WEEK 18 TULSA (WEEK 38 OF MISSION)

How to know you have been in an area a long time.......

hello friends and family!!!! What is up? 

Sister Perrien and her daughter giving Mikey
a new pair of shoes!
  Can't even believe their kindness and generosity!!!
They make Mikey and his shoes look huge!

Well so about my title. I want to give you a little scenario to let you all know how to know that you have been in an area for a long time. We went to see two of our investigators, Cody and Jessica. When we got there things were a little crazy and Jessica was not happy about some stuff that was going on etc... So we talked with them and tried to figure out what was going on and she was mad about Cody letting some people come into the house.  Right then, a homeless man walked out of the house... and said "Hey Elder Green, hey Elder Nau" hahaha we were like "Hi Richard"...  So yes when you start to know the names of all the homeless people in your town and then see them at your investigators’ house of all places... You know you've been in Tulsa a while hahaha! 

Man this week was another awesome one though where we saw a lot of miracles. After the area being on fire a little bit the last couple weeks things had seemed to slow down and so we have been fighting things a little bit trying to get new investigators and trying to rebuild the teaching here a little again. However, I have learned something about never giving up on somebody. We teach this man named John, who is in his 60's, and is just an awesome guy. He has been taught by the missionaries for over a year now I think and has had a hard time because he reads and prays and he doesn’t feel anything. (I have had the same thoughts and feelings at times) and at the same time John kind of knows the church is true. Like he knows it is he just doesn’t want to say it haha. This week on Wednesday, Brother Cardenas, (Ward Mission Leader) came with us and it was such an awesome lesson. So awesome we invited him to be baptized this next Saturday. He smiled and said yes, or he would think about it. Haha we were not having any of that though. So we asked him to come to church on Sunday fasting and we would be fasting with him to receive his answer. Yesterday was probably the most spiritual Sacrament Meeting I have had on my mission and also the best lessons that seemed to be perfectly tailored to John's concerns and needs. During the Sunday school lesson the members were just perfectly on point with their comments and teaching and the spirit was strong. I was watching John at one point and saw a tear run down his cheek and I could tell the spirit had touched him. As for me, the spirit doesn’t normally come in a strong manifestation of this burning inside. For me it is usually clarity of mind to just have things make sense and be calm. I hope John had this feeling and I can’t wait to see him on Tuesday and set up for Saturday!!!!

Mikey and Baby Jayla

Crawling into 1,000 degree attic to help move all the boxes out!

About half of the boxes they carried down from the attic.
Mikey still loves Spiderman!

I love you all! I have been studying faith and that is what we talked about in Sunday school. I have learned that faith is the all-encompassing testimony builder. Nobody starts out with a perfect knowledge of God. As we hope that God is there and loves us it inspires us to act. That is what faith is. By acting God will bless us and we see results and our faith will confirm our unseen hopes. The Lord has blessed us with ordinances to help us to feel of this power strongly and to further progress ever closer to him. If you have doubts, that is awesome. We should have doubts and questions, if we all had a perfect knowledge the earth would serve no purpose. Do not let doubts discourage you, let your doubts and questions move you forward as you learn of true doctrine through the Holy Ghost. We can only have faith in things that are true, therefore our faith, or our rock as Helaman says, should be on Christ who is a sure foundation. I hope to be able to build my foundation as strong as I can for the rest of my life to where I become unshaken and I hope to be able to endure all things as Joseph said in the Articles of Faith. I love you all have a great week. Be good believers, do good to fellowmen!!!

Elder GREEN 

Oh my and how could I be ungrateful to not thank Sister Pierren so much for getting me a new pair of shoes!!! What an answer to my prayers and comfort to know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me through the awesome members out here in Mingo Valley!!! I was getting a little sick of having wet socks cuz of all the holes in the old hooves I had haha love you all 

Tulsa's "Sacred Grove."

WEEK 17 TULSA (WEEK 37 OF MISSION)

Mother's Day Madness

HIII EVERYONE!!!! I love you all

Mannn it was so good to get to see all of you yesterday and get to say hi!!!! Seeing the extended fam and Grandma and Grandpa was such a blessing as well! So thank you Scottie for setting that up and I got to see baby Hazel!!! That was so awesome haha I love you guys and miss you!!! 

 

There's nothing like getting to see your missionary smile and laugh!

Mikey and Elder Nau 

This was a little bit of a more challenging week. I felt as if I was in a little bit of a lull after being in Mingo Valley for so long now with Elder Nau and it can be discouraging to teach these same people and have them not ever end up showing up to church or anything. I think we just need to re-evaluate who we are going to go see and I need to be a lot better at finding people to teach.

We saw some awesome miracles still this week though. One of them was our new investigator Danielle. She stopped some missionaries and said she needed some prayer in her life. She is probably in her late 20's early 30's and she has two kids one of them is 8 and the other is a newborn. Her story is pretty sad and has left her wondering about spiritual things quite a bit. Her fiance' passed away a couple of years ago right before their marriage and she is struggling to find purpose and comfort with life. It was so awesome to show her scriptures from the Book of Mormon that just brought her so much peace. My favorite chapter from Preach my Gospel and my favorite thing to teach people out here is the section "The Book of Mormon Answers Questions of the Soul." It is so true. God didn't leave us to just wander around this planet with no instructions. The scriptures are literally all the answers. The hard part is just that they weren't written topically haha also that is a blessing though because it inspires us to have to search!!! Danielle is awesome and she already has made an awesome friend in one of our awesome members, Sister Oakley!!! We are excited for her future and I think she has really been prepared to join the church.

I was reviewing one of my all time favorite talks this week from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf entitled, "In Praise of Those Who Save." I love this talk so much and I have been trying to apply the teachings into my life. Often times as a missionary it is easy to get into like a negative mode and then pretty soon you realize how much you hate this and that about missionary work. This is all just because of your mindset though. Hence the scripture "seek and ye shall find." So in all the situations I face I am trying to apply President Uchtdorf's teaching of "pull out the weeds and plant the garden." I hope to be able to feed and nourish the happy parts of my life and seek for the good qualities in others always. Rather than looking at other people and what bugs you about them, why not look at them and see all the things that you love about them. Whatever you are looking for you will find. :) 

That talk was given to the priesthood about saving marriages, and saving families. I am so grateful for the family that I was given on this earth. I loved talking to them so much yesterday! Especially for my Mama! I love you Mama. Thank you for raising me and teaching me the gospel and so many things that I never even realized. Thank you for all the hours at the gym and ballparks :)  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Thank you to all you mothers everywhere. Me and all my friends have such awesome moms and I am very grateful for Jackie, and Dana, Lori, Valerie, Sherrie, Jodi, etc... I could go on and on about how many awesome people I have in my life that I am so grateful for.  Especially my mama who gave me such awesome opportunities in this world by her own hard work and faith and all the amazing characteristics she exemplifies. My mama having raised three boys loves the story about the stripling warriors. She has her own little army of helaman in her home haha sometimes more like a bunch of Laman and Lemuels haha but I know that me and my brothers do not doubt that our mother knew it!  I just love my family they are so awesome and I love my awesome friends/adopted family that I got to say hi to yesterday! I just love you all haha 
 

 

Mikey with his arm around me haha

Elder Green

remember Jacob 6:12 - from Parker Green 

“O be wise; what can I say more?”

WEEK 16 TULSA (WEEK 36 OF MISSION)

Tornado in Tulsa???

Hey there fellow friends and fam!

Another good week out here in T-Townnnnnn!!! 

First things first. Everybody is safe and okay from the tornado. I don't believe even one person was killed or injured in it! It was super weird to be in my first one. haha I was on an exchange that day with Elder Christensen, my district leader, and me and him are good friends and we were having a good ole time watching the weather and we were laughing because all day everybody was saying, “OH THE TORNADO WILL BE CRAZY...” and seriously it was the most mild weather day ever, so we were outside laughing and making fun of everybody...when it hit lol  The wind picked up in about .2 seconds and it started pouring.  The zone leaders called and told us to go pick up Mingo Valley, (Elder Nau and Elder Ashby) haha because they were on bikes so we sped down in the craziest wind and rain storm, picked them up and then got to the stake center to take shelter until the storm passed. It was way weird to be out past 10:30 haha but it all calmed down. The tornado was the closest its ever been to hitting Mingo Valley is what all the locals were saying.  They’ve never seen one so close to home... 

Mikey and Elder Christensen all prepped and ready for the tornado!

Taking cover at the Stake Center during tornado!
"Get behind me ladies I got this."

ANOTHER scare this week came Monday night after P-day.  We had received a call from our recent convert, Carmel, that she was going to go into surgery and needed a blessing. So Brother Cardenas picked us up and we headed to downtown to see her. When we got there she was asleep, so we shook her... no response. We asked the nurse to please come try... no response. We started to get a little worried. I have never seen somebody so asleep before. Finally her eyes opened. But things took a turn for the worse. She sat in her bed like paralyzed. I was holding her hand and Elder Nau was trying to get her to talk. She just had tears running down her face with no expression at all. One of the weirdest experiences of my life! The doctors rushed around doing every test you could imagine and she just sat there unresponsive. Finally, when there was a break in the rushing of doctors we went over and put our hands on her head and gave her a blessing. That night we didn’t get home until around 12AM. Yesterday, we saw Carmel, in her home, doing great. Haha it is so crazy the Lord has a plan for this woman I know it with all my heart haha. She had had a minor stroke and fell into a coma. What a blessing she had called us when she did because if not the doctors probably would have let her sleep through the night and never would have caught the stroke etc... I was very humbled by this experience.

Willow was baptized Saturday. It went awesome the spirit was so strong and we are very happy for her and her family!

Justin committed to be baptized on the 14th of May, and we are extremely excited for him. We found Justin one day after not one person had opened the door while we tracted. He was carrying some laundry, we said hi, and now he is going to be baptized! So awesome!

I have been studying a lot of the bible trying to build my knowledge to better answer the questions from the bible belt. I have received such a comforting and confirming witness that Christ loves us all, it doesn’t matter if you are Mormon, Catholic, Muslim, Baptist. Christ loves us and he wants us all to love him and follow him. I know that Christ has restored his power to the earth in these last days. I hope to bring the blessings that come with it to whoever I can. Love you all!!! 

Elder Greeeennnnnn  

Tornado Selfie.
Does he think that helmet will save his life or what???

WEEK 15 TULSA (WEEK 35 OF MISSION)

GRINGO VALLEY

Fam and Friends!!!!!! Hi!!! hope all is well with all ya’ll back home.

Young Women's Personal Progress Project Dinner

Getting spoiled taking home a ton of leftovers!!!

Your usual week full of miracles... I will start with the highlight and main event. Soooo, Freddy was scheduled to be baptized on this Saturday and we had a meeting set up for Friday night.  I was on an exchange Friday night so me and Elder Ashby pulled up to the Freddy's home planning on having an awesome lesson and getting everybody super excited about the baptism.  When we got there though, Freddy was called in to work and grandma Joanne sat down with us and told us that Mikey (Freddy’s dad) was not doing very well. Mikey and Freddy were both shot outside of a gym a couple months ago and Mikey was shot 4 times in the waist and he is still feeling the affects. I was afraid that Mikey would not be able to make it to the baptism because he couldn’t walk on Friday night. So we knelt in the their home and gave a prayer and asked for a blessing on Mikey. Saturday came around and here comes Mikey walking with Freddy into the church. I was so grateful for my Father in Heaven and I know miracles have not stopped. The heavens are still open to us today. Mikey baptized Freddy and it was so awesome! I was so happy for them. The next day on Sunday Mikey was in the hospital and couldn’t be there for Freddy's confirmation. I just thought it was super cool that the Lord blessed Mikey with the strength to baptize his son. So awesome!!!

Earlier that same day me and Elder Ashby were walking away from an appointment that cancelled on us. We got to the car and Elder Ashby said, hey that lady back there smiled at me when we walked by lets go talk to her. So we went back with a Book of Mormon. When we got there the lady smiled and I started my spiel. A confused look came over her face and I thought to myself oh no she hates us, hahaha. Then she said it, "No habla English.” hahahaha I had no idea how to reply... then it happened. Somehow me and Elder Ashby both only having minor Spanish classes in high school started communicating with her. And For no reason at all I remembered a Spanish Book of Mormon wedged in the back window of the car. I ran and grabbed it thinking I better run or else this random Spanish I can remember right now will escape my mind haha.  So I came running back and we read the introduction with her and she really loved it and we set up an appointment for the Spanish elders to come back. Me and Elder Ashby both walked away laughing and chest bumping, it was sooo cool haha Elder Ashby especially. He did a lot of the talking and it was amazing. I was thinking about the scripture in D&C and the promise from the Lord to give us in the very hour what we should say. I know that is true especially after my spiritual witness I had this past week.

Lately I have been studying the Bible and Christ-like attributes. My favorite is Charity. I plead for charity every morning before I start my day. I do not have this characteristic yet but I really want to. I have noticed all of my favorite people in this world are people that care about others more than themselves. There was a quote I think Elder Nau told me this week and it was something like, "If you’re only looking for yourself you will most likely never find you. You have to lose yourself before you can truly find yourself."  I love that so much! I was extremely worried about changing on my mission into a different person and tried to fight it. How dumb was I haha. I needed to just realize that if I can lose myself in the people out here and learn charity, I will end up finding the person the Lord truly wants me to be somewhere down the line. I pray we can all lose ourselves helping others. The Savior always looked outward when the natural man looks inward. I love the examples I have in my parents of charity and also my grandparents, siblings, friends, etc... I love you all. Thank you for always helping me. I have gained such a larger appreciation for the people I had in my life now that I don’t have them hahaha!  I love you all.

ps thank you Grandma and Grandpa Green!!! I loved your letter this week.  I love and miss you guys!  And mama I loved the picture of Grandpa Reynolds on the planner covers!!! I have two sets of awesome grandparents. I am blessed to have two on earth to look out for me and two in spirit paradise to walk with me on my mission <3 love you all!

The Planner Cover he is talking about ;)

Elder Green

(Meek)^2

WEEK 14 TULSA (WEEK 34 OF MISSION)

Mingo Valley Monstarz

friends and families back home what is goinnnggg on??? 

 

The District

Another beautiful week out here in the city of Tulsa!!!! This week was super good and awesome. The highlight would have to be getting to see Brian be baptized on Friday night! I don’t know if I have ever met a better guy than Brian. haha  When one of your investigators can quote several general conference talks after investigating the church for a month you know you are blessed haha. It is extremely humbling to see people change there lives and see how quickly the spirit works. haha on Sunday during sacrament Brian wasn’t there to receive the Holy Ghost and we were sooo worried and then like 20 minutes into sacrament he walked in and the Bishop stood right up and we gave him the Holy Ghost haha it was kind of funny. Church Humor (so not actually funny but funny because I am a missionary and so I thought it was funny) Annnnnnnyyywayyys Brian is awesome he is already looking towards the temple. We just need him to marry his girlfriend Jordyn already, haha she is awesome too I got to meet her at his baptism!!!

 

Elder Nau, Brian, and Mikey

"Action Shot"

Out here in what some might call "the bible belt" we have to deal with a whole lot of hatred and people that really want to tear us down. This past week we had several rather bad experiences with these people. Dealing with this has really led me to appreciate my savior Jesus Christ. Whenever my heart feels burdened with the weight of these hateful peoples’ words I often think of the Savior with the Pharisees or all the events leading to the atonement and crucifixion. I hope to be able to bear my burdens with somewhat of a resemblance of how are Savior bore his and all of ours. My thoughts quickly turn to what the lord told the young prophet Joseph in liberty jail when he asked how long his afflictions would last. The lord replies, the son of man hath descended lower than all, art thou greater than he? The previous verse is the one that brings comfort D&C 122:7, I know that all the things I go through are for my experience and the lord will consecrate them for my benefit and gain. The words of Elder Holland have been stuck in my head all week long, when talking about missionary work in comparison to the atonement, "why should it be easy for you, when it was never easy for him?" I love that. I have seen so many of you, my best example being my mom, as she was bearing the burden and grief of losing her parents and the Christlike way in which she handled that. Or the strength of my older brother and dad in their missionary service as examples to me that with the Lord we can get through all hard things. So before we turn our backs on the Lord in our trials remember that he had it rougher than all of us, so look to him and he will heal you. 

Thank you all for your examples to me throughout my life. I want to be more like my Savior! If you are having a hard time right now with feeling not good enough for the standards God has set go listen to Elder Holland’s concluding talk of this past April General Conference Sunday evening session. He will word it a lot better than me. I know that we are all good enough for God's grace. It is sufficient for us all. My prayer is we all strive to help ourselves and others all use the atonement more in our lives! Sorry for this sermon haha "brevity is the soul of wit", so I guess I have some work to do still haha love you all

Elder greeeennnnnn 

WEEK 13 TULSA (WEEK 33 OF MISSION)

MEEK AND NAU STILL IN MINGO???

Hello everybody!!!

Well transfer calls have been made and I will be doing another 6 weeks out here with Elder Nau in Mingo Valley!!! Pretty crazy I have never heard of somebody being with the same companion for 3 transfers!!! So it is pretty awesome. I am super excited because with the upcoming baptisms that we both have worked so hard for it would have stunk to have seen one of us not get to see them through.

 

We got to take Sam to dinner this week.
He enters the MTC Wednesday.
He's been serving a two-week Mini Mission
with Mikey and Elder Nau before heading out to
his mission in Tuscon, AZ.

Elder Nau's dusty shoes.
Hey good to see they have a vacuum!

Mikey's dusty shoes from the dusty streets of Oklahoma!

This week was a little bit of a longer one for me. I was battling through a little bit of strep throat throughout the week and I hate strep throat more than anything else. I was praying and praying to get over it and I was going to go to the doctor until Saturday morning their was a baptism going on for the New Haven ward and all the missionaries were going to be there so I decided to just ask for a blessing from basically the whole zone. I felt like I was in pretty good hands getting a blessing from 7 missionaries. It was so awesome. I did not stand up to a miraculously healed throat but rather to healed spirits and could go about the day being happy and joke around again. I am almost completely healed at this point!

Fred and his dad, Mikey, both were interviewed this week and Mikey is now ready to baptize Freddy. I am so honored to get to see this happen. Just like a month earlier both of these people were robbed and shot and now they will enter the waters of baptism to make these sacred covenants! Just so awesome I am so happy!!! Also Brian and Willow are ready for baptism just working out scheduling problems! I am so excited for them all!!!

Thank you for all of your prayers and love!! I have been blessed with such awesome people in my life. I have realized like how big of an impact family and parents play in our lives. It has made me soo much more grateful for my parents and also grown my desire to want to be the best dad I can be some day for my future family. It can be sad to see a whole bunch of awesome kids whose parents aren't involved in their lives out here. You almost can’t even blame the kids for the things they do. I appreciate so much the emphasis the church has on families and I know they are eternal through the blessing of the priesthood in holy temples. I love you all have a great week

Elder Green

WEEK 12 TULSA (WEEK 32 0F MISSION)

"When your grandparents ask you to take a selfie of them!"

hahaha who else loved when Dieter F. Uchtdorf was just up there cracking jokes this weekend haha ohhh man what an awesome, awesome week we have had!!!

He called this, "Easter Swag."  I sent him this tie in  his package.

 

He called this picture, "Bunnies!"  haha
These were in his package too.  We knew his feet would look hilarious in these!

This week our dear friend, Sam Edmondson, left to Utah to go to conference and then the MTC for his mission. He has been out here on a mini mission with us and is an awesome kid. He went over to my house actually haha.  He called me after he left and he was like, "Your dog is sooooo flufffy!!!!" haha Ted always trying to steal the show. Nothing new there. 

 

Mikey's last cut on Ole Sammy Boi!
When Sam came to our house I was thinking how nice is
hair looked and had no idea Mikey had cut it!

hmmm on other news let’s see haha yes I did experience my first tornado and yes I did disobey all council from everybody and go take pictures and look at it hahaha. When the tornado was hitting and the sirens were going off me, Elder Nau, and Sam were picking up some food at this bomb mexican taco van thing. We were in an area of Tulsa that is coined "little Mexico" because it is just that haha.  Nobody speaks English.  But anyways yes a pretty big tornado hit and we were sitting outside eating our tortas haha  We had to go back to the house though because everybody was clearing the streets so we figured we better do the same. No missionaries were hurt thankfully and it hit northern Tulsa pretty crazy!!!

 

Looking at the gathering clouds of the tornado while eating their tortas.

This is what I (Emily) saw on Twitter!

Man another awesome week full of miracles.  We have some upcoming baptisms of a man named Brian, who is just an awesome dude and he basically teaches us when we go to see him haha and an awesome girl from a part-member family named Willow! Super excited for both of them.

How could I not talk about conference!!! As a missionary I feel like I love every session of conference so much I can barely even distinguish something that sticks out haha. I loved the overall theme and message that was displayed which to me was a lot about love. I wish I could teach as simply and powerfully as our awesome leaders. I love Elder Holland so much! A lot of my testimony comes from listening to him and his closing talk was so awesome. I would like to say that I am beginning to feel a sliver of what the Savior felt I think. I love the people of Tulsa so much and more than anything I can feel how much the Savior loves them.  I know that God loves all of you reading this as well!! I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Green