WEEK 7 KALASKA (WEEK 25 OF MISSION)

what a great week!! working on MSU campus while waiting to pick up my boy was great! elder adams and elder elwood were my temporary companions. they were both from the salt lake valley, so we were calling ourselves "pure-breads" haha. the stuff you joke about as a missionary... anyways... we met some really cool people on campus. it is weird cuz you just kinda ambush people haha. we started talking to this one girl, and she kinda freaked out. the conversation went something like this.

me "hey hows it going!"

her "who are you?! 

me "we're missionaries!"

her "why are you stopping me?!" 

me "we wanted to talk to you and get to know you!"

her "why? who am i?!"

elder adams "yeah, we are missionaries and we-"

her "gotta go! goodbye!!"

haha it was super strange. anyways. got some nice pictures from that.

 

Ice cream shop on Campus

MSU Stadium

my new boy is elder norton. he is from kearns, UT! he graduated the same year i did and is gonna be great. we are doing some awesome stuff and are just being so blessed up here! 

it hasnt stopped snowing in pert-near ('Gander for "just about") 3 days! they had to cancel church on sunday cuz it had snowed so much! haha its crazy. and its freezing.

Parker said this is his new album cover, "Straight Outta Lansing!"

we had a boss lesson with the drahers the second day elder norton was here. the Spirit was palpable in there and they definitely felt it. But they were still hesitant about baptism. after we left, i KNEW they would talk about what just happened and that they would commit to baptism. we called them 2 days later to tell them church was cancelled, and they told us they had talked and decided they wanted to be baptized! so they are now on date for dec 14. they are amazing and the Lord has blessed us soo much in this work! 

I dont have much time, sorry! but i am so grateful to be out here and sharing the most important message these people will ever hear. let’s all be grateful for what we have, but patiently seek that which will make us better and draw us closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior. "only the gospel will bring peace and happiness in this life, and eternal life in the world to come." that is from elder maxwell i think? 

i am so thankful for the influence you all have had on my life!!

happy thanksgiving!

elder green

Sunrise

Elders Adams and Elwood

 

WEEK 6 KALKASKA (WEEK 24 OF MISSION)

A baptism in Traverse City. Parker had helped teach her and so he and Elder Boswell took some investigators and went to her baptism. The other Elders are Parker's Zone Leaders.

what an awesome week! we had half-mission training this week and elder Golden from the 70 was there to train us. it was INCREDIBLE. he was amazing and i feel like it changed my life! haha it was soo cool!!! i wish i could write everything he said!! but just a few things that he said that i really liked that i feel i should share now:

he talked about how we should never worry in life. "Today is the first day of your life. Don't worry about yesterday or tomorrow." that was something he spoke a lot about. 

he also talked a lot about not beating yourself up. he kept calling it a "futile exercise" in his awesome south african accent haha. but its so true. he was talking about how those feelings all come from Satan. he said it is normal to feel inadequate. if you feel adequate all the time, something's wrong with you haha. he spoke about having "divine discontent." it means you are discontent in the way that God would be, like wanting to improve, but also having patience with yourself. to me it means you can be pleased with the work you have done and the improvements you have made, but you should never be satisfied. always striving for something better. 

anyways, his training was incredible and life-changing. the rest of the week was great. its been snowing like CRAZY here and dumping buckets of rain as well. yesterday there were some tornado warnings and we were getting drenched just walking from the car to our appointments haha. but church yesterday was the primary program and i got to speak in it too. there are like 6 primary kids here haha so it was kind of different, but i loved it anyways. we had a lot of investigators there and also a few non-members who were brought by members of the branch that we will hopefully begin teaching this week! it was awesome! we also had our thanksgiving themed potluck after church and that was delicious! but i tell ya what, that tryptophan will kill you haha. 

Parker said this is straight up how they dress when they door knock in the winter, haha. He said he looks like he is from Rainbow Six!

Serious Snow Storm

we got our transfer calls on friday as well. elder boswell will be going to ludington and i will be training a new missionary. so tomorrow at 5 AM we head for Lansing. I will be working on MSU campus for 2 days until i pick up my new boy on thursday. usually there are like 20 plus new missionaries coming in, but since we have reached our max capacity, there are only like 2! so its usually this giant party there but not this time! haha itll be interesting to see what its like! i am sad i wont be in kalkaska for a few days though and the work will just totally stop here for a few days... 

we had to push karla's baptism date back, because her husband steve (who we met originally) wants to be baptized on the same day she is! so he quit drinking this weekend, they both quit smoking a week ago, and now they just gotta keep coming to church! we have seen so many miracles. if we can keep working hard here, we can continue to be blessed and see amazing things happen in Kalkaska!

A lake in someone's backyard. Lakes like this are everywhere!

Michigan scenery

i feel like i always have so much to say before i come to the computer then i forget it all. haha i guess my thought for the week is, are we the kind of people that change a situation, or are we the kind of people that are changed by our situations? because that is really what life is as a whole. it is how we respond to the situations we are put in. whenever something negative happens, do you respond by being bitter, or by getting better? just something to think about!

ps this week the deer hunt started here. its bigger than christmas haha deer are running everywhere and you see like 10 deer dead on the highway every day. it is nuts!! they have big ole buck poles in every town and it is crazy!! haha totally in gander country!!  

love you all! 

elder green 

WEEK 5 KALKASKA (WEEK 23 OF MISSION)

another great week here in kalkaska!! and they werent joking about the snow haha.

we woke up this morning, no snow on the ground. now there is like 2 inches. it is nuts. luckily all my winter gear is legit and we have a jeep! haha 

It Begins!!!

things were awesome this week. we taught Karla the Stop Smoking Program with the Shafers (the people who made us the halloween lunch). they were both smokers before in their lives. karla and her husband steve were excited and it was an awesome lesson. but then karla got sick and couldnt come to church. she has been doing great things and we will hopefully be able to get her baptized in the next few weeks.

the draher's were at church again this week. we taught them the restoration last week and they loved it. they wanted to know more about joseph smith, so we gave them a prophet of the restoration dvd to borrow. they watched the whole thing and loved it haha. they wanna discuss the movie over lunch tomorrow, which will be awesome. i have seen that movie so many times that if they have any questions i can probably re-enact the scene for them and quote every line haha. missionary life gets pretty weird sometimes with the stuff you memorize cuz you have nothing else haha.

bob has been reading a lot in the BoM and is doing great as well. He had the flu the other day, so elder boswell and i went over with branch president thomas and gave him a blessing. he was fine the next day! soo amazing how the priesthood works. 

the more i learn, the more it amazes me that everyone isnt already members of this church. if you believe in God, and you believe in Jesus Christ, then this is the ONLY answer that makes sense. not to say other religions dont have great people, in many cases better than some Latter Day Saints, but it is the only true and living church on the face of the earth. the BoM is SO necessary in today's world. 

i saw a couple cool quotes out here that i liked this week. one of them comes from a sign for the People's Church ( a big non-denominational church in town). it said, "every setback is a set up for a comeback." really liked that. so true. you can either let set backs get you down, or use it as motivation to make your story even greater when you succeed. 

Richard G Scott: if you want to reach goals never before achieved, you need to do things you have never done. 

how cool is that! and how often do we forget that! if we want to change our lives, then dont do the same things over and over and hope something different will happen!! 

not really sure what else to say... i feel like soo much happens every week but that i can never remember it when i sit down to type it out haha sorry. 

God answers our prayers. It may be in His way, and on His timetable, but He knows what we want. More importantly, however, He knows what we NEED. 3 Nephi 14: 9-11. In the eternal scheme of things, we will see that each of our prayers was answered, and that all that happened truly was meant for our best benefit. but it will be what we make of what happened in life that determines where we stay for eternity. 

love you all!! have a great week!

WEEK 4 KALKASKA (WEEK 22 OF MISSION)

hey everyone!! wow what a great week! soo many miracles!! where to begin...

well This week we got a call from President Hess while we were in a lesson. We called him back and he had a referral for us. (WAY RARE). but he said there was a family in our area that wanted to be baptized. so we called them up and left a message. they called back and were so excited to hear from us. we set up and appointment and went over saturday night. Carl and Dana just got married 5 years ago. they are probably in their 60's. Dana has a 19 year old daughter named deborah who is somewhat interested as well. Carl has had contact with members of the church his whole life, and they recently went on a Salt Lake Temple tour and everything. they really love utah and mormons. they ran in to missionaries in Salinas California (where justin sanders was serving at the time) and they wanted to meet with them in michigan. so we ended up with the referral. they had some great questions, we answered them, and they came to church the next day!! and dana and deborah bore testimonies in sacrament meeting!! what?? haha it was NUTS!! 

Carla is also doing very well. she found her own ride to church this weekend and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. she is so bright and so knowledgeable and is just an awesome lady. we are teaching her the word of wisdom this week, and going to ask her to quit smoking. but i think her testimony is deep enough that she will be fine! 

Bob Smith also came to church this week for the 2nd time in a row. he has been taught by missionaries for over a year now, and this was his 2nd time ever coming to church! he loves it as well and things are just going amazing here. this branch is full of wonderful people who want to help us and move the missionary work along in this area. 

This is an annual bike ride called,
"Iceman Cometh Challenge"
that starts just outside their apartment and
goes to Traverse City (30 miles or so)
It is a HUGE deal but Parker said he didn't know
why anyone would want to do it! haha

as for the ipads and things. each missionary is supposed to be getting their own ipad mini by mid january or earlier. no more planners. no more area books. it is going to be AMAZING. i cannot even begin to describe how cool they are haha they will have everything the church has ever published on them. missionary work is about to go viral. haha get it? i thought it was a decent joke... anyways...

we also had a halloween lunch provided by the shafers. it was delicious and wayy cool!! pictures will be included. ps halloween is a terrible day to be a missionary haha you cant do much cuz everyone else in the world is door knocking for that day haha.

Can you believe how cool all this is?!?

we were lucky enough to pick up some new investigators this week as well. things are going so well here in kalkaska. but i will be in cadillac on trade offs most of the week... still excited for it though. 

knowing what we know in the church, being a part of the Lord's Kingdom once established on the earth, and knowing that we can live together eternally as families, i feel this scripture is very applicable: 

Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

we have been so blessed to know what we know. when people ask how your weekend was, tell them about it, and dont forget to mention church!! tell them how great it was and invite them to go with you next week! (Now no one's gonna ask me how my weekend went! haha)

president packer has said before (definitely paraphrasing here) "if all you know is what you have learned through your natural senses, you dont know very much." the things we know through the Spirit, the pure intelligence God can give us if we but ask can grant us knowledge so much grander than what we gain by seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching. 

love you all! have a great week!