Homeword Bound! (Week 96 In The Field)

3 John Chapter 1:13-14

   13. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:

   14. But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.

 Glasses photo

Me and the McGinnis'

me, Mitch and Leslie

 This is my "I cant believe I am going home face" Hahaha

The crew

My last Sunday :/

Ronnie Reed and I

1 (Week 95 In The Field)

Well, I am now in the single digits with how many days I have left, I am trying not to count, but now that I only have a few days left, you just know automatically without having to count. 

This is my last week doing missionary work as an ordained missionary, so I promise that I am going to work my hardest this last week I have, and to do my best to help the people here in the Alamosa area. 

This past week has been awesome! We started out the week with exchanges. I went with Elder Constantine in his area, and his companion went with mine in my area. It was a pretty good exchange, got to teach a few lessons. 

We also had interviews with our mission president so that was fun, I was able to renew my temple recommend, the only time I will ever not have it done by the stake president.  

On Wednesday we had a just serve project, but this time it was different, we went to the habitat for humanity store downtown and worked there. I didn't like it as much, because the job just wasn't nearly as fun as building the house, but it was still good. :) 

Also on Thursday we had specialized training with our mission president, he mostly talked about how we always need to be striving to find people to teach, and that finding is an attitude, not an activity. We need to always be striving to find more people to teach. 

On Friday, I had my last district meeting ever as a missionary. That was a bitter sweet moment. Since there are 2 other Elders in our district who are dying, before we started district meeting, we had a funeral where the other missionaries who aren't dying, pay their last respects to us and gave like a little speech about each on of us. Then after, I taught and focused on the Atonement. It was the most spiritual lesson I have done yet. And then after we took district pictures, transfer predictions, and I performed another song I wrote for the district! :) Next week is zone training, so that's why this last Friday was the last district meeting. 

We were able to teach a lot this week, including our new investigator Bolinda, and we had the relief society president come with us. The lesson went great, and she bonded well with the relief society president. We taught on the importance of scripture study and prayer, and how that can improve the quality of our lives. It ended up being a spirit filled lesson! 

Well, I have to get going now. I just wanna let you know how thankful I am to have been able to serve a mission. I will forever be grateful for the things I have learned, and the sure foundation I have in this gospel. I know this church is true, and I know that everything in it is true, and that God and the Savior loves each and every single one of us. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ, and I am thankful to have a perfect example to follow in my life! :) 

I love you all and will see you next week!

Elder Greer

At lunch

Before district meeting we had a funeral for those Elders who are dying

Transfer predictions!!! 

Glasses photo!

The pic of the district! :)

Sister Marler and I

Elder Barron and I

Elder constantine and I

Elder Diaz and I. Elder Evans, Elder Diaz and I are all going home together

Elder Evans and I

My companion Elder Guerrerro and I

So this last Friday was my last district meeting so I took selfies with everyone

before the race

an aligator

3 of the elders in our district ran in a mud run, in church clothes!

Some lady wanted us to take pics with these girls that ran in it lol

2 (Week 94 In The Field)

I hit 22 months out on the mission on Saturday, and turned 21 years old on Wednesday. I had a mission birthday, and a real birthday all within 3 days of each other. :) Thank you everyone who wished me a happy birthday! :) I really appreciate all the emails I got and hearing from some people I haven't heard from in a while. 

I had a really interesting birthday. I got a call from the housing coordinator that morning, he wished me a happy birthday than told me that we had to move immediately to the downstairs apartment, and I was like are you serious? Can't we wait to do this after transfers, but he said no, so we started moving that morning. Good thing we were only just moving downstairs into the sisters old apartment, because that would have stunk only having 3 weeks left, and having to move far. 

So that took up the whole day moving downstairs, so I really didn't do too much else for my birthday. We did, however, go to Chilis as a district to celebrate my birthday, that was pretty fun! :) The rest of the week was pretty good too. 

We got to go on exchanges with our zone leaders, and I got to go to their area. It's always fun to switch it up a bit. We had good lessons with our investigators this week. We taught our new investigator, we read the Book of Mormon with her and that was awesome! We are reading some with her because she doesn't understand it very well, so we are trying to help her understand it better and get in the habit of reading her scriptures everyday. That is the most important habit you could ever get into! Please, everyone get in that habit haha. It will bless your life more than you can ever know, and if you read as a family, you will grow closer together. That's what we promised Bolinda, she wants to have a better family life. She's making some good efforts so far, she's awesome! :) 

On a really good note. The less active that we have been working with who was dis-fellowshipped just got re-fellowshipped back in the church, and can now hold callings!!! :) We are so excited for him and his devotion on working towards getting back. 

It's been an awesome week and we are hoping to make this next one even better. Gotta finish strong and work hard my last couple weeks! I hope you all have an awesome week! See You all soon! :)

Elder Greer

3 (Week 93 In The Field)

So, it is super weird how each one of these last weeks of my mission just keep flying by. I have about 3 weeks left here in the mission field and I am giving it my all until the very end. So my last emails will be a countdown, because I can't figure out what else to title them anymore haha. 

But anyways, this past week has been amazing! I got to start off the week by doing some more service for Habitat for Humanity. These projects haven't been as cool as the last ones, but they are still super fun to go to. 

After that we went to go visit one of the less actives that we are working with named Mitch. Well, he comes to church every week it's just that he was dis-fellowshipped, so we have been working with him to get the priesthood back. We read with him a scripture in Alma chapter 7 through 11, which just talks about Christ and how he suffered everything that we suffered. We visited with him the next day and he said that the scripture we read with him comforted him that day because he just got denied a job promotion, so he prayed for comfort and received it. That was a testimony builder to me, to see how much scripture reading and prayer actually work. 

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Diaz, who is a Spanish Elder. That was an amazing exchange, miracles happened on that day. We saw a lady who allows us to come over, but who's less active, and doesn't ever wanna talk about gospel related things. Well, this time she asked gospel related questions! Elder Diaz says she never does that. So he was able to answer all her questions, I couldn't because it was all in Spanish, but I got to hear about it all afterwards. That was a good day. 

The next day we got two referrals from our zone leaders, and we got two new investigators because of it! Bolinda and Jose.  Bolinda is a 30 year old single mom, and really wants to know more about what we believe. We gave her a church tour and taught a lesson in the chapel after. The spirit was strong and she has a strong desire to change her life around for the better. We taught mostly on faith, repentance, and baptism. 

Jose we taught on the same day at the church. He's not as interested, but he is still willing to hear us out and learn more. He's 17 years old and has weird ideas on some things, but I think he's a good potential. 

On another good note, I turn 21 in 2 days! Dang, I am getting old! Hahaha but I am super excited for that. 

Well I have to go now, but I love you all and cannot wait to see all real soon! :) I hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Greer

Birthdays, The 4th, Service and Other Stuff (Week 92 In The Field)

These past couple of weeks have been kept pretty busy with the Holidays, and there were two Elders in our district whose birthday's were the 8th and the 9th. My companion was one of them, he just turned 20, as well as one of the Spanish Elders. So we had a pretty good time celebrating those this past week! And not only that, but my Birthday will be here pretty soon, so I am pretty excited to turn the big 21! :) Dang, I am getting old. 

We also celebrated the 4th of July with a member in our ward and our district of missionaries, got to grill some hamburgers, eat some chips and watch fireworks blow up! :) It was a pretty good past couple of weeks! 

We also got to do some more of the Just Serve projects as well. We continued to do some more of the Habitat for Humanity building, an adobe home. The group that was here this past week was a group of college students from California,and they were an awesome group of kids, made me really look forward to the friends I will be making when I go to college. We painted and layed brick for the wall of the home that we are building, it is coming so far since we first started working on it. It was another neat opportunity because of the questions that they have and the chance we get to answer them and share more about what we believe! 

We got to teach a lot this week. We had dinner with a part member family, she's a less active and he's a non member, but he has been coming to church a lot more frequently and is really enjoying it. He hasn't agreed to take the discussions yet, but I think he is getting really close to allowing us to teach him about the restored gospel. 

We also met with 2 less actives and had great lessons with them, and one of them came to church for the first time ever since I got here, that was awesome! :) 

I know that the gospel can change lives for the better as long as we are willing to do the things that our Father in Heaven has asked of us to do. We have to show our Heavenly Father our faith and act on it, not to just believe, but to do as well. It will make us happier, and it will make Heavenly Father happy too. :) I know that blessings will come when we show our faith, I have seen it in my life, and I have seen it in the lives of the people I have been able to work with on my mission. :) I know that this Church is true and I wanna let you know that I have a firm testimony in our Savior. I am thankful for the things I have learned on my mission, and I wouldn't ever change that for anything. It's sad to see it coming to a close, but I will be eternally thankful for the friends I have made out here, and the things I was able to accomplish through the Lord. 

I love and miss you all and can't wait to see you here soon! :) Have an awesome week!

Elder Greer

Service Results

Final Transfer! (Week 90 In The Field)

Well, I still can't believe I have come this far in the mission already. I know I've said this once before, but I still feel like I just came out on the mission a couple months ago, but now I'm in my final stretch. I am really sad to see it come to a close here very soon, but it's not over yet. I have to make this last month and a half the best, and work hard to finish strong and make my Heavenly Father proud. :)

Transfer calls came out Saturday night and I found out that I will be staying with my current companion Elder Guerrerro, so I guess he's gonna be killing me off. (It's a term missionaries use for whoever your last companion will be.) Which I am really happy about, because that means I won't have the risk of getting a terrible companion for my last transfer haha.

My district will be changing a lot. We are getting 3 new members of the district, and one of them will be a brand new missionary, so this should be interesting! A sister in my district got a call to train, so this should be exciting. I'm really glad to be staying and to still be a district leader, I have really enjoyed it and helping out with the district as much as I can. I couldn't have asked for a better district for my first time, they are all awesome, and it's sad to see 3 of them go. But, that's just the life of a missionary, and it keeps things really interesting, hardly ever a dull moment.

Well, I am really excited about this last transfer, and I promise I will work hard for it and help as many people as I can to come enjoy the blessings of living the gospel! :) This past week has been really fun! So, not sure if any of you have heard of the new program the church is launching, but it's called Just Serve. Basically what it is, is a website that anyone in the community can post service projects, or sign up to do service projects. It's supposed to be an amazing missionary tool.

We got to go to one of the projects and help with a habitat for humanity project. We helped build an adobe house for those people who can't afford housing. We helped with members of an episcopalian church from Texas! Everybody there loved us. We are not allowed to proselyte at any Just Serve projects, but we are allowed to answer questions if they arise. And they asked a ton of questions! So we got to explain everything about what we believe, so it was a really neat experience. :) I got to meet a lot of cool people outside of our faith, who still have a strong belief in Christ, and who still have good morals and go out and serve people. That was probably the highlight of the week.

It's been really hard this past week with teaching, because everyone is out of town for the summer. One of our investigators dropped us completely until after summer is over. :/ Missionary work is tough in the summer, but we still go out every day and try our best.

Well I gotta go soon. I love and miss you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Thank you for all your prayers and support! :)

Elder Greer

Service

My district :)

building an adobe house

My district :)

Father's Day (Week 89 In The Field)

I just want to say HAPPY FATHERS DAY to the best Dad in the world! I hope you had an amazing day yesterday. I just wanna say how thankful I am for everything that you taught me growing up. I know I wouldn't be where I am at today if it weren't for the amazing example you set and the things I learned from you! I know this will probably boost your cockiness but you are an amazing Dad and I couldn't have asked for anyone better! ;) 

I also want to give another shout out to my amazing sister Caylee! HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY!!!! :) I love you so much and I hope you had an awesome day! Can't wait to see you both soon! :) 

Well, this week was pretty dang good! We got a couple new potential investigators and will be getting a new investigator sometime this week! We had a lesson with a dis-fellowshipped member who is doing all he can to be re-fellowshipped soon, so he can enjoy the blessings of the gospel once again in his life. We are also working with his non member wife who loves the church. Her husband says she came a long way and can see the progression in her. She will be baptized soon I know it! :) Probably once her husband gets re-fellowshipped back in, that way he can baptize her. I think that would be really cool! 

On Sunday I got assigned to teach the 17 year old Sunday school class. That was super fun, I really love doing anything with the youth because they are so strong in the gospel, and so eager to share it with everyone. There is one particular youth in our ward named Ammon! He is super cool, and will be leaving for his mission to Arizona in just 2 weeks! He's gonna make an awesome missionary! 

There were also some great Father's day talks on Sunday and in Elder's quorum they brought chocolate pies and Mtn Dew! It was pretty awesome. 

Well, I am running out of time on here. I just wanna say I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father and all that hes done for me. I have a testimony that He lives and that He sent his son to die for us because he loves us so much! What an amazing Father we all have! :) I love and miss you all! Hope you have an amazing week! :)

Elder Greer 

Spicy Wing Challenge (Week 87 In The Field)

This challenge is supposedly the hottest and most spicy challenge there is in the valley. You have to eat 3 wings that are made with ghost pepper extract! The spiciest wings you could ever have. So hot you have to wear gloves to eat them to protect any wounds that may be on your hands. Don't worry everybody, I didn't do it. I can't even stand the littlest of spicy things, but my comp did, and completed it like a man! He was struggling though you could tell. He started shaking really bad, and his lips started getting puffy. It was pretty funny. But he did good and completed it. I was proud of him. I don't know if I ever told you his name, his name is Elder Guerrerro. He's from Virginia and he is super cool. We get a long pretty well. 

This week was pretty eventful. We got to do 3 service projects. One of them we helped landscape a lady's yard for one of the other elder's investigator. The other 2 were also actually landscaping, we laid top soil on one day for a member in his back yard, moving into a new house that he's been working on for a while. Then the next day we laid sod. They were some tough projects. Some of the sod was super dried out, so that made it harder to lay without breaking it. It's nice because you learn a lot of skills on a mission. I think I might be able to help anybody with anything now. Okay maybe not anything, but I definitely picked up a few things on the way. 

We taught this past week, one of our progressing less actives. we discussed with her the trials she needs to overcome in order to go to the temple. We helped her understand the importance of tithing and how that it is an act of faith. You just need to trust that the Lord is going to provide for you if you put him first and give him 10 percent of what you earn. 10 percent really isn't all that much when the Lord has given you everything you have! But I can understand why its tough for people who are financially struggling. But she committed that she is going to pay her tithing and show the Lord a little more faith. She is awesome and is progressing a lot. 

We are also working with a dis-fellowshipped member. He is progressing a lot as well, and is doing everything he needs to do in order to get back in full fellowship. He's an awesome guy! 

The only hard thing is right now with the work, is that everyone is out of town and doing stuff for the summer, so like almost everyone we are working with isn't home. But this past week hasn't been so bad. 

Oh! So this Wednesday I will be giving my departing testimony in zone conference. I can't believe the time has come already but here it is. Haha everyone says that in their departing testimony it's so annoying, so I am not going to do that. 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love and miss you all! :)

Elder Greer

 Elder Guerrerro Spicy Wing Challenge

Random: Dominos delivery in Sonic drive through :)

Random Pictures (Week 86 In The Field)

I got a really bad sunburn haha it looks so weird

Dont know if this is any better 

walkin down the street hahahah

Alamosa 2nd Ward (Week 85 In The Field)

Sorry I don't have much time, so I have to keep this really short. I got to my new area in safety and so far I love it here! My companion is awesome and the ward is on fire with missionary work. We have 4 investigators, but I have not met them yet. I will be meeting them this week though. :) 

My new district is awesome as well. There are a set of sisters who cover the YSA, Spanish Elders, and our Zone Leaders. I taught my very first district meeting on Friday, and it went really well! I taught on effective studies, and the spirit was definitely there and it was a great discussion! I am still trying to get to know the area, so I don't know a whole lot of what's going on, so I will have a better report for you all next week. 

I got my trunky letter the other day, we call it that as a joke. So basically what happens when you get to the point where you just have 3 months left on your mission, you get a letter from the mission office with a talk entitled "Finishers Wanted" by President Monson. And in the letter it just says something along the lines of, you have just become our most senior missionary, as such you have a great deal of knowledge working with the spirit to bless others. Continue to be an example for the newer missionaries and finish strong and continue to work hard. We just call it the trunky letter as a joke haha. 

I got to see 2 people from when I served in La Jara a year ago! Brother Tibbits, the best ward mission leader I have ever had on my mission! :) He's serving in the high council now over my ward haha. So it was great to see him. And a less active that I worked with who moved to Alamosa in the ward I am in now. They are more less active now, but we met with them and they were excited to see me again, so its gonna be great to work with them again and help them come back to Church. But so far I love it! 

I got to go now though, I love you all and hope your week goes fantastic!

Elder Greer

Members in Rye. The kids in that pic are 19 and 17 hahaha they are huge!

A member bought us gifts before we left

A journal, a cup, and a card

Sister gallegos and I! She works at the mission office so I dropped in to say hi before transfers :)

Elder zaugg does not know how to smile sorry hahaha but we got a couple more pics together before we left

Elder Barron and I, my zl

Elder Madsen and I

Elder Zaugg's new companion, former assistant to the president haha

Service project, crushing soda cans haha

Look who I found!!!! Brother Tibbits from my second area in la jara. Hes a high council man now over my ward hahahaha

We played fill or bust with some Elder's in my district. Closest game I have ever played!!

Garner Family!