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 

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! 

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

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

WEEK 13 LANSING (WEEK 84 0F MISSION)

hey everyone! no time this week! 

Last Week Transfer Day
Loading up the Van again!

so the mission department of the church is coming to our mission tomorrow... sweet right?? thats why we have no time! trying to prepare for that! haha itll be soo cool!!! 

things are going great here at msu. sooo nice to have students on the campus again haha. felt like during christmas break we would talk to the same people every day! "i know you said you weren’t interested yesterday, but what about today? no? darn... well... see you tomorrow!" haha anyway... things are great. xiang li and mark are total bosses!! we got to see mark again for the first time since his dec 6 baptism. he is the coolest. he loves teaching with us and got a copy of preach my gospel so he can help his friends understand why he lives the way he lives. we gave preach my gospel to xiang li too and then we met with him like 4 days later and he was like... "i love that book! especially chapter 11! how to help people keep commitments." 

"how much of it did you read xiang li?"

"remember when you first taught me you asked me to read the scriptures and study for 10 minutes/day at least? well i study for an hour a day. so i read the whole book."

hahahah he is the greatest. so fun to teach with them because they are so eager to tell how the Gospel has blessed their lives. Mark calls blessings "benefits" so he always teaches people that if you will believe this then you will receive all the benefits. derek martindell is doing well. his schedule is really open so he will be teaching with us all day every day! best converts ever! 

Isn't what we believe incredible?? God knows all things. We have no way of knowing what tomorrow will bring. How utterly unreliable are our own plans and thoughts. We would be much wiser to seek counsel from God. We don't always end up doing what we want to do, or even what we planned to do. But all that really matters is if we end up following God's plan for us. We ought to counsel with God in all our affairs so as to not be going the wrong direction. Obviously this idea has a lot to do with why God gave us parents. Nephi teaches in the first verse of the Book of Mormon that what made his parents goodly was that they, "taught him somewhat in all [their] learning..." Our parents have been there before. They love us. Their deepest desire is to see their children be happy and successful. This is the same situation each of us are in with our Heavenly Father. Hearken to (which means to hear and then, most crucially, to obey) the counsel of your parents and especially the counsel of your Heavenly Father. His direction often comes through His prophets, whose duty it is to set standards and determine right and wrong in our day and age. Follow their counsel. Disobedience is the dumbest thing we can do, for we know not the consequences, but God does. Therefore, in order to maintain our happiness, He gives us commandments, which if we follow their course, will point us, "through this vale of sorrows to a far better world of promise." (alma 37, near the end of the chapter, cannot remember the verse off-hand. I recommend reading it). 

Love you all! have a good week! 

WEEK 12 LANSING (WEEK 83 OF MISSION)

hey everybody! It’s transfer week!  Which means me, a van, and 11 other missionaries driving around the state of Michigan for 13 hours tomorrow!  Should be good! (When Bro. Hoover visited us he said that Parker drives approximately 1400 miles delivering the missionaries to their new areas!)

Not a ton of time to talk tonight, but some quick updates! Richard Li (the investigators, not the awesome recent convert) and zilu are doing well.  We have been meeting regularly and they are progressing toward baptism. 

School starts again tomorrow, which is very exciting!  That means we will be able to talk to people again! at least... we will next week haha cuz we will be busy this week. But things are good! richard li (Recent Convert) is doing incredible.  He has so many good questions and is taking tons of institute classes.  He is the greatest. 

I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and the proper perspective it provides. Things that mean the world to other people are very important to us, but we can view them in their proper light thanks to the restored truths in the Plan of Salvation. School work is important, but it is the means to an end.  We don’t have to work a job to have a purpose in our lives. Instead, we work because we want to, because we can learn and grow and provide for our families. We don't have hobbies because we need a distraction from the mess we call mortality; we don't have hobbies because we need a way to escape our conscience prodding us about why we exist; instead, we embrace hobbies because we truly enjoy those activities.  In their proper perspective, hobbies and pleasure cease becoming the purpose of life (we work and save money so we can have time and money for our hobbies and to do things that make us happy), and become something we don’t do to fill a void, but to enliven our earthly experience.  Isn't it incredible to know why we exist?  To have the answers to what Hugh Nibley called the, "terrible questions?" Why do I exist? What happens when I die? What things will bring me peace?  You see, the Gospel is much less God's arbitrary rulebook than it is the advice of a super-intelligent Being who loves us. God tells us the natural consequences of sin. That is what a commandment is. Why would we then not follow the commandments? 

As you study the Gospel, think deeply. There is so much more than meets the eye. Seek the Spirit and a testimony of this work. If it is true, then we truly are here to become more like our Father and I can think of no better reason to live.  If it is not, then I can still think of no better way to live. But the best part about the Plan of Salvation is that it is true, and that you can know for yourself if it is, if you will but seek that knowledge. 

Elder Green