"Christmasversary was amazing..."

Hey!

A ton of stuff happened this week…I think… It’s hard to remember now.

We were going to leave for the temple at 6:40 this morning to do sealings with the guys next to us, but we missed our alarms and I woke up at 6:35, then freaked out and made my compañeros get up. I got ready in two minutes but they literally took twenty so I was mad, but we sprinted to the temple and got there in pretty good time. Sealings are my new favorite thing.

I’m not really bummed about being here for two weeks longer. I think it’ll be fun to have new companions for the last two weeks. When they called me to the secretary’s office I thought I was in trouble because I had been on YouTube (looking at church videos) so I was nervous but it was nothing. I guess they had my leave date for December 1^st, which was ridic, so good thing they changed it. Then they just told me to get to know the Panama district because I’d be leaving with them, so I’ve been hanging out with them a bit and they’re super fun. And somehow all the guys who left for panama a couple weeks ago already know I’m here for two weeks longer. Don’t know how, but they emailed me about it.

We learned the first vision in Spanish this week! I’m still going to act like I don’t have it memorized though because it’s so awkward when they just recite it.

Oh and a funny story…On  Friday morning last week, I woke up at like 3:30 am to the sound of a jet engine in my room. And it was freaking loud and scary, so I just laid there frozen for like a minute before I realized that it was the sound of a vacuum, so I opened my door to see who it was and I see the entire older district running away up the hall. Then I realized the sound was coming from my room, so I went back in and under my bed wrapped up in a sheet was a vacuum turned on. And the vacuums here are just like the vacuums everywhere in the church. 50 years old and loud as heck. So I turned it off but I couldn’t figure out how they did it.

The "jet engine" in my room!

I tried to go back to bed but I kept thinking of how I was going to prank them back. So after an hour, I got back up and took my paracord to the other side of the hall where they live and tied their doorknobs together, because they’re in the corner, and then waited till the morning for them to wake up so I could see them trapped…and it was hilarious. They were stuck for like ten minutes before they could fit a knife out the door and cut it. Then they explained how they did the vacuum thing.

So we tape the lock on our door so we never have to unlock it, and earlier that day two of them hid the vacuum under my bed then turned it on, and switched the breaker off to the outlets in my room, so there was no power. Then at 3:30, they switched it back on and waited for me to come out- haha! It was so freaking funny. Elder Donaldson was super mad but Elder Clawson just didn’t care.

After that we had service, which is every Friday, and we’re assigned to our building so we basically just clean up our mess. Then we played volleyball after that, which was still the morning, so the sand was like frozen and nobody could feel their feet. But people suck less now so it’s fun.

Elder Clawson had his dad send us ugly ties, so I took mine and cut the back and flattened it out, so now it’s the fattest tie you’ve ever seen… like 10 inches wide. It’s hideous so I refuse to wear it, but it’s funny.

My big fat ugly tie!

Sunday was “Christmasversary!” We celebrate it every 25th of the month. We had church first, though, and I had to go to another branch presidency meeting, and the second I walked in I had to go to the bathroom super bad, but It was too late. Then the meeting went for an hour and a half, so when it was finally over I had to walk so slowly to the bathroom. Took me like five minutes to go twenty feet up the hall.

At night we celebrated. My companions and I are in possession of the “Christmasversary” tree and we didn’t know what to do so I just put it out in the hall and went around to everyone’s rooms and told them to put something underneath it. It was loaded with stuff. We sang Christmas songs for like twenty minutes and it was awesome. Then I decided Elder Hall would be Santa and he had to distribute everything. I got a Poem written by Elder Winsor and a little picture cutout of Elder Hewitt, who’s kind of new. So “Christmasversary” was amazing.

Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke at the devotional last night and it was super good. One of the first I stayed awake for the whole time. He made the analogy that trees that grow in windy places are much stronger, so the hard times that we have are just to make us stronger and more prepared. Like I can now sit mostly still for four hours and I know how to study. So that’s good.

And last, the other night we were in our classrooms, kind of studying, and my companion said there was someone in the hall he was talking to from the San Fernando Valley. So I came out and started talking to him and it turns out he’s in the El Camino branch! I didn’t know him because he didn’t go on trek, but I knew all his friends. His name is Elder Lorenzo and he’s going to Kansas.

Me and Elder Lorenzo

That’s it for now.

Bye love y’all!

Elder Green

P.S.- Kyle and Jacob’s mission calls are sick!!! I knew they would get to go stateside. It’s a bummer that I will miss them by just a week.

"My desire to watch the Hannah Montana Movie is stronger than ever!"

Hey!

First of all…please tell the Young Women thanks for the letters they sent me. And tell Kate and Jolie that the little sailboats and mountain waves they drew were exactly identical to mine. I thought that I had done them myself.

Elder Kaufusi, from Rancho Cucamonga, is going to El Salvador...he is teaching me Tongan.

The weeks are going freaking fast now. We got a new district last week and they’re super cool. A few of them are going to New York, two to Texas, and one of them to El Salvador. I think we’re getting another group in today so I’m stoked for that. Oh, and I am a District Leader now. It doesn’t really mean anything, except that I have to go to meetings on Sundays and I pick up the mail.

I’ve been talking to Elder Lefler, who’s been In Panama for a week now. He sent a few pictures and where he is right now looks super ghetto, but we already decided were going to be companions on San Blas which is siiiick!

I found another district going to Panama! They’re on the other side of the building from our class and there are five of them. There is also one more guy, on his own, at the end of the hall. Their teacher said that it’s kind of weird that there’s so many of us here right now because they don’t send a lot of people there.

Attempting a roasted marshmallow...

We taught another member TRC this week which actually went well. The first one was an old white guy who had been a professor at BYU, and he was awesome. He got super excited when I said I was going to Panama because he had been a district president, or something, there for a few years like 40 years ago. He had a photo album with him from when he was there and it looks awesome. He basically said that I better get good at Spanish here because it’s super different down there, with 12 distinctly different native languages that I’ll have to learn. Sketch! But he showed us pictures of the natives and they literally just look like Native Americans. Like 100% Lamanite. Super crazy. I think if I’m on the islands I will get to wear shorts which would be awesome.

In class we usually only speak Spanish, especially when we’re learning how to teach lessons. They’re still super long and I still feel like I’m going to die, but they’re better than in the beginning. Study time is freaking fun though, as usual.

We’ve been playing a heck of a lot of sand volleyball lately because we get to go out to the field. We play with the other district that came in the same time as us because they’re cool and really big. I used to think volleyball was a girls sport but girls aren’t good at it and I’m freaking awesome…so it is now a boys sport. (I can think of a few girls that would disagree…)

My companion Elder Clawson was sick yesterday morning so we stayed in our room for the first four hour class of the day while he slept. I tried to study but fell asleep at my desk, then started adding rubber bands to the Orb of Light, and then threw it around the halls. We like to drop it from the fourth floor of our building between the rails because it’s super narrow and awesome. We did that for like an hour last night until the Chinese speaking elders yelled at us.

Poor Elder Clawson

Don’t know what we’re going to do for Halloween here. Probably just stay up later than we usually do and scare people.

Oh also we were watching a ‘Mormom Message’ in class the other day and Kate was totally in it. It was the one that was filmed at that kid’s party out in Palmdale or something. Anyways it was super funny to see her. She was dancing awkwardly.

That’s it for this week, except that this morning at the temple we did initiatories and I did a bunch of Green’s from England which was cool…and some Indians.

Provo Temple

Also my desire to watch the Hannah Montana Movie is stronger than ever.

Lates,

Elder Green

"I near about ran back to grab my bags so I could leave with them."

Study Time...Look how much I love it!

(From Taylor's mom...I did my very best to raise "crass-less" boys...but have failed, and now I have been reprimanded for changing some of Elder Green's words to more appropriate ones. So...here is just Taylor. It is more entertaining. I sure miss this boy, crass and all!)

Hey Y’all!

I get in trouble for saying that here. But they can’t stop me.

Tyler getting called to the Philippines is the best news I have heard in my entire life. That is super cool and kind of hilarious. Like literally. I remember Henry saying that the food tastes like poop there. (I know you’re going to change that sentence to ‘tastes bad’… I checked the blog and I do not appreciate you changing some of my words, you make me sound like a girl.)

And that's awesome that DJ got engaged. He's going to have some wicked little spider babies!

I woke up at four to go with the Panamá elders to the travel office yesterday morning. When they were all checking in the guy at the desk asked where Elder Green was, so they called me over, and when I got there he was confused why I wasn’t dressed in church clothes, and held up my plane tickets. I guess they didn’t switch my departure date yet, but I near about ran back to grab my bags so I could leave with them. There was a sister leaving with them on her way to the London South mission. So I told her about all the drunk people Braiden talked about.

Our little District

A few hours later, one of the elders that left was back at the dorms. He forgot his Passport in his room…ha ha ha. I felt so sad for him.

Nearly an entire district in my zone is going to Costa Rica so maybe I’ll leave with them. If not, at least to the airport.

I am definitely glad that I came earlier. It takes at least two weeks to get used to everything here. I think we’re getting a new district in today which I’m stoked for. I don’t think there’s anybody coming in for Panamá but it’s still gonna be sick. My Spanish is awesome in lessons with investigators, but we had to teach to members the other day and it sucked. They didn’t have questions so I had nothing to teach. We realized that maybe we have to start planning on planning lessons.

One very real thing about the MTC is everyone farts 24/7. It’s unreal. Probably because of the food but literally there is not a quiet bathroom in this place.

When half of our zone left this week we had several ceremonies to pass on things that have been passed on for ages here. My room scored! We got the Tree and Hat of ‘Christmas-versary,’ the Christmas lights, which are super important, the Christmas bells that are to be hung above the door and never jingled, the dunk hoop (for dunking on people), the dunk ball (to perform dunk), Dennis the Frog, Tim the Spoon, and probably the most important…The Orb of Light. It’s a giant rubberband ball that’s been lost and won several times in volleyball tournaments. And then, I personally, from my good friend Lefler, received the original copy of a poem written by an elder a while ago. We read it whenever a group departs. Then we were told of the nerf guns that they had to hide. They said they were in the hallways but we'd never find them. So we checked the first ceiling tile that was slightly sticking up and there they were.

Lefler and I...Children of the Light!

I’ve decided that my favorite thing is walking to the temple in the mornings on P-day. We go at 6:30 am so it’s still dark and cold. When we come out the sun’s just coming up and you can see like all of Utah Valley. Such a sick place!

I have funny story from last week…

So Elder Hall, a super funny guy in my zone, sleep walks a lot. So the other night he said that he woke up outside, sitting under a tree. Then when he got up he thought he was on the other side of campus by our classrooms, so he started walking back to where he thought the dorms were, but he found he was going the wrong way when he got to our classrooms and realized he had started out just outside our dorms. Oh, and he was only in his underwear this whole time. So he came back and started banging on everyone’s windows because he didn’t have his key card to get back in. He said he did this for like half an hour but nobody was waking up, so he sat on a bench in front of the dorms for another hour and just waited until a security guy walked by and let him in. When he got down the stairs he started yelling about how nobody let him in…ha ha ha…I’m pretty sure I was the only one awake at that time. He now sleeps with his key card clipped to him.

Elder Hall...the Sleepwalker.

Study time is another one of my favorite things here. We have huge flat screen TV’s in the classrooms and literally watch Mormon Messages and what not for like two hours until we’re tired and then we actually study.

Oh and sacrament meetings are kind of fun here because they choose three people at random to give a talk at the beginning…one in Spanish and two in English, so you have to plan a talk for both.

That’s it for this week.

Love you,

Elder Green

Birthday Party, which consisted mostly of popping balloons and yelling.

My darling baby Book of Mormon cover. (Yes, mom added the 'darling.')

This is Art...I thought Sam would appreciate it.

"The days are SOOO LONG...I think I might die!"

Hey!

My P-day is Wednesday and I hate it because it means that I have to do laundry. It feels like a super crowded laundromat in here. We did get to go to the temple super early this morning, which was cool, though. It’s tiny here, especially compared to Los Angeles.

My district is super small because they kind of put it together last minute…just three Elders and two sets of Hermana’s. Four of them were supposed to go to the Mexico MTC but they had visa issues, so they’re here, and one came from beginner Spanish and I came from advanced, so they still don’t really have record of us. Ha-ha. My zone is really cool, though. We hang out a lot before we go to bed. Basically we just do a bunch of pull ups and sometimes wrestle or throw plungers at each other, which is really fun. There are five other guys going to Panamá in my zone, who I would have left with if I was still leaving in a week. Once they leave, I’ll be the only one going there…kind of a bummer. One of them is literally like my best friend now, because he’s exactly like Walker…like down to his socks. Everything’s the same. We hang out a lot…his name is Elder Lefler and he’s from Indiana.

Some of my classmates...

Walking around the MTC grounds pointing at things and saying them in Spanish.

The days are SOOO LONG… literally they feel like a week. Classes are four hours…sometimes I think I might die. Also, it feels a little like a prison camp because you’re always under a ceiling. There are covers over all the walkways. Sometimes we go to the front and just stare at the mountains. They are so big.

The food here is really good. I don’t think I’ve drank any water since getting here…just a ton of juice. Also I’ve only eaten meat, or wraps. which I found out is like a cold salad burrito. I eat plenty, but have still lost like two pounds because I run a lot and do like a thousand pull ups every day.

One of the best things about this week was General Conference. My favorite talk was from Elder Keetch on Sunday afternoon. He talked about the surfers and the barrier and the sharks. I think I probably liked it most because of the story, but it was a good message about keeping the commandments. The other one I liked was Elder Anderson’s from the Priesthood session. He talked about a guy who was on his mission when his family died back home in a plane crash. He decided to stay on his mission. He knew that was what his parents would want and he had faith that he would see them again.

Another cool thing that happened was a Hermana in my district asked me to give her a blessing, earlier this week, because she was having a hard time. I was super nervous but I did it and it was really good.

Love y’all,

Elder Green

Elder Green #1, "Little Rory", and Elder Green #2.

3 of the Elder Green's in the MTC...I think I know of 5 so far.

"I no aspeaka da Spanish!"

Just a quick email to let you know that I am staying here for 6 weeks (instead of 2) now because the people in the advanced class "no aspeaka da English" and I "no aspeaka da Spanish." They literally spoke NO English, and I couldn't even talk to my companion, so basically I sat in there confused until they switched me to the intermediate class. Now I'm in a trio- I don't know what they call it- but I've got two companions. Elder Clawson is from Washington and Elder Donaldson is from Arizona. We all like trucks, so that's sick! Donaldson is even more obsessed with Ford than me and he drives a Powerstroke.

My companions, Elder Clawson (L) and Elder Donaldson (R), before our room got messy.

Yesterday, we missed one of our big classes because my compañeros and I were busy switching rooms, since we had all come from different classes in the beginning. When we finally got there they said we needed our notebooks and by the time we got back to our dorm we decided it was too late to go. Then half an hour later we found out that the class was two hours long so thank freaking goodness we missed that!

Also...two of my zone leaders are going to Panamá and they also didn't know that Panamá existed...so I'm not alone.

Love y'all,
Elder Green