WEEK 12 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 14 OF MISSION)

"Ballin Turkey Week"

hi friends and family!!!!

Since everybody is dying to hear how my Thanksgiving was...it was awesome!!! It can be hard being out here during the holidays especially being a little 18-year-old boy haha but anyway we had dinner at like 2:00 at a member's house and met a lot of nonmembers and had an awesome meal! Then we went to the Sugar Creek ward mission leader's home. He was apparently "A ping pong legend." Unfortunately for him he forgot that the Pea Ridge elders ball at everything. After Elder Hess and I gave him a quick slap to the face both beating him in a series of 3 games, we graciously shook his hand and proceeded to put our pictures on the winners’ board. (He takes pictures of every missionary he plays and puts them on the wall with either a thumbs down or up...I was up of course) Other than that we just visited members and laughed and had an awesome time.

That's the way Mikey! Lean away from the ladies ;)

Thanksgiving Day Ping Pong.
The shirt's untucked -- it's serious!

A few little stories that I feel like sharing from this week: The first coming on a rainy, rainy night when we were trying to contact this kid in Pea Ridge named Israel. We had never met him before but had his address so I knocked on the door only to find Israel not home. I stumbled over my words talking to his dad, Juan, it was a less than successful door knock. I walked away kind of let down and down on myself. When the spirit told me not to get in the car but to knock a few more doors. I stood there in the rain and after my experience at the last door kind of thought, “Why God? It is rainy and cold and late.” But I spoke up and said Elder Hess can we knock that door over there? He was like for sure. So we walked over there and knocked the door. Brandon opened the door, who was like a 20 or so year-old kid, and he was like “Me and my family have been looking for a home church!!!” And I was like no way!!! Here is the address of our church!!! God is so good and will make our weak things become strong :)

We had a super good week and our investigators are progressing! Love you guys hope you have a great week!

Elder GREEN boy

WEEK 11 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 13 OF MISSION)

WHAT UP FAM AND FRIENDSSSS

Another good week out here in Bella Vista arkansas a little bit of a rougher week with the holidays coming up a lot of people cancelled on us which can be discouraging but still a good week.

 

With that lampshade behind his head it kind of looks like a Pilgrim hat, haha!
So "Happy Thanksgiving from Mikey."

We have been playing basketball on Tuesday nights trying to see if we can just have some non-members come and hang out and see that Mormons are normal and cool and fellowship them a little. At first this wasn't going to hot and it was just members showing up. However, this week was awesome we had 3 non-members come with our members who invited them, and also two 18-year-old boys from our ward who are kind of not sure if a mission is for them and we got to go out on exchanges with one of them because of this basketball thing we have set up. It just helped me a lot to see that missionary work isn't just knocking doors and teaching lessons but it is showing people love and can be done any time and anywhere. :)

Also a funny story from this week, we got locked out of our house haha and we needed to get back in so me being the ninja that I am just slipped off one of the windows and set it down. When stepping into the house I tripped getting in and fell right on the window and shattered it... haha and now currently cold air is just blowing straight into our house that already has a broken heater haha it has been a rather cold week. But we will fix it... sometime haha love you guys have a great week

 

Their District. Gotta love the careful spacing between the Sisters and the Elders!
Good job Mikey ;)

Elder Green

WEEK 10 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 12 OF MISSION)

WHASSUPPP friends and fam!!!

Skateboarding in a suit!!!

Mikey prepping for bed by warming up
with their awesome heating system!

He looks happier now that he's in bed and
waiting for Elder Hess to finally turn off the lights.

It was another good week! Not anything too out of the usual but really everyday is unusual out here in weird arkansas. But it keeps it fun. We are still awaiting a bunch of paperwork for some of our investigators before they can get baptized because they never actually got divorced from their old spouses and stuff so that can be a little frustrating but I am super happy we have some commitments. 

The highlight from this week with me was probably actually when I was out on an exchange with one of my close mission friends, Elder Hawkins. We were out to teach this 9-year old who is being baptized next Saturday and her very less active mom. It was a cool experience because I had studied pretty hard on this one subject all week. Well anyway in the lesson Elder Hawkins was killing it as we were teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is seriously an awesome teacher, and it was his area so he was really leading the lesson. Sister Hardigrass stopped him though at one point and asked him the very question I had been studying all week and it left him stumped. He looked at me and I was so excited to give this lady an answer that she could come to peace with and I felt so good about myself being guided in my studies it was super cool!!! But I love my mission I learn a ton every day and actually have a lot of fun out here haha mainly because I have such awesome people around me. The gospel is true everywhere. I love you guys back home. Have a ballin week! 

Mikey with Elder Hawkins aka Hawk Daddy, mobbing at McD's
after a dinner appointment cancelled on them.

Mikey said: "A group of people were huddled around this at McD's!
Pretty crazy and so sad!
Such a cool time to wear Christ's name on my chest though!
Pray for the people of France and especially
for my boiii Elder Jmatty to be safe and protected."

Elder GREEENNNN

WEEK 9 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 11 0F MISSION)

Hi friends and family! I hope you all had great weeks!

 

Mikey said, "No Mom I didn't skateboard on my mission ;)"
Maybe this is how his shoes get ruined!

His comment about this pic was,
"Just in case my Ward Mission Leader says I dont have the silkiest pull up game!"

I am doing great and had a really good week!!! A few tender mercies from the week first happened this Thursday night as we went to teach a lady Sherrie. She is the mother of a convert who still lives out here and she has been taught the lessons for like as long as our records go back. She is an awesome lady. She lives in like a trailer in the woods. You would not believe how nice this trailer home is though haha it is soo nice and blew my mind because you would never expect the inside to look the way it does when you pull up. Anyways when we were teaching her she had a lot of really trying doctrinal questions. To be honest I was kind of stumped at her questions and they were deep and hard to answer. Then her son who was with us teaching responded with something I think we all should think about, but he said. "Mom, what does the science behind resurrection have to do with your salvation?" Whenever we have things come up in the church we question. Check your testimony and ask if that problem you have really has anything to do with our salvation and the basics of the gospel. 

Another short experience that was awesome is we got to finally go teach somebody that we recently found out in the middle of the woods while looking for less active members. We ran into this lady named Lynne. When our day was slow this Friday I texted her just to see how she was doing and she replied like a five page text about how she had sat in her house staring at the little card we left her with our number just debating whether to call us and asked us to please come over! It was way awesome. She lives in the woods alone with no family, she has been abandoned by everybody and also was abandoned to take care of 38 cats. It is quite a crazy experience because all of the cats that live in the house and she is so loving, she just takes care of them. Not a lot of them are her cats, they are her son's who has left her and broken contact with her. When Lynne went to the hospital earlier in life she left with around 3 cats and came back to the 30 or so she has now. She needs our help and I love her and love my mission, a lot of times when we judge others in this world we don't even know the story behind them or care to look at their hearts. I need to be better at this and my mission sure helps a lot. Have an awesome week everybody. The church is true. If you don't know for yourself read the Book of Mormon... It is simple ;) Love you guys

Selfie in their almost identical ties

Elder Green :)

WEEK 8 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 10 OF MISSION)

Hi friends and fam!!! 

Mikey and Elder Hess at a Chili Cook Off

This week was really good and a lot of fun!!! 

We had a lot of Halloween parties this week. Stuff like chili cook-offs and stuff with the two branches that I serve in. The Pea Ridge branch had theirs first this week on Wednesday and it was so awesome we had something like 12 investigators show up!!! We were pretty stoked because we had been working really hard to invite everybody and then they all showed up besides 2 so that was awesome and a really good time.

The Glover's had them over for dinner on Halloween
and gave them these awesome masks!

Mikey loving all the children at the Halloween Party!

In the Metfield branch our work has not been going as well as in Pea Ridge. Metfield can be a little harder because it is like a town for people who have retired and so a lot of them do not like us teenagers knocking on there doors haha. But anyway at the Halloween party for them we had Vonnie’s grandchildren come who don't really ever get to do fun stuff like that and they loved it so much! They ran around and it was awesome to see them light up. We are hoping to get their whole entire family out to church next week which consists of like 9 people from one house so that will be awesome. And we also had a lady named Sherrie make it to the party who is one of our new investigators.

Halloween Night with nothing to do haha
Check out the BYU Game Day t-shirt ;)

Does Mikey realize he needs to open his mouth a little
to show his vampire teeth?

On Halloween we aren't allowed to be out past 6 PM so that was really weird and as you will see in some of the pictures me and Elder Hess were being quite weird haha. Holidays on the mission are really different but also a lot of fun. Nobody trick or treated our house though. Probably because we are in the middle of nowhere in the woods haha but I love my mission and this week was awesome! I hope all of you had good weeks at home and a good Halloween!!!! Thank you for all the love and support!

Sugar Cookies from home :)

Elder Green :)