Greetings Greene Family,
May I just start with a big thank you to all who sent me letters or emails for my Birthday. It still hasn't hit me at all that I will turn 21 this week but we'll see. I'm grateful for all the prayers and testimonies that have been given to help me and our investigators. I love you all! Well I must say that your 90 degree comment mom made me a leetle jealous. It's 37 degrees outside right now and it was snowing in the northern part of our area. Ridiculous. Your comments about the temple made me really excited for there to be a temple there in Gilbert. It looks amazing from the pictures I've seen.
I'm really sad to hear about Todd passing away. I loved Brother Smith, he was my scout leader when I was younger. I was actually thinking about him and wondering how he was doing the other day because we passed by a map store and I remembered that he worked in a map store. Let his family know that I'm sorry and that I'll be praying for them.
Well we actually did kinda celebrate my birthday yesterday. We went to Baltimore by bus! It was way sweet. Elder Green and I ate at Cheesecake factory for lunch as a gift to myself and then we went to all our favorite spots in the hood. I took some good pics. It really did kinda feel homey to be back and just roam around. (Elder Green and I both started in the same area so we both knew where we were going and what we wanted to do). But when we got back I was a little down. Being in Columbia makes you forget how sad life is down there in that city. I meditated a lot about God's plan for us last night and this morning. I really do know that God's plan is perfect, and that even though the world may seem like utter chaos sometimes, he is in control. I'm grateful that all men and women will have a chance to hear of this gospel.
Having Elder Carlson in our mission this week was amazing. He gave amazing instruction to us that I plan on using for the rest of my mission and afterwards. We talked a lot about consecrating ourselves. I really liked that and it's given me more desire to try harder and to sacrifice more. Another great comment he made was,"How can you expect to convince and testify of the Plan of Happiness if you never smile? Lets get it together people, Smile!" Hahah, how true that is. Elder Carlson is an amazing man and was serving as a 11 year old primary instructor when he was called! It's incredible how God works.
Well this week we had an awesome activity where families of the branch brought investigator families over for dinner and then we all came together at the church to watch Finding Faith in Christ and drink hot chocolate. The activity was a huge success and we had 7 investigators, 3 less actives and some of their under baptismal age kids. The Spirit was amazing and it helped a ton because the next day at Sacrament meeting 5 of the 7 investigators came to church. 3 are in the Hermana's area but the other 2 were Hermano "C" (who also came to clean the building on that same morning, he's a boss) and "D". "D" is the husband (that's Spanish for boyfriend) of a less active. It was such an amazing day. In addition to those two, Hermano "V" came again this week. I really believe he is on his way to being active again in the church!
We had another tender mercy this week as well. We got a call from our Branch President this week. There was a referral sent in from English members that there is a Spanish mormon family where they live, not on record. So we went to check it out. When we got to their house (I should say mansion, this thing was big, definitely not where me and Elder Green are used to going) she let us right in and her husband was there too. They are both older and are from Mexico. They were baptized 15 years ago in Utah and have lived here for 2 months but didn't really know where the chapel was. On top of it all, their son isn't baptized! So they are a new focus and we are super pumped to get to know them and help their son.
We're trying to save some time considering it's Tuesday so I'm cutting it a little shorter. I love you all, thanks for everything.
-Elder Greene
PS Well you are in luck, I actually found out my go-home day this week because we were helping in the office this week and Sister Pascoe was showing us the transfer days. So the next two transfer days are Nov. 20 and Jan. 1. My transfer day is May 7, so I would most likely get home May 8 (they be cutting me a day short of my mission! Not fair at all, hahah).
Hometown of Highlandtown, must have cleaned up trash recently... Bummer
Backyard of old apartment
Studying da bus routes
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