WEEK 2 WYOMING (WEEK 38 OF MISSION)

Awesome week! again, not a ton of time!  but we got to go to the temple on saturday with someone elder pena baptized a year ago!  it was my nine-month mission birthday, so perfect timing! wayy cool!!  soo special to be at the temple again! picture to follow.

great week again.  we have some people we are teaching that i am really excited about. we are seeing one of them tonight.  her name is amber and she is the friend of a girl in the ward here.  she is very religious and loves Christ.  she sincerely wants to know if what we teach is true, so we are talking more about joseph smith with her tonight and it’ll be great.

i wish i had time to update you on all of our investigators but i just dont!  one cool experience this week: shara shati (the woman from Nepal whose whole family is sort of investigating) was very sick.  she was suffering from a heart condition and was laying down and having trouble breathing.  they called sister pawson to have elders come and give her a blessing.  so we said a prayer before giving the blessing, and shara shati calmed down a little bit.  she was asleep through this whole incident so the Spirit was working on her to calm her down.  as she got the blessing, her breathing stabilized and she stopped convulsing and things. S he was perfectly fine.  moments later she woke up and was surprised to see us there.  but how incredible!!  the priesthood is real and God is working in our lives.

something cool that Joseph Smith taught was that God has orchestrated this whole plan for our happiness.  so He will literally NEVER give us any commandment or ask us to do anything that is not designed to assure our ultimate happiness.  it is soo true!!  if we lived all the commandments perfectly, life would not be perfect, but we would be filled with peace and joy. D&C 59:23 if we do what God asks, we will receive peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come.

there are miracles happening all the time out here.  wish i had more time to record all of them!  but just know that they are happening, and they happen because people follow the Spirit!  so you do the same thing!  do what God would have you do.  then all things will work together for your good!

have a great week!

elder green 

WEEK 1 WYOMING (WEEK 37 OF MISSION)

i dont have a ton of time!! but things have been great here!! elder pena is great and we get along very well. there are a lot of missionaries in our ward and a lot of missionaries that meet in the Spanish branch that also meets in our building, so that is new for me.

We are teaching soo many foreign people right now it is CRAZY. everyone we are teaching is from africa or from nepal haha it is crazy. soo many nepali families and we just keep being blessed to find them! the issue is they do not speak english well in most cases, so we use a translator. but it is soo cool because they are just soo loving and soo humble and ready to accept the gospel. they all love Jesus and are awesome people, even though they can hardly understand us haha.

we also get to go to the temple saturday i think!! because someone elder pena baptized while he was serving as a spanish elder is going to the temple! so that is really exciting! we also have zone conference wednesday so im excited for that as well.

the members here are great. one family, the pawson's, do sooo much for us. they are incredible missionaries and fantastic people. we have a blast with them.

something that has been on my mind this week is how much God loves each of us. it is soo cool to hear other people pray and learn the gospel in a language that i do not speak. because God still hears their prayers and understands what they need. He truly is omnipotent and omniscient. never forget that God loves us! it is His work and His glory to bring about our eternal life! Joseph Smith taught that unless we understand God and His attributes we cannot have faith in Him! some of those attributes include His love, His absolute willingness to forgive us, His patience, His long-suffering toward the children of men, and the fact that He is just. He must bless us if we do right. He has no choice! So do what is right, let the consequence follow! Battle for freedom in Spirit and might. And with stout hearts look ye forth to tomorrow, God will protect you, so do what is right

i may have modified some of the words to that hymn, but you get the point! have a great week!  

elder green

WEEK 18 KALKASKA (WEEK 36 OF MISSION)

Check out how high the snowbank is around
the sign. It's up to Parker's head!!!
I don't think they need to worry about anyone parking there!

what a great week! i dont have a lot of time! so i will have to be short! but i got transferred to grand rapids zone, wyoming area to be a zone leader with elder pena! i am very excited, but i will definitely miss kalkaska. 

At the Hildebrands, saying goodbye

Branch Mission President Hoover and his sweet wife.
They have been so good to Parker and us!!!
Parker is looking really tall in this pic

ryen's baptism was wonderful! it was a great service! she is so awesome!

Love this picture! Ryen's so cute!!!

We were blessed to have some people attend church this week! one of them, paul, is a MIRACLE. i wish i had enough time to relate his whole story, but short of it is he has had associations (marriages and dating) with mormons his whole life and has hated the church. but he was at ryen's house once while we were teaching her and the Spirit told him he needed to listen and to change. he had a MASSIVE change of heart and wants to be baptized. he came to church yesterday and was SO FOCUSED for 3 hours. seriously, just zoned in on whoever was speaking. he left yesterday saying that he knew joseph smith was a prophet cuz of coming to church. soo cool!! that was incredible! he will be taught on wed and will be baptized as soon as these elders can work it out! 

The District plus the Zone Leaders

oh small info i forgot to throw in there! guess who is coming to replace me?? elder stevenson!!! my trainer!!! soo cool!! i am so excited for him.

If it weren't for God being perfect and perfectly trustworthy, we could not have faith. we must understand who God is and what He is like in order to have faith. He is loving, forgiving, caring, long-suffering, patient and He will work with us as long as we will work with Him. Remember that, and have faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is the single most important act that has ever taken place in the history of time. Try to be more like Christ. and when you fall short, repent and try again. Have faith that God loves you infinitely more than you know and that He has more in store for you than what you see right now.

well i better go try and fit a ton of stuff into my suitcases haha im pretty pathetic, but i think i can pull it off... anyway, Have a great week! 

Elder Green 

WEEK 17 KALKASA (WEEK 35 OF MISSION)

Another blessed week in Kalkaska!! i dont have a ton of time today so i will have to make it quick!! but it is like 16 degrees, so you know i am wearing no coat today!! haha no joke though, if it ever gets above 10 it feels soo good outside!! so it is a beautiful day! 

so updates! steve was taught while i was on trade offs this week and it went so well! he loved the restoration! he texted us later that day and asked if he could be baptized!! only problem is his legal issues... so we will have to wait those out to see if he can be baptized anytime soon. 

ryen is going to be out of town this weekend with her dad, but she wants to make sure elder norton and i are the ones at her baptism (but we have transfer calls this friday so there are no guarantees after that) so we moved the baptism to this thursday! thatll be awesome, i am really excited for that. we will be over there this evening to continue teaching her. 

my last update goes hand in hand with my thought for the week, so i will express them both briefly here. the more experiences i have out here, the more i understand there are two forces in the world, and two only: one that encourages you to follow Christ, and one that does not. that is it. it is that simple. we had 6 people planning on coming to church this week and all of them cancelled because of freak accidents: danielle (getting swine flu) steve (pipes froze because his electricity went out in the middle of the night) just to name a few. when we read in the scriptures about the forces of evil and things, it is real. Satan does not want us to be happy. 

depression is real. doubt is real. they are satan's most pervasive tools. he uses them on the faithful, or at least those who are striving to be faithful. we must combat him with the tools the Lord has given us, namely prayer, scripture study and coming to church. we cannot afford to give place for the enemy of our souls (2 ne 4: 28). He tries to make a place for himself by wedging his way into our thoughts and feelings. dont allow him. Focus on Christ. you may not be able to force yourself to have faith, but you can force yourself to not doubt. do what is right. avoid things that drag you down. only think about what you can control, then control it. 

love you all! have a great week! 

elder green