Te Awamutu Week 6

Kia ora everyone! 

This has been a good week but really really busy! We have gone around the whole zone to meeting after meeting trying to teach every missionary how to use their smart devices. It has given us a full plate and not enough time to properly proselyte in our area. We have a baptism coming up soon for an old blind lady that missionaries have been teaching for a little while and she is the nicest kindest lady. We hope to get her to baptism soon but there are just a few things holding her back. But lately things have been good. The district I threw the cake in is probably one of my favorites and we had a good time in their district meeting but as soon as we asked everyone to pull the phones out of their package, the meeting turned to chaos and no one was paying attention anymore. I kind of lost focus trying to teach everyone and lost track of it all and started playing around. You could really tell the Spirit had left the room. We had a good time but realized we needed to reign it all back in and at least close the meeting before we got too casual. But all in all, it was a good meeting. 

This upcoming week we have transfers. This is my first transfers I have had to handle as a zone leader and based on what the Assistants told me, it'll be really hectic. A lot of massive changes are happening and restructuring but I think Elder Powell and I will remain companions in Te Awamutu. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes and helping everyone get sorted. 

No special stories this week! Hope everyone has a great week!

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 5

Kia ora everyone! 

So big news for the week, we actually set up our phones early! We have been using the phones since yesterday and they are super flash! It feels really weird to swipe to answer calls and to finally be able to send emojis and better mass texts to the zone. The phone we have been using is a Nokia 100 which is quite honestly the worst phone. Its options are so limited but now we have Samsung J4s which just came out in May. It will be good for me because now its a lot easier to take photos! My camera actually sort of broke not too long ago so its perfect timing! It is very exciting to have technology in our mission because when I first came out, I never would've thought that technology would have ever made it to the Pacific missions. 

We also had to go to Taranaki again to do some baptismal interviews because the district leader who was down there got sent home at the beginning of the transfer. It makes things harder on us as zone leaders because we essentially have to be both a district leader and zone leaders. But it was good to go for a bit of a roadtrip. I also found out that we have to do that road trip again this week to set up the phones for the missionaries down there. So it will be a hectic week travelling the whole zone this week teaching the missionaries how to set up their phones! 

Funny story for this last week, so we went to a district council on Wednesday and we heard that it was going to be the district leader's birthday so we ran to the store and I bought a small sponge cake. We walked up to the room and all the lights were off and it looked like no one was there through the door window but when we walked in, about 8 Sister missionaries and 2 Elders yelled surprise and jumped out. It scared the living daylights out of me because we were 5 minutes late and a surprise not meant for me was the last thing on my mind. No one told us they were planning on surprising him because they didn't know we were coming to their district council. But the best part is that when they scared the crap out of me, I ended up dropping the cake and jumping back. Everyone laughed for a solid 5 minutes and the district leader walked in about 2 minutes after us. They didn't surprise him because everyone was too busy laughing while I was trying to salvage the cake that hadn't touched the ground but stayed on the plastic tray. It was a sad wasted cake but a really funny moment after thinking about it. But if you get anything out of this, just always be prepared to be surprised even if its not your birthday.

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 4

Kia ora everyone! 

This week has been rather uneventful. We started out with interviews which were really good. I didn't realize that President was going to tell me so much about all the areas and missionaries in our zone but he told me things that will help me to better minister to the missionaries. We then had zone conference the other day which was exactly like a meeting we had had earlier on but it was good to see it all again. We then at lunch had to entertain the whole zone by doing basically yoga. It was embarrassing but the mission office thought it would be a good idea to have us demonstrate it. Quite a bit of laughing and well, it did lighten the mood of the relatively informative videos we were watching. All the videos we watched were based on the smart phones we are going to use and some of the video material they used were actually filmed at ASU. I recognized the room I had class in for institute and quite a few other spots that are pretty close to the institute building that missionaries were using to do missionary work. I think the new District videos are supposed to be filmed there and the last 2 district videos were filmed in California so go Arizona missions! 

Later in the week I ended up getting the flu and being pretty much bed ridden for a few days. It was a bit miserable but I am coming out of it now. ANyway I hope everyone has had a great week! 

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 3

Kia ora everyone!

This has been a relatively good week for me! I was able to build up a few relationships with some of the members and some of the people we teach and I feel like I am settling more here in Te Awamutu. We were able to go on an exchange with one of the district leaders in our zone and that was good. His name is Elder Thompson and he is from Gilbert. We found out that we were only about 10 miles from eachother. But the Phoenix metro area is really big so we never met and couldn't really find out if we have friends of friends or not. I feel like I have learned a lot from my companion and from other mission leaders as I work to become a better leader. I hope that I am qualified enough to be giving all these other missionaries tips and advice. 

This upcoming week, we have interviews with the mission president and zone conference the following day. Because our zone is one of the bigger ones, we won't be meeting up with any other zones and will just be the missionaries in our zone. It will be a good conference because we are going to go over what we need to do for our cell phones coming up in the next month or so. I am looking forward to everything going on this week but it will be a little hectic for us too. 

Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. I came into this area with a set for baptism, her name is Sister Jane. She was being taught by the previous Elders and she was supposed to be baptized last weekend but she was in and out of the hospital for the last while so we weren't able to get it properly sussed. We hope she is doing fine and we intend to follow up with her this week. But that is all from me for now! I hope everyone's week goes well! 

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu Week 2

Kia ora everyone!

This has been a good week! My new companion, Elder Powell, and I have been working hard to get up to speed on the new area and what not. This week we also had to attend MLC (mission leadership conference) which is for all the zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders together together and discuss new upcoming changes and how we can help the missionaries in the mission. It was a little nerve wracking for me because I am the youngest (in mission age) zone leader in the mission and I felt like I had no right to be giving any form of advice or input. But I learned a lot. The entire meeting was actually focused on a quite large upcoming change for our mission. We will be getting smartphones! They are only going to be Samsung Galaxy J-4s but it is quite an improvement from the small brick Nokias we use. The day that it is finally implemented is a day that our mission president has been dreading but our mission is one of the many that was chosen by the missionary department to have smart phones. I think it will be good for us and we will be able to accomplish quite a bit with it. My companion and I will activate our phones at the next MLC in 6 weeks and the rest of the mission will follow soon after. 

Other than that, we had to drive down to Taranaki to run a district meeting because the district leader down there got emergency transferred out for disobedience. Its about a 3 hour drive and is very VERY twisty and windy. My stomach suffered quite a bit. I usually do fine for car sickness when I'm driving but my companion loves to drive so I let him drive. I didn't throw up at all but I do remember throwing up all the time when I was a kid and we did drives in New Zealand. My mother can testify of that. But it was good, the poor missionaries down there are kind of stuck on their own from now on. But this week has been good. I am still getting used to it all but I think I will settle in quite nicely here. But that's it for the week!

Arohanui,

Elder Green

Te Awamutu - Week 1 A Birthday and a Transfer

Kia ora whanau!

We had a fun p-day today. But yes I am now in Te Awamutu. It is a small town but not near as small as I was thinking when I got here. Its about as big as Show Low maybe a tad less. So far its a pretty good area! But guess who I am with for the time being! Technically I am in a trio until he goes home but I am with Elder Olcott and Elder Powell. Really good to be with Elder Olcott again and see him off. He goes home later this week. But Elder Powell is a good guy too. I have served around him in the past a couple different times. We live in a flash as flat though. Its got 2 bathrooms, a master, and 2 smaller bedrooms. Its even in a gated community. But things are good here. My birthday was decent enough. Nothing spectacular but it was good and everyone was quite nice with what they did for me. Really nice what Brandon did.  He came and surprised me.  Or at least tried to.  I guess I am a bit smarter than the average bear or something and figured out the whole plot days before it happened.  But it was good either way! And my companions each shouted me something so that was kind (to shout something means to buy for you.  Kind of like can you shout me a feed means can you buy me a meal.)

I am a zone leader now but there's really not much we have to do. We are in charge of quite a few missionaries but its nothing glorious or anything to become a zone leader. We take numbers and different information about the areas that missionaries serve in and relay them to the assistants. We also just travel the zone and take supplies around the zone and attend different district meetings. Our mission is only divided into 4 zones. We cover southwest Hamilton and all the way down to Taranaki. Our zone is the second largest. But I really feel like my biggest job is just to be a good example to the missionaries we serve with, especially the trainees. Everyone just seems to look to zone leaders as the big examples (even though we are no different, just extra responsibility). But yeah that's about it as far as I understand. But things are good! 

--Elder Green

Manurewa Week 24

Kia ora everyone! 

Hope everyone's week was good. My week was decent enough. Elder Vanva and I have set up a little more trust with the members of the ward and hopefully will be able to get more effective work done in the area. I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and work with a lot of missionaries over the last 6 months. I am pretty sure I am leaving this transfer. Quite a bit more sure than I was last time. Its sad to say a lot of goodbyes but I will get the opportunity to serve around new people and get another new beginning. Either way, Weymouth is a good ward. The work is hard here but I have learned a lot about myself and a lot about becoming a better person. This last week I have thought a lot about who I am as a district leader and who I am as a companion. I hope to live up to people's expectations of me and I hope to be the best I can be. I had a lot of self reflection while I was sitting around trying to overcome sickness and while my companion was trying to overcome sickness as well. The whole district got sick this week and it was pretty bad. It hit me the worst which makes me think my immune system probably isn't as strong as it should be. But I am doing much better now. 

My story for this week is simple and not super spiritual. It's just about the last few p-days. One of my zone leaders, Elder Rollins, is from Arizona, more specifically Gilbert. He lives just down the road and him and I get along really well. the last few p-days him and I have gone on random adventures that include getting from point A to point B without getting too wet. As missionaries, we cannot swim but we went to a beach a couple weeks ago and a waterfall this week. So we decided that for fun, we would take on mission impossible tasks and make it out to small islands without breaking rules. It was hard not to just jump in the water and swim to it but we managed to take probably the hardest road possible and barefoot. We probably took about an hour for the tasks we undertook and it probably could've taken 5 minutes if we just jumped in the water. The point of the story is that sometimes in missionary work, we have to take the hard path for some reason. Whether its for the sake of obedience or because sometimes we just have to make hard decisions, we still just have to take the hard path. The easy way would seem better and quite a bit more simple, but nothing is learned and no progress is made. SO I guess through these silly and arguably useless pursuits, I learned a lesson that I know can be applied to many situations.

Anyway, I hope everyone's week is good! 

Arohanui,

Elder Green