WEEK 3 SAULT STE. MARIE (WEEK 100 OF MISSION)

Todd pointed out to me that since I started the blog after Parker left the MTC that my total weeks of Parker's mission were off by 2. Rather than give into my OCD issues and go back through and correct every single post, I am just adding 2 on now and going from here these final 3 and 1/2 weeks!!! But, I may have to go back at some point and fix it or go crazy haha ;)

Views from the bridge.

hey everyone! another great week in the soo (yes they do spell it that way here as well as sault). things have been great! elder sauer and i are getting along well and working hard!

this past week our jeep went in for repairs... so we have been on bikes.. in the snow and rain. haha its been good though! shedding some lbs i think? itll be great to have our jeep back later this week. Heavenly Father still provided means for us to get where we needed to be. 

Maria is doing well! she is so cool! we have been blessed to find many more new investigators as well. people are truly prepared to receive the gospel. they are all around us!! 

i am not sure what else to add.. we have been talking to lots of people and trying to find those that will receive us. we have been teaching more than elders have taught here in a while because God has been good to us and blessed us with people to teach. hopefully this next week we will be able to commit more people to baptism and be able to get some more people to attend Church and feel the Spirit. 

Parker and his companion, Elder Sauer with
their Zone Leaders.
Check out how tall Elder Elmer is!

The Church is true. The Gospel is simple. The Church's purpose is to get the ordinances into the lives of its members and to teach true doctrine. So why do we go to Church? To participate in an ordinance, (the sacrament) and to learn true doctrine. I am so thankful for these glorious truths. I used to take it all for granted. not anymore. Brigham Young used to say something along the lines of, "do you want to live more fully? do you want to be enlightened? do you want to find true joy and happiness? then become a Latter-Day Saint and live the gospel of God." its true isnt it? He also used to say, "The only place we can fight evil is within ourselves." i cannot fight the evil within you because i dont know what it is! i cant judge you! i hardly know you, even if we are best friends. if the whole world would only be concerned with fighting the evil within themselves, we would near approach what was said of the people of Enoch, "they were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness and there was no poor among them." who wouldnt want to live in a world like that? fight the evil within yourself. how? by yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. whenever you feel something that makes your soul swell and encourages you to do good and be good, give into it! whenever you feel something that is selfish and soul shrinking, shun it! give in to the good. easier said than done, but we must do it anyway!  

Have a great week.

Elder Green 

WEEK 2 SAULT STE. MARIE (WEEK 97 OF MISSION)

hey everyone!! i forgot to send a group email last week and i am sorry! i have to be short this week but i have some awesome miracles to report! 

Parker on the St. Ignace Lighthouse dock.  Not sure if the rosiness of his cheeks is from the sun or cold haha!

we have been working hard here and our first week here we door knocked into a TON of people who wanted to meet with us! it was incredible. one of them was a girl who was on the phone. she didnt seem too interested and was obviously busy, but we asked if we could come back the next day. she said we could. long story short (more miracles involved) but we ended up going over there after we didnt think she was there for our meeting. we taught her and she loved it! her name is maria and she is like 22 years old. she had twins about a year ago and one of them passed away :( she moved up here from GA to be with her parents who live here. she felt the restoration was true and was excited to read the Book of Mormon. that was a Saturday that we taught her. she texted us later that night and said she had moved her appointments she had on sunday so she could attend all 3 hours of church! and so she did :) our first sunday in a brand new area, Heavenly Father led us to someone who was prepared to attend Church. 

We have since taught Maria 4 more times and she has loved it all. she wasnt too sure about baptism, but is getting more and more sure every day. she came to church yesterday as well and is doing awesome! we have been very blessed here. there are more miracles to report, but i have not time!

all reports show that the Draher's should be going through the temple to receive the endowment and be sealed on may 16th, my last day as a missionary (before i go to east lansing and prepare to return home). i should be able to go with them. what a miracle. to be able to see them sealed my last day as a missionary... 

The Church is true. Jesus is the Christ. Joseph Smith is His prophet. Just remember that faith and belief is a choice. when a man works by faith, he works by mental exertion more than by physical force. therefore, the thought process itself holds the key to exercising faith. put your trust in God and His Son. All will be well. we have no cause to doubt for They will not let us down. Our number one goal should be to seek the Spirit. Pray for it and live for it. 

Elder Green

WEEK 1 SAULT STE. MARIE (WEEK 96 0F MISSION)

Parker didn't send a group email this week but he is doing great and as you can see from the pictures his new area is beautiful.  It is still cold and snowy but that's Michigan and especially the Upper Peninsula for ya

WEEK 24 LANSING (WEEK 95 OF MISSION)

hey everyone! excited for General Conference? General Conference is a lot like the Super Bowl for missionaries. Except instead of it being 4 hours its 10. so its way better. 

had another good week! we are teaching some awesome people! one quick experience. so elder rhodes and i have had very limited time to do missionary work recently because of transfers and things. so we were taking advantage of the little time we had and we were personal contacting (or pcing for short) so we pc into this guy named ralph. he is a pretty short, african american sophomore. we asked him why God created us and had a good conversation. He agreed to meet this week. the first time we taught him it went really well. he told us at the beginning that he was interested in learning more, but wanted nothing to do with a further involvement in the church. so we taught him the restoration, which he understood perfectly! thats the thing about ralph, he gets it. so we invited him to be baptized and he said he felt baptism was very serious and he wanted to think about it more. but he really wanted to read the book of mormon and pray about it. at the end of the lesson he also asked us if he could interview us the next evening for a paper he was writing about commonly stereotyped groups. he wasnt sure what the subject of his paper should be, then he met us and decided it should be on Mormons! so we did the interview, it went great, and he said he wanted to meet the next night. so we met him again and we were planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation and talking about that question he really liked, "why did God create us?" we asked him how his reading and praying has been going and he said good. he said he didnt get a feeling when he prayed, but that night he had a dream. in his dream he was dressed like one of us, like an lds missionary, and he was talking to his mom about what he had learned about the afterlife. what?? pretty cool huh? 

so anyway, we teach him. it goes awesome! he loves it and it all makes perfect sense to him. at the end of the lesson, i ask him, "ralph, how do you feel about what you have learned tonight?" and he said," it just.... it feels like God. I mean, I have been taught God is all-loving, but this really shows that He is. I have always wondered and thought about how if God is really all-loving, why will He put people in hell? and all of this has answered my questions. it feels more like God." what???? so sweet!! ralph is great. everyone else is doing well. rc's are doing well. 

also i am getting transferred wayy up north! check the attached map for a reference. i am going to the city sault ste. marie. itll be awesome! soo hard to leave msu and elder rhodes and elder norton and all the rc's and members here, but itll be so good to go to the UP!! 

So if you look up above the tip of the Mitten into the Upper Peninsula you will see Sault Ste. Marie where he will be finishing out his mission.  There is a bridge that goes across and connects to Canada!

the Church is true, Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is His prophet, and we have a living Prophet and Apostles on the earth today. God is our Father and He loves us. He has a plan for our happiness both here and in the hereafter. His plan involves us having peace on earth and eternal life in the world to come. If we will follow the Gospel that has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, we will indeed have peace and eventually eternal life. remember, "Pleasure is not the purpose of man's existence; JOY IS." -David O. Mckay

Elder Green