Mission Update

Here's what we received from Zach this morning:

"Ok, I don't know if you heard but there were some serious riots here in Greece. Here's what President sent us:

Dear Missionaries,
You should all by now have been contacted about the riots in Athens, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Patra, and Crete. Here is what happened (part of a report to church security):
"It appears last night an incident occurred in downtown Athens that has quickly and violently spread throughout the country. A police car with two police officers arrived on the scene of a disturbance and tried to arrest some of the demonstrators. It is reported that the demonstrators then attacked the police who retaliated first with a stun grenade and then one officer drew his firearm and fired two shots in the air and one on the ground. It appears one of the shots struck a 16-year old youth on the chest and he was DOA at the hospital.
From there the word spread like wildfire involving what is believed to be an anarchistic group and university students in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra, Kavala, and Crete (all towns or cities with university students). The rampaging mob burnt down a substantial downtown Athens street area not too far from our Acropolis meetinghouse. Many cars, buildings, and public facilities were burnt or destroyed.

Additional information was gleaned from a US embassy official who is a member in Athens and we were able to quickly communicate with all missionaries in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra, and Kavala. All missionaries located anywhere near the affected areas were confined to their apartments and told not to emerge until contacted by the mission office. We have no reports of any events affecting any missionaries directly.

A new demonstration started in all the cities at 13:00 Athens time, Sunday, where several thousand demonstrators were expected in Athens. We are monitoring events through TV and radio plus eye witness missionaries and members.

We hope the authorities will be able to bring matters to a safe close. The only complication for us is that it's transfer weekend and we have missionaries moving all over the country and Cyprus - by air and by train. But things are under control.

These demonstrations appear to be general "anti-establishment" by an anarchistic element which seems to be whipping up student involvement. There is no "anti-Mormon" sentiment evident at all."

But life goes on. As soon as we get 9 baptisms last month, the adversary had to come back to us somehow. But we'll come out on top!

Regret no Mars hill for the departing missionaries, but it's better to be safe. Please keep your heads down out of sight till we notify you the all clear.

Cheers,
John Galanos, PresidentGreece Athens Mission

Don't worry, I was nowhere near any of it but many of the missionaries' apartments were in the war zone. Almost all missionaries were confined to their apartments yesterday (except us). We went and saw some of the damage today and it was intense. Now all the kids are out "demonstrating" which pretty much means they're just doing it to miss school.

SO transfers, ELder Hall is going senior in Kavala with another Elder from his group! Intense! I am now in North Athens in Agia Paraskevy. I'm in the 'main' branch of the mission and my area has a lot going on in it right now.

Other than that we taught Kostas again, and our other investigator, Panagiota, read the 3 and 8 witnesses, the prologue, the Joseph Smith history and quite a bit of first Nephi all on her own! It was amazing! And she believes its true! We passed her on to the sisters.

I'm really sad to leave Faliro but I'm kind of glad it happened. I probably would have missed something very important. At the begining of the transfer we had this thing to leave your area better than when you found it...And after a while I was really worried about this because nothing was happening. But this week as I looked back I realized how much success we had seen the last 3 weeks...We really did work our butts off and the success did come. Another witness after the trial of your faith.

I love you,
Zach"

So, it's been an interesting day. This afternoon we received an email from President Galanos updating us on what's going on. All the missionaries in Greece will stay in their apartments tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday. The mission office is in hourly contact with the church security office and local resources. The devastation has been pretty widespread -- so far 6 banks, some businesses and apartment buildings have been burned. I guess this should be a bit scary, but I've felt a great sense of comfort and peace. Zach is in the Lord's hands and the Lord takes care of His missionaries. I am very thankful for that. We know Zach's where he's supposed to be and all will be well.