WEEK 11 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 104 OF MISSION)

Iakwe my family and friends I love you and miss you all.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve my mission!  Kine was baptized and I was honored to get the chance to confirm her in church on Sunday and she is such a wonderful young girl! Other than that I mean it was a big week but I will have to just tell you all about it in my talk and when I see you all! 

Kine's Baptism.  Also in the picture Bubu and Sister Loveland.
Something of note, I am proud of myself because I translated the entire baptismal service into English for the people there who didn't speak Marshallese.

The branch threw a big surprise going away party for me!  It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  I could not help but feel so humbled by the love they have shown me.  I can’t really explain to you what I feel about all of this and I can’t really explain how many mixed emotions I feel leaving, especially leaving my favorite area, but that is okay I know that there will be more opportunities for me.  

Mikey sure loves the Marshallese people!
And they have been so good to him.

Such a fun send off.

The Lanjes.

The Clinton Family.

Mikey with Zazu.

Sister Kejon and Lolita.

Mikey and Janda.

Thank you all for all you have done.  I can’t wait to see you all!

Signing out for the last time!

Meek Meek :)

WEEK 10 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 103 OF MISSION)

Yo Yo Yo yello, hope all is well in your life.

 

Ohhh shoot that eclipse is coming!

I'm so much help!

This past week was a really good week and the Lord is progressing that work right along. 

The biggest news is that this next Saturday Kine will be baptized!  It is really exciting and I am so happy for her.  It is kind of funny because nobody is really sure if she ever really was baptized as a girl and so she has been going to church for like 7 years as a non-member haha.  It definitely was one of the easier teaching experiences I’ve had on the mission haha.  She will be baptized by our branch president on Saturday.

Baby Dajon :) 

The Kejon family.

Also this week we had so many people show up for church and I can see just in the short time how much the Lord is inspiring the leadership of the branch and the members here in Springdale.  When you look at our ward list it is quite daunting to see 600 less active members, it is a lot to take in as far as Home Teaching goes as well and so it has been great to be part of the work here.  There are so many part-member families that I can see joining in baptism and then heading to the temple some day. 

Jason is doing great.  He still reads the Book of Mormon and is keeping a study journal and he is just an awesome kid.  He will be baptized shortly after I leave which I will be sad to miss but very happy for him.

This next Sunday I will be giving a talk in Marshallese haha.  It has been so fun to learn a second language and I have felt so blessed by the Lord in the short amount of time that I have been able to learn it.  I can now understand people when they speak to me and have conversations that are fluid and not choppy at all and I plan to continue learning the language after my mission.

Exchanges with Cherrington.

Also a big Happy Birthday to my Dad who turns 39 today!!!  I love you pops and hope you have a great day and hope that you are ready for some serious backyard ball soon haha!

Take this movie bruh!

 Love you all I hope you have a great week!

Elder Green

WEEK 9 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 102 OF MISSION)

Hello everybody!!! Hope you all are having a great week and that you are just as happy as can be.  

We had what you might call a veryy blesseeddd week.  We virtually have just been walking ourselves right into perfect situations to baptize people which has been wonderful.  Two families in our ward have had teenage kids move from the Marshall islands to here who just haven’t been baptized yet even though they have been going to church for a long time so that is always exciting.  Their baptism should be my last Saturday here in the branch.

Other than that, Jason is still progressing and is doing great.  We have been going over and reading the Book of Mormon together which is great because we get to practice our Marshallese with him correcting us, and also his testimony builds while doing it.  He told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true now and that now it’s just getting himself to feel ready for baptism.

The branch still continues to be the nicest people you could ever imagine. We are seeing a lot of progress from the inside out, which is our whole goal.  We have been having some of the adult leaders coming with us on exchanges which is great and our next goal is to help get Branch Council started etc.  It is really exciting because there is so much work waiting to be done here!

Something super cool was I got a surprise visit from one of my old companions and it was super cool to get to see him.  He was in town for a wedding out here and we had a lot of good laughs etc of course. 

Mikey's Trainer who's been home a few months, Eli Hess.

Love you all.  I hope you have a great week!

I read a scripture in 1 Nephi 19:9

9 Im laļ in, kōn nana ko aer, naaj ekajet E bwe ej men pata; kōn menin rej den̄ļo̧ke E, im E ej kōtļo̧k e; im rej ubrare E, im E ej kōtļo̧k e. Aaet, rej em̧m̧ōje E, im E ej kōtļo̧k e, kōn iakwe in jouj eo An im kōn kijenmej eo An kōn ro nejin armej.

I know you can’t read that so look it up in English and read it for yourself and think about how the Savior’s example teaches us how to get over our challenges.

Love E green!

here I (Emily) saved you the trouble ;)

9 “And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he sufffereth it; and they smite him, and he sufffereth it.  Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long suffereing towards the children of men.”

WEEK 8 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 101 OF MISSION)

iokwe iokwe ej et mour? 

I hope everybody had a great week.  We had a lot of fun and success here. One big problem however is that the ward really needs to be strengthened from the inside out.  With everybody in our ward virtually being converts there is a lot of strengthening in our ward to do.

There are over 600 members on our ward roster and about 80 on average.  We have realized that we needed to refocus our efforts.  It has been tough aligning rides for investigators etc.  When really the ward has a lot of people for us to work with already.  A lot of part-member families and with tight knit families all over with a lot of non-members we need to just refocus our efforts on working with ward members more.

The language is still going okay, I feel like I have almost hit a road block but hopefully I will get over the hump and start to have it click.  I can teach the Restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I have helped with a little translation here and there but I really need a lot more practice.  Elder Wisden is a genius though and is catching up to speed with me very quickly! 

We had a really cool experience this week. We are really wanting to baptize to help inspire the branch etc.  But it has been hard with a lot of marriages and divorces that still need to be finalized with families before they can be baptized.  However, this past week we had two girls move from the Marshall Islands, both who live with active member families and who are ready to be baptized soon!  I am really excited and grateful God answered our prayer!

I love you all.  I am so proud of all my friends that have completed their missions or will shortly!  I would like to especially give a shoutout to my best friend Jared Holman who I owe a lot of me being out here on my mission to, who will return home this week! Love you holmyyyyy 

Love you all I hope you have a great week!

Kojerraman woj

WEEK 7 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 100 OF MISSION)

iokwe iokwe! Ej et mour baamle eo ao? (hello, hello how are you my family?)

Hello everybody I cant believe I have entered this last transfer but I am doing great!!!  Elder Wisden is here and he is picking up the language fast.  A Marshallese kid living in Washington was just assigned to come here and be a missionary speaking Marshallese and so everybody is really excited to finally have a native speaker here. 

Looks like a serious companionship!

Elders Durrant, Mikey, Smith and Radford.

Fun in the car with
Radford, Smith, Durrant and Mikey.

We had an awesome week, Jason is doing really well still, he is ready to be baptized he is just waiting on feeling like he is ready and so that is great!!!

Dickson and Grace we are just working on getting a marriage certificate and then getting their family in town for the baptism!  It is really exciting, we find so many new people every day out here just because of the open and humble hearts of the Marshallese people

I am starting to feel more and more comfortable with the language, I can finally understand what people are saying to me haha and I can reply and not sound ridiculous it’s been nice.

We had another member have a Kemem at the church this Saturday night and it was absolutely insane haha.  I danced with my branch mission leader’s wife and we got some of the coolest necklaces given to us as the guests of honor and ate a lot more fish and all the native food I love.  It was really awesome!  Elder Wisden is settling in I think and I will miss old Smithy Boy but I am excited for this last transfer!

 

Mikey and Elder Wisden at the Kemem.

Love you all,

Elder Green

WEEK 6 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 99 OF MISSION)

Mikey didn't have time to write a group letter today.  It was his last transfer and he was super busy.  He got a new companion named, Elder Wisden, that he really likes and he says he is really smart and will do well with the Marshallese language.

When Sister Loveland was talking to Todd about Mikey's foot a couple weeks ago she said that she thought Mikey would finish out is mission in Springdale and train someone to take over that could stay there a long time and keep the work with the Marshallese moving forward.

Mikey said he is doing great!  I asked him if he needed anything and he said his basketball shoes are getting pretty worn out, haha.

I had a bridal shower for our neighbor, Lizzie Hunsaker, who just happens to be marrying President Loveland's nephew so the Lovelands' daughter (also named Lizzie) attended the shower.  It was so fun to get to meet her and talk to her.  She was such a sweetheart and knew some funny stories about Mikey from when she has visited her parents on their mission.  Such a small, small world!!!

Lizzie Loveland (President Loveland's Daughter) at our house!!!

WEEK 5 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 98 OF MISSION)

Hellooooo my dear friends and family iakwe iakwe! 

The Marshallese is going okay.  I am still trash but I am starting to be able to distinguish different words and make out what people are saying... as far as me speaking it and pronouncing things correctly, I still has a lot of work to do!

But big news.  So this week two Marshallese speaking missionaries from the OKC mission came over to our mission and are staying with us and teaching us the ins and outs of serving Marshallese.  One is named Elder Oberender.  He is from Cali and is on scholarship to play volleyball at BYU when he goes home!  He is like 6 foot 7 and is very, very good at Marshallese.  He has been speaking it for almost two years now.  He has been a huge step in helping me learn the language and we are so grateful here in our branch for him coming to help us.

The next missionary is Elder Lazuras and he is from the Marshall Islands!!!  He is from the Island Majuro and he has been on his mission almost a year now and he is really good at English for only speaking it a year.  Everybody here absolutely loves him and he has a ton of family and old friends here in Springdale and of course he speaks great Marshallese and is a huge help with us in teaching people etc... it has been going really well!

We found a lot of new people this past week as well as continue to see progression in our investigators we have.  Dickson and Grace were supposed to be baptized but we need to get record of their marriage or go get a certificate from the courthouse here so things have kind of stalled.  But their faith hasn’t.

Romeo and his wife Tata are awesome!  This week Tata said she just felt pulled to come out and join the lessons when before she was resisting listening because of her previous faith in a different church. Them and their family are doing awesome! 

Other than that things are great. I got a chance to speak Swahili again this past week. The missionaries in Fayeteville found some Congolese refugees and it was an awesome miracle when we went to go teach them.  I was on an exchange with Elder Roberts, my old companion, and he had a general idea of where they lived but there were a lot of complications in finding their address and also we were just on foot in a very large city.  After walking ten miles haha we found the home of a lady named Heli, a refugee that I got the chance to speak with.  However, her family was gone, she was Muslim, and did not let us in to teach her.  We left feeling pretty down and like we had failed.  Well on our way out to go home we walked this random way and across the parking lot were two black men wearing flip flops (a dead give away of refugees) so me and Elder Roberts shouted JAMBO!  They both turned with huge smiles and replied, “Habari yako??” (whats your news) haha and we got to speak with them and found a whole bunch of new people who they can teach in Fayetville because these two 20 year old young men have all the connections and phone numbers to all refugees in Fayetville!

Anyway it has been a great week!  I hope yours has as well!  Happy

Fourth of July last week!!!

Love you all 

Elder Green

WEEK 4 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 97 OF MISSION)

Iokwe iokwe how is everybody?? Miss you all and hope you had a good week! 

Alive and well and doing great!  Mikey with Sister and President Loveland.

Things are going really well still out here.  The language seems to be coming around finally I could start to make out the jist of what people were saying yesterday at church!  It is a weird kind of balance because basically every Marshallese person speaks English, but to really understand the gospel it takes being taught in their native language so it is important to learn the language.

Dickson and Grace are doing great.  They just need to figure out church really and they will be baptized this month.

A kid named Jason who just got here from the Marshall islands who is the nephew of a member of our ward is looking to be baptized soon as well!

We just taught these people yesterday that we are really excited about. They seemed really sincere etc. One thing that is good and bad about this area is that the Marshallese people are so nice that they will almost never tell you no haha but a lot of times they really are unsure about things they just don’t want to be rude.  They always will feed anybody as well they are just really, really nice people!!!

Anyway I am doing good!  Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Happy 4th of JULY!!!

WEEK 3 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 96 OF MISSION)

Iokwe! I hope you guys all had a great week!  

 

Mikey in his element with the cute kids at a Kemen.

Our week was super good, my foot has been feeling good and I got to go out this whole week.  Up until yesterday I couldn’t really put on my shoe so I was just wearing a slider like sandal of Elder Smith's haha and so I looked pretty funny.  This little Marshallese girl came up to me one day and told me that my shoe was "broken" haha because they didn’t match.

That slider looks painful too!!!

So as far as investigators go we have a family named Dickson and Grace and then their two sons Titrik and Benjin.  They are going to be baptized in two Saturdays from now! They are some of the most humble and nice people I have ever met.  Dickson has smoked his whole life and then when we taught him the Word of Wisdom he said,  "I’ll quit, when do I need to quit?  You tell me." haha and he has quit and is ready for baptism with his wife and kids! 

We also have a new investigator we found, Kejabubu who is very awesome.  He has wanted to be baptized for a long time now he just has felt guilty because he is living with his girlfriend who is a less active member and they couldn’t afford a wedding because they take care of so many people.  He said that he didn’t have the 60 dollars it took to get a wedding cerificate from the city.  He was very happy when he talked to President Clarence (our Branch President) and set up a wedding for free at the church haha!  He will be baptized soon after their wedding.

This past week we saw many miracles, we have been getting so much help from the ward especially from very faithful youth that can speak both languages very well.  Our Marshallese still struggles but we are seeing some major improvements and it has been so great! 

Something I love about the Marshallese culture is that it is just tradition that whatever you have you share.  No matter what, nobody is left out and so we will see random people all the time that will just invite us in for water or for food or whatever they have.  It is super humbling to see somebody that has very little but still willing to give.  It has softened my heart a lot and has helped change me to be more giving.  Just something to think on... hahaha well I will send some pics from the week!

My foot is doing great I am back to basically full strength and all tests came back negative so I am in the clear hopefully :)

Still doing lots of haircuts. Check out how he had to cut his slipper open on the side to fit his swollen foot!

Love you all 

WEEK 2 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 95 OF MISSION)

Yokwe yokwe, 

This week was a little bit of a slower week out here in the Marshfield Branch but things are still going okay!  We had a lot of people show up to church this week and we are also working with the Rogers 1st elders (Degooyer and Leavitt) with all the Marshallese investigators up there and we are trying to figure out what the best solution will be for all the members in Rogers. 

One huge highlight is that Angeleana will be baptized this coming Saturday!  I am super excited for her.  She is one of the most genuine investigators I have ever met.  She will most likely be baptized in the Marshallese Rogers group but we still have had the privilege of working with her and I got to work with her a lot while serving in Rogers.

We had a lady named Jemen come to church this week with some of her family and that was really exciting.  She is not a member but the rest of her family is!

I also would like to wish a Happy Father’s Day to my dad and all the fathers in the world and always of course remember our Heavenly Father. 

On Sunday it was really cool during third hour of church all of the women of the ward stood up and talked about how much they loved their husbands and fathers and how important the priesthood is in their life, then they sang songs and they put lays of candy around all the dads necks and gave them lots of gifts and food etc.  They are a very loving people and they always serve each other and smile and have fun and I have learned a lot from them!

Love you guys all so much!

WEEK 1 SPRINGDALE (WEEK 94 OF MISSION)

Mikey asked me to put a shoutout on the blog to Tommy for a Happy 17th Birthday (June 1) and I forgot to but seeing his shoutout to Anna in this letter reminded me.  My bad!

Hello everybody I hope you are all having a good week!  My week has been probably the most exciting of my mission.  I got to the new area on Thursday and did not know what to do.  Me and Elder Smith both just got sent here and neither of us speak any Marshallese or know where anybody lives or anything.  So we just went out tracting and walking around and meeting the members etc.  Everywhere we went we met somebody who wanted us to teach them.  It was a great week.  This Sunday was very cool and very different.  We have a good strong branch of about 100 active members.  It was very weird to be in a Sacrament Meeting where I did not speak the language.  The ward welcomed us with open arms and I even had the chance to get up and speak to the ward in Sacrament.  They did not understand much of what I said though haha.  After church our branch president, President Clarence, gave us both blessings in Marshallese which was super cool to receive a blessing in a different language. I have never had that happen before. 

This cute girl, Destiny, had to be life flighted to Little Rock and was diagnosed with Leukemia. She is doing better now and  has started chemo.  Mikey said it was a little sketchy that she put her arm around him for the pic haha, but he didn't want to tell her she couldn't!

Mely and half the squad at the Hendy's house.

Mercy, Myle, Mikey, Georce, Lulu and Debrine.

As far as investigators go!  They are going great.  It is not rare for Marshallese people to just bring their friends or family to church and ask to be baptized.  We had an awesome kid named Jason just show up to church and tell us that he hadn’t been baptized yet, as well as another young woman who we are going to meet with to help her prepare, and then a woman who I taught in Rogers named Angeleana, showed up to church.  It was funny because she missed the Rogers elders who went with a member to pick her up and then she was all dressed for church and saw her friend drive up and she asked her friend where she was going.  Her friend said to the Mormon church haha so she hopped in and came down to Springdale for church!  It was so great.

Another big thing that happened this week was that I went to my first Kemem which is a Marshallese baby’s first birthday.  It is a huuuuugggggeeee deal and it is a hugge party.  It was held at the church building in Springdale and all the Marshallese members from Rogers were there and a lot of nonmembers and a lot of the Springdale members.  The Kemem was for the Diosimitos baby named Levi, who I knew from Rogers.  At the Kemem they sat us in special seats in the front as the guests of honor as well as the Branch President and the Rogers Elders (Elder Leavitt and Degooyer) haha and they fed us a huge feast and gave us gifts and there was singing and dancing.  It was just soo cool haha.  We all ate their traditional food too which was fish head, with rice and chicken and raw fish which all was super tasty and we were so grateful for it!

I love where I am at.  The language is very hard and I get frustrated with myself but it is all good and things are still going great!

I have pics that I will send!! Love you all have a great week!

Happy birthday to Anna this week love ya Anna Banana 

WEEK 12 ROGERS (WEEK 93 OF MISSION)

Hello everybody!!!!  

So today I might be a little rushed because a lot to do before transfers tomorrow and I will be being transferred!  So I still need to pack haha.

I got this picture off the mission blog.
They are on the bus headed to the temple.

Anyway I will be going to the Springdale Marshallese area to teach the gospel in the Marshallese language!  Pretty exciting, also going to be hard to have to try to learn another language but I will be in a ward that only speaks Marshallese, so if I am going to be able to understand I will have to try to learn quickly.  I will be shotgunning in there with a new missionary who I think has been out 3 months that I have heard nothing but good things about!

Replacing me here in Rogers will be Elder Degooyer!!!  haha I am so glad he is replacing me because he is so great and this area will do so great with him here. 

My last week has been bitter sweet.  I found out Saturday that I would be leaving. However, I am not supposed to leak transfers out just in case President needs to change anything last minute.  But yesterday I got to say a couple of goodbyes and leave my testimony and love with some of my favorite people, Mely, Carl, Erwin, Jackson, and Mai Mai and the rest of their family. 

This Sunday was super cool.  Brother Ikea who is from the island of Chuuk bore his testimony and conversion story that was crazy!  He just moved to our ward from Idaho and he was baptized a year ago in Idaho.  He has studied theology his whole entire life. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood which meant he lived a single life with no spouse or kids his whole life.  He said that inside he still felt empty however.  He even had traveled to the Holy Land and into the upper room of the temple there and still felt empty and that he still needed truth.  That was until he met sister Ikea who told him to come meet with the missionaries with her.  They were just friends at the time but they were soon married, then they both were baptized along with the rest of their family and are now preparing to be sealed.  Brother Ikea said that the first time he stepped foot in the Mormon church he knew his search for truth was over.  He was excommunicated from the Catholic church that he had worked his whole life to be at the position he had gained. He now works at Tyson with his wife and family in Rogers and they are the happiest group of people.  We are teaching several of the 20 or so people that live in their home including some of his step kids and kids-in-law.  They are very inspiring to me!

I hope you all have a great week!  Sorry the pictures are lacking my camera has been acting funny!

Love, Elder Green