General Authority visit

So this week was really awesome! We had Elder Civic from the 70 come to our mission and do a big "mission tour" and did a bunch of general authority things throughout the mission. We had a mission conference and he spoke. He laid down the rules pretty hard and what is expected of us as missionaries. But instead of just being like "you can't do this, you guys suck at doing this, you're not doing this like you should." He was super loving about everything he said. I think it was exactly what this mission needs. I think we are really going to see a lot more success and miracles as we as a whole start working harder and obeying the rules with exactness and especially are more disciplined. We also had a special office meeting with him that included my companion and I, the other two office elders, the married couple missionary companionship, president Castillo and his wife, and Elder Civic and his wife. He went one by one asking us all individual questions and we had to explain to him our jobs/duties and how we do them. He talked about how we are especially important to the mission because we are the ones that help run he mission and have a lot of responsibility because we deal with money and church information everyday. It was really cool and I could definitely feel his authority and spirit. He totally knows the prophet so that's pretty cool. Then we showed him our offices. Then on Saturday he and president and their wife's came to the baptism we had in our ward. It was a couple that were investigating the church for 2 years and went through a hand full of missionaries, including my companion and they finally got married and baptized yesterday. It was a really good baptism. We had to sing a special number. We sang "families can be forever" I think that's what it's called in English. President Castillo and Elder Civic both talked. It was really great. Elder Civic seemed pretty pleased. I am super grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know and meet/work with a general authority this past week. I think my schedule is busy... his is insane!! Haha. I don't know how he does it! He was telling me that they just visited Cuba this past week and it seems to be progressing in the process of expanding the church over there and eventually becoming a mission. So continue to pray for that because that would be a huge blessing for all those people who have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel.

On the teaching/investigators side, we have a couple that the missionaries in this area have been working with for a while. Their names are "Niño" And "Carrol" Niño is 19 and Carrol is 17. They have a baby girl named Grimsley. Such a beautiful, smiley baby. We are working to get them married and then baptized. They have the desire. It's just been hard because Niño got in a bad motorcycle crash the week before I got to this area and was in the hospital in a coma and then recovered super fast. We definitely saw miracles there. So now he is finally healthy enough to come to church. So they both came today! We are also working with these two boys who are about 13 and 14. The 14 year old, Pedro, is baptized but inactive but wants to be active again. And his brother the 13 year old wants to be baptized. Their mom is a member but just lazy and the dad has no interest. But both the boys are super awesome and talk a lot in the lessons. They were supposed to come today but never showed up. We also have a kid named Eddy who is like 14 or 15. He goes to seminary every morning at 6 am but doesn't ever come to church... I feel like it should be the opposite haha. But he is super awesome and would come to church except his parents (inactive members) show no support. He is progressing a lot though and I have no doubt he will be reactivated in no time!

I really love this area and our ward is awesome and super strong. We had a really fun family home evening tonight with a super cool family in our ward. The step dad of the family is not a member and there is a cousin of him living there that is not a member either. Last week I invited him to church and he came!! And the FHE tonight went so great! They all really enjoyed it and the dad shared and talked a lot! Hopefully we see a lot of progress with them.

So last Sunday while I was driving to church, my bishop called me and very seriously he said, "Elder Greer... I have been thinking a lot about you lately."

"Ahh ok..."

I thought he was going to tell me to pull over cause my life was in danger or something! Haha...

"I don't know why, but I have gotten a strong spiritual prompting recently that the ward needs to hear your words."

"Oh, ok."

"I wasn't quite sure when, but this morning one of the ladies who was supposed to give a talk called and said she couldn't come. So I feel very strongly that you need to talk today. Would you be able to do that?"

"Yes of course!"

"Perfect, thank you. You don't have a topic. Just say what the spirit has you say. And you have 15 minutes to talk."

So that was literally 5 minutes before church started so I had in total like 20 minutes to think of something. So I just prayed and asked for help knowing Heavenly Father would deliver like He always does. I immediately got two specific and different ideas. I couldn't decide between which one I wanted/needed to share. So I just decided to share them both. My talk was super long, like 20 minutes. It wasn't as great as I wanted it to be and I messed up on my Spanish a few times, but all in all it was good. Bishop was pleased and thanked me. I thought that was pretty cool that he had that prompting. I thought something super awesome would come from it like someone specific really needed to hear what I said or something. So far I don't know, but if nothing, I at least got to bare my testimony and share some cool experiences.

On to the best news; Shout out to my sister Maddie and brother in law Jason on their new baby!! And big shout out to my new nephew Keoni!! I love the name! Well done. Can't wait to meet him when I get back! Also I am super happy it all went well and that Maddie is healthy.

Love you all.

Next time ya'll hear from me I'll be TWENTY!! Weird!!

Elder Greer