WEEK 9 SPRINGFIELD (WEEK 66 OF MISSION)

Well, well, well, this is a very fat email I am sending this week after a whole lot of turkey etc... I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!! 

Our Thanksgiving was awesome!  We played in a really fun Turkey Bowl and Ann's son Demetrius came and he was playing quarterback and was actually dropping dimes left and right and he had a really good time and it was just all a lot of fun haha.

This is Mikey's first companion/trainer.  He sent Mikey this picture today of him on this Thanksgiving wearing the tie we sent him last year.  I noticed that his glasses looked just like Mikey's and asked Mikey if Hess has the same glasses or if Mikey gave him his.  Of course Mikey gave him his, haha.  Thankfully Mikey does have another pair of glasses with him but since when do we share prescription glasses?

We had a super fun day.  The Betlyons (recent converts) fed us the most Pinteresty and delicious Thanksgiving lunch!  And then after we went to the Harpers and we were so stuffed we couldn’t really eat another full meal but we did end up eating chitlins... It was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten hahaha.  They all love them though!  I just could not stand them.  The taste is impossible to describe, it tastes like a pig’s guts!  That’s the only way to describe it because that’s what it is! :)  But shoot I have to leave right now but this week was super good!  We had I think 6 investigators come to church!  And the ward is helping us soo much!  All of you back home should check out the month of December and the Light the World Advent Calendar!  It should be an awesome Holiday season!

Love Elder Green!

WEEK 8 SPRINGFIELD (WEEK 65 OF MISSION)

Hello everybody!!! It was another great week out here in the land of Springfield!  Let me hit you with some highlights from this week.

 

Melanie and Shayla :)

Coolest experience was probably again with our friends from the Congo!  We taught an English class again on Saturday and there were no lie probably 60 refugees that showed up!  How cool huh?  It has been super hard on them because not only do they not speak the language but they have only ever lived in tents before coming here.  So they don’t know how to cook or how to clean a house or how to buy groceries or make a bed and I think a lot of times we don’t even realize how nice we have it and how grateful we need to be until you are with somebody who doesn’t.  However, despite being so confused in this new country and having to be torn from family in a war zone they still are some of the happiest, kindest, and most respectful people.  I have especially taken to this 19-year-old kid named Gabriel.  He is the oldest son in the Molenge family and he is a pretty cool kid and he loves talking about soccer so all my Fifa playing back home really pays off haha.  When I told him that Zlatan was better than Messi his face was priceless. But they have been teaching us a little Swahili which really has paid off because we keep meeting more and more of them and so to be able to speak their language always puts a huge smile on their face and makes them laugh.  Some of them were at church Sunday and President Loveland came and taught them this Wednesday because he can speak French and they also speak French!  The language barrier has made it tough to get our gospel message across, however it isn’t always about just shoving the gospel down peoples’ throats especially when they first need love!  We need to care for the temporal needs and spiritual needs of all people! 

We found a really cool girl too her name is Lacey and she lives just kind of down the street from us and we found her tracting and then we went back this week with one of our awesome members, Brother Delafuente, and when we got to her place there was already another member who she is friends with that is in the YSA ward in her house.  She had invited him over because she has been waiting a while to learn about Mormons and she was so excited to learn and it was such a good lesson and her sister wanted her own Book of Mormon after the lesson!  I was on an exchange this day with Elder Atkinson who hadn’t even been out a week yet and so that was all just a really cool experience! 

All of the recent converts are doing pretty good!  The Betlyons are just awesome and we love them and they are doing great!  They take awesome care of us and they are going to have us over for Thanksgiving Lunch. 

Then the Harpers (Ann and Jeanie) are going to have us over for dinner on Thanksgiving haha we are pretty excited!  Also they are trying to bring their whole big family into the church and that is all exciting!  Ann's son Demetrius is going to be coming to play in a turkey bowl with us on Thursday morning with the Hillcrest Ward, haha. 

Also the members out here have just been awesome and the King family brought their friend to church yesterday which was just awesome and she seems to have been really prepared to receive the gospel and so their are just a ton of good things happening right now!!!

Happy Thanksgiving this week everybody!! Thank you for everything!!!! :)  

WEEK 7 SPRINGFIELD (WEEK 64 OF MISSION)

Hello Everybody!!! 

Well this short week was a very good one and things are going really well!!!

The Betlyons (recent converts) are doing great and preparing to go to the temple soon!!! 

The Harpers are so awesome who were baptized last week and they are progressing so much, they are already referencing things in the D&C and the Pearl of Great Price and everything it is just so awesome to see them so converted and they just want to do what’s right!  We are going to be teaching the rest of their family the gospel for Family Home Evening.  They are so funny and always make jokes about how they are black etc. So they are always making us try their black foods (fried green tomatoes, grits, pig’s foot etc.) haha so this week they were like what kind of food culture do your people have? and Elder Roberts and I just start laughing because we don’t have like a culture so we told them that white people eat casseroles and funeral potatoes lol so this Thursday they are making a combined white person and black person dinner with funeral potatoes and fried chicken!! haha we are excited! 

On Saturday we were up to our normal tracting.  Since the baptisms have happened our teaching pool has fallen down a little bit but we had an awesome miracle while knocking doors one day.  We see these black kids riding their bikes and it was obvious that they were foreign because of the way they were dressed, and we have been searching a ton for some refugees to teach English and there are some refugees that have already converted in our ward.  So anyway we go walk over to where they are and we find like this family of I think 15 people that have only been in America for 2 months and they are struggling and we are going to teach them all English and also yesterday we had a man and woman that speak French from our church go over and teach them the Restoration (the speak Swahili and French) and so we taught them and the one man, Sebastian at the end of the lesson just says, "You come teach me every day about God." haha pretty cool so we are really excited to teach Sebastian and Gabriel's families both English and the gospel! 

Yesterday was Stake Conference and it was so awesome!  We sat with Ann and Jeannie and they just loved it and they got to meet President and Sister Loveland and man it was just a good day!

I am doing a lot better this week and just trying to act with faith. I think this is going to be as Elder Bednar would describe it, more of a rising sun spiritual experience than the flick of a light switch, but I am excited for the journey and thankful for all of you so much!!! 

Again happy b-days to all my fave people Jmatty, Wally, Aubrey you are all so old now haha also congrats to Parker and Jenna! <3 can’t wait to meet you some day Jenna :) Welcome to the fam.

Love you all, 

Elder Green!!!

WEEK 6 SPRINGFIELD (WEEK 63 OF MISSION)

Hello hello family and friends!!! 

It has been a long time since I have been able to email you and a lot has happened!!!

On Saturday Geanie and Anne got baptized and it was such an awesome baptism!!!  They are some of my favorite people in the world and they are some of the most genuine people I have ever met and it was just great! The next day they were confirmed in Sacrament Meeting and then Anne got up and she bore her testimony to the whole congregation!  They should be going to the temple soon and they both are reading 6 pages of the Book of Mormon a day!!!  How awesome are they huh?  They are such good examples to me and I am so lucky to be able to have met them!

I have now memorized a couple talks just from reading them so much and doing my best to have faith and press forward and I can testify that if we do as Dieter F. Uchtdorf said and "doubt our doubts before we doubt or faith" God will provide safety for our soul and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father and for the forgiveness and relief He can provide! 

Lastly, one of my favorite times of the year is right now with the fall and football season and basketball all starting it is so awesome!!!  Also I would like to wish three of my favorite people Happy Birthday, Wallbeck, Aubs, and Jmatty!!!!!!!! 

I love you all thank you for the prayers and everything please continue :) 

Elder Green!