weekly letter 19

Hey everyone! How bout dem All Blacks doughhhh bringing that win against South Africa hahaa... That is always a nice conversation with the people out here haha. This week has been full of changes! It was so sad saying all of my goodbyes to the people of Uitenhage! A lot of tears were shed and it was overall sad that I was leaving them. I am definitely happy with the work that I was able to do there though. All the older missionaries were talking and telling me like... Oh do not worry... by next area it will become second nature when you leave the people and an area. But that puzzled me because then that brings up the question of... Did you really love the people or were you just looking at them as numbers and stats while you were there. I hope that I never leave an area without feeling some sort of sadness because then I know that I was doing missionary work wrong. But now I am in my new area! Our mission... This transfer we only got one new missionary! Our mission has been struggling so much on numbers. So many missionaries are finishing their missions and leaving and only like 3 or 4 are coming in to replace them. This transfer... 8 missionaries finished and only 1 came in... We had to shut down 3 areas this transfer... Not good but no worries cause SWAG. Anyways... That New New. We flew over to a place called East London and drove a couple hours to a place called Queenstown which is where our boarding is. Now I am working in the Area of Sada!

This place man.... It is a 40 minute drive out into the area and so that drive sucks haha... I really miss driving automatic too haha. No cruise control for me... My companion, his name is Elder Sangane! He is cool and this area needs a lot of work but I am super excited to change this area and organize it because right now... it be poopy haha. But he is from South Africa and he is 23. I am follow up training him and so... yea... we will see haha got a lot of work to do! But man the first full day here in Sada.... It sucked so bad hahaa! It was pretty much a full day of straight Xhosa! I literally just sat there and had to do nothing because a lot of our investigators can not speak english... We are not really supposed to be teaching anyone that can not speak english unless we get it authorized by president and so... haha yea just know that there is a lot of work to do here in Sada! But man the first day sucked... I felt like an idiot because I love teaching the most and I can not even teach because no one can understand me... No worries though because I got some ideas about using translators/training our fellow-shippers and what not... Ill update on it later haha. See how it goes... It is alright though because it is super humbling! because I legit can not do anything on my own now... Let alone I can not even talk to someone without the help of someone else haha. It cool But man these people are too cool! They are so nice but I just wish that I could be able to speak to them. It all Gucci doughhh.... It is funny though because the youth out here are so funny. They all love dancing and so The Whip just barely got out here and they love the nae nae and so pretty much just have the "in" with all the youth no matter what which makes things really easy haha. We had some children baptized and I felt so bad for them because the font is outside and it is freezing in Sada! Apperently it snows here as well... Too Cold. They were shivering and pretty much crying during the baptism and so yea.... But God is good and so I am excited to help these people out the best that I can! That is about it for now though! I am super excited for this up and coming week though! But love all of you hope that everything is going awesome! P.S how about the mission gets transfer news and so the mission sends out a huge email to eveyone... I hit that reply all haha and said hey and so yee... It been blowing up now haha 

The Church Is True, Jesus Is The Christ

weekly letter 18

This week has been awesome but definitely mixed feelings. But first South Africa is too funny haha. My advice to anyone that was born in New Zealand... Come to South Africa and you will be an instant celebrity haha. So some of our members have been nagging us on how awesome this chinese restaurant called Chiongs is and how good their food is and stuffs like that. So... We finally went and so we walk in. There is a huge line and so we just get in the line and wait. Then the guy that normal just hands out the food for pick up calls me out and tells me to go over to him. I noticed that he was a white afrikaner guy wearing an All Blacks Jersey. He goes what do you want? And so he totally just had me jump ahead of everyone haha and then so we order and then we are standing waiting for the food and then some of the workers again... call me over from the back and the ask me where I am from. I tell them that I was born in New Zealand but raised in the states... News travels fast through out the store I guess because then this Asian guy walks out from the back wearing a Kiwi sweater and kind of just stands around waiting for something... So this whole time we are with one of our members and he starts freaking out haha. He goes

"Wow.... That is Chiong... The Chiong himself I have never seen him come out from the back before" 

So I start talking to the guy that called me out for my order and ask him about the All Blacks game last weekend. It was funny because I could see Chiong slowly inching his way closer to us and manages to squeeze in contribution to the conversation with a quite "39-18" The member with us was giggling haha cause he was watching from a far the whole thing haha. But instances like that happen all the time but it gets kind of awkward haha but yea if you want to be an instant celebrity... Be from New Zealand and move to South Africa haha.

So this week has been sad because I am leaving Uitenhage and I am going to Sada which is in a place called Queenstown.... I have been saying all of my goodbyes and it is sad man.. Crazy to think that there is a possibility that I will not be seeing these people ever again and so that has been going on. I am not too sad though because I know that the good times end for the greater times and I know that I am needed else where and that my work here in Uitenhage is over... For now... I will give a whole update on the area and my new companion next week and I also am working on a video for my time here in Uitenhage and so yeee.... Will get that out sometime how ever whenever haha.  But this weeks is short because I am stressing out about how I am going to get time to see all of the people that I want to see so blahh... But no worries love you all talk to you next week!

weekly letter 17

Yoooo this week dough!!! kept it one hunnit grand this week! This week was really awesome! We had our baptisms yesterday and they were so amazing! We had 4 baptisms and it was packed! It was so awesome to see so many families come to church and bring all of their non-member family members. So the "baptees" they are so awesome! Their names were Yvonne, Sibongile, Sibusiso, and Arthur. They have some of the most awesome powerful testimonies and it was just overall just a wonderful amazing experience being able to see them finally enter into the fold. We have never had so many people at a baptism before, showing their love for the new members to come into the ward family and so that brought a lot of joy to my heart as well. 

Yvonne and Sibongile (Sbosh) are awesome. Yvonne is the mother of the little boy that was baptised 2 baptisms ago and sbosh is the daughter. Yvonne had been investigating for over a year but... It has been such an amazing blessing to be able to take part in inviting the spirit to help this family to grow their love for the gospel and also for Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ. I have grown so close to this family as well. Yvonne's niece her name is Busi aka Juicy and she is a Recent Convert, baptised a month before I got to Uitenhage and she decorated my "Member Book". I will show you a picture next week but just basically understand that I really love this family haha. 

Sibusiso: This dude is a beasttttt! He is the brother to our First Counselors wife and really in my opinion, I think that he was the perfect definition of a Golden Investigator. Day one... He came to church.... We talked with him and went through church like normal.... At the end of church he goes... 

"So.... What do I need to do to become a member of this church?" 

This dude is so awesome and I definitely think that after his confirmation next week that he will most likely receive a calling in the YM or something like that because this dude is gucci dough... He is too cool haha we always talk about all the parties and stuff we used to do when we were younger haha. He always be tryna make me hit that nae nae/ whip ect. But he is the man.

Arthur: This dude is awesome! He is the brother of my first baptism and this is one intellectual guy. He was seriously the definition of a "Dry Mormon". He had been living the gospel standards for probably almost a year but he just hadn't takin a dip in the baptismal font yet haha. He wants to serve a mission too and really he is going to be one awesome missionary. He just needs to help the rest of the family take a dip before he leaves... ;) hah Gunya... 

This week we had Zone Training as well and man it was awesome! Revelations for days! But one of the thing that I really loved and have totally agreed with that I have been wanting to have my mission motto be is this.

"Any missionary can be someones friend. But... Not every missionary can astonish people. Which kind of missionary do you want to be?

Previous to this training during an exchange I was on with the Elder that gave this training we were talking about this. How some Elders fall into this state where the focus more on becoming friends with the members/investigators. Yes you have to love them and but do not be their buddy. He trained us on how anyone can get people to like them. Most people/members already like you because you are a missionary. Not too many members/people can really say... 

"Wow that Elder was amazing. He was an exceptional Missionary"

Too frequently I hear... 

"Yea the missionary was cool, he would always come over and hang out with us"

WHAT THE.... "HANG OUT" aint nobody got time to just "HANG OUT" with people, there are souls to be saved and people to be taught. One of the things I want to do is that I definitely do not want my last memories for people to remember me by is that I "Hung Out" with people. Or that he would always come around and hand out when their appointment dropped... I want people to remember me as... Man... That was a good Elder... He was a Good Missionary.... Orr... Elder Greening... He was always running around trying to see everyone that he could, we never get to see him because he was so busy... Something like that. Not that I just "Hung Out" at their house... 

We should be missionaries to where we should ASTOUND the members with our faith. We should be members to where there was no doubt in their mind that they could feel the spirit when ever we go to their house because we are living so righteously that the spirit is just TOO STRONG... 

But hey I am loving mission with all my heart! I love this people too and I am going to be really sad and probably cry when I find out that I am leaving but it all gucci cause we on Gods Side.... I love you all and thank you to all who read my rants! haha Hope everyone is staying safe! Till Next Week

The Church Is True, Jesus Is The Christ 

-Elder Greening

weekly letter 16

What it isssss douggghhhh! Awesome week per usual! The 4rth of July was poppin! We tried to get all these families to celebrate with us by telling them about it when in reality we just wanted them to buy fireworks and feed us haha but it failed and we just ended up spending time with the Elders in our area hah. It was nice though because we had the A.Ps join with us since they were on exchanges with our Zone Leaders so it was cool getting with all the Elders and talking about how great America is haha. This week we went to a members home to get some food and on their South Africas Got Talent was on and man... They sucked... then we changed the channel and Americas Got Talent was on and the comparison was legitimately not even there. But all good in the hood though haha. 

Overall though our area is doing awesome! Still having it be a little rocky over the race problem but we definitely are still on the rise on the progression scale! We had this awesome FHE activity this week with all the YSA and some Youth and so hopefully that becomes an every Monday thing. Our baptisms got moved to next week on the 12 haha it is funny because we keep telling our investigators that their dates keep getting changed and so now they are pretty over the whole thing haha. It is crazy to think that I might be leaving Uitenhage in less than 3 weeks! There is a slight possibility that I will stay but we will see what happens. I'm really just cool with anything. Its Whatevzzz.... It is funny though because my companion is not used to being busy all the time and so he always talks about how busy we are and how we have too much crap to do hha but really it is normal for me haha and I keep telling him that he should have seen Elder Meijsen and I last transfer haha. It gucci though! Aint nobody got time for that down time hah.

This week I went on an exchange with our Zone Leader and it was sweet! It is always super cool to go on exchanges with ZLs because they are so experianced and I do not have to worry about them sucking at teaching because they keep it One Hunnit! It was cool though because his name is Elder Chamberlain and he actually finishes his mission in 3 weeks! I wonder if my whole mission is going to be like that haha. All of my exchanges so far have been with missionaries whom are going home in less than 4 weeks haha. It is really awesome because they help me certify rules and how things work because some of these missionaries try to twist/justify things and I'm like... what.... hahh but all goods though haha! 

This week though it felt like we were just throwing out baptismal invitations and dates like crazy haha! It is weird to think that I will not even be here to see their baptisms though. Well possibly most likely will not see them. It is awesome though to see their progression through the gospel!

This week we went and saw our bishops daughter and son in law, The O'rielys and it was awesome. So a few weeks ago a man broke into their house and ended up stabbing both brother and sister O'riely multiple times and so they ended up in the hospital. Get this the guy broke in at 1pm in the afternoon! So they ended up at the hospital and so they have been recovering well and are back at their house still recovering. One of the things that Brother O'riely said that rings clear in my ear is this. He said,

"We should not worry or care about what is going on in the world because we know that it is all temporary. As long as we know that we are living up to the worthy standard that That Our Father in Heaven expects than there is nothing to worry about". 

That is so true. All of this corruption going on in the world we should not worry about. All these events that happen in the world have been prophesied for thousands of years! We already knew that all of these bad things were going to happen. If we are worried about what is going on in the world because we feel we are not ready then something needs to change and we must repent. 

This brings to mind the words that were given to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail.

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes" (Doctrine and Covenants 121: 8-9)

This life is temporary and it is only but a small moment.

I love all of you and hope that everyone is doing well!

Prayers to The Packer Family as well. 

The Church is True, Jesus Is The Christ