Three Months!

The view of Teignmouth from Shaldon, a village located on the south banks of the River Teign.

Isn't it crazy? Officially three months on Friday. I can't believe it's going by this quickly. Sister Nelson in Teignmouth goes home next week, and I may very well move. Who knows. But, I'm pushing hard regardless.

I'm glad that there's some work going on there. I'm excited for that work to be moving forward. And I'm glad Uncle Ben--sorry, Bishop Grasteit--has been pushing that. I knew he would.

The first half of last week was actually quite good. We've been seeing Steve and Terena a lot more, as well as our investigator Brandon. Brandon's scheduled to get baptised (english spelling) with the rest of his family this Saturday! He's a super cool kid, and we're way excited for him. He even asked if I would baptise him, which is really nice.

We got to go on a tour of one of the Church of England churches in the area. We see one of the readers from the church quite often, and he offered a couple of times, so we took him up on it. It was really interesting hearing about the history of their church from a member of the congregation, rather than from a history book. We told him a bit about how our church started, and he even said that he wanted to dust off the Book of Mormon he had at home. Pretty cool.

The rest of our week was difficult, to say the least. We've been asked to give a ton of blessings... I mean, it's weird. Between Elder Blackner and I, we've given or assisted in at least seven blessings in the past two weeks. It makes me feel quite glad to be able to exercise the priesthood I hold, but many blessings aren't easy to give.

Our plans have also been falling apart a lot of days. Which isn't always a bad thing. We've seen so many miracles from following the spirit rather than the plans we set, but after a day or two of your plans kind of going all over the place, it can be a little hectic.

Despite any stress this might cause, though, I've been doing well. The Sisters have been super supportive, as has our Ward Mission Leader and District Leader. And, I've been finding so much comfort in reading the scriptures. This morning I was reading in 1st Nephi 21, which is one of the chapters in which he quotes Isaiah concerning Christ. It wasn't until the other day that I really could understand what a word in the chapter meant, and it wasn't until today that I understood just how significant it is in my own life. We're all going to face trials--that's just life. But knowing that Christ is always there, and I mean He is always there, is the most amazing thing.

I'll just quote one of the verses from that one in closing: "For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;" (1 Nephi 21:15-16).

Love you all,

Elder Green

More pictures from our trip to Shaldon.