Hot Chocolate, a Polish Guy, and the Salvation Army

Super exciting about Hen! I actually hadn't seen that yet, but I'm glad that's where he was sent. I guess having been on a mission this long gives me a different perspective, and understanding the things I've learned here gives me a little bit of a peak at what he'll end up learning there. Anyway, super stoked.

Man, so cool about Dad interviewing with Elder Andersen! I'm so jealous. It's crazy how efficient the church has to be in situations like that. It's the same with President's Interviews (which are on Wednesday this week), you get 15 minutes, and it's usually not a great thing for them to go over that... They pretty much go like this:

President: Elder Green, how's everything going?
Me: Good, President!
President: How's your family doing?
Me: Yeah, everything's fine.
President: And the District?
Me: Doing well.
President: How do you feel?
Me: Good.
President: Good, any questions?
Me: Nope, not really.
President. Cool. Will you offer the closing prayer?

There's a bit more meat in there, but honestly not much. It might be an interesting one this transfer considering all that's gone on, but that's fine. I feel really good about the effort I've personally put in, and can see a bit of the path that I'm wanting to chart from here. Rachel Playstead kind of hit on it in an email she sent me. She was mentioning a conversation she and I had forever ago about how when we were kids, we just thought, "Man... I don't really have anything to repent of... I guess I'll say sorry for being mean to my brother again." But as you grow older, you gradually become much more self-aware, and understanding of your own difficulties and problems, as well as those of the people you work with. And you're actually able to chart that course, and move forward to the next way-point.

Yes, everything has been going better. It's been a super difficult transfer, in all honesty. I've struggled a lot, I have. But, I explained to another missionary that it's given me a lot of time to spend on my knees, and I feel closer to the Lord for it. I'd fill you in on more of the details if I could, but I don't know that it would be wholly appropriate to. I promise I will when I get home. Or maybe at Christmas, which is coming up!

So, the beginning of the week was a fair respite from all of that difficulty, but I can't seem to escape it, hahaha. Elder Smith and I went on exchange on Thursday, and had a really good exchange. He's a fantastic juggler, and so we went juggling in the park to try that as a contacting method, and it helped a bit. We were having our exchange review, as...

Both our companions run inside. "We need a Polish Book of Mormon". Run downstairs. Run inside. Hang on, need Polish pamphlets. Run downstairs. Phone call, "Hey, make us some hot chocolate." Text from Bishop, "Here are the directions to the Salvation Army:..." Run inside. "Where's the hot chocolate?" Run outside. Phone call, "We're going to need to extend this exchange a bit..."

Elder Lika and Elder Westra met a Polish guy down in the park who we had talked to a bit earlier, and had been juggling for. Turns out he was homeless, but due to the lack of communication and the language barrier... It went pretty haywire. And so our exchange turned into a two day exchange, where Elder Smith and I tried handling two areas at the same time. By the end of it, they kind of realized that we don't have any of the resources to handle a situation like this... But it was confusing for us. Elder Smith and I ended up going back to my flat that night, since they had taken our key, and I knew where there was a key hidden for our flat... But, we made the best of it, and felt the Spirit really powerfully working through us throughout it all.

I hope he's alright. He's since disappeared.

Anyway, the area's coming along. Phoebe and Maxwell are doing well, we'll be seeing them soon. We have a new woman we're teaching named Daniela from Romania. She's fantastic. I wasn't there for the actual first teach, but Elder Westra explained it this way: "You know when you practice teaching with other missionaries, and they give you all the right answers, and you're frustrated with them because you're like, 'No one ever does this in real life! Give me a real life situation!' Yeah, it was kind of like that. But in real life." So, she's hopefully getting baptized on the 13th of December.

That's life in a nutshell right now! Transfers are next week, and it's a toss-up what might happen. I feel like it could go either way at this point. I know I've only been here a transfer, but a lot has happened in six weeks. Who knows. Either way, President said we'll arrange for me to take my driving test right after transfers.

Love you!

-Elder Green

"Consecration Week"

The Halloween sunset, from the roof of our flat.

It's funny that you guys had a quiet Halloween, because we did as well. Halloween's weird here in England... They just haven't quite gotten the hang of it. They try to go trick or treating, but not even half of people really do it... So, it's mostly parties, and the pubs filled up with people drinking in costumes. It's interesting, for sure.

We spent a lot of time contacting earlier in the day, and then towards the evening we tried to set up some appointments, but they didn't come through... Which is a shame, but oh well. We ended up going to one of the only Chipotle's in all of England for dinner, and it filled my soul with such joy to taste a burrito that's actually a burrito. Oh, the simple things in life.

The rest of the week was spent contacting. President Millar dubbed last week, "Consecration Week", as I mentioned before, which meant that we were to contact for four hours every day. It was really a good experience. I know that even with the fact that the appointments we set up with those people didn't come through, we experienced a lot of good. And plus, we were able to show the Lord that we were willing to do what He asked of us.

P-days... I probably should've talked about this first. We went up to South Bank again, and walked around. We made it all the way to Tower Bridge, and it was fantastic. The architecture around Central London is really beautiful, and the artwork everywhere is so fantastic.

As a quick update on the great miracles with investigators this week, I don't know that I've told you about Karri yet. So, we're not actually teaching her, but Elder Jackman and I found her in Clapham Common. She's French, and isn't completely fluent in English, so Sister Catogni and Sister Brinco, who are both French, are teaching her. She has showed me so much faith. She came two Sundays ago, and really enjoyed it ... Following in that week, she met with the sisters a ton of times, went to two English classes at the church, went to Institute on Wednesday, and went to the temple on Friday, and when I saw her yesterday, she couldn't stop talking about how wonderful the temple was. It was really amazing, honestly. She told us at English Class that when she comes to the church, it just feels good in her soul.

Also, we're still working with Phoebe and Maxwell. Phoebe's so wonderful. She's shown so much faith, and desire to come to church, even with her husband's concerns as a less-active member. She came to church by herself with her two kids, yesterday, and started writing down scriptures that they mentioned in the lesson that she wanted to read for herself. She was super excited to have a Gospel Principles book that she could read through for herself (which reminded me a lot of Terena, when she was investigating). Honestly, we've been so blessed to work with such brilliant people.

Oh, and another cool thing that happened this week...we were walking out of Oval tube station, on our way to a Dinner Appointment, and just as I walk out of the turnstiles, two or three young people standing around saw my guitar and said, "Hey! Play us something!" Elder Lika had run off ahead, and so I yelled for him to come back. When I turned around, one of the girls saw my badge and got really excited. Turns out, they were all Catholic, and were on a missionary conference tour. She was so excited that we were also missionaries for Christ, and ran up to give me a hug, so I stood there awkwardly, because that's what missionaries do when people try to hug them... Anyway, I played them a song, and as I did what was once three people turned into like, fifteen. Then one of the guys borrowed my guitar, and played us a song. I caught on to the lyrics quickly, and sang along. We said goodbye and were on our way. I thought it was great how they didn't even draw lines, they recognized that we were Christian, and so were they, and we were able to share that together.

Well, no Typography Museum today... Turns out it's closed for maintenance, and I'm not sure when it reopens... But, we'll be meeting up with the Zone for sport.

A Red Fox...we see them everywhere!

Love you guys!

- Elder Green

A "Missionary Moment"

London sky over the train station.

The week has been good. It's been hard, though. I still have a lot of decisions I'm trying to make for our district and area. It's led me to a ton of prayer and scripture study, which has actually given me tons of answers. But... the fruits aren't yet apparent. Which can be frustrating, for sure.

But, as for the work in the area, we've been seeing immense miracles. We've got this brilliant family that we're working with right now who are just so lovely. The father is from Nigeria, and is a member (though he hasn't been out for years), and the mother is from Uganda and isn't a member. However, she's really interested in joining the church. She loves the influence that it's had in her in-laws lives, and finds that she's feeling really good as she reads from the Book of Mormon. Elder Jackman and I taught them for the first time on exchange, and she said that it all made so much sense to her. It was brilliant.

We also taught a cool Jamaican guy named Peter. He was walking his bike home near Clapham Common, and was wearing this sweet bicycle helmet. It looked like one of those bobsledder helmets that extends to a point off the back of the head. Anyway, we helped him carry a table home, taught him in his house, and extended a baptismal commitment. He agreed, as well. It was interesting, because it was the first time that I was on my mission and felt like I had that stereotypical "missionary moment", where my companion and I were teaching in harmony, in this crowded little flat, with a guy we'd never met before. Unfortunately, he wasn't there for our next appointment, but we'll hopefully see him soon.

We also met an awesome French girl the Kennington Sisters are now teaching. She came to church this last Sunday and brought a friend, and absolutely loved it (even though the Gospel Principles lesson was on Chastity...).

Chicken gizzard and plantains for dinner!

It was so good exchanging with Elder Jackman. He's from San Diego, and he reminds me a ton of Taylor. We had a great time hanging out, playing guitar for people on the street, and chasing after foxes on our way back from Nando's.

A sign Elder Jackman and I saw while on exchange...I'm afraid I will think two years isn't enough!

And if that's not enough, I was super psyched this last Saturday. We had an appointment set up with Courage again, and brought along Angus Dick from the ward. He's in his mid-twenties, and is super cool. I was chatting with him about what he does for work, and he mentioned that he's a freelance animator. I said, "Alright, I know this is a longshot, but... You don't know a Jack Cunningham, do you?" "How the FLIP do you know Jack Cunningham?!" I guess they've done work together as animators. Such a small world. Anyways, Courage wasn't there, but we talked to his roommate for a while [mostly about his Ebola conspiracy theories (which are "not conspiracy theories, they're facts") and how they connect to the Malaysian flight that went down...], and it turns out that he's read the Book of Mormon 2-3 times, and used to be an investigator some four years ago. He was supposed to come to church with Courage yesterday, but didn't show up in the end...

Clapham Common Tube Station.

Anyhow, I love you guys so much. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

- Elder Braiden Green

Finding Courage

The London skyline at night.

The last week has gone really well, actually. It's definitely been a bit of a challenge adjusting to a new area and a new companion, but it's been so worth it. We've seen some really great miracles in this last week alone. I had to learn some pretty important lessons, though, before we could see any.

It's interesting for me moving in as a new District Leader. When I come in, I sit down and am able to establish a lot of what the district needs just through initial observation, and then through study and prayer. That's the easy part. What becomes difficult is how to establish those changes that need to be made. This week, I did a lot of trying to bring it to pass myself, and it just wasn't working. So, I prayed about it, and after some pretty blatant nudging went to the scriptures.

The verses I came across were in Alma, when it's talking about the people of King Limhi, and how they were practically enslaved by the Lamanites. When they went to battle against the Lamanites, basically it ended up worse for them than in the beginning. However, as they prayed to the Lord for support, the hearts of the Lamanites were softened, and they were made stronger.

Same thing's happened here... now I am set to make improvements, where I can.

By the by, by "I'm not speaking that much Spanish", I mean that I probably only use it a few times a day. I guess for an English speaking mission, it's pretty incredible how much Heavenly Father's using my ability. We've been trying to contact all the Less-active Spanish Families in our ward, and it's been really wonderful. Yesterday, we went to visit one woman that we'd never met before. Turns out she's been fairly active, but that she hasn't been to Kennington ward for about a month now due to going on Holiday, and such. Well, it just so happens that we turned up at the exact time that she needed a blessing, and so I was able to give one to her in Spanish.

Also, I'm probably going to start translating the Sunday School and Priesthood classes for the Spanish members we have. I was supposed to translate Sacrament meeting yesterday, but we couldn't get the system set up.

Some other cool miracles: We just picked up a new investigator this last week named Courage. Courage was actually someone I had been trying to teach online, but who never emailed me back. We found him on the phone, called him up and set up an appointment. He had the best questions like, "So, if someone had the Priesthood authority in Christ's time, we need to know which church has that authority now, right?" So solid.

Also, I'll probably be using music a lot more now, as well. I'm already the organist for Sacrament Meeting, and I'm playing piano for the Primary Program, but I happened to meet the director of the stake's Gospel Choir last night. You always said I could do with a little rhythm and soul.

So, things are going really well here.

Posterity Photo...Elder Blackner with his stepson (me) and son (Elder Smith.)

Love you so much!

- Elder Green

Area 5: Clapham Common

Everything is good in the 'hood! I am so happy to be back up in London. My new area is called Clapham Common, which is in the London Wandsworth Stake, but our flat is in South Wimbledon.

Here's what transfer day looks like on the train.
(I think everyone is having to help with Braiden's many bags and instruments!)

Everything's been really good in the ward so far. I'm really excited to be working here. I'm missing being digital quite a bit... Honestly, it was so sad sending my last emails, and doing my last Mormon.org chats... But, I know, that as you said, the Lord called me here not out of coincidence, but out of a complete knowledge of His plan for me, and this area.

Last lunch at Nando's, before leaving Crawley, with the Elders, Sister Stewart and Sister Catogni.

It appears that my seeking to establish a Spanish Branch was jumping the gun just a bit... With Kennington ward, they want as many of the Spanish Speakers as are willing to go there. Still, we were going through the ward list this morning, and found somewhere near 30 Spanish or Portuguese speaking families within the ward, 25 or so are less-active. So, we'll be working with our ward missionaries, the Armelinis (who are from Argentina!) to help bring them back, and try to work with their non-member spouses/children.

This is our Bishop. He's one of the coolest guys in the world. He's really excited about the missionary work in the ward right now, and is excited to get things going. He's the one who started us on working with the less-actives, and so that's our current plan.

Elder Lika's great. He's from Albania, as mentioned before, and he's only been out three months, so I'm follow-up training him. He's got a lot of excitement about the work, and a lot of love for the members and investigators. He also speaks both Albanian and Italian, which is going to be really good for our work here.

We live in a four-man flat with Elder O'Keefe from Manchester, and Elder Hartshorn from Spokane, Washington. It gets kind of crazy, as four-man flats usually do. It's really strange for me to be District Leader here, because half of the District is under six months on their mission, so I've got to be the example. Also, I'm super stoked, because Elder Blackner's my Zone Leader, and my half-mission-brother, Elder Smith (Elder Blackner trained him right as I left) is in our District as well.

Elder Lika and Elder O'Keefe doing service for one of our investigators.

Elder Hartshorn and I.

As for how actual missionary work's going, we're kind of starting from scratch... I mean, we've got a bit of a teaching pool, and some people are moving forward, slowly but surely, but we've got no progressing investigators or baptismal dates, so we're working on using our individual talents a lot to improve that. Both Elder Lika and I have gotten super excited about what we can get going.

An old church in Brixton.

The Victorian precursor to an intercom system. You would talk through the little tubes to the flat you wanted to reach.

Our food adventures for the week...Jellied Eel, an English delicacy. (Not the best thing I've ever eaten.)

And the Green Smoothie...garlic, apples, cucumber, and kale. (I don't think I'm a smoothie fan.)

Hmm... I think that's about it. Love you! Talk to you soon!


- Elder Green

"¡Vuelvo a Londres!"

Brighton Beach!

I'm with you, conference was fantastic. We still haven't gotten to watch the last session, but hopefully we'll get time soon. I would watch it on the way to my new area, but there's not really any way to do that yet... I was really impressed by Quentin L. Cook's talk in Priesthood Session about focusing on the most important things, and ensuring that we are living our lives in the little ways that will bring the Spirit and accomplish the important things in our lives. It seemed to be a common theme throughout the entire conference that we need to stop messing around and realize what truly matters. It very obviously applies a ton here on my mission, and especially with the new things that I'm called to do.

Last picture of the Crawley Zone.

So, I am moving. President kind of told me about a week or so ago when Elder Palmer first came in. He and I sat down to talk about a few of the things that were a struggle in the District at the time, and at the end, he looked up at me and said, "Elder Green, I've spent a lot of time on my knees this morning praying about the moves calls, and I think that the Lord has something more in store for you." Then he looked at me for a moment really seriously and said, "But, that's all I'm going to say right now." And he started laughing, and I was like, "C'mon President! Hahahah, why do you do this to me?" But as we were walking out, he said, "I'll tell you this, you'll be using your language."

I was so stoked thinking I was off to Kennington, and going to get so fat on tons of South American food, and worrying about how I was going to keep in shape... But I pushed it out of my head so I could focus on the work here. And then, President called Saturday morning, and said, "Elder Green! I would like you to go to Clapham!" and I was like, "That's great! Are you sure...?" And in fact, his earlier hints were completely true as well. Though it is part of Wandsworth Stake, and Kennington isn't that far away, he mentioned that there are a number of Spanish-speakers in Clapham, and that they could really use a Spanish-speaking missionary to work there. So, my current goal is to establish a Clapham-Spanish branch there, and I'm using a lot of General Conference as fuel to push that into being. My companion is Elder Lika, and he's from Albania, which is cool.

So, this last week's been awfully eventful, as week fives usually are... We went to Brighton on Monday, which felt like coming home almost... I swear, it's like Venice Beach, but with actual history. It was kind of crazy at first, because we had like, a million missionaries together on the pier (the four of us, plus the Office Elders, plus the VC Sisters, plus the Brighton Sisters, plus the Brighton Elders, plus their ward mission leader), and I felt kind of uncomfortable. Plus, whenever I'm in a group of that many people trying to figure out what to do, it seems nothing gets done. So, the four of us slipped away... And it proved to be quite a miracle! We went and got delicious kebabs, and ate them outside this beautiful fountain, and then we wandered up towards the Royal Pavilion, and got a little lost... All of the sudden, this guy in his twenties walks up to us and says, "Hey, are you guys for Jesus Christ?" He really wanted to come to church, and was really excited to hear more about the Gospel. We passed him along to the Brighton Sisters, and I hope all goes well with him from there!

Our week in the area was crazy as well! We picked up four new baptismal dates between the four of us... Which is such a blessing, and something I can only attribute to the Lord. We already have David, who looks like Dad, but now we've also got a man named Garreth (who Elder Barney, Elder Blair and I met a while back), Aaron (who Elder Palmer and Elder Gunnell met while Elder Barney, Elder Nunnally and I were doing online work), and Ivo and Iwino, a father and son that I've been trying to get an appointment with since I got here. They all seem really devoted too. Aaron has had a number of really powerful spiritual experiences in his life, that have really reinforced his faith in God, and Ivo and Iwino are both just super faithful, and wanting to follow God with everything they've got! So, I'm really happy to leave this area in a good state.

Last but not least, Elder Nunnally Turned 21 this week!! Elder Barney and I arranged for Sister Goldthorpe in the ward to make a cake, and it looked amazing. I was thoroughly impressed. And it tasted fantastic, too. Normally I'm not a fan of fondant, but this actually tasted really nice. I'll include some pictures.

How great is this cake?

The Birthday Boy!

Making quick work of the delicious cake.

Love you guys!

- Elder Green

Playing for a Tough Crowd

Elders Barney, Nunnally, Wolfgramm, Palmer, Rogers, and Green (Me)!

Well, it's been a crazy week... Really. Crazy. Monday was fun -- we just played volleyball with the Office Elders, and Sister Stewart and Sister Catogni. Tuesday, we were helping one of our potential investigators out with a service project, and had a great DA with the Stamp family again. We had Shepherd's Pie. It's so funny, I started saying, "Man, this reminds me so much of home." and Elder Barney was like, "Are you kidding me? This is all I've ever had for DA's here!" Apparently members make it all the time except when they have me over.

Wednesday was where things went mad... See, we've currently got Elder Palmer with us. He's an American citizen, but his mother's Hungarian, and has lived in Hungary for most of his life. He's supposed to be in the Baltic States Mission, serving in Latvia, but with some difficulties in his having lived in Hungary, and travelling around Europe, Latvia kicked him out over visa requirements. So, he came here on Wednesday. He flew in to Gatwick while we had District Meeting, and the Office Elders tried to pick him up, but customs detained him for five hours, so we had no clue when he was going to be getting out... So, we had planned out this day for two companionships, where we were going to be alternating helping our potential investigator move, but with him not there, we had to spend the entire day doing it... We then had plans to take Mantas to the temple that night, so we finished up the service around 7:00, ran up there, I picked up Elder Palmer from the office while Elder Barney and Elder Nunnally taught Mantas, and we finally headed home.

Thus continued our crazy week... Driving lessons for both me and Elder Barney, almost killing myself on my first roundabout (don't worry, the rest of them were fine), Elder Palmer going with the Office Elders up to London to the Embassy up there, meeting with President Millar to figure out the details about Elder Palmer, and other issues in the district... Goodness. It's been a blast.

But, in addition to that, the miracles have just been rolling in. First, Elder Barney and Elder Nunnally had met this guy Mark a while ago in town, and we set up two appointments with him, and he flogged both. Then the Zone Leaders met him in town, set up another appointment with him. He flogged. Then, Elder Palmer and I met him on the way to town, and having known all of that, I thought, "Hey, Mark, do you have a few minutes? Let's go to the chapel." So, we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was an okay lesson, nothing spectacular...but I hope he is interested.

Next miracle, Elder Palmer and I were trekking through Broadfield to try by a potential investigator named Guy. I had my guitar slung over my back, like usual, and down this pathway between some houses there was a few neighbour families hanging out outside. As I passed, one of them yelled, "Hey! Play us a song!" So, I did. I just played them a verse of Come Thou Fount, and after one line, one of their kids looked up at me and said, "Man, you're crap!" The mother quickly told him off, and after I finished she said, "Wow, you've got some guts to do that, and you're really good." "Can we come back around sometime and talk with you a bit?" "You can come back and sing to me anytime." So, we're headed back tonight.

Because the Elderly are so dangerous.

Ifield Mill Pond

Elder Palmer and I.

Last one, after church yesterday, Brother Mann had asked us to go and stop by a less-active member who lived not far from there. We had actually planned on seeing him anyway, and so we used the time between accounting sessions to go up that way. We knocked on the door, but got no answer. As we were headed out, we turned the corner, and I realized that we weren't far from an investigator's house that never really panned out. I considered it for a second, and then decided to go for it, but saw a guy coming up the street. So, I went to stop him, and he said, "Oh, sorry, I'm in a rush." But, I persisted, and told him a bit about the Book of Mormon, and asked if he went to church. He said that he did up in London, but had just moved to Crawley, and so didn't have a church to attend yet. So, I tried to set up an appointment with him, and he said, "Sorry, I'm doing training to be a flight attendant this week. I'm busy until next Monday." Usually, they use that as an excuse and leave, but he said, "Here's my number, call me next week and we'll set something up." Turns out he lives right down the street from the chapel, also.

Also, last week, I got a bit of a tip-off from President that I might be going. He also hinted at where I'm going, but I'm not going to say anything just yet. You'll find out next week. :)

Last but not least, we did some great service for the Vowels' this morning. We do service there quite a bit, as he's doubling the size of his house to sell it. So today we were putting in the main beam on the second story for the roof. It took a bit of finagling, but we got it right into place in about an hour.

Today we helped lift an enormous beam for the Vowels' addition on their home!

Anyway, that's it. Love you guys!

- Elder Green