This is Brother Fred Agho from Nigeria. He came to church today in this beautiful native costume and we had to get a picture of him. Fred is the first counselor in the Branch Presidency.

Zoitsa's apartment after the baptism on Saturday, December 19th. Liana is on Elder Johnson's right and Zoitsa is next to her. President Todi is on Sister Johnson's left. The others are the missionaries.

Zoitsa and her daughter, Patrina. Patrina made a lot of the wonderful food they fed us.

The missionaries and Mitat, an Albanian member, in Zoitsa's apartment.

At the sea for Zoitsa's baptism. The temperature was 4 C. (about 39 degrees) Left to right, Elder Kroll, Mitat, Domna (Zoitsa's cousin who wants to be baptized as soon as she can get the Word of Wisdom down), Zoitsa's sister (who is also somewhat interested in the Church), Elder Johnson, Zoitsa, Elder Stephenson, Elder Mortensen, Elder Harris, President Todi, Elder Foerster and Patrina (Zoitsa's daughter).

Elder Johnson, Elder Mortensen and Elder Stephenson went down early Saturday morning to clean up the beach area where we have the baptisms. It is a public beach, but this area is usually fairly quiet and a little secluded.

Liana at our apartment celebrating her birthday. She is getting her application ready to send off to BYU for graduate school for fall 2010. We would love to see her be accepted, for her and for selfish reasons--so we could continue our association with her.

President Todi asked Elder Johnson one day if he needed some more paper clips. Elder Johnson said sure, so next time he saw President Todi, this is what he gave him. We thought it was pretty cute.

This is the Koutouri family at the Branch Christmas Party on the 12th of December. We wanted you to notice the art work painted on the window. Zoitsa came early for the party and painted two great Christmas pictures on the windows. The elders explained that they would have to be washed off before church the next day. She wasn't at all offended by that and did it anyway.

Elder Mortensen, who taught and baptized Zoitsa, and Zoitsa and Domna at the Branch party.

Brother Sotires Tanto playing his guitar and singing with his wife, Emmanuela at the Christmas party. Brother Tanto went to the temple in Freiberg, Germany with the Branch President in November to receive his endowment.

The missionaries after playing basketball down by the sea on P-Day, December 7th.

Our Thanksgiving feast which we observed on November the 28th.

Elder Causse, a counselor in the European Area Presidency, with two of the missionaries at our Zone Conference in Athens on November the 25th.

Oxi Day Parade--October 28, 2009

We wanted to share pictures of the ethnic costumes from the Oxi Day Parade with you. They come from all the different regions of Greece, as well as the different islands. We thought they were very beautiful and very interesting. We can't give much more detail, as we didn't know which ones came from which area.

Candles, candles!! All sizes, all prices. Outside Agios Dimitrios Church last Monday, Ayios
Dimitrios Day. He is the patron saint of Thessaloniki.

Just a little glimpse of some of the vendors and beggars on the church steps. Those are

balloon sellers holding the big colorful bundles.

Melanie and Chad standing along the waterfront in Thessaloniki in front of

Alexander the Great astride his famous horse, Bucephalous.

Downtown Thessaloniki. Melanie and Chad (and some unknown guy) in front of the remains of the Galerius Arch, named of course, for the Roman Emperor, Galerius, who had a palace here around 300 B.C.

We asked this shepherd if we could take his picture. He was crossing the road with his flock

and his dogs as we were coming down the mountain from Meteora. It's quite a common sight

to see shepherds tending their flocks. There are lots of goats and sheep in Greece.

Melanie, Chad, Barbara and Dennis with the Great Meteora behind us.

Chad and Melanie in front of the Great Meteora. It was very foggy the morning we were

there, but it made for some great pictures when you got a glimpse of sunlight.

A stray cat on the edge of a rock with the fog rising up behind it.

Sorry, if it seems like we overdo the Meteora thing, but honestly, every direction is a photo op!

A great look at one of the rope ladders, which used to be the only way to get inside the monasteries. I'm pretty sure they'd have fewer visitors if everyone had to get up and down via the ladders!

A lovely garden at the Rousanou monastery, which now houses nuns. (I'm

actually not sure what they call the women. )

Melanie and Barbara at the entrance to Rousanou.

Our most recent trip to Athens. President and Sister Charles invited the senior couples to the mission home for lunch and a meeting. We got to meet the Bells, who are the newest senior couple in the mission. Sister Charles is at the near end of the table and President Charles, at the far end. Bell's are by Sister Charles. The Smith's are behind me. Elder Harris was there recuperating from his foot surgery.

The long-awaited day of Fotis Stillo's baptism. Members of the Branch, his family, the

missionaries, and Sister Charles. We had a great evening for the baptism.

Elder and Sister Johnson with Maria, Fotis, Irini and Georgia Stillo.

September 27, 2009

We have had visitors! Sister Johnson in the middle with her sisters, Cheryl and Karen. They came to see us at the end of their European trip and brought me a terrific Paris jacket just like theirs. We couldn't miss the photo op! (I know some of you will probably think we went to Paris, but we really didn't!)

We spent part of day driving to Halkidiki. This is a beach in the little town of Vourvourou on the east side of the second finger of Halkidiki. The non-missionaries waded into the Aegean and said it was warm. Glenn, Cheryl, John, Karen and Dennis.

Getting their feet wet in the Aegean.

Dennis, with one of his fellow high priests! This was in the monastery of Saint Nikolas Anapausa at Meteora. The pappas are usually out of sight, but we saw this one and Dennis asked if we could take his picture. He was very obliging and gave us a small print of a larger picture we had seen in the monastery. He was the painter. He also gave us a little booklet about the monastery.

The "sisters" at St. Stephen's Nunnery.

The happy tourists with their tour guide and chaffeur in the center. We were catching our breath on the way back up the path from one of the monasteries.

Dennis and John behind a monastery with the great Thessaly Plain

and Pindus Mountains beyond.

Scott and Elizabeth in front of the White Tower, the landmark of Thessaloniki.

We can't begin to tell you how wonderful it was to have family here to visit and grandkids to hold, hug and kiss. We took a walk along the seashore one evening and let the kids play at a playground and saw a beautiful sunset. The Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea is a step behind us.

Scott and Daniel at the playground. Daniel is a beautiful little guy

and we loved getting reacquainted with him.

At church on Sunday. Maria and Fotes and Irini Stillo, Elizabeth, Scott and Nathan. Daniel was asleep in his stroller. Irini and Nathan hit it off right away. She's very sweet with all the children that come to church. Fotes was supposed to have been baptized today, but it didn't happen. We hope to have some pictures of his baptism to post soon.

The day after Scott and Liz and the boys left I was working around the apartment and wondered if I had just dreamed that they came to see us. Then I saw cute little handprints on the sliding doors and pictures to prove they had really come. They were here for our Linger Longer Sunday meal, so got to socialize with some of the members. Anthony is in front of Scott, then Mary. Sister Campbell is by Liz. President Charles is the man whose face you can see, sitting down the table from Scott. It was also our Branch Conference that Sunday, so they got to meet the mission president and his wife and the Taylor's, a senior couple from Athens.

Nathan celebrated his fourth birthday with us. We did our best to come up with a pirate cake and he seemed pleased with it.

Missionaries and members of the Branch who came to Dasoula Koutouri's baptism. It's a rare and wonderful thing to have a second generation baptism in Greece. Her uncle is kneeling beside her. He baptized her. Next is her grandmother, then her mother.