Sometimes When it Rains, It Pours!

April 13, 2016

Manuel de Jesus is getting baptized this Saturday!!! Seriously so stoked!! He is the one I wrote about the other week who I accidentally called and ended up inviting to church and he came and we started teaching. That was my 3rd day here and now 5 weeks later he is getting baptized! He was/is so prepared. I am honestly so happy for him and for Elder Murray and I because we are seeing so many blessings as we just work hard and are diligent and obedient. I love it.

I love the people of this ward so much. This Sunday we had so many people come to church and the members are always really good at finding who is new and making them feel comfortable. We ended up having to open the back curtains because there were no more seats left in the main Sacrament room which is already way big. This church building is one of the biggest buildings in the mission and I think the country. I also have a huge love for the young men of this ward. They are awesome and always help us and leave with us. I can't wait to work in the Young Men's program one day.

This week we also had a super cool service. We basically destroyed a house that was a house of wood just deteriorated by termites. It was pretty sad because we could literally knock down a whole part of the wall just with a hammer or kicking it down. And there were people living in it the day before. So once we took it all down, we began the process of re-building it. Super cool, and fun. And I am way excited for the member who will soon have a new house!

Saturday in the night, we were way far away from our house and it just started to pour! We ran to our last lesson and they let us leave our bags with our scriptures there so they wouldn't get ruined. Then we booked it back to our house. Within 5 seconds we were soaked. When it rains here, the roads turn into rivers. Not joking. So we were walking on the side of the road and I looked back and all the sudden this car starts driving super fast (probably so it could soak us -_-) I booked it to the left and my comp just got destroyed by a huge wave of nasty water from the road hahaha. We were laughing so hard. Then we had to cross the river(road) and it was really like crossing a road after a bad storm or something. It was pretty crazy. When we finally got home, our house was completely flooded cause apparently every time it rains, the house floods. Haha so we had to sweep and mop it all out. #RepDomProblems

Alright well that's all for this week cause I am out of time, but things are going so great here! Love you all!!

Elder Greer

Too Little Time!

April 6, 2016

I have no time to write haha, but I will try and at least get some pics up! Thanks everyone who wrote me this week :)

So this was a BOMB week!! Not only did we have an amazing conference where we listened to the Prophet and the apostles, but we also had some pretty great lessons and progress with the investigators and people we are teaching.

So Manuel de Jesus, that guy I accidentally called and invited to church and ended up coming, is totally GOLDEN!! He loves the church and wants to be baptized ASAP. So we are gonna try and see if we can pull it off next week! He sacrifices every weekend and travels like 2 hours to get here and visit his dad and the church. Super awesome. Crazy miracle and blessing with him. Literally our story with him is so cool and totally directed by the spirit. 

We just found this other 18-year-old (who makes me look like i am 12 if he is really 18 haha) his name is Gabriel and he is great and is progressing so much and asked us to come back the next day after our second lesson and he actually is following through with what we are asking him to do and he's smart and just really seems to get it. So we'll see what happens there. Pray for him!

There is this other family, Tomas and Josephina. They are LEGIT! They have come to church he past two weeks and Josephina came this week with a nice dress and heals and was so excited about it. We were stoked! They could totally get baptized but they are not married dang-git! We could seriously have like 15 baptism dates and baptisms if marriage was just a thing here -_- 

Conference was amazing and I loved every talk! Especially the one about the responsibility of being a father. Everyone and their mothers should listen to that dang talk. Especially the people of the Dominican Republic. I think it could definitely help our culture here. But it was honestly a super great talked and made me so happy and grateful that my father is so great and has made my life so amazing. Props to you papi! Love you! You're legit! One day I'll hopefully be like my dad :)

Ok well happy conference and love you all!!

Elder Greer

 Last time I sent pics of like the only green part of my area which is out in the boonies! haha This is my real area.... The desert! :)

Easter Week!

March 30, 2016

This week was "Semana Santa" which is Easter here. They celebrate it for three days. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Its usually the worst week in the mission work wise because everyone is either out of town or super drunk.... But surprisingly Friday and Saturday were awesome days! I don't know how, but we managed to have some pretty good numbers last week and good lessons. Sunday afternoon was pretty terrible because the whole city was at the main park in Navarrete doing some weird tradition where they all gather at the park and burn a big doll of Judas. And they all just trashed the park and there were tons of beer bottles and alcohol left the next day... But it's okay because we had such a bomb day in church! We had so much success! We had 8 investigators in church and 3 less actives we are working hard with. We have so much potential here! We are so close to putting solid baptism dates. Elder Murray and I are working super hard and trying to be creative and find, find, find. In the district meeting this past week, I talked about how as a district leader, I am always going to push for numbers. I am always going to be competitive. I am always going to set higher goals for us all. Because if we do that, we will get better. I am really trying to make it way fun and make everything a competition. Every night when my district calls me to tell me they are home, I ask how many lessons they got, and how many with members and stuff to see who did better and then I always joke around and say something like "Ha! We totally creamed you guys in lessons with members today!" or "Dang, you guys beat us, but its okay because tomorrow we are gonna make a comeback and totally destroy y'all!" And if that means we have to leave earlier to do it, so be it. Its all about the sacrifice. So that's something I really enjoy is pumping up my district and making it like a game or a competition, not to say we have higher numbers, but because it will help us to be focused and concentrated and determined to work harder, find more people, sacrifice more, and just do all we can and go all out for our area. And we have definitely been seeing the blessings!

So quick cool little experience this week, yesterday we were walking in an area we haven't been to in our area and we walked by this huge wall of a bush. Out of nowhere we heard a voice say "Hey Americanos." So we stopped and tried to talk to the guy, but we couldn't see him well through the bush. He kept talking and told us to go talk to this lady a couple of houses down. He told us her name and that we need to talk with her. It was funny because we have been determined to receive references from people this week and out of nowhere, from some random voice in the bushes, we got one! The guy told us she needs the gospel. I tried to find a way in to see the guy's face and talk with him face to face but I couldn't find a way in. I was like, " Hey Thanks! I want to talk with you too, how do I get in?" and he kept telling me to go talk with her, so i finally did. The lady ended up being so awesome and her mom was there too and we set up a time to come back. When we passed by the guy in the bush again to say thanks, he was not there. Super weird, haha, But I thought it was pretty cool because he said it in a really specific way and we looked and looked to try and see him through the bush but couldn't. So it'll be interesting to see where things go with the lady!

Alright well enjoy general conference this week! I am super stoked!!

Love you.

Elder Greer

 The sisters from my district. Typical pic.

My comp and the elders from my district. Other typical pic.

 Easter Egg coloring and activities with the district.

Great week!

March 23, 2016

Okay so first I want to let you all know a little bit about my area. Navarrete, my area of it anyway, is pretty poor. My area is the poorest and most country of the three other areas here with missionaries. We have a total of like 3 paved roads. Everything is dirt and rock roads for the most part. Most of the houses are wooden houses. Most of which look like shacks. Very humble abodes. Lots of dirt or concrete floors inside. But that's the custom here so it's super normal and the people are just happy with it :) A lot of the time I feel like we are in the middle of the desert. Just the feel of the area and the dirt and houses and stuff make it look like some random town in the middle of the desert. But I love it! It's a super cool area and the members always help us. When I first got here, we didn't have very many people in our teaching pool, but we have just been talking with everyone and inviting them all to church and to hear from us and to be baptized. We have been asking and receiving lots of references for people to visit with and teach. We ask everyone everywhere if we can help them or if they need something or have a service or project we could do for them. And now we have lots of more people and have found some solid potential people to progress. In every area I have people who I am so close with and who I was sad to say goodbye to. I am already finding and seeing who those people are and will be from this area. The youth, especially the young men, are super strong and leave with us a lot and there are lots of them. I love that. I love working with the young men.

So days like yesterday are days that I just love. From 3-5pm we are still having trouble finding people in their houses and most of our appointments fall through. But from like 5-9pm, we are just booked solid and literally have to run to our next appointments. Yesterday we had a long lesson that went a little over time and so we had to hurry over to a young man's house from the ward named Jose. When we got there, he was not ready and he wanted to shower super quick and change. We were way late but needed him so we could teach a few people because we can't teach women alone without another male present. So we gave him 4 minutes. 10 minutes later, we finally left his house and booked it to our next lesson which was super far away in a really country area/neighborhood where we found some cool people the other day. I am pretty sure there are more cows than people in that area/part of town, but the people were super cool so we had to go back to teach them. We were like jogging with our bags and everything up and down dirt/rock hills to get there in time. Luckily there was lots of breeze and I didn't forget to put on my deodorant ;) We had a solid lesson with that family, unfortunately the dad was working so he was the only one of them family not there. Then we got on a small Dominican bus with like 40 other people (not an exaggeration) to another area far away for two other lessons. Then we got back late at night. It was a fun, busy, solid day and all the lessons were great. I loved the fact that we were in such a hurry that we had to literally run, haha. It was great! My feet were sore. I actually have another foot blister that peeled off.

So that random guy that I called last week on accident and invited to church CAME!! He showed up and traveled like 2 hours to get here!! Crazy! He is so prepared! He seriously is golden! But he lives so far away and can only come down on Sundays for church, so it's going to be a challenge to teach him. But he used to live here and knows quite a few people and members of the ward and really wants to get baptized! So I think that it is a for sure possibility. Literally the coolest miracle though how I came into contact with him and that sparked his desire and interest to come and everything. Way awesome. We also had lots of other people in church who we visit and teach. We are seeing lots of success!! We put 3 baptism dates this week, they will be a challenge to achieve, but we will work hard and sacrifice and do all we can to make it happen! This is the most crucial transfer for me because it will mark the success we have the next two transfers and those will be with my mission son so I want it to be the best they possibly can be.

The mission is so great! 

Elder Greer

 

 

 

My super dope scripture bag I had made a few weeks back.

Loving the New Area!

March 16, 2016

What a week! Wow I am doing seriously so good. I absolutely love it out here! Me and my comp are having a blast and working super hard together. When I first got here just last week, we didn't have many people in our teaching pool, less than we did in the office to be honest, but we have already been finding tons of people. I have just made it a goal to talk with everyone and look for every possible way to give everyone the chance to hear from us. I know this area was waiting for my comp and I because we have already had great experiences and crazy inspirations! People are literally waiting for us. Just waiting. The other day, we asked for references from some members and they gave us 2 super solid and prepared inactive members who we contacted and were just waiting for someone to invite them!! We found a lady who we shared with who told us that she had been thinking a lot about going again and stuff but just never has gotten around to doing it, and she was just like, "Yeah... idk... I guess I really want to go back, but I don't know if I can because I am separated from my husband who I was married with." So we explained to her that it doesn't matter and we invite everyone and anyone no matter what their situation or problem is. So she was like, OK! Ill go! and was way excited! So we are looking forward to her coming to church this week!

Another amazing experience that was crazy to me was that I was trying to call our mission leader to see if he could leave with us but I accidentally called some other random number in our cell phone and after talking with the guy who answered for like 5 minutes, I figured out it was not our mission leader, but rather some guy that met the missionaries in this area long ago. I figured out it wasn't our mission leader when he said, "Well, I really want to be Mormon, but I just live far away." I was like.... "ahhh... wait, what??" hahaha. Then we kept talking and turns out he lives like an hour away in the middle of the boonies way the hey out there. But he has family here in Navarrete so he said he will come stay with them and go to church on Sunday at 9!! Crazy!

Wow I wish I could write in detail about all the awesome experiences Elder Murray and I are having. But I am just so happy and content right now and we are both working so hard and he is a great companion so that makes it so much easier, especially coming out of not my favorite companionship.. haha.

So Vin Diesel was here the other day in a part of our area filming XXX so that was cool! It happened a week before I got here so that's a dang bummer because my comp and the whole zone here got to go watch it be filmed and take pics of him! Way cool.

So I am out of time and it's a bummer because I have lots of cool things to write about, but I'll just make solid journal entries so I can talk about it all when I get back.

Everyone here asks me how much time I have in the mission! I don't know why!! It's so dumb because no one really ever asked me that in my other areas but it's like they know I only have a little bit of time left! I hate when people ask me that! But Its gonna be the best 4 months ever!!

Oh, before I forget, we had a super dope conference yesterday with Elder Cornish from the Seventy and me and my comp got chosen afterwards to have a special interview with him and it was so cool!! We got to ask him questions and he asked us questions and he asked us one question in specific and he told me that the answer I gave him was the best counsel he thinks he has ever received from a missionary! So that was so cool! I feel way honored and way blessed. 

Ok, gotta go, love you all!

Elder Greer

Pictures of My Peeps in Pueblo Nuevo

March 9, 2016

My people!! These are my family in Pueblo Nuevo. I honestly love them all so much and am way sad to leave them!

The old lady trying to kiss me is Mamá. She was just posing I'm this picture, but when I told her I was leaving she really did try to kiss me! Haha. She attacked me with a hug and I screamed and turned the other way as she tried to kiss me hahaha. I was like, Mamá!! You can't kiss me! Or hug me! Haha I love you too but it's against the rules! But she didn't care haha. She is everyone's mamá, but she insists that she is my girlfriend hahahaha. She made me spaghetti last night when I said goodbye and cried a little.

The two girls and the mom are the neighbors of the Pueblo Nuevo elders and are members and cook for them literally every meal. They are so good to us and Rosy, the mom, is our mother! She said that me and Castillo are her favorite and is so sad we are both gone now.

It was definitely a hard goodbye. I'm gonna miss her a lot!

 

 

 

 

Last week in the office

 March 5, 2016


Sorry for not writing last week, I just didn't have much time and it wasn't the most interesting week anyway. But something cool that happened last week was that I had two super cool meetings with phone companies because I am in charge of all the phones in my mission and President asked me to basically work my magic and see if I could figure out a better plan for our mission and how to save money. So I made some calls and organized two meetings. One with the company we have now, and the other with the rival company. It's basically like Verizon and AT&T. So with the company we have, I had them explain to us all the feature of our plan in details, asked them many questions, many of which were questions my president wanted to know, and I told them the complaints we have and reasons for why we are thinking of switching to the rival company. There were two representatives from the company, my companion and I, and two representatives from the church headquarters from the Capital. They were basically like my lawyers, hahaha. One of the guys was super clear with me before the meeting that all questions I had, I had to ask him first and any questions the people from the company asked me, I had to look at him first for approval to answer. It was super weird haha, but it was because he was negotiating and stuff and he is specifically in charge of doing that. It was pretty cool and interesting haha. In the second meeting, it was way more relaxed and it was basically a representative of the rival company explaining to me her offer to us that was a plan customized specifically for our mission and the info I gave her a few days in advance. And then I got my business man personality on and started negotiating and telling her the things I liked and the things I felt could be better and the things the company we have now does better for us. So then she made even more offers and honestly gave us such a great offer by the time we finished. The other two missions have that same company and similar phone plans, so she really wants us to have it as well. It was a total of 4 hours! The meetings lasted that long haha. So now we will go back to the company we have and tell them to make us a better deal, or we are going to switch probably. Then I brought all the info to President this week and now it is up to him to decide what to do. So yeah, you can say I am totally a business man now ;) No, but after, I was thinking and thought how cool it was/is that I am able to participate in these types of things and learn all this. It really is the best of both worlds because that was all in the morning, and then in the night, we are out in the streets of our area like normal missionaries preaching and teaching and helping others come unto Christ. Pretty cool. I also thought it was way cool that Heavenly Father has blessed me and blessed me so much especially during the meetings with the gift of tongues. It was a super professional couple of meetings and the language isn't nearly the same that we hear and speak every day in the streets and with the people in our area. Especially because there is so much slang and weird words here. So I thought it was so awesome that I was able to understand everything perfectly and speak really well to them and negotiate business-wise and all.

So our area has been a mess this past month because the whole month of February, it is the month of the carnival. Basically every Sunday the whole month, everyone and their mother goes to the carnival. But it is no Del Mar Fair, it is like crazy! It's not quite as bad as Brazil during their carnival season, but it's up there! The people go crazy, drink lots, do bad things, less clothes on the women. I could go on... Just not a good environment for missionaries. Or really anyone. So last Sunday was the last and biggest Carnival Sunday of the year because it was their Independence day. You can only imagine... Our numbers were very low! Doesn't help that the carnival is held in the dead center of my area!... That really was the big problem for us. There were roads we could not even go down. At one point, we had to stay inside the house of a new investigator after ending the lesson early because we literally couldn't hear ourselves talk because the carnival isn't just in one spot, but they march down every road in our whole area. Insanity. But thank heavens it is all over now!

But something awesome was that Teobaldo, the old man who at first progressed so well but then got sick and for a while didn't progress, he got better recently and we invited him to church and HE CAME!! We were totally not expecting him, but on Sunday morning when we entered the Sacrament room, there he was sitting next to a member he knows!! He came all by himself too! We were so happy! And he seemed to really love it! So I am way excited to see him tonight to see if he will come again tomorrow. Pray for him!!

Our other investigators are doing alright, but Carlos (the guy who got hit by a car and broke his leg) and his wife Maria are doing really well! Carlos has all the time in the world to read now because he cant leave his house, so he promised us to read everything we give him. And he has been doing really well with it. We asked them what they understood about what they read about the restoration and they had a pretty good understanding of it. So now it is just up to them to find out for themselves through prayer, faith, and searching the scriptures if it is true or not. We will set a goal for baptism with them hopefully tonight. Just a goal though, I don't want them to be freaked out or anything. Just a goal so they can work to get their answer before the date we pick for them.

So this is my last week here in this area and as the office elder. I am so excited to leave haha. I know that sounds bad, but after 8 and a half months, it's time. I'll miss Betsy, the truck we get as office elders and AP's, but Betsy will be in good hands with Elder Reeves. I am so stoked to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me and the people he has prepared for me to find and help live the gospel and have greater happiness and more blessings in their lives. I have been stressing out and way nervous about where I will be sent and stuff. I feel like I am receiving my mission call again! haha. But I fasted and prayed about it a ton and I feel confident that wherever I end up is where I need to be and I will grow the most and find the people who are ready to accept this true and wonderful gospel. I am so stoked and ready to keep giving it my all, even without the current responsibilities I have right now. I know I will be so blessed if I do. I only have three transfers left, So I will make them count! Some missionaries start to get trunky and think about home when they are this close to it, but I refuse to be that way. Don't even talk to me about home because I am already here. The fire is large and it's only getting larger baby!

My PDay will be on Wednesday again. So until then, This is Elder Greer signing out.

Much love. Wish me luck!

Elder Greer