04/26/10

Hello All,

This has been one of my favorite weeks on my mission so far. There are some changes happening in our area (our boundaries have gotten bigger) but I'm excited to keep serving here. The Lord has really helped us find people He's prepared to receive the gospel. We're busy with teaching appointments all throughout the week with people we've met recently. It's awesome.

I had my second to last interview with President Cutler on Friday; it was kind of sad. During our most recent Zone Conference he showed us a picture of our new Mission President and his wife (President and Sister Jones). We don't know too much but they're from California and they have seven children too. President told us he talks to them frequently and he got teary-eyed when he shared his testimony about how he knows they're going to be great. He also read a scripture out of D&C that talked about changes in the church but the gospel and the direction from God stayed the same.

One of the big things I've learned on my mission is how to feel comfortable with and accept change. It's comforting knowing the Lord is in charge of everything and He knows what's best for us. Whenever I've been unsure about something it's been nice to take my doubts to Heavenly Father to ask for a confirmation from Him...and he always comes through:)

Yesterday Sister Johnson and met a nice lady who was really involved in her faith. We knocked on her door and we talked with her for about and hour. She had heard a lot of negative things about the church and there were some things she thought we still practiced; we were more than happy to answer her questions. She wasn't really interested in us coming back but I love it when we are able to give people a better understanding of the things we believe.

It's getting hotter here...pray for me! Sister Johnson loves the heat and I love being cold so it's been interesting trying to accommodate each other. She let's me keep it pretty cool in our apartment but we don't spend too much time there. People here are really friendly and lots of them offer us water when we're out even if they don't want to talk to us, so that's been good.

Other than that there's nothing too new to report. Our investigators are doing well. i'm looking forward to another week here in Windcrest:). Thank you for all of your prayers.

Have a great week,

Sister Green

04/19/10

Hello all,

This week went well; I loved hearing from all of you. We were a little late getting to the library today so it took us awhile to get started and now there are lots of people waiting to get on. We'll try to be better next week. Thanks for all that you do. Have a great week.

Love you guys,

Sister Green

04/12/10

Hello,

This week was nice. We're working with a lot of wonderful people the Lord has helped us find. We also have our Zone Conference tomorrow so we're all excited for that. It's been nice working with Sister Johnson and learning from her. She's such and awesome missionary and she's really dedicated too...

A couple of months ago our Mission President compiled a series of talks by General Authorities who spoke about the Atonement. We had a schedule outlined for us each day as a mission for what we should read and it went all the way to Easter. I learned so much more about the Atonement just from reading these talks.

One big thing I took away from it was how I (we) can use the Atonement everyday. I use to think I had to wait until Sunday to partake of the sacrament to feel "clean". It's important to renew the covenants we made at baptism but for the past week or so, when I say my nightly prayers the Spirit lets me know of things I need to work on and do better the next day. Change use to be overwhelming but I've found that the Atonement of our Savior strengthens me as I strive to become like Him. I sleep better now.

Of the people we've been able to teach this week one of them is a lady named Maria. Sister Johnson and I were on our bikes when we saw her husband working outside in the yard. He told us his wife (Maria) was inside and that we could knock on the door. She let us in and we got to know her a little bit. She's a devout Catholic and she has a lot of faith in our Savior. From talking with and being around her she's a great example of someone who lives what she believes. She doesn't know much about our religion but she has a desire to learn more. We taught her the restoration when we first met her and a couple of days later we brought a member (Sister Coopwood) the bishop's wife with us.

The Coopwoods use to be Southern Baptist but they were converted forty years ago in Finland. In our appointment with Maria she asked Sister Coopwood what made her want to join the church and she bore a strong, powerful testimony as she shared her conversion story. It was great. She's not ready to change religions but she's so open to learning more and she enjoys reading from the scriptures (including the BofM).

Matt also came to church this Sunday. It's one of the best feelings in the world to see people come to church. Of all the things I've enjoyed on my mission that's been one of them, helping people build upon their faith. It reminds me of something our Mission President told us once at a Zone Conference.

He told us to imagine we were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and we have an unlimited supply of life reservers. All around us there are people who are drowning in different distances in the water. It's up to us to do everything we can to get those life resrevers to them. After all we do, they make the decision to grab onto the life reserver to be saved but we still do everything we can to help them.

So it is with all of us who have the gospel in our lives. It's up to us to share it with those around us who are "looking for the truth but they know not where to find it". We may be rejected, we may have to try our hardest with some, and with others we won't have to try as hard because they were waiting (prepared), but we still do what we can.

I love analogies, especially this one. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

The church is true,

Sister Green

04/05/10

Hello Family,

This week for transfers went well like it always does. I'm getting use to this routine now. My new companion is Sister Johnson. She and I went on exchanges together for 24 hours a couple of weeks ago and now she's my companion. She's an awesome missionary. She's a really hard worker and is really good with the people. She only has about twelve weeks before she goes home (She leaves the same time my trainer, Sister Larrosa leaves). I've already learned a lot from her so I have a feeling that our time together will go well.

We also have a new Elder/District Leader, Elder Wilms. I mention him because his story is awesome. He was baptised with his family when he was fourteen years old. They all instantly became less-active and through the love and support of good friends and members a long the way he started going back to church when he was nineteen. He left for his mission when he was twenty and he's been out a little over a year. His dad also started to go back to church a year into his mission so his service is blessing the lives of his family. I'm so amazed with eveyone's story. All of the missionaries I've gotten to know have atleast one BIG thing that could've stopped them from being a missionary but with the help of the Lord they were able to overcome it and their testimonies, in return are so solid. It's been such a blessing to be able to associate with them.

We continue to see miracles here. Saturday after the last session of Conference we picked a part of our area and started trackting there. Everyone we talked to wasn't interested and no one really answered thier doors when we knocked. the whole time we just didn't feel like that was the place for us to be but we kept through it trying to be diligent. For about an hour and a half we did this until we both decided to head in the opposite direction.

We walked for about ten minutes and on our way we met a couple (in their late thirty's early forties) named Matt and Nikki who were on their way home after a bike ride. We introduced ourselves and started to talk about the gospel. Matt was interested and accepted our invitation to share more with them. We began with a prayer and we started to teach the restoration. After we finished Matt told us how he had been looking for a church to go to. He told us he studied and looked into lots of different religions to join but wasn't able to find one yet. He also told us that he wondered why we as [Mormons] have another "bible" and one day he picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon and he opened up to 2 Nephi 29; where it talks about why the Lord gives us more scriptures. He said it helped him to understand it better. Talking to him we could see how the Lord prepared him and how his heart was opened to learning more. He told us he knew things happened for a reason. We explained and invited them to General Conference and gave them directions to the church. When Sister Johnson and I got home we retraced our steps and realized that it was nothing short of a miracle being able to meet them when we did. If we would have been a couple minutes off we would've missed seeing them.

.....Okay so this story gets exceptionally better. The next day (Sunday) Sister Johnson and I went to the church with the Elders to watch Conference again. Five minutes before the first session starts Sister Johnson goes in the hallway (where I can still see and hear her:) to call Matt to see if he can make it. She gets his voicemail and leaves him a message. When she's hanging up she hears someone behind her say "Nikki won't be able to make it". It was Matt! He came by himself, dressed very nicely may I add, and he had his Book of Mormon in his hand. It was awesome! The feeling (although I've never experienced this yet) is equivalent to how a parent feels when their child is away from home but still decides to go to church and make good choices. It was nice.

Throughout the session I kept looking at him through my peripheral vision and he never took his eyes off the screen. I also loved that President Monson spoke during the first session because he got to see and hear from a living prophet. We were able to talk to him for a few minutes afterwards and he said he enjoyed it. All of the talks were wonderful and I was so happy that he could hear from the Leaders of out church.

This Easter went well also. We had dinner with the Rodriguez family. They feed us a lot and we ate with them in between Conference sessions. It was my first Texan Easter I've had in a long time. We had brisket as the main meat with a black bean salad, some rice that Sister Rodriguez makes and it's really good, and other little things to go on the side. They have a son on a mission right now so they're really good about making sure we're taken care of especially on the holidays.

That's pretty much all of the news over here. I'll keep you posted on any other changes. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter (it sounds like you did). Love you guys.

Sister Green