Week 038 - My House Is Blessed, Therefore Everything In It Is blessed!

What is up family!

That looked like a serious exciting week for the Greene Fam! I love the pictures you guys sent, especially Mom´s sassy poses.

The Elders next to me are surprised that they are making another Transformers movie. But check it, they are going to keep making them if everyone is going to keep seeing them. Elder Hill believes we should go on strike and take a stance. A little fight to the man!

I love that story grandpa told, of his return after his mission, really neat. England is really neat. They lost America, but they still have Malvinas. That’s what the Falkland Islands are called here, Argentina still thinks they own them. No joke that comes up in almost all of our lessons. "You guys from England?"- “Nope. America” - “Same thing. You guys are always trying to take Malvinas from us!" – “I’m sorry.”

We were talking to this man yesterday that knew history on all the presidents of the United States. I was very impressed. His name is Herwin Guadagnoli, and he was getting into a fight with his wife, on whether or not the United States has the death penalty. It was a great moment to be Texan and say, "Yes we do. And guns.” They are a great family and we were able to teach the restoration of the gospel with them, but they really like to focus on "oh yeah, we believe that too.” Well let me get to the best part about Joseph Smith, before you cut me off to say the same thing! They are awesome.

We were contacting houses... the usual. Then we found Johnny; and Johnny is wack. Somehow we got into a three hour lesson. We were just talking to him and he would ask, "You got to stay over for dinner"- "You got to stay for ice cream"- "You got to wait for my kids to come home"- So yeah, we were there for a long time. But this guy is telling us stories with his wife, of when he worked for this special type of police force and had to cut off some guy’s fingers. That doesn’t sound like the police to me, but whatever. I asked, “Should we bless the food.” He laughed and said, “My house is blessed, therefore everything in it is blessed!” That makes sense to me.

So I realized something the other day, I haven’t seen the Witch Lady in two weeks, which is kind of weird, because she is usually around doing witch stuff. Then I realized two weeks ago was when she yelled at us saying, “With my powers, I’m going to take out mackery" (the president).” So I guess that is her mission, and we should see some more of that on the news soon.

This week we were able to see the Romeros again, and they are too cool. They are the type of people who when the Lord asks, they will do it. We are laying down the commandments of the Lord, and they agree in seconds. Why? Because it’s the way of the Lord.

Today we had special P-day. I guess that’s a thing, and it’s my first one. I guess we never go to them because Galvez is so far away from our district. So we got to go today, because we have a zone conference tomorrow.

Anyway… I have to make this email quick because we have a short supply of computers and the cybers are closed today. But it was a fantastic week, and I love you guys, and I’m about send some sweet pictures, because I realized you don’t really know a lot of the faces of people who I talk to.

Elder Greene

With Donato

Ebelia keeps making us fix stuff, and this time she said, "here fix my TV wires" ... easy.

Mirta and Nelda (left)

Electra

Week 037 - Do You Realize What Happened Last Night?

Hey fellas!

Hows it going? That looks like a crazy cool trip. Thanks for the pics! 

It’s been another fantastic week here in beautiful downtown Galvez. The people here are on fire. Especially the members. We have emphasized the importance of member missionary work. 

Mirta gave us a call the other day saying she set up a meeting for us and and a family; the Family Ramero. So we walk with Mirta to the meeting and as we are walking, a man standing on top of his car says “hi”, and we say “hi” back, and keep walking, and then Mirta decides to stop and talk to this man. His name is Christian Borda. And Mirta says, "Whats your name? Where do you live? Do you realize who these boys are? They changed my life." Then she goes on, and keeps talking and says, “When can they go over to your house to change your life?" So right then we were given the address of Christian; and we should be heading over there soon. As we walked away Mirta says, "Did you see the way he looked at us, I had to stop." Right on! 

So we go to the meeting and meet Suley Ramero. And once again Mirta is on fire. She usually has a hard time not talking, but this time it was good, and we explained the church to this mom, and Mirta explains some life changing moments, then she says, “Alright, you are coming to church, right?" the mom says, “Yes.” “Alright, so you’ll be baptized, right?" Once again, "Yes". We were there for literally 20 minutes. Awesome. She has a husband, and a daughter that is 9 years old; we were able to talk to the father on Saturday, after we set up a meeting. We showed up, having not even met the guy, with him yelling at us saying, “I’ve been waiting for you two all day. Do you realize what happen last night? I read the book. I felt sooooooo much peace, so much peace, so much peace." He (Daniel) said that like 40 times. He went on, "I felt so much peace that I got the kids around, and we said a prayer for the first time in my life." Sick! This guy was so pumped and he loves Jesus so much. He even has a church shirt. I know; because he said it 50 times. He was like,"Man I’m freaking pumped! I’ve been drinking green tea all day!" (Rico quote). It was awesome, and the dad and the daughter both want to be baptized.

Later we had a member lesson with Dario. We invited brother Pujol to come; and really, I love this man. We show up at Dario´s house. Dario comes to the door. He says we need to talk. He explains he doesn’t want to go any further with this. He’s been feeling a lot of pain, and he is very angry with God. Hermano Pujol starts some small talk, "How’s it going?" "Who are you?" "Where do you work?" Dario totally chills out and then we say a prayer. Pujol continues sharing a fantastic experience where he was in a lot of pain physically and mentally and he went to 10 different churches and found no help. He found the Church of Jesus Christ and told God that when he comes out of the baptismal water that he wanted to be healed of all his pains. He said right when he came out he felt no pain anymore. Now he plays soccer. He was very excited about that. We left and Dario asked us to come back. 

Galvez kills it man! 

Ebelie made us an awesome birthday lunch this week, with cake and everything. She’s one of the oldest members in Galvez! We actually had a bunch of lunches this week, which is totally crazy because we never get lunches. But we got invited over by a less active women who Ii didn’t even know. She just found us off the street and invited us over. 

I found my first Buddhist this week. He is a totally fake Buddhist though. But he loves the lifestyle. He also loves Bob Marley, dreads, and weed. He’s cool though, and he wants us to come back. 

We went to Santa Fe again this week, because Elder Mckell had some passport business. So I was on divisions with Elder Llanos all day. He´s one of the coolest guys I know. He works in the offices and he had to go to the bank. I went with him and he shows up with a big jacket. We talk to the bank lady and elder llanos takes 50,000 pesos from his account and just starts shoving it all in his jacket pockets, and then asks, "Where’s the next macro bank?"....king! He knows very little English, and as we are leaving he turns to me and says, "Money rule!" Right on. 

Man I’m super jealous of your cool trip. Tell all the family they are super great! I hope you've learned a good bit of Shakespeare!

I love you guys!

Elder Greene!

Week 036 - A Whole Colony of Yasucks

Wowzers! Thanks for all the Birthday good times. It’s really crazy that I’ll be 20 years old! Nutz! And in Argentina. Too legit...to quit!

I loved the birthday video. It was so awesome… that when it showed up on the screen, it was upside down. Still super awesome!

And I can’t believe that the excursion is totally gone. I didn’t realize how old it was until you sent those pics, and seeing us from like 10 years ago! Incredible!

And Katie, the world is totally in your favor. You and the groove cats are looking too fresh for picture day. Fantastic!

It is really crazy to have a birthday here. I had to be reminded by a member yesterday that my birthday is tomorrow. She invited us over for some good meats…. Sick!

We actually have a ton of lunches this week with members. Especially Donato. I guess he found a ton of money in his bank account, and he doesn’t really know what saving is, and he keeps buying us cokes. That dude’s got to chill! Ha! Vamos!

Check it… so last week we had to change cybers because it was "closed for the duel." At first, I thought it was some kind of funny video game event, until I walked by the Kodak store and also saw a sign that said "closed for duel.” I realized there is something more going on than meets the eye. In fact, I believe there must be a family feud between the owners of the cyber and the owners of the camera store... and there’s a duel going on!  I just tried asking him, “what’s the deal with the duel?” But they’re keeping quiet... go figure.

This week was great… we headed our way on Saturday to the Costernera. It’s in Santa Fe on the coast of the river. Really nice area with the first chapel of Santa Fe. I was told that about 20 times, so I’m pretty sure it’s the first chapel of Santa Fe. But we were there for an open chapel and it was great. Costanera is one of the most difficult areas, so not too many people came, but it was still a fantastic event for those who did. So Elder House and I, went around the coast, trying to get people to come to the event. People were more focused on their mate (drink); but still, it’s cool to meet random people. We did get a couple of younger guys to go, which was cool, and I found this churro guy, and he asked what I was doing (oldest trick in the book). So we explained, and we gave him like 100 invitations to the event, that he passed out and explained to whoever bought churros! Clutch city!

That morning we were supposed to find a less active woman, and we spent like 2 hours looking for this woman with the last name Yasuck . We learned there is apparently a whole colony of Yasucks, and every time you ask where this woman is living, people just pointed in some random direction. We finally found her, and she wanted nothing to do with us. But her 3 year old son liked us, so we gave him an invitation.

Man, we spent a lot of this week trying to find some of our investigators that totally disappeared. But we’ve mostly been teaching Dario. He’s awesome. I was actually kind of concerned, and wanted to drop everything else, because he realized how real this got, and if he were baptized he would have to really commit. Apparently he likes his free time. But we shared with him some personal experiences, and he realized how much we were alike; except for the fact that we’re not fifty. But no, he really wants to commit and change his life, because he feels like he's been in the dark for a long time. He came to church this Sunday and really enjoyed it. So much so, that he fell asleep the last hour. He said it was very peaceful. There was a member of the stake presidency who came and was getting some alone time with Dario, and apparently they were getting into some deep stuff, because Dario came back asking all about how the earth will become the celestial kingdom, once it transforms and become celestialized. They came out saying "THE CELSTIAL KINGDOM IS HERE!"

Ahh… anyways…

We tried getting Daniel Catalino to come to church, because he really promised us that he would come, and we made it to his house, and he opens the door and he realized what was about to happen... he just starts repeating, "QUE HAGO, QUE HAGO, QUE HAGO!"… looking back at the clock, and back at us, over and over again. The guy was so stuck, he had no idea what to say, but talk out loud repeating what I was saying… “you come to church man.” Funny people.

But yeah, not a ton happened this week.

Always, there are dogs... It’s funny… some dogs are always with each other wherever they go. So its hard not to start singing the fox and the hound song, "when you’re the best of friends." Then you realize that singer pulls out some serious jive. And you can’t help but talking all day like that. "Ey comp, cop me a sice dat boof jaunt" when all your asking for is a cookie.

Man I love it here. And it’s super great to be here for my birthday.

Dad that’s an incredible picture of you and the fellas back in the day. Broncos are life.

I love you guys and I hope grandma and grandpa have a fantastic Anniversary trip. Seems like that will be a fantastic event!

I really loved the video guys, really.

Pictures:

Super cool package. Maybe the coolest of packages. And me eating skittles.

3 dollars for 32 eggs from my hook up spot. Eggs for days.

Week 035 - Living In the Moment. It's Fantastic!

Wow! That’s a cake! I totally miss the good ole German chocolateness. Another really happy birthday for you day; you are really killing that 45! I totally forgot about Labor Day, and so did everyone else in Argentina. I’ll make the announcement to everyone.

I guess our family totally failed on living the SpongeBob life. No, we have just been quoting SpongeBob a lot, and especially when we have weird moments here in Galvez! So I thought every great show needed a special at one point!

We are in a new cyber today, trying it out! (the rich cyber) It’s actual an underground casino but shhhh, don’t tell the cops! No, they already know, the cops took their computers twice already and they just buy new ones right after. I guess they are doing well!

It is incredible to be here in Galvez for a whole 7 months! That’s longer than I lived in Texas and Utah. Galvez Argentina, my new home. Of course, I have no idea what it’s like to change areas. Same with Elder Hill, because we came to Galvez the same time. But it’s been incredible to know the people, and through all their good times and bad times.

We just had a wonderful testimony meeting, where the president and his secretaries couldn’t come, so... you’re looking at the new ELDER GALVENSE! I totally got to preside. It was sick! And it was testimony meeting, so I got to say the old, "the time is now yours brothers and sisters," in castellano (“the old Spanish") of course. It was a great meeting. We´ve had a few members going through a few terrible events, and it’s amazing to be able to talk to them and watch their faith grow, and to listen to testimonies of the comfort of the spirit and the reality of atonement in their lives. The first hour of church was also awesome because only Donato showed up. Stud. And so it was all Donato time. He was pumped. We asked him, "What is the plan of salvation?" and he said, “the truth, the bible" and he holds up his Book of Mormon. Exactly! It’s all in the Book of Mormon.

I decided that the Argentinian life... is the life. If I was to choose the chillest life I’ve ever seen, it’s here. People just live in the moment. Working crazy long hours (6), crazy expensive food (two large steaks= $3), and take super short naps (3 hours); it’s rough. No, it’s so funny, it’s the chillest life, and everyone I meet complains about it. By “in the moment”… here is an example. I’ll call one of our investigators to get a cita with him for tomorrow. Why? So he can plan for it, and we can too! So I’ll call, and say "hey, can we go to your house tomorrow?" And they’ll reply, "TOMMOROW! I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow! Call me tomorrow and I’ll let you know!" Living in the moment. It’s fantastic!

I was talking to Electra yesterday and she´s awesome; talking about how Argentina is going haywire! And she asks, "Is the rest of the world like this?" I replied, “Yes, it’s the last days.” She asks, "Even Venezuela?" Yes. "Even Colombia?" Yes. "Oh no oh no oh no VENZUELA! COLOMBIA! What has happened to the world! Why? What is coming to the Americas?" Well, I don’t just think it’s the Americas Electra. "Oh Colombia!” Funny lady.

We’ve been meeting a lot of new investigators with really good understanding of authority and the feelings of the spirit. We met a women, Valedia, and we asked her what she was thinking about the restoration, and she replied saying, “It was true.” And we asked, “Why?” And she said it was, “because I’ve never felt so calm on my own before." It was a fantastic lesson where she listened intently and could feel the Holy Spirit. And I really appreciated that; her listening. And the lord allowed us to have the spirit in that lesson.

It’s sometimes hard to have people pay attention to this kind of stuff, when they think they are having their "bible class." But no, this is not just a lesson. I realized this a while ago; that this is an incredible, important, and sacred work that’s going on in the mission field; that it is not just a feel good message; but that Jesus Christ has sent us to bring more people unto him; because he leads this church.

We have been teaching a couple recently, and it has really turned into a sad situation. They had a child die a couple years ago and they haven’t received peace from the situation yet. She has tried to overcome it her own way, and not through the Church of Jesus Christ. Why? Because they are catholic, and that is who their parents were, and that is just who they are. "Que se you" the husband kept saying … “I’m catholic, what do I know?" They weren’t listening or looking for help from the church, and in the end they were not able to receive all the blessing of the gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ. Because they wouldn’t listen for the Spirit to tell them they are on the path.

So yeah, I’m grateful for those who do take the time to listen, and to know, through the Holy Spirit.

Or… you can teach a guy that just straight up understands the importance of authority in the church, like Dario Boreto. The guy is hilarious because we´ll explain something and he’ll stop us and say, "because of authority right?" Exactly. Vamos Dario. We asked him to be baptized and he said he was already baptized in the Catholic Church. I said they don’t have authority to do that. He replies "Oh yeah, that make sense, they don’t really have authority to do anything." Right on!

The Popes is a cool guy though. Man, people love the Pope here! Apparently he’s from Santa Fe. Cool.

I got accused of being an FBI agent. We were having a great lesson with this other lady, Alejandra; when her son, or her husband, came in and just went off on the bible. It kind of turned into a bible bash, which shouldn’t have been the case, but he got destroyed. VAMOS PERSONAL STUDY! But he finally realized… "Whoa what are you wearing? You aren’t men of god. You are men of the FBI! Where’s your cameras?" He totally went nuts searching through all our stuff and finally was just like, "You guys are good. I didn’t find anything." We said, “Alright. Thanks for the good times.” And we left.

I totally got called to cast out a demon. Some random guy off the street; we kind of knew him; but he wanted us to come over to get rid of the spirit. So we did… if there was one. Apparently it was a normal white guy with a sombrero. That’s how he described it.

I love Galvez!

I love you guys and hope you are all having a great time with just two in the house! And I totally received your package! It was fantastic, it’s an incredible moment when you realize how good skittles are. It was really awesome! And my companero received the same kind of package also. I totally forgot my camera to send you guys the pictures but I’ll send some next week. It will also more legitimately be my birthday. But you know it’s the birthday month. I love you guys and thank you guys so much for your emails and good times!