Week 046 - Recently I Have Met The Holy Ghost

Hey you kids!

Wowzers. A week with the Hatfields! I’m too jealous right now.

Sadly Argentinians are just not a thankful crowd, I tell people that Thanksgiving is coming up in America and they just reply, "You have a holiday for giving thanks?"  Yes, and you guys have a holiday for your grandchildren. We are planning on celebrating some thanks with a little bit of asado! So it should be a great Thanksgiving as well here in Argentina! 

Recently I have met the Holy Ghost... I was sitting in the bishop’s home, when a white old man came knocking at the door. He came to give a few concerns to the bishop, saying, “Bishop, I’ve come to talk to you about the Holy Ghost." And so the bishop is like, "Alright"... and the man goes off describing the Holy Ghost, giving clear and true doctrine. So the bishops says "alright, true true true.” Then he says "Bishop, everything I have described to you is exactly the person who I am... I AM THE HOLY GHOST!" Just like that. And so the bishop says that the Holy Ghost doesn’t have a body, and this old man did. And the old man really didn’t like what he was hearing and left, and did not come back to church. So we have not seen the Holy Ghost lately. All these old fellas are just going nuts.

I was walking down the street when another dude starts yelling at me across the street, telling us to come over, and we go over (we don’t miss opportunities like these). This guy asks, "You like to dance?" And he was all interested in how we dance. So the conversation goes on, and he explains that he like traditional dancing. He says, "I’m a man that moves with the wind and with nature. I run with the animals. I am sick of all these buildings." I was like what? "Yeah, the world isn’t supposed to build houses higher than two stories. Look at the United States. Look at China. Building towers!" Anyways, he showed me his "traditional dancing" and I was not impressed.

Later … it’s Friday night, and everyone knows the cool cats are out at Friday night. And everyone is hammered. Buenos Aires was playing soccer, and one guy was too pumped for the game. And my companion has a keychain for this team he likes. And this guy wanted this keychain so badly. We continue to have a conversation and my companion ends up giving this guy the keychain. This guy was insanely pumped. He took my companion´s hand with the firmest handshake, and would not let go. Then he took my hand and did the same. Then he put our hands together, into a pile of our hands, and then finally for like 2 minutes, was kissing the pile of hands with the key chain inside. Thanking Jesus and all. This guy was truly thankful in preparation for this upcoming Thanksgiving.

I had to make my way to Santa Fe for one night this week, and usually when you’re staying the night in Santa Fe, you meet a bunch of other Elders who are staying the night. And I see this one Elder sitting alone on the counter, just chillin. His name is Elder Lorash, and Elder Lorash has kind of a reputation in the mission. So I thought… how about I talk to Elder Lorash. I go up, sit on the counter, and say, "How’s it going Elder Lorash?" And it was almost like this kid knew I was coming, because he instantly turns his head over to me and says, "So it’s the first week in my mission, right. I don’t know Spanish or nothing. I could barely buy myself a hamburger. But I persevered, and found myself in a superstore. And I’m confused and I lose my companion, and only 10 seconds later I go around a corner and a man took me by the shoulders and kissed me right on the lips.... I ran for my life. That’s why I always stay with my companion." I had not even met this guy or asked him for his name, but I sure felt like I knew Elder Lorash.

So everyone right now is going nuts over some kind of cup flipping game. And apparently it was on some kind of music video in English. I don’t know if this is the same in America, but everyone is loving this cup flipping game. I heard the song, it’s not that great. But it comes with an ice cup flipping game.

So we are still working with and helping Pablo and Angelica get baptized. I don’t know if you remember Pablo and Angelica. They’re not the brightest people, but I know my fair share of "What About Bob" and Dr. Leo Marvin knows baby-steps is key. But this is an awesome couple, and they are really trying to understand the gospel, and you can see their understanding change as we teach them more and more. In December they are going to get married, and are planning on being baptized the day after. Really great people.

And Kevin’s brother, Alejo, is a total champ. He is working with Kevin every day to be ready to be baptized, which should happen this Saturday. These two kids are too great. And they have a bunch of cats that live in their room, because the girl cat just had like 7 babies.  But they don’t know who the dad is, because there’s like 3 other dude cats in the house.

But I love you guys and miss you, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, I am super thankful for having a family of champs!

Elder Greene

Week 045 - I May Stumble A Bit. But I Would Not Go Down.

Hey Family!

Hopefully you guys got my letter from last week, I sent it to Claire, and I should have sent notice that it was on her email. Don’t worry about sending your emails late, it just gave me some more reading for this week, and a ton has happened! For example, Katie told me the kids on Halloween didn’t want to take the Cow Tails. What’s wrong with kids today?

Every person in the street lets me know who won the election for President. But all they know is what they hear on the news, and that Donald Trump is a racist, and doesn’t want anyone coming into America. Most people agree with that around here. "Hey, Donald Trump is president. Good for you guys. We need someone like that to get these Brazilians out of here!” So the Argentinians are greatly excited. It’s funny how everyone outside of America knows America’s news, but I don’t recall even knowing Canadian news. Interesante!

Glad you guys could make it to Mexico.

I have been sitting at this computer for 50 min now, and the email has just opened. So I’m too pumped to tell you all about my fantastic week. Patience is key. This week, we were just hitting it off with new investigators and lessons. It was awesome!

I mean, if I got punched by Mike Ditka, I may stumble a bit. But I would not go down.

I started off the week with some divisions, with my main man, Elder Comar. Elder Comar, is a mini missionary from Parana. He’s one of those people from the other side of the river. He’s awesome though, because he got baptized 7 months ago, and has the firmest testimony, and is currently planning to go on a mission. We had a lesson with the brother of Kevin who is currently trying to get baptized, and it’s hilarious when you see these two brothers together in any church activity. Alejo (the brother of Kevin) pulled out his phone during Sunday school, and Kevin totally took it right out of his hands telling him to pay attention. Then Alejo asks to go to the bathroom, and Kevin says no, because they have to hear the whole lesson. The teacher ends up saying yes. So Alejo leaves, and Kevin watched him walk all the way down the hallway to make sure he was going to the bathroom.

Anyway, that’s just a few side stories.

Elder Comar and I are teaching them the plan of salvation, and Alejo doesn’t really understand what happened to Adam and Eve. So Elder Comar says, "Do you remember the Simpsons episode when what’s his face ate the fruit of the tree and they were naked?" Alejo - "Yeah." Elder Comar - "It happened exactly like that." I need to watch more Simpsons, because it seems that people here only understand things when it’s on the Simpsons!

By the way, there is a nice Donald Trump Simpsons special that just passed, and everyone is psyched out of their minds!

Check this… later that day we went to teach the plan of salvation to Isabel, and they live in just this hut with like 4 kids. And Isabel is a very quiet women and doesn’t know how to tell her kids no. Actually no one in Argentina knows how to do that. But we are teaching, and while we are teaching, their 6-year-old decides to start chucking this puppy on the ground. I start looking at Isabel, like… "You should probably shut down your kid." But no, instead the kid threw down the puppy one more time, totally breaking the puppy’s leg. It was horrible. The puppy just starts screaming. And then the 6-year-old joins the party, and then everyone is sad. Isabel looked over, shook her head in disappointment, and then looked back at us. So we just shut down the lesson from there.

But it was all good because the Chavez family made us some hamburgers after. Real nice! But not as nice as the dinner we had the next day, which included corn in every food item. Corn empanadas, corn pizza, and just plain corn. They liked corn a lot I figured.

The other day we had Brother Carbone come with us to a few lessons, and this guy is so funny because he literally talks the whole time. When we are in the car, on the way to the investigator, during the lessons, greeting people,… he is the real missionary. And he always makes sure to asks our investigators for an address of a family who might need missionaries, and also if they need some service! Brother Carbone is a real missionary, and has the best business ever. He said he didn’t really like school so he decided to make really nice brooms. So his family makes handmade brooms and dusters, and then sells them. He calls it an art. For reals, these are some nice brooms.

Oh my gosh… I almost forgot that we also had a record breast feeding fest at the Carbone’s this week. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but… people are pretty open about breast feeding here during lessons and stuff. So it happens at least once a day. But we were at the Carbones to give a little spiritual thought, and there are 4 couples that live in the Carbone home, and 3 have a new baby. And so when each daughter in law showed up with their baby, we knew what was about to go down. But you know, it’s the norm around here. What can you do?

Anyways I love you guys so much! You are too great. And Mom, I hope you make me a nice pair of wool pants by the time I get back!

Elder Greene

Week 044 - You Can Continue What You Were Saying

Sounds like you are too busy, and totally having the best time ever! I am so jealous that you are going to have Thanksgiving in Arizona, probably with all the cousins. Did you know that there is no Thanksgiving here in Argentina? I guess they are not a super thankful people, because it’s really nice for everyone to give thanks one day throughout the year.

I had an awesome week. We had a new missionary join us in Recreo. But he’s actually not a real missionary, just a fake one in disguise. He lives like 30 minutes east. But he is a really cool guy, and cooks really bad. But we will not tell him that because he thinks he’s a champ.

The President of the mission called us and said that he was going to be in Recreo with his wife, and he wanted to have lunch with us. So we had lunch with the President. He is the man, so we found the best restaurant in town, and the only one that is open during siesta, and we had lunch with the Prez. But check this… it was the worst food ever. No one said anything at lunch, but after we all came into agreement that the food was very poor. But it was a great time. And we got to know the President a little bit more. And he is the chilliest guy. Who loves fishing. Like really loves fishing. We had a 30 min conversation about how he fishes, and the types of fish he likes, and how Argentina has the worst fish, and Chile has the best. All that kind of stuff. I asked him if he could act out the way he fishes… and he did. It was a pretty good cast, and I approved.

After lunch he came to our apartment, and he and his wife gave us a fantastic lesson on having faith in Christ. And I really appreciated it, because it helped me to think more about my faith in Christ, and what I am doing to act on it. There are a lot of times when the mission really gets you down. And I realized that the sadness and hardships that we have, were already paid by the blood of Christ. And it’s not really fair of me to really put myself down, because Christ sacrificed himself so we could be happy. So it’s okay to be sad for 5 minutes, but after that, it’s time to move on and be happy. And that’s the importance of having faith in Christ at all times, because I know everything is going to be alright. That’s my little spiritual thought.

The day before we met with the President, we were wearing these Halloween ties, because it was Halloween, obviously. And it was really funny, because people know about Halloween because they have seen the movies, but they don’t really celebrate. So people get a kick out of two Americans with their Halloween ties. And we got a lot of contacts doing that. For example, we were walking down the street when we hear this guy at a mechanic shop screaming, "Hey. Hey Hey! Que combat ey!" (Hey, what a tie!) And he makes us come over, and he checks it out, and shows it to all of his mechanic friends, and we end up getting 5 different addresses and numbers from random dudes we just met.

We visited one of them. Although it’s hard to find them, because they are always working in the shop. The one we visited was not home, but his father was. And his father´s name is Cantero. And so we teach Cantero and his wife about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we make it all the way until the Book of Mormon. So we have just taught them about Joseph Smith, when he stops me and tells us a story about how he was having a bunch of stomach and heart problems, and he went to the doctor, and the doctor gave him some pills to take. He started taking the pills, and he had to go to the bathroom really bad. So much that he couldn’t even make it to the bathroom. So what happened was… he didn’t end up pooping his pants, but it was just a ton of blood all over his pants. So he stopped taking the crazy pills, and he felt all better. And he knows that god stopped him from bleeding so much. And he goes on this rant for like 20 minutes, and then he says "Okay, you can continue what you were saying." So that is Cantero for ya. And he is one of our newest investigators.

So check this… you know how the ward went to the temple recently. We learned that Olga, one of the newest members, made it to the temple as well. But when she showed up with her recommend, they couldn’t let her in, because “she didn’t have the priesthood.” Temple workers hadn’t seen her yet, because I guess bishop was helping scan all the recommends. So everyone was confused out of their minds. But it was all good, because they made a few calls, and something weird happened in the system. 

On Saturday, Horacio was able to be baptized, it was super awesome and he was super happy, especially because his family all came to the baptism, and it was their first time in the chapel. It was super great, and Hermano Lincina, a member who we were visiting with Horacio, baptized him. And it was a super cool experience for all of the Lencina family. The Lencina family are totally cool, and like the most active family in the ward. They have 2 returned missionaries in the family, and one other that is on a mission right now. 

We had a super success on Saturday night too. We had another activity. A night of empanadas, with some capture the flag. It seems like the only way to get members and investigators to activities, is through the food. So it was a great activity, with a ton of investigators, and we got the members to bring like over 300 empanadas! Super great! Recreo is great!

I am in Esparanza right now because we are about to play some sand volleyball with the district. So I’ll send you guys some pics next week!

I love you and miss you! And have an awesome week!

Week 043 - A Will And Strength For The Service Of God

Hey Fam!

Happy Halloween! Wow. So many good times in the Greene Family! You guys are awesome! I brag about you guys all the time here as well.

Well, it’s been a great week in Recreo. We added a new member to the team, Elder Gardner. So we are now a white, Yankee trio! Elder Gardner actually came with us from the MTC as well, so it was no big news to me answering, “Who is Elder Gardner?” So you could say the Gangs all here.

It was an awesome week that started with a little pizza party with Olga. She’s a recent convert and she made us pizza. She actually got to go to the temple this week. In fact, the whole dang crew of Recreo went in a huge double decker bus. After shmoozin the missionaries of so much cash for churros, everyone was able to go, and they all shared their testimonies this last Sunday. It was super awesome.

Especially this kid Kevin who got baptized a couple months ago. Actually this kid is too awesome, right... he is 15 years old, and he gets baptized, and he lives like 50 min walking to the church, and he comes to church every Sunday on his own, 15 minutes before anything starts, and he will show up to any activity, because he wants to get out of the house so badly. He’s really bugged by his stepdad, so he’ll always be asking, “what’s happening this week?” If it’s games, service, church, or even indexing, he’s there. Or to come to lessons with us, he is so there. But anyways, he went to the temple and gives the sickest testimony ever about how he didn’t really have a ton of interest to go to the temple, but when he did, it was one of the greatest experiences of his life, and he doesn’t want to come to church just to get away from his stepdad, but because he wants to. It was a cool sacrament meeting.

The day before, we had to go to Santa Fe, for a missionary youth activity, where we were partnered up with a mini missionary for a couple hours contacting and such. I got put with this kid Kevin. A different Kevin. Because for some reason, Kevin was like the number 1 name of the year 2000. Anyways, they decide to send us out during siesta, and there’s a reason you don’t contact during siesta, because you become the most hated person in all of Argentina. I think Kevin was pretty freaked out by the whole experience, by the huge number of doors slammed in our face, by angry old men! It was awesome!

And then they had a fireside afterwards, and the stake president, who is such a capo by the way, gave a talk about how missionary work is such a miracle, and the sacrifices that are made, and how we are called, and we should answer that call and not leave it hanging. But not with an attitude lacking faith, but with a will and strength for the service of god. Pretty neat, right? I got some good alone time with ye ole President Perez, and finally got to ask if we can start listening to Enya. He agreed. So we are all in the clear to listen to Enya, VAMOS.

We found the dankest churro pan place this week. For those that are not ahead of the game, churri pan is like a way good brat sandwich with chimi churri. And man these guys go hard on the churri pan. And it’s like a buck a sandwich. They just got a new Amador so I guess business is doing well.

Last night we had an awesome experience. We had no plans, because literally there was no one letting us in, and we figured we would go to a family who has been inactive for a while, and have not let anything/anyone that dealt with the church get in contact with them. So we went over and the dad instantly invited us in, and this is the first time I had met this family, and they said they were about to have a family home evening, and that we should join them. So we did. And we gave a message about doing the little things, like reading the scriptures and praying, and they said they had forgotten these things, and they had lost the spirit in their lives. He recognized that he had once had the spirit, and it was lost from their lives, and they had the desire to get it back. And so they invited us back. They are really cool, and have two little girls that love my little pony and those chick Legos that are like pink and white and stuff. It kind of reminded me of Claire. But yeah, it was great.

I love you guys and hope you have the greatest of Halloweens! I sure will!

Elder Greene

El Pibe de Texas