Heder Mission Moments: Our member from Rhodes visits Athens - Mission Leadership Council

February 1st 2016

A few weeks ago I sent a letter to my mission leaders; district leaders, zone leaders, Assistants and Sister Training Leaders. I asked them to complete the following sentence as if describing our mission to one of their friends serving elsewhere: "in the Greece Athens Mission we ___________________." I waited for their weekly letters and collected their responses, and compiled them on a single page. They ranged from we "strive, struggle to become new creatures, endure well, hope, believe, obey, love," etc. to "we are family."

I was touched by the responses, as they showed the determination and unity that these young people have. What was interesting is that none of them described the mission as one where we baptize. Last year we baptized the equivalent of a good sized branch, but even the mission leaders view the mission as one where we endure rather than one where we conquer. (our average baptism per missionary is .7)

I had been praying constantly about what we could do to have these kids see themselves as capable of doing what hasn't ever been done here in Greece. So many of them have told me in our interviews or letters how they genuinely are willing to do anything that's asked, but they just don't know what else to do to find "success."

So I called a special Mission Leadership Council meeting for the next week. We flew the Cyprus and Thessaloniki district leaders and zone leaders into Athens so we could meet all together. We talked for 4 hours about our mission vision and how to elevate it. It was wonderful. We studied Alma 48 and 49 and talked about having the faith that we could be guided to know how to change the operation of things and adapt to the new challenges being presented.

I ended the meeting by telling the Roger Bannister story, and showing a video clip of the actual race where he became the first man in history to run the mile in less than 4 minutes. As that clip ended I promised them that this was their mission, their time, their people and their call; not to just plant seeds but to establish the Church in Greece. They needed to raise their sights and see the leaders and families on whom the Church will grow. I then set dates for follow-up meetings, one in Cyprus and another in Athens, and challenged them to come to the meetings after having dreamed big, ready to break barriers. That night I prayed even harder for help.

Tomorrow is the first of the two meetings. I travel to Cyprus to meet with the leaders there. I continued to pray for insight--and it has come. Not only have I received ideas and jotted plans, but as I have gone out with missionaries to teach or study with them this week they've shared ideas that they've had, and there is a definite rise in their sights. I'm excited at the prospects and confident in their success.

Bill O. Heder
Greece, Athens Mission

Hello,

A baptism anywhere is a very special thing, but here in Greece it is especially treasured because they seem a little harder to find. A sweet sister from Cameroon was baptized. She is French and so several of our French speaking Elders and Sisters have participated in teaching her. Her friend, a recent convert, stood at her baptism service and gave such a sincere talk, talking right to her. It was so heart-felt and they both smiled and cried together during the talk. They have helped each other through many tough things, and their friendship has been a real strength for both of them. Her friend said that she always knew she would join the church because it made her a better person. She saw her doing things differently and she was happy. She said, " I am so glad that Heavenly Father has touched your heart and you know that this is true." Two French-speaking elders then sang a beautiful hymn from the French Hymn book. As usual in meetings here, there was the buzz of translating going on during the service; some missionaries translating into Greek, some translating from French to English.

Shannon is our only member of record on the island of Rhodes. She has been in Athens this week because her son got his tonsils taken out at a hospital here. We met with Shannon, her husband and her son at their hotel room in down-town Athens Tuesday night so that President Heder and the Branch President of our Halandri Branch could give the little boy a priesthood blessing. Afterward we invited them to get a bite to eat with us, and we had a chance to get better acquainted over some great burritos at a great Mexican restaurant near Sintagma Square in Athens.

Everything went well with Alex's surgery and they spent yesterday with us in the mission home and then President Heder drove them out to the airport very early Sunday morning. It was great to meet Shannon and get to know her. As the only member in the home, she is very good to have family prayer and has scripture study with her son. Even while here in the mission home, she read with him.

The winter continues to be extremely mild, and we are not complaining. I love to see flowers in bloom year round - this is my kind of climate! and there have been lots of singing birds in our yard lately A lady named Vasilika that I met while out on the street doing some "finding" yesterday told me that the weather is usually really nice for a couple of weeks at the end of January and then it gets cold again. She said it goes way back to old Greek stories and mythology that there were special birds that came to Greece at the end of Jan. and the weather protected them. ( I will give Heavenly Father the credit for loving these baby birds)

Marie continues to play basketball on the varsity team. They don't play as many games as in the states but they have some tournaments coming up. Marie has been up in Thessaloniki this past weekend with all of the 9th grade students on a trip to a farm school that is associated with her school here in Athens. They had a great time learning how to compost, harvest caviar, studying the science of nutrition, etc., and they ate food grown on the farm. Maybe it was a little TOO healthy, because she said that when they went into town all the students went in the grocery store or bakery to buy junk food; non organic, processed stuff that their bodies were used too. HA! She said some of the kids actually felt sick from eating that healthy. She said the train ride was beautiful coming back down to Athens through the countryside of Greece. We were glad to get her back.

I manage all of the mission medical which can make for lots of phone time between insurance and doctors etc. We have some unusual doctor visits and have learned who we can trust. When you go into a medical clinic they want to run at least 20 tests on you. Another crazy yet interesting fact is that many pharmacies (which are on every corner) have pharmacists that mix up most of their own medicine. Very different regulations over here. I think I mentioned that each pharmacy makes their own Flu shots. When I told the area medical advisor this he strongly advised our missionaries NOT to get one. Last thing, we had such an amazing MLC this last week. President Heder did such an amazing job of motivating and lifting their sights about what is possible here. Loved it - they would have run through a wall for him.

Love,

Sister LeeAnn Heder

Pictures: Shannon our member on Rhodes, MLC training meeting, Marie's baptism and what it looks like here in January, and big news Austin and Chloe are engaged ! Yay ! its official! We love her!