August 25, 2014 - It's not raining, it's pouring!

Hello my lovely family! (I sound like Jay with that starting line, anyways)

Well today was a good day and now I will tell you all about it, along with my week. Today I woke up and started to wash some clothes. Then cleaned a little bit. At about 11 20 we left to La Caleta, which is the area right next to ours (their area includes the airport). There is where we got together with about 14 missionaries and played soccer as well as some Skip-Bo! (yes you read that right, I found Skip-Bo in the house and I have claimed it. Now I just need to find Uno and I am set!) It was a fun Pday and then we went and ate PicaPollo or fired chicken. After that, we decided to walk back to the house, but cross the highway and walk by the ocean. We got the nice sea smells and it was relaxing. I enjoyed it a lot. Then I showered and we are now here at the internet. A good Pday and I was happy to get out of the house, because in the morning it was raining hard. Today was cloudy too.

So to the subject line now. This week it has rained a ton! I think there is a storm passing around. Saturday was super rainy. So rainy that we made the decision not to leave, because it wouldn´t be safe or very productive. It was hard because we had appointments but we wouldn´t have made it very well. So we stayed in. We had just finished an intercambio or exchange so the other Elder´s didn´t make it back to their house. They had to cross the highway, and to do it in the rain and at night is dangerous so they crashed the night with us. We put our beds together and slept 3 and 3. It wasn´t very comfortable and I wasn´t feeling super great but we survived! While we were waiting for the rain we ended up playing card games and what not, to see if the rain would stop but it didn´t. So it has been a rainy week! But it has really helped the climate stay cooler so that isn´t bad. My stomach has been giving me some little issues but I am trucking on!

WoW is susurro which means whisper! Siga el susurro del Espíritu!

So on Saturday night the rain was pouring and we hadn´t had electricity for 2 days. They turned it on Saturday night. But there was a fault, or the voltage was too high. So we saw a glowing light and we looked out the door and saw everyone screaming. It turns out the transformer was overloading. Then it exploded and started an electrical fire. We just stayed in the house but we could see the glow of the flames. It was super interesting. Then they turned off the power and the fire went out in that instant. An hour later it came on again and the same thing started. But they then fixed it. It was super interesting! But we just stayed in the house and we are all safe now!

So we have a baptism planned for Friday! We feel she is ready to go and we are looking forward to it. We are also excited to invite our other investigators that are progressing. Especially Luis David and Guillermina. Yesterday we had a very spiritual sacrament meeting and I really enjoyed it. It helped because I got a talk from Amberlee that talked about how to better prepare for Sacrament meeting. I enjoyed that a lot. I also got my birthday letter from Aunt Theo. Thank you to her!

I got the package as well! Thank you so much. Some delicious treats as well as some needed things. Wahoo!

Tough RSL lost but they will keep plugging along I know it!

There are about 250 total missionaries in our mission.

This week we get to meet Elder Hugo Martinez who is the 2nd counselor here in the Caribbean now. He is in the 2nd Quorum of the 70. That should go well. We have a meeting on Wed. And then Thursday another meeting for all the Leaders.

Well I love you all so much. Thanks for everything! Lots of love to all my peeps!

--

Love,

Elder Chez Green

August 18, 2014 - I didn´t know Mr. Krabs lived in the DR!

Well where do I start hmmm. So the title just gives it away right. Well last night my comp caught a crab. It was walking towards us while we were sitting and talking with our ward mission leader. I spotted it first and then we ended up taking it home. I am not a huge fan but we just took some pictures and then released it so all is well. You will now get to know Mr. Krabs in photos. (The subject line is a reference to Spongebob FYI for all those folks that don´t understand!) He is an interesting little guy but now you all know him!

Today was a relaxing Pday again. Sometime they are good but this one I mostly just slept and worked on my temple puzzle. I would have liked to do something but there are so many places closed on Mondays, including museums, galleries, and tourist attractions that it is sometimes hard to find things to do. But it went well and we now have a clean house, a new washing machine (the old one stopped working) and my puzzle is starting to look really good!

So this week were the changes and in our zone there were 19! Wow that is a lot! And there are 7 new missionaries in our zone. We still have 32 missionaries total, which is the largest zone in the mission (or tied for the largest). Wow lots to do!

This week we had some fun with a gathering in the church where we had to act out a word. It was fun and an investigator came. The branch is really small and they have some issues but we are trying to help them! We have three goals for baptism. The closest is in two Saturdays. Her name is Alejandra and she is 19. She is super solid, she just needs to understand the importance of coming to church a little better. So we are going to teach her that a little more. But she said she feels like a member which is awesome. She has some friends in the church as well.

Then we have Luis David who is 14. We just found him about a month ago but he always comes to the activities and he is going to start seminary today! Wow so cool! He is investigating a lot about the church and knows a lot. He really just needs more time and to get a stronger testimony. We usually have to wait 3 months to baptize someone under 18 but we may be able to move it up, depending on the ward support.

And lastly we have Guillermina who is also progressing really well. She said that she has felt and received an answer, now we just need to help her keep progressing. She is reading the Book of Mormon, well the chapters we assign her. We just want her to keep progressing but we have high hopes for her as well in September. We have a Family night tonight with some members in the ward so we hope that she can receive help from that.

This week we had a meeting for the new leaders and wow was that inspiring! Our mission President is very spiritual and an inspiring man! Wow! I had such a great experience and I felt the spirit very strong during that meeting. The Spirit was testifying of this great work we are doing and that our Heavenly Father knows us and watches over us. I now have a stronger testimony because of that. I learned a lot! Some of my very good buddies are leaders now as well. There are about 7 or 8 of my group from the MTC of 16 American Missionaries that are leaders. That is super cool!

So thanks to Elder Mortimer and the idea of Am we did the miracle minute in our zone. We gave one Elder the chance to share as there isn´t a lot of time, but it was great! I hope to keep doing that! Thanks for the advice!

So yesterday I gave a talk. It was a surprise to me, but luckily the house is just upstairs, I ran up there and grabbed the Liahona. And I had one prepared in my mind. It was on the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf  "Are you sleeping during the Restoration?" and I started it off by sharing the scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 6 and 8. I thought it went well, though I tried to make a joke at the beginning and no one laughed. I think it is the culture here that it didn´t translate or something. I said " this scripture is for those of you who are tired" and it talks about not sleeping. I thought it was funny anyways.

So WoW is ... wow I think we will go with "celular" which is cell phone because we got a new one today that actually works"! Wahoo and it is yellow and cheap but it works!

So the zone has people from all over. From the Guadalupe Islands to Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and lots of States in the US. There are 12 sisters and 20 Elders.

In the house we have E. Vargas from the DR and E. Coello from Honduras. 

Well I think that is all my lovely folks. That that that´s all folks! (the piggy from looney tunes!)

Be safe and have a good week. Know that I love you all!

--

Love,

Elder Chez Green

August 11, 2014 - Hello All!

Hey family

Well I am at another Internet place, I hope I can get it to work alright. It seems like this will be a little bit of a battle but that is alright. The important part is you hear from me right!? Well I wanted to say I love you all first off!

So this week I ate an interesting food that is in the picture I sent. It is called Mondongo. I am not a huge fan. It is stomach and intestines of an animal, I am not sure what it was. I ate some of it and then gave the rest away. An experience. The Latinos like it but I don´t.

So we have some investigators we are working with which is going well. We have a goal now for one investigator and we have a lot of others in church.  We also have some youth we are working with that we feel are progressing.

We will have a new zone as transfers are tomorrow. I am staying with my comp like I thought I would. E. Valencia is going to train a new missionary again! Way cool!

Another investigator named Julian said that dad is a Vacano or cool dude because of his beard. A lot of people really like it but they also ask if he is "Christian". It makes me laugh and I say yes.

W o W is patrocinar which means sponsor. Like LifeVantage is RSL sponsor. Speaking of RSL, congrats to them for winning and to Nick My HomeBoy Rimando on the shutout record. Way cool! Awesome MLS All-stars beat Bayern Munich as well! I like that!

This week we had a lot of meetings and our proselyting was low. We met with the Stake Pres so we can be united in the missionary work (we met with the Mission Pres as well at the same time). then the next day we had a meeting with all the sister leaders and zone leaders to talk about specifics and how we can help this mission grow and progress. Our mission Pres has a lot of great plans! Then we had our last zone meeting. This zone is changing a lot so we will see how it all goes.

Well I am not sure what else to say. Life is good and we keep working hard here. I am happy to be here, though it isn´t always easy. We will see how transfers go with new missionaries in the house and what not.

Take care and smile!

--

Love,

Elder Chez Green

August 4, 2014 - Hey All!

Hello everyone!

I hope all is well! I am doing well. Dusty and dirty from Valiente but it is good. We also got a little rain which doesn't seem to come very often but that was cool! So there was a "big storm" coming called Bertha. That turned into a little rain here in Valiente. Perhaps it was more in other places but it didn't do much for us, other than scare some investigators from coming to church but we still had 6 at the meeting which is awesome! That is great news!! It was pretty awesome to see that!

So the wife of our ward mission leader is super awesome. She cooks for us and we go to her house to pick it up everyday and bring it back to the house in Rubbermaid's. It is like 7 minutes away and we pay her 100 pesos for each meal. She does it for us everyday unless we won't be home. It is super awesome and she is super nice. As ZL there just isn´t much time to cook and the other missionaries don´t know how. And the problem with the power here means our food would spoil quickly. So this way is easier and probably cheaper!

This week I have had a cold which hasn´t been super great. We have rested a lot in the mornings because my energy levels were down. A lot of coughing sadly. I think it is being in an area with a lot of dirt and pollen in the air but I am feeling better now. Sister Lireano (the sister that cooks for us) made me some tea from chinola (passion fruit) tree leaves. They say it cures the gripe (common cold) super fast. It is good and warm which soothes. I am feeling better now!

WoW is cadena which is chain!

We had our district meeting and Pres. Corbitt came to it and taught us the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4. It was super cool. We have a meeting with the Stake Pres of Las Americas tomorrow and a Leadership meeting on Wed. with Pres and the other ZLs. We are looking forward to that and hopefully all will go well there!

Also I got pictures of the Cheney family which was awesome for my bday. So cute! And one with Grandma and Grandpa too! Awesome stuff! I can't believe how fast Crew is growing. I remember when he was a baby. Now he is walking and smelling flowers! wow! ha ha awesome!

My companion is doing well and I knew him before, because we lived in the same house but not super well. His parents are converts and got baptized when he was 5 yrs old. He still remembers and has pictures of the baptisms. That is why I want one of mine. It is awesome.

Well that seems to be all. I love you all so much. The scripture for this week is Hebrews 10 verse 23 to 25! One I like.

And the Mormon Message of Mountains to Climb is awesome! I love you all. Lets get "unbreakable spiritual strength!" ' E Eyring

I can feel the love of God everyday here and I know there are angels protecting me and all of you my family and friends as well. So be safe and of good cheer for God is with us. And live worthy for all the blessing he gives us! I love you all!

--

Love,

Elder Chez Green

Birthday gifts . . .

July 28, 2014 - Hello Lovely Family

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say I love you all very much! Like I said, I am not sure how much time I will have now being ZL but I hope I can send you all some good info! I may email in the mornings too or in the afternoons. Just depends. There isn´t a lot of power here so it makes it hard.

First off thanks for all the gifts! I got the tube and the packages form the Cheney and Gma and Gpa Barlow, as well as from Whit and JJ and Am and Damian (envelope). Muchas gracias por todo! I mean thank you ! haha

So this week is truly just a blur but I will try to take something cool out of it and make it into an email. My mind is a little fried to be honest with so much to learn and to tell people that I have just kind of forgot. Haha but such is life!

My comp has 19 months and is a super good missionary! He has been ZL for almost 5 months. A lot of work.

Well I love you all so much. If the power goes out right now I want to be sure you get this! I love you all!

-- 

Love,

Elder Chez Green

I am back!

I had to change computers but we will see how much time I have left with the battery. I hope sufficient but who knows. So this week the spiritual part was we had the baptism but it started late. So we visited the 1st counselor so he could come visit the baptism. He is less active but it was super spiritual. Then he showed up on Sunday as well. It was pretty awesome! We felt like he needed the visit and we hope he keeps coming! We have been working hard but the investigators didn´t make it to church. Two new ones did but the progressing ones did not make it sadly. We will keep working with them. There are some big challenges in the zone but we hope that it all goes well and keeps getting better. We have been talking with Pres.Corbitt about some things and how we can help the zone. It is all changing little by little. We hope it keeps getting better.

I am about 20 or 30 minutes from the capital. It has a lot of dirt roads here but its good. The problem really is the power here. It is not very consistent or good. My comp is waiting for me to finish so there isn´t much more I can say right now.

Our branch has about 60 active members I believe so that is cool. There are challenges like always. Today for Pday we just rested in the house and ya that is pretty much it. I love you all!

--

Love,

Elder Chez Green