Heder Mission Moments: Visiting Corinth, Nafphlio and the Parthenon with friends - Working at Caritas and cleaning Mars Hill

March 30, 2016

I had more missionary interviews this past week; finishing all the missionaries in Athens. Like every other mission president, I love my missionaries, and I feel like they are as good as any elders and sisters anywhere in the world. Still, they struggle with different things. One of the interviews this past week confirmed that a new-comer is really struggling with feelings of inadequacy and frustration. They are the same feelings that every missionary encounters at one point or another, but this elder is another recent convert (I have several such missionaries) and his family doesn’t want him on a mission. He has experienced extra difficulty learning Greek because he can’t really speak English--so learning another language at the same time as learning how to teach core gospel doctrines has proven very difficult. Also, communicating his feelings with his companion has been a particular challenge . He has already experienced a couple of emotional break downs, and I became concerned that if I didn’t make a change in his circumstance, he might give up. But I didn’t know who could finish his training.

A few interviews later,, I’d received the inspiration on who should finish the training, but I didn’t know how to do it; it didn’t feel right to just switch companions. More was needed.. Several more interviews later as I interviewed yet another Elder, I received the very comforting impression that I had the missing piece to the puzzle. I knew how to make the transfer work. It involves changing one of my assistants and swapping two other companions, but a few days after the fact, it’s working already; he’s doing great. It’s not the first time that inspiration flowed in on a “need-to-know” basis. A number of times before I’ve prayed and struggled in vain to get an answer to some question, only to realize later on that I was trying to solve a problem before it was really presented, or before I had done all my homework.

This time the lesson was all the more pointed because that same day I had to “get real” with another great young man who is serving as one of my zone leaders-- who was stuck on having to know my reasoning behind some requests I made of him and his companion before he could really go to work. He was certain that I didn’t know how things were supposed to be done--and that I was actually helping the Assistants to “usurp his authority” by being uninformed about the proper protocols in mission leadership.

I first showed him the handbook description of his role, and then we walked through John 21:22, where Peter wanted to know what John the Beloved had asked of the Savior and Jesus effectively said, “why is that important to you? You have a job to do.” As I said before, this young man is a great one, and he quickly found his compass. He understood that his zeal and pride had allowed him to get off point. By pouting instead of going to work, he’d missed opportunities to bless the missionaries in his stewardship. He now knows how important it is to go forward willingly and diligently, even (or especially) when we don’t know what the next steps will be, or what others will be doing. We have to trust that the Lord will take care of it all, and everything will be made clear in His good time.

Bill O. Heder
Greece, Athens Mission

Hello Family,

So I had invited the missionaries over for dinner on Sunday several weeks ago because several of them had not had dinner here at the mission home, because they were in Cyprus during Thanksgiving and Christmas. So it wasn't until Sat. evening that we realized that it was Easter the next day. Having my missionary family over helped me not miss being together with all my kids. Easter was always a family favorite because we love hiding Easter eggs and chocolate Cadbury mini eggs. Over her the Greeks celebrate Easter later because of Lent. Nobody gives up much of anything over here during Lent, especially not meat, at least from what we can see. However, the missionaries tell us that McDonald's has a special menu for Lent that has shrimp burgers instead of beef and other things. Good stuff :)

The Women's Conference was wonderful. We will listen with our branches this week. My heart was full as so many talks spoke so beautifully about how we grow closer to our Savior when we can love, serve and help other, particularly the refugees. I loved Sis Marriott speaking about how we build the kingdom when we nurture others and testify of truth. Sister Burton talked about prayerfully determining what to do depending on our own time and circumstances. Here we are on the front lines and sometimes we even have a hard time finding the right organizations to work with and through to have the most impact. Just last week Alinda and I went into work in the soup kitchen at a particular charity that we have contributed a great deal of time and materials and effort to, and the main volunteer coordinator asked to see me at the beginning of our shift. We are pretty good friends now, so she was very sad to tell me that the Arch Bishop does not want any of our missionaries in the building with the refugees because they are afraid that we will proselyte with them. They will let us go to a dark, dirty warehouse and sort clothing--that really doesn't need sorting.. It's just busy work. She told me she didn't agree, and gave me a hug and I felt bad because we had donated so many food supplies, diapers, hygiene kits etc. to the organization. I guess Bill and I have some work to do with the administration. Bill called his office again today (the 5th time) and got told to call back next week. We have many other organization we help at, but this was tough for me. They are a Christian organization and we're on the same side trying to help people in need. Sometimes, even here on the front lines of the problem, with opportunities staring us in the face where we can make a difference, petty human pride or ignorance gets in the way of something wonderful. We helped in the warehouse that day but went home deflated. Luckily we have good things in the works for the girls' high school. We'll bring in tons of materials and make thousands of hygiene kits with the school kids' help.

Bill's 5th brother and Law partner Paul and his wife are visiting us for awhile. I have seen the Parthenon 3 times in the last 2 weeks because of visiting guests from the mission and home, and I am amazed at how I see something new and different each time. Alinda is in Paris with her Humanities class, (which they almost canceled because of the bombing in Brussels) she is loving it and we get lots of pictures from amazing places. I was asked to speak at the Relief Society Birthday party and focused on Grace in womanhood and illustrated this quality by introducing one of the gems in our family, Florence Hansen. Truly a remarkable women because of her artistic talent but more so because of the quiet grace with which she has lived her life.

Love to you all,

Sister LeeAnn Heder

Pictures: Alinda and Marie with their Seminary Class and the Senior Couple teachers, some of the refugees waiting for lunch at Caritas, working on separating all of the donated clothes, we went by Victoria Square where a lot of refugees gather, one lady had brought in her little dog and was letting the kids play with it, as you see from one of the little girls faces they all loved it. Visiting Nafphlio with our mission facility director and his family, on Clean Monday the girls and I did some service and cleaned up Mars Hill. I told this little boy playing the accordion I would give him 1 euro if I could take his picture, Easter Sunday dinner with the missionaries, a beautiful church along the Sunio coast and the Parthenon - every time I visit I have to take a picture even though I know I have many pictures already :)