03/30/10

Hello everyone,

Sorry I'm not good at remembering to tell you about transfers; but as you've guessed they are this week. We got our calls last night and Sister Boyd will be leaving and I will be staying for at least one more transfer. Time goes by fast but I've learned a lot from each of my companions so I'm excited to keep learning.

This past week has been nothing short of miracles. I don't even know where to begin. The Hernandez family, the family where the husband's a member but his wife and fourteen year old daughter aren't are doing very well. We've been teaching them a little over a month and their testimonies have really grown. This Sunday exactly a year from when Brother Hernandez was baptised, he got to see and baptise his wife and daughter. We asked him to give a talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost and it was so powerful. There isn't a better feeling than to see families living and enjoying the blessings of the gospel together. He was so happy to have his family be together.

On Friday Sister Boyd and I had the rare and probably only opportunity to have two youth from another ward (about thirty minutes away) come spend a day with us. Our Mission President called us to give us more information and there were only 13 youth who were doing it. The purpose was to get the youth excited about missionary work and hopefully spark a desire for them to serve missions. The girls were sixteen and seventeen years old (not related) and they were with us from 6:00 P.M. until 11:00 A.M. It was a vey interesting experience. We weren't told much but the only big requirement was that we needed to teach the restoration to someone.

They were both so willing and ready to go out and work. We ended up teaching the restoration to a recent convert, Sister Laurie (the nineteen year old blind girl). They did a great job teaching different principles and their testimonies were so pure and perfect. The night went by fast and after our lesson we went back to the apartment to have dinner, and they cooked!

The next morning (Saturday) they exercised with us, had breakfast, and we did our studies. During companionship study we did some role plays with them which consisted of teaching lessons and door approaches! We also took time to answer questions that they had. I was so surpised at some of the questions they've been asked by their friends and they actually took time to answer and wanted to explain things to them rather then just letting the moment pass by. One of the girls even got on LDS.org and typed in a couple questions online to get an answer.

I never realized how different it is for youth in the church, even in a different state. Sister Boyd and I thought 6:30 was going to be too early for them but they wake up every morning at 5:30 to go to seminary. I use to worry about the youth, especially my younger brothers and sisters but after this experience I don't anymore. My testimony of the the knowledge Heavenly Father has has been reaffirmed. We're all on this earth at the exact moment and time that we need to be. They were both so bold and very mature even in difficult situations. It made me want to be more like them and look at what I can do to be a better missionary/ person.

My time is running out on the computer and there are people waiting to get on after me but I love you all and will update you next week on how transfers go. Thank you for all of your support.

Love you lots,

Sister Green

03/22/10

Hello,

This weeks e-mail is super short. I spent most of my e-mailing time updating this new MyLDS account. It's faster and it's Googles Gmail so it's supposed to be a lot better. My new e-mail address is sadie.green@myldsmail.net. I'll still get other e-mails if you use ssg193 but just letting you all know. I'll write more next week....I know I say that every week but I mean it:)

Love you,

Sister Green

03/15/10

Hello Everyone,

So...this past week has been quite the character builder. On Friday we talked to the Elders in our area who had received a call from a member in the ward Bro. Ratliff. He was asked to give a talk in church on missionary work and he wanted us to sing the first verse of "Called to Serve". The Elders accepted and told Brother Ratliff that they would tell us so he didn't need to give us a call.

When they told us we were singing in sacrament meeting my first reaction was "No way"! but the Spirit softened my heart and I decided to just do it. It took me awhile to become excited but my fellow missionaries were patient with me and we all wanted to help Brother Ratliff with whatever he needed. He asked us to sing the first verse of "Called to Serve" and he wanted the congregation to join in on the second verse.

When we were up there singing my leg (the right one) was shaking.... bad! I don't know why but I guess that's my soft spot for when I have to sing in public. We made it through and I quickly came to the conclusion that that was a lot better than having to do a solo.

When the congregation joined in on the secong verse I thought "Wow, that sounds a lot better when everyone's singing". After we sang and sat down Brother Ratliff continued with his talk and said " As good as they sounded, wasn't it better when we all sang together"? He then bore testimony that that's how missionary work should be. Not just the missionaries working alone but the members also getting involved and helping out. It was a really good talk and it was worth getting up there singing to help him get a good message across.

We also had our Zone Conference earlier in the week and it was nice to see President and Sister Cutler. They talked about changing for the better and continuing to improve ourselves. President Cutler used a really good scripture from the Book of Mormon in Moroni Chapter 9:6. I don't remember it word for word but Mormon is writing to Moroni telling him about all of the bad things that their people are doing. He knows that their hearts are hardened but Mormon tells Moroni to continue to be diligent. He tells him that they have a labor to perform and if they would cease to labor, then they would come under condemnation.

President Cutler gave us the same incouragement and it's something that Sister Boyd and I have shared when we have our dinner appointments with members as well. Sometimes we don't see the "fruits of our labors" but we still need to be diligent and go about doing good. We need to keep preparing ourselves and become better in this life. The verse reads a lot better than I can so feel free to look it up:)

The area here is still going well. My Spanish is going well also. I still don't/can't speak as much because I don't have anyone to really speak to, but I still study everyday and my understanding of the language continues to improve. Since Sister Boyd and I are both English Sisters and the area that we're in doesn't have a lot of Spanish, our Mission President wants us to study the language for 1/2 hour instead of and hour.

Other than that I can't really think of anything else this week. I still love being a missionary. It's great to be able to share the gospel with people and help them feel the pure love of Christ.

As always thank you all for your support and love. Have a wonderful week. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love you guys,

Sister Green

03/08/10

Hello Everyone,

I'm really crunched for time this week but know that things continue to go well. President Cutler is doing well also. He had surgery on Tuesday and was back to work by Friday....miracle! Our Zone Conferences have been rescheduled and we have ours this Wednesday. We also have our President interviews on Thursday.

Things have been great and all is well here in San Antonio. Sorry this isn't very informative:( Next week I'll try to budget my time a little better.

Love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!

Sister Green

03/01/10

Hello,

Sorry if my e-mail didn't get out to everyone last week. I typed fast and didn't check to see if I typed everyone's e-mail in correctly. When I looked at my e-mail today it showed that there were a few typos...Sorry again. In the future if you do get an e-mail from me please check to see if there are typos in the other e-mail addresses and if there are please forward my e-mail to others. Thanks

We were supposed to have Zone Conference tomorrow but we got a call this morning from our District Leader who told us that President Cutler went into the hospital last night for a herniatied disc. He's in a lot of pain so we're all praying that he'll be able to recover soon.

This past week we've met a lot of people who are troubled about all of the calamaties that are happening around the world. We've met people who have sincere concerns and feel that God doesn't care or love them because of all of the bad things. This is why I love the gospel so much. It's the only thing that can bring peace and comfort into our lives even with all of the bad around us.

Every Wednesday we have District Meeting with the missionries close to our area (usually consisting of four different companionships). This past week we talked about the Book of Mormon. We read in Preach My Gospel which is also great. When Elder Bednar was hear he told us that the leaders of our chusrch didn't want us to memorize Preach My Gospel but that they wanted us to become Preach My Gospel so that's been nice to refocus and try to improve myself.

In Preach My Gospel there's a part about the Book Of Mormon where it says that it is the most correct of any book on the earth )Joseph Smith). It also tells us that the Book of Mormon combined with the Spirit is our most powerful tool for conversion. Before our training I forgot about the importance of the Book of Mormon. I use it but I also get excited about the other standard works. It's been a little difficult for me to find a balance for all of them but this training we had really helped.

Our District Leader asked us to think of questions that we've either been asked before or have wondered for ourselves. He wrote about 15 of them on the board and then we split up into groups (each companionship with a question) and we did role plays for diffrent situations where those questions would be asked by people we meet.

There were questions/concerns like: What is the purpose of life?
Does God know me? Why do I need to get married? Why does God allow suffering to occur? Why do I need to go to church? Why do I need religion? How am I sinning if I'm happy? Why do we need more than the Bible? Why do I need to pray? Is there life after death? I've already been baptised etc..

I hadn't known this before but all of these questions/concerns and many more like it were and can be found in the Book of Mormon. In Preach My Gospel under the Book Of Mormon section there's a part where it says the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul. My testimony of the Book of Mormon continues to grow and it is for our day. I'm so grateful for the prophets before us who took time to write about the their experiences so that we could find strength to know of the things we can do. It's really helped Sister Boyd and I teach more effectively as missionaries and be better equipped to serve the people here.

I love the Book of Mormon.

Love you Guys,

Sister Green

02/23/10

Hello,

This past week we were able to hear from one of the twelve...Elder David A. Bednar. It was wonderful, for lack of a better word in my vocabulary.

President Cutler sent us a text the night before telling all of us to be to the chapel by 8:30 A.M. The meeting was at our chapel (here in Windcrest) and when we arrived most of the missionaries, some of which had to travel for hours were there before us. We sat for about thirty minutes pondering, reading scriptures, etc. and an Elder was nice enough to share his talents and play the piano for us to invite the Spirit. There was a quiet dignity in the room even before the General Authorities arrived and the spirit of everyone present, ready to learn and improve was almost overwhelming at first.

When Elder Bednar and two of the area seventy walked in we all stood for them and opened the meeting with a song and prayer. Unfortunately I can't remember their names. I want to say Elder Richardson and Elder Gonzalez but I'm not sure.

Elder Bednar began by asking us all if we were ready to work. He made us all really comfortable from the beginning and assured us that he was going to treat us as agents who act and not as objects who are acted upon. A few weeks ago we were given two talks by Elder Bednar and we were told that the Apostle (who at the time was unknown to us) wanted us to read and study the two talks so that we would be more prepared.

If I can think of one thing that stood out to me the entire three hours it would be love. About half way through the meeting Elder Bednar asked us to raise our hands if any of us had a question that wasn't addressed there and we received an answer to the question we had. About 70% of us had our arms raised and Elder Bednar provided insight and explained how individual the Holy Ghost can be and how individual Heavenly Father's love is.

I personally had questions in my mind some of which didn't come until the meeting had already started but the Holy Ghost was able to answer my questions and provide knowledge as well as comfort for me.

Our mission president also spoke a little and a lot of time was spent allowing us to ask questions. It was an unforgettable experience and the Spirit was amazingly strong.

I don't have much more to say except I know the Lord loves us. Heavenly Fathers' plan is perfect and He hasn't since the moment the earth was created, left us alone here. This experience was once in a lifetime for me but we all have the opportunity to hear from these faithful leaders of the church often. We're so blessed.

Even in a world with so many bad things Heavenly Father has provided and allowed so much good to be here also. Jesus Christ is our Savior. The gospel has been restored. The priesthood power is once again on the earth. We have a living prophet who receives guidance from God for and in behalf of all of us. We can receive the constant comforting companionship of the Holy Ghost who will lead us safely home to our Father in Heaven.

Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Not in ways we may always expect or understand but He and our Savior know us better than anyone else and they are always there.

Love you guys,

Sister Green