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

weekly letter 15

This week was such an awesome week! The new companionship is going well! It is different having start from ground zero since we do not know how to teach with each other because we both teach differently. I guess his previous companion was pretty weak at teaching and so there was legit one lesson where I did not say a single word last week haha. All goods though because we fixed it and we are progressively getting better and he is coming along so it is all sweet! I have already kind of seen in what ways he is going to teach me things and also how I am going to teach him. 

This week was so awesome though because on Tuesday we got to have a ward activity! We had a little pioneer trek sort of thing haha. We called it The Walk Of Faith. We just walked to our bishops house and back so it was not like the treks back home but it was awesome! Instead of wagons we used wheelbarrows haha it was pretty funny though. Right after we left Bishops house though it started to rain like crazy though! The wind was so strong and I legit felt like I was swimming because we were in our Whites and we were soaked! It sucked but it was awesome because it sucked together haha. It was really just so nice to see the ward get together and to spend time with them!

Elephants!! We went and rode elephants today and it was too sweet! YO! It hurt my butt though because them elephants got some spiny rock hard backs and so it was totally ridin up and stuffs haha. It was awesome though because we got to ride it around like Zebras and some Kudus and things like that so it was super cool. We fed them and I guess a cool thing to say to people now is that I have had my hand in an elephants mouth so that is pretty cool I guess. 

So like I said last week, this transfer my companion and I are really trying to focus more so on the members, less actives, and the recent converts more. Not necessarily going to neglect investigators or anything like that but really focusing and seeing every member family. I have already seen a change in the ward and YO! The members are feeding us a lot more then when I first got here that's for sure haha so that is always nice. We are learning so much about the ward and about how it used to be years back. It is so hard because our ward is so unique for good but also for bad. It makes me sad to see that there is so much racial problems going on here. It is still so hard to get the two different cultures to just join each other. Outside in the world I feel it is expected but it makes me sad to see segregation within Christs Church. I even see it between Elders as well which is super disheartening. All goods though because that's what I plan to focus a lot on this transfer is helping the best I can with uniting the ward.

We are on track for our next baptisms which are going to be next week and I am so excited for these two! They are so awesome and when I found out that they passed the baptismal interviews my companion and I were so happy! I love these two but I will talk more about them next week!

This week we met this awesome guy named Lubabalo and man he is awesome. So we were kind of running late for a recent convert/investigator sisters lesson and so my comp was like 

"Should we just reschedule?"

I was thinking about it and we legit had like half and hour till our next appointment. I felt the need to go and so I finally just said

"We cant just bail on them lets just go and share a really quick lesson with them."

We change our lesson to sharing the Mormon Message Lift. (Awesome one about service) We walk in and they are with two other guys and so we ask them to join us. We do the lesson and it goes awesome and Lubabalo seemed to be the one most interested in our message. We end up setting up and appointment to go and see him two days later. So two days later before the apt we were like,

"Well, I hope this dude doesn't drop us"

This guy is actually waiting outside, we say whats up and we go in and teach him the First Lesson (Donaldson Style of course). Get this, towards the end we introduce The Book Of Mormon and then he goes

"Yea, I remember seeing that book. It is black and has like gold lettering right?"

I was like, "Yea, how did you know what it looks like?"

"Before my Dad passed away, he used to read it to me when I was a kid."

WHHHAAAATTT so we finish the lesson and then we invite him to get baptized and he said Yes! This dude is too legit. He said that he wants to join our church. He said that God lead us to each other and we could not agree with him more. He said that the only reason he was at our recent convert/investigators house was because he missed his transport and so he decided to hang out with his cousin who knew our RC/I. He then told us that he was hoping that he would run into us so that we could teach him. I am so happy that we ended up going to that house and not rescheduling with them. He is seriously so awesome and I can not wait to help the spirit to help him progress in this gospel! 

Yo though. Church is True I love all of You! Listen to the still small voice. It was telling you something for a reason!! 

Ps. I Be Teaching That Elephant Dough

Weekly letter 14

What an awesome week! The beginning of the week was pretty hectic because we were scrambling around trying to get Elder Meijen to say all of his goodbyes! I can already tell that I am going to have the hardest time saying my goodbyes. I love these people so much and have gotten really close to them. The Members have been feeding us like crazy this week which has been awesome! I have so many different "Mamas away from home" now. Ill miss Elder Meijsen but I know that his help is needed else where. So my new companion is pretty cool. His name is Elder Mendenhall and he is a cowboy from Idaho. He is outgoing so I am glad because then it wont be all that awkward trying to get him to talk to the peeps out here. Teaching with him was a little rocky at first because I guess his last companion, teaching was not one of his strengths haha so he had to adjust to me and we adjusted nicely and I think that this is going to be an awesome transfer teaching with him. 

It was super sad saying my goodbyes to our Zone Leader though Elder Wells. He was seriously such an awesome missionary and I was seriously blessed to have the time that I got to spend with him. He definitely held our zone together because after he left there has already been some changes that bring up some concerns of mine haha. The new ones are super lame haha but it is all good because I know we can always find positives in everything! Hes going back to BYU and he is definitely up for grabs if any of the ladies are interested in an awesome RM born in raised in California! He is super awesome though. Logan Wells look him up haha. 

This week I finally got to go to a rugby game! It was super sweet and I really wanted to play just watching them. Our Ward mission leader and a guy in our YSA were playing so we went to support and it was awesome. The people in SA have so much energy and the crowds were going wild hah. It was funny because our Ward Mission Leader "Beast" he totally cheap shotted this dude on the kick off hah and got a yellow card so we were laughing at him haha. It was super cool to see the people there and to talk to them. Righteous Publicity is what I like to call it haha. I am sure that people were thinking that we were recruits or something haha. It is funny because when people find out that I was born in New Zealand its like they want to be my best friend because of the All Blacks haha. I am glad that I played Rugby back in the States as well because that is definitely the first question they ask me when ever they see me haha.

For this transfer I have totally changed my Focus Point for the area of Uitenhage. For this transfer, my companion and I are going to focus a lot more on less actives and also the active members as well. I am going to try my best and find a good balance of Investigator, Recent Convert, Less Active, and Active Member lessons. It will definitely lower the stats that I have been getting but no worries because, No point in bringing a lost sheep into the fold if the fold is going to kick it right back out into inactivity!!! 

Spiritual Thought:

One of the things that really stood out to me for this week was the wonderful blessing that we have is having a living Prophet of our church. What an amazing blessing we have in our lives to have direct revelation from Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. In Priesthood we were talking about how our church just seems to be not just one step ahead, but multiple steps ahead of everyone else in the world. So many different religions coming to talk and ask advice from our church leaders on managing welfare or the importance of family ect. It is all because our church is the only church in the entire world that is directed by Jesus Christ, whom is directed by The Father, Himself. The World is constantly changing, therefore we need constant direction in these latter days. That direction is giving through General Conferences and even Liahonas/Ensign magazines. These talks are given directly for our day and we need to be able to heed to the words and make changes accordingly. 

That is all for this week though! Well there were more things but I am too lazy to type them all but yup! church is true and Love and miss you all! Love hearing from everyone and keeping me updated!

weekly letter 13

Yo! What it do though!! This week has seriously been so freezing. I miss central heating so much. Every time I wake up my face feels ice frozen. It has been raining so much since we are at the beginning of Winter now. It doesn't snow or anything but man it gets super windy and is always raining. I feel bad for the Townships because I question if their shack houses can even handle winds and rain like this. Also since the roofs on our flats are just sheets of tin, when it rains it is sooooo loud. The winds sound like we are in the middle of a tornado or something like that. The weird thing about the rain here is that it is so insanely bipolar that it even kind of pisses me off. It will legit go from super heavy rainstorm to calm no rainfall just like that. Instantly the rain will stop and then come back on and it will go through that pattern for like an hour of going on and off on and off and it just makes me so mad. Like why... I mean I love rain and everything but like why cant it just continually rain and just stay that way..... -_- Super Dumb.

So I got the news about my new companion! His name is Elder Mendenhall from Idaho but I have not met him yet. Ill pick him up from the airport on Wednesday! Also guess what super sucks... You know how the we cleaned out the fridge with all the maggots and stuff growing in it... Yea apparently we have to move into that boarding because President does not want all us missionaries staying in the same flat with each other. At first I was like wow.... Because the flat that we are staying in now.... No one is going to be staying in it so it is just going to be empty... Lame... So I gotta move into the spider infested maggot spawning boarding with my new companion away from everyone else... But I guess the other Elders that I am really good friends with now like Elder Wilhelmsen and Elder Wall know Elder Mendenhall really well so I bet President was just really scared to have us all be living under the same roof haha. Especially since Elder Wilhelmsen was Elder Mendenhalls previous companion. All Good though... The Zone leaders are super sad about it since we wont be living right next to each other but I told them that Ill be fine haha. I told them that the week I get less than 20 lessons, then they know that something is wrong haha.

This week was awesome though. I have been getting some super awesome study hours in and have been really "Feasting" on the words of Christ. I have been studying a lot out of the the D&C Manual and the Book of Mormon Manuals with reading the BOM and all the other works and it takes a lot longer to read but it is totally worth it. One of the things I want to maybe make a goal for myself is that, well first off. My pattern for the decorating of my missionary planners are that I have a Jesus related picture on the bottom and a Temple picture in the top left hand corner, and then a picture of a prophet corresponding with what transfer number it is. So since this is my 3 transfer I have started, John Taylor is up there and I am maybe going to start reading all of the teaching manuals of the prophets each transfer as well on top of my studies. I think it would be cool and I mean if I am going to have their pictures on my planner for each transfer, I might as well know something about them hahha. 

We have been having really having so many blessings poured upon us in Uitenhage so far. We have been finding new awesome people to teach like crazy. It was funny because we have been having this guy coming to our ward for the past 3 weeks and he seriously is what we call a "True Seeker". He really wants to know some answers and he even lives in the next town over where the 6 other Elders work and he has been coming to our ward because he does not know where the Kwano ward is. He even went out and bought a white shirt and a new tie that he came to church in last week. I was like man Sibusiso you looking good in that white shirt ma man. In my mind I was like. It would look even better if you were baptized and were a member haha. So I went over to the Zone Leaders and got all of the Kwano Elders in a room and I was like yo.. I got this awesome referral for you guys and I told them his address and they were all fighting over him arguing that he lived in their area and stuff like that haha it was funny. But really this guy is legit and I really hope they don't mess it up cause then I be pissed na meannnn.

Spiritual Thought:

This week the spirit has been working wonders with me and revealing awesome truths to me. One of them being is comparing this life to a train. The Train to the Celestial Kingdom. The way I like to compare it... is... We want to go to the Celestial Kingdom, more importantly... we want to get to the Highest Degree of the Celestial Kingdom. I like to think that the train is the Work of God/The Second Coming. Regardless if you are ready or not, the train will continue to move and you will be left behind. In order to ride a train you need a ticket right. That ticket being baptism. Getting baptized and becoming a member of the church. So I thought. The ticket we want is not baptism... The Ticket we want is a temple recommend and getting sealed to our families forever! If we only get the the baptism ticket then we will have to get off of the train when we reach the baptism ticket stop or whatever you want to compare it too. We have been really trying to emphasize about how their eyes need to be set on being eternally married and getting sealed with their family. It is so hard since the closest temple to us is the Johannesburg Temple.... We still emphasize it though... Our goal should be to reach the highest Celestial Kingdom of glory to become Gods. Even though in life we sometimes get off of the train, we should always be constantly trying our best to get back on. I don't know about you but I would definitely rather be a God in the Highest Degree of Glory than a Ministering Angel in the other Kingdoms for all of Eternity.

I love all of you and really miss you all. I hope that everyone is doing well and having an awesome summer while I am over here freezing my face and toes off haha. Till Next Week!!! 

weekly letter 12

Hows it going everyone! This week was another awesome week! We went to the cheetah park on Monday and got to go and play with cheetahs and check out lions and stuff. I totally rode one and it was awesome. Just kidding but that would be sweet! This week was not all that extravagant but it is so crazy to think that in a few days I will have already been on my mission for three months! Transfers are happening next week so this coming Saturday I will find out who my next companion is. It will be crazy because the eight elders that I live around, four of them will be leaving and so it will be super weird not seeing some of the Elders around the flat. All goods though because I know that who ever comes in will be super awesome.

My deepest regards to L. Tom Perry's family. That is so crazy how things can change so fast! He was definitely one of my favorite Apostles. I remember seeing him and church and having him complement me on my tiger that I had hanging around my neck. I definitely throw in a brag every now and then if I am given the chance. Definitely a constant reminder about how short life is here on Earth especially in the eyes of God. I always think it is so cool to picture past prophets and apostles cheering and rejoicing when they have another prophet and apostle pass on into the spirit world. I bet they go crazy because they get another amazingly strong and powerful missionary to help further the work. 

This week we had some interesting things come up with the ward. First, apparently I have some admirers whom have pictures of me on their phones or something like that haha. I guess they have pictures of me from back home and also some of Vaughan and Rylee and the baby or something like that haha. I think it is funny and actually kind of heart warming because then maybe they will tell me that it is them so we can talk about how cute the baby is or something haha. So there is that, also I guess there has been a lot of past drama in the ward as well. A lot of grudges and gossip I guess has accumulated within the ward for a very long time. It is sad because these little grudges seriously do hinder the work and it is definitely something that I am going to try and get to the bottom of. One of the things that this ward truly lacks is definitely love. Love is one of the things that I noticed it lacked the first time I had come here but I never was told why but I got a couple of stories out. We never do ward activities and then the small times that we do, no one shows up. Apparently there are going to be changes being made to the area of Uitenhage though so we will see how that goes. I am excited to try and help with it though.

This week we had the baptism of Abulele! He was the young man that I invited to be baptized my first day out in the field on mission! He is a super cool dude and I am excited to watch him grow in the gospel! His family as well are maybe interested in joining our church "wink wink" So we will see how that goes. One of the coolest things that I really love seeing is watching the growth of a persons prayer. Sometimes we will be teaching someone and their prayer will literally be 5 words. Over time though as we teach them it slowly progressively gets longer and more heartfelt which is so amazing. It warms my heart to see and feel my investigators draw closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I can truly feel their love for the savior grow more and more day after day. 

Sorry that is all the time that I have today but I still love all of you! K Bye!