WEEK 16 KALKASKA (WEEK 34 OF MISSION)

What a week!! some crazy weather here, that is for sure. i dont think it has stopped snowing in at least 7 days haha and the winds are up to like 50 mph so yeah! but i am getting used to it. i will walk outside in negative temperatures without any winter gear other than my coat and it doesnt phase me too bad haha. its weird that 25 degrees is like no-coat weather now. man, my mom is gonna kill me for saying that stuff. anyways...

sues baptism was great!! soo wonderful. i was lucky enough to get to confirm her yesterday and that was incredible as well!! she is truly a choice daughter of our Heavenly Father! also yesterday, carl and dana draher spoke in sacrament meeting, so that was awesome to hear their testimonies and things. then pres thomas called me up to give an impromptu talk haha but i really enjoyed it. it was a great sunday!! 

so we met with steve finally again this past week. he texted us and we got over to his place. he has had some legal issues lately, and may be in jail before too long. but, if not, he committed to come to church next week! so thats positive! haha 

danielle came to church this week and committed to a new baptismal date on the 22nd of feb. this is the same danielle that we taught on dec 14. her life is getting a little more stable and she LOVED church. this branch is incredible. 

we also taught a woman named teresa this week in her home with a deacon from her methodist church. they both felt the Spirit of the Restoration. we will be meeting again with her soon. wish i had more time to tell you the full story, but that will have to wait for another time. 

ryen, the 9 year old daughter of a single mother in the branch told us she would like to be baptized. so we taught her yesterday and set a baptismal date for feb 8th. that is going to be great. she is the nicest little girl and is excited about the gospel! 

I love the lyrics to the song How Great Thou Art:

And when i think

of God His Son not sparing

sent Him to die

I scarce can take it in

Then on the cross

my burden gladly bearing

He bled and died

to take away my sin.

Jesus Christ was our perfect example in all things. I hope that one day I will be able to return and meet Him again. I am thankful for the Prophet Joseph Smith. I cannot wait to meet him. I am thankful for everything he revealed about our Savior. I am above all else thankful for Jesus Christ. We truly cannot merit anything of ourselves. Yet He wants us to be able to have all that He and His Father have. 

How could the Father tell the world,

of sacrifice, of death

He sent His Son to die for us

and rise with living breath

What does the Father ask of us?

what do the scriptures say?

Have faith, have hope, live like His Son,

help others on their way. 

Have a great week,

Elder Green 

Sue with Brother and Sister Hoover

Sue with The Robinsons who brought her into the church

WEEK 15 KALKASKA (WEEK 33 OF MISSION)

another awesome week in kalkaska! i dont have a ton of time this week though! 

i was on exchanges with elder kennedy and elder safley for a few days this week and that was great. we had a couple throwdown lessons this week with people who just werent progressing, so that was interesting! the best part of the week though was probably teaching sue. she is doing so well and told us the other night she has been feeling very strongly that she needs to serve a mission. what??!! soo incredible!! so excited for her this upcoming saturday, itll be a great day. 

we havent been able to get in contact with steve... he dropped right off the face of the earth! but we have found some great new investigators, one of them is named eric. we went over yesterday for a very short visit and he just had great questions about the BoM and he is loving it! he is doing so well! we have another appointment with him this week, so that is pretty exciting. 

also this week, kristin came out teaching with us and did a STELLAR job. she was so bold with her testimony and identifying with our investigator. then she called us yesterday and has a referral for us who she is bringing to church and wants to go teach with us. soo legit!! we trained the relief society yesterday during third hour (acutally it was the whole branch) on how to invite people to learn and they practiced with each other. it was great. people are pretty juiced about missionary work here! we are expecting to see the referrals keep coming!  the drahers came and taught sue with us once this week as well, and they did great. soo cool to see these new members just being awesome missionaries. 

wish i had more time to express some other thoughts, but i will share this quote instead. "When you commit to something, you set Providence in motion." isn't that cool? cant remember who said it, cuz bro hoover quoted him and couldnt remember who said it either haha but it is soo true!! set goals to improve your life and become more like Christ. When you commit to it whole-heartedly, you show our Heavenly Father you are serious and He will work with you! i also invite everyone to watch the mormon message titled, "Mountains to Climb." great video. the mormon messages invite the Spirit so strongly! 

love you all!! hope you enjoy the video!!

elder green 

WEEK 14 KALKASKA (WEEK 32 OF MISSION)

posterity pic at Leadership Conference in Lansing last week! 

Why they don't play bball in Northern Michigan winters

another incredible week in kalkaska. seriously though, we just are so lucky to get to witness miracle after miracle in these little villages in northern michigan. 

fun fact that i forgot to mention last week: the high council member over kalkaska is brother gartner, he lives in traverse city and he is a director. he has directed many church videos and commercials and things, but he also directed GLORY ROAD. and he has been in our branch the past two weeks. so that was cool! 

I also found a new favorite hymn this week. It is called "How Gentle God's Commands." it is right next to my other favorite hymn, "Be Still My Soul."  i would encourage you each to read the lyrics of those two hymns this week!! they are awesome!! 

so deborah draher got baptized this weekend. it was awesome!!! she was so excited about it and it was a wonderful service. she also told brother hoover, as they were putting together the program this week that she wanted the closing hymn to be something upbeat and peppy. so he played called to serve, and she said that is what she wanted to do! she said she hopes to go on a mission soon! so that is incredible. also, brother and sister draher approached brother hoover this week and they said they want to go on a mission as well. i mean... cmon. this is just incredible stuff. then at church, two random people show up from bellaire. turns out they are members of the church who are just coming back into activity. miracles left and right! 

Deborah Draher

sue is doing really well. we taught her the word of wisdom this week and she committed to live it. isnt it incredible that the Lord established that in 1833? i mean... it basically sets up the food pyramid, which took us foolish mortals until the 20th century to figure out! haha joseph smith was most definitely a prophet of God! we will be at sues this next week for dinner and a lesson with her and her sister (who we have never met before). thatll be a great night as well. 

we had some other incredible experiences this week as well, in finding new people to teach. i cant decide which ones to share haha we got a referral from the petoskey elders for a guy named steve. well we finally met with steve this week and he is so legit. we were talking to him about the bom and we opened it up to read moroni 10 4-5 with him, and he says, "look at this!" pointing to moroni 9:25. "My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever." he reads it and just starts crying. it was just silent in there for a minute or so and he just says he loves the bom and stuff.  it was so cool.  he wants to pay tithing, like he was so excited about being able to pay tithing and do service and stuff haha SO PREPARED FOR THE GOSPEL. 

Steve Muller's Backyard, pretty legit

i could go on all day about these awesome people we are meeting out here, but i will shut it down, dont wanna bore anybody. but i do invite everyone to read and pray about the book of mormon. NOTHING brings peace to the soul and mind like the book of mormon. we are FAR TOO complacent in the church about the truths that we possess. i would also encourage everyone to examine your testimony of Jesus Christ, God our Father, and the Church. there are so many people out here who have fallen into inactivity in the church because someone offended them, or they didnt get a visit from someone they thought should visit them. that is the opposite of what Christ would do. He served others. He came into the world, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." we need to be the same way. if you are struggling, look for someone who is struggling and help them. How deep is your testimony of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father? if your testimony is deep, help someone else with theirs. if yours is shallow, help someone else with theirs. it will deepen your testimony as well. if anyone needs a testimony of the truthfulness of the church, serve a mission in michigan, where there is soo much confusion and strife about churches. be grateful for everything we have been given!!

love you all so much! have a great week! 

WEEK 13 KALKASKA (WEEK 31 OF MISSION)

What a week! hope you all had a happy new year! mine was great! we did misionary work and then i went to bed at 1030! 

we had more miracles occur this week! im not even sure where to start... 

well, we did quite a bit of finding this week, which was good cuz it was like 8 degrees most of last week instead of below zero like it is this week. we picked up a few new investigators and met some really awesome people. we got a few referrals from other missionaries and from the members so we will hopefully be meeting with them soon. 

the biggest miracle of the week occurred yesterday. sue nelson, the friend of the robinson's, who has been to church quite regularly over the past few months was there again yesterday. she is such a boss, and we all felt it was only a matter of time until she wanted to be baptized. the problem has been that we really havent met with her regularly because she has been mega busy. but anyway, yesterday was obviously fast and testimony meeting. well the Spirit was strong, and people were bearing awesome testimonies. then Sue got up. and it was great. she started out by saying that she wasnt a member yet, but that she wasnt far from "taking the plunge." haha so that was awesome. she has been through a lot and bore a great testimony of how trials make us stronger. the Spirit carried right into our gospel principles class. there were about 15 minutes left in class, and things had gone great just because there are so many recent converts in there and bro hoover is an awesome teacher. so president hess's counselor, president grajewski, was there and he was sharing something that was on his mind and he was thanking sue for her testimony and he said, "sister nelson... ahh im gonna call you sister nelson even though you're not 'sister' yet officially," and sue cut him off and said, "well today i have made the decision that im going to be baptized." WHAT??!! who does that? announces her decision to be baptized in the middle of class?? SOO SICK!! that never happens!! everyone in the class started crying and stuff. so we met with sue afterward, she set her own baptismal date and we will be teaching her super fast so she can be ready for her baptismal date on the 25th of january. what a miracle!! 

like i said, there is just so much going on here! deborah's baptism is this saturday, so that will be a great day! miracles happen every day out here. grateful to be a part of it. 

faith always precedes the miracle. think about it: if you dont have faith, and something incredible happens, then you think it is just a coincidence. really think about that. how many times, when our faith has been lacking, has something remarkable happened, and we just write it off? why does God not give us miracles to build our faith? because He knows it doesnt work. He has tried that before. When we choose to have faith and then act accordingly, we see miracles. Our Heavenly Father loves us. He hears our prayers always, and KNOWS what we need more than we do. we need to have the faith to accept his will and make sure our faith is sufficient to move through the difficult times and trust in His ever-watchful eye. 

love you all! have a great week!