Pizza with Chiles and People Who are Taller Than Me

Hey,

So this is my first day in the field, and just wanted to let you all know I made it.  We got off the plane yesterday and went to the mission home. It rained pretty much the whole day which was awesome because I haven't seen rain for a while!  After eating lunch, which was Little Caesers pizza with green chiles on them, we got interviewed by the mission president.  President and Sister Adams are amazing. They are so nice and are just wonderful people.  Then we had dinner, and then we went out with some missionaries in the area and went and did their lessons with them.  The missionaries are all very nice, and also the people here, they are really nice and funny.  We stayed at the assisted living home, which wasn't very big, only had 2 bathrooms. and housed around 30 missionaries, so I didn't get the chance to shower this morning and am wearing the exact same clothes I wore yesterday.

Today we went to the mission office, had our training, and got assigned our trainers and areas.  My companion/trainer, Elder Middleton, is from Sacramento California, is a basketball player, and is 6'5".  So just like for the past few years of my life I'm spending my time with people who are taller than me.  Sister Lowe is sending a picture of us sometime today so you'll get that.  Umm and my first area is Kirtland, New Mexico, which is like 15 minutes out of Farmington.  Sister Lowe will also send you my mailing address, so I'm not going to tell it to you, but that's mostly because I don't even know the mailing address.  That's about all I got for now, I will send you more info and details about things on Monday.

Love you all,
Elder Takis

First Stop

Elders Middleton and Takis with President and Sister Adams

Just got the following email:

We wanted to let you know that your missionary has arrived in the mission field and is doing well.

He had a good night’s sleep and had training this morning. He is now headed to his area [in Kirtland, New Mexico].

Elder Middleton is Elder Takis’s trainer.

Thank you so much for sharing your son with us.  We will love him and take good care of him.


Sister Lowe
New Mexico Farmington Mission Secretary

Farewell to the MTC

Received this "farewell" photo Friday night from Brother Parkinson (front left corner), one of Elder Takis's teachers at the MTC. That is Elder Takis's district in the picture. Five of the elders, including Takis of course, were heading to the New Mexico Farmington Mission. The sisters were heading to the Virginia Richmond Mission.  One of the elders was going to Tennessee, and we can't remember where the other two were going.

Elder Takis called Monday morning just before boarding his plane. He was super excited to be leaving the MTC and getting out in the field. He was also excited to "eat real food" for breakfast. We asked him to clarify. He said he got a hot sausage, cheese, egg breakfast burrito at the airport and it was the first hot breakfast he'd had in 2 1/2 weeks. (Hot breakfast is important to him.) He was way tired of donuts/bagels/muffins/cereal.

Safe travels, Everyone!

Hosting, Giving Thanks, and an Old Friend

This week has been good, and yes I got your package, thank you.

Sounds like you could use some Dilaudid haha.  It sounds pretty crazy and busy over there, and my schedule is crazy busy too.  Hope everything goes well.

So this week we got new TRC investigators, and one of them, his name is Braulio, is very interesting to teach.  The first time we taught him I'm pretty sure he fell asleep. He looked tired when we went in and it just got worse the longer we were teaching him.  He kept nodding off and then would kind of shoot up like he just woke up, and because of that I even kind of started to fall asleep, so my companion decided to wrap things up early.  Every time we go in to teach him he is the same, he'll nod off.  But when we start asking questions about his mother and stuff then he is wide awake and has a lot to say, most of which isn't good.  He has had a hard life, and so we are trying to help him. 

On Tuesday we had a devotional from Elder Gary E. Stevenson which was pretty amazing.  He and his wife talked about a missionary's Thanksgiving.  One of the things that really stood out to me was when he said that going on a mission shows gratitude to Heavenly Father, and it got me thinking about how gratitude is more than just saying "thank you," you have to show it through your actions, and what better way to show Heavenly Father our gratitude for this gospel and the joy, happiness and blessings it brings us, than to share it with the world.  

We got our travel itinerary a few days ago. I don't know if I've already told you, but we leave Monday morning at 4:20 AM, fly from Salt Lake City to Denver, then from Denver to Durango, and then we drive to the mission home.  So I'm super excited to see Durango, and really hope that I'll be able to serve there.  

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to host, and welcome all the new missionaries to the MTC. There were around 600 new missionaries!  Some of them were supposed to come next week but because of Thanksgiving they got moved to this week.  I only hosted one missionary, but it was a great experience!  He was from Tonga and is going to Samoa. He is the only member of the Church in his family, and his dad wasn't very happy with him for his decisions, but he wanted to serve.  The reason he was the only one I hosted was because he had a lot to do upon arrival.  He needed to go to the MTC health clinic, and then needed to go to the BYU health clinic to get a chest X-Ray.  So we got to leave the MTC campus, which I thought was amazing because when all you see is this little area that you are confined to for a period of time it's good to see something new.  We took a shuttle to the BYU health clinic, and then we walked back, then I took him to the missionary assistance office where he got the rest of the items he needed, because he didn't have everything, I think he got some shirts, shoes, and there were a few other things I can't remember.  But he did teach me some Tongan. Unfortunately I have forgotten most of it now, but I'm pretty sure "malo" is "thank you." That's about all I can remember, and I'm not even sure if that is right, haha.  

During dinner on Wednesday I got to see an old friend that I haven't seen in a long time!  It was *Elder Spencer Gleave!!!!  It was so good to see a friend that I played baseball with and that I have a lot of good memories with, so that pretty much made my day!  November 16 is one of my favorite days in the whole year!!  I'm pretty sure that there is only one person that knows why, too.

Anyway that's what's happening.  I don't know when I'll be able to email again, but until then I hope you're all doing well, and know that Heavenly Father loves you all, as do I.

Elder Takis

*Spencer Gleave, now Elder Gleave, is from a different part of Utah. Elder Takis and Elder Gleave were both chosen to play on a sort of "All-Star" baseball team that was together for two summers. They did some major traveling together and became very good friends, but only got to see each other occasionally after that when they'd run into each other at tournaments while playing for their respective high school teams, and when they were both selected as Utah High School All-Stars. Elder Takis later wrote that he had just sat down to dinner at the MTC and he saw Elder Gleave and ran up and gave him a hug and they had a good talk. Neither had any idea the other was there. Elder Gleave is going to be serving in Italy.

Elder Takis also tried to email some pictures, but had several technical difficulties so only a few of them are as yet available for viewing.

These cans have been passed down through 3 generations of missionaries in our district. 
We are at around 200 cans right now, and are trying to get to 300 before we leave,
then we'll pass them on to someone else.

View from the temple looking back over Provo.

Provo Temple and the first snow of the 2016-2017 Utah winter.

A Familiar Face

Brother Alex Nielsen, a good friend of the Takis family who used to be in the same ward, now teaches missionaries at the MTC. He tracked down Elder Takis to say hello.  Fun fact:  Alex served in the New Mexico Farmington mission a few years ago! Elder Takis was happy to see that familiar face.

News From the MTC, Finally

Elder Takis has been at the MTC for 8 days and no one has heard a peep from him in all that time, even though missionaries are supposed to be able to send an email their first day at the MTC, and missionaries usually get one P-day each week.  Finally, today, he emailed:

Yeah, sorry about that. Since I was late getting here my teacher told me to make my time on the computer quick, and with the way it sounded he was kinda telling me to get what you need to do done, and he said that if I emailed to make it quick so I just figured that I'd skip it and get to class. Today is our first P-Day, and they will be on Thursdays until we leave.  

The MTC is good, most of the time.  There have been quite a few times that I have been like, "Can we just get out in the mission field already, I'm tired of sitting in classes all day," and that's about how our whole district is.  My companion, Elder McFarland, is a great guy and missionary, and so are all the other elders and sisters in our zone & district.  We have a good time, and we all participate and share what we think and it is a good learning experience.  I have felt myself grow immensely in the gospel and closer to Christ.  I have already given a blessing to my companion, and have been a part of 2 other blessings as well, and it is really cool to feel the Spirit work through you and tell you what to say.  Me and my companion have been called as online coordinators, which doesn't really mean a whole lot because we don't really do anything different.  

We went to the temple this morning and it was really nice to be able to do that again, especially since it has been a few weeks since my last visit.  It was kind of weird, too, because the temple here isn't the same as the temple in Logan, but the Spirit was there nonetheless.  

I figure that you will all be pleased to know that I have eaten beans and mushrooms in some of the meals here, and I am still alive.  So I'm pretty sure I am starting to be blessed with the gift of stomachs.  

Yes, I heard that the Cubs won, and I had a secret celebration inside of me.  I also heard that Trump won the election, and I'm happy it wasn't Clinton.  

Other than that, umm, teaching is becoming easier with each time we teach our TRC investigators.  I also talked to a guy in Africa on the phone when we were in the referral center (RC), and he said that he wanted a Book of Mormon.  Unfortunately we couldn't ship it to him, and there aren't missionaries in his area that could bring it to him, so we are still trying to figure out how to get it to him.  

On Sunday we watched the talk that Elder Bednar gave in the MTC about the Character of Christ and it was really powerful, and the Spirit was so strong, and like everyone said, it did change my life!!! On Tuesday we got a devotional by Jennie Oaks Baker, and her family, and it was really good. They are amazing with music and I loved it!  

All in all, life is good--stressful, and busy, but good

Love you all,

Elder Takis

"And So the Adventure Begins"

After a really lovely meeting with the stake president and our bishop, where Elder Takis was set apart to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the New Mexico Farmington Mission, Elder Takis smiled at his mom on the way to the car and said, "And so the adventure begins." 

He was ready.

Well, HE was ready, but he wasn't READY because he wasn't packed. He had everything he needed, but it wasn't organized and he still had some laundry to do. He decided he was too tired to do anything more last night and planned to get up early this morning. But he didn't. So, twenty minutes before we needed to leave for the Provo Missionary Training Center, he was trying to rapidly pack even as we waited for the dryer to finish with some essentials. Everyone was folding this, tossing that, looking for this and that. Whew!

Hurry up and wait--we had a two hour drive to Provo. One of Ptolian's last acts was to fill out his mail-in ballot and vote on the way. It was a bittersweet irony that we had to drive past Brent Brown Ballpark at UVU and see the baseball team out practicing. Then we stopped at the park across the street from the MTC to take some photos and say goodbye without being too rushed. 

Elder Takis just had to tease his mom one last time.

The recently returned Elder Takis giving some last minute
advice and support to the newly set apart Elder Takis.
So glad the whole family had a little bit of time all together.

Smiles and teasing can't stop a mom from crying when it's finally time to go.

Elder Takis quickly switched from goodbye mode to business mode. He was ready and excited to go. With a last hug and a look over his shoulder, he turned his attention to conversing with his missionary host and he was off.

Godspeed, Elder Takis!