Bam! Memorized Info

A snippet from an e-mail to his sister, Amberlee.

Sorry your call hasn't arrived yet, but it's good to practice patience. Number 6 attribute of Christ. ;) I've memorized all 9 that are in preach my gospel, as well as the 42 points of doctrine because the prez asked us to. Its important to know what you are teaching, and in PME it says to know them all exactly, number by number, memorized. So you can say any number, like 30, and bam! Law of Chastity. Haha. I promise I didn't cheat on that one either :)

25 May 2009

Hello Family!

Thank you very much for the birthday wishes! I can't believe I am turning 20 this Saturday, scary! 20 makes me feel really old, but oh well. I opened my packages yesterday, a little bit early I know. But thank you so much!! They are perfect. I loved unwrapping the other presents inside and opening all the packages, it was lots of fun.

Thank you for the DVD's and the magazine also, those are great. I decided to open them a little early because I figured it was mostly food, and so it's not doing any good just sitting there. Plus, if I wait until the 30th then I'll only have 2 week until changes, and if I get changed it'd be really hard to pack all that food in my suitcases with me, so I opened them early and my comp. and I have been eating :) Thank you again!

We are planning on doing a little something with our district this weekend for my b-day. I'm going to buy a cake for everyone and we're going to get together and eat it. I'll make sure to take some pictures. I might have to take some money out of my account because I'm getting low. The 750 pesos is still barely holding up, I have about 200 left now.

We've been doing lots of traveling going to meetings, getting from one part of the area to the other, and all of that, and it really eats up the money quick. It rained a few more times this week again. I've been wearing my big rain coat and using the umbrella lately, it's been a great help. Elder Cornelius is from the Cottonwood area, the high school and mall that's over there. So not too far away. I didn't take any photos this week, sorry. But next week I'll for sure have some to send to you. I'm glad you liked them though, I really like the one where I'm sitting with a cow.. Haha.

I figured that Amberlee's call would take a little bit longer because she is so far away. Hopefully she'll get it this week. I'm not sure when our next zone conference is, I think it's in another week, week 5 of the change. I assume they'll have the interviews at the same time also.

We are working with one family that the ZL's left us, but the dad has a lot of doubts still. The mom and her two children (a 12 year old boy and 15 year old daughter) say they want to be baptized, but want more time. They say they want to be sure they know what they are doing, which is important, but we've been trying to explain to them that baptism is only the first step and covenant you make with the Lord. We are going to try to put a baptism date for them this week and see how that goes.

We've been working way way hard but we're not sure if we'll baptize this month. Whisky is a really tough area to work in, maybe that's why the ZL's left and stuck is in here. We have found some other investigators that we're working with, but it's so so hard to get people to come to church. The chapel is so far away. This week we had one person come, but we're not going to be able to baptize if no one comes to church. That's the main struggle really. We teach an average of 25 lessons per week, just knocking doors and contacting every day.

In the Sunday night juntas there is one other missionary who waits outside like me, but our new zone is really small because they separated it, so there are only 3 districts. The junior ZL is also a District Leader for whatever district they are in, and then the two other DL's.

I hope you have fun at the ward breakfast. Any mission pictures you can send would be great, the funny ones or serious ones, just whatever you have. Thank you again.

That is cool Chez's team made it so far this year. Now they have experience for next year and this time they can win it all.

My comp. and I think that it is almost for sure that one of us will leave this area next change, but who knows who. If my comp. leaves then they'll have to call a new DL, so I think I will be the one to leave.

That is exciting that Kory went through the temple. When you think about it, we've gotten so far along spiritually. Only one more covenant is left, temple marriage. I got baptized, received the Holy Ghost, received the Priesthood, took out my endowments... only one more left.

So did you hear anything about the earthquake that happened Friday early afternoon!?! I felt it! It was so cool. I've never felt an earthquake before. They said it was a 5.9 which is pretty big, but it originated in Pueblo which is farther south. Plus I'm in the mountains so that might affect it a little, but I still felt the shake. We were talking with a lady right outside her door, we'd contacted her, and then the ground started shaking. It wasn't way strong, but just a rock from side to side that lasted about 20 or 30 seconds. I was really excited, I thought it was cool. My very first earthquake experience!

There is a new Spanish Bible coming out in September. It's like the King James version, but in Spanish. It'll have references to the Book of Mormon which ours right now doesn't have. So we're excited for that to come out.

Do you remember those photos that I sent you with that really cute boy, Christopher? Well I was able to talk to him and his mom on the phone last week because they called to say hi. The mom said that he now calls himself "Green", not Christopher. He says: "My name is Green". Haha. I thought that was so cute. He changed names with me and now uses my name as his. Cute huh??

On Tuesday my comp. had a meeting where all the DL's and ZL's go and the Prez. talks to them. So on Tuesday I went with our Ward Mission Leader, who is the Bishop's son, and he's going on his mission in 2 weeks to Uruguay. The meeting for the leaders goes from 8am. until about 8 or 9pm. Long, I know. Over 12 hours long. But it's amazing how much this mission is changing and improving. It really is improving a lot, getting more baptisms and better working missionaries, so that was exciting to hear.

Last night there was a junta with the Mission President, the Stake President, and one of the 70's who is the boss man of the Mission President. Haha. Or is above him you could say. And the whole Zone came, along with each Bishop in the stake. They just talked about how the Bishops are going to have more responsibility in the mission work, and we're going to try to get all the inactive families active. It was a good meeting, we learned a lot.

Well that's about all from this week. I'll be thinking of you this Saturday and I'll take some pics for you. 20 years old!!! That's scary..

And today I completed 11 months, even more scary!

I love you family!

Thank you again for the presents.

Love, Elder Green

18 May 2009

Hello again Family.

I got my 3 birthday packages last Wednesday already. I checked the dates you sent them and they arrived in Mexico in 6 days! I think that's a record for sure. They were all 3 together and had a string around them holding them together, not sure if you did that or the mission did, but thank you very much.

J.J.'s current District. All way cool missionaries.

Elder Green, Cook, Garcia, Calderas, Sister Perera and Sister Lopez
My comp. and I actually don't go to Pouch because it's so far away, other missionaries go and we get it from them later. But on Friday my comp. had divisions with the ZL's so I was able to pick them up then. I went with the junior companion ZL and we worked in my area, his name is Elder Cornelius. He's a cool guy and I’ve known him since I first got in Mexico, so it was a fun day.

Morning fog covering the mountain tops.

This week it has been raining a ton! Especially Friday, we got soaked. It's gotten cooler this week and lots of rain and clouds. I was talking with Elder Cornelius during that day, and we found out that we both worked at Willow Creek Country Club at the exact same time, same summer! Haha. Small world huh?? I worked on greens keeping and he worked the other part. Too funny that we never met until we came to Mexico.
Elder Cook and Elder Green.

Elder Green and an animal investigator in his area.

The post card from January that I didn't get until just barely, that's the ZL's fault, not my District Leader. They had it in their Pouch envelope and never got it to me. But like Dad says, "That's life".

Elder Green's area.

We got 750 pesos for transportation on yesterday, I'll let you know how it holds up. I have more photos to send you so I will get those out after this email. Glad you liked the other photos I sent you.

Elder Green and his comp climbed this mountain because they were told there were houses on top.

I was a little bummed Am didn't put more credit on her phone, but it was still way nice to talk to her. I won't be able to hear her voice until a year from this Christmas, which is over a year and a half... Unless I can somehow call her while we are both out on our missions.. I'm glad to hear that business is going to well for GSG, that's great news. Hopefully the business stays up and Dad can keep up with it.

Sitting on a fallen log about 25 feet above the ground.

It was scary but a lot of fun.

Tell Chez congrats on getting where he's at in the HS tourney, that's way awesome. Sounds like they are finally having a good year with soccer. I hope they can keep it up in the semis! I am really excited for Am to get her call! I tell people all the time that she turned in her papers and is just waiting, I just want to be able to tell them where she is going to go. Hopefully next week we will know.
Elder Green and companion walking through the woods.

I'm glad Shantaye had such a fun birthday party. I love miniature golf, it's lots of fun. I saw in a magazine that a new temple is going to open in Utah in June, any news on that? Yes, I get more money for transportation in this area because it's a lot more expensive here and the area is a lot bigger. Plus with all the juntas we have to go to it costs us lots of money. Every Sunday and Monday we have to go to my old area where the junta is held.
More pics of Elder Green's area.

Right now we are working with a couple families. We hope to be able to baptize them within several weeks. The ZL's didn't leave us much when they left so we've had to start over from fresh again which takes more time.

J.J.'s birthday packages from his family.
I received a letter from Grandma last week and I wrote her back and am going to send her a letter off this Wednesday. I also wrote a letter for Aunt Theo last night. The juntas on Sunday nights are only for the DL's and ZL's, so I just waited and wrote letters during that time. This morning we cooked breakfast with the two sister missionaries in a member's house, we made chocolate banana pancakes. I've never had those before but it was really good and lots of fun. In the evening we have the zone junta which should be pretty fun.
Happy 20th B-day Elder Green!!!

Well that's about all from this week.
I love you all!
I'll send you more pics!
Take care :)

Elder Green

11 May 2009

Hello again family!

It was great to talk to you all last night. I really enjoyed hearing your voices and being able to talk with you. I hope Mom had a great Mother's Day yesterday.

Elder Green and Elder Garcia Noval. They are both a bit sunburned!

Sounds like Mom and Shantaye had a pretty enjoyable time in San Fran, that's good to hear. I am really excited for my birthday packages, thank you so much. They should get to me a lot faster as my comp is the DL. Every Wednesday morning we have to go to the chapel and wait for Pouch to come, so as long as the secretaries bring it from the office, I'll get it right away.

Desk and map of area.

Downstairs area with couch.

His "mini kitchen" area. Sink and microwave are behind the brick wall.

Just enough room for one of them to stand in there!

Sleeping and laundry drying room upstairs.

Wonder which side is J.J.'s???

My new area is a lot more rural, it's the state, not the Federal District. My very first area was in the state also, and the transportation is almost twice as expensive. But I will try to get some pics this week of all the crazy things we see, including animals and such.

Los Elders!

Poster hanging on the door that has been hanging there a long time.

The silly flu virus slowed us down a week or two, but I think everything is back to normal now. Not many people make a big deal out of it in my new area which is nice. Too much hype over this I think. This is a map that has my last area, and my current area. Castorena is just to the left and Huixquilucan is the far right.

I talked with Amberlee for like 15 minutes last night, but then the call got cut before we could say goodbye. Same thing happened on Christmas too, but oh well. It was great to talk to her. I'm super excited for her mission call to come.

This is my first area - Molinito. Real close to where he is now.

Congrats on the big order Dad. So out of that 750G's that it will cost, how much will you receive? Do you get like a portion of it, or all, or how does that work? That's great to hear that your business is going well.
This is his last area je just moved from - Castorena.

Well there's not much else to write you because we talked on the phone last night. But it was great talking to you. I'll send you some photos right now and take more this week for you.

A close up of his area now. The map isn't as good as he thought it was as he can't find his current house on this map.

Tell Shantaye happy birthday this week!

Love you all!

Elder Green

Mother’s Day Call to

Elder Green
10 May 2009

What a treat it was to talk to J.J. and hear is wonderful voice! He sounded wonderful and happy!!! He for sure has a bit of a Spanish accent but that is to be expected since he has been in Mexico for over eight months now and always with a native Mexican companion.

His latest comp is Elder Garcia who is the District Leader (D.L.). Elder Garcia has one less change than J.J. He is from Cancun, Mexico. They are both new to the area of Huixquilucan. This is outside of Mexico City (south, southwest of Mexico City) in the Federal State of Mexico. You can go to Google Earth and put in this city name and see exactly where J.J. is currently located.

J.J. said that Elder Garcia is his best companion yet in that they are working VERY hard. They are in a rural area with lots of farms, crops, animals and “ducks at the neighbors which is right outside my bedroom window!”.

He says that this is the largest area in the mission. It used to be the Zone Leaders. They took over J.J.’s old area he just moved from. So he is now in the Zone Leaders area with Elder Garcia.

He was sad to leave his last area as they were just about to baptize a sister they had been teaching. But she was baptized the week after J.J. left the area. Seems that right after J.J. left for this new area she had a dream that she really needed to be baptized. So last week she was baptized. We know that it was with the teachings, help and the Holy Ghost that J.J. and his old companion Elder Canche shared with her that she was baptized.

They are now given 800 Pesos per month for transportation. Outside Mexico City the transportation is a lot more. And they are far away from anything. So they have to spend a lot on transportation. We’ll see if this is enough. Seems the mission does not give the Elders sufficient funds for transportation. This has been going on since he entered the country.

There are lots of people in J.J.’s new area. He says they are really nice and not even worried or focused on the H1N1 flu virus. He says to get around they often hitchhike a ride with owners of pick-up trucks. They stick out their thumb and people with the pick-ups stop and let them jump in the back. He says everyone is really kind in this area. Maybe it has something to do with being outside the big city?!

He is really enjoying this new area. Since they are both new to the area they have to work really hard to find investigators. They also share the area with two Sister missionaries. Both are from Mexico. As far as J.J. understands, there are only Mexican Sisters in his mission.

The mission also got a new Senior Couple. J.J. hasn’t been able to meet them yet. Each Wednesday he will go with the D.L. Elder Garcia to the Church to meet up with the office secretaries to get the mail for the week. So maybe now J.J. will get his mail and packages on time!?

Funny thing J.J. said is when he got to his new house which was the former house of the Zone Leaders (Z.L.) he found a postcard dated January ’09 to Elder J.J. Green from his Dad! It was a postcard his Dad had sent from Thailand in January. Seems the Z.L.’s forgot to give it to him. He was really pleased to find it as it is a beach scene from where he and his family spent Christmas ’07.

They do have a small kitchen in this new house. There is a small refrigerator and a microwave. Seems one of the seeks is missing. They can use the water but it just falls into a bucket they put underneath the faucet.

Both Elder Garcia and Elder Green got burnt while they were out tracting. This is the first time this has happened to him that we have heard about. Maybe because he is out in the country and a bit up in the mountains. The smog maybe “protected” him from sun burn when he was in Mexico City??? We asked him to be sure to get more sun screen.

There are six Elders and the two Sisters in his District. He will go to District meetings each week with his D.L. companion. I am guessing that soon J.J. will become a District Leader. But that is just a Dad’s guess.

Chez and Shantaye were able to talk to him for a while each. Then his Mom spent 15 minutes talking to him. His Dad got the last five minutes of the call. It was SO NICE to talk to him.

The telephone call lasted 1 hour and 5 minutes. It was SO SWEET to talk to him. After we talked to him his sister Amberlee called from Taiwan and talked to him for 15 minutes. Only fair since she wasn’t home to talk to him during our call. She has about one month left with her English teaching job in Taiwan.

We are SO PROUD of the work of the Lord that J.J. is performing. We know he is doing EXACTLY what the Lord would want him to be doing at this point in his life. We are sure he will be blessed with successful experiences as he follows the rules of the mission, works well with his companion and obeys the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

We love him and know he is having wonderful lifelong experiences as he serves the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notes taken by and submitted by:
John E. Green
Elder Green’s Daddy-O

PS Waiting for the next call on Christmas is going to be a while away…

4 May 2009

Hi Family,

This past week was a very interesting one, and very boring also. Last Monday we didn't have the junta, it was cancelled. Then on Tuesday they told us that we shouldn't leave our houses and just stay inside, but we were allowed to go visit the people we are teaching right now. That one day turned into the whole week. So the whole week we weren't allowed to go out and contact or knock doors, we only left to go to the food appointment and visit Adriana a few times, it got very boring.

At the dam and above at the reservoir.

However, Adriana got sick this weekend and so we were not able to have the baptism for her, and now we have changes. Both my comp. and I are leaving the area and the zone leaders are going to move into our house. My comp. is going to a different zone, but I'm moving to the zone leader's house, we're just switching places. So my new area is only about 20 minutes from where I am now, not much of a change. The area is called Huixquilucan, or for short they pronounce it "Whisky." Not spelled like that obviously, but just so you get an idea of how to say it. My companion will be Elder Garcia Noval. No idea who that is, especially since there are a ton of Garcias in the mission, very common name here. This area is very close to my first area though, so I might be able to go visit some old members and converts which would be really cool.

Elder Green with Diane - the Ward Mission Leader's Granddaughter.

Last Monday was a fun day with our Ward Mission Leader. I will send you some pictures of what we did. There are a few small lakes, or actually dams, and we just went up and took some pictures and hung out for a few hours, very fun. Elder Green and Canche.

Ward Mission Leader - Brother Resendiz and his dog.

Friday night an ex-missionary member in our Ward invited us to eat pizza and that was really good. We ate 3 pizzas and just talked for a couple hours in our house, it was an enjoyable night. It's nice to eat some Domino's Pizza every once in a while.

Elder Green and Elder Canche.

I don't have the Joseph Smith DVD, so that would be one I could use. I think they all come in English and Spanish don't they? At least here they do, you just change the language on the DVD. But please make sure it at least has Spanish. Finding Faith In Christ is also one that we use sometimes, so just whichever will be great.

Elder Green and Elder Canche.

I'm excited for Amberlee's call. Members have asked me a lot if I am the only missionary out on a mission right now, but I tell them that my older sister already turned in her papers and is just waiting for her call. They also think it's amazing how she taught English for a year in Taiwan.

Walking the hand rail...

Let's still plan on this Sunday at 7:00pm. If something changes during this week then I will go to Internet and try to inform you. I don't know what time my church services are at and what my new comp. will be doing to call his family, but I'm sure it'll all work out fine. I'm excited to talk to all of you again!

Squatting on the post.

I'll try to get my shoes fixed as soon as I can. My slip on shoes still fit but I don't wear them as much as the other two. I'll always look before I jump off buses, don't worry. LDS mail still hasn't been working every time that I've tried, not sure what's up. Too many people on it at the same time?? Who knows.

P-day at the reservoir.

I got asked AGAIN this week what the main food in Utah is, twice I think. I just tell them we eat everything and just name off some things. I think we put some Thailand pictures in an album, but not all of them would fit. I had a big pile with a rubberband on it and I just wanted to double check if it's still there. That was definitely a fun trip, I hope we can go back again as a family also.

One of the member's son - Christopher.

Lucky that Chez gets the house to himself for three whole days. I hope everyone's trips go well and you all have a good time. I'm assuming that Dad will be back before the Sunday phone call.

The reservoir.

I haven't been wearing a mask this week, with the whole virus thing that's been going on. I think that people have been taking this too seriously and worrying about it too much. All the schools have been closed down until May 6th, we also didn't have church again this week. Nobody would even shake our hands, not even members. Kinda ridiculous I think, but I guess they just want to take extra precautions.

Sitting on the dam.

I can't believe that I'm turning 20 years old this month.. I don't want to turn 20, that feels too old. I like being 19 and almost half way done with my mission, it makes it feel like I have my whole life ahead of me still. But ya gets what ya gets, can't choose. 20's old though.. Haha. If you could scan my mission photos and email them to me that would be very nice, just whenever you get a chance. Thanks.

Elder Green and Elder Canche.

I will talk to you all on this Sunday, can't wait! Have a great week. Tell Chez not to party too hard! No lady dancers either, mkay?! :)

Climbing down the dam face.

Love you family!

Half way down the dam face.

Thank you for all your love and support. My comp's family didn't even write him last week, I am SO grateful to have you all as my family. You're the best.

Skipping rocks...

Elder Green