This last week has been jam packed full of things we needed to do. We hardly visited any of our investigators and less actives! We had so much service to do for members and then for the neighboring area with the other elders in my district. The week went by so fast that it scares me for how fast the next couple years will go by. I really do appreciate all the service I have been able to do though. There was one lady who we did a bunch of heavy lifting and moving for who had never really heard of the church before. She ran into the sister missionaries in our area and they offered to have us come by. After we did about an hour's worth of work, we tried to pay us. We respectfully declined many times but she wanted to force us to take the money. We ended up having to leave and so we shook her hand and walked out but she tried to sneak the money into my hand as I shook her hand! We hope that we left a good imprint on her about what service is and what we as missionaries are trying to do for the community.
In another service this week, we had to do a lot of demolition. we had to pull out massive concrete fence posts but digging down enough until we could pull them out of the ground. It took a real long time and it was nearly backbreaking hard work but we did that and then demolished an old shed. While I was knocking all the posts down with a sledge hammer, some of the caved-in tin roof cut me pretty bad. I now have a massive cut across my wrist and it stings but I'm hoping it'll leave a mean scar.
Other than service, there isn't much to tell about this week! We were able to meet with a few of our investigators but not too much progress was made this week. This next week will be quite busy as well so I will probably have more stories to tell but until then, arohanui,
Elder Green
Here's a tidbit from another email that was interesting:
Transfers are every 6 weeks. We get a phone call on the Tuesday of transfer week which tells us where we are going and then transfers usually take all day Thursday. It actually sounds like Elder Suriben will be here with me for the next 2 transfers and then I will still be in Nga for at least one transfer after he leaves the area. Training more or less takes 12 weeks. There's a 12 week program we are supposed to be following but Elder Suriben said that I'm already trained and a good missionary, now I just need experience. But after the 12 week, you have to "lead the area" which is essentially I have to be the senior companion. If I do well enough and the Lord desires it, I may end up training a missionary at the end of next transfer. But I doubt I could train so early, I don't know if I'm a good enough missionary for that! We actually had "Thanksgiving dinner" with the other Americans in the ward (2 families) on Saturday. Sis Hansen made chicken and mashed potatoes and other TG foods and finished with pumpkin desserts. She took a picture of us with our food and asked what page to post it to. So she posted it to Hamilton mission page I think or something like that? But it has us with a plate of food!
