Sunday, October 29, 2017

Week 088 - My Second Birthday In The Mission

Hi Family,

It pretty crazy to think that I just had my second birthday in the mission. Time is flying fast. It was a fantastic birthday though, a lot of members had figured out it was my birthday the week before and made plans for us to come over for lunch and dinner, it was pretty great, with some really great food, cake, and tons of alfajors. The lunch and dinner slots were filled so we also received tons of alfajors and pastries from other members. Fantastic. It’s a really great ward with very kind and loving people.

We just had a great ward activity yesterday. We met at the church building and were put into pairs and given names and addresses of inactive families. Check this, there are only two neighborhoods in this ward, but there are over 600 members in total. There are three types of people here. Members who know the church is true, inactive members that know the church is true, or non-members who know the church is true. Literally almost everyone I talk to tells us that the Mormon Church is the true church. It just depends whether or not you want to follow the commandments. As we walk and say hi to people, they respond with "Oh hi Elder." And then I’ll say, "Are you a member my fine sir?" And then they’ll say, "oh no, I like to drink" ... or smoke or something like that. And so I got paired with Brother Rosario for the activity and we went off to visit three families. It just so happens that brother Rosario is the oldest and slowest man in the ward. So we had a nice time chatting as we walk to the families we were going to visit. And someone decided to send the Elders with the families that live the farthest away because we walk so fast. That idea would be great if I had my companion, but no I did not.  We only had time to visit one less active man, who actually is very active in his own home reading the scriptures and praying. The only reason he doesn’t go to church is because he can’t walk, and the girl that used to take him to church went on a mission. So that’s why he is inactive. Totally solvable. We made it back to the church and had a great testimony meeting on people’s experiences. One of the main problems in most wards in Santa Fe is the lack of visiting teaching so the point of this was for people to get motivated and have experiences in their visits with members. A lot of people see service as just work when it’s also gives us spiritual experiences to boost our testimony make us stronger in the church.

So we are teaching two boys who have recently passed their interview to be baptized. They are two boys whose parents are members that were inactive, so we have to be careful that the ward can take care of this family because if the parents go inactive again, it will be difficult for their children to continue in the church. But we do receive tons of help, and the members pretty much do everything to take care of these families in the church and feel loved. Totally great. So they are programmed to be baptized this upcoming Saturday.

The family that celebrated my birthday took a bunch of pictures on their phone and want to send them to you through Facebook, so you need to accept their friend request.

I love you guys and I’m really Impressed by all the hard work you put into serving and helping those during the flood, it’s really great!

Have a great week


Elder Greene








No comments:

Post a Comment