Heyo - Wednesday, October 19

Hey everyone, how's things?

We're at the library. It's really windy and rainy today, starting into the crappy weather phase. Sounds like weather there has actually been worse though.

This week has been good, my new comp is cool. He's actually adopted like me, fun fact. I thought that was pretty cool. His name is Elder Samuel Swenson, he's from Snohomish, WA. He has 16 months out on his mission. I thought he might get transferred down to be with me but I wasn't sure. We get along and have a similar sense of humor, so things go well.

We also have been having some cool miracles this week. Every single time that we've gone knocking doors this week, we've gotten let in on the first door. We're anticipating that good things happen this next week.

Also, we were visited yesterday by Elder Ellis of the Seventy. He was very inspirational. Just to give a little bit of background, President Doll has been focusing this year on getting every companionship to baptize every month. That's been an awesome vision for this mission and we as a zone have become an epitome of that vision. This month, we have 15 companionships in our zone and we are expecting to have 18 baptisms. It is the first time that this zone will ever have exceeded their baptisms to companionship ratio. We are stoked for that. So now we were wondering what our next big step should be as a zone. We thought, well we can try to double it, get 30 baptisms for 15 missionaries. However, Elder Ellis expanded our vision and increased our faith and helped us set our sights on a new objective: 1 family baptized per companionship per month. We are excited to get the Chicago zone on board to do that. On a more personal note, we had a meeting with the leadership of the mission and him, and he instructed us on how the Lord expects us to be leaders. Throughout the zone conference and the leadership meeting, I kept thinking "If only he had come earlier on in my mission... this would have helped me to focus so much more." At the end of the meeting, he shook my hand and held it, and said, "Elder Green, do you know what the best part about this is?" Having no clue what he was talking about, I responded, "No." Then he said, looking me in the eyes and seeing into my soul, "It's not over. Your best day will be your last." It was a really neat experience. He knew exactly what I was thinking and what to say to motivate me. I think he also had a glimpse of other ways that I would be able to participate in the Lord's work later in life, because that's been on my mind a lot.

Wow sounds like you had quite the adventure! Good thing we've got about a billion doctors in the family. Should've called up Marc Anderson and thrown in Brother Luddington to the mix just to cover your bases! Gall stones huh? What causes those? Sounds like you're going to have loads of fun. Could be worse, it could've happened on your birthday or thanksgiving itself. That would've been a fun homecoming! And hey, now your little incisions can match mine! Twinners!

I did get your last package. It was very nice and unhealthy! It's funny, me and my comp were talking about how we're glad that we both are trying to eat healthy and the next day I received the candy and cookies and stuff. Haha it was great. Needless to say, some of the candy is gone and I'm about halfway through the bag of cookies, but hey, I tried to resist. Actually, Elder Aguila is now back in my zone, and when he saw me at zone conference yesterday he was like, "Wow Green you've lost weight. I mean, you're really little!" Haha it was funny. I'm actually down to between 158-165 pounds and I feel really good. It's cause I've lost all the fat and now I'm lean muscle.

Well when I get home, my first objective will be to make a Costco run so that I can get the ingredients to my morning smoothie. But I am more than excited to eat your food again!

Today we will be going to the museum of Science and Industry (the one which I seem to frequent). We're going with Elder McDonnell, Elder Johnson, Elder Aguila, Elder Shippen, Elder Bodily and Elder Hansen. Elder McDonnell is going home with me, Elder Johnson will be my roommate at BYU, Elder Aguila is my son and the rest are just zone members. It will be loads of fun.

Much love,

Elder J.