WEEK 5 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 7 OF MISSION)

"City Slicker"???

Hello fam and friends!!!!!

Mikey with the AP Elder Madsen, who is Morgan 
Degooyer's cousin, visiting Vonny

This picture was texted to me last night
by the Christophersons, members in their branch,
who had them over for dinner ;)

Another good week in the 479! Bella Vista Arkansas is a whacky whacky place. I am doing well though and working hard!

A cool experience to share from this week came within my own heart. It was Tuesday. My least favorite day of the week. It seems like this day is always slow as everybody is back into their work week and after the Sabbath and then P-day it just is always slow. Well, this Tuesday was worse than usual and Elder Hess and I got cancelled on about 3 times. Free time for me as a missionary drives me crazy inside my head because I feel like I’m wasting my time and I cant handle it. It is extremely hard to door knock too out here because their aren't any neighborhoods. So to door knock you have to drive basically from house to house. Anyways I was being really selfish. I quietly sat in the car as we drove around and I felt a wave of like hopelessness or despair almost, as I submitted to the adversary in selfishly feeling sorry for myself. Upon realizing this I bowed my head in an apologetic plead to my Savior and Heavenly Father to help me out here in the middle of nowhere. Right then I look up and past us drives this investigator named Amber. I wave and put on my fake missionary smile hiding my selfishness behind this grin. As we passed her I noticed she had stopped her car. Elder Hess being a lot more valiant than I was this day, immediately flipped around and talked to her. She wanted us to come by that next Tuesday because she has work off and has missed us way bad and has strong desires to become a member... I almost couldn't believe my ears. With a lot of people who are nice to us but just don't think they need our message, for somebody to say that to us at that time I knew my Heavenly Father is so involved with me and I felt so bad for being such a selfish missionary and I am working on improving my attitude! What a blessing though!!! I can't wait to bring our joyful message to Amber and her family!

Something extremely weird that happened this week, as it seems to every week, was that we got a text one night from Brother Messick our Metfield branch clerk saying that he needed us to come over to "slaughter his chickens" ... Me and Elder Hess soon became giddy like little schoolgirls at this chance to do something neither of us has ever done before. So as my title says if anybody reading this has ever dubbed me as a "City Slicker" just check the photos attached to this email...

(Warning: quite graphic)

He looks a little too happy here! haha
If you can't enlarge the pic - Elder Hess is holding the chicken's head!

I love my mission. I am learning a lot. Something that has become clear to me is that I need to be able to teach more simply. I want to tell everybody the gospel so bad I usually end up babbling on about things and getting off topic. I have been practicing learning simple truths. I love the way our apostles teach so simply and I am like a little baby out here as far as teaching goes, and I really have a lot to work on. It is weird when nobody knows about the gospel as apposed to home where most non-members basically know everything about the gospel haha but I love my mission and love my daily struggles!

Hope all is well back home and I love whoever it is reading this

Elder Green!!!

WEEK 4 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 6 OF MISSION)

Black Panther???

Maybe they had to climb up here to get away from a wild animal ;)

This week was whackkkkkky and fun and just another week in the jungle that is Northwest Arkansas. First I will start with some funny things and then tear at your heart strings a little later.

So first as you can see in my title we had a little run in with some animals that aren't really something you would like to run into. So anyways, late on a Wednesday night I had to go into the backyard because I had left something out there. When I walked out there I flipped on the light and saw a huuuuggge cat dart from our porch area into the forest beyond our house. A little startled I told Elder Hess and we laughed and went to sleep. The next day we asked some members if there are any like cougars or whatever in Bella Vista. The answer was always a wide-eyed yesssss! Except the scariest thing is that there are rumors of Black Panthers... Everybody says the only way you can tell that it is a black panther is by the scream it will make that sounds like a child or woman screaming. Sure enough the following night me and Elder Hess lay half asleep around 11 PM when we hear just the scariest woman’s scream ever from behind our house. We both rolled over and looked at each other terrified. We got up to go make sure the back door was locked and whatever only for the scream to happen two or three more times right outside our back porch... The next morning we went out there and found a cracked skull with deer antlers sitting on our back lawn... Haha we have been pretty scared ever since then. Also this week me and Elder Hess chased a coyote away from our house in the car. Haha Arkansas is such a weird place.

 

A walk around the lake with Vonny
Brant, Jocelyn, Elder Hess & Mikey

Anyways a story that I know will tug on the heart strings of all those moms back home that happen to read this haha. My favorite person I have met so far on my mission is the sweetest old lady you have ever met, Vonny! We found her because she is a recent convert and her records for some reason got transferred from the Bentonville ward to ours. So we stopped by and learned that her husband had died around 5 years ago. After that she was in a deep depression she still battles. However, the missionaries found her and baptized her in Bentonville about a year ago. Since her baptism one day at her house she got very sick and fell. When she woke up all she can remember is she was in the hospital. From there they moved her into her son’s house who lives down the street from me and elder hess. Vonny has lost everything and has been helpless for months. She is old and can’t really move around much so everybody has been making decisions for her. When we found her she was laying in a bed in a back room. She was so sad and depressed. The house she is in is kind of crazy with the multiple chain smokers and cats and parrots and multiple families living there. It is a big change from living in her quiet home with her husband. Anyways me and Elder Hess held back tears as Vonny broke down about how much her life has been flipped upside down. So something we did for her recently was, with the help of an awesome member family, carried her out of the house with her oxygen tanks and everything, got a wheelchair and took her on a walk around the lake. It was the first time she had been outside in fresh air in what she described around 4 or 5 months. My heart was so broken for this old lady as I could not imagine having my life turned upside down like that. As I pushed this sweet old lady in a wheelchair around the lake I could feel so much love for her. It reminded me of my grandmother who my sweet mother took such good care of in her later years of life. Vonny just was so wide eyed as she felt some hope come back into her life as she knows that the church is there to take care of her. I pushed her around the two-mile path around the lake and it hit me super hard that life isn't always about doing what you want. Often times on my mission I feel down and out about whatever it is, but the spirit always reminds me through the sweet words of what Vonny said as I asked her if she enjoyed the walk. she looked up at me from her wheelchair and said, "Today was one of the happiest days of my life, thank you so much boys I loved it very much." It made being out here in seriously the strangest place in the whole world one of the happiest days of my life. I love my mission so much and conference was awesome and I have so much to say but I’ll just finish with a quote, "there is no growth in a comfort zone, and there is no comfort in a growth zone." I am not at all the kid I was when I left and I am so grateful! 

love you all have a good week

peace out

WEEK 3 BELLA VISTA (WEEK 5 OF MISSION)

Hello friends and family!!!!

Mikey's Neighbors

Mikey got his haircut at the "Elite Black Barbers Hair Salon!"

The 479 is good and I had another awesome whacky week haha first on the list of things to tell you guys is about an exchange I went on with Elder Thompson. He is my zone leader and grew up on an indian reservation and is awesome and it was so fun. On this exchange we went to teach a guy from his area with the stake patriarch, Patriarch Stout. While in the lesson the guy we were teaching was super cool and had been investigating the church for 2 years!!!!! Whoa huh? He had read all the standard works and like everything Mormon haha and he had prayed and said he received the answer that no the church isn't true. He said this looking right at me and you can imagine the fear as I had no idea what to say or why we were even really there. And then, Patriarch Stout spoke up and asked the man why he even cared to talk to us then? The man’s answer was that he still was seeking truth. Patriarch Stout went on to teach this man (and me) a thirty-minute lesson of how to truly pray and find truth. I was amazed and so glad that such a great and knowledgeable man could be there to pick up where I lacked in knowledge. After Patriarch Stout had brought the man to tears with his spirit he turned to me and asked me to bear my testimony for this man. My heart was racing and after this beautifully worded lesson this man had just given I felt so inadequate. However, I was reminded of Enoch in the book of Moses and how he felt too young and inadequate but the Lord provided. So I opened my mouth and bore the most powerful and humble testimony to this man I ever had, and I have never been so grateful for the spirit than in this moment, as I cared so much for this man's salvation. It was an awesome night.

Mikey got to confirm this cute 8 yr. old girl
named Emmaleigh (pronounced Emily)

Next on Thursday of this past week while doing some service for Sister Currie with Elder Hess, we were cleaning out the rain gutters on her roof and I got something in my eye. I itched and itched but to no relief so I just finished the job as fast as I could. After saying goodbye to Sis Currie I went to go drive and noticed I couldn't see out of my itchy eye. I pulled down the mirror to look at it and ahhhhhhhh!!! Haha there was a huge brown bubble forming on my eyeball haha elder hess saw it and freaked out too. So we asked Sister Currie, who is a nurse, what it was and she said ahhhhhh!!! at the sight and we rushed to urgent care. At urgent care they didn't know what to do so they laid me down and stuck this huge plastic contact thing in my eye, which was almost unbearably uncomfortable, and they flushed out my eye with water for 20 of the longest minutes of my life. I got up after and I was feeling kind of worse haha the guy then scraped off the remaining brown bubble and we left haha kind of weird he didn't say much more but my eye has recovered completely and no further complications haha maybe I should get some goggles.

I love my whacky spiritual mission and love all you back home

love Elder Green

Celebrating Mikey's One-Month Mark

Maybe these two should stay away from fire!!!

"Hess Daddy" Grubbin on the Deck

So happy to get his bedding!!!

WEEK 2 BELLA VISTA, ARKANSAS (WEEK 4 OF MISSION)

WASSSSUPPP friends and fam back home!!!!!

I hope you guys are all doing awesome back in the 801!

Groupie Selfie back at Provo Temple

Some funny stuff first that happened this week. One night me and Elder Hess were working super hard and had a late baptism and everything so we never got a chance to even eat. So a member got us a pizza and we drove back to the place to grub before bed. So the pizza was too cold and we wanted some good food and so we thought we would just throw the pizza and breadsticks in the oven real quick. Elder Hess threw it in and we both went back to the bathroom to get ready for bed. I had a weird impression to go and check on the pizza. I walked out to a flame coming through the oven hahaha. I started yelling elder hess!!! elder hess!!! He came running out all startled and started freaking out too. He then cracked open the oven a little and I heroically threw a bucket of water in and dowsed the flame!!!!! haha We didn’t salvage much pizza from the fire and our house has smelt like smoke the entire week haha it has sucked. hahaha

Now a cool spiritual experience. 

So first we have this man named Marty who has a baptismal date for October 7th. His job has been making him travel a lot and we hadn’t been able to see him in forever. However, last night we got a text from him asking for us to come meet up with him at his place. So we sped up there both pretty pumped to get this guy baptized here soon. When we got there he was being so cool and I love him so much. However, he was really not sure about baptism as we got talking. As soon as he said that a scripture I had been studying popped into my head and so I just asked if we could all read it "Alma 32:21" As I read it and explained that we all are imperfect and none of us know this gospel completely anyways, so if he will just be proactive and act on his faith God will bless him. I didnt really expect or pre-meditate to say any of those things and I know they were exactly what I needed and now Marty is sticking to his date and I hope we can continue to get him feeling of God’s love. 

I love all the people we teach, the faith of the saints out here is so strong and we have a lot of investigators and stay super busy. Which is good Heavenly Father knows me and knows my weaknesses and I am becoming so much stronger and love it here!

I love you guys and I love my companion, it’s all good out here in the 479.   

Study Time at Bella Vista.
Rocking the Destroit Lions shirt Parker sent him
while on his mission in Michigan!

WEEK 1 BELLA VISTA, ARKANSAS (WEEK 3 0F MISSION)

HEYYYYY everybody!!!!

I made it safely eventually to Arkansas after a lot of flight delays etc... but my first area that I have been serving in is called Bella Vista it is in Arkansas and super close to Bentontville. Specifically where I am is a zone called Pea Ridge and Metfield. It has been really good and also really weird. I will tell you guys some quick stories from the week.

So when I first got to the mission home my anxiety was quite high as you can imagine. There were 30 new missionaries there and we weren't sure where we were going or who our trainer would be and I was super stressed and worried that I would hate it out here. The people are all country and have accents and everybody was loud and talking and I was just stressin. So I sat down in a room where I could find some peace and said a prayer to help me feel comfort. In that moment I got the answer instantly that it would be okay and my companion was meant to train me and it was all okay. Right then President Loveland grabbed me for my interview and he was super loving and just made sure I was okay and then told me that my trainer would be Elder Hess!!! So much relief came over me as I knew that he and I would get along so well. He is from Bountiful Utah and is super sweet and he and I would be close friends even if we weren't companions. I know Heavenly Father is in our day to day lives and cares about our stresses and worries.

Mikey and his Comp/Trainer, Elder Hess

Now a short description of where I am. It is freaking the craziest amount of trees you've ever seen and super humid and there’s no such thing as a neighborhood. 

The road leading to Mikey's "dope crib!"

The people here are super cool but also super mean haha door knocking was rough this week. Unfortunately a lot of people here are really old and have lived in their own little house in the woods and don't really appreciate us coming to their doors. But here’s a little story about Saturday that I had. We went to the town famous Squirrel Cook-off in downtown Bentonville. haha and yes... I ate Squirrel hahahhahaha it was okay except for the fact that it was like chewy and I couldn't get like the picture of Chip and Dale out of my mind as I chewed haha but so yes I have already tried roadkill.

Mikey and his ZL, Elder Wilcox, about to dive into some squirrel!

Our house is super ghetto and really quite gross haha there is like a film of spiderwebs and dust like everywhere haha we don't walk around without shoes on and nobody out here can drink the water!!!!!! haha don't do it! It is gross and will make you sick so we have to have bottles of water for everything hahah like brushing your teeth like everything haha but the crib is still dope hahah I will send pics haha but overall It is awesome and I love it haha. Hope everything is good for you guys here is my new address:

67 Westbury Drive

Bella Vista AR 72714

I guess this is a couch made out of two mattresses, oh my!

I can't even tell you how badly I want to
sterilize this sink right now!!!

Mikey's Home Sweet Home

WEEK 2 SMOOTH CHILLIN IN THE MTC

Hello my dear friends and family I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all the help you all have given in preparing me for my mission. I had another really good week and leave for arkansas tomorrow morning at like 7 AM haha 

Spiritual experience from this week, as I was sitting in this computer lab earlier I was doing all these different learning assessments and it had been one of the longest and hardest working days ever haha. As I sat there a girl came running in and said Tanner Mangum threw a hail mary and BYU won. You might have expected me to jump around, and that is what I felt like I should do. However, as I sat there tears filled my eyes and I was overwhelmed with a feeling of sadness and homesickness. This is how the devil works. In this moment my companion for no reason at all just hugged me and it was super different but I know he felt inspired to do it, and like I dont even know how but he knew. He said to me, "Hey elder its okay you’re doing the right thing and it will all be okay and for the best." I love my companion he knew to comfort me in just the right time and I know it’s from all your prayers. Thank you so much.

After a another long day me and my companion sleep-walked into this meeting last tuesday night haha we sat in the very back and were fighting the droopy eyelids haha and then some guy walked up and said hey you two come with me. So we stood up and walked with him right to the front row and then an apostle walked right through the doors haha it was so sweet.  It was Dallin H. Oaks who spoke to us!

Another spiritual experience was me and my companion got one of our TRCs (actor investigators) to commit to baptism this week and it was the weirdest thing to get so happy over something so fake haha. I am so excited to have that real experience in the field even though they might be few and far between I am still so excited!

I cant wait to have a killer time in Arkansas, I love you all have an awesome week.

Elder green

WEEK 1 SMOOTH CHILLIN IN THE MTC

hello family and friends!!!!!! the mtc has been pretty good and Im going to kind of fly through these emails today because ive got a lot of laundry in the load right now haha. I miss everybody at home of course!

I will tell you about the MTC.  The first day I walked in and my escort had no idea what he was doing hahah and they gave me a nametag and let me drop off my stuff and I began walking up to my classroom.  I am all alone,  morgan degoyer got taken to another district and i was pretty devastated hahah.  And then a guy walks in and tells me I have to go to this orientation thing on the computer.  So I step out of my classroom only to meet face to face with who else but Starsvina Matthews!!!!! We both fought back tears in our embrace and with my dork dot (the thing on your name tag that shows its your first day) he started tearing up in telling me just to push through because the first day is hard and that he loves it now and his companion is elder or starsvina or whatever it is in croation haha but elder deluuw who is super nice and i see them nearly everyday and we fight back tears like every time haha its quite embarrassing.  But okay a few short things about me and the MTC.  First I hate the food haha I know I should be more grateful but I really hate it so much hahah  I have eaten cereal for like 20 straight meals now.  But its okay haha.  The basketball here is not the best haha and my room is -20 degrees at night haha so there’s my gripes and now I want to share a spiritual experience with you guys. 

So it was like day three or four and I was about ready to go home and I was being super selfish and feeling sorry for myself with everything and I had lost the spirit that day in my selfishness.  At lunch that day as I hung my head over my soggy cinnamon life cereal sister farley ran up to me and said elder green elder green! sister arrington is having an asthma attack and needs a blessing.  Naturally I got up and walked with her into this tiny room next to the cafeteria where sister arrington was in a chair gasping, like literally gasping for air.  I annointed her with the oil.  She was still panting, so i sealed the annointing and gave her a blessing.  I do not recall anything I said in that blessing.  I said amen and everybody was bawling over the blessing even my companion.  Sister arrington stood up and took just the deepest breath and immediately she broke down saying that the asthma attacks usually take hours to even calm down at all. 

I realized that I need to stop thinking woe is me all the time and from that moment forward there has never been a point in my life that I have grown more.  My entire experience has turned around since I’ve started trying to implement the character of Christ in all that I do.  That is looking outward when the natural man would look inward. I love you all and love this gospel.

love you guys back in sojo. 

Elder meek meek