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 

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! 

WEEK 12 KALKASKA (WEEK 30 OF MISSION)

Another Great week! not sure why i capitalized that G but oh well. happy new year to everyone!!

this week was very full and very great! the drahers are doing so well. carl received the priesthood yesterday and it was just a great moment. there are few things quite like meeting someone, teaching them the gospel, then seeing them go on to receive the priesthood. it is truly incredible. they are also sharing the gospel with everyone they speak to. dana's mother is really interested in hearing more, because she "isnt sure that her baptism was done by the right authority." wayy cool! and carl has shared the gospel with some of his friends as well. also, deborah is looking forward to her baptism on the 11th. it'll be a great day.

we have had some other miracles this week as well, but my fingers are too tired to type them all. so i will just share a few. but before i do that, kristin and the hildebrands are doing well. its so funny talking to steve about spiritual things, because he just doesnt have a filter. so he will always start saying some really rude stuff before we have really explained whats going on haha. it is a crack up! just like... we tell him the next step for him is to go to the temple and marry his wife for eternity and he is like, "whats the difference between a temple and a church?" and Karla says its more ornate and he says, "oh whoopee! just another thing to waste money on!" hahah soo funny. gotta love correcting false notions. thats all we do. anywayss.... we met kristins mother this week and she was very nice. it was a good meeting! they are all doing so well!

this week as we were out door knocking, a bunch of things all fell together and we ended up being in mancelona in the evening on this specific street to check up on a potential investigator we had door knocked into the other day. it was dark out and freezing, and we are walking down the street toward the house and this guy walks up to us and is like whats up guys?? so we start talking, and i cant make out his face cuz its too dark. but he says his name is aaron and we met an aaron a few days earlier, so i was trying to figure out if it was the same guy... haha it was freezing so we went and sat in the car and i figured out it was not the same guy, just a mega prepared guy who knew we would talk to him about God and the Bible cuz he loves those two things! he was going through a super tough time, so we talked with him for about an hour. it was soo cool! we have had some referrals and things this week as well and we are just continually being blessed!

it is so sad here because every day we meet people with the most difficult lives and they want our help, but they only want it financially or temporally. if they only would accept and live the gospel of jesus christ, EVERYTHING else would fall into place. president thomas said something that i really liked when he was with us yesterday. he talked about how the church in kalkaska was built to be a beacon to the surrounding cities. it is meant to be a place to go if people wanted something better than poverty, broken families, drugs, and broken hearts. thats what we offer people. thats what the church offers people, and thats what the Savior offers each of us.

I encourage each of you to set worthy goals for this upcoming year! become a little more Christlike this year! it wont be easy, but there is nothing more rewarding. our Father wants us all home so badly, so once we are converted, we need to "strengthen our brethren" (luke 22:32). it is our duty to bring our brothers and sisters back home with us. we are here in this life to "chart our course" towards eternal life. we are not here to be perfect or to expect others to be. but set goals that reflect the desires of your heart and your vision of what you can accomplish (PMG page 146). Set your sights high, and help others to do the same. Chart your course to eternal life in the Kingdom of God with our families united eternally, to receive a FULLNESS OF JOY. We will live in NEVER ENDING HAPPINESS. never ending (mosiah 2:47).

love you all! thank you for your examples and love!!

WEEK 11 KALKASKA (WEEK 29 0F MISSION)

Hey everyone! merry christmas!!

Classy Kalkaska Christmas!!!
(Who's he supposed to be Harry Potter?!)

another great week here in kalkaska. all our recent converts are doing wonderful and continue to grow in the gospel!! Steve got the job with President Thomas' company. that is crazy in itself! steve said he wouldnt get baptized till the new year when he had a new job the first time we met him. now he is baptized and has a new job!! so cool!! he and karla will be able to attend church together starting the first week of the new year.

kristin is doing great. she loves learning and reading and has developed friendships and relationships with so many members of the branch. everyone loves her.

the drahers are doing wonderfully as well. deborah is progressing towards a baptismal date in january and is doing great. they also invited us over for lunch on christmas to eat with them and carls sister. they are great.

we went to sue's house (the referral from the robinsons) this week to see how she has been doing since her car wreck. she hadnt been at church because of that and things. we did some service for her and she is the best. she was at church yesterday and just loves learning about the gospel and always has the greatest questions. its only a matter of time for her as well.

we had some crazy experiences this week, one of which i will share here. we had called these former investigators about meeting with them and they invited us over for dinner. five weeks ago. we had to reschedule for the next week. well, we had to keep rescheduling until we finally just said no. but the guy kept telling us come hungry and come with an open mind, cuz he is pagan. anyways, we door knocked into his wife this week and we decided we would come back over this weekend. so we dropped in on saturday and met them. they were very nice. and the husband pagan guy, andrew, loves video games. he took us to his downstairs collection, and OH MY GOODNESS. i took pictures dont worry. but it was incredible!! so we sat down there and talked about religion haha. he had some interesting views, but he was a nice guy and invited us back.

everyone here in michigan is ALL ABOUT being self sufficient. nobody trusts the food that people grow and sell to us so they all talk about it like every time we see them haha maybe that is something the Lord wanted me to learn? that i need to grow all my own food and live in a secluded area to avoid the impending downfall of our nation's food supply? anywayss.... seriously that is all anyone ever wants to talk about. so we always talk to people about how the Church is all about that! haha super weird and funny.

remember! Christ is always looking to gather us together, it is our choice if we will allow Him to heal us and put our lives in order or if we will choose to not repent! 3 Ne 10! this Christmas season, give our Heavenly Father the gift of repentance and a resolution to do better! Doctrine and Covenants 18: 13 "And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!"

Presents from their Branch Mission Leader, Bro. Hoover! 

love you all!! merry christmas!!