Monday, March 30, 2015

WEEK 23 LANSING (WEEK 94 OF MISSION)

hey everybody! hope all is well wherever you are! 

things are great in Michigan. the weather has been about as up and down as ever. it was soo nice most of last week, then two days ago we woke up to a blizzard outside..? anyway, it rained a lot yesterday and today looks like it will be nice! 
Parker with one of his great friends from Bingham and from the baseball team, Devon Petersen.  They got to spend all day together on splits this past week :)
this past week we taught some really awesome new people! we have been blessed to find some incredible investigators lately. one of them, Delorean (or D-Lo for short), is doing so well! We found D-Lo a month or two ago and just started teaching her a few weeks back. She is so great! She feels like she has distanced herself from God while in college and she really wants to get back. We have had some incredible lessons with her and she came to Church for the first time yesterday. She currently has a baptismal date for April 25th. 

We get away from God by small and simple steps. you dont usually keep all the commandments one day, and then the next wake up and decide to commit extremely serious sins you had never before thought of committing. it doesnt happen that way. just like most other changes in life, it is a process of small and simple steps. its not reading the scriptures one day, not praying for a few days, skipping church meetings one week, and pretty soon you are in a place you never thought you would be a few months ago. The frustrating part for most of us is not that we let ourselves get so far away, but that it is hard to find the strength to come back. It seems like such a long road, and rightfully so. 

"It would be so nice if I could just wake up and be back where I was 6 months ago before I made these decisions and got in these habits."

But that isn't how you got away from the good habits, remember? you didnt just wake up one day and do a 180 away from the light of the Gospel. So why would that be how you get back? no... how you get back is the same way you got away: small and simple steps. This is the key! by doing those small and simple steps, you gain the strength, faith, and hope to make it not only all the way back to where you were, but to go even beyond that point in your spiritual progression. but if we do not do those things, then we remain exactly where we are now. an object at rest will stay at rest until acted upon. sometimes we refuse to move if we cant move a long distance in a short amount of time, and by refusing to do small and simple things to improve, we greatly limit ourselves. 

here is one short example: lots of missionaries dont like to door knock (i dont know why, dont ask me. i like it). But it is a necessary evil for them because we need to find people to teach. if you have lots of people to teach, then you never have time to door knock. so what do missionaries need to do? they need to work on door knocking and do it a lot so then they can get people to teach and not have to do it anymore! but what do missionaries do? we drag our feet about door knocking because we dont like it, we dont get any better, so we dont find any new investigators, and then we have to keep door knocking because we arent finding any body! 

the principle: if we would just get some righteous inertia, then we would get on a spiritual roll! but if we refuse to do the things that would get us moving toward where we want to be, all the while complaining about not being where we want to be, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Sorry about the extremely long email! love you all! 

oh and ps we just called Elder Norton as the new Assistant to the President! I will be getting moved this next week (its transfer planning week now). we picked him up yesterday and it has been great!

love,


Elder Green

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

WEEK 22 LANSING (WEEK 93 OF MISSION)

hey everyone! not a lot of time today! sorry! things are great here! finding some new investigators and working hard. 

things are going well with the recent converts, no concerns there. 

everyone think about this question this week and try to find some answers! i can think of two REALLY good reasons: why is there a veil? why do we need it? what is its purpose? think deeply!! 

love you all! have a good week! 

Elder Green

Monday, March 16, 2015

WEEK 21 LANSING (WEEK 92 OF MISSION)

Parker and his companion, Elder Rhodes at their
most recent Zone Conference.
hey everyone!! not too much time this week! weather here is AWESOME. like 50 degrees all the time! but... that means that it is warm enough to be outside without your face falling off, which means that all the crazy college frat parties are starting. i mean, it is 4 o’clock on a monday afternoon and we got giant frat parties on every corner. what the heck people? cmon... 

anyway, things are good here! working hard and finding some awesome people! met a cool girl named amy this week (chinese) who doesn’t believe in God. we have been teaching her with Richard Li's help and it is going awesome. Richard, Mark, Derek, and Mauricio are all doing very well. I love those guys so much! we have been so richly blessed! 

The Gospel and Church are true. Jesus is the Christ. Following anyone but Him will not bring full happiness. He is perfect and can lead us to the fountain of living water, which ironically, is within ourselves. The world appeals to the natural man and then busily runs back and forth trying to clean up after the natural man. The Gospel teaches us how to govern ourselves. But that is not all; it teaches us why we MUST govern ourselves. Thus, orthodoxy, or the tying together of all the beautiful principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the road to happiness, because the Gospel is really the counsel of a super-intelligent Being teaching us how to find peace and happiness in a cold universe that responds only to law. Man did not get to the moon by having every astronaut do, "his own thing." Man got to the moon by subscribing to and utilizing universal law. So too will our souls reach the Kingdom of God not by making our own laws, but by utilizing and subscribing to the laws put forth by our Universal Father. He is universal, and yet personal. He hears and answers prayers. Faith is a real power, which our Father responds to. Trust in and follow our Savior. While the world teaches us the way to satisfaction is to, "go and get," Christ teaches us that satisfaction comes from within us and cannot be replicated by outside sources. 

The world exhausts me. It is tiring. The Gospel is rejuvenating and uplifting. Repentance is the way to have the Atonement of our Lord take effect in our lives. Repent every day. 

Love,


Elder Green 

Monday, March 9, 2015

WEEK 20 LANSING (WEEK 91 OF MISSION)

No letter this week, but got some pics off of Facebook courtesy of awesome Barb!
Parker, Elder Derricott, and Andrew
Loading up the trailer on Transfer Day.
This is a warmer day!
Loading up on another cold day! 

Monday, March 2, 2015

WEEK 19 LANSING (WEEK 90 OF MISSION)

hey everybody! not a lot of time this week! sorry! transfers went well, we sent home some of my best friends, including my trainer elder stevenson! the new missionaries are great! this transfer is looking up! 

Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I love that he taught things that help remove us from materialism and into a realm spiritual. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints contains the secrets to having a happy family and marriage if we will only live the teachings!! here are a few quick pictures!
 
Elder Marcus B. Nash, General Authority.
President Jacobsen and his wife, Elder Rhodes,
and Andrew (Barb's son).
Spanish-Speaking Elders
me with elder nash and me with the spanish elders!

Love you all,
Elder Green