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

WEEK 11 TULSA (WEEK 31 OF MISSION)

"Looking like Boogaloo Shrimp Boyyy"

FRIENDS AND FAMMM WHAT IS UP????

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL

What a week what a week!!!

Carmel got baptized!!!!! So crazy, because of certain circumstances we got word on Friday night that Carmel might have to wait until the next week to be baptized. We talked to President and he said he wanted to pray about it. The next day at 11 o’clock we got the call to go ahead with it haha so we rushed everything and everybody to the stake center for the baptism at 1:00 haha only for us to get there and walk into a wedding that somebody forgot to schedule on the calendar. So we went to the New Haven building and their font is in like the basement and we had to run around to get everything set up and fill the font. Then President actually showed up there haha clear from Bentonville to see our baptism. It was so cool just like a crowded room of people and Carmel there in her wheelchair and everybody being there to support her. Instead of me baptizing Carmel or Elder Nau, we gave the opportunity to Sam from our ward who will leave on his mission here in a couple days, and then Elder Nau went in their to help Carmel walk because she only has 1 leg.  It was such an amazing happy moment to watch!!!

 

Everybody right before the baptism.

Sam, Elder Nau, Mikey and Carmel.

My title thIs week comes from a quote from one of our investigators, Kevin haha. We met him playing basketball but he now desires to be baptized and wants to serve a mission he says. We were talking to him about what kind of girl he wants to marry and he said, "You know I need a girl that is finnnne ya know? Can’t be marrying nobody that looks like boogaloo shrimp ya hear me??" haha I have no idea what that means but I hope I don’t look like a boogaloo shrimp.

With Easter this week of course I reflected a lot on my Savior. I love him, I know he lives, he loves all of us. I thought about how merciful our Heavenly Father was to give us a savior. My thoughts turned also to my sweet mama and her parents. I know we will all be together again someday and all the hard things about this frail mortal existence will be perfected through the Savior. I thought a lot about my best friend Colt that all of you know so well, and how his sweet little sister was taken by somebody else’s decision. I do not understand the exact reasoning but I do know that because of Jesus Christ he will be with her again someday and we all will be resurrected just as our Savior was 2000 years ago. The Savior lives, he is off the cross and the tomb is empty. He guides this church today! Hallelujah!!!! 

WEEK 10 TULSA (WEEK 30 OF MISSION)

"Not tonight, Not tonight"

Hey family and friends!!!!! 

Man what a week what a week haha.  Sooo we will start with the sad.

So Saturday when we pulled up to pick up Tim and the family for the baptisms. They weren’t home. We looked everywhere for them and then as me and Elder Nau sat in front of the font quite sad and defeated, we got a call from their aunt and she yelled at us and told us that she doesn’t want us talking to her family... So back to square one, haha and to add insult to injury somebody still had to pull the plug in the font hahaha so I was trying to pull it out with a long stick and slipped and stepped into the water and soaked my shoe lol.

The good: The good definitely outweighed getting stood up at the font this week haha and after the whole non-baptism fiasco we went to the wedding of our recent convert Whitney.  I sloshed around the wedding with one soaked left shoe haha. Kind of weird being at a wedding as a missionary. But I felt so proud to see Whitney and Meaghan get married in the church and have their eyes set to the temple and just it was so cool to see them and Whitney is really one of the coolest and most humble and awesome people I have ever met. I love him and that was so cool!!!

 

The Happy Couple!

Another awesome cool thing was our good friend out here and partner in crime, Sam, gave his mission farewell talk. Weird to be a missionary listening to his talk haha I was just thinking to myself, “Oh how you have no idea what you’re about to get into Sam.” hahaha but it is all so much fun!!! 

 

Elder Nau, Sam with a Sour Patch Lei & Mikey

I zoomed in on Mikey's and Sam's shoes in the picture.  Sam's are all shiney and ready to go and Mikey's are a little worn after six months ;)

Carmel (the lady who has been in the hospital receiving dialysis) will be baptized this Saturday, which is awesome.  Also Freddy will be baptized soon. He is the kid that saved his dad’s life in the shooting the other week haha he is so awesome. His dad calls him Super Fred!!! I love them!!!

Everything is super good. I have been studying a ton of the Pearl of Great price lately and my love for the Plan of Salvation is growing a ton. We are so blessed to have the peace of mind of knowing about our purpose and where we are going after this life etc. I can't imagine thinking that all this life is is just earth and then that’s it!  I am so grateful to have all the knowledge I do! I just want to tell everybody. I love my family so much! I have the greatest family. It really hits you hard when like nobody out here has any love in their lives. I appreciate my mama so much more now and everybody should take the time to appreciate those around them.

Love you all!!!

Elder MEEK 

WEEK 9 TULSA (WEEK 29 OF MISSION)

"Don't get Lost in the Sauce"

ay fam and friends back in the blessed 801!!!

What a great and fun week this week!!!! 

This is "Tulsa Grandma."  She calls every morning
and tells them the weather.  She has done it for 30 years!!!
She is not a member, and doesn't like to talk about it. haha

Tulsa is super fun and good haha  This week I went on an exchange to Brookhollow and had a really crazy experience. We are in the bike share with these elders and Elder Nau and I had the car this week so when I went on the exchange I was back on the bikes hahaha and this week we had some of the most insane rain!!  I was with Elder King, we were biking and the craziest rain started to pour down haha me being in my full suit really had no option at that point but just to accept the rain and being wet haha.  My suitcoat was drenched and it was a little awkward going into peoples’ houses like that. I could feel myself changing since normally I would have had a terrible attitude, but Elder King and I both were just laughing so hard and had a really fun time!!!

 

Mikey's feet after the day out in the rainstorm.

Our investigators all made it to church this week and what a tender mercy to see them all in the chapel!  We gave them some white shirts and ties and they all looked so good and happy.  Tim and Melanie should get baptized this Saturday and we are so excited for all of them!!!

We had a really awesome time this week teaching Carmel, who is working to be baptized. However, she has been sooo sick! We have been teaching her in the hospital. Her kidneys are completely failing and so she has to go through dialysis like every single day.  I love seeing her and teaching her.  She only has 1 leg due to some other health problems and is in a wheelchair and she is just the sweetest lady and teaching somebody in the hospital is such a humbling and awesome experience.  Loved that!!!

I love all of you back home!!!  Thank you so much for all the love and support!!! Mama and Aubrey thank you so much for the package!! You guys are the best haha I loved it all!!! I hope you all have a good week and remember the Lord and see his miracles!!!

 

They gave this guy Sam his mission haircut.  He was just called to Tuscon, AZ.
Mikey's comp is teaching him how to cut hair!

Love Elder Green