Leavin on a Jet Plane

Today, at long last, we have landed in Athens!!

It was a long, 34 hour process getting to beautiful Vasiliki--

but of course we were super excited the whole time,

so it could hardly be miserable:)

On the plane to Athens

I sat on one side by a cuuuute little old man on the plane to Athens

And I totally understood at least every other word he said

I'm pretty sure he is from Crete

and that he loves his village and is proud to be able to save up to fly!

These are some phrases I learned from him.

Tikans= (Tee-kahn-s) How are you?

Ime kala= (ee-may, kah-la) I'm good!

Kalimaera= Good morning

All of the Greek people on the plane were little Grandma's and Grandpa's--

are there any young people in Greece?? 

I did notice roast kid on the menu...

Haha:) But seriously.

Oh an BTW, all the women wore tiny gold crosses on their neck--

I fit in perfect:)

Greek Fashion

The other passenger I was sitting by on that flight was Abbi,

a handsome Indian-Canadian boy who was heading to Greece with his buddy 

to celebrate having just graduating from Medical School.

He was so nice, and LOADS of fun to talk to

We talked for probably 4 or 5 hours at the beginning of the flight,

me cracking Canadian jokes, him making fun of dumb Americans,

so ya we were basically best friends.

Athens Airport: Greek Alphabet??

Eventually of course he found out I was a Mormon and asked me a lot about it

which was at once fun and uncomfortable,

because it's hard to lay out something so important to you

for someone to possibly criticize or make fun of.

All the RM's right now are thinking I am such a noob...

man, it's rough! Someday with practice, I'll be less nervous I'm sure!

So Abbi and I were full in the swing of  trading stereotypes about each other,

which was immensely fun, but you had to be careful not to be offensive, and be open minded.

For example, he asked if I thought he was a vegetarian, 

and I said according to Life of Pi, yes, a Hindu boy should be a vegetarian

and he laughed and said he loved meat and couldn't even date a Vegetarian.

Then I told him I had been a vegetarian for a few years and that I didn't even like butter on my popcorn.

That's when we knew we couldn't be in love, but oh well.

So we were basically BFF's by the time he figured out I was a Mormon

and it was scary all of a sudden

At the same time the Gospel is the most important thing I can share!

After all, you don't keep "Good News" to yourself, do you??

He was really golden, and he asked all of the questions,

I just tried to keep up and keep the blush out of my face so as to keep things natural.

He grilled me until I mentioned the next life somehow

and he asked how many lives we had-- so I began to explain a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, but mostly the resurrection.

I explained that we are waiting for Jesus to come again,

and that when he does everyone who has died will be resurrected

and those who have lived like God and followed the commandments, will get to live with God.

When he asked for how long that lasted, (as in maybe we would be reincarnated again),

I just answered, "Forever."

Road to Vasiliki

The Spirit was really strong at that point, and all joking done

then he said, "Well that sounds very nice, I'd sign up for that. Maybe I should come to BYU eh?"

I laughed a little, and said he should, 

that a fine, clean cut boy like him would be very welcome.

Without his alcohol of course.

The moral of the story is that I was immensely pleased with what he told me at the end of our conversation, 

He said, "Well I will have to tell my friends that I met a Mormon--and that you seem pretty normal to me."

Saweet. Normal:) It's a pretty high compliment! and I told him so.

And while I didn't give him the number of the missionaries

or try to give him a Book of Mormon (maybe I should have... oops)

I'm happy to know that he can have this good impression of us and our Church!

And maybe a little bit to think about besides.