Hermana Kali Green : Week 30

My Cute Cabo Rojo Family Cindy, Waddy, Alex, Hermana Green & Pichuile

Hola Family and Friends,

First off, I cannot believe I will have 7 months in the mission this Friday! Time is literally F L Y I N G. The mission has been the hardest, and most rewarding thing I have ever done in my entire life. I have grown to love the people of Puerto Rico so much. I love being a missionary because of the person I have grown to become through following the Savior's example, being obedient to the commandments, and truly living what I believe. For those wondering whether or not to go on a mission, I say, 100% do it. You will never regret it! The Lord will mold you into something you cannot even begin to imagine for yourself. I am a living witness of this. I love the gospel and the joy it brings to not only my life, but to the lives of others. Thank you for the never-ending support and love and prayers. It truly does make the difference.

Boy do I have news for you! So we got transfer calls last night, and I AM A TRAINER NOW! This is crazy! I feel so excited, nervous, and humbled all at once. Hermana Green is getting a greenie! Thanks to Mom and Dad, you both have molded me to believe that I can do anything I put my mind to. I know that, "whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies" and that every trial and everything that gets thrown in my way is for my growth and experience. I am so beyond excited to start this new adventure and meeting my hija (trainee) tomorrow! I know that Heavenly Father truly does have a plan for each of us. When I heard that I was going to be trainer, my first thought was, "I don't know enough Spanish yet, WAIT WHAT! but, then the thought came to me.. Heavenly Father is the grand architect in our lives. He sees from the beginning to the end. He sees the bigger picture. We usually see a little snippit of our lives, and when something comes along, good or bad, we may question, "why is this happening?" But, I testify with all my heart that the Lord will NEVER give us things that we cannot overcome or handle. I know this is true, because I have seen it in my own life many times. Yes, we might feel "underqualified" or "not good enough" but, someone does, and that is our Heavenly Father.

The greatest spiritual experience this week, for me, was when Elder Neil L. Andersen, who was visiting us at our mission conference, came down from the pulpit to the floor to start talking to all of us. He started by expressing his love, and the love our beloved Prophet, his counselors, and Quorum of the 12 bring to us. I immidiately was hit with The Spirit and felt this overwhelming love from them, the Savior, and Heavenly Father, and all at once I was reminded of how much our Heavenly Father knows us and loves us. Elder Andersen just has this Christ-like light and love to him. Wow...The Conference with Neil L. Andersen was incredible. He is so so so loving and nice, and funny, and he speaks 4 different languages! We arrived a little later than we thought so we ended up sitting in the very back row. President Boucher announced over the pulpit that before the conference would start, we had time to all shake his hand. I almost died of excitement. It was so cool to see everyone go through this line and just be BEAMING with smiles after having just met a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. I did the same, it was something I will always remember. We went and sat down and the conference started. Just a couple minutes into it, before the opening hymn, President Boucher turns to Elder Andersen, then back to us and says, "Elder Andersen would like those in the last row to come up to the front row." Hermana Pichiule and I , and a couple other sisters were in that last row he was talking about. So we quickly moved to the VERY FRONT ROW. It was a huge miracle I did NOT see coming. Once the meeting started, and it was time for Elder Andersen to speak, he came down from the pulpit to talk to us, and stopped right in front of me. I thought I was going to die of excitement. There were a lot of laughs shared with him, as well as, so much wisdom and advice for our lovely island of Puerto Rico. He talked a lot about miracles and how we need to be praying for them. There is one thing he said that really stuck with me, "Most miracles come from being more motivated, pushing hard, and having more trust in the Lord. It has to begin with someone to move up, to think higher, and to expect more." That really struck me, and I immidiately wanted to be that type of person. As I have begun to input these principles in my life these last couple of days, I truly have seen a difference.

Investigators:

Ivette and Nicole: So we have taught them all the lessons already and so we decided to start with lesson one again. We had a lesson with them last thursday and watched the video of the Restoration. It is always so cool to watch that with investigators because they get a visual to the things they had learned. The Bishop came with us and his testimony really helped. They know that Joseph Smith truly had a vision and that he was called as a Prophet to restore the Gospel. They know these things are true and they came to church yesterday. I think they just need a push. We extended the baptism invitation again because Ivette mentioned that they needed God in their lives and that they needed to work towards a goal. Nicole told us that at this time she didn't have a desire to be baptized yet. So we are going to keep working with them. Our stake is having a Girls Camp soon and I think Nicole is going to go, and for anyone that has gone to Girl's Camp, the spirit is always so strong there. So, I think that will be a big help for Nicole.

Priscilla: Priscilla is a joven (young person) that is 16 years old who we met last week while contacting. She was selling chocolate and we had been contacting in this one neighborhood and saw her pass by a couple times. We shared a card with her and she asked us if we wanted to buy some chocolate. It was a Sunday, so we couldn't, and we didn't have any money on us, so we told her that we would buy it from her the next time we saw her. We were able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation and she told us that ever since her Grandpa died she hadn't entered a church, but towards the end of the lesson, she asked us about going to church and was interested and told us she would come! Sunday came, and something came up so she couldn't come, but we are going to teach her on Wednesday! She has a lot of potential and a light about her.

Josue: Last night we were walking around and we were on our way to visit a less active member. On our way we happened to cross paths with a 20 year old named Josue. He looked a little down so we asked him if he was okay. He replied with, " estoy regular" meaning that he was so so. We shared a card with him and shared our testimonies that yes, life is hard, but there is hope and light in a world that seems dark. He became interested and we were able to set up a return appointment with him this Wednesday!

Jeannina and Eleanor: Right after we met Josue, we saw Cindy, our recent convert talking to these two 12 and 13 year old girls, who speak perfect english! We learned from talking with them, that both of their families had recently moved from the U.S. to Puerto Rico. We got their information and set up a return appointment with both of them too!

All of this is amazing because Elder Andersen talked about how we need to find more young people. Hermana Pichiule and i took that to heart and we prayed to find young people to teach, and we found 4! The power of prayer is very real.

Dad, thank you for the spiritual thought, I really needed it. Sometimes the work gets a little hard to do. But I know that I just need to keep pushing along and everything will fall into place.

Thank you for your love and I am forever honored to be part of this family.

I love you so much!