Elder Clay Green

Elder Clay Green

Friday, August 28, 2015

Week 4 - Brazil MTC

Ok so I am getting all the emails now but not letters. And I got your message about my debit card. I don't have much time but I'll try to get it worked out from here. If you wouldn't mind getting some more stuff from Mr. Cheney's that would be great! I had 10 cookies waiting for me last time and it made me so happy! 

Everything is well here. I'm learning lots every day. We went proselyting on Wednesday. We walked up the street from the CTM and got on a bus. Riding the bus was equivalent to riding an American roller coaster!! There were a hundred people on the bus and we were all standing up and the driver must have thought he was on Tokyo drift. 

We went to this park. There were a lot of kids playing there and lots of people hanging around. But we didn't stay there because we saw some questionable folks so we walked through the city up to this bridge. There were a bunch of people selling all kinds of stuff. My companion and I placed a bunch of Books of Mormon. Most of mine were to women because they were a lot more willing to stop and listen to me! So that was really fun! Otherwise everything was the same as last week! We went to the Sao Paulo temple today and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been!!

I found a really good scripture this week that I love. It is Alma 26:37. Ammon is talking about how joyful he was once he had so much success preaching the Gospel. I really loved that verse! I will give thanks to my God always. Our God is SO merciful! We can't do anything alone but He helps us with everything! How great it is that we have the atonement so we can be forgiven for all our sins! I love the gospel and I love the Lord! I love y'all too and will email again next week.    

Elder Green

Friday, August 21, 2015

Week 3 - Brazil MTC




So I totally just typed out a big email but I didn't hit the right button and it didn't send...and I lost it. But all is well here in Brazil! I love it here! The language is going fine and I'm learning tons everyday! I can go in to a lesson now and teach the whole thing without any notes! Pretty good huh? The punctuation and capitalization is all weird on this keyboard so bear with me. We have 2 fake investigators (Diego and Hilda) I say fake because they are just our teachers but I think they are real people! Ha! Teaching them everyday is the highlight of my day! The spirit is always so strong. We have "baptismal" dates set for both of them. But we are still working with Diego and his girlfriend who is a non active member. They are having trouble with the law of chastity and she feels ashamed to come to church. But he loves the church and didn't know he was doing anything wrong. So we taught him about that and he said he´ll change! Haha so that was fun!      

We have gone to the Campinas temple twice and hopefully the Sao Paulo will be open next week. It is really pretty! I'm not allowed to send pictures from the CTM so I'll have to wait until I leave here and then I'll send you all the pics! We had a big group leave for the field on Tuesday so that was sad. Our Brasiliero roommates left so that was super sad. But we got some new ones and they seem ok. I bought a Brazil flag last Pday and got all of them to sign it before they left. 

I haven't heard of those missionaries from Mom's email yet but I'll  look out for them. I'm sure they've heard of me cause I mean... who hasn't? Ha ha yeah I got some new stuff at the distribution center and my debit card didn't work so I just used cash. Its not a big deal. Just thought I'd let you know! Yeah we get to go walk around the city until 5 pm on Pday and its 2:30 now so we will have a lot of time! We are going to go eat Subway and I'm actually super excited! So yeah everything here is great! The food is actually good here but I could go for some American stuff. We got 3 new elders from Provo in our district this week so that was fun. 

I'm pretty good at understanding Portuguese but I'm not too good at speaking it! It's a struggle, but I'll just keep working! The spirit here is great at the MTC. I just love it and I've learned sooo many things! Some times we get off topic and get into some deep doctrine conversations in class so I've learned a lot doing that. I've been studying a lot so I can be prepared for these discussions and I find it very intriguing! 

Well, thanks for all yall do! I love yall and yall are the best! Hope I'm not forgetting anything...Oh and you said Teagan had emailed me but I didn't get it. I'm having a blast here and can't wait to hear from yall!

Elder Green

Friday, August 14, 2015

Week 2 - Brazil MTC




Hello there! All is well here in the MTC! I have had a good week. I've  already learned so much and I can carry on a very basic conversation in Portuguese! So our room is full right now. Me and Elder Black, Elder Dunkin and Elder Cummings, and 2 Brazilians. Brazilians are SO awesome! I have yet to find a mean Brazilian. They want to help everyone and they are just super cool. The food is pretty good actually! I eat at every meal and I´m only hungry sometimes! We started teaching an investigator on the first week. Felipe. He is not a real investigator - just an instructor here in the MTC playing like an investigator. We teach him every morning in Portuguese! But on Wednesday he `got a new job and had to move`... So now we are teaching Hilda (which is just our main instructor Irmã Scaduto) but that's going well too. 

On Monday me and Elder Black prepared our lesson for Felipe as usual, and as usual Felipe had a few questions of his own. But this time instead of the awkward silence that there usually is when he asks questions, we actually understood most of them!! And we were answering them! I heard words coming out of my mouth in Portuguese that I never even remember hearing before. So that was really cool.


On Sunday we had a really good devotional with President Swenson in English!!! So that was nice. Then we went and watched a video in Portuguese with English subtitles. The Testament. 
 
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE WEEK: So we were watching the movie and I was having to read all the subtitles but even with that distraction the Spirit was so strong the whole time. I know we have all seen that movie before but it had been a while for me so I really enjoyed it. At the end there is the part when the Savior came to visit the Nephites and Jacob was bringing his blind father who had waited his whole life to see the Messiah. While they are running around trying to get a better view, the little sister (probably 9 or 10) stopped in front of a doorway where she had a perfect view of the Savior. The rest of her family kept running but she stopped. I had a really weird experience at that point. When it showed her, her eyes were big and she was just amazed, I literally saw little Andie standing there instead of the actual girl.. I know that sounds weird but its true. Jesus said "Suffer the little children to come unto me" and she got a big smile on her face and went running to the Savior! There wasn't a dry eye in that room anyway but I was a mess! I don´t know if I've ever felt the spirit so strong. So that's my weird and spiritual story for the week!

We went to the temple today. It was BEAUTIFUL! Everything about it was amazing. So yes Friday is our P-day. So that is when I will e-mail and what not. The Brazilians in our room were not endowed until Wednesday. It was great cause they were SO happy! It was pretty funny. I love Brazilians. They are just hilarious and I love being around them. Right before our devotional on Sunday the music was playing and everyone was being quiet, a Brazilian walked by our row and saw Elder Vick and yelled "Ronald Weasley!!!" I guess because he has red hair! But anyway we all just died laughing. They're just crazy funny like that. 

Everything here is all about Portuguese! They get mad sometimes if they hear you speaking English. But the MTC is super nice! Everything about it is great quality and just crazy nice! A lot of the stuff here is better than America! Except for these computers, the keyboard is way different so forgive all my mistakes! But its not like Africa or anything. The city is absolutely beautiful! The temple was on a big hill so we could see over everything! It is just so pretty here. I´m having a blast!

I get to go walk around outside after I am finished e-mailing so I will go to some shops and stuff. Oh and my camera did have a place for a memory card but it is just way smaller than the one we got before. It can only hold 6 pictures right now!! So if you wouldn't mind maybe putting one in an envelope and send it to me that would be great. It´s pretty small. Elder Dunkin has the same one as me so just get a small one! And I'm gonna give you my Facebook info so you can keep up on that, share info with people about my mission and stuff. Just don´t go crazy on there! 
 
And tell people to write me! You were the only email I had! Guess I'm not as missed as I thought.... HA! And give Teagan my email please. I was pretty disappointed she didn't email me today! I want to know how the temple was and how things are going. And if y'all can send letters that would be great - so I can have something physical to read! We check our District mailbox after every meal and no one ever has anything! 

Well that's about it I think. I really hope I didn't forget anything. Feel free to share this Email wherever, facebook etc... and give people my email and say I'd love to hear from everyone! 

My mission has already changed me a lot spiritually. I´m beginning to see who I really am at this time in my life. I am A missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have been called by a prophet of God to come teach these people of Brazil the Gospel! I will fulfill my duty!
 
I love you all and hope to hear from yall!

Elder Green

* Note from Betsy - Clay was able to find a picture card for his camera in one of the shops near the MTC so sending him one will not be necessary and he can now take more than six pictures!!!



Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Week 1 - Brazil MTC



So I made it to the CTM this morning at around 8:30. My flights went well. It was a really short flight to Atlanta but it got slightly delayed so it took a little longer. Then we made it to our gate going to Brazil and there was a ton of Brazilian people! i was really surprised. We met up with 5 other elders and about 5 or 6 sisters. 3 of the elders were visa waiters so they've been out a few months. The flight was SO long! it was crazy. They had every movie you can imagine for free but I couldn't watch any of them so that was a little disappointing. We finally made it and this city is insane! There are cars and motorcycles everywhere. We were in pretty bad traffic trying to get to the CTM and the guy driving was crazy. I'm pretty sure we almost killed a few people. Motorcycles were just zooming by in the middle of all the cars like they just didn't care. Everything here is so compact and there is so much going on - noises everywhere, people and dogs all over the place. I feel like I'm in one of the Bourne movies where he is jumping on rooftops. Elder Black is my companion. We met up with him in Atlanta so I already knew him a little bit. All of us who flew in together are on the same hall so that's pretty good. Elder Dunkin and his companion (who hasn't arrived yet) are in our same room. Everyone is trying to speak Portuguese and its kind of getting on my nerves! Once we got here we had from 8:30 to 11:50 to do whatever we wanted - sleep, bath, chill. So we haven't even started doing anything for real. Well that's it. I'm safe, didn't get robbed or anything. Expect a letter sometime next week either Wednesday or Friday or something.

Love, Elder Green


August 4, 2015 - Leaving from the airport in Birmingham, Alabama






August 2, 2015 Set apart as a missionary


President Johnson and the newly set apart Elder Green.

July 26, 2015 - "Farewell" talk and luncheon



Back row - Andy Green, Clay Green, Jamie Green, Tommy Green. Front Row - Grace Acker, Cathy Acker, Laura Farrer, Emily Green

March through July - Preparing to go to Brazil







Mission Papers Submitted 2/3/15 - Call Received 3-14-15


Picture submitted with Mission Papers


Watching for the mailman.



It's finally here - Brazil Belem Mission reporting August 5, 2015 to the CTM in Sao Paulo!