Work of Salvation

Hey Greene Family!

Well last week sounds pretty rough for you all! Haha, just messing. Although no Char Pit shakes is pretty lame, those slackers. Thanks for the letters Macey and Taggert! It's crazy you all start school so soon. I also can't believe Holden is bigger than Jared, that means I'm probably the shortest... Thank goodness for the Ward cousins who still help me have self esteem. To answer your questions mom, Elder Green is from Bountiful Utah and Columbia is the name of the area, the Branch, the Stake and it is also a city we spend time in. 

Well this week had some pretty awesome miracles! The first one starts with Hno "C", an older man who wanted to buy us dinner. He decided we would go to Costco to get pizza (which for some reason was the 4th day in a row I'd eaten pizza, you'd think I speak English!) So we drive and it takes a while and after we get the pizzas he doesn't sit down. He goes out to the car. He said we were going to eat at the Church. I was getting a little antsy because between driving and ordering this was taking a while and we still wanted to do other things that night. But I just sat tight and we went to the Church, even though none of us have keys to get in. We got there and there were a bunch of cars for an Eagle Court of Honor. So we found a little room and ate with Hermano "C". After 5 minutes or so the Stake President walks in and says, "Elders, everyone at this Court of Honor is not a member, could you go out and talk to them?" So we finished eating and went and it turns out all the people there were Spanish! A young man in the other ward who is Spanish got his Eagle and all his family was there! We met a ton of people and we may have a family night/dinner set up with the boy's non-member mom for this week! God definitely works in mysterious ways.

The other cool miracle came several hours later. We were looking for a less active family but their address didn't exist. So we were looking everywhere for them. It was getting late and we thought maybe we should try someone else before the night was over. But I really felt like we needed to find this family, so we did one more loop around the area. We found a house that had a similar address and decided to go and knock. The father of this family answered and we had an awesome lesson with him and his wife! I know that God wanted us to be there that night and I believe we will be able to help them come back to church, with God's help of course!

Last night we had a General Stake Priesthood meeting and the Elders were asked to go. At first I was a little disappointed because I just wanted to work for the rest of the night. But we went and I'll be honest, I don't think I've ever been to a more powerful Stake meeting. We talked about the Priesthood and missionary work. The Stake President said something (and many other things) that struck me. He said, we need to realize that there isn't missionary work and member work. There is only the Work of Salvation, it is one work and we're all working towards one purpose. I've thought about this a lot on my mission and it's true. Temple work, home and visiting teaching, family night, church meetings, missionary work, member work, callings, and youth programs all have the same "big-picture" goal in mind: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I know that this is Heavenly Father's work and glory, and I feel so blessed to be able to help!

I hope you all have fun these last days of summer (fastest summer of my life)! I love you all!

-Elder Greene