Week 70

Hey, Merry (late) Christmas everyone!


I got a bit emotional as I thought about, how it was my last Christmas in the mission field, bittersweet moment, because although I miss my family and can't wait to be with them, I love my mission and serving the Lord and his people.  This Christmas was a lot more special than the first Christmas in my mission, which is weird to say, but as we were watching, "The Nativity" video at the Panton's house, everything just hit me, as to why I felt like this, I truly "understand" Christmas a little more.  In the last 16 months, I have come to know and understand who the Savior is.  I have come to appreciate more His Atoning Sacrifice that He lovingly did for each of us.  I have come to understand that having charity and serving one another is exactly what the Savior did at all times, which is why, I have never felt so much joy in my entire life until my mission, because I have been in His service.
 
The more I have come to know the Savior, the happier I've been.  I've loved doing the "Light The World" initiative because it's allowed me to see the following:
1. Giving instead of receiving is truly is the best way to spend our time, and all our efforts in the Christmas season, and all year round.
2. It's not a coincidence that the entire world is a lot more united, loving and charitable during the Christmas season, because it is a reflection of the Saviors attributes.
3. Everything I need, I already have, my family, friends, and the gospel. But, most importantly, I have the knowledge that Christ is our Mediator to enjoying the blessings of  eternal life.  Sister Panton said something on Christmas Day that I will never forget.  With tears in her eyes, she said "We have been so excited to have you over, because what better way to celebrate Christmas, than to be able to have those who talk about Christ everyday in our home."  What an honor it was for me in that moment to be recognized as a representative of Jesus Christ.  I will never forget that moment.

Investigators:
1. Luz: we went over a couple times last week to visit Luz and she told her husband that she wants to be baptized! We are so excited!
2. Okay for the sake of time, I will get into more detail next week, but we called every single investigator in the Elders area, and set up return appointments with them.  Not every one of them answered, but those that did are really excited to get to know us!
3. Veronica: she was going to come to the Christmas party, then she didn't, so that was sad. But, we have a return appointment with her tomorrow!

Tender Mercies this week:
1. We saw a man while driving down this street hunched over on the ground and not getting up, so we turned around to go and help him. Turns out, he had been hit by a car and they sped off, he had a broken nose, so I called 911, and other people came and helped too. It was honestly incredible to see the love we all showed this poor man. Also, one of the ladies helping, turned out to be the best friend of Elder Santiago's family. Elder Santiago is an Elder I was in the MTC with, and recently returned back to Puerto Rico.
2. A member of our Ward knitted us scarves for Christmas.
3. After barely snowing at all this winter, it snowed on Christmas Day. My first white Christmas!
4. Someone cleaned off the ice off our car so we didn't have to one morning.
5. Went to the temple the day after Christmas!
6. While looking for this house off a reference we received, a man came outside, and asked us if we were missionaries, and invited us inside to meet his family. It turned out to be the family we were looking for. He is now one of our newest investigators!!

Christmas day was well spent.  First, we had breakfast at the Vincent's, and they gave us some cute presents.  Then, Hermana Laurie and I opened our presents, then I called you my lovely family, then Hermana Laurie called hers, then we went and visited the Holland family, and then went to the Panton's and they gave us cute gifts,  and then we went to the Camey family's house, then off to eat dinner with Hermano Ochoa (our Ward Mission Leader) and his family, then to visit Verónica, and then we went home. It was a long and wonderful day.

It was such a wonderful experience getting to talk to you, my wonderful family. I really have no greater joy than what each of you bring me.

I hope you all enjoyed light the world as much as I did! I invite you all to continue looking for ways to #LightTheWorld everyday!

Next Monday are transfer calls, and to tell you the truth I have NO idea whats going to happen, especially because it's my last transfer in the Mission.:(  It's Crazy, but I hope that I stay in the area with Hermana Laurie, that is my hope, but whatever Heavenly Father wants, I will gladly go and do, Iré y haré!!!

As I am realizing that this week marks the end of the year, I have been reflecting on everything that I have experienced.  I have experienced quite a bit of things (haha), but I wouldn't take anything back. The Lord truly is in the details of our lives.  He knows me perfectly, and I am so grateful to have had the chance to be in His Service during the year of 2017.  As the New Year comes, I hope that I can reflect and apply the things I have learned in my mission so far, into the rest of my life.  I am so excited to spend the next 7 weeks giving all that I have to this work.

I know my Savior lives.  I know this is where I'm supposed to be.  I know that without Him, I am nothing, and with Him, I am everything I can be, and so much more!!!

I love you all, have a wonderful New Year, and please be safe!


Hermana Kali Rae Green

Thank You to My Family and Friends for the Christmas Love!

Our district plus the English elders that are in my stake with Hermana Laurie and I sang,"Angels We Have Heard on High" the first verse in English, the second verse in Spanish, the third in English. It was a blast.

White Elephant Gift Exchange 

My Zone

Week 69

Hello My Dear Family and Friends!

It snowed again, but then stopped. We all hope it'll snow on Christmas. We put up our Christmas decorations today and they look SO CUTE.  Thanks mom :)

Spiritual experiences:

Well, one big one comes to my mind, it happened yesterday.  This week has been a pretty stressful week, not gonna lie. I've felt a lot of pressure, feelings of inadequacy, and a bit of stress as the only Sister Trainer Leader for this new big area I have been assigned.  At the end of my personal study yesterday, I prayed and asked Heavenly Father for the strength and faith to do the responsibilities he has asked me to do, and more than anything, I really just needed to know if he was there, listening to me, and I asked if he would help me recognize that he was aware of me and what I was currently going through.  I ended my prayer, and not even 30 seconds later I heard my email sound go off.  I thought, "who could be emailing me on a Sunday morning?" Sure enough, and to my surprise, it was the lovely Hermana Smart, President Smart's wife from Puerto Rico.  Before Elder Juarez left to go back to Puerto Rico, as one of the 14 Elders called back, I had given him one of the nativities Mom made to give to the Smarts, with a note attached.  So, Sister Smart wrote me a note, thanking me for the gift, and said many wonderful things, and in the end said, "I love you very much", I just started bawling.  For many reasons, but the most important being that Heavenly Father was SO quick to respond to my prayer.  I knew in that moment that He had heard me, that He was aware of me, and was kind enough to answer my prayer literally right after I had asked.  Heavenly Father puts very specific people in our lives to help remind us that he's aware of us and we are never alone. I immediately felt at peace and knew that I would have His help to accomplish all that I needed to do, so I did not have to stress or worry about it, just needed to keep my faith strong and leave the worries to Him.

Investigators:

Tino and Maria: so, this week was crazy with them, but a lesson learned indeed.  So, Tuesday we had this powerful lesson on the Plan of Salvation and it ended with us extending a baptismal invitation, and both of them saying yes, and explaining their great joy in their decisions.  Hermana Laurie and I, left the house leaping and screaming and almost in tears out of the happiness we felt.  We went back on Friday, and had the complete opposite experience.  Tino had heard a lot of rumors about the Church that weren't true, and he was criticizing and demeaning our beliefs.  A definite  change had happened, and they both were very against the things we shared.  Hermana Laurie and I both knew that we couldn't leave their house without giving them the chance and opportunity to hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel, and testify of its truthfulness.  Once we got to the First Vision, the topic of Joseph Smith became of interest, and not in the nicest of ways.  We had, had enough, and we boldly testified of the truthfulness of this message, and testified that the ONLY way they could know if everything we had shared with them was true or not, was by reading the Book of Mormon and pondering the things it contains in their hearts, and praying to know of its truthfulness.   They hesitantly accepted the invitation, and took it.  We'll be going back tomorrow to see if they have read and prayed, or not.  I'll explain more about this when we Skype! All and all, it was a pretty cool experience, haha!

Luz: so, yesterday we had a combined lesson with the Elders (Elder Ruiz, Elder Brito and Elder Gonzales) to transition one of their investigators, Luz.  She is super cool and married to a member.  It was such a cool experience being in a lesson with four other missionaries, all working by the Spirit to discern her needs.  The spirit was so strong.  We have a return date for tomorrow and we're super excited!  They invited us over for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, I don't remember which one, haha!!!

Tonight we'll be meeting with a couple more investigators of the Elders and going to an FHE,  I'll probably have a LOT more to talk about next week once the new area is moving along!

So, my sister (Tina) inspired me last week to make a list of tender mercies I see from the Lord every week.  I've seen that as I do this, it helps me remember how merciful the Lord is with me, and how I have seen His hand in my daily life.  So, here's this week's: 1) Hermana Smarts email to me with a message from the Lord at the perfect moment. 2) We came home on Thursday night to find a brand new bottle of Dawn dish soap nicely wrapped in a Christmas bag on our porch, so why is this such a tender mercy? The same day, we had ran out and we had told no one, but I knew that Heavenly Father was watching out for us, haha. 3) A member of the Bishopric of a Ward we've never gone to brought us brownie mix as a thank you gift from his ward for us for our service as missionaries. 4) Elder Ruiz took the time to sit down with us, go through EVERY SINGLE INVESTIGATOR in detail to help us begin this new area. While he was doing that, there was a man playing beautiful music on the piano in the chapel, and it was snowing outside, I felt so much peace and love in my heart from the Lord. 5) While trying to contact a reference on a really, really cold day, a lady invited us in for hot chocolate, and offered us dinner on Christmas Day, and a place to make a phone call to our families if we didn't have a way to talk to them. 6) We finally met a member in one of the English Wards we cover after trying to visit her for 2 weeks. We shared a message and video from "Light the World", and she started bawling, telling us how she knew that it wasn't coincidence that we came by, and that she had been struggling, and that we came at the perfect moment where she was just about to lose hope on the Lord. 7) people laughed at my lame jokes I made. 8) 14 Elders happily returned to Puerto Rico to help the people I love so very much. 9) a random member gave us a box of chocolate for no reason. 10) A couple less active families came to church Sunday for the first time in a long while. 11) We got 35 out of 36 on our car inspection at zone conference! 12) Hermano Aponte (from the High Council over missionary work) and his family, gave us special Christmas ornaments from Puerto Rico!

So, another really big tender mercy was during Zone Conference.  President and Sister Killpack will invite the MLS couples and Stake President's from our Mission area to our Zone Conferences sometimes.  There was a senior couple behind me and I talked to them a little bit and explained that I was a missionary originally assigned to Puerto Rico.  After I gave my training and sat down, the husband tapped me on the shoulder, and said, "Now, would the Lord create a hurricane to bring Hermana Green here to help lead these missionaries in the Utah Orem mission?" And he sat back, smiling.  I started crying, as I received yet another confirmation, that I was where I needed to be!

Hope y'all enjoyed those tender mercies as much as I did! The lord is very aware of our needs, and He is involved in the details of our lives.  If we take the time each day to recognize and reflect upon them, we will truly be amazed and so blessed.  I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord that I see each day.  He gives me strength and hope, and reminds me that I am never alone and He is always watching over me!

Oh, our Zone Conference combined Christmas party was SO FUN.  So, from 9-12 we were receiving trainings and I was translating the whole time for Hermana Laurie and man my brain was FRIED, but it was really fun!  Our district plus the English Elders, that are in my Stake with Hermana Laurie and I sang, "Angels We Have Heard on High", the first verse in English, the second verse in Spanish, the third in English, it was a blast - you'll see pictures.  Then we had a really yummy lunch and then played games.  For our White Elephant gift exchange I bought a whisk.  I know, that sounds lame, but it had to be something both Elders and Sisters could use, plus it had to be under $2 in value, so that was the best gift I could come up.  My companion bought a tiny cheese grater, HAHAHAHA!!!, I love her!!! So, I ended up with brownie mix, that Hermana Cazares brought, cant wait to make them.  At the end of the party, we sang some Christmas hymns and got our Christmas gifts from our families and friends.  It was a great day.

Also, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED with the gifts for the children of the Ponce and Mayagüez Stakes in Puerto Rico!  My heart is so, so happy! THANK YOU MOM, SISTER BRADFORD AND SISTER BIANUCCI! We couldn't have done it without you all. I love each and every one of you! I am grateful this Christmas that my family elected to not receive of gifts this Christmas and gave all that we had to my investigators, converts and members who are in need in Puerto Rico.  Our family truly received the greatest gift this Christmas and my heart is overflowing with joy and happiness.  Thank you family and friends for your contributions, hard work, love and support!  Hermana Vasquez from Puerto Rico sent me the cutest message yesterday thanking us for her gifts. I'll send you a screenshot of it with translation of what she said. She's adorable.


I went on exchanges with Hermana Zayas this week and it was fantastic! We bonded over Puerto Rico and had a great time learning from one another. We went to this one member's house, who is from Puerto Rico and is like 21 years old. She gave us Puerto Rican food and gave us la masa para hacer las empanadillas, I was so happy!! My heart and stomach were full.  So, during my exchange, we went and had dinner with Mirna and Elian. They were a reference originally for us, but it turned out they lived in American Fork which is outside of our Area. They got baptized a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to teach them four times in the week I was training with the American Fork Sisters. They are such a sweet family. When I sprained my ankle, Mirna, got out some oils and lotion, and rubbed my foot and was helping it not swell as much.  I told her no way she had to rub oils on me, because it was a foot, but she insisted.  She is so humble, and it just reminded me of when the Savior washed his Apostle's feet.  I was overwhelmed with tender emotions.  I gave them a Nativity and they were so happy.  I told them I would come visit them with you. They're excited to meet you both, haha!!  We've gone to a lot of Ward Christmas parties and it's been great for Hermana Laurie to practice her English.  Oh, I forgot to mention last week, we went to the Provo MTC and visited her sister! That was pretty cool.

Exchanges with Hermana Zayas, Mirna & Elian, Masa Para Hacer Empanadillas

OKAY HERMANA PEARCE IS THE HOMIE. I can't believe she went to Puerto Rico to give some humanitarian aid, and took the time to go to my old apartment and get my Puertorican stuff that I left behind in the Hurricane, and send it home to you! I owe her everything. THANKS SARAH!

So life is crazy.  Life is good.  Can't complain.  I am so happy that the 14 elders are back in Puerto Rico.  I've heard from a couple of them, and I am so happy for them, and for the people.  I can't wait to go back and help them out after I am finished here in Orem.

Keep on Lighting the World, I am so grateful for you all.

See you next Monday on SKYPE, can't wait to see you all and talk with you!!!!!

love,

-Hermana Kali Rae Green

Spanish tutoring with Tyler! And sister Panton in the back. I love this family so much. 

Cleaning our car, taken right before I whacked myself in the head with the vacuum and had my jacket swallowed by it right after HAHAHA

Week 68

What a week! I can't believe we get to talk so soon!

Spiritual experiences:

Well, Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways, but they are always perfect and not so mysterious, once we realize the way He works.  Hermana Laurie and I were knocking on some doors, trying to visit some old investigators from our area book, but none of them answered.  I told Hermana Laurie that we should go visit Jai's family since they lived just a couple houses down.  As we were walking, all of a sudden we hear this giant car honk, we look, and it's Sister Holland (Jai's grandma), she's one of the greatest women I've ever met.  We went over to go talk to her, and said hello and asked her how she was doing, she started bawling and said she had been praying for Heavenly Father to send her some comfort and understanding.  She continued and told us about how Bob, her husband, passed away unexpectedly just a night before. They had only been married for a couple of months, and he was the one that confirmed Jai.  We showed her the "Light the World" video, and testified of the Plan of Salvation, and talked her through a couple of things.  It was a very tender moment with her.  As we were walking away, I remembered that morning, I had prayed that Hermana Laurie and I could be an answer to some one's prayer that day.  I completely forgot about that, but what's cool is that Heavenly Father didn't.  He doesn't forget about His children, even if we might.

Another spiritual experience happened exactly a week ago today.  To start off, I am so grateful for the spiritual thoughts Dad sends me each week.  I have found that they are so applicable to that week and that Heavenly Father works through different people in my life to teach me and help me.  Last week, Dad wrote about Charity the pure love of Christ.  One thing that stuck out to me in his Spiritual thought, was how we need to "pray with all the energy of heart" for the gift of charity, just like the Book of Mormon prophet, Moroni asks us to do.  Later that night, we were going to visit a reference we had received from a member.  We knocked, a woman probably in her 60s, answered the door, and let us in.  Her husband was sitting on the couch, and we introduced ourselves and had a little chit chat with them.  The man (his name is Tino), when we walked in, asked us in a bit snarkily way, "what, are you selling chocolates or something?" and I replied, "not exactly, but it's better than chocolate."  Once he recognized our Church name on our tags, he wasn't too fond of listening to us, and started making rude remarks about our Church.  He even said at one point, "your Church doesn't like Mexicans" and I said, "sir, I am Mexican", haha!!  After a bit more comments from him, he ended with, "you little girls are just very closed off from the world and don't really know your Church."  It was at that point where I could feel heat in my face start to rise, and my patience was starting to be lowered.  Right at that moment, I remembered the line from Dad's email that morning about charity, and I just started praying, and praying and praying with all my heart for this man.  I remember distinctly thinking in my head, Heavenly Father, please help me have charity for this man.  Please let me feel the love you have for him.  Please let me see him as you see him, and help me look at his eternal potential."  And man, did I pray with all the energy of my tiny heart, haha!!  I then felt the soothing words and confirmation of the Spirit come into my head, saying, "he is just another lost sheep, waiting to be brought home.  Remember that, and have patience with him."  I then realized that he too was just trying to find his way home, and that our calling is to be like the Savior, and act as he did.  We showed the "Light the World" video, and I began to feel love for this man, actual, Christ-like love.  I no longer felt offended.  He later, explained how he felt like he didn't have any more faith in Jesus Christ because of experiences he has been going through.  And as he said that, I looked at him, smiled, and was reminded of a promised blessing pronounced upon me in a Priesthood blessing given to me by Elder Ruiz, one of my zone leaders, that said, "I would have the gift of seeing people as our Heavenly Father does."  Remembering that thought, I said, "Hermano Tino, no one is ever too far from the loving arms of Jesus Christ.  "We shared a scripture, testified of our calling, and ended up having a powerful lesson.  We even got him laughing at a couple of jokes we made.  At the end of the lesson, we were about to say the prayer, and we asked him if there was anything he would like us to pray for.  He replied, with some tears in his eyes, to pray for his son.  It was incredible to see the change of heart I had, and the change of heart he had, all because of charity.  It was a valuable lesson learned that even the hardest of hearts can change.  Thank you, Dad, for helping me learn that.

Investigators:
So life is about to get EVEN BUSIER because now since both of my wonderful zone leaders are leaving this mission next week, (Elder Juarez is going back to Puerto Rico, and Elder Ruiz is finishing his 2 years as a missionary and going home) we are getting their area, with all their investigators and their ward.  We are so excited!  And kinda nervous, haha!!  But we are excited to work more and harder.  They have a TON of investigators all with baptismal dates and potential!  I am humbled at the trust Heavenly Father has in our companionship, I also question how my sanity is going to be, haha, but all is well!!  More updates will come next week, haha!!

We are also teaching English lessons to this couple from Argentina, Gustavo and Claudia.  They aren't interested a whole ton in our message, but hoping that by loving them and teaching them English, they will feel something :)

I am so beyond happy for the 14 elders that get to go back to Puerto Rico!  I know without a DOUBT that these elders were called by revelation and are the ones to start preparing the way for these wonderful people in Puerto Rico.  Many tears were shed thinking about the wonderful reunions that would happen between these elders, President and Hermana Smart, and most importantly, the people of Puerto Rico.  What a beautiful Christmas gift for Puerto Rico.  MY heart is so full, and I know that The Lord has prepared everyone involved, especially the people.  I am so excited to see what's in store for everyone there.  These elders have my full, 100 percent trust, and I have heard of a couple who are going, two that were in the MTC with me, Elder Bradford and Elder Juarez, I am just so happy!!  I would be lying, if I didn't say that I wish I could go help too.  But, I know I am supposed to be here.  If the Lord needs me here, I will work my hardest here, helping the wonderful people here in Orem.  If he called me back, then I would go and work hard there.  It really doesn't matter at the end of the day, where I am called to serve.  All that matters to me, is that I get to wake up, put my tag on, and serve, because it's His work, NOT OURS!!  He knows best, and sees what we can not see, simple as that!!

Mom, we've been handing out the nativities and wrist bands you sent me.  Everyone loves the nativities, but I couldn't take any credit for them, so I tell everyone you did it, and now even more people think you're really cool and want to meet you.  So far, I've given the nativities to my district, and I plan on giving some to investigators, members, and I sent one with Elder Juarez to give to President and Sister Smart, and I am going to give one to the Killpacks this Friday at our Zone Conference.  This makes me feel really happy bringing a physical gift along side the normal best gift of the gospel.  Thanks for being the best Mom, and we haven't put up the Christmas decorations you sent yet, but we are doing that tonight!

Last week I had the great opportunity to go on exchanges with Hermana Orjuela! It was a blast and she helped me a lot!  Additionally, we had MLC, and CDM, all such amazing meetings.  I gave a 25 minute training on President Killpack's training he gave at MLC.  It's like taking notes on the Prophet's talk and having to present it exactly the same passion, no pressure, Haha!!  Today we had a zone activity!  We played dodge ball, UNO, and a bunch of other types of sports games, and ate pizza, it was a blast!!

Mission Leadership Council!

My Zone!

This week I get to go on exchanges with Hermana Zayas in American Fork. I'm stoked.  Also, this week we have our Zone Conference, on Friday.  We will be training, and President and Sister Killpack will be there, and we will have a Zone Christmas party with a white elephant exchange (I bought a whisk) with Christmas stuff and food.  Our district is singing ,"Silent Night".  Speaking of singing, I will be singing a duet in Sister Panton' s ward this Sunday!  We're singing a really pretty arrangement of, "What Child is This".  I'm really excited!!

Tender mercies... I thought I would share with you some tender mercies I have seen this past week from the Lord.  1) after having fasted for new investigators, we found 7 in one day.  2) God has finally granted me confidence in my self-esteem, I feel beautiful, and I've been waiting for this all my life, it feels so good.  Now I'm not perfect and I still have things to work on, but I think I am in a very good place right now.  3) no one planned on feeding us on Christmas day, or 5 other days on the month, and they all got filled.  4) I became a Spanish tutor this week and an English teacher, HAHA.  5) the talks in sacrament meeting were EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

Spanish Tutoring with Tyler Panton and our little buddy Ryan!

Hermana Green & Laurie Love Orem!

That's all for now.  I had a grand week, and life is good.  Keep on Lighting the World!

Hermana Kali Rae Green

Week 67

Hola Family,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, It snowed!  So it SNOWED last night, like really snowed all last night. We walked out and it was a Winter Wonderlaaaaaand.

First Snow!

Winter Wonderland!

Spiritual experiences:
Well, sharing the #LightTheWorld video has been such an incredible experience.  It's pretty cool just finding people and sharing with them the gospel, and having this technology makes it so much easier.  As we were sharing the video with a lady we were contacting, the symbolism of something came into my head that really moved me; here I am, sharing this inspirational video, that was being watched on the tablet I am holding in my hands - The spirit was felt, and people are changed after watching it.  Likewise, it's cool to think that the gospel is also something that I can share, whether it's physically in my hands through a video, or through the voice of my testimony, it is all the same.  My favorite part of sharing the “Light the World” video is watching their eyes at the moment Christ comes into the video.  We had the opportunity last night to visit a family in one of the Wards we cover.  We were looking for a specific house number, and couldn't find the house, so we decided to knock on a random house and ask where the house was.  Turns out the house we knocked on was the right one, haha!  They were members, and the family we were looking for was living in their basement.  Before we went to visit the family in the basement, we asked if we could share a message with the members that owned the house.  They guided us to their living room and we sat by the Christmas tree, and shared the “Light the World” video with this young couple and their four kids.  They were so eager to watch it, and watching them watch the video was really special, because you could see that they felt something.  The only light the was in the room was from the Christmas tree and the video. It was special.

Investigators:
So we've been really struggling to find new people to teach, but the fast we did worked! #therecanbemiracleswhenyoubelieve!!

La Familia Camacho: So, the Camacho family was a reference last night from our dinner appointment, it was seriously a miracle!  No one had us down for dinner yesterday, and a Sister in the ward came up to us and said, "do you have dinner today?" And we said no, and she said, "Come to my house tonight, you have dinner with us now,” So we were like SWEET, and so we went and we shared the “Light the World” video with them, and asked if there was anyone that they knew who we could share the video with and they told us about their next door neighbors.  They're from Venezuela and a good family.  So, we went and they let us in and we talked to them for a little bit about Venezuelan food (which, might I add, is incredible) and broke the ice immediately.  We asked if we could share the “Light the World” video and they said yes.  So, we shared it, and they loved it.  The father of the family made it clear that they were Evangelical, but has interest in learning English, so we will be teaching English to them – whatever works to keep in contact with them.  They are a pretty young couple, with 3 kids, two teenagers and one little 2 year old girl.  The dad, after the video said, "that's one thing I love about your church, is how well organized it is, and how much service you give".  It was cool, and he said usually they don't like to mix religions but they saw us standing outside and they felt bad, so they let us in, and wanted to know more about us and they ended up being really surprised at how much they enjoyed their time with us.  To be quite honest, I have no idea how I'm going to teach English but in the words of the great Kevin Tison,  I am going to, "take the ball and run with it and not let the cow out of the barn too early".

Ethan: So, you know that family who lives in the basement we were going to visit? So, we went, and a 17 year old boy Ethan lives there.  He was super cool and was really open to listening to the message of the restored gospel.  Turns out he has gone to our Ward a lot with his brothers, but he isn't a member.  So, we're excited to teach him and his family.

Verónica: She didn't come to church ): but, we did have a visit with her last week about what happens after this life and we talked about family history, and temples and other stuff.  It was really cool and she said, "I now understand why families are so important to you".  It was a spiritual connection.

Speaking of Spiritual connections; So, I absolutely loved your spiritual thought about charity! I took some cool notes I wanted you to see.  I've come to realize that I'm a very visual person and that you basically wrote a formula about how to obtain charity, so I made it that way.  Also, (woah I just had to translate that from Spanish to English in my head. That happens quite frequently now, haha) something that I feel inspired to share with you is what we do here each transfer.  Each transfer, President Killpack asks us to study one of the christlike attributes found in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel, and my attribute I am working on is diligence.  Something I do, is each day, I look up scriptures regarding that attribute and look for ways to apply it to my day so I'm aware of it.  I also do that similar thing with the "Light the World" initiative.  Everyday, as you know, there is a scripture tied into the act of service you can do.  So, each day I am looking up the scripture, studying, and pondering the ways I can serve all those around me that day.

So GET THIS.  Avalon met my companion in the airport going home, which means, when I went to go get my new companion at the airport, Avalon and I were in the airport at the exact same time, crazy!  Her name is Sister Laurie and she is the sweetest thing.  She’s from Concepción, Chile, and does not speak a lot of English.  She's hilarious and is learning English, so I speak Spanish 100% of the time, it's been such a blessing!  Fun fact: at the beginning of my mission, I prayed that I would end my mission with a Latina companion, and Sister Laurie prayed that she would get an American trainer, so there you go, prayers answered!!  We have so much fun together, and we almost have the same name, her name is Kaylene.  She's a wonderful missionary and I'm so excited for the rest of this transfer with her.

My New Companion Hermana Laurie.

Training time with Hermana Laurie.

Today we had our district activity.  We went and bowled, still pretty terrible at bowling, but I did get a strike, and then we went and ate food and brought it to a Church building and played many games of UNO.  UNO is my favorite game.  I was laughing so hard, especially because Elder Brito, our district leader, was getting SO into it.  He's Dominican, which makes it even better, haha.

Bowling with Hermana Cazares

This week will be another busy one, as I have MLC tomorrow all day, planning for CDM with the zone leaders on Wednesday, and CDM on Thursday, and exchanges as well.  It should be a really good week.

Dad, I know you say, you and mom brag about me, but I brag about you two WAY more than you think.  I too can say like Nephi that, "I've been born of goodly parents".  Don't forget to look up the daily videos and see what you can do to help #LightTheWorld.

Thanks for raising me the way you did.  I love you!!

-Hermana Kali Rae Green

Turkey Bowl Injury!