CAMBIOS, CAMbios, Cambios, cambios

Guess what everybody?!?

Elder Murillo (new companion) and Elder Greenwood at transfers

We just had Cambios, Changes. I now have a new comp. His name is Elder Murillo. He has 3 months in the mission and is excited to start working in my area and BAPTIZING. Elder Vivanco, now on his last cycle, went with some other missionary.

Mexican Feast!

This week we worked hard all week, but did not see a lot of pay off. But, we know that the pay off does come as we strive to be diligent in all that we do. That is a promise to us in the mission, and a promise to us in life. Strive to do good, especially when it's hard. And the pay off is ALWAYS worth it all.

My scripture of this week is
Moroni 8:3 -

I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.

It applied to me this week and I know that it applies to all of you too.

Love you all!

You are all in my prayers and I hope the best for each and every one of you.

Elder Greenwood :)

Another Week of Missionary Work Flown By

Hey, hey! How's it going everybody?

We had a pretty normal week in the mission this week. Of course, by normal I mean that things that you could NEVER expect happened to us. It's incredible how frequently that happens.

We were outside a couple days ago, contacting people on the street and looking for an address of someone who wanted us to visit them, when a drunk guy called us over to talk to him and these other 2 non-drunk ladies. This dude then decided to talk to us for almost 30 minutes about all these other churches that he had seen in his life, starting with Catholics, then moving on to Christian Churches, then the Jehovah's Witnesses. 

He told us about all these terrible people that he had met in all those churches and that they didn't practice what they preached. Then, this drunk man proceeded to testify to us and to his 2 lady friends about how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only church that he has never ever seen a problem with. That the people are always kind and Charitable, and never judge.

He said all that while drunk. Then, the 2 ladies heard that we believe that having eternal families is possible. And they got SUPER interested.

I learned just a bit more that day about the great responsibility we have as members of the church to ALWAYS be representatives of Christ, no matter who we are, where we came from, or what calling we may or may not have. We have all been called and have made the covenant to take upon us the name of Christ through baptism. And people are watching us and notice the good and bad that we do. When we always strive to do good, it ALWAYS pays off. It's WORTH IT. 

My scripture of the week is Isiah 55:8. The Lord has his ways, and I am always surprised how often and well it works out when we trust in and follow His promptings.

Love you all! Have a Great Week! Be a Good Representative of Christ!!!!

Elder Greenwood :)

----------------------------------- BONUS STORIES--------------------------------

Note from Landon's Mom:
Landon has sent us a couple of stories lately that were not included in his weekly group letter. I'm including them below for your enjoyment. =)

Bonus Story #1 - 

This week, we found a mountain of straight black pebbles. And we just had to climb it. It was super hard. Every step we took, we would start to slide back some. We just had to keep on moving up to avoid sliding down. Way fun :)  But, writing about that just now made me realize that pebble mountain is an example of life. If we don't keep strengthening ourselves and moving towards the top of the mountain, we will slide backwards into old habits and the temptations of Satan. But God is there to help us up the mountain. He is like the guide that is there to tell us where to go.

Bonus Story #2 (so Landon)- 

I did 500 push-ups yesterday....

I did 100 to work out this morning. Then, Elder Babb, our zone leader, used me as an example [at zone conference]. He would give a doughnut to one of the 18 missionaries there and I would have to do 15 push-ups every time he gave out a doughnut. Everybody got a doughnut. I showed my love for the zone by paying for all of them. 270 push-ups more.

Elder Babb told me about 2 hours before that I would be doing it. BUT, he said that he was going to have me do 10 push-ups for each doughnut. Of course I said, piece of cake. I can do it. And I told him that I would be preparing myself and stuff. And he was like "No, don't do that. It needs to be hard!" I said, "OK."

THEN! In the moment, he said that I would be doing 15 every doughnut. I just smiled and knew that I was in for it. Hahaha. Then, in the night, I decided that I couldn't just stop with 370 [for the day], and 400 is a lame number, so yeah. 500 :)

Love you all!

Elder Greenwood :)

Double Baptism!

Great, Great week this week!

Liseth and Griselda's Baptisms

The Assistants came by on Monday and REALLY helped me and the zone get moving again with work and seeing results. This week, my comp and I destroyed with the Key Indicators that we pass. And the Lord really does bless you when you do what he wants you to do.

 We had one "for sure" baptism this week with the interview and everything. Her name is Griselda. But, we knew that her sister was also ready to go. We just had to win her trust more, animate her, and hope for the mercy of the Lord to kick in. And Hallelujah! Liseth was baptized as well! She got super animated and everything went great.

Utah and Sombreros -- Two of my favorite things!

The field is white and already to harvest. We, as missionaries, are here to pay the price to help someone make steps towards salvation and help those that will let us. Anything is possible with the Lord.

I invite you all to take a chance this week and do something to help someone else come closer to the Gospel in some way, with the hope and faith that the Lord will bless you and them with his infinite mercy.

I love you all! Que tenga una buena semana!!!

Elder Greenwood :)

Conferencia General

What up people!

Watching General Conference

Hope that your week was incredible!! Mine sure was with the Conference. This Conference was one of the best I have ever had the experience to witness in my entire 19 years of life. I hope that you took advantage and are taking advantage of the teachings that literally came from servants of God. Or, more specifically, God himself.

I am going to share a few things that I wrote down this last weekend.

FIRST, RIGHT OFF THE BAT -

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - Remember, apply the things you learned. If we don’t apply what we learned in the Conference then it serves for nothing and we are ignoring the tools and protection that God is giving us to fight against Satan these next 6 months.

President Henry B. Eyring - The promise of words being given in the moment applies especially to Testimonies. [The Spirit will guide you in what you say when you share your testimony.]

Sister Mary R. Durham - The best way to learn how to use the Spirit and rely on it more is to immerse yourself in it.

Brother Donald L. Hallstrom - YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.... KNOW IT....   - The Lord lets you suffer because he knows that it will bless you.

Brother Kevin R. Duncan - The Atonement is the ointment that softens the heart and gives peace.

Brother Stephen E. Snow - Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble.

Elder Dale G. Renlund - If life were fair, we would not be resurrected. Thank heavens that life isn’t fair.

Mexican Bus Ride

ULYSIS CHAVEZ (OUR MISSION PRESIDENT) JUST GOT CALLED TO BECOME AN AREA 70! YEAH PRESIDENT!

Elder Neil L. Andersen - Remember who you are – A Child of God.

Elder David A. Bednar - The sacrament is the invitation to repent sincerely. Strive to be born again all the time. We can’t be perfect right now, but we can become increasingly worthy.

Elder Russell M. Nelson - Only a man who has paid the price for Priesthood Power will have it. And an eternal family.... The same applies in ALL things.

Brother Stephen W. Owen - Sometimes you are called to lead, sometimes to follow. But you are always a leader.  When you are not perfect at something but you still try, you are being a leader.

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf - Astonish your spouse. “Seek and you shall find” is the promise, and you can use it for good or bad.  Pride has no place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Batman never looked so good.

President Henry B. Eyring - Everything that we do should have focus on Celestial Marriage. The most important work as Priesthood Fathers is within the walls of our own homes.

President Thomas S. Monson - Remember who you are and who God expects you to be. Are you standing in Holy places?

I didn’t get to see all of conference, YET. I will be downloading the talks and listening to them many, many times and reading them over and over, to understand better and apply it differently every time. I invite you all to do the same.

I love you all! Have the best week ever!

PUT ON THE ARMOR OF GOD!!! :)

Elder Greenwood :)

Easter

Hey everybody!! Hope that you all had an incredible Easter!!!

Hugs and Kisses

Honestly, I have got to say that I have never grown to appreciate the purpose of Easter until I came out here on the mission. I always knew that we were celebrating the resurrection of Christ, but I didn't understand what that had to do with all of us.

As I read the scriptures and studied and testified to others about the importance of Easter, I came to understand how incredible it really is.

(If you have not seen the church videos of the last two Easters, I cannot more highly recommend them. This year's is Hallelujah).

The entire purpose of Easter is to celebrate the Atonement of Christ. What is the Atonement? It is when Christ paid for our sins, was then betrayed and crucified on the cross, and then resurrected on the 3rd day.

Solved it!

Why is it important?

We cannot fully comprehend the pain that that entails but, as we give it our effort, we will learn more and become more grateful for it. Trust me, without the Atonement, EVERY part of the Plan of Salvation would fall apart. We would not be able to live with our families forever, live with God, or have true happiness.

Because He lives, we can have happiness, we can have eternal families, and we have the hope that we will see our loved ones again after death with perfected bodies in the presence of God.

Please watch the videos. They help explain it even more. And read the 4 scriptural accounts of what is the Atonement of Christ. I promise that you will find more happiness, gratitude, and purpose in your personal life, and you will become more fit to be an instrument in God's hands to bring that happiness, gratitude, and purpose to other people's lives.

Love you all! Have a great Week!

Elder Greenwood :)

God Loves Us

Hello everybody!!!

With the weather here now, ya gotta wear shaades!

It's good to write you all again, I hope all is well. If it's not, then God is preparing you to do something amazing in the future as an instrument in his hands. (#Refiner'sFire)

This week was an interesting week. Last P-day (I don't know if I mentioned it) I bought a sumbrero!! Rock on! I feel awesome in my sumbrero! It's amazing! And I burn less now! Even better!

But, all the hard work that we did and all the things that happened this week all summed up in a big way. A lady named Silvia Wong was baptized :)

Silvia Wong's Baptism

Silvia Wong is an incredibly strong person. In our lessons, she told us about so many things that have happened to her in her life -- things that you would never believe. It got to the point that she told God that she was going to go her way and that he could go his. And if they see each other they can say, "hi," and keep on moving. (She later told us that she hadn't even mentioned some of the harder stories of her life. I can't imagine them).

She felt abandoned -- by God, and by everyone. Her life was not a happy one. But she found a feeling of peace that she had never experienced before in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In the beginning, she was afraid, afraid that God really didn't love her. But, after the Stake Conference we had last week, she found her answer that God does love her, and that He was and is always there for her. And that is the truth, not just for her, but for all of us.

I had the honor to baptize her, and the Spirit was incredibly strong. She knows now where she belongs and she has found happiness in her life. She even testified to another person in the baptismal service afterwards who has been investigating the church.

Not sure what this is about, but looks like fun!

Guess they're still friends.

In the mission you have experiences that you will never have in normal life. This is one of those. The Lord's hand is in this work. The other missionaries who found her wouldn't have found her without His help. This work is truly the work of the Lord to bring about the fullness of His true Church.

I love you all and invite you all to go out and serve someone else this week and go out and find a spiritual experience.

Elder Greenwood :)

Where's a razor when you need one?

P.S. - Scripture of the Week: Moroni 9:6-

"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."

Bi-Polar Chihuahua :)‏

How's it going, People?

Elders Greenwood and Vivanco (companion)

Homemade Tortilla!

Crazy week of weather this week! Hahaha! Sunday and Monday had some normal Mexican heat going on. Then, we "caught wind" that it snowed in Cuahtemuc (another city) and that wind comes up to the city of Chihuahua, near us. Tuesday and Wednesday it was COLD! and Windy. It even rained. Then, it went right back to hot again. Super extremes going on here. I've learned that I shouldn't pack up my jacket until May or June. Hahaha!

Rebeca's Baptism

Speaking of extremes... as in, EXTREMELY AWESOME! We had a baptism! And, even cooler, the brother of the girl who was baptized got to baptize her! Awesome stuff! She, her brother, and their mom are all members now and have the hope of being sealed in the temple some day. Awesome :) That is what life is all about. Being sealed in the temple and living a life like Jesus lived brings more happiness than you'll ever even know in this life and promises happiness that you can't even comprehend in the next life. :)

Honoring Cousin Heidi Around the World

Great pictures from flipchart

My scriptures of the Week are Luke 22:32 and D&C 108:7 -

"But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, STRENGTHEN THY BRETHREN."

"STRENGTHEN THY BRETHREN in all your conversation, in all your prayers, in all your exhortations, and in all your doings."

What is eternal life without family? First and foremost strengthen your family, and then, strengthen your extended family, those people on the streets, in the halls, in the store, are all our brothers and sisters. Jesus Died, and was resurrected so that we could be resurrected as well, but The promise goes even further. All it takes is a little more effort. And the promise is Eternal Life.

Zone Photo at Transfers

Love you all! Have a great week, and strengthen those around you!!

Elder Greenwood :)