ELDER BLAKE GREEN'S MISSION BLOG: Meeting Elder Snow of the Seventy

Hey Mom & Dad!

This week was freaking sick! We had mission tour with Elder Snow of the Seventy who came and talked with us. It was so awesome!!

Elder Snow of the Seventy

He wanted each of us to prepare a 5 minute talk on Faith which 5 or 6 of us would be asked to give at our meeting. Elder Ivie and I were studying faith for our companion study in preparation for our talks when he said how it would be awesome if tonight(Monday night) we prayed for God to lead us to somebody to put on date and he did. That would make for an awesome story if we were called upon to give our talks. I was stoked about the idea and we prayed right then. We went about our preparation day, went shopping, played sports ect. We knocked doors from 6-7 and then it was game time. We had faith that God was going to lead us to where we needed to go. We first tried to go see a part member family that we had tried many times but once again nobody answered. Elder Ivie mentioned that he had a good feeling about a potential that we had recently found from our area book last week, a teenager named OJ. We said a prayer and both felt a very good feeling that that was where we needed to go. So we went!

OJ's parents were outside when we arrived. They greeted us and let us in. OJ was watching TV and holding his baby niece. We talked to them for a couple minutes but it was not the best setting for a spiritual lesson, but we were determined that we were where God wanted us. OJ's parents came in the room and we suggested that we read the Book of Mormon with them. They agreed that that would be okay, turned off the TV and we began reading Alma 7. We talked about repentance and baptism. When we asked OJ about baptism his mom piped up and exclaimed that she knew about baptism. We asked her to share and she gave a very good description of baptism and the importance of it. We began talking with her and she started asking us very good questions about things that she knew about the church but didn't quite understand such as temples, garments, eternal families, the Book of Mormon etc.. Every time we answered her questions you could see the spirit enlighten her understanding. She was so excited about what we were telling her. She particularly liked the idea of eternal families. We testified of the Book of Mormon and how she could find out for certain that what we were saying was true by reading it and she excitedly committed to do so. We asked if we could come back to teach them more and they enthusiastically agreed that we could. We are pretty stoked about this family!

Unfortunately when we got to the baptismal invitation they kept cutting me off to tell us thanks for coming and teaching them and also a bunch of other people started coming into the room so it kind of harshed the vibe, but nevertheless they are a way sick family and we are planning to put them on date this week! It just goes to show that miracles absolutely do happen, but only in response to faith. Had we not prayed and acted with faith we definitely would not have had that experience. It also goes to show that there is no faith like greenie faith!

That was a highlight of the week. The low point of the week is that Jesse's baptism is put off indefinitely right now. Elder Ivie and I were pretty upset about it but there isn't a whole lot we can do. I am pretty bothered by it because I have never faced so much opposition from another member of the church. We are just going to keep teaching her till she can get baptized.

It was the primary program Sunday which was awesome! I was amazed by how great the primary kids even are at singing. Those Samoans have some pipes!

Thanks for all your love and prayers!
Elder Green