WEEK 18 LANSING (WEEK 89 OF MISSION)

Hey everyone! Another great week in MI! Its still really cold here. Weird when 0 degrees feels balmy and warm enough to only wear a light jacket...

We had a good week this week, not too much to report. Transfers planned and got logistics all worked out. That's always fun... 

Church was great today. We had an investigator come unexpectedly, so that's always nice. All the Recent Converts are doing very well. Richard took us to this great Chinese place on Chinese New Year and it was packed! It was really fun though. Mauricio received the Aaronic Priesthood today and is doing well. We went shopping with him this week with President Jacobsen to get him a suit and things. We went to Salvation Army (not exactly Hugo Boss style suits there) and found him some great stuff! a white shirt, clip-on tie, shoes, and a suit. it was great.

Not too much time to personal contact this week, but we have been teaching some really cool people. One of our investigators, Dustin, is doing quite well. he really loves meeting with us and learning more. Cant remember if i told you about him before or not, but this guy doesnt wear any shoes! Ever! crazy right? He is mega Christian and is fun to teach because he knows his stuff. 

Satan only has power over us when we allow him to through disobedience, whether that disobedience be mental or physical. 2 Ne 2:13-14. There are two types of things: things that act, and things that are acted upon. Which type of thing are you? Our Heavenly Father created us as things to act, not to be acted upon. But what was Satan's alternative to God's plan? we would all be things that were acted upon. Msh 27:9. This scripture teaches that when we start to let the light out of our lives, it gives Satan an opportunity to exercise his authority over us. But ONLY when we allow it by letting light out of our life. D&C 93:39. The adversary can take away light and truth from us when we are disobedient. This is how we begin to give him power in our lives. 2 Ne 2:26. Were it not for the Atonement, we would be things that were acted upon constantly. We would have no buffer between us and sin, between ourselves and the consequences of our sins, between us and the devil. (2 Nephi 9: 8-9). But BECAUSE that we are redeemed, we have become free forever, to ACT FOR OURSELVES and NOT to be acted upon. We are free to make of our lives exactly what we want, because of the Atonement. If you don't want the consequences of sin, you must repent. Were it not for the Atonement of Christ, you could not repent. Repentance means change. Repentance means that nothing about you is permanent (got that from a recent convert here. cool huh?). 

So what is the application? fill your life with light. think positive thoughts about yourself. Have self-confidence! be a thing that acts, and dont be acted upon. whether that means doing your homework (being a thing that acts) instead of procrastinating and then getting a bad grade (getting acted upon), or reading your scriptures every day and choosing to fill your life with light. No matter where or who you are, we all need to repent. That is the one action that matters in our lives, because it is what we need to do to have the Atonement of Christ save us. 

Thank you all, 

Elder Green 

WEEK 17 LANSING (WEEK 88 OF MISSION)

Hey everyone!! what a week! 

it has been SO COLD here. I cant even tell you what it feels like. i mean, yesterday we were driving to church at like 10 am, the sun was out, looked beautiful outside, but it was -12. seriously. -12 degrees. in broad daylight. that isnt even counting the windchill which probably brought it down below -30. you walk outside for 30 seconds and you feel like you are having thousands of pins prick your face all at once. it is terrible. elder rhodes and i ran from a parking garage to a lesson we had on campus the other day (this was on saturday, where 15-20 minutes exposed could cause frostbite. 40 mph winds, 6 inches of snow.) and we were only out there for probably 5 minutes but i thought we were both going to die. i was struggling to breathe the rest of the day! anyway, enough crying about the weather.

Mauricio's Baptism!

Elder Nash from the First Quorum of the 70 came to our mission this week! we had two half-mission conferences and it was great! He is awesome! such an honor to have him here. He also attended Mauricio's baptism Sunday morning! it was so cool to have a General Authority at the baptism! 

Mauricio's baptism went so well. He got up at the end and bore his testimony and it was great. He is such an inspiration to me. Mark Wang also bore his testimony Sunday at church (he was assigned to do that) and he did a great job. Xiang Li passed the Sacrament for the first time this week. Things are going really well here! 

Half-Mission Conference

This week is transfer planning again. I can't believe how fast time flies. That means lots of time sitting in front of a giant board and not a lot of time to do anything else :( but its ok! itll be good!

Why should I pray? It helps you to feel the Spirit and Heavenly Father's love for you. No one can know spiritual truths without prayer. It is how we talk to our loving Father and ask for His help and guidance. If we show the faith to simply ask, then He will give us blessings that He is already willing to grant, but that are conditional upon our asking for them. It is how we repent and confess our sins to Him. Doing so removes a heavy burden. We can get guidance and answers to questions. We can find comfort in times of trouble and sorrow. We can find relief from our burdens and the strength to carry on. 

Love you all! 

have a great week!

WEEK 16 LANSING (WEEK 87 OF MISSION)

Hey everybody!!

what a week. wow. i had the supreme privilege of going through the temple with Sue Nelson this week! it was incredible. I think I got a small taste of what the Celestial Kingdom will be like, because there were so many people from the Kalkaska branch there, people I had loved and served with and had not seen in over a year. It was a joyous reunion. So awesome to see Sue again. She has grown so much. Her fiance’ Dan was also there, so that was cool that we got to meet him. After she received her endowment, they left for the airport and flew to Florida! haha that is where Dan lives. They will be sealed for time and eternity on Valentines Day in the Ft. Lauderdale Temple. This is what missionary work is all about. 

Sister Sue Nelson at Temple.
One of the best days of Parker's Mission!

At the Temple with Brother and Sister Hoover.
Bro. Hoover is the Mission Presidency
and is the one who visited our home and
brought Parker the University of Michigan football helmet.

Parker and Elder Norton, who was his comp when Sister Nelson was baptized so it's really awesome that the two of them got to go to the temple with her!

Xiang Li gave a talk in church this week and did soo well!! he is so incredible and an inspiration to us all. Mark is also doing well. They will hopefully both be attending the temple this month. Derek Martindell is great. He got his patriarchal blessing yesterday and is preparing to attend the temple later this month as well. 

funny story really quick: we attended a mega church this week. it was crazy. its called south church. we got invited by two of our investigators. there was a rock band and everything. the preacher was teaching about how we can know the truth of any sermon. i think he put some extra emphasis on a few things because he saw us there: "there are NO APOSTLES! there hasnt been an apostle since the early church! there is no revelation! there is only the bible. I am not going to tell you anything that is equal to the canon. nothing i say should be recorded in your bible and compared to the bible! it is the only word of God!" it was good to go to our church after and here everyone talk about how to gain a testimony through prayer and from God. haha 

Our Heavenly Father loves us so much. How incredible is the Plan of Salvation? We have a loving Father who has given us an opportunity to become like He is. We are here truly to have joy! He does not give arbitrary commands which, if obeyed, will allow us to live in 'heaven." Rather, He sends us to earth and tells us what we need to do to live happy and meaningful lives. If we will but heed His counsel, upon returning to His presence, He will give us Eternal Life. He will give us what we ask for. This world is a cruel place. All around us we see suffering and pain. This is not because our Father wills it to be this way. Listen to how He feels about our current condition:

 32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;

33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood; 

...wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?

He loves us and wants us to do what is right. I have no more time! Think about these things more! Ponder the Atonement! Love you all! have a great week!

WEEK 15 LANSING (WEEK 86 OF MISSION)

hey everybody!! sorry i didnt have time to update you last week! 

things have been going so well here. we have had and seen some great miracles. first of which is mauricio. mauricio, not sure if i told you about him before, he is a blind 20 year old from Brazil. He is doing so well and is really looking forward to his baptism. he is so funny to teach and is on fire with the gospel. he is great and will be a great friend of mine for years to come. 

Parker and Elder Rhodes with their
incredible friend, Mauricio!

the recent converts are all doing extremely well and will be going to the temple soon to do baptisms. Xiang li (richard) comes and teaches with us all the time. we had a great talk with him this past week. ever since he joined the church he has been seeking self improvement. he recently got a job that he hates but he works very hard at it. when we asked him why he got a job he said it was because he saw us and also the members of the church and how much we worked and things like that and he wanted to be more independent instead of relying on his rich parents to give him money. so he just went and got a job! what a boss! he is so great. 

derek comes teaching with us all the time and he is doing a great job with his calling as a family home evening group leader. mark is also doing well, he has come teaching with us a ton too. he just recently received the Aaronic Priesthood. 

Sue Nelson from Kalkaska will be attending the temple this week to receive her endowment!! Incredible! she will then go to florida next week to be married in the Orlando Temple. Elder Norton and I will ride down to Detroit with President and Sister Hoover and go to the temple with Sue. awesome right?? it's what missionaries live for!! I am so excited for Sister Nelson and so honored to be able to have this opportunity. 

Please live up to the highest in you. You came to this life trailing clouds of glory from your pre-existant state. Why do we need to have the veil, you may ask. Wouldn’t it be convenient to remember all those things? Here are some thoughts from Truman Madsen in one of my favorite talks of all time:

And the ultimate unity that the Lord promised and prayed for is again a oneness with him and with the Father, and that requires that we become like them in nature. In very nature. That requires processes which the Lord again and again has compared most constantly to the process of birth and begetting. We are his children; he is our Father. Locked in us, hidden from our present view, are glorious insights and memories, which to know would, for many of us, lead to the neglect of the purposes of this world. We couldn't stand to stay here, I suspect, if we knew all. I've read recently an account, I hope trustworthy, of a brother who says that the Prophet Joseph implied just that—that were it not for the strong biological urge in us to survive, to hold on to the slipping rope even when we're in pain and suffering, and, in addition to that, were it not for the drawing, the dropping as it were, of the curtain which prevents our gathering from the vineyards of an infinite memory—were it not, in short, for our mortal amnesia, we couldn't stand it. The shock of leaving that condition and entering this one would be unbearable. We have to stay to work out the possibilities, to undergo the stress and distress that lead to perfection.

We are here for a grand purpose. I love how he puts that. Mortality bites sometimes. But that is how it is supposed to be. This life is such a short moment in time, a blink in our eternal existence. So how tragic is it when one comes trailing clouds of glory and gives in to the ways of this world during their probationary state. We all do to some degree. But thank Heavenly Father for our Savior. We can repent. We can be restored and redeemed. We can be happy here as we seek perfection, and then we can be released from this pain and suffering, all the more ready to meet our Father again because we were valiant in this brief existence. 

one last thought from brother madsen: 

if you knew now the vision you had then of what this trial, this probation, what in my bitter moments I call this spook alley of mortality, could produce, would produce; if you knew the latent infinite power that is locked up and hidden for your own good now—you would never again yield to any of the putdowns that are a dime a dozen in our culture today. Everywhere pessimism, everywhere suspicion, everywhere the denial of the worth and dignity of man.

let's all try to live up to the highest in us. help others to do the same. thank you so much. i love you all. 

elder green

WEEK 14 LANSING (WEEK 85 OF MISSION)

NO LETTER THIS WEEK