Week 093 - Make A Trip To Texas And Stay A Night At The Greene Manor

Hello Family,

So we all decided on the name Potsy for the dog? I assume he's named after Richie’s friend from Happy Days, because other than that I’ve never heard of the name Potsy. Anyways personally I love the name.

It’s really cool that the stake puts on that Halloween carnival, I remember you guys telling me about it last year. I love the costumes, they are all Impressive.  Halloween doesn’t exist here, I hear in Buenos Aires, it’s a thing, but here no. people usually think it’s a made up movie thing. People always ask questions like that. "Do you guys really go knocking on doors dressed up and people give you free candy? Or “Do you guys really hang people socks over the fire place?" “Yes yes we do. It’s awesome up there."

When I left on the mission I brought a ton of pictures with me, and one picture I have is me sleeping on the couch outside next to the pool.  It’s one of the pictures mom gave me before I left. Anyways, someone in the ward asked to see some of my pictures and I brought them and they saw this one picture. Later I go to church right, and at church there’s always Mormon gossip that only the Mormons care about, it’s like high school. Anyways words now out that I live in a mansion, and now everyone is asking me all about my mansion. like no joke for three hours  People asked me about my tennis courts, my tanning salon, my garage with my 6-8 cars, my 16 bathrooms, cleaning ladies, and the pool with a couch next to it. It was the joke in every class. But with all honesty, I invited everyone to make the trip to Texas and stay a night in the Greene manor.

One of the families we visit has a 3 year old son named Cyro, and recently taught him to call me "Greene Capo" it’s like cool guy Greene. Alright sweet, that’s me. But in the middle of sacrament meeting yesterday, in the middle of all the silence. This kid decides it was a good time to start yelling for "Greene Capo" in the back of the chapel. But not just once, walking around the entire chapel constantly saying "GREENE CAPO; GREENE CAPO, GREENE CAPO". My companion turns to me and says "Hey I think someone’s calling for you." No I think it’s someone else. So I just pretended like there was another capo named Greene. but now the names sticking with me, but people like to say capo Grinch, because for some reason no one can pronounce Greene, but everyone can pronounce Grinch; other than the 3 year old.

The family Molina that we've been teaching had to move back to their old home really fast, and it’s in another ward. So we won’t be teaching them anymore. Luckily other missionaries from our district work in their new ward, so we can communicate with them well to help this family. 

So now we are just focusing our time on teaching two brothers names Sebastian and Juan Leiva. Their brother Emanuel is a member for the last 6 years, but is currently inactive. The brothers want to get baptized but only by their brother. Mainly they only want to go to church with their brother. There’s a lot of bad vibes between these brother. Lack of unity and they always fight. They especially beat up on their younger brother Sebastian. But he's gone to church before with his brothers, and knows that when they go to church or when they read the scriptures, it’s the only times when they get along and the only times when they show love to each other. So when they go to church, they only go with their older brother Emanuel. Sebastian and Juan are also pretty rebellious and don’t listen to their family, so Emanuel doesn’t think that they should be baptized because they aren’t ready, and doesn’t believe that they will ever change. We taught him the Importance of faith in the lord and his promises, that there are some things that we cannot see, but we should have all trust in the lord, and he in return will fulfill his promises. But still it’s hard for Emanuel to see that.

There’s a story in 2 kings of the prophet Elisha who was in Israel and the king of Syria sent men to go and seize the prophet Elisha. And one of the servants of Elisha was scared of what was going to happen but the prophet Geisha was not. It says...

15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Elisha was not scared because he saw that the lord was protecting them and the servant did not. But his eyes were opened by the lord, through the faithful prayer of Elisha. I think Emanuel fails to see the goodness that will come upon his brothers through baptism, but I think through our prayers the eyes of Emanuel will be opened, so that these two brothers can walk in the path of Christ.

I love you guys and all that you do!

Elder Greene

This link is a comercial of one of Argentina's favorite dishes and deserts mixed together (they should not be mixed). Churi Flan. There’s a version in English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar4zMaqI_z4

Week 092 - Soccer Is Apparently A Big Deal Around Here

Hey Family,

It was another great week here in Santa Fe.  People are pretty pumped because Argentina slid right in for the world cup, and soccer is apparently a big deal around here so everyone was watching the "Ecuador vs Messi" game Tuesday night. one of the great things about having an Argentine companion, is the fact that he is also a hooligan for foosball, and it just so happened that one of our investigators let us in to teach during the game, and of course when I asked if we could turn off the TV to teach a message, everyone including my companion, looked at me like "are you kidding me right now" with a respectful, honest, and polite "no". So nothing can truly get done during soccer. Especially when everyone is losing their mind because in the first minute of the game the other team scored. Anyway everyone went home happy because a world cup without Messi wouldnt be a world cup.

Yesterday I had to go to an auto-sufficiency class, basically to learn all about how I can save up the money I earn and decrease the expenses I have. And all missionaries who go home before January have to take this class, so it was awesome and the worst at the same time. There’s a ton of missionaries that go home before Christmas, and everyone was talking as if they go home tomorrow, when we still have two months left, so after going back to my area, it was kind of a bummer. So I drank a hot chocolate and pretended like I wasn't trunky out of my mind. I think 'trunky' is a made up slang term used amongst mormon missionaries, describing a missionary who is excited about returning home as "trunky" as if he has already packed his trunk. Or maybe because he or she is excited to put on some swimming trunks, I’m not totally sure. Basically that’s how I felt.

At this class though I meet the two Elders that are serving in my old area in Rafaela and they told me a good story. Elder Hopkins and I, a couple weeks before we left Rafaela, started teaching a women name Ugenia. She was a super great lady that liked hearing the messages we taught, but wasn’t investigating a ton. And then we left. The other guys taught her later and basically slowly stopped teaching her. But on Saturday which was the end of the transfer, she calls the missionaries saying she wants be baptized. But it just so happens that yesterday president took out the missionaries from Juan de Garay, and they won’t be there anymore. So President Perez calls this women and that Saturday night teaches her the commandments and gives her a baptismal interview on the phone. She went to church the next day and was baptized after the meeting, then the missionaries left. So that’s nuts.

We've been passing by the home of our recent convert, Axel lately and this is a really fun family to visit. Lately they've gotten into a Turkish soap opera that goes on every night. So that’s usually the beginning of every conversation we have with talking about how the "Turks" are doing lately. And now it’s gotten so bad that of the few phrases their 3 year old knows, one is going around the house screaming "for Allah." I think the baby learned that from Miguel whose put that into his vocabulary.

Finally the police decided to be the man and tear down the illegal drug store that’s on the corner of our street. There’s this house at the end of our street that had gotten so comfortable about selling drugs they turned their home into a literal drug store, and everyone knows about it. And these idiots who blaze their brains out keep knocking at our door during the siesta asking us if we sell drugs. "Duuuuuuuude, their corner house basically has a sign on its door, quit bugging me during my personal study." So hopefully the madness will stop.

I might have mentioned this already, but it’s so crazy I’m talking about it again. I’m so done eating Milanese. And if you’ve forgotten what Milanese is, it’s a giant chicken nugget. I eat Milanese every day for every meal, because everyone has the same great idea to feed the missionaries Milanese. Because they are awesome. But not so awesome when you eat them every day, I’m just letting you know this because I don’t want to come home a find out that I’m eating giant chicken nuggets for dinner. Maybe just wait a few weeks later with mayonnaise potatoes.

Super cool stuff happened on Saturday because the stake went to “the granja" to help serve and clean up the place. So for some reason I thought for my entire mission that a granja was like a giant garden, and so when we showed up to help out and clean and I wasn’t too surprised to see that it was a giant park. So someone sent me onto a roof of a building to kick off some leaves. And too my astonishment I saw in the distance.....llamas. Like tons of llamas. And so I’m screaming to Elder Hopkins, because it just so happens Elder Hopkins is there too, and I’m screaming to him, letting him know that there’s llamas off yonder in the park. So I soon learn that a granja is actually a zoo. Granja is actually farm in Spanish, but no one wants to call their granja a zoo because apparently Argentina is anti Shamu now and zoos are bad news and they abuse animals.

I love you guys, hope you have the greatest week.

Elder Greene

The giant hamster is a carpincho, I don’t know what that is in English buts it’s a giant hamster and they are awesome, people eat them and take their skin and make cool mates out of their skin

We also helped someone build a table

Week 091 - Dude I Got To Go Back To Institute

Hey family,

How's it going? I’m doing great, we had a long and stressful week trying to prepare Leo for his baptism last Saturday. Basically Leo really wanted to move his baptismal date a week forward, and it was all fine if he allowed us to teach him every day, so that he could be ready for a baptismal interview on Wednesday. And so we talked about the priesthood and temples the rest of the week. it was really great, Leo (or Leandro Obregon) understands well the doctrine and is very receptive to the spirit due to his past being active in other churches. I’ve been very grateful to have had the opportunity to teach Leo, because my time with him has been some of the most spiritual moments of my mission. By Saturday the ward, his family, and we had prepared a wonderful baptismal service. Tons of people came to support Leo. Luckily he lives with a very active family in the church, who called up all their friend to help out, it was especially wonderful because it was such a late notice to announce the baptismal, due to him passing his interview Wednesday night. His cousin Federico performed the baptismal ordinance and Elder Mario confirmed him a member of the church. It just so happened that right before the baptism was a seminary activity tled by the area seventy, Elder Levrino. So he attended the baptism and was asked to speak by the bishop. It turns out that he already knew Leo because Leo has been going to institute and Elder Levine is the teacher of the class, so he gave a really awesome testimony of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the path Leo was taking in his life. And Leo was freaking out after telling us that he feels really bad because he didn’t go to institute the week before, he was like “Dude, I got to go back to institute". He only went two times but he'll be there next week.

Other than preparing Leo for his baptism, we spent most of our time planning how our other investigators are going to get to church, and how to motivate them. All of our other investigators that want to become members of the church, have problems coming to church. They are some of the best investigators I’ve had in my mission, because they read the scriptures, pray, come to activities, and always do the things that we invite them to do, but for some reason they can’t get up at 9:30 in the morning to go to church. So we sent members over to their houses to visit and verify on how they are going to come to church, who was going with them, and we did the same. I was 100% sure that someone other than Leo was going to come to church, and no one did. We even went to their houses in the morning to make sure that all their plans were working out smoothly, knocking on doors and windows. And no one wanted to answer us,  and instead they pretended like they were sleeping. It was beyond ridiculous, and super lame. 

I was super happy for Leo, but my feelings about these other folks were getting in the way. I’m telling y’all this because my companion was a lot more depressed than I was, so much that he had asked me to give him a blessing. and I was really surprised by his request, because none of my companions had ever asked me to give them blessings in the mission, I had never asked any of my companions if they needed one or if I needed one. Because when I get sad I always just tried to get over it on my own. And so I was surprised. I gave him a blessing, and I was impressed and humbled by the experience. There was a love and peace that was felt during the blessing and we were able to move on and work and not get too worked up about what happened.

It was a great week, I love you guys and pray for you

Elder Greene

Week 090 - Mom Totally Brings It Like P90X Brings It

Hey

I’m glad you guys had a great time over in Utah. Lame that Katie and Claire had to stay back and watch conference alone, I guess that’s what happens to the last couple of kids in the family. Hey that’s super awesome that Claire participated in singing for some Houston soccer hooligans.  But it’s just one more step to being a real Texan, right.

Last week was pretty fantastic, especially when it’s conference week. This was officially my last conference in the mission, no more ya fue. But conference week is always pretty great, there were some really great talks that I really appreciated. It was kind of interesting as I was watching conference, because I was thinking “wow there's a lot of really good talks this conference,” then I realized that all the talks in conference are really great, I just paid attention more. But that’s how it is, if you look to get something out of conference, you appreciate more of the talks, and every talk becomes a great talk. But I agree with mom, I really loved Elder Oaks talk; I thought it explained exceptionally well the LDS perspective of the family. We say that the family is important to our religion, and you might say that the Importance of family isn’t a distinct belief. I mention the Importance of the family in every one of my lessons and everyone agrees saying, yeah that’s how it is in my religion as well. Yah, but the Mormon faith explains well and deeper the eternal aspect of the family. We know that the family is ordained of God, as said in the family proclamation to the world. And I thought it was well explained the meaning of a family being ordained of God. I also liked what he mentioned about how salvation is a personal effort but exaltation is a family effort. We might make ourselves feel better when we sin by saying it only effects my salvation. But no, it does very much effect the future of your family especially in the eternal exaltation of your family. So we all have a personal responsibility to take care of ourselves but the same responsibility for others in our families. And all commandments and all the things God asks of us, are so that every family can reach their full potential. And to reach one's full potential, the family is essential. One might think it’s ok to live with their boyfriend or girlfriend, because God still loves them anyway, which is totally true. But you are risking the destruction of a future family and it blocks the true potential that the loving father has provided for them.

Also one of my favorite talks was in the morning session of Saturday, from the young women president. She made some huge pointers of how many latter day saints live and what we should change. She mainly pointed out that we are obviously a service based church, but sometimes we focus more on serving others that we don’t know than serving others that we do know. That we spend so much time serving others and we don’t know. Which is totally awesome, but we completely forget to serve those who are right in front of our faces that go to church and activities with us each day; and they are also going through their own personal catastrophes. I liked the story of the mother that was talking to her daughter about going to the Mutual activity. The mom totally brings it, like p90x bring it. To her daughter. The daughter mentions that she didn’t want to go to the Mutual activity because there’s nothing she’s going to get out of it, that she already is strong in the church or something like that. And then the mom says, what makes you think that you go to Mutual for your own benefit? You go to mutual to go help someone else, who needs a friend, who comes to mutual activities looking for help. That is why we come together as a church. I talk to so many people who think they don’t need a church because they have God and Jesus and the scriptures. Well it’s not about yourself. It’s about others.

Leo came to conference yesterday, and after he asked to talk to us about his baptism date. He asked if he could be baptized this week and that he was willing to do all he can to make it to that date. We actually were planning on the 14th to be the day of the baptismal service, but he said that after conference and all the changes he has been making, makes him more anxious to be baptized. And there’s nothing that holds him back from becoming a member, so we are going to be visiting him every day of this week, before his baptism and confirmation for this Saturday

We are also teaching a really sweet girl named Shilda, I don’t really know what kind of name that is, but it’s her name. A member invited us over to teach her, mostly because he wants to take her out and stuff like that. So that’s how we met Shilda. What an awesome investigator, she really understands the lessons. And after she takes time to read and mark her scriptures and every lesson she explains what she had read, and she always marks really good scriptures. Sometimes we give scriptures for people to read and they mark whatever scripture and explain it in a way that’s totally not what it means. Sometimes I’ll bring members to lessons with us and we´ll start talking about what is the meaning of the word "restoration" and this members will start going off on faith in Jesus Christ, and it’s kind of hard to bring the lesson back on track. Don’t do that.

Anyway great conference! Good times! I love y’all

Elder Greene