Cyprus Kiddles

  Greetings to our Friends and Family About a week prior to Christmas we joined the entire Zone on the Island (14 of us) as well as President and Sister Nelson, our mission leaders, for a joint preparation day.   We traveled to the north part of the Island, the Turkish occupied portion. It’s probably a 1 ½ hr. drive from our apartment.   It involves crossing two borders, the U.N. border and the Turkish border.   Passports are required for entry and documentation of vehicle insurance.   We lunched at a little restaurant identified by the elders, because they had previously visited and recommended the shawarmas.   Yum!    We then attempted to visit the St. Hilarion Castle, arriving at 2:40 but they were closed because they’re on winter hours now…very odd because there was no sign of winter to us!   So we pressed on to visit a beautiful old abbey.   The Bellapais Abbey.   Absolutely stunning and so worth the trip.     It is the ruin of a monastery built by  Canons Regular  in the 13th c

We are in our first week on Cyprus.  We are pretty much overwhelmed.  It has mostly been a preparation week.  Getting over jet lag, stocking up on food, figuring out how to navigate the island while driving on the left side of the road and beginning to meet the members and other missionaries serving on Cyprus.  Here is the view from our apartment in Oroklini a suburb of Larnaca. Elder and Sister Holt (the other senior missionaries on the island) met us at the airport, took us to the supermarket for a brief shopping stop, and brought us to our apartment.  The sister missionaries who are located near the Holts in Nicosia then brought our car by and then we were set adrift. President and Sister Nelson (our mission leaders) had a zoom meeting with us to welcome us and give us a little bit of their take on our callings.  They were at their home in Bulgaria but came to Cyprus yesterday to visit the members and connect with the missionaries this weekend and preparation day.   We will be havin