last p day we went fishing in this
members backyard. the guy has a river the size of the mississip' back there!
its crazy! i caught 11 fish! it was way cool! and i got sunburnt on my face
pretty bad haha but its all good!
stephanie started the "stop
smoking program" last week. she really struggled and only made it like a
day and a half. we will start it again soon, but that was really tough to see.
gabe is still doing really well. they are the best people ever. stephanie is
working on making her divorce official so her and gabe can talk about marriage
more seriously. they both want to be baptized, but they recognize it will be a
while. they are always asking questions about baptism and about the temple and
stuff, and last weeek they were saying that they will fly to utah and have me
baptize them in a few years haha. they are the best.
so huge update that didnt get out
last week cuz i was too busy reeling in some small mouth bass: jackie dropped
us. again. she left a letter on the door of the church sunday morning and
bishop got it cuz he was the first one there. it was addressed to "the
mormon church members." she explained in the letter how grateful she was
for everyone there and for elder bass and i, but that she couldnt be baptized
because her ex husband is trying to take the kids and grandkids away from her
by saying she is joining a cult and things. which he cant do in a court of law.
but she is just really scared and asked that we stop visiting her. so that
wasnt any fun, but she will be baptized some day! she knows its true.
so we have been looking for some
new investigators this week and had some funny experiences door knocking. i
will only tell of one here. but elder derricott was here on a trade off, and
this guy yelled to us and asked if we were religious people. we said yes we
were. he said that he proved to president bush there was a god, but president
bush wouldnt believe him. upon my asking him how he did that, he replied,
" you see, evolution all makes sense. except where they say you get
nothing from something. 0 + 0 doesnt equal 1. ever. but we know it makes sense
according to infinitism, because numbers can also be negative. you see? god is
-1, jesus is 0, and the holy ghost is 1." he then told us goodbye and
walked over to get in someones car for a ride. as he was leaving he said,
"have a good day! pray for wisdom!" it was soo crazy haha.
we met some sweet new investigators
this week. one of them is named suzette. she had her favorite son pass away
which was very sad to hear about. she is a very nice older lady, but she is
sorta crazy herself, but i dont blame her. my message for the week? stay away
from drugs. at least 3 times a week we meet or hear about someone who's life is
ruined by drugs. her other son, who is like... 32 now has been on drugs since
he was 12. he was over there the other day when we were there and he is crazy.
she has to treat him like he is 10, but he just talks about the bible a ton and
is literally out of his mind. its terrible to see. suzette came to church this
week and really liked it though! so that was good. we have been consistently
having lots of new people at church. its soo cool to see! oh and suzette had us
sign her copy of the book of mormon. so she now knows our first, middle, and
last names. and we walk in yesterday for our appointment with her and she says
"hey kyle! (elder bass' first name) hey todd! or parker!" haha so i
asked her why she called me todd and she said she liked that name. and now she
only will call me todd haha. at the end of our meeting she said that todd is a
"good-boy" name. elder bass asked if parker was a "bad-boy"
name and she said no, its just more of a last name haha. so thanks mom and dad,
for giving me a goodie-good boy middle name haha. except for she doesnt
pronounce it like todd. she of course says tad. the accent out here is killer
sometimes.
last night we met some really cool
people, and got some really great referrals. we have had dinner with this girl
in the wards friend 2 times now, and he was not interested in religion at all.
but then last night he told her that he has some questions for us and so she
arranged an appointment with him. its been really cool to see. becky olgac also
has been bringing one of her sons friends to church every week and she wants to
meet with us too now! its been a really good week for finding some new people
to teach! hopefully they will pan out. we have been struggling to get people to
be baptized this transfer, but we also have some really great investigators and
we are gonna keep finding more.
i also got sick this week. i got a
pretty gnarly cold. but i am getting over it today luckily. today we will
probably be going to brother cobb's (a great member of the ward) to play some
board games with him. its always a good time there.
oh one last funny thing. this
member of the ward invited us to his wedding reception. he is the only member
in his family, and his wife isnt a member. so everyone there was nuts and drunk
haha. except for the little table with some mormon people on it. and this old
guy comes up to us and says, "i dont mean to be sarcastic or anything. but
i didnt vote for mitt romney." he is dead straight faced. elder bass and i
kinda laugh and say its fine! he is still just looking at us, serious as ever.
then he says "he is a great guy. and his family is great." he walks
away dead serious. it was so weird haha.
we had half-mission training this
week too. where half the mission meets in mt pleasant and is trained by
president and sister hess, and the AP's. there were some really cool things
said, but one that i specifically liked, and thought i should share here, is
when president hess quoted one of the stake presidents here in the area. the
stake president always says, "its very easy to live the gospel of Jesus
Christ, unless you want to do something else." and it is soo true!! God
doesnt ask too much of us. the things He asks us to do are not always large and
monumental, nearing impossible. it isnt hard to read your scriptures every
morning, unless you would rather sleep in. it isnt hard to keep the sabbath day
holy, unless you would rather go swimming. it isnt hard to love other people,
unless you would rather be judgemental. those are just some thoughts i had as i
thought about that quote. we should all make the gospel first priority. then
everything else will fall into place.
last thing about MI that i forgot.
there are also soo many religions here, so i get to learn about all of them and
things!! it is awesome. totally a dream of mine.
PS hardly anyone out here knows
what they believe, even when they are religious. they dont know why they are
members of a certain church, what the church they are a part of believes, or
where their church comes from. be grateful we know those things! if you dont
know those things, find them out!!
love you all very much!! have a good week!!
elder green
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