Dear Family,
Another wonderful week. The Lord is really blessing Sister Boyd and I by leading us to those who are prepared to receive the gospel. Yesterday after church, we knocked a street we'd planned to knock the evening before during our nightly planning. After knocking a few houses a woman answered the door. We introduced ourselves and as we asked her if she'd ever talked to missionaries before she looked down, looked back up at us and said "You know what?...Come on in, Come on in."
As we went in she told us her name is Sonja and that she has an older sister who is a member of our church and she lives in California. She doesn't know too much about her sister because they recently found out they were related but she knew her sister was a "Mormon". She allowed us to say a prayer and then she opened right up to us and told us she knew she needed to be more religious. She told us the end of the year is always a difficult time for her because she sets goals at the beginning and when the end is close she looks back on the things she didn't accomplish.
After telling us about herself she asked us to tell her what we did as missionaries. We told her our purpose was to invite everyone to receive the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We told her about how we've had a living prophet on the earth since the 1800's and how we have a prophet today as well as twelve apostles. She inquisitively replied, "Really?" She loved the idea of having a prophet who speaks to God just like in the Bible, to help her receive more direction in her life. The Spirit was great and her heart was so open.
We read from the Book of Mormon and lots of questions about the purpose of life and life after death came up. We told her our message can't be learned all at once and we asked to set up a return appointment to share more with her. She thought about it for a minute and said "Can you come back tomorrow?" So we have an appointment to go see her tonight along with one of our Ward Missionaries.
When we asked Sonja how she felt about the things we shared she said she "would need to come to church so [she] could see for [herself]." She told us that we looked familiar to her and that she had seen us somewhere before but she didn't know where. Sister Boyd and I looked at each other and we could tell we were both thinking "pre-existence":)
It's been a great week and I love that I get to share the gospel with people especially this time of year. I remember when I first came out in the field I met a lot of people who had a lot of problems. It was more than what I expected and when they would tell us some of the things they were worried about or going through I had no idea how to help them. I soon realized that all I needed to do and all I'm expected to do is love them and share the gospel. I know that there is nothing we've experienced that our Savior has not experienced Himself, long before we did. No matter what we've been through or how real our trials seem to us, our Savior and His gospel are the only thing that can heal us.
I love you all and hope we don't forget the "Reason for the Season."
Merry Christmas,
Sister Green
Monday, December 20, 2010
12/13/10
Dear Family,
Before I proceed I want to say...Congratulations on your graduation Dad!
This week has been great. I love working with Sister Boyd. She has such a strong desire to please the Lord. Working with her is the equivalent of working with a greenie fresh from the MTC. She's never lost the MTC fire. We've struggled finding people to teach this week but we're hopeful and know that if we continue to be diligent the Lord will bless us. We've met a few people who want us to come see them this week and they seem promising so we'll see what happens.
We had two non-members come to church this week but we're currently not teaching either of them. We've taught them in the past but each of them have different areas where there testimony needs to be strengthened. They're both wonderful and they enjoy coming to church. Robbie is 19 years old and the previous sisters saw his dad working out in the yard and began to teach them. The other is Stephanie. I don't have time to go into too much detail about both of them but Stephanie has a great story I want to tell.
She was raised Baptist and when she was 16 years old she ordered a copy of the Book of Mormon. Her father was a Baptist preacher and when her mom found out she wasn't very happy. A few years ago her dad passed away. Her mother remarried a member of the church and she was baptized in February of this year. Her mother contacted the bishop here and asked him to send the missionaries over to Stephanie so she could also learn about the gospel. The previous Sisters were able to get to know Stephanie and share the gospel with her and her 8 year old son Austin.
Stephanie is also in the military and a couple months ago she found out she had to be to work early in the morning. She didn't have anyone to watch her son and her mom suggested she talk to someone from the church to help and she assured her that someone would be there for her. After talking to the sister missionaries, they asked around the ward and there was a family, the Hernandez's that stepped up and said they would be willing to take care of Austin while Stephanie made her way to work at 4:30 in the morning.
Austin is the same age as one of their boys and everything worked out perfectly.
Sister Rae, Sister Boyd, and I got to spend time with Stephanie and her parents, at the Hernandez's, when they came down a couple weeks ago to visit (they live in Alabama). It was so great to hear the testimony of Stephanie's mother who was also raised Baptist. She said she knew that this is the true church and she wants her family to be a part of it (right now she's the only member). I know the Lord has His hand in this families' life as he does for all of us.
Sister Boyd and I are really excited for this transfer. I want so much to bare my heart to the people here and have the Holy Ghost testify to them of the things I know to be true. I feel like Alma's words are my own when he says "I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins."
I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Nothing in this world will bring as much joy or happiness than accepting our Savior and following Him.
Love you all,
Sister Green
Before I proceed I want to say...Congratulations on your graduation Dad!
This week has been great. I love working with Sister Boyd. She has such a strong desire to please the Lord. Working with her is the equivalent of working with a greenie fresh from the MTC. She's never lost the MTC fire. We've struggled finding people to teach this week but we're hopeful and know that if we continue to be diligent the Lord will bless us. We've met a few people who want us to come see them this week and they seem promising so we'll see what happens.
We had two non-members come to church this week but we're currently not teaching either of them. We've taught them in the past but each of them have different areas where there testimony needs to be strengthened. They're both wonderful and they enjoy coming to church. Robbie is 19 years old and the previous sisters saw his dad working out in the yard and began to teach them. The other is Stephanie. I don't have time to go into too much detail about both of them but Stephanie has a great story I want to tell.
She was raised Baptist and when she was 16 years old she ordered a copy of the Book of Mormon. Her father was a Baptist preacher and when her mom found out she wasn't very happy. A few years ago her dad passed away. Her mother remarried a member of the church and she was baptized in February of this year. Her mother contacted the bishop here and asked him to send the missionaries over to Stephanie so she could also learn about the gospel. The previous Sisters were able to get to know Stephanie and share the gospel with her and her 8 year old son Austin.
Stephanie is also in the military and a couple months ago she found out she had to be to work early in the morning. She didn't have anyone to watch her son and her mom suggested she talk to someone from the church to help and she assured her that someone would be there for her. After talking to the sister missionaries, they asked around the ward and there was a family, the Hernandez's that stepped up and said they would be willing to take care of Austin while Stephanie made her way to work at 4:30 in the morning.
Austin is the same age as one of their boys and everything worked out perfectly.
Sister Rae, Sister Boyd, and I got to spend time with Stephanie and her parents, at the Hernandez's, when they came down a couple weeks ago to visit (they live in Alabama). It was so great to hear the testimony of Stephanie's mother who was also raised Baptist. She said she knew that this is the true church and she wants her family to be a part of it (right now she's the only member). I know the Lord has His hand in this families' life as he does for all of us.
Sister Boyd and I are really excited for this transfer. I want so much to bare my heart to the people here and have the Holy Ghost testify to them of the things I know to be true. I feel like Alma's words are my own when he says "I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins."
I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Nothing in this world will bring as much joy or happiness than accepting our Savior and following Him.
Love you all,
Sister Green
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
12/07/10
Dear Family,
We received our transfer calls last night and the results are....Sister Rae will be leaving and Sister Boyd and I will be staying here in Old Settlers. After this transfer is complete Sister Boyd and I will have served together for 6 months of our missions. Sister Rae will be missed but transfers are always such a fun time for me. I love that our Heavenly Father can reveal to us where He would have us be.
Both of my mission Presidents have explained the process they go through with transfers and both have testified of how they've been guided by our Heavenly Father to best place all 180 of us. That reminds me of Elder Rasband's talk for Easter Conference when he spoke about missionary work and how the General Authorities receive revelation when placing missionaries in their field of labor. Heavenly Father is too good to us.
This is a wonderful area to be in. the members are looking forward to some consistency because there have been a lot of changes made within the past few months. They're all still really supportive and they LOVE to do missionary work.
One highlight from this week happened a few days ago. We received a referral on our phone (meaning there's someone in our area who is interested in learning more about the gospel). The referral was for a woman named Sherri Shultz and she lives here with her husband and as far as we know two sons.
Sherri and her family really enjoy listening to Glen Beck and she was listening in when he spoke about emergency preparedness. He referenced a website that people could look at if they were interested and Sherri went online to search. She looked up the address for the local bishop's storehouse and dropped by the week before last. A member showed her around and answered some of her questions and there was also another member who had a copy of the Book of Mormon with her (just in case:). Sherri accepted and began her personal study of the Book of Mormon.
When we stopped by to see her she had lots of wonderful questions about the things she read in a little less than a week and we found out that she had read the first 100 pages of the Book of Mormon; with her favorite parts highlighted. We were able to pray and share more with her and she was so receptive and willing to listen. Her oldest son is having jaw surgery today and she'll be busy taking care of him for the next month or so. We won't be able to see her during that time but she wants to learn more when her son is better and I know she'll continue to feast on the Book of Mormon until then. She will have it read by our next appointment.
I love this gospel and I know there are people, our brothers and sisters who are searching for truth. We just need to be good examples and when the time comes open our mouths and share the good news.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Sorry it's taken so long to get a picture of my mission presidents off to y'all. The Cutlers are first and the Jones' are next. Have a great week
Love you guys,
Sister Green
We received our transfer calls last night and the results are....Sister Rae will be leaving and Sister Boyd and I will be staying here in Old Settlers. After this transfer is complete Sister Boyd and I will have served together for 6 months of our missions. Sister Rae will be missed but transfers are always such a fun time for me. I love that our Heavenly Father can reveal to us where He would have us be.
Both of my mission Presidents have explained the process they go through with transfers and both have testified of how they've been guided by our Heavenly Father to best place all 180 of us. That reminds me of Elder Rasband's talk for Easter Conference when he spoke about missionary work and how the General Authorities receive revelation when placing missionaries in their field of labor. Heavenly Father is too good to us.
This is a wonderful area to be in. the members are looking forward to some consistency because there have been a lot of changes made within the past few months. They're all still really supportive and they LOVE to do missionary work.
One highlight from this week happened a few days ago. We received a referral on our phone (meaning there's someone in our area who is interested in learning more about the gospel). The referral was for a woman named Sherri Shultz and she lives here with her husband and as far as we know two sons.
Sherri and her family really enjoy listening to Glen Beck and she was listening in when he spoke about emergency preparedness. He referenced a website that people could look at if they were interested and Sherri went online to search. She looked up the address for the local bishop's storehouse and dropped by the week before last. A member showed her around and answered some of her questions and there was also another member who had a copy of the Book of Mormon with her (just in case:). Sherri accepted and began her personal study of the Book of Mormon.
When we stopped by to see her she had lots of wonderful questions about the things she read in a little less than a week and we found out that she had read the first 100 pages of the Book of Mormon; with her favorite parts highlighted. We were able to pray and share more with her and she was so receptive and willing to listen. Her oldest son is having jaw surgery today and she'll be busy taking care of him for the next month or so. We won't be able to see her during that time but she wants to learn more when her son is better and I know she'll continue to feast on the Book of Mormon until then. She will have it read by our next appointment.
I love this gospel and I know there are people, our brothers and sisters who are searching for truth. We just need to be good examples and when the time comes open our mouths and share the good news.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Sorry it's taken so long to get a picture of my mission presidents off to y'all. The Cutlers are first and the Jones' are next. Have a great week
Love you guys,
Sister Green
11/29/10
Dear Family,
It was a great week again. Time is going by exceptionally fast. My companions and I were able to get to know more of the families in the ward this week. We continue to be blessed with people who are interested and we are looking forward to another week of sharing the gospel.
I'm reminded of President Cutler who told us that sometimes when we work we don;'t see the results of that work for a few weeks. The Lord is really blessing us for our previous weeks efforts. I've attached a few pictures that were taken on Thanksgiving at the Wolters and of another family (the Murffs) that we took a few days after Thanksgiving. Enjoy.
I also want to remind you that next week is transfer week and I won't be e-mailing until Tuesday. Love you guys lots and hope you have a wonderful week.
Sister Green :)
P.S. I'll try to write more next week
It was a great week again. Time is going by exceptionally fast. My companions and I were able to get to know more of the families in the ward this week. We continue to be blessed with people who are interested and we are looking forward to another week of sharing the gospel.
I'm reminded of President Cutler who told us that sometimes when we work we don;'t see the results of that work for a few weeks. The Lord is really blessing us for our previous weeks efforts. I've attached a few pictures that were taken on Thanksgiving at the Wolters and of another family (the Murffs) that we took a few days after Thanksgiving. Enjoy.
I also want to remind you that next week is transfer week and I won't be e-mailing until Tuesday. Love you guys lots and hope you have a wonderful week.
Sister Green :)
P.S. I'll try to write more next week
11/22/10
Dear Family,
The past week went well. This past week we had a meeting with our Zone to help strengthen us in our purpose. My companions and I have been praying to find families to share the gospel with and just this week we've met four families who are potentially interested in learning about the gospel. I'm reminded of the quote: "A missionary is someone who leaves their family for a time to help other families be together forever". People are busy with the holiday season but the Lord has prepared those who will listen and accept the gospel message.
I've been striving to have more sincere prayers and also to be more grateful for the blessings I've been given. I enjoy being in this area and I love the people here. For Thanksgiving we're eating with two of our ward missionaries, Brother and Sister Wolter. They moved here a couple months ago from Ohio.
I'm looking forward to this time of year. Last year Thanksgiving and Christmas were some of my favorite times when we were out because there isn't a greater gift to give than to share the gospel. I'm excited to see who we'll find this week:)
I love you all and am grateful for your love and support. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Sister Green
The past week went well. This past week we had a meeting with our Zone to help strengthen us in our purpose. My companions and I have been praying to find families to share the gospel with and just this week we've met four families who are potentially interested in learning about the gospel. I'm reminded of the quote: "A missionary is someone who leaves their family for a time to help other families be together forever". People are busy with the holiday season but the Lord has prepared those who will listen and accept the gospel message.
I've been striving to have more sincere prayers and also to be more grateful for the blessings I've been given. I enjoy being in this area and I love the people here. For Thanksgiving we're eating with two of our ward missionaries, Brother and Sister Wolter. They moved here a couple months ago from Ohio.
I'm looking forward to this time of year. Last year Thanksgiving and Christmas were some of my favorite times when we were out because there isn't a greater gift to give than to share the gospel. I'm excited to see who we'll find this week:)
I love you all and am grateful for your love and support. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Sister Green
11/15/10
Dear Family,
I don't have a lot of time today but this week has been great . We've gotten used to working with one another and the benefits of having a trio companionship are many. It's been nice to easily adapt to areas; what use to take an entire transfer now only takes a couple weeks (all in the Lord's timing and with His help).
I'm really impressed with and love the ward here. They have such a strong desire to serve and invite their friends to be a apart of the gospel. The ward had the primary program yesterday and there were several families that were not LDS who attended sacrament meeting. One family Sister Boyd, Sister Rae, and I met knocking a couple days ago (The Carter Family). Sister Carter (not yet a member) told us that a family in the neighborhood invited them to come see the program and they were planning on stopping by after their church was over. It was great to see them there and we were able to be friendly reminders when we knocked on their door. I know Heavenly Father is preparing people all over to hear and accept the gospel.
I'm looking forward to seeing wha tthe Lord has in store this week. Thank you all for your love and e-mails. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Love you
Sister Green
I don't have a lot of time today but this week has been great . We've gotten used to working with one another and the benefits of having a trio companionship are many. It's been nice to easily adapt to areas; what use to take an entire transfer now only takes a couple weeks (all in the Lord's timing and with His help).
I'm really impressed with and love the ward here. They have such a strong desire to serve and invite their friends to be a apart of the gospel. The ward had the primary program yesterday and there were several families that were not LDS who attended sacrament meeting. One family Sister Boyd, Sister Rae, and I met knocking a couple days ago (The Carter Family). Sister Carter (not yet a member) told us that a family in the neighborhood invited them to come see the program and they were planning on stopping by after their church was over. It was great to see them there and we were able to be friendly reminders when we knocked on their door. I know Heavenly Father is preparing people all over to hear and accept the gospel.
I'm looking forward to seeing wha tthe Lord has in store this week. Thank you all for your love and e-mails. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Love you
Sister Green
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