Hey everyone! It's great to hear from you, as always; I love reading an update from home and hearing the new and the happenings and all the Reagan shenanigans. :) It sounds like everyone's doing really well with what fits (con lo que cabe... another Spanish-English translation).
First off, we have two new investigators with baptismal dates, Jaime and Javier. Jaime is the father and Javier's his 16(ish)-year-old son. We found them contacting on Thursday and taught them about the Restoration, then invited them to baptism on August 7th. They both accepted! I'm starting to see firsthand that this whole "invite baptism in the first lesson" scheme really works! :) Haha. They seem really willing and eager to learn. Marlene is progressing really well; she's starting to memorize the Articles of Faith with her member friends and is really enjoying studying and learning more. She's really excited for her baptism, and we are too - it's going to be a great one. We were teaching an investigator named Lupita a couple weeks back who went out of town - she let us know yesterday that she's home again, so we'll be teaching her again this week and we hope to put a baptismal date with her. We have a few other people who are progressing as well, so we're doing well and seeing the blessings of the Lord in our work. Things are going well and this week will be even better.
The highlight of last week was the Youth Convention held here in Villahermosa all week long. It's basically an EFY/youth conference type of thing - young men and women from all across Chiapas and Tabasco come up for a week to have activities, firesides, a dance, etc. It seems like a pretty awesome thing; there were a whole lot of people there, and they had a good time. As missionaries we put on a little demonstration thing one day of how to give a Book of Mormon to a friend - my companion and I explained it in front of three different groups of 50 kids. It was pretty cool and we had a good time with it. Another thing I really liked from this week is that Friday we visited María Luisa (who was beaming with happiness, as always), and we helped her pull weeds for about a half-hour. By "pull" I mean "cut with a machete" and by "weeds" I mean "giant tree-plants growing out of the cracks in her front walk." :) It was pretty fun though. I enjoyed doing some yard work again, since it's been quite a while. :) It really helped her out too, so that was nice. Also, Wednesday night a missionary was rumored to be "running away", and the Mission President wanted to talk to him first, so he asked us to watch for him at the bus station until he could get there. Turns out that the president showed up, but the missionary never did - he'd gone back to his apartment. Kind of interesting all around. :) Hopefully he works things out and continues his mission.
Miranda: You wrote a short letter so I will do the same. The hauling hay thing up in Heber sounds pretty fun. Well, that's about it! Talk to you next week! Haha. Just kidding. Actually, I was going to say something else too - something Dad wrote about how we spend out time reminded me of my "teen years", and of a quote by Thomas Edison. He was asked how he invented so many things and had so many great ideas, and he replied something like this: "Well, the difference between me and someone else is how we use our time. We both have 18 hours available to us each day. Most people spend those 18 hours doing a number of completely unrelated things. I, however, spend them focused solely on one thing, and in that way I'm able to actually get something done." Dad was talking about being focused on the moment and not drawn away by distractions and other things. I've definitely seen this in practice on my mission. Practically every minute of every day I do something related to the gospel and am thinking about the scriptures and the Savior. All that focus on just one thing has allowed me to really broaden my understanding and deepen my spirituality. I now recognize answers to prayers much more easily, and I find that the Spirit can be my guide and my protection if I keep my thoughts and actions pure. Basically, I've become a lot stronger in the gospel, and it's partly because of the amount of uninterrupted time I spend on it. So I think Thomas Edison had a good point. If we're doing something, we should do it with all our energy, and not be distracted by other things, so that we can enjoy that thing fully and get the most out of it. It's like if you tried to watch two movies at the same time - you might be able to follow them (mostly), but you wouldn't enjoy either one nearly as much. So that's my inspirational thought for you this week. :) I hope you're having a lot of fun, learning a lot, and enjoying your summer. Thanks for yor letters - your comments and thoughts are very profound and helpful. Thank you for being a great sister and friend; I hope this week goes really well for you. I love you very much! :)
Gabbie: Hey Gabs! How are you doing? :) From the sound of things, really great! Something I always like about your emails is that you always include little jokes or things people said that were funny throughout the week, like talking about cleaning up or what Dad told you about not being a drama queen. Ha. They always make me laugh and help me picture being at home a little better. I laughed remembering the green bean bag thing - I had completely forgotten about doing that, but I remember how you would just fly through the air. Thanks for the message from Reagan and for being such a great sister. Keep an eye on the little guy for me this week, and keep having lots of fun all the time! I love you Gabs! :)
Mom: Hey Mom! :) As always, it was great to get your email and hear about everything that everyone has been up to. With your email I always get a broader view of the whole family, and then with everyone else I read more about specifics - so it's really neat. We've actually seen the President a handful of times since he's been here, what with conference and the convention and a couple other things - but normally it might be about once a month, and that's only because he's here in Villahermosa. My companion, Elder Tanner, will complete 18 months on Wednesday - so he's three-fourths done with his mission. He says it's gone by really fast. There are now around 140 missionaries in the new mission, but I don't know how many are American and how many are Mexican yet. Today I will email you a map that shows the new mission boundaries. Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary sounds like it went really well and that they had a really good time. They emailed me today and talked a lot about the party and how much they enjoyed it. I'm almost ready to send them a handwritten letter, and one to your parents too. It's good to hear that Reagan's mostly back to normal (normal? haha) and still doing well. Mom, thank you for writing and for all your love and support. I hope this week is a wonderful one! I love you very much! :)
Dad: I really liked what you said last week about free agency and everything. You made a lot of very good points. Men become free agents unto themselves, and can choose between good and evil - which is really the choice between life and death, happiness and sadness. So, the question becomes - is what I'm doing right now making me eternally happy and leading to eternal life? If not... well, that which is not light is darkness. Interesting to think about - and rewarding to put into practice. Your insights about secret groves, plus the scriptures from Isaiah and Mosiah, were very profound, and I really liked those ideas. Thank you for sharing them - they help me out a lot. I'll be thinking about those things and trying to apply those lessons this week. As for emailing rules - still the same, I think. I can only email family directly, but can receive from friends. Transfers will be the second week in August, and I'm pretty sure I'll be transferred, so we'll see what happens. As you said, some days are easier than others, but all are a part of the experience and I'm still loving the mission. Time is still moving fast. Send everyone my best wishes (and the accompanying firm handshakes haha) and let them know I really appreciate everything they do for me. Thanks for always writing and for your example. I hope you have a great week. Love you, Dad. Two taps.
Thanks, everyone, for everyone, and I hope this week is filled with love and service and the joy of the gospel. Until next week!
Con amor,
Elder Greer
FROM JULY 12, 2010
Hey todos! I hope todo les vaya bien and that today you can give yourself count of how many blessings el Señor les ha dado en esta vida. :) I figured since Dad went with some Spanglish, I might as well try it too. To answer the question about that - yeah, we end up speaking a weird mix of the two languages a lot. I think almost all the time in Spanish now, and so even when we're speaking in English, Spanish words come out - there was a funny one a couple weeks back where we were talking and I said a phrase in Spanish in the middle of a bunch of English and didn't realize it until my companion pointed it out.
Well, everything is going really, really well for us down here in Villahermosa. There's plenty to talk about; let's get right to it.
First, Zone Conference. Let me begin by saying that President Castañeda is a very powerful, very spiritual man. From the first abrazo through the messages and in the interview, I felt the Spirit very strongly and I can tell that he has been called by the Lord to be here at this precise moment. I also know that this is where I'm supposed to be, too, so we're going to see great things happenening. In Conference the President helped us realize how essential it is that we invite people to baptism from the very first chance we have to talk to them. He mentioned, "Talking to us might be the only chance they ever have in life to be invited to be baptized by the authority of God - and if we don't offer it to them, they'll never receive it." Zone Conference was amazing all the way through. I also received two letters from Lisa, one from Sister Windley, and Dad's package with music, letters from my friends, and Liahonas. I'm very appreciative for everything that I received, especially the package, Dad. Listening to that music you sent has been great in the last couple days, and it was wonderful to read so much from all my friends on missions and see some of the similiarities and differences in the work. Also, the Liahonas have come in handy - I've given one out so far and kept one for myself, and love reading through the messages and really studying them. Thank you very much for sending all of that! :)
Friday I had my first interview with President Castañeda. We mostly just chatted, and he shared scriptures and insights that were very meaningful. I told him about how you met his old mission companion, Roman Lopez, and he was thrilled to hear about it. I felt the presence of the Holy Ghost very powerfully. President Castañeda loves us very much and is a dedicated servant of the Lord, and under his guidance the mission will soar to new heights.
Speaking of that - the leadership council that took place last week have placed a goal for the mission - 1820 baptisms in the next 6 months, which comes out to one baptism per week, per companionship. I know that God will help us along the way and will show us the ways to meet than goal. And with the baptism on Saturday, I only have 25 left to go! :) (See how easy that is?)
As for the baptism - it was wonderful. I'm going to send a couple pictures today, so you'll see María Luisa, but she's 74 years old and pretty short and not in the greatest health conditions. She's so humble and willing and was so excited this past week about being baptized. Her daughters and granddaughter came and supported her, as well as many members. There were a couple of setbacks - the font malfunctioned and the whole stake presidency worked on it for an hour just to get it going. And then the water only came to my companions waist, so he had trouble getting her all the way under, and it took a few times. But María Luisa bore her testimony afterward and a sweet spirit filled the room. She was so excited and happy. She also bore her testimony yesterday in Ward Conference after being confirmed, and that too was really neat. She'll make a wonderful member and is so excited to have joined the Church. Overall, a great experience, and a privilege to be a part of.
That makes six baptisms for me so far (seven counting you, Gabbie!), and I hope and look forward to many more. The friend of the member family I mentioned is going to be baptized on the 31st of this month (her name is Marlene). We've taught her twice more and she accepted the invitation without the slightest hesitation. Truly a golden investigator, and I'm really looking forward to teaching her and helping her toward baptism. The 8-year-old girl, Sheyla, will be baptized this Saturday and is really looking forward to it as well. Her family has been reactivated, and things are going well with them. We're working with a couple other people to try and put baptismal dates with them. The work is progressing really well and there's plenty of hope and excitement for the future. I thank you all for your many prayers and words of support; I do feel it coming from back home and it lifts me up and supports me through sometimes difficult days.
I don't have that much time left for today, though, as always, there are many more things I would like to say. Let me make a few brief comments and then I'll close out; I'll try to make up for it next week.
Briefly...
Gabbie: I smiled hearing about Reagan waking you up at three am wanting to watch a movie. Your camping trip sounds fun too! Gabs, thanks for writing me and for being an awesome little sister. I'll write more to you next week, and I hope this one is great! I love you! :)
Miranda: Man, that's quite the email! :) I really enjoyed hearing about your EFY experience. It sounds like you had a great time, felt the Spirit, learned a lot, and enjoyed yourself. I liked what you said about not settling for low standards. I think we should also expect great things of ourselves, and shouldn't justify bad decisions, but should instead strive to be better and to be the best we can be. We're still going to make mistakes, but the Lord will bless us and make up for those. Thanks for also being such a great little sister! :) I love you! :)
Mom: What you said about what every new member needs was right on the money. President Hinckley (remember your prayer that one time?) said that every new member needs a friend, a responsibility, and to be "nurtured by the good word of God." And that's definitely true. Being busy and having that sort of help allows people to grow and develop and helps them stay active in the Church and strengthen their testimony. I was sad to hear about Reagan, and of course I'll continue to pray for him and the family constantly, especially right now so that he can start to feel better. Give him a hug for me, okay? And wish Grandma and Grandpa Greer happy anniversary for me, too. That should be a lot of fun. 50! What a milestone. Mom, thank you for all your love and support, and for always being there for me. Have a wonderful week, and remember that I love you very much! :)
Dad: I laughed at your Spanglish, at what you said about how you had to open and close every discussion with a hymn. That would certainly be interesting. :) It's also true what you said about the new president taking charge - he's definitely receiving revelation, and he'll guide the new mission just the way the Lord wants him to. You did tell be about "The Continuous Atonement," and the insight you shared today is pretty profound. I'll be thinking about all that this week and let you know what I come up with. I'm going to reread 3 Nephi 9 - that whole book is amazing and so inspiring, and I really like learning more about the Savior and seeing His great love for us. And thank you for sharing your testimony; it means a lot to me. I hope you have a great week and that you are guided by the Holy Ghost to make the best decisions for the family. I love you very much! :)
Well, everyone, the Church is true and so is the Book of Mormon. If we trust in our Savior and learn of Him, if we seek to follow His guidance and His divine example, we will see His holy hand in our lives more abundantly and will see the blessings. Thank you all for everything you do for me, and have a great week! Chow for now! :)
Con amor y un abrazo,
Elder Greer
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