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

26 April 2010

Thanks for the emails and all the good news. Sweet that the Jazz are now up in the serious! I hope they can make it far this year. Thanks for the updated flight plans as well. This week was pretty good. The weekend was really great as we had another baptism, actually 2 more. But I'll get to that in a minute. First, I'll respond to your emails.

I can't believe April is over either. Excited for May to be here because it's a good month. Lots of birthdays and also I get to call home. :) Didn't forget about that did you? It's less than two weeks away. So let me know next week how we're going to do it.

Please tell Shantaye that there is a letter on its way to her, I sent it out last week. She wrote me a letter and says I never write back to her, so inform her that she should be getting a response to her letter soon.

Sweet that you got the Cancun trip mostly planned out. Sounds like the hotel you picked out here in the city will work great. I'm excited for it. Tell Shantaye that I will definitely hang out in the ocean with her for a while, she can count on that. Especially since nobody else will. (So she says.) Hugo signing his marriage certificate.

When we have baptisms, my companion or I usually conduct the program. The Ward Mission Leader will do it if he is there, but he's normally working and hasn't been able to make it lately. We also participate by sharing a short message or a testimony.

Brenda signing her marriage certificate.

The food at the past zone conference just wasn't good this time. I think the ZL's have to arrange the food, it's different every time. But that's ok. To answer Mom's question, I've lost most of the spring in my basketball legs, something I'll have to work at to get them back. But I was able to dunk it last week. But I don't think the hoop was regulation size, so that's why. :)

Three marriages being held the same day.

Now to Dad's email. I don't really like the Church request of immediate family only, I was hoping to have a little bit bigger of a group... I think Danny and Tiffany are immediate family, I'd really like them to be there with their families. And then Grandma and Grandpa. And if that's all that we can allow, then that's fine. I'm sure it can be a big pain, and I see where Dad is coming from. But it's a big day for me. But just whatever works. You guys can figure that out, I'll leave it up to you. It would be cool to see everyone afterwards at "Green Gardens". I think that would be a good idea to invite the rest to our home and have a small gathering. Yes, you can invite Cody, Elliott, the Mortimers, Wilkinsons, just whoever you'd like. It's all the same to me.

I assume that on the way home from the airport we pass by with the Stake President so I can be released? Or is it not until later that evening?

I will decide what ward to attend here on 15 August. On Saturday I think we could go visit the center and some other cool places. The Angel of Independence maybe. I'm not sure what you want to do. In Chapultepec I heard there are some really cool places/museums to visit. I know a good place where we can go shopping, it's cheap and has tons of stuff. Might want to stop there one morning. But we can figure that stuff out later.

Seven investigators getting baptized after the three marriages.

I guess I'll have to give a welcome home talk. Didn't hurt to ask though, right?! :) Haha. But it doesn't have to be a huge event like my farewell talk was. Not planning on inviting everyone I know. If you'd like to do a luncheon after then that sounds fine to me. I have a lot of questions but I'm going to save them for the phone call in two weeks. Got my list of things. So we can plan in better detail over the phone on Mother's Day.

Elder Salazar, Brenda, Hugo and Elder Green.

I got my last package from you last week. Thank you very much! It was great. I love that little spinning top toy, my comp. and I have a blast with that. Looks really cool in the dark. Thanks again for sending a package to me.

Now to the baptism we had on Saturday evening. It was the baptism of Hugo and Brenda, that young couple we've been working with for a month and a half or so. But they weren't married, just living together. I went to go visit them with my DL (who is also the other ZL) during the week and they decided that they wanted to get married. The ZL's knew a member who does weddings for a lot cheaper and will come to your home. Well, the ZL's also had 2 couples they needed to marry and another elder from the zone had a couple. So on Saturday evening, we all meet up in the chapel of Molinito (my very first chapel where I was at for 4 months). The member/judge did the marriages first and it was really cool. I have some pictures of that I will send you. He married all the couples right there. Then we all got changed into our white clothes and the pictures look really good because we're all in white. And then one by one we baptized them all. It was a really cool experience. Some elders shared their testimonies, one elder sang a solo and has a really good voice. And there were lots of people there to see it. Afterwards, there was a small dinner for everyone. And yesterday, Hugo, Brenda and Amalia all got confirmed. It was a good weekend. Amalia wasn't able to get confirmed last Sunday so she got confirmed today. It was a neat baptism service.

The members who helped find Brenda and Hugo.

The only thing was that the judge charges 900 pesos to marry each couple. Which he said is really cheap compared to the normal price. And since Hugo and Brenda are still searching for jobs, they didn't have money for it. So turns our that my companion and I ended up paying for it. That is why I had to take out 600 pesos on Saturday, sorry about that. We asked the bishop earlier if he would help out or if the ward could help out. He said he would but then when it came down to Saturday he said he wouldn't and was putting a bunch of excuses and stuff. So my comp. and I paid, but it was worth it. That is why I had to take out more money. FYI.

Okay well I think that is all from this week. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all very much. Take care.

Love,

Elder Green

19 April 2010 - Hi Family

Hello again family,

Another week flew by. We were able to have a baptism this week which was pretty exciting. That is cool that the itinerary came in. I heard that they had them in the mission offices but they said that they will no longer hand them out until right before we leave. I was pretty bummed to hear that, so thank you for forwarding it to me. I will call today and double check my leaving date and let you know.

Sister Amalia Martinez Lopez and Elder Richards.

The baptism we had was a sister who has known the missionaries for over a year. She's really cool and we've been visiting her a lot, but she's never wanted to get baptized. But she finally decided to and on Friday we had the baptism service. Her name is Amalia Martinez Lopez. I'll try to send a few photos of that for you. It was a really great baptism program. A few other missionaries came because they had been in this area before and had taught her, both of them are my friends. One is Elder Gardner, he's from my generation. It was cool to see them.

Elder Gardner, a relative, Sister Amalia Martinez Lopez and Elder Richards.

Glad that the hotel names could help out some. Hope you get everything worked out okay. I'm not sure what ward I want to attend when we come here, but we can figure that out later. I've never had to speak in this ward. They seem to always have enough speakers and don't call on the missionaries.

I'm sorry to hear about Dad's nail story. That's tough. I hope his foot heals up quickly.

All the gang and Elder Green.

We had zone conference last Thursday. That went really well. They focused almost everything on the Book of Mormon so that was really cool. A member came to talk to us, he's an ex-missionary. I can't remember what his profession is.. but he has been working on being able to prove that the Book of Mormon is true scientifically. He spoke to us for several hours and had a neat slide show, it was a good presentation. Cool to see how science is slowly catching up to it. I think Joseph Smith said that would happen though. The zone conference was good overall, except the food. But that's ok. It's weird to think that I only have one more of those left.. I remember my first one just like it was yesterday, I was with Elder Sorensen... Crazy how time goes by.

Today I think we are playing basketball with the zone. Last week we played soccer. Should be fun, I'm excited for that.

Elder Salazar, Sister Amalia Martinez Lopez and Elder Green.

I'll be sure to let you know about my return date next week. Is there any way I can get out of giving a welcome home talk all together? :) That'd be swell. Haha.

I love you all. Hope you have a great week! Take care.

Love,
Elder Green

12 April 2010 - Hi Fam

What's up Family!

This first week of the transfer went by really quick. I hope everyone had a good week back home. That is good that the secretaries called you, they told me that they were going to do that. We'll see when they get the flight itinerary to us. Yes, there are couple missionaries in our mission, but I don't know them very well. I think I've met them once and that was at transfers when everyone meets together. I thought I had mentioned them before.. ? Sorry about that. I was able to get more info on hotels this week that should really help us out. But I'll get to that in a minute.Elder Green and Elder Salazar.

So my new companion is Elder Salazar. He's from Hermosillo, Sonora. It's right below Arizona I think, pretty close to the border. He has 3 months in the mission and has been a member for about 7 years. He's a really cool guy, we have similar personalities and get along really well. Probably one of the coolest comp's I've had, so far at least. So things are going well with him. He also speaks good English, only the second comp I've had that speaks English.

Yes, I was only with my last companion for one transfer, but after a month and a half that was enough time for me. Haha. I'm happy to have a new companion now. I will most likely finish with this companion, I hope so at least. To answer Mom's question, I've had a total of 10 companions including the one I have now, and NOT including the MTC. So a fair amount I guess. Not sure who was my favorite out of them all... Probably my trainer, Crispin, or Garcia. I told Garcia that we are coming to Cancun and he said that one night we can go visit him and his family and that his mom will cook us a nice dinner. So that will be fun.

I was able to buy some souvenirs over the weekend, I got pretty much everything that I wanted. But I have everything that I want now.

It will be fun with us five going to Mexico City and Cancun this August. We'll have to plan out what we will do here. The pyramids on Monday sounds good to me and then Cancun on Tuesday. Plus, I was talking to Sister Barajas. I'm sure you remember them from Lomas Verdes right? You sent her a Christmas present. Well, I emailed her last week asking about hotels and she gave me a good list. She also said that we are more than welcome at their home and that they can take us to the pyramids if we'd like, so that works out perfect. They have two cars and know how to get there which makes it a lot easier.

To answer Dad's question, the call for transfers always comes late, they didn't forget me. They don't get to the zone leaders til late, then they have to call the district leaders, and then the DL's call us. The Pres just gets them out really late.

OK, now to the hotels. I can't forward you the email she wrote because it's in Spanish, but I'll just translate most of it. There is a place in the center, or near the center, where there are a lot of good hotels. The avenue is called La Avenida Paseo de la Reforma. Some of the good hotel names she gave me were Four Seasons, which is near some museum. She thinks that is the best hotel in the city. Another good one is the Hotel Nikko, which is in an area called Chapultepec. I was in that zone once. It has all the fun stuff to do, like there is a famous castle there, there are tons of museums, a theme park, lots of stuff to see and visit. And close to that hotel is one called Hotel Presidente Intercontinental. Those hotels are in an area called Polanco which is a nicer part of all the city.

I also saw a hotel in Chapultepec that was the Marriott hotel, so you can look into that as well. In Polanco there is a bus that goes out and gives you a tour of the city she says, so that is close to those hotels. There's another hotel called the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton, she says it's close to the US embassy. And another called Hotel Sevilla Palace. And then another called Hotel Camino Real which is located in Polanco. So there are a few names for you. I'm sure you can look them up, look at prices and pictures and decide. She didn't tell me anything about prices so I'm assuming that a few can be quite expensive. But I would try to find one in those zones, Chapultepec, Polanco, or Reforma. That is close to the city and it's all in my mission.

Around the temple it's not quite as good of area, wealth wise, and I don't think there are many hotels around there. The sister said that she would love to meet my parents, and in August both of her sons will be home so it will be great. One is studying in BYU-I and the other gets home from his mission in 3 weeks. :) She said she can take us to the pyramids or to any other site that we'd like to see. She's been a great help on this.

Well, that's about all from this week. Not much exciting news. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Take care.

Love,
Elder Green

5 April 2010

Hello again Family,

Thanks for the emails this week. It's been a good week and even better weekend. I sure enjoyed conference on Saturday and Sunday. We were able to watch all of the sessions. Monson is hilarious, we were all laughing Saturday morning when he started off the conference. I actually enjoyed the Saturday sessions more than the Sunday sessions, can't remember the last time that has happened. It was a great conference overall and I really enjoyed it.

Hope that you all have been enjoyed Spring Break. I totally forgot it was Easter until I heard it in one of the prayers on Sunday morning. Oops. Most people had the weekend off because it's a big deal down here. On Friday, we saw a bunch of people who reinacted the crucifixion of Christ. We didn't stay to watch it but we had to pass by to get to one of our appointments. They do that all over here. I even heard that in some places they actually put the nails in someone's hands and feet.. The traditions here are strange..

The Cancun trip sounds great! I'm very excited. I'm assuming that the kids are coming too? You didn't say.. I would prefer to have more time in Cancun. A few days in Mexico City is enough I think, but I would really like to go visit the pyramids because I've never seen those. Can we do that Monday and then Tuesday go to Cancun? I'll leave it up to you, but I would enjoy more time on the beach. There's not many people I will want to visit here and we can see most of the stuff in 3 days I'm sure. I talked to Garcia and he said he will talk to his mom and they'll prepare a nice dinner for us one of the nights that we are down there. That should be lots of fun. I'll try to ask for hotels that are here in the city. I know there are a few in the center that are pretty nice, but I'll see if anyone knows any. The thing is I'm not too close to the center right now so not many members know any.

If Mom is sending one final package, I thought of something you could send. Those Betty Crocker desserts that you sent before. I think that was the brand. Where you just add water and microwave. And maybe some Easy Mac, haven't had that for who knows how long. And then just whatever else you'd like. Thank you again :) You're the best!

Elder Quintero is from Sinaloa, it's the northwest part of Mexico I believe. He went to the conference in Salt Lake City with his family this past weekend. I'm sure I'll be hanging out with missionary buddies long after the mission, just like you Dad.

Things with Hugo and Brenda seem to be progressing. They said that they want to be baptized so we will see what we can do. Their situation is difficult right now so I'm not so sure that they'll be able to get baptized.. But we'll work with them this week and see what we can do.

I got an email from Trace Staker last week. Did you know that he has been on his mission for a year now? I had no idea. He's in Argentina and says he really likes it. It was great to hear from him. I got a letter from Dad and it had pictures in it. Thank you very much! I love those pictures. Those are the family pictures I've wanted since I got here... but I never got 'em. So thank you, better late than never. I think I'll keep them instead of giving them away.

Last night we were waiting around for the phone call to come on changes.. At about 11:30 they finally called us and told us. I am staying here and my companion is leaving, which is what we figured would happen. An Elder Salazar is coming to this area with me, I think that is his name at least. I'll let you know the details next Monday after I meet him.

I am planning on going to buy the souviners and things I need this weekend. So just a heads up there. If you want to put my birthday money in now and I can use that to buy everything, that'd be great. I plan on spending around 100 dollars or so, depends on what I find.

I can't believe we are in April now.. It's crazy. It was a little sad thinking that that was my last General Conference in the mission.. Time sure flew by fast.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you very much!

Love,
Elder Green