Week 100 - the end

Last few days in Maraba with Elder Bartoski

Alma 29:8-10
8 For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.
9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.

Friday June 30, 2017

 Clay with the other returning-home missionaries

Clay and Elder Black at the Mission Office

 Clay got to visit Elder Steindorf one last time!

Visiting Friends in Cabanagem

Clay's 20th Birthday and Farewell Dinner at the Mission Home - Monday July 3, 2017

 Acai teeth

 Last Mission Group Selfie

 Final picture of the Returning Home Group

Clay putting his thumbprint on Sis. Stasevskas's Missionary Tree

Clay's last picture with Pres. and Sis. Stasevskas

Sao Paulo Airport with Mateus Capello

Mom tracking his flight from Sao Paulo to Atlanta

Birmingham Airport July 5, 2017

The Green Boys

Week 99 - Maraba

Hello!!

We had a good week. We started the week with not too many people to teach, so we decided to go to a busy park on Tuesday morning and just start talking to everyone. Here it is really easy to talk to people and anyone will give you their address and accept a message. A couple of weeks ago some students stopped us on the road and said they were doing a survey and asked us a few simple questions and we responded and they left. As we were in this park running after people we thought that it would be cool to do a survey to see ow interested people really were. We created 3 simple questions:

1. Have you ever felt the Holy Ghost?

2. Do you believe that we have a living prophet today?

3. Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon? 

After hearing the peoples response to these 3 questions we were able to talk about a certain gospel principal that would make the person more interested. Asking these 3 questions made it a little more interesting and fun for us and helped us find more interested people. We spent a good 2 hours there talking to everyone and had a bunch of addresses to visit throughout the week.

There are lots of iguanas here. I have seen a few throughout my mission but here in this city they are everywhere! We taught a lady on Thursday and went back on Saturday to talk with her again. As we were walking up to her house I was not paying attention to my surroundings and when we got close there were about 5 huge iguanas that went crazy and started running all over the place. It scared the mess out of me and I almost fell down with fright, but non of them got too close to us. We looked up in the trees and saw about 4 more crawling around in the trees.  As I was looking at all of them my companion thought it would be funny to grab my leg like an iguana was attacking me. I flipped out and the guy that was working in his yard started laughing at me. It was pretty embarrassing but that lady wasn't home so we didn't hang around too long.

There is a member of the church here that was baptized a few years ago. She is a really old lady and got sick and is no longer able to go to church. I met her for the first time this week. We went there 2 times and she was crazy happy to see us. She does not receive many visits and misses the church. When we went there she was receiving a message from Jehovah Witnesses, so we decided to go back the very next day to visit her. She was SO happy and bought us stuff to drink and everything. Her friend was also there helping with stuff in the house so we taught her and she is very interested and has no church. So now we are able to help the little old sick lady and hopefully baptize her friend! 

Well that is about it for this week!

Love yall!!

Elder Green

Week 98 - Maraba

Hello!

This week had some ups and downs.

On Monday we went and taught 2 people we have been teaching for a while. One of them has gone to church a few times but was not wanting to accept a baptism date. We went there not knowing exactly what we were going to teach. She has not been reading the Book of Mormon and has not been praying. It is SO frustrating because when we ask her why she is not reading or praying she always says "I don't know". That is her answer to everything. There is now way to help her if she does not answer our questions. We ask her if she understands the importance of reading the scriptures and praying and she says "I don't know". There is no way to explain it but she was literally answering all of our simple yes or no questions like that or wouldn't give any response. I was trying really hard not to get upset, so we just sat there in silence for a good minute or two praying that the Spirit would give us patience and words to help her. After a couple of silent moments I decided to read a scripture to her, Matthew 5:37. We explained to her that we were there to help and that she needs to take what we are saying seriously and respond to our questions the way Christ teaches us to respond. Haha it was a little tense but the Spirit was SO strong and she started to open up to us and answer our questions. We saw a great change in her and she started taking things more seriously, and in the end, accepted a date to be baptized! I talked with my companion after and we both got goosebumps during the lesson feeling and seeing the Spirit change her way of thought right before our eyes.

We found a few good people to teach this week including the daughter of one of our recent converts. She has a lot of potential!

We had our district meetings this week in Parauapebas. It was a good meeting! After the meeting me and the district leader here in Marabá went to Canaã to do an exchange with them. Canaã is about 4 hours from Marabá. We had a good time there and were able to work a lot with the elders there. We got back from there on Saturday.

But that was about it for this week. We taught a guy named Melchizedek. haha I thought that was pretty cool!

Love yall!

Elder Green

Week 97 -Maraba Não desisto

Belem Mission Leadership Council June 2017

 Sis Stasevskas had an early birthday cake for Clay so he could celebrate with the Leadership Council

 Clay and Elder Rodriguez

 Elder Arevalo, Elder Rodriguez, and Clay with his package delivered by the Stasevskas's daughter Talita who is visiting from California.

 Elder Bartoski and Clay wearing matching ties

 Clay with his last little package

 Everybody looking sad - I guess because Clay is about to go home?

 The hard-working shoes of the Leadership Council

 Clay taking a self-portrait in the mirror

Clay, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Black

Lunch appointment.

Hello!!

We had a good week this week. We spent Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday in Belém. There are not many flights from Belém to Marabá so sometimes we have to wait a long time in Belém... which stinks because we don't have anything to do there! But we had a great meeting with the president who talked a lot about how we can be successful in life or in anything we do. They also talked a lot about the love of Christ and the power of the Book of Mormon. 

When we got back in Marabá we visited a few people. We have many good investigators that are keeping commitments but for some reason can not or do not want to be baptized. We were very firm this week with our investigators and we able to help a few agree to baptism. 

A member took us to teach one of his friends on Friday. We taught her and her family the Restoration and she understood very well but the rest of her family didn't show much interest. We went back on Saturday and  she said that she read the pamphlet and can't stop thinking about Joseph Smith and his story. She came to church yesterday and is really excited to learn more about the church. 

We are teaching another kid who already went to church 1 time and has all the lessons. He stopped drinking coffee and accepted a baptismal dat for the 17th. But in order for him to be baptized he needs to go to church 1 more time. He committed to come to church but didnt go because his friend wasn't able to pass by his house and take him... And his phone doesn't work so we were not able to call him.. So that made us sad but we will bring him to church this Sunday or tell him to go by himself. It will all work out!

Love yall!! Have a great week!

Elder Green