him I was going exploring. We have wondered about one section of the coast and how long it would take to drive down to Cape Sunio going through all the little towns but enjoying the coastal view. I had cleared my schedule for an appointment, but when it was canceled, I was off. I stopped at 5 or 6 beach areas on my journey down the coast and walked around each to make sure I had fully research the area. :) I made it down to a hidden beach in Sunio, a real gem that you only can find if someone tells you about it. I walked up and down the beach for awhile and then I couldn't help myself and had to go for a quick swim :) (luckily I packed a suit, just in case) :) November has been in the 70's and that feels good :)

Halloween is not a big deal over here because they celebrate Carnival in the Spring. And finding pumpkins was not easy as well. In the end it was more like a tan squash, and it cost about $5 for a little one, but we passed out trick or treat candy to the missionaries if they did a trick or taught us something and dressed up in some hats and funny glasses to have some fun with the Young Single Adults at their activity. Before we went over to the YSA barbecue we visited Castela Bay where we watched some young sailors practice their sailing skills in real little sail boats. It was quite windy so it was pretty funny, especially watching their teacher who was chasing them around was trying to keep up in her motor boat and yell directions.

My friend Mary touched my heart again on Sunday as she bore her testimony. She is the one who just had her four children baptized. She told us how just before she was baptized, she had called her friend in Ghana who was a Evangelical elder for 40 years. When he questioned how she could change religions after all these years she told him that he needed to go and find the missionaries in the white shirts and ties and listen to them and then he would know. So she announced that he found the missionaries, listened and was baptized last week. What an example!

Love to you all,

Sister LeeAnn Heder