24 May 2010

Hi Family,

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I can't believe I will be 21 years old... that's dang old... :) Should be a fun day. The family that we eat with on Sunday, one of their daughters has her birthday the 29th, so I think they're getting a cake for both of us or something and are making a good food. And then that evening I'm going with another family and they're making a cake and dinner for me. So it should be an enjoyable day. I will be sure to take photos and send them to you.

When are you planning on starting the remodeling of the downstairs bathroom? I'm sure that will look a lot better with a new bathroom. Bummer that the Lakers and Celtics are doing so well. I wanted the Magic and Suns to go to the finals, I don't like the Celtics or Lakers at all. I'm not sure who I can't stand more, Kobe or Paul Pierce... NOT a fan of either team. But oh well.

The night the Shawkey family visited J.J.'s area.

Thanks for taking my bike in for a "race tune-up", that will be nice to ride. If Dad has to go out of town then that's no problem, I understand. I'm sure I'll find someone to go with. Going with Ron would be fine with me. Doesn't Jay still ride some too? I'm just excited to get on a bike again more than anything. Might be tempted to go out the night I get home and tear up Flat Iron a little bit.. ;) haha. JK!

I'm glad you were able to talk with the Stake President. The plan for June 7th sound great to me. Go from the airport to President Tearlink's home for my release. Then back to our house. Sounds great. I'm not sure what I want for my first dinner home. I'd like crock pot chicken but I think that'd be better with just our family, so maybe the second or third day home. Just whenever you'd like.

The whole group with the Shawkey family.

Glad that our August trip is all planned out now. The Book of Mormon tour sounds really great. Elder Shawkey went to the pyramids with his family and he said it was awesome. That we definitely have to go there when we come back. And he told me about some other cool places, but we can plan that out once I'm home.

Spanish is a fun language. I'll be sure to do what I can to be able to keep it up. Maybe order the Spanish channel on TV? Haha. Oh, I forgot to tell you. I saw Set's brother at changes on Tuesday. He's doing really great. It was neat to talk to him again.

Elder Green, Elder Shawkey and Elder Johnson. AKA "The Tripod".

Elder Hoyt said he is coming to my homecoming. I think another elder, Elder Graff who was from my generation but went home after six months, I think he might come too. It'd be really cool to see him again. And I plan on going to some homecomings of the other elders from my MTC district. I am still in contact with them and told them that I'd like to come to their homecomings.

Thanks for the World Cup updates. Any idea what time the games will be at? Will we have to wake up at 3am to watch them? The reimbursements that I never got back was for the gas/hot water in our house. It was about 180 pesos that I never saw again. But I think it was the ZL who might've not sent it in. But oh well. The ZL's don't really seem to care about getting letters out or reimbursements in... We just got a new one and he's way cool, probably the best I've had. His name is Elder Cardenas. I'll be sure to get photos with everyone that I want before I go home. I did get a little bit of transportation money this week so that will help.

Elder Green and Elder Steed at transfers. J.J. said "I just love that guy. He's a stud."

Good luck Dad with your colonoscopy. I hope that went well and wasn't too painful. I will be sure to give away all the stuff that I won't be taking home. I've already found quite a few people who can use the stuff I'm leaving, so there's no problem there.

I'm excited to see everyone again the evening I get home. You can just invite the extended family and whoever wants to come. Thanks for inviting Phil. You can also tell Trevor Boulter, I've talked to him a little bit lately.

I weighed myself one last time and surprisingly I only weighed 175 lbs. I think when I entered the MTC I was at 174 and left at 176. If I remember right. So overall in my mission I ended gaining only one extra pound. Even though it went up and down a lot in those two years.

I have a question. Am I allowed to bring toothpaste on the airplane? I know that I can't bring liquids or aerosol cans and things like that, but I wasn't sure on the toothpaste. Any last questions for me because next week will be the last time that I can write back to you. My last Monday I won't be able to go to Internet (obviously). I might be able to check my email in the offices Sunday night, but I'm not sure on that. But if you have any questions just let me know! :)

I love you all very much! Thanks again for the birthday wishes. Should be a great day. I'll talk to you all next week for the last time. Can't wait to see you all in two weeks! I love you!

Love,

Elder Green

17 May 2010

Hello Again Family,

It sure was great to talk to you last Sunday. I hope Mom had a nice Mother's Day. I also hope that Shantaye had a great birthday this weekend. Tell her happy birthday for me. :)

Thank you Dad for getting the bike in the shop. You asked on the phone when I wanted to go riding. Well, I get home on Monday afternoon... I was thinking maybe Wednesday morning we're out in the desert riding. But just a thought. :) I'd like to go as soon as possible with you.

Glad to hear that the Cancun trip is all planned out. The tour of the ruins sounds like a really good idea. I'm glad we'll do that. I'm getting excited for that trip, it should be lots of fun.

I also hope to be able to keep my language as long as possible. I will work on that when I get home so that I never forget it. I like Spanish a lot, it's fun to speak.

From what I know, the investigators have to go to Church at least one time before they can get baptized. But I don't think there is a set number or rule or anything. We were able to have two baptisms on Saturday morning. We received a reference of a lady who lives in our boundaries. She had gone to two different chapels but couldn't find the right one that corresponded to her. So we started teaching her on Tuesday, along with her 9 year old son. She was a golden investigator and was so happy to have us in her home teaching her. She is currently going through a divorce so it's been a hard time for her.

We continued teaching her all last week and on Saturday she was ready to be baptized. The fastest baptism I've had in my mission. 4 days after we started teaching she was baptized. Her son has a little bit of ADD but is a really cute kid. He was also baptized with his Mom and he really enjoyed it.

I baptized the Mom and my companion baptized the son. I will send you some pictures. Their full names are Mara Selene Ronquillo Torees. And the son is Julio Cesar Gutierrez Ronquillo. Being able to find and teach them made this week really great.

I also have the full names of Brenda and Hugo. Their names are Hugo Chaga Santana and Brenda Jussethe Aguilrea Sanchez. So now you have all the names of my baptisms I believe. Sorry it took so long to get those to you.

Transfers were yesterday and we found out that my companion and I are staying together. He'll be the one I finish with which is really cool because we get along great. We were both really happy about changes. They came early this time, about 5 PM because one of the assistants is from Peru and he went home last night, so they had to do them early.

Lots of people went home today. Elder Hoyt is in the airplane as we speak. I talked to him on the phone a lot this weekend and it was sad to say goodbye. But he said he'll come to my homecoming talk. Also, Elder Shawkey finished his mission but his parents flew in Saturday evening and are here with him right now. They are coming to my area tonight and we are all eating with some members, should be a fun night. He goes home Friday I believe.

I put those letters in the Pouch for Aunt Theo and G & G Barlow, but I found out the ZL's didn't send them out last week. So they should go out this week. I hope they get there quickly, if not then I may beat the letters home. But just a heads up there.

It's been cold and rainy here this week, but sounds like you are getting the same weather there. The World Cup is coming soon. Everyone here is getting excited about that. Is there anyway to check what times the games are? Mostly the Mexico game and the USA game, those are the two I will want to watch for sure.

Hard to believe that Shantaye is now a teenager! Time sure flies by. It's even harder to believe that I will only write two more emails to you as a missionary! :/ Because the last Monday I will be in the airplane all day and won't be able to write (obviously). Time sure goes by fast.

Sorry about taking more money out of my account. The mission never gave me the reimbursements (sp?) that I sent in. I also don't know if I will get any more money from the mission or not. Since I won't be here for all of the month of June they won't give me my monthly money. Transportation money is supposed to arrive this week but we'll see if they give me any or not. Seems that when missionaries go home they usually don't get any money from the mission. But just a heads up there as well.

Thank you Mom for looking up the info on Dixie College. Seems to be fairly cheap. I will have to decide all that when I get home in a few weeks. I'm definitely feeling a lot less pressure about coming home like you said Mom. I'm excited to see you all again after such a long time. Can't believe that I come home in three weeks though. I will for sure miss this place.

That's about all from this week. I hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you next Monday. I love you very much. Thanks again for the emails, love and support. You're the best!

Love,

Elder Green

10 May 2010

We had a GREAT telephone conversation with J.J. yesterday - Mother's Day. We were happy to hear all is well and he is doing just fine. He has a few more investigators he and his comp have challenged for baptism. So hopefully he'll be able to have a few more baptisms his final four weeks in the mission field.

He asked us to look into going to school at Utah State University (USU) and Dixie State University. His Mom is checking now. I guess three of his mission buddies are going to USU. He could room with them.

Was so nice to hear his voice even though he had a definite Spanish accent to his English. A breakdown of the call time:

Mom: 50 minutes

Dad: 14 minutes

Chez: 16 minutes

Shantaye: 9 minutes

We EAGERLY await his return home on 7 June.

3 May 2010

Hi again Family!

Sure feels great to be in May now. This year has gone by fast. Sounds like you all had a great week at the Supercross and REAL Salt Lake game. That's scary what happened about getting rear ended but I'm glad that Mom and Dad are okay.

I don't have the full names of Hugo and Brenda, but I will look it up and tell you next week. They are a young couple, he is only 18 years old and she is 23 I believe. I thought he was a lot older when we met them, but he's young. I guess they've been together for 3 years now. They are really happy and continue going to church every week which is great. It was a really neat baptism service with everyone dressed in white and all.

Dad said that he didn't forget about the Mother's Day call, but Mom did. haha. So that's why I had to remind you :) The number you can call is still the same: 044-55-54-98-95-20. If you need a back-up number you can call: 044-55-42-69-15-46. But the first one would be better, just use the second number if you can't get through on the first one. But there shouldn't be any problem. Sunday evening works fine for me. Maybe around 8pm my time? Let's plan on that, but if plans change then I will let you know. I'm not sure what will be going on that day.

I'm glad that Shantaye finally received my letter. I wasn't able to find anything new out about Cancun condos, but a friend in my zone who is also from Cancun is going to investigate. He also told me about something really cool that we can do down there. We can go visit this place called Xcaret, or Xei-ha. Don't ask me how to pronounce it because it's Mayan so I don't know. But he says its just outside of Cancun but it's an amazing place. Look it up on Google to see if you can find anything. I guess it's this place with all these underground rivers and waterfalls and it's supposed to be just gorgeous. So look into that, I'd really enjoy that. He said that Xcaret is better but they are both really amazing.

Now to the Church RULE as Dad stated. It is what it is. It will be great to have all you there, along with Grandma, Grandpa, Danny and his family and Tiff and her family. That sounds perfect to me. :) I know they aren't "immediate family", but to me they are. :) It's as if they were my immediate family so I'm glad they will be there. If Wilkinson's can make it that'd be great also, along with Kerry Barlow and Steve. The luncheon afterwards sounds great to me. Yes you can invite Calaigh to it. Dad, you mentioned already inviting Calaigh and Phil so that's why I didn't say their names. But of course I'd like them both to be there afterwards.

Did you want to go through the temple in Mexico City while we were here? And also visit the Visitor's Center? I think Saturday morning would be a good time to go to that shopping place I told you about. That will be fun if you want to buy things. I will talk to Barajas about going to the pyramids on Monday, 16 August. I'm sure they will be more than happy to take us.

I will be sure to get another letter out to Aunt Theo and Grandma and Grandpa this week.

I would like to attend Isaac's goodbye talk on June 13th, that would be really fun. I haven't used the whitening strips yet, I'm going to wait until I only have 2 or 3 weeks left.

I'm excited to talk to you all on Sunday. Feels like we just barely talked on Christmas. Can't believe that time has arrived already. I did want to ask Mom a favor. I was wondering if you could look into some stuff about USU, Utah State University. I have 3 friends from the mish who are going to that school and if I decide to go there then I would have a place to live. So I was wondering if Mom could call the counselor, get online or something, and see if she can get my registered there. It's not for sure I will go there, but if you can try to get me in and see if I can get a scholarship then it might be a possibility. I have to sign up for classes by June but I can do that when I get home, just need to see if I can even get admitted. So if you could try to do all that as soon as possible that'd be great. Just an idea of school.

When we come back here I'm sure we can go out to lunch with one of my old companions. Elder Shawkey's parents are coming out in two weeks as he finishes his mission, and we are all planning a dinner with some members in my ward. So I'm sure there is no problem if we do the same when we come back.

Well, I think that is all from this week. I will talk to you on Sunday evening. :) Hope you have a great week. Glad that Mom had a good birthday. I love you all and miss you.

Love,

Elder Green