27 April 2009

Good morning family! This was a very interesting weekend that just passed. As Mom mentioned, there is some big virus going around, and everyone is making a huge - huge deal about it. It got serious on Saturday, there were a bunch of people passing out free mouth covers all over the streets and everyone was wearing them. I took a few pics of me with mine on just for fun. It felt like Japan or something. Supposedly 6 people have died and a lot are infected, but I haven't seen anything too serious here in my area.

The people are so scared that they actually cancelled all church meetings late Saturday night. We were supposed to have our stake conference but it was cancelled. Sunday, our DL told us that we need to stay in our house until further notice. It made the weekend a little tough because nobody will even shake your hand on the street, they're all too scared. It didn't feel like a Sunday at all. We were in the house until 2 and then we went to the food appointment.

They also cancelled the junta tonight and so my comp. and I are going with our ward mission leader to go walking in the mountains. My area is really big, as I've told you before, and one part of our area is called La Pila, where my mission leader lives. It's the highest part in all of the D.F., and it gets chilly up there. But he told us that there are some cool lakes or something so we are going to go see those this afternoon. I'll take pictures for you and send them. I'm excited for that, it should be a fun evening.

I can't believe Shantaye will be going to Young Women’s already! That's hard to believe.. Everyone is growing up so fast. Happy birthday to Mom by the way!! I hope you have a great day! Sounds like you got some nice gifts from the family. I will tell you happy birthday again in 13 days, but on the phone this time :) 46, still young, don't worry Mumskis :) I love you Mom!! Just wanted to say thank you for everything, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of your help that you gave me through my whole life. And also if you didn't borned me. Haha. Love ya!

Yes, I was a little bummed about not getting the packages in time for Easter, but I didn't say anything to my DL. It wouldn't have changed anything, I got the packages eventually. Thank you again! A birthday package with similar stuff will be just perfect, and the stamps also. Thank you. I have enough paper and envelopes still. I can also buy envelopes at the temple and paper anywhere, it's only the stamps I don't know where to get them. I don't need any ties, basketball shorts or socks. I just bought some new socks in Walmart, and I brought enough shorts to last me. But thank you :) Just whatever cool you come up with will be great. A church DVD would be cool to have. I only have the testaments, but it's great to watch with investigators. Also the Joseph Smith movie, the shorter one, that helps them understand a lot better.

I'm excited to hear about Amberlee's call. That is cool that Dallas is going to Chile. Thanks for the updates. Let's still plan on Sunday night at 7 for the phone call, Mother's Day. I am almost positive that I will get a new companion, and it's almost for sure that he is leaving. But there's been some rumors going around that the ZL's are going to move into this area. The Prez is splitting up the zone into two zones, and from what we've heard they will most likely come here. I'll let you know next Monday for sure because we'll find out Sunday night. That means I won't be in this area for my birthday either, but nothing's final. The Prez can change anything that night if he feels he needs to.

I haven't fixed my shoes yet but they haven't been bothering me anymore. There's not near as many hills in this area and so they soles don't slip around, but I'll still try to get them glued down. I think we bought the shoes too big, and that's why this happened. Or they stretched out a lot. Dress shoes always do that, at least the ones I've had.

Remember how my old dress shoes were only a size 9??

Sounds like you had some good food at the Mexican restaurant. I'd like to go to a few with you when I get back to see how the food is, and how authentic it really is.

We have two baptisms set up for this upcoming weekend, Adriana and her daughter Jessica. They really enjoyed the Visitor Center last week, and we went to visit them last Tuesday again. We taught them lesson 3 and baptism. It was such an amazing experience, the Spirit was so so strong! They both want to get baptized and are excited. Adriana still had some doubts and said she needed more time on the repentance part, so we've been helping her and working with her. At the end of the lesson, we all knelt down together and said the final prayer, and I think all of us were in tears. On Thursday, our DL came to talk with them and help them out, and also give them the interview for baptism.

We will visit her all this week to make sure she feels ready and answer any questions she might have, and then this weekend they are going to get baptized.

We are also working with the 9 year old boy, and we are going to try to plan a baptism date for him also, maybe this upcoming weekend. We went to visit him several times but he hasn't been home, so that's made it tough.

We still go out tracting, knocking doors, contacting on the street, checking references. I use a coin to knock doors, or my keys, since the doors are made out of metal. We have a map of the area, but it's really old and doesn't help much. I know the area really well now though, been here for 3 months. That was a really quick 3 months also, crazy how time goes.

I'll definitely look before I jump off of buses. It wasn't going way fast so it wouldn't have hurt too bad, but better to just avoid that all together. That is way neat that Dad and Chez got to go to see SuperCross. I still remember going with the family years ago and it rained on us. I hope you had a good time!

I can't believe that I am going to turn 20 next month. That seems like a really old age, getting out of the teenage stage.. Scary. I have tried to check My LDS mail lately but every time I log on, it says that it can't find the server, like when it's not hooked up to Internet. But only on that page. I will keep trying, but it never seems to be working whenever I get on.

I have a question for you now. What is the main dish for Utah? People always ask me and I have no idea, I just say that we eat a little of everything. I don't know what to say because I don't know if Utah is famous for any foods. Members ask what we eat there, but I can't ever think of anything. Haha. Pastas, meats, rice, everything... Who knows..

And also, do you still have that stack of my pictures from our Thailand trip? I just want to make sure I have all those when I get back, that was my favorite vacation ever. I was thinking about that the other day. Do you have all the pics of me that we took for my mission? Like the ones with the basketball and helmet, and the one with my skull bandanna, and all those?

I was wondering if you could email all those to me, just to have. Is there any way you could do that? Are they on the computer or anything like that? Thank you.

I hope you all have a great week!

Next week I will tell you about the changes.

Happy birthday again Mom!

I love you all!

Elder J.J. Green

20 April 2009

Hello Family

They definitely celebrate Easter a lot differently here than we do back home. But it was interesting to see how a different culture does it. Yes, I was a little upset that my DL wouldn't give me my package before Easter, but I didn't say anything. I just held it all inside and waited until Tuesday and got them then. I thought he'd be nice enough to give it to me early, but he is SO strict with every single little rule that he wouldn't leave the area or meet up with me to give it to me, but oh well. It is what it is.

I'm way excited for Kory and his mission call! Nebraska! That's way sweet. And he leaves soon, July 1st. Thanks for the pictures you sent Dad, those were cool to see. I'm way excited for Kory, he'll love it.

I think I officially have my guess for Amberlee now... I guess that she will serve in New York City, Mandarin speaking. That's my guess :) Hopefully we'll find out in a month or less, right?

Sunday evening sounds great for the phone call on Mother's Day. 7:00 PM my time should work great. I have two numbers at the moment, so first try the number 044 5517682804. I get better service in my house on that phone. But if that one doesn’t work, you can call the same one as you did on Christmas, 044 5554989520, that will be the back up one.

I don't think I will speak in Church this week, we had conference the first week, then fast Sunday, yesterday a family spoke, and next week is Stake Conference. I'm pretty sure I'll be here next change to speak more, which also means I'll be here for my birthday. We already started talking to some members yesterday to see if we can get some cakes and do something fun.

I'm glad you liked the pics I sent, we were in a weird mood. It was the forest smell and trees that got to me, it reminded me of camping at the Spruces with the whole family. I went to Walmart last week to buy some tea, shoe spray (to help them smell better and stay fresh) and print off pictures to send to Calaigh. Next time I go I will ask if they accept gift cards and let you know.

Mom's B-day is coming up really soon, does she have a list yet? How old are you turning Mom? 41? (NOTE from J.J.’s Dad – very funny J.J. That means Mom had your older sister when she was 18 years old! How about 46.)

The climate here has been off and on. It was pretty warm all week, and today it is cloudy and a little chilly. I heard that May and June are the hottest months and then it starts to cool down a little. I don't think it'll get as hot as it does in Utah, and it doesn't get very humid either. It's like Spring weather almost all the time, which is nice.

What did you eat when you went to the authentic Mexican restaurant? Do you remember at all? Just curious to know if they really have that food here or not.

Last week, we went to help one of our investigators clean her new house so she can move into it. We worked there for about 4 or 5 hours, it was tough work. I have about 4 blisters on my hands. The houses here are all made out of cement, including the floors and everything. So we first moved out a lot of junk that was in there, and then we had to even out the floor. Since it is made of cement, people had thrown water on the floor over the years and the water builds up into more cement and so the floor was uneven. I'm not sure what they're called, but we took big metal bars and scrapped the top layers of cement off, it was a lot of work.

We are going back this week to do another room and help her get it all ready. We also went to the Visitor Center with her and her daughter on Thursday, I will send you pictures of that. We have an appointment with her tomorrow and we only need to teach her lesson 3, baptism. So I think we will put a date for baptism and hopefully baptize her this weekend. She's been coming to church, she just says that it is hard to change religion, so we've been going slow. She says she loves the church and feels that it is true, just needed a little bit of time. The Visitor Center really helped out a lot, it's a great tool to have.

I didn't see much of the reenactment of the Savior's crucifixion, just saw everything set up for it. One day we were walking by and there were tons of people dressed up as Roman soldiers and were walking towards the Catholic church, but we didn't stay to watch it. Mostly members told me about what happens.

I did get the packages last Tuesday!! Thank you so much! Those were the best packages I've received so far. Everything was perfect, all the microwavable stuff and everything, I loved it! Thank you again family. :) I love opening packages and seeing what goodies I have inside.

My DL is American, with not much time in the mission, so he's still learning. You can't send the packages to another address, because that is the address for pouch. What I would recommend is to send them a week earlier, so when Pouch comes on Wednesday and my DL goes to pick it up, he will get it to me the following Monday. That's the only advice I have. I'll talk to him tonight though. This is the only DL I've had that wouldn't give me my packages until we had the District Meeting.

I bought some Christian Cd's from I tunes that are really good. I don't listen to my iPod that much and I got rid of all the music I had on it before. Guess what I learned how to do last week and now I'm a pro at it! Rubix cube! I've always wanted to learn, and now I can finally do it. In about 4 or 5 minutes also, I'm getting pretty fast at it. A missionary taught me how to do it and I learned in about 2 days.

Sunday evenings I'm usually not doing anything. I will make sure to be home that Sunday night so you can call and everything will go smoothly. But again, if I get a new companion I'll have to talk to him and see what his plans are first. But for now lets just plan on this. Changes are May 5th and so we'll have to see what happens then. I think Sunday evening should work just fine.

I should write Grandma and Grandpa again. I'm not sure if they wrote me because I almost never check my LDS mail anymore, every time I get on it doesn't work. But I will try to check it and see if they wrote me, and I'll write them as well. If you could pass that on to people, that I don't use mylds mail hardly ever, that'd be appreciated. Thank you. I sent a letter off to Aunt Kathi, Aunt Theo, and Mark and Tiff several weeks ago. I'm hoping that they've received them by now.

I haven't talked to many friends like Cody or Elliott recently, only Kory and Calaigh. Phil hasn't written me a letter in months. Calaigh tells me that he is living somewhere near downtown, but nobody has contact with him. So I have no idea what's going on with him, but it's not good and I'm worried for him.

Last Wednesday we had our Zone Conference with our Mission Prez, but this time it was a little bit different. An elder brought an investigator to help us out, and he's been an investigator for over 3 years! Only missed church about 2 times he said in the 3 years, and he finally decided to get baptized last week. To start out the conference, some DL's spoke for like 15 minutes, and then this investigator helped us out. We practiced teaching and he gave us some tips from an investigator's view point which really helps out a lot. And he ended up talking for most of the time, we'd ask questions and he'd answer them. He works at a gym and he's a really good motivational speaker, and the Prez said he loved it because he also learned a lot. The conference was about 8 hours long, but it was helpful.

I weighed myself this past week because my comp. and I were curious to our weight, and I haven't weighed myself since the MTC. So we found a little pharmacy and for two pesos you can weigh yourself, and it tells you your height and body fat and all that good stuff. I can't remember what I was at when I first started the mission, or when I left the MTC. I think I was at 172 when I entered the MTC, and 176 when I left. Does that sound right to you? Well, I am now at 82.3 kilograms, or 181 pounds. So I'm actually happy with that. If I've only gained 5 pounds in 8 months of being here, then I can live with that. It feels and looks like I've gained a lot more, so that surprised me. My goal is to come home under 190, so I'll still have a chance to get back into shape again. Haha.

So you want to hear a funny little story of how I almost flew into a pole? You know me and poles, we always seem to have run ins, since I was a little kid in Paris... Haha. OK, so the buses here, you get on from the door in the front, and then to get off there is a door in the back. Well sometimes, if the bus driver sees you and you're a young man, he won't stop the bus completely when you get off, just slow down and you kinda hop off right?

Well my comp. was getting off first, and the bus driver just slowed down for us, didn't stop completely, but that's no big deal. Only going a few miles an hour. So my comp. jumped off, and then I was about to jump off after him. Well the power line poles are made out of pure cement (seems like everything is made of cement here). I was holding onto the railing about to hop off, I had one foot already out the door. But I couldn't see up ahead because I was still mostly inside the bus.

So right when I was about to hop off, I looked out and there was a big cement pole RIGHT there. Haha. So I hurried and grabbed the railing and pulled myself back in as the bus passed the pole, then hopped off. If I would've jumped off at that moment - my momentum would've carried me at about jogging speed head on right into the cement pole. Haha. My comp. and I were laughing pretty hard because he saw the whole thing. But I'm out and I didn't hit the pole, luckily. Might've hurt a little bit. :) And that's my pole story for you.

Well thank you again for the packages, they were perfect! I love you all and I'm excited to talk to you in a few weeks.

Have a great week.
Elder Green

13 April 2009

Hi Family! I hope you had a great Easter this year, sounds like it was a nice, relaxing day. This week was pretty tough for us missionaries, especially my area. They closed a bunch of roads all around our house and filled them with a big carnival/fair. We live right in the middle of Cuajimalpa so we were right in the middle of the big party. They had rides, food, little shops, everything set up, and tons and tons of people. We went to other parts of the area those days but there was almost nobody there, everyone was in the center, so it made the week tough to find new people. Plus, most of our investigators went out of town so we couldn't teach them. They way they celebrate is a lot different than how we do it.
On Thursday, they had a reenactment of the Savior washing his apostles’ feet, then Friday they had His atonement and crucified Him. Then Saturday was the resurrection. We didn't watch any of it, but we saw everything set up for it and member's told us what happens. I thought that was pretty interesting. There is a Catholic church right near our house and that's where they did it all. My DL told me that two packages arrived for me last Wednesday, but he hasn't gotten them to me yet :( I was bummed to not have them for Easter day, but it's ok. His area is right next to mine but wouldn't bring them to me during the week. We met together this morning as a district but he forgot to bring them, so maybe one day I'll get them. I think tomorrow night I should hopefully get them, we'll see. Elder Genea hasn't been a senior companion since I met him, but I've only known him for two changes.

I don't have any specifics for my B-day, so just whatever you come up with is great, thank you! :) Congrats to Dad on winning the bracket (March Madness)! Mine wasn't so good this year. I think I'll just hold onto the hammock for now, it'll be a pain to send it home. Plus it'll probably cost me over 50 bucks. I know I took out a lot of money this week, that was an accident. I was going to take out 200 pesos but hit the wrong button and took out 1000, sorry. I'll just save it up so I don't have to take out money for a while.
I didn't realize that Kory was so close to getting his call... I'm not sure where he'll go, didn't think about it too much. But my guess will be Russia. :) Guess we'll see where he ends up going soon. I remembered that I won't be with this companion for Mother's Day, so just whenever. I think the evening will work fine since that works better with yours and my church schedule. I have church at 11, and I'm now an hour ahead of you as of last week. If you could call me again that would be perfect, it's free for me. I didn't speak in Church yesterday because it was Fast Sunday, but I think I will next week. Just a hunch though... We took some pics on my comp's camera, so I'll see if I can send them to you. I can't believe Amberlee is so close to turning her papers in. Where did the time go??

We were lucky enough to have water all last weekend. Our neighbors who live above us went out of town and so we had the one tank to ourselves. They cut the water back a little bit I heard, but didn't turn it off all the way. Supposedly this is something they do every year around these dates, turn off the water.
I'm not sure if they accept gift cards here or not, I've never seen them before. I could hook up my hammock, but I'd have to have a strong place to do it. I don't think I could just hook it up to the wall in my house, but I bet it'd be more comfortable than my bed.

Not sure when the hottest time is here, probably in the next few months to come. It usually stays around the same temperature, but sometimes it gets really hot for a day and then goes back down. We actually got some rain last night which was really nice.

Tomorrow we get to go to the Temple again, that should be nice. It's nice to be able to go once a change now that it is open again. Well I hope you all have a great week!
I love you very much!
Thanks for all your love and support.
Elder Green

6 April 2009

Hi Family! I had a very enjoyable conference weekend this week. I was able to watch it in English again. They had a smaller room with a TV and put it in English. For the Sunday morning session there was an American family in there with us 4 missionaries. It was a couple with 4 young kids. And for the priesthood session two Americans came to watch it. We were able to watch all sessions except the Saturday afternoon session, but we made it back for priesthood. We had to go to an appointment that early afternoon and couldn't make it back in time. I enjoyed the priesthood session the most, the talks were really great. I watched when they called the new apostle, and heard about when Monson talked about the Mexico City temple rededication. That was really neat.

Elder Green, Elder Genoa and Elder Atkinson watching General Conference.

Some of us missionaries were wondering if we can download the conference talks or not... So that's nice to know that we can do it. I think I will print off a few talks to have. My DL has 7 months in the mission, or been out seven months, one change less than I do. So he is still pretty new. He's from Montana I believe. We get along fairly well. His companion is one of my buddies I met here, Elder Genoa from Canada. Genoa has completed 16 months in the mission, I have a picture with him that I will send to you. It's pretty rare that two Americans get put together, but Elder McManama from my district is with an American also I just found out. I'm still in contact with the 3 other missionaries from my generation, we talk regularly by cell phone.

Part of J.J.'s area about 20 minutes from his house.

The teaching has been going well. We started teaching a grandson of a member who lives next to us. The boy is 10 years old and he heard the lessons about a year ago, but never got baptized. His parents want him to get baptized so we have just been teaching him this past week. We could have the baptism this upcoming weekend, but since there won't be water we might have to wait until the next weekend. The water didn't go out last weekend, it’s going to go out this upcoming weekend. All the festivals are going to start this week and most of the roads will be closed down and filled up like a carnival. There are lots of mini rides and things set up and it's going to fill the streets I heard, it’s like a fair with games and food and rides and things like that.

Pathway they take while tracting.

Hopefully my packages will come this Wednesday and I will get them from my DL if they do come. Thank you again. What Mom has planned for my birthday would be fine, or you can just send the items all together and you don't have to wrap them individually if it takes up a lot of room. So whatever you would like to do is fine.

View looking up the pathway.

That is a very interesting story about Spencer Steel. I'm sorry to hear that, but living with the same person and always being with him, especially when you can't choose the person (and it’s not a cute babe) can be very difficult. I've heard stories of elders here who have fought or hit each other. It happened about 3 weeks ago actually, two missionaries that I know. Thank you for the rest of the updates about the Steel's. I remember going to Blake and Jordan's farewells. seems so long ago, yet the time passed so quickly. It's hard to believe they're back and already married.

Thumbs up Elder Green!

I haven't done much sit ups or push ups lately, but there are weights in the house that I try to use often. Definitely not the exercise I used to get. Funny how that works.. Before the mish I wanted to gain weight to build more muscle, but it was hard for me to do it. And now I'm gaining the weight but don't want it. Haha. I’m definitely out on my bracket... I only had one team out of four that made it to the final four, UNC. The final game is tonight, hopefully it's a good game if you guys end up watching it.

A view from his area looking over Mexico City.

Yes, I bought my hammock on Thursday morning! It is really cool, I like it a lot. I will send you pics right now. I decided that I won't send it home and just hold onto it, it can be smashed down into a small bag so it’s not an inconvenience. It looks good with the Mexico colors and it's heavy duty, made out of nylon the guy said. I gave him 200 pesos extra and he was very grateful. I just can't use Clorox when I wash it if it ever gets dirty, so don’t let me forget that please. I’ll think and let you know about my guesses for Korn Dog and Amberlee. J.J.'s new Mexico hammock.

Soccer was fun last week, I can still hold my own out on the field. I can call you Mother’s Day night or day I think. I will talk to my comp and see when he’s going to call his family. But I think that any time would work just fine. When would you prefer? Can you see how bad the smog is?!

This week was fairly hot, the summer is on it’s way, that’s for sure. Congrats Dad on winning the golf game with your customers. Our microwave has been working better this week, it doesn’t blow out as much. I know it's not very safe, but the houses are pretty ghetto.

The Mission President lives out there somewhere... It's the rich area.

I’m not sure what the Bishop of the other Ward does here, I never asked him. I’ve only talked to him a few times and I know that he’s from the US.

Spray paint artist using only spray paint! One of the "coolest things I have ever seen".

On Friday night we had a family night with a few members, it was really enjoyable. We played a game at the end and then had some refreshments, we all had a good time. Our Ward Mission Leader came with his family, and later gave us a ride home. He has a red, `92 Ford Explorer, brought back memories driving in that.

Making a spray paint picture.

I will try to send you some pictures right now that I took from this week.

Finished paintings selling for 30 pesos (US$ 2.28) each.

I love you!
Elder Green