So, I'm behind again in posting. It's been a crazy month! On April 6 John was awarded a new contract in......Hawaii......and had to make a trip there, so we left on April 20. We had an awesome time, although it was a bit stressful for John because he wasn't able to get his subcontractor nailed down until the day before we were leaving to come home. We ended up getting to spend an extra day on Maui because our plane's AC broke. It was rough. US Airways put us up at the Maui Hyatt Regency Resort on the beach. The kids did great at home and it was good to get away. And we love going to Hawaii!! :o)
Here's what Zach's sent the past few weeks since he's been transferred to Cyprus (which he calls the "Promised Land"):
April 20, 2009:
So, I love Cyprus...but of course the Chinese are trying to make me fat...and now my stomach hates me and I really just feel like crap...but I still love it here.
I actually got an earlier flight so I left Thursday evening. Because of the holidays Elder Amunson (Norway) couldn't leave until Friday so I was once again in a 3-man for a day. We went knocking Friday morning. We did one building and got let in 2 times! Cyprus is way different than Athens.
Elder Amundson got in Friday afternoon right before we had like 2 or 3 lessons. One was with a Chinese girl, Laura (they all use English names here) who we baptized yesterday. I don't remember the other lesson at all but I've had like 5 or 6 lessons in 3 days so it is hard to keep everything straight (I'm starting to understand how important all the paperwork is! Before it wasn't that hard to keep everything straight).
On Friday we had outreach, or the center for YSAs. A short lesson in the beginning and then games afterwards. The cool thing here is that most of our investigators are friends of other investigators. Everyone always brings friends! Its definitely the best way to do things. We set up in church, teach lessons and the investigators come to us! We also have English and Greek lessons to draw in new people. Saturday was good as well. We went to the Agio Fos again this year but this time with a bunch of the members...and the friends they brought. It was fun. I guess the Chinese girls are going to paste the pics on Facebook so you can probably see them there, I'll get those pics sometime this week.
Mmmm....so much has happened that it's weird. I feel like I served my mission backwards. I started in Kavala, one of the harder areas and then gradually worked my way up until I'm in the 'best' area in the mission. I feel like being in Kavala stole my 'greenness' away very quickly and gave me an outlook on the mission that might have been better. Now that I'm here I can see what "Preach My Gospel" meant when it talks about how a mission should be. I still have trouble loving the Greeks as a people but my love for the Chinese and Nepalese came almost instantly. I guess it's ALOT easier when they love you back. When I say Chinese I'm usually talking about the Chinese girls which make up a large portion of the branch. They are anywhere from 19-30 and most of them are here going to school. There are boys of course but not nearly as many. The branch is great. There is one embassy family (I think he is CIA or something) and the husband, Pres. Howe, is the District President. The Branch President is a Portuguese man that works for the UN and is here with his family. He is about as steadfast as they come, a real rock. There are a few other retired couples from England and such, some Phillipinoes, and another American from Snowflake here on work. I would think that he should be retired already but he's here alone doing some contracting work. Umm...I know there's a lot more but I can't remember.
The baptism was great - Me and Amundson had 2 baptisms this week, Laura (Chinese) and Godwin (Nigerian). I've never actually taught hm before but he brought a friend to his baptism and so we're teaching the friend, Moses, together with Godwin tonight. That is the first of the 3 lessons we have planned and then it's Family Home Evening. It seems like we have some activity planned for everyday, it is really unbelievable. But it works since all the young adults have ridiculous amounts of free time (school is not rigorous) and they always bring their friends, so it's actually more effective to find good new investigators from FHE than to knock doors. So wierd. Um...i think I'll take better notes this week so my email can be more structured but oh well.
We are on bikes here which is both nice and bad. We can go anywhere very quickly but I'm getting sore from the bike and its scary to ride on the roads here. But since we usually just go from home to church and back it's not that bad. I will seriously send pictures soon, I've got a ton...oh I need to tell you about the Turkish side. You know that Cyprus is divided between the 'greeks' and the 'turks'. Well, we can come and go between the two sides as we please. On the Turkish side you can find ridiculous deals on clothes, and I mean nice clothes, so nice you can't tell if they're fake or not. Elder Amundson brought a suitcase full of shirts to Athens to leave at the office. I'm looking forward to buying some nice stuff for home.
Well, I've got to go.
Love you,
Zach
April 27, 2009:
Sounds like Hawaii was good. My week was busy. We had 17 lessons, 9 investigators at church and 2 confirmations...good week. We have been teaching a few people that are just amazing. Godwin, from Nigeria was baptized last week and confirmed yesterday. He is so friendly to everyone and wants to learn everything he can. Yesterday we showed him a movie about temples and now he is counting down the days to when he can go back to Nigeria and do the work for his deceased father. Mahesh is a kid my age from Nigeria and he is great as well. We've had 2 lessons with him and will have one more tonight. He came to church yesterday and stayed all 3 hours because he didn't want to miss a class, he is starving to learn. It is amazing to teach someone with no background knowledge about God or prayer or anything. It makes it really easy to focus all teaching on Christ. We had a great lesson with Max from Cameroon, an African giant! He's huge! We also have Moses, a friend of Godwin's from Nigeria who is also progressing very well. There are others that we teach from China and Nepal and Africa but those are the stars for right now.
I'm getting used to the bike and I'm so glad we spend most of our time at church teaching because it is starting to get really HOT! And it will only get worse! I think it starts to cool down again in October...hmmm...but I won't be here for that.
The flight was only like 2 hours but the food was a joke. About 5 pieces of Macaroni and some cold veggy-patty thing. GROSS!!
Anyway, I'm loving it here and I think we'll go on a bike ride in a little bit to a national park or something...if we can fix my bike. Yesterday we were hurrying to church to set everything up and a few minutes into the ride I got a flat!. So I had to half-carry, half-roll my bike all the way to church and then back again. I changed out the tube and everything and it worked fine but then this morning I got on and it was flat again. Bikes are annoying.
So that was my week, I love you.
Zach
May 4, 2009:
(To me): Yes I got the package and thank you very much. The jelly beans are REALLY good and the pretzels were genious. The granola bars came in really handy since we had 12 elders staying in our apartment for 2 days and I can tell you that they ate EVERYTHING! The granola bars have kept me alive the last few days. The Nigerians are doing ok. Moses will be baptized on Saturday and our Nepolese star Mahesh will be baptized as well on Saturday. We may have 2 or 3 others as well. With the call I'm not sure yet when I'll call... It may be at like Monday 6am my time which is 8pm your time right? If that changes I'll text Dad to let him know (his is the only number I can remember)...yes, as Zone Leader in Cyprus I have a cool phone that can call anywhere.
Am I enjoying my area? Let's see...we had 6 investigators at church, 21 lessons and 4 new investigators...yes, I enjoy the area. Our investigators are all amazing and a few of them are as golden as they come. Mahesh wanted to pay tithing on his savings since he doesn't have a job and he was so excited to pay his fast offering yesterday. Moses says his life has changed and he has recognized how God brought him here to Cyprus in a horrible situation just so that he could meet us and the church.
The park was nice last week. We just went for a ride and then to IKEA...which turns out to be a Swedish store with really good, cheap food in their cafeteria...and since there are so many Scandanavians in the mission IKEA is one of the missionary hot spots...and the Swedish candy is really good too..
My apartment is the nicest one in the mssion. A family had lived there before and then they just left...leaving everything behind, so we have a very nicely furnished apartment, lots of room, huge kitchen, anything a missionary could want. Oh yeah, I have a king-sized bed to myself...not normal for missionaries.
Today we're going to the Turkish side and I'm going to buy some clothes...I might end up spending 100 dollars or more...The clothes are either really good fakes or genuine for really cheap. All these name brands I hear about and just really good quality for really cheap so I will be stocking up for school.
Ummm...yeah. So it was a good week. I'll tell you more about what is happening on Sunday ok?
Love you,
Zach
(To John): The only thing that is new in my world is the numbers for this week; 21 lessons, 5 at church, 4 new investigators and 2, maybe 4 baptisms scheduled for Saturday! I love it here. The foreign students are so willing to learn and be obedient. When the church opens in Nepal and China the work will explode faster than anyone can imagine.
Deals? Let me tell you about deals... On the Turkish side there are ridiculous deals...we're going today! Ok, so either the clothes are ridiculous good fakes or ridiculously cheap originals...either way no one can tell and the prices are amazing. I'm going to buy some nice polo, burrberry, la costle shirts and some nice jeans today. We will definitely be on the lookout for everything else as well. Billfolds are easy to come by anywhere because the Africans are selling them on every street corner, belts are the same. I'm excited...I'm also on the lookout for shoes and a suit. I'm not planning on taking any of my current clothes home...especially since they are all pretty trashed anyways.
We actually don't have time to do service here...we're too busy teaching!
Well, I'll call probably around 8pm your time on Sunday night...if something changes my phone can call anywhere so I'll send you a text to let you know...
Love you,
Zach
Doesn't he sound great? :o) It's sooo hard to believe he'll be home in about 5 1/2 months. His mission has literally flown by.
Kam graduates on the 19th - only two weeks away. She is very ready to graduate. She's babysitting for a couple in our ward who are in school Mondays-Wednesdays until she goes to school and I think she's going to be working for John doing office-type stuff on Thursdays and Fridays. She's excited about the whole working thing.
She was backed-into in the school parking lot yesterday. Minor damage. Thank heavens!
Parker pole vaults at the Regional Meet tomorrow.
Kailen is busy making a solar cooker. (Can I tell you how excited I am for school to be out and for there to be no more school projects for awhile?!)
Kailen and Parker have been swimming in the pool. Still way too cold for me!
Only 8 more days of seminary. Happy and sad about that one. Happy to be able to run with the ladies again and get some sleep, but sad because I'll miss seeing my seminary kids every morning.
Well, that's life for the past month in a nutshell......
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