WEEK 5 MENA (WEEK 44 OF MISISON)

Some Setbacks

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

This week was an absolutely rough one. I think basically all of our investigators dropped us. We had taken this lady's cigarettes from her so she could quit smoking. We told her we would bring them back the next day and then she could tell us if she really needed them back. She did... and said she didn’t want to try to change and that she is happy where she is. It was really hard to see. 

Me and Elder Durrant have been tracting all day every day this past week. We actually knocked into a couple of really cool people with return appointments this next week! It can get pretty discouraging when you knock all day every day and get kicked off of everybody's porch hahaha but you gotta keep trying. Our next push will be to try and get help with the ward and we are going to try to get some people called as ward missionaries because Mena is so small their is nobody without at least 2 or 3 callings so things can get lonely haha. BUUUTTT we will do alright and keep working.

This is the Restoration Lesson they carry around with
them while they knock doors!!!

Also a quick update on the bug situation: it has gone to a whole 'nother level! 

Chiggers: 10

Elder Green: 0

However, me and Elder Durrant are coming back with absolute vengeance this week.  

This week I got to go to the Gore area twice on exchanges with Elder McArthur and then Elder Wilson. It was really cool to see a different area again and get to work with some of their investigators. While I was there we actually set up a couple of people for baptism and that was an awesome miracle!!!

Hunter's Baptism.  Mikey helped teach him a little.

I know somebody is ready for the gospel in my area I think we just need to be more faithful in our finding! This next week will be one full of miracles I can already tell.

Good luck to my dear friend miss Kara Baker this week as she leaves on her mission crazy to think her time has finally come and I am excited for her! She will do awesome things!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my main man C-Livi this week I sure do miss him and he is just my bestest mench! Have an excellent time in Hawaii man Love you fam #trew 

Anyways love you all!!! Hope you have a great week!!!! 

love Elder Green 

WEEK 4 MENA (WEEK 43 OF MISSION)

However, I will put some Lowry salt on these burgers...LOWRY (the trew crew will understand)

HELLO EARTHLINGS!!!!

The picture Rosie Davis sent me (Emily).

Elder Durrant channeling his inner Arkansan!

What a week what a week man oh man! First things first since I had no idea it was Fathers day until yesterday morning I would like to wish a big ole happy fathers day to my old man!!! Love you Dadio! Hope you had fun with Park out there in Michigan and hey maybe one day me and you can come stay in Mena haha. One of my favorite memories of my dad was this one time my mom was really upset about something and I can’t remember what but in hindsight it wasn’t a big deal. For instance, I think something got spilled on the carpet and she was really mad and I was arguing with my mom about how she shouldn’t be so upset. My dad pulled me aside and was like "Mikey it doesn't matter okay? Just help your mother. I know she shouldn’t be upset but it doesn't matter just go help." He said this with like these wide eyes that I could tell he had developed from past experiences. My dad is so awesome with his willingness to do that though. To just help. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen my dad do things that I am sure he didn’t like but did them just for us as a family to have fun! I love you Tim! (inside joke)    

This week was an awesome one!!!!!! Tuesday we drove all the way to OKC haha they kinda overstocked the one van that we drove in and I got stuck with the seat on the ground pinched between the door and seats haha.  It was okay though we all had fun with it. The 4-hour drive was a little long though. In the end it was worth it for the sight I got to experience as I saw the temple for the first time in 9 months now!!!! It was so good to be back! There isn’t a temple in our mission and so it is rare to get to go as a whole mission. I was so grateful President let us go. After growing up with what felt like 50 temples within 5 minutes it is weird to never see them anymore. It was so cool to get to participate in the ordinances in the temple I have missed it so much! Super cool though.

 

The ride was like.....

A sight for sore eyes!

Next big item from the week was that the Lowry boys got baptized! I baptized Cole and Elder Durrant baptized Noah! The Lowry family has got to be one of the coolest families I have met on my mission. Just to see the foundation the gospel has given them and how awesome they just soak it all in and apply it to their situation is so sweet!!! 

 

The Squad before the baptisms.

Mikey's best friend, Baby Memphis.

I have been reading out of Jesus the Christ a lot lately and I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven and want to thank him as well on this Father’s Day for giving us his son! I love the plan that Heavenly Father has given us, its so essential for us to understand why our father sent us to earth. We had an awesome lesson with our investigators Sunday at church taught by Brother Davis about how we need to know the plan of salvation! Well I am just rambling on!!! Have a good week everybody! I am doing great still!

Me and Elder Durrant have started to fight the bugs back, we have taken a slight lead! 

There were a couple Brown Recluse in the baptismal font!

Last night when I walked out of MCM with brother Davis I saw a certain something on the television that I just have to comment on. I saw THE KING knocking down some free throws to seal his rightful place on the throne of the NBA!  Congrats to my mentor and friend Lebron James. #LongLiveTheKing 

Also I hope you all are enjoying the summer I know I am! I mean it only got up to 114 last week... 

Love elder GREEN 

WEEK 3 MENA (WEEK 42 OF MISSION)

Wild Wild Week

FAM AND FRIENDS WHATS UP?

Man Elder Durrant and I had a very, very busy week this week that went something like this: 

Road Trippin all weeeeeeeekkkk!

Tuesday: Drive an hour and a half to Sallisaw to work with the Sallisaw elders, sleep in Fort Smith apartments that night. 

Wednesday: Drive an hour and a half with Elder Gehring back to Mena for him to interview the Lowry kids for baptism, then drive an hour and a half back to Fort smith and work there the rest of the day.  Sleep in Fort Smith.

Thursday: Drive the hour and a half drive to Bentonville for Zone Conference, see all my old friends and get awesome instruction from President and Sister Loveland, then after that traffic and construction is too bad to start the drive back to Mena so I go with my old companion Elder Lopez back to my old area of Metfield and work there for a while. Then Elder Durrant and I make the 3+ hours drive back to Mena and get home late on Thursday.

Friday: Work in Mena

Saturday: Mena 

Sunday: Mena 

Double Selfie Game

Elder Hewett from the Tulsa Zone Days

The Squad!Mikey reunited with his good friend from home, Elder Degooyer.

Back with Elder Kealer from the MTC

Elder Strobel

Getting to see my Main Man, George Curry!

haha It was a crazy time though running around everywhere! A quick update on the investigators, The Lowry boys would have been baptized this last Saturday but their grandpa actually passed away, super sad and they will now be baptized this Saturday when their mom is back from Kansas, but they are awesome and are the smartest kids ever and they understand the gospel extremely well.

It was a little frustrating this week to be gone so much because I just want to be working in Mena all the time haha but it was still a very good week this week just teaching people everywhere around Arkansas! 

We had an awesome lesson on Saturday with a man named Donny that will be baptized soon. Last Sunday I felt inspired to get up and bear my testimony on the love that God has for his children. I feel this a lot throughout my day to day proselyting and I felt like I should tell the story about John, from Tulsa and how I saw the mighty change of heart in him and how even though his wife had died that he still came to an understanding that God loves him. Donny said that his wife had passed away and that that is exactly how he felt, and that he knows our church is true he just is mad at God. I can’t imagine losing somebody after being with them for 20+ years, I haven’t even lived that long, but I feel how much God loves Donny and our knowledge of temple ordinances and the plan of salvation that Heavenly Father has prepared for all of his children that we shared with Donny really touched his heart and I am so excited for him to see all these blessings

On a funnier note/really not so funny, but anyway Elder Durrant and I are getting wrecked by the bugs out here. haha I am literally itchy everywhere and we have been asking everybody how to deal with it and they all tell us different methods that have been super helpful but when it comes down to it it’s more like a just deal with it sort of thing haha which I am going to have to get used to haha but I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!

"Da Crib"
Note the random stuff everywhere haha
and what's with the guitar???

Mikey is still cutting everyone's hair!
This is his former companion, Hess Daddy.

Also thank you to the Shumways for the package this past week it was soooo awesome and I am wearing one of the shirts right now!

Also Rick (Brother Davis) came by my house this week haha I haven’t heard the end of it since!!! But that reminded me of when Parker's ward mission leader came by our house haha, weird that I am on the other side of things now! 

Brother Rick Davis, Branch Mission Leader.

Also congrats to those that have received their mission calls back home like Mikey Henderson and Hayden Brown! #ParkwayStake hahaha

LOVE YOU GUYS

LOVE YOU MAMA

Elder GREEENNNN

WEEK 2 MENA (WEEK 41 0F MISSION)

Staying Busy in Mena

heeyyyyy friends and family!!!!! Hope you’re all doing excellent!!

Elder Durrant and I had a super good week this week and the work is starting to pick up. It is sooo different from downtown Tulsa where I was with Elder Nau and always having investigators to teach. So Elder Durrant and I spend a lot of time just finding people or at least trying to. We knocked doors for at least 4 hours every day haha and I can see the Lord's hand in blessing us. 

This week was a little rough because there was a town fair called Lum&Abner. So nobody was home on the weekend as we tried to knock doors. A couple investigators told us they didn’t want to see us anymore and it seemed like the odds were stacked against us. But then on Sunday we had a huge miracle and 8 people came to church!!! They all loved it!!! It was crazy. The Saturday before Sunday we literally had people coming up to us and asking us where our church was. A girl named Terri literally knocked on our front door one morning and asked what time church was hahahha super cool!!

There is this family out here named the Lowry's and they were baptized by Elder Nau and man they are the most amazing people and I love them so much. Anyway they have a bunch of kids that are all super cute and funny and we are going to baptize two of the kids on Saturday. 

A sad story that happened was Brother Lowry (Lowry dad) called us one night and said to come over and that his sister was there and needed our help. His sister's husband had just walked out on her and left her all alone with no money and two kids. We went over there and comforted her and read her some scriptures and gave her a blessing!!! The ward then all came together and helped us get food for her and her kids! Then she came to church on Sunday and I think will also be baptized soon :)

I spoke this week in church on how much God love's his children. It really is weird as a missionary because you don’t really ever worry about yourself, it is always about others and just seeing the way that the Lord will put us in somebody's path at the perfect time to meet them is a testimony to me that the Lord loves his children. He will never give up on any of us and there is always a way back to the straight and narrow path. Remember what Christ says in the Sermon on the Mount, wide is the gate that leads to destruction, but narrow is the gate which leadeth unto life. There are a ton of ways to find sadness, misery, and hurt. The gate is wide for those things. But life everlasting can only be found in Jesus Christ! Love you all!!!! 

Have a great week

Elder Green