Week 14 Χριστουγεννα!!

How is everyone??

I want to first off wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

This week was sooo busy!! We started this week off with exchanges. I was with Sister Valles on Tuesday. That was so much fun!! She's amazing! We went to teach Milena together. She found Milena so it was soo amazing to see their relationship and much it had grown! Milena thinks my Greek is getting better, so she asked me to call her on the phone and catch up with her through out the week. But, what was funny was she called us a few days ago and thought I was Sister Indelicato. Hahah! 

Anyway, Sister Valles and I had an amazing time together! She left me a Christmas present and the cutest little sticky note with a quote. The quote was by James E. Faust:

Faith is the Power

Obedience is the price

Love is the motive

Spirit is the key

Christ is the Reason

I really love that! Christ really is the reason why we do things! I Hope we can all think of Christ and what He's done for us! 

We also did service this week! We were able to go and help out again at the warehouse. And afterward we gave a wrapped Book of Mormon to the manager of the service project. 

This week we visited the Stillo Family and the Koutouri Family! We love being able to serve and help them out in anyway we can! I love them so much! They are so fun to be with! 

On Saturday we had a young womens activity and only one of the young women could come with her mom. But, she's sooo fun!! Her name is Tasoula. She really is such a sweet young woman! We made cookies and chocolates together and gave them to the members at church on sunday! 

After the activity we went to the Christmas party! The Christmas party was such a blast! We brought food, and Tasoula did the music, and we decorated right before, and had soo many fun games. The senior couple helped out with organizing the games. So many people came! The members and investigators:) Even βερναδα and ελσα came!! It was a miracle! They both want to meet up with us and have some more lessons. We have only been able to visit βερναδα once while I've been here and ελσα met with the sisters before I was here. They are both from Albania. Most of the people we teach/meet are from, Albania, Russia, Nigeria, and Greece. 

I love them all so much!!!:) Wonderful people!! I know that God does prepare people for us! 

I love being here and learning new things!! I am sooooo grateful for this opportunity! I hope you all have a wonderful Χριστουγεννα!!:) I know this Christmas will be one of the BEST! Remember the Savior and what He has done for you this season! I love you all very much!

Let me know if I can do anything:)

Love,

Sister Ramsay

p.s I wont be able to email next Monday...I will be flying to Athens. I will be in Athens for a week. But I will write all of you the following week! Keep me updated! I love hearing from you all:)

Week 13

Hey!

I've been in Greece one month now! I honestly cannot BELIEVE IT! Time really does fly!

This past week has been really ενδιαφερον! (interesting), because my companion and I have had a lot of meetings and preparing for the Christmas party coming up, and the President flying up to see us on sunday. We've been busy:) But, as usual I LOVE IT:)

So, this week we had a meeting on Wednesday via Skype with all of the districts and President. It was so fun to see all the missionaries in my district from the MTC again! They are all soo good at Greek now:)

The meeting was really helpful! President really got us pumped for Christmas!  On Thursday we saw the Stillo family! Oh I love them!! They are so funny! (They are members). The daughter, ειρηνη had been telling me that she didn't have any friends and was too scared to tell people about being mormon. I told her that Heavenly Father loves her and that when I get scared and dont know what to do I pray. Right now my biggest thing  is "to try"! We have to try new things in order to know the outcome. I told her I'm learning Greek and everyday I tell myself I have to try and work hard! As long as I do my best I know Heavenly Father willl bless us! I told her I knew a really good scripture to help her. I send her scripture verses every night and on sunday she told us she made a friend!!:) What was so cool was that she told us that because, of the scripture verses and us visting her and telling her she could do all things through Christ..sher decided to tell her friend she was mormon and her friend was interested in knowing more!!:) It was so wonderful! I know the Lord really provides when we trust in Him! 

On Friday we had 3 meetings and an interview with President! I was also told that I would have exchanges for two days next week. I was going to fly to Athens, but plans changed so im still in Thess, but with two different sisters on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

On Sunday we passed out all of our invitations for the Christmas party:)! We also practiced the musical number we are doing as a district together on next sunday. 

I love you all very much!! I love being here and learning so much! December is getting colder and colder so bundle up everyone:)

Here are a few photos of my companion and I. And me helping put up the Christmas tree for the Stillo family. 

Love you so much!

Love,

Sister Ramsay

Week 12

How is everyone?? Hopefully good! Feeling the Christmas season?:) Its a a little hard here in Thess...but, people are starting to put up some nice lights. The weather is up and down! Some days have been really hot and other days freezing cold!!

This week we did service as a district. We will be going every Tuesday to help the refugees. We went to an old big warehouse and there we met with a few people to sort through all the stuff that had been donated for the refugees. There was sooo much stuff!! This Tuesday we sorted through clothes. I was asssigned with a Greek lady named, Anaa. She is so nice! We looked through piles of clothes together and sorted them and made sure they would be good for the refugees. We were there for three hours sorting. The elders put the clothes in boxes and sorted shoes. They needed a lot of help! Anaa afterwards gave me a big hug and told me she was soo happy to see us come and help. I wish I took a picture of what the warehouse looked like! Its dark, full of dust, and very cold!! But, doing the service made me aware of all the people that really need all the help they can get! So, i'm very grateful for the opportunity to go and serve where I can! 

We as sisters have been asked to plan a Christmas party to bring our cute little branch together. On Wednesday we got together with the senior couple and discussed different games and food items to have at the party.

 We also have a Greek and English class that the Elders teach on wednesdays, but since the district leader had to go to Athens we were asked to teach it. (He usually teaches it.) That was pretty funny! I honestly didn't think I could help someone with Greek. But, it turns out I can:) haha! We went to teach the senior couple Greek. My companion helped translate a Greek childrens book for Elder West. And I helped translate a recipes for Sister West. I can handle recipes! haha! I was surprised with how much I knew. I love reading Greek! I've started to enjoy it a little more than english..but, that doesn't mean I understand all of it. haha! 

So, this week we had planned to find a lady named, Maya. All we knew about her was that she was russian and that sisters had talked to her once. So, we went off on an adventure looking for Maya. We were even told that the address could be wrong. haha. We actually found her after ringing a few different doorbells!! As soon as she saw us she was so happy! Wow! I've never seen someone smile so much for missionaries. We came into her apartment and she started giving us cake and russian chocolates.(Which were actually really good...). We stared talking to her about the Book of Mormon and she said she wanted to know more. Something about us just felt right. We plan to see her next week adn continue seeing her:) 

This week we've had a lot of little miracles happen. We've been able to find people that other missionaries told us were impssible. We were even told that one of the referrals didnt exist. But we still went looking and found him! He actually does exist! hahah! 

On sunday we went white boarding again. Our question on the white board was, "τι σασ φερνιε ευτιχια; "  What makes you happy?

We had people come up and write down what made them happy! We had so many good conversations with people! We also do white boarding by the White building, which is right by the sea front. Families are usually going for a walk with their families during that time. We were able to have a few names and numbers. I love seeing fasmilies want the gospel! I really know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ!! I love it! And I cant wait for Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ:)

I hope you are all well!

Love you all,

Sister Ramsay

Week 11 Thessaloniki

This week has been really good!! We went to a shop to meet a lady that had been visited by the elders last year. She works at a book shop. She wanted to bind my Greek Book of Mormon with the Doctrine and Covenants for me. We were able to talk with her about her job and her family.  It was so nice! She really likes the missionaries and the way they act around others.

We met with the Koutouri family this week for family home evening. Tasula, the daughter, planned the game and we made cookies and talked about the importance of a prophet. It was a lot of fun!! 

We visited Jennifer this week, who is a member, she isn't doing too well. She has a lot of pain in her legs. She isn't sure what it is...but we are praying for her recovery. We had a lesson with one of our investigators, Nikos and Paraskefi. They are so fun to be around! We talked about prayer and reading the Book of Mormon. Paraskefi said a prayer for the first time. It was a sweetest prayer I have ever heard! :)

One of our other investigators, Milena is wonderful! She is a missionary! She has given us two more referrals. And she has been showing her friends the restoration video. Its amazing! The work in Thess is really progressing!! 

On Saturday my district got together and celebrated Thanksgiving!! It was soo fun! We went to a senior couples house and helped make Thanksgiving food! We also played some games and had a lot of pumpkin pie! It was a lot of fun. Right after our Thanksgiving get together we went to the Stillo Family's house to make dinner for them. We were all cooking together and we made a lot of food. The mom, Maria, kept putting more food on my plate...haha! It reminded me of my mom. She always put food on the missionaries plates!! 

We had a little lesson with them and I also had the chacne to talk to Irene, the daughter, about Personal Progress. I am her young womens teacher. So, I try to help her with it and plan lessons/activities that will count for Personal Progress. After our lesson we were given some fruit. I had never heard of it or seen it before. Its called Kidoni. It looks like a really really big pear...and when you cut it its hard to cut. The texture is like a cocunut in the inside and the taste is sour like a candy. Its good!!! But very interesting!:) 

Irene called us last night telling me she loved the texts we sent her. I send her scripture verses in Greek. And she was so surprised that I was the one sending them. haha! It was kinda funny! I can text in Greek:) 

I love being here! I love being a missionary and working hard! I love the work!! It is definitely not easy!! We ride bikes to lessons and the people usually live an hour away by bike! Thess is big:) But the people are worth every minute!! I love sharing this gospel with everyone!! Especially as Christmas approaches we should share this beautiful message of the restored gospel and how we can be with our Heavenly Father again! What a gift to share:) 

I love you all very much!! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Sister Ramsay

Week 10- I made it to Greece!!!

We left the MTC at 4:30am to go to the airport. We flew first to London and then to Athens, Greece! Once we got there we all went out to dinner and I had the chance to eat my first yuro! They are soooooooo GOOD!! hahah! After dinner we went back to the mission home and had our interviews with the mission president. We were all sooo excited to find out where we were going to start!! The funny thing is, in the MTC on our last day we were all guessing where we would be going and we all got sent to the places we guessed:) 

I knew I was going to be sent somewhere very cold:) hahaha! After the interviews we all went to bed and woke up fairly early to go with Sister Heder, the mission President's wife. We went for a nice walk with her up a hill in Athens. The view was incredible.(I sent pictures of us all on the hill:))We had a little devotional up there and then went back to the mission home to pack up for a meeting with all the missionaries. We were going to get our new trainers. My trainer is Sister Indelicato. She's from Italy! Oh and she is sooo fun!! She's an amazing cook!! I love her food! She is so patient with me and the language! She has helped me so much! And in all the lessons she's taught me to trust my heart and follow the spirit! I want to let you all know that the gift of tongues is real! I had a lesson a few days ago and I didnt remember knowing so much Greek! Heavenly Father really does guide us and help us in the very moment we need it! 

After we had that meeting we went to Mars Hill.(I sent pics of that as well) Mars Hill was an experience I will never forget!! It was sooo good! We all  bore are testimonies in Greek. The spirit was so strong! After our testimony meeting I had to leave right away to catch a plan to Thessaloniki. So, Sister Heder drove us...but, as we were leaving the roads got closed off because some people in the center were protesting...so, we were stuck for an hour...finally we got to the airport and our plan had been boarding...I didnt think we would make it, but we did!!! We arrived in Thess really late so the wonderful senior couple Sister and Elder West picked us up and took us to our apartment. Our apartment is the smallest apartment in the entire mission. haha! But its very cute:) 

The next day..Wednesday:

We woke up and went running by the shore! Its sooo beautiful!! I love it!! We visited the Koutouri Family. They are members. They do a lot of missionary work. They were very fun to meet! Although I had a hard time understanding them! They have a very heavy Greek accent. But they were so nice and loved talking with me:)

Thursday:

We visited Nikos and Paraskefi. They are our investigators. They are so fun! They love the lessons! Nikos is the dad and Paraskefi is the daughter. There is another son, his name is Dimitris. He is the cutest boy EVER!! He is four! He loves holding the B.O.M. We taught them a lesson on the restoration and showed them the Jospeh Smith video and he asked for a copy of it! haha! Love them! We showed him Lds.org

Friday:

We taught Milena. She's also our investigator! She's russian...but speaks amazing Greek also! She keeps giving us more referrals and is very close to setting a baptims date!

Saturday:

We went to go visit the Stillo Family. They are a less active family. But the daughter, Irene loves coming. We taught her about temples and she loved hearing about it so much...She asked for pictures she could put in her room. We also gave her a personal progress book for her to start. Since we are her young womens teachers we will be helping her with that:) 

Sunday:

I bore my testimony in church and introduced myslef to everyone. I also taught young womens with my companion. That was very fun! I love our two young women we have! The members are so good and strong! 

We also went with the Elders White Boearding...which is taking a white board and going by the shore side where the White tower is and passing out cards about family/family history. We basically just go finding/proselyting. Its so fun!! 

This week has been so amazing and enlighting! Wow! hmmm The people really are humbling to me! They have really nothing, but they always give! There are a lot of orange trees everywhere!!! They are by the side of the road...everywhere! We also have tons and I mean tons of cats and dogs! 

I had my first Bugatsa! ohhh man, Its soooooo GOOD!! You all need to try it!! I was on the bus a few days ago and an old man asked me if I was from Italy. Haha! People here are so fun! 

I love you all and love being here in Thess! Im learning soooo much!!! The gospel is such a huge blessing!! I love it and the effect its had on my life!

Let me know if I can do anything for you all! 

much love,

 Sister Ramsay

p.s Ill send more photos next pday....sorry I forgot to bring my camera to the internet shop:)

love you all!