Te Awamutu Weeks 15&16

Kia ora friends and whanau!

It has been a decent week and we were able to accomplish some good things for the area and the zone. We got to visit so many people and work with them this week and we are seeing the fruits of our labors with some of them. We now have an investigator out of a man who has been caretaking for a man who is confined to a wheelchair with little to no movement. The caretaker brings the man to church and has stayed a few times to talk to us and now he's staying for all of church! He even said he's trying to get his wife and son to start coming too! We've got a zone conference coming up with Elder Nattress of the Seventy on Thursday which is pretty nerve wracking because he'll be doing a lot with all of the zone leaders leading up to it. And better yet, President Cummings has called on my companion and I to perform a special role playing scenario in front of half the mission and the general authority. We are pretty scared and anxious about it but I'll let you know how it turns out. Other than that, things are good. Nothing too spectacular. I hope you all have a great week!

Arohanui,

- Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 14

Kia ora everyone! 

Elder Rich and I had a good week. We had a lot. Going on in the first half but we got some real good proselyting in our area for the second half. MLC was on Tuesday and the zone leaders and sister training leaders got Facebook activated for them to try it out before the rest of the mission gets it activated. We then had to go to Taranaki again and share what President wanted everyone to know with them at their district council. When we got back, Elder Rich and I immediately went back to smashing the work in our area. We met a few less actives and got a couple referrals from our Sisters in our area. All in all it was a real good week! 

Just on Saturday, we had an opportunity to teach Gregory the Restoration and he taught us about Maori culture. After our lesson, we had dinner with a member family who also invited Gregory. It was a really good time and Gregory more and more loved the church and the people of the church. He studies everything we give him and is keeping all of our commitments. He is more or less, a "golden investigator" and I feel blessed just for having the opportunity to meet him. 

I hope everyone has a great week and a Merry Christmas! 

Arohanui, 

- Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 12

Kia ora everyone! 

This was a pretty good week. Elder Powell and I got a lot of things done and we had some good fun. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had different district councils. It was great being with them. In the council on Wednesday, everyone prepared a musical number so I jumped in with the district leader and played the guitar to Come Thou Fount mashed with Hie to Kolob. It turned out alright but there's still a lot to improve on. Then we drove down to Taranaki and spent some time with the Elders down there. It was fun and we got some good work done. Transfers is coming up this week and we will be pretty busy. I'm looking forward to it! I hope everyone has a good week!

Arohanui,

- Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 11

Kia ora everyone! 

I had a pretty good week, Elder Powell and I got to do some real good work in our area. On Wednesday, we had our first teaching appointment with Gregory and it went really well! We were able to evaluate what he knows and what he wants to learn and we got to know him and his back story really well. We plan on visiting him quite a bit from now on and teaching him the discussions. He is a very intelligent guy and loves to read and learn. We look forward to building a tighter bond with him. On Thursday I got to go on an exchange with the Assistants and went to go visit with a family that was really close to my parents when they were at BYUH together. I vaguely remember them from when I was a little kid but they were awesome to talk to and catch up with. They don't live in my area but they live relatively close so maybe I'll be able to call in once in a while. Other than that, nothing spectacular happened. Transfers are coming up again in another couple weeks and we think Elder Powell will be going somewhere else and I will get a new companion. Time will tell! I hope everyone's week goes well!

Arohanui,

- Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 10

Kia ora everyone! 

I had a real good week this week, it got pretty stressful at the beginning but I am doing real good now. The mission has taught me really well how to understand and manage stress and also how to push myself to do things I didn't even know I could do. I have learned a lot about myself and the things I enjoy doing and things I am pretty good at. I still have so much to learn and I have a long ways to go on the new things I have already learned but I am working toward it. 

Elder Powell and I have been doing some real good things in our area lately and we have seen some miracles! Lately a man has been coming to sacrament meeting every Sunday and he loves it and wants to learn more. His name is Gregory and he has recently been released on parole from a life sentence hes been serving since he was 18. He listened to a few presentations given to him while he was in Prison about the gospel and loved it. We are going to start teaching him this week and hopefully progress him enough to someday enter the waters of baptism. He is a really nice guy and is just so keen to learn! It was a miracle for us to meet him and hopefully soon, be able to start teaching him.

The last couple P-days have been really fun! Last week I hiked Mt Taranaki which was a really long hike and had calf deep snow at about 3/4 of the way to the point we reached. It was near impossible to get to the summit with the amount of snow so we didn't bother trying to go all the way up. Just today, we had a zone p-day playing bow tag. It was pretty much paintball but with a bow and arrow. The arrows have big marshmallow pillow things so they don't injure. It was really fun and we got to have a lot of fun with heaps of elders! 

Anyway thats me for the week! 

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 9

Kia ora everyone! 

This week was pretty good! I got to get a lot done in the zone and get some good work done as well. We have a few new referrals that look really promising too. I think that this week has been a real learning experience for me. Running around the zone pretty much the whole week was starting to get really stressful as we tried to handle so many different situations. One of our district leaders lost his phone so we had to work with the Assistants and Salt Lake to try and pinpoint its location but it didn't work so he now has to buy a new phone. Until he gets it and the sim card is activated, we are trying to take care of all the needs of his district and across the zone. I became a transport truck essentially and delivered heaps of bikes and packages and mail. This whole week, Elder Powell and I were pretty much on exchanges too so that we could be in 2 places rather than one. Everything has kind of calmed down now and we are doing all good. We look forward to spending the week working on our area. But anyway, I hope everyone's week goes real well! 

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 8

Kia ora everyone! 

I had a great week this last week. Elder Powell and I were able to get so much more proselyting done in our area and a lot less zone leader stuff to deal with. The lady that we are teaching, Jane, is finally ready for baptism and we plan to have her baptized this upcoming Saturday. We were also able to meet with a different person we teach named Dean and have a really good catch up with him. I realized that he and I are into a lot of the same things and we got on quite well. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel and believes in it so much but his partner won't marry him until 2020 and he rarely is at church because the members make him feel like an outsider. We are working as best we can with him to make him feel more at home in the ward and trying to teach his partner as well. We also did a lot with a couple less active families we work with, the Thompsons and the Parkes. We got to work on the farm and go out to a duck shed on a small lake. We mostly just minister in little ways to the less-actives and do what we can to fellowship them. They both are not very fond of the members in the ward but they love missionaries and take very good care of us. We had zone conference on Thursday and we learned about this years #LighttheWorld initiative. It's really cool and we as missionaries will be a big part in applying it to the many people found in Te Awamutu. Other than that, just minor other things happened this week. Hope everyone else had a great week! 

Arohanui, 

Elder Green

Ps funny story.. Totally left my badge on my study table for the first time ever. I went to a dinner appointment with no badge! I put on a jacket to hide my naked pocket and the family never noticed. I felt so unholy and empty without the badge! Never again... 

Mom's Note:  I asked Braden to please send pictures and please please have some with a normal looking face and he sent me like 8-10 pics and these are the faces I get . . . (*sigh)