Heder Mission Moments: Zone Conference and the Zoo

Hello Family and Friends,

We are trying to send this out on Monday, the day we are used to getting letters from missionaries. But it has just been a little crazy around here trying to get settled in and organized and we don't even know when Monday is anymore :)

Last week was full of traveling to Cyprus for 2 days and then back to Athens for special zone training with our missionaries with Elder and Sister Dyches who is a General Authority in the Area Presidency here in the Europe area. So great to feel of their strength and love for missionary work. Our missionaries left the training motivated and ready to be that missionary that would go to the " last floor and last door " ( I told them about my daughters favorite seminary teacher, Bro Christiansen who served his mission in Romania, one of the strong church leaders there was found by a missionary who didn't give up) I did some training on being a diligent missionary, being steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in doing the Lords work, and that diligence means that we know and understand what to do even without asking or being told, making choices and decisions because we understand what our Heavenly Father would have us do. We flew our missionary leadership from Cyprus over to Athens for a MLC on specific training from Elder Dyches and Pres. Heder.

Last Sunday a sweet moment came in Sunday school when the teacher got choked up as Pres. Heder was trying to answer a question in Greek, and she told President Heder that it was very touching to her and also referred to members in the branch that he was trying so hard to speak Greek to them. They are so generous to help him with words etc. but very valuable for them to hear him speak without using a translator. This is also another reason that he has been very busy with his personal interviews with the Greek members, because a missionary does not need to act as a translator in the interview any more, and they feel much more comfortable sharing. This last week we said good-bye to four of our amazing missionaries, a senior couple and 2 elders. We took the missionaries up to Mars Hill where Paul taught when he was here as an apostle over 2000 years ago. Breathtaking views already make this place amazing but then we listened to these missionaries bear their testimonies about their missions and experiences and it was wonderful.

We were at the branch down by the Acropoli and I was visiting with the members and missionaries when Mary, a sweet little lady from Camaroon (Africa) came out of her interview with Pres. Heder and came up to me crying and took my arms and said," Sister Heder I get to be baptized" she was glowing and so happy. We hugged and cried and I told her that her life would be changed forever. She is the one in the pictures below with the headwrap on. A couple of fun yet crazy parts of my week: I got lost trying to find a store but had a nice tour of somewhere in Halandri. Maps on our phones works pretty good but there are sooooo many one way streets that just turning around is a major thing and it takes you forever to get back on the main road, and if Brooks would stop screaming, "We're going to die" it would also help. Then yesterday we saw the store we wanted to go to but it was on the other side of the street and because we couldn't make a u-turn we tried to make our way around a bunch of one way streets and by then we got complete turned around gave up and went home.

We found a baby tortoise, named him Tiny Tim, loved him and cared for him for one day but then he escaped from the cage we made. Brooks is not good at making cages... We have many other tortoises in our yard. Brooks has marked Tommy with a big T and superman symbol on his back so we can keep track of him. I found one big tortoise up these steep steps in the backyard and asked the owner if I should move him down to the lower part of the yard so he could have water and food, but he told me that they can get down the stairs, that they just get in their shell and roll down the stairs, CRAZY! I walk around and leave them frozen veggies and bowls of water. I am concerned for their happiness :)

Talk about crazy we went to this really cool zoo for our P-day and they had lots of animals that we had not seen before. They had a dolphin show and a open lemur enclosure where the little critters could come sit on your shoulder if they wanted, they were napping when we were there, but a baby lemur came up and grabbed my finger then ran back to mom, soooo cute. Alinda got teary and super excited when see saw the flamingo's and some of the tortoises there were hudge, 3 ft high 5 ft. long In the mornings I love to ride my bike around the area that we live because their are so many trees and lots of flowering bushes that overhang across the roads, so it is a very beautiful ride and usually shaded. We live in Filothei up on a hill with lots of green space and parks with lots hiking trails all around. Many of my exercise buddies know how happy that makes me :) Lots of love, LeeAnn

So, Lee has told you all the good stuff that the family has been doing while I'm in interviews or on the phone with Frankfurt (area authorities). I have to say, when my assistants get a text from Marie in the middle of the day that says, "save me!" you know that driving around town with Lee has become a little frightening. Actually, I have decided that Greek drivers aren't bad, they're just very GOOD. How else can someone make 4 lanes out of three, or park between light posts on the sidewalk? There are very few accidents, and everyone just gets it done.

Yesterday on my way to the mission office, as i was pulling into traffic from a side street I heard a motorcycle engine rev up, so as I looked ahead of me I saw a guy pop a wheely on his motorcycle and ride the wheely through the very narrow space between cars stopped in one lane on his left and a big freight truck in the next lane on his right. I don't know why he did it all on his back tire--the rest of the scooters and motorcycles do it on two wheels--but it was further proof that lanes mean nothing and they're good drivers. Lee will fit right in.

Brooks is being exploited fully. I've had him develop an outline for training my trainers, and next I'm going to get him to put together an outline for specialized training on a few fundamentals from Preach My Gospel. We're re-vamping transfer processes and training while at the same time trying to help the missionaries feel that they are safe to innovate and create as they act on inspiration to lead the work in their areas. The missionaries are amazing young men and women, and so capable of doing whatever is needed to see miracles happen.

There is always more fun to be had than there is hours in the day! in a couple of days we'll have another baptism, then I'll take a quick flight up to Thessaloniki to speak to that Branch on temporal and spiritual self-reliance and do some interviews. Then it's back to Athens the next day in time to do final interviews for several sisters who are going home.

My best to all of you!

Bill O. Heder
Greece, Athens Mission