WEEK 11 ROGERS (WEEK 92 OF MISSION)

Hello everybody! Hope you had a great week our week was really interesting haha.  

Mikey with an old friend who is back in the mission selling pest control.
Maybe he can help control the chiggers this year!

So we had the chance to go to the temple this week, of course it was wonderful and I really had some sacred spiritual experiences.  I actually took my first family name ever to!!!  I have caught that spirit of Elijah.  I was able to start with baptism and go all the way through the temple for my 6th great uncle on my mom's side!  How cool huh? 

Also this week was very good as far as teaching goes. We have some very solid investigators that continue to amaze me!  Carl is doing great.  He came out teaching with us last night and Mely is awesome she was just called to be in the Relief Society Compassionate ServiceS.  I am so proud of both of them. 

 

Elder Leavitt with cute Marshallese kids.

This past week we were going to this Marshallese Family Home Evening that is held for our ward that has been organized and it was supposed to be the first week that it was held actually.  We have been working hard preparing for it.  However, there was a bump this week because it was one of the girl’s birthday parties on Saturday haha so instead of having FHE we got invited to a Marshallese party.  How can you say no to that right?  So we rushed to Walmart and bought the girl a volleyball because she loves volleyball.  The party was not like any party I had ever been too.  It started with a prayer and the father stood up before all these people and told his daughter how much he loved her, then he personally thanked God for letting the missionaries be in his home.  Then they served us a huge dinner and treated us like kings!  They are such awesome people, then there was singing and birthday cake and gift giving and then all the sudden this man said something in Marshallese and everybody turned and was just staring at me hahaha this is so funny but anyways all the kids who translate for us are like, “Elder Green its your turn to dance... I am like dance???” haha.  So anyway here I am standing up in an apartment complex full of Marshallese people and they are all waiting for me to dance.  I was not sure if they wanted me to do like a traditional dance or something but then they drop a beat on these huge speakers and it was JuJu on that Beat hahaha and when life gives you lemons ya know... so anyway long story short I hit that juju on the beat and everybody was dying laughing etc. it was sooo funny and they all were videoing so anyway if the video "mormon missionary juju's on that beat" goes viral I will be very embarrassed!

 

This guy wasn't quite ready for church haha.
That's a box of beers.

Haha well anyway, I love the work and had a great week! I hope you all have a fun Memorial Day!!! 

Elder Green

WEEK 10 ROGERS (WEEK 91 0F MISSION)

Hello everybody!!! Another great week out here in Rogers!

Things have really picked up with our finding and last week we had tons of miracles.  We had 3 exchanges with zone leaders last week and they always bring a strong spirit of finding and that helped us a lot. 

Carl is still doing great, as well as Mely.  They are both solid as a rock and Carl now has the Aaronic Priesthood and Mely is awaiting her first calling!

A cool story from this week that isn’t very significant but just really opened my eyes was we are teaching a lot of Marshallese people and a lot of kids who are not members, one of whom is named Mercy.  She is 17 and pretty shy and I think maybe nervous about speaking English because she is still learning.  But she always wants us to come teach her and is really sweet about us teaching.  Well the other day while we were all sitting in the grass having a lesson, a white girl was kind of hovering around wanting to listen but feeling awkward (she may have even had disabilities) but Mercy made the effort to go and tell her that she was welcome to come listen to the missionaries and she did all of this while holding paper towels to her mouth that was bleeding because she had to have all of her teeth pulled.  It was a tender moment.

We have so many people we are working with and so many that are Marshallese.  I really do love the Marshallese people and culture.  They believe that everybody should share everything they have and they really live by it.  Every home we enter gives us something before we leave. 

Our ward is doing great and Bishop Gubler is so awesome.  They are always looking for solutions and ways to help us rather than just getting annoyed with investigators’ lack of commitment etc.  We are so grateful for them.

Love you all,

Elder Green

WEEK 9 ROGERS (WEEK 90 OF MISSION)

"I was slapped by a little Marhsallese girl....with a piece of pizza!"

Hello friends and family!!!!!

This week was another great week here in Rogers.  We have ramped up our exchanges to 3 exchanges a week so we have a lot of work that gets done and we are extremely grateful for the zone leaders that come in and help us so much.

We have had a lot of success working with the Marshallese people here in Rogers.  They are a very loving people and they all are familiar with the Mormon culture because they all have been to the Mormon church in the Marshall Islands.  We have had a lot of awesome experiences and this week 34 islanders returned to church!  It was a huge blessing and we saw the Lord's hand a lot.  Our ward is so great and they helped with rides, invitations etc. 

Carl is doing great.  He received the priesthood yesterday and I am so proud of him.  He comes to church faithfully even though he may have a hard time getting there etc.  I love that kid

Mely is great as well, she is such a great leader and we are blessed to have her in our ward and in my life.

We received an amazing referral that we are so excited about from a bishop in Salt Lake. He sent us a referral for a couple, Barbie and Steve.  They have been to Temple Square and sacrament meetings etc.  They seem just awesome and we are excited to teach them. 

There were a lot of miracles this week.  I saw the Lord’s hand many, many times.

Tommy, Mikey, and Mikey ;)

Happy Mother’s Day everybody!!!  It was so good to talk to my friends and family yesterday and I have the most amazing mom!  I love you Mama.  Thanks for all that you do for me!!!  I don’t know what this world would be like without my mom <3

Love you all,

Elder Green

WEEK 8 ROGERS (WEEK 89 OF MISSION)

HEYYYY how is everybody doing???  I hope everybody has recovered from Parker’s wedding haha.  I of course was sad to miss it but I am so happy for Park and Jenna and happy that my cardboard cutout could be there to support haha!!  Also Happy Birthday to Park tomorrow!!!!!  I miss you bro and hope your day is great out in Texas!! 

 

Mikey at the wedding with Aubrey, Anna, and Colton!

This week was a really good week.  We had two exchanges with the zone leaders from Bentonville and Fort Smith and they were both such great days with great missionaries. 

 

Zone Conference.  Looks like Mikey and his Comp said something pretty funny haha!

The highlight of the week would have to be of course Carl's baptism.  The whole $quad came out to see it haha.  All the young men in this ward are great and they are a very close group that just really support and help each other!  Carl is a great addition to our ward and is progressing so quickly.  He is going to come out to teach with us this Tuesday!  I am so grateful to have met him.

Carl's Baptism.
Dusty,Carl's friend who baptized him,
 Elder Leavitt, Mikey & Carl.

The $quad at Carl's Baptism!

The next really cool miracle that happened this week is that we were tracting this huge apartment that is just full of Marshallese people!  I didn’t know this but about everybody in the Marshall Islands has been taught by missionaries haha.  The church is huuuge over there so everybody knows who we are.  Unfortunately not a whole lot of them want to commit to putting away cigarettes etc.  Well we were tracting and having a lot of success in finding people actually.  We found a lot of members just nobody that really still wanted to be active.  Well flash forward to a door we knock on.  A woman comes out and says that she has been praying for us to come knock on her door.  Her name is Li-badeo Aidrickdrick.  She came to church the next day and her husband is coming soon from the island and they hope to be sealed soon!

But I love you all and hope you have a great week.  Remember the Lord rewards effort.  I know that is true I have seen it countless times.  The Lord rewards effort, even when the fruits are not seen.

Elder Green 

WEEK 7 ROGERS (WEEK 88 OF MISSION)

"Love it or Leavitt"

Well, Well, Well look who we have here my new companion Elder Leavitt.  He is just a city slicker from Moapa Valley, Neveda!  Just outside the Las Vegas area.  He has been out one transfer longer than I have so he goes home awfully soon but he is a great guy and I knew him long before this transfer from when I was in Tulsa etc.  We are having a lot of fun and seeing success and God’s hand often!

 

Mikey and Elder Leavitt "after hours."

Missionaries!

Deep deep thoughts!

Okay some wild things that have happened was that ever since Elder Leavitt got here it hasn’t stopped raining.  It was so bad it caused some pretty serious flooding and even cancelled Carl's baptism and church on Sunday. So that was a bummer.  But things are good everybody is okay.  The ward is all okay.  There were many trees broken though and quite a few people affected.  I was surprised.

Updates: Mely, fantastic.  We love her so much, she is the sweetest woman ever.  She takes such good care of us and everybody and she is going to be receiving a calling next week.  Since our church was cancelled she even drove out to Bentonville yesterday to take the sacrament with us during one of the meetings.

Carl: doing so great!  He was all set for baptism and then the rain hit.  But it was good because the ward was a little scrambled getting all the baptism stuff set up so it will be good to have it next week.

Last night we went out with Brother Duncan who is in the bishopric and he is so cool.  He speaks Swahili so we had an instant connection there.  But anyways we had some appointments with him and even walked in on a huge Pohnpeiian birthday party it was awesome!  The islanders have really been coming along and we are so grateful for all of them.

Today we went over to teach the Schureman family and we watched a video about gratitude from the Prince of Peace Initiative.   It hit me hard and I realized that we all need to focus on "living in the blessing" that this video talks about, rather than look to where our lives our lacking.  We need to just live in the blessing that God has given us!

Love you all,

Elder Green

WEEK 6 ROGERS (WEEK 87 OF MISSION)

HELLO!  How are you doing? 

So this week was transfer week which meant a whole bunch of office work for me and Elder Henderson but that is okay it was still a lot of fun and we still got to teach in the evenings.  It was pretty complicated figuring out the transfer loop and everything.

 

Oh us??? Nothing much just chilling in islanders' homes.  WBU?

The District.

Well anyway a couple of cool updates.  Mely is doing awesome and she is leading the islanders as well as her family, and her son and daughter-in-law have really started taking the gospel seriously and I see great things in their future. 

 

Carl :)

The Squad.  Castie, George, Carl, Mile, Nev and Elder Henderson.

Carl's Haircut.

Carl is going to be baptized this Saturday!!!  So awesome.  He is going to be baptized by one of his good friends in the ward that recently came back to church his name is Dusty and his family is one of my favorite families and they are one of the coolest stories.  Long story short their family consists of a single dad with 9 kids all within the ages of 1-18 and they all have decided to come back to church and they are just awesome.  Carl is leading all of his Marshallese friends and has one of the most sincere hearts I have seen my whole mission and he is only 15 but he is determined to be at church every Sunday and mutual every Wednesday and to also make sure his friends are all going.  Most of his friends were baptized in the Marshall Islands and haven’t been to church since they have come to America.

Also I got to be with Elder Roberts this week as well as Elder Degooyer.  I love them both and it was so good to be with them!!!  They are both such leaders and good examples to me I am grateful for them both.

Mikey and Morgan DeGooyer his buddy from BHS football.

Look at this guy in my car.

Look at this guy in my apartment.

Mikey and his old comp Elder Roberts.

Bittersweet news, Elder Henderson will be transferred to Branson and Elder Leavitt will be coming in to take his place.  Elder Leavitt is one of my closest friends in the mission and I am so excited to be with him.  Elder Henderson will be missed.

 

New Comp Elder Leavitt, Degooyer, Henderson and Mikey.

I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and a quick thing that I learned this week was that in all our life what matters is our intent.  Having full purpose of heart or real intent will unlock the powers of heaven.  I really like a scripture from Jacob: "But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.  And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them.  And ye will seek them for the intent to do good.  To clothe the naked and to feed the hungry and to liberate the captive."

Insert whatever you desire into that scripture and then see if it is taking place of your seeking the kingdom of God and realign your will with Heavenly Father's.

Love you all,

Elder Green

Healing Process!

WEEK 5 ROGERS (WEEK 86 OF MISSION)

HELLO!!!!!!!! Hope you all had a very hoppy easter and had a great time thinking about our living lord and also spending some family time!! 

Well, we had a great week with two exchanges and a lot of events and a lot of busy people because of the easter season. All the big mega churches put on big events etc. and a lot of people doing family things and so it was a very busy week. 

We continue to work a lot with the islanders in the area and we really love and appreciate their sincere and believing hearts. The members have been very key in this as well. This past week we had 8 investigators show up to young mens haha it was so awesome the young men in our ward are such a great group of kids and the coolest thing is is that a lot of them just returned back to activity a couple of months ago and are already sharing the gospel. We even had some of our investigators go on scout camp this past weekend and have a blast and they are very excited about their baptismal date for the 29th of this month! 

Mely is doing so awesome and their was a really cool even this week at the church where families from the community could come and have some fun family time, playing games, eating lunch, and learning about building strong families and family history etc. It was called FAMILY STRONG and we helped with jumping rope for the kids a bean bag toss blowing bubbles etc. It was a great day. 

It can be kind of weird because with all the exchanges we are always on sometimes I wont be able to go out and even meet some of the investigators and it just so played out that an investigator I had never even taught before came to church this sunday. As well as quite a few Less active families and we recently had some more islander families move in and it was such a special moment to hear them opening up the overflow so that people could fit in the chapel. That is always a good sound as a missionary.

I am super excited because this next week Elder Degooyer and Elder Roberts will be coming down to go on exchanges and it will just be a blast as well as an opportunity to learn from them.

I have had a lot of time to reflect this week about the savior and what his life means and how it applies to me. Something I really love that we have started doing/saying is that before we talk about church or joseph smith or anything we first teach about the savior. My favorite thing to teach people here in the bible belt where the death of jesus christ is well known and talked about I love to share the less talked about truth that christ lives today, the tomb is empty, his voice is again heard on the earth!

I would like to close with the words to a childs hymn that was sung in sacrament that has now become an all time favorite

Jesus climbed the hill
To the garden still
His steps were heavy and slow
Love and a prayer
Took Him there
To the place only He could go

Gethsemane
Jesus loves me
So He went willingly
To Gethsemane

Mikey didn't send us this picture of his swollen ankle, but Aubrey texted it to me.  He hurt it at a trampoline place.