Elder Clay Green

Elder Clay Green

Monday, January 30, 2017

Week 78 - New companion Elder Gaspar in Castanhal


Hello!!

I hope everyone is doing well! We had a good week. My new companion is cool. WE are working well together. The area we are in has lots of potencial and we are working hard.

Everyone from our zone got here in Castanhal on Tuesday morning. We had the training on Wednesday so all the elders just stayed here at our house for 2 days so that was a little crazy/fun. The transmisson was great! We learned SO much and are super excited about the changes that we made. 

We had a sad experience this week. We have been visiting that inactive family that has a son who isnt a member. We had made goals for them to go to the temple, we got rid of their coffee, everyhting was going great. We went last Monday and talked with the dad and he was super excited to go to church on Sunday. We went 3 more times that week but no one was at home. Saturday night we went there and the mom answered the door and said that her husband just left. He rented an apartment and just left. I have literally never felt so sad in my life. Over the past 3 months we have seen that family progress so much. They always talk about how much they love each other and want to be sealed, and then out of no where the separate, leaving the 2 kids without a dad in the home. After she told me that I literally wasnt able to say anything. We are going there tonight and bringing a family with us. 

We have a lot of good investigators that want to learn and progress, but it is so hard for these people to go to church!!! We do everything possible but the people just dont want to go to church on Sunday. But it will all work out.

Love yall!!
Elder Green

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Week 77 Goodbye to Elder Vilaca in Castanhal

 Clay with Murilo - a young man in his ward - who just received his
mission call to Brazil Londrina Mission 

Hello!!

This was my companion´s last week in the mission. WHich means I spent a lot of time walking around with him visiting peaople and buying a bunch of stuff to take home. We went to Belém on Wednesday for his last interview with the president. After that interview you can imagine, it was difficult for him to get motivated to work! So our week was a little slow, but we were able to bring Aureo to church! He is the guy who really likes the church but his family is really firm in another. But he is committed to come to church every Sunday and will eventually be baptized. 

Want to hear a miracle? So Aureo drinks coffee because he works nights and has to stay awake for long periods of time. Members of the church here love to drink Tereré. It is a natural herb that you drink with water. It is really healthy and missionaries drink it like crazy because it hydrates really well. Aureo mentioned one day this week that he always wanted to try it and we said we had a ton at our house. The next visit, we gave him some. Long story short, he has completely cut coffee, completely, and is only drinking tereré at night. This all happened before we even taught him the Word of Wisdom!!! The Lord works in mysterious ways! 

Of the 9 areas in our zone, 7 changed this transfer. We will have lots of new missionaries in the zone, but we are super excited. 

Love yall!
Elder Green 

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Week 76 Castanhal

Leadership Meeting at Mission Home in Belem

 Clay mixed all his food together and Sis Stasevskas was appalled! She mentioned it to (Elder) Mateus Capello in a comment and he said that was ONE thing he did not teach Elder Green!




Hello!!!

THis week was super busy. Tuesday we went to Belém for a meeting at the presidents house. Lots of things changed in the mission. It used to be that we did our  planning session at 9:00 at night until 9:30. But now we do that in the morning, so we can sleep at 9:30 pm if we want!! That was for sure a revelation because if there is one thing that I need a little bit more of it is sleep! SO everyone is excited about that, but we will start doing this only next month. 

We were suppose to recieve a visit from Elder Costa this month but he called and said that we cant make it and will remark with us for a latter time. So everyone was a little sad about that but we look forward for when he comes maybe next month.

Wednesday we had our zone conference. Because our zone is so distant we can only have a meeting once a month. Lots of things were said and goals were set. I talked about the triangle of success, which has 3 things: Faith, Obidience and Love. We can be obidient to all the rules and commandments and we can pray and fast like crazy, but if we dont do it for the right reason(Love for the Savior and Gods children) the Lord will not bless us with success. Our motivation for hard work and rightous living is what really matters. 

Remember that refferal we got from the inactive member on the road? So we have been working with them but this past week we went there and she basically said that they dont want to recieve our visits anymore and they will keep going to there church... We get really sad when people learn the truth and then reject it. Basically saying to Christ that they dont want His help! 

So this Sunday we had a meeting with the missionary part of the ward and disscused about less active members and investigators. We talked a lot about the investigator who fed us lunch last week and came to church, just his family that doesnt support him. As we were talking about him someone knocked on the door, it was HIM! He had stopped by the church on the way to work and saw us in the bishops office so he just came on in! We taught him right there with the 2nd couselor and the ward mission leader and ward missionaries! He has a lot of potencial! He says people from the other church his family goes to keep coming to his house and talking bad about our church, but he is firm and said he will continue coming to church. For sure was the first time an investigator walked into a ward counsel meeting at the exact time we were talking about him! 

This is my companions last week in the mission. We will have to travel to Belém again this week.. 

Hope everything is going well with you all!!

Love yall

Elder Green    

Week 75 - Finding the elect in Castanhal








So this week went by really fast, but it was full of miracles!

On Wednesday, the sisters called us and said that a man stopped them on the street and wanted to know more about the church, so they took his address and he lives in our area. We went there on the same day and taught him at his work. He lives in a city that is about 30 minutes from Castanhal but he works right next to our house. He said he has always been curious about the church since he was a little kid and when he saw the sisters pass by he felt like he needed to talk to them. He said he knows it was God that told him to talk to the sisters. He is super smart. He understands everything we teach him and is super humble. He wants to learn and said he wants to attend the church with his whole family!!!But his wife is super firm in another church. This man went to church on Sunday and loved it!! He said his wife got mad when she found out that he is talking with the missionaries and other missionaries from his other church came by his house and said a bunch of stuff, but he didnt let that bother him and he still wants to attend the church. We even went to his house this morning and met his family and ate lunch. When we sat down, he turned on his computer and his computer screen background was a picture of Alabama football!!! I was like WHAAAAAT!! This guy is for sure an elect. He even gave us açaí and his wife warmed up to us. And he works with UFC and gave me an autographed t shirt of a famous brazilian UFC fighter!! All of that in 1 week!!

It was fun because this week I got to do an exchange with Elder Steindorf! He came to my area and we worked together for 1 day. After spending 6 months with him it felt like we were still companions! But it was super cool. We knocked lots of doors and found a lady who is super receptive and wants to learn more about the church. 

There is a kid that I talked about a while back who has been coming to church for a long time but wasnt baptized because his family didnt approve. Well now he is 18 years old and doesnt need approval! But these past few weeks we have been trying to call him but he doesnt answer and we could get in touch with him. He also never came back to church. But this week, we found him!!! He got really excited when we showed up at his house and he ever came to watch the baptism. We will work a lot more with him this week.

So we had a baptism this week! Caio was baptized by his uncle who got home from the mission a few weeks ago. It was a super spiritual meeting and Caio was super happy and excited!  

I decided to study a lot about the priesthood this week. I am trying to understand it better. While I studied about it this week, I was asked to give a LOT of priesthood blessings. Much more than usual. I fell the spirit a little bit stronger each time I exercise the priesthood. I am grateful the Lord gave me so many opportunities this week to learn and experience more the power of the priesthood.

Sorry there isnt much this week. I am really out of time!!
Love yall!!

Elder Green 






Monday, January 2, 2017

Week 74 Happy New Year in Castanhal!




 Clay with Bishop Carvalho and his wife Cleo who were visiting in Castanhal

Clay with Thomas Carvalho 

Hello!! Happy New year!!!

This week was very busy. Started off on Sunday when a kid who got home from his mission last month told us his nephew wants to be baptized. So we started teaching him this week and he is super good! It has been a while since he went to church but he knows lots of things about the gospel and he will be baptized this Saturday. 

So we were on the road this week and wanted to pass by the house of one of our investigators but we passed his road. So we were kind of lost but decided to take a road that we have never walked to try and go back and find his house. As we were walking on this road, a man who was working on the sidewalk in front of a house stopped us and said he is a member that hasn't gone to church in a long time. A couple of weeks ago he was working construction in front of some lady's house and she was talking about religion. SO this man started talking to her about the church and prophets and the Book of Mormon and she got excited! She said she had been praying to know which church she should attend with her family. She said she knew that less active member was an answer from God and she wanted to know more. So we have taught her twice now and she is very receptive and has a lot of potential. Just think, if we hadn't gotten lost and walked down that weird road, we never would have found the less active member and never would have taught this lady! 

Funny story. We taught this guy and after the lesson my companion went to the bathroom. The bathroom doesn't have light so you have to keep the door open a little bit, but my companion closed the door. After about 5 minutes we heard him beating on the bathroom door! The door has some kind of problem and if you close it it doesn't open! So he was stuck in the guys bathroom! After about 20 minutes of trying to get him out, we had to take off the hinges and finally got him out of there! My companion is now known as the guy that locked himself in the bathroom!!

We were walking down the street a different day and another less active member passed. He passed a person for us to teach about a month ago but we were never able to get back in touch with her or him.  He told us that her house was really close to where we were at! He explained to us where she lives and we went. When she answered the door she looked like a kid on Christmas morning, she was so happy to see us and she had read the Book of Mormon and has lots of really good question. Another miracle who has lots of potential.

So you know that I have a retainer behind my front teeth. The bottom one broke off years ago but I never got it put back on. So at lunch the other day the top one came loose just of one side so I had this piece of metal hanging inside my mouth! Our health card doesn't cover that so I was scared that the dentist place we went to would charge me a lot, but she did it for free!! She glued it back on in like 5 minutes and let me go! Another miracle!!

We got to stay at a members house until midnight in Saturday to celebrate New Year. He made tons of food and we had a good time! I am not use to staying awake past 10:30 so I was literally sleeping while standing, but it was still fun!

I have learned a lot about prayer. Prayer is one of the most difficult things to do effectively. We pray so much sometimes we aren't as sincere as we should be. Prayer is the cornerstone of pure and perfect worship. The opportunity we have to speak with our Creator. The opportunity to have our voices ascend to the throne of God and heard throughout the courts of Heaven. The most sacred time of our day is when we pray. We should always be sincere, never repetitious. Prayer is powerful. Prayer heals the sick, raises the dead, helps us receive forgiveness for our sins, and saves souls. Without prayer I wouldn't have a testimony of the church or the Book of Mormon. I wouldn't understand Gods will and I wouldn't be happy. I am so thankful for prayer and the things I learn when I converse with my Father in Heaven.

Love yall!!

Elder Green