Hermana Greenhalgh

Hermana Greenhalgh

Monday, February 23, 2015

Arizona Adventures! Letter 02/23/15

Buenos Dias,

Como estado todos? My week was pretty good, and some great things happened. I've had some really insightful personal studies and my testimony of the Gospel has skyrocketed! I love this Gospel and I'm so
grateful I get to be a missionary at this time. As the months are narrowing and coming home gets closer I've been thinking of how much I have changed and grown since being out here. Eleven short months ago I left home, and I never would of thought I'd be where I am today. I know that without my mission I wouldn't have gained the strong testimony I have today, and I would have missed out on these amazing people in Arizona.
 
Recently our mission got new applications for our IPads to do Family History. As I've looked back at the stories and past generations it makes me grateful to know how I got here. My 4th great grandpa was a
guard of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and a family friend. On the other side one of the greats hated the "Mormons from America" it's funny to think how far we've come. I invite you to all download the Family Tree app and do the work! There is no greater happiness than doing the work of salvation.
 
As for my week:

Monday- We had a Zone Pday at the park. We played games, and ate pizza. It was really nice to be in the sun, and get some awesome tan lines. I'm going to be Neapolitan colored when I get home! Later that
night we had 3 successful lessons and found some new investigators.

Tuesday- Today we had District Meeting and it was super spiritual. I love inspirational meetings, they get me pumped to get back out and do work. We really kicked it into gear this week with teaching. We had 23
lessons which isn't much but so much improvement from the last couple weeks.

Wednesday- Today we did 3 hours of community service at St. Mary's Food bank. We put together large food bags for people, and helped over 1000 families. The nice thing about the initiative we are doing is we
can do service any where we go through the justserve.org website. Check it out!

Thursday- Today we went on exchanges. I went to the English area with Sister Schroeder. It's funny I have literally lived with her my whole mission except 2 transfers.  She's also from Idaho and we get along great. We taught lots of good lessons. One lesson that was really unique was with the Lee family. There was a old lady sitting in the front yard in a wheelchair. She had rolled herself into a bush and was stuck there. I pulled her out and she was a little delusional but spoke to me a little bit. Her son came out and he's 80... Guess how
old she was? 101!!  Once I had gotten her our of the bush she wanted to go inside but couldn't get her wheel chair in. So I picked up and hauled her inside. She was so sweet and started to tear up, then kissed me on the hand. It made me miss my Grandma Pat a ton! We shared a little message with them and then I had to say the closing prayer.  While I was praying then old lady was trying to whisper in my ear, I couldn't help but laugh. Later we had dinner with a Samoan family.  It was really good!

Friday- Today we had weekly planning, and after I kicked the Elders butts in a chili eating contest. They brought in ghost peppers, which are the 2nd hottest pepper in the world. It was 3 elders and me who ate them.  They got it on video. They all cried.  Not one tear was shed from me. That's right! I eat chili on the daily. Good thing my dad used to give us jalapeños when we were little. It was just in preparation for my mission! Later that night we had a FHE with the Montes, a part member family! We played Scatagories in Spanish!

Saturday- Today was a fairly normal day, we got invited to have brunch with a part member family! She made Mexican omelets and strawberry cream cheese French toast! Talk about good food! Later we
had some good lessons and it was great day!

Sunday- Today we had 3 part member families come to church!! Whoop whoop! It was so good! Later we had a amazing lesson with a less active! I've been working with her since I got to Phoenix and she's
coming back to church!!! Later we had a good dinner with the Bishop's family!

Okay big news.... they found our CAR!! The guy used it for an assault to kill someone, then ended up wrecking it! The police found it, but didn't find our stuff.  Hopefully we will be getting paid for it! We
won't be getting the car back.  It's going to a different Zone in the mission.

Well hope everyone had a great week! Thank you to the people who actually write me!

Hermana Greenhalgh

Monday, February 16, 2015

Dropped Like It's Like Hot - Letter 02/16/15

Mi familia, y mis amigos,

How was everyone's week? It's been a while since I've heard from pretty much anyone. Please write me! I want to know how everyone's doing.

Well, missionary life is good. This week has been better in some ways than last week. We had a few difficult trials happen with our teaching pool and a family in our Ward, but otherwise things are pretty much back to normal.

So the Palacio family fell off date...we are working to put them back on date. They were having some family problems that have made it so they can't be baptized yet, but with time, and the Hand of the Lord, things
will work out. There was a family in our Ward this week whose kids all gotten taken away from their parents and are now living in foster care.  It's really sad. The parents may never see them again.

Well, enough of the sad news. Good news is we have two more people on date to be baptized. Their names are Humberto and Efraín. We are excited for them, we have helped a lot of less actives come to church
as well! I'm seeing a lot of progress with missionary work here in CIELITO! Even though trials have happened in the Ward they are so ready to help out where ever needed.

My companion, Sister Jensen, is awesome!  We are working together very well and have big plans and goals for the rest of this transfer. We have dropped so many people who aren't progressing, and we are finding
lots of new people. We laugh pretty much all day every day and I'm really loving being a missionary!

Right around the corner is 11 months...that's so weird. I'm not even close to ready for this to end.  That's about all I got for this week, PLEASE write me.

Muchísimas Gracias que tenga buen semana!

Con amor,
Hermana Pasa Verde {Greenhalgh}






P.S. Who needs a Valentine, when you have donuts?

Monday, February 9, 2015

So...One Time I Got Robbed...Letter 02/09/15

Family and Friends,

Thank you for all of your concern and letters this week. It's been a really rough week, but today is a new day! Tuesday afternoon around 3:10 p.m. my companion and I were robbed. We were at the public
library doing our Facebook proselyting and a guy came up, took our bags, and ran off.  He then proceeded to steal our car. The library didn't seem too concerned.  We immediately called the cops and 2 hours later they showed up. We filled out a police report and the chances of finding our stuff is slim to none. I'm now out a camera, all my CDs, temple recommend, ministerial certificate and maybe my identity.. Just kidding!  But, really my license and everything is gone. Along with our car, he stole a box full of Books of Mormon. I hope he reads them, and then gets baptized. It's our new way of finding people...letting them steal our cars! After all was said and done with the police, the APs picked us up and we were evacuated from our house. We hurried and packed a bag and went over to the Zayas families house. They took good care of us, but we had to walk the streets of Phoenix which is NEVER a good a idea. That night was rough too say the least. The other Sisters went back to the apartment and were packing and some guy walked in.  They locked themselves in the bathroom and called the police, the police never showed up. They were panicking and the ZLs showed up with a member of our Ward and barged into the house... Little did the Sisters know it was just the housing coordinator changing the locks. Did they dodge that bullet or what?!

When we got back to the Zayas Tuesday night their daughter went and bought us food at 9:30. We just sat and cried, the guy who stole our stuff had been following us. It's really nerve wracking to have to change all my passwords, and as the days go by I realize more and more the things I'm missing from my purse. Well, to put the icing on the cake, Wednesday night we had Correlation, and some really suspicious guy came into the church, and followed Sister Jensen and I to our meeting. He came up and in broken English asked me why I was crying at the library... Uh what? Where did this guy come from? He ended up saying he just moved here and saw us at the library.  It was still creepy though!

Earlier that day the car coordinator brought us a new car...a 2015! Well, we drove it for 3 hours and then the APs called and said we had to switch cars. Thursday I had to go to MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) with the ZLs. When we got there they gave us a new purple car, it's one of the oldest ones in the mission. We call it Terry the Tetradactyl because it looks like a dinosaur. I now have the pleasure of driving it.

Well, at MLC we had our trainings and then President Toone gets up and goes "two of our Sisters were violated yesterday...Sister Greenhalgh will please get up and explain?" Haha...Yes President... Thank you for that introduction. Everyone had shocked expressions on their faces. Anyways, so I got up and shared the story.  So pretty much Sister Jensen and I made the Tempe Mission Newsletter, and we are the first ones this has ever happened to. As if the swallowing the white strip wasn't enough, I now have got a car stolen under my belt. Great, right?? Well, anyways, I'm doing OK!  That's a pretty good summary of my crazy week.

1. Always carry your bag
2. Never make eye contact with strangers
3. Never leave your bank passwords in your wallet

Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Greenhalgh

Monday, February 2, 2015

New Beginnings - Letter 02/02/15

Buenos Dias,
 
Thank you for the emails everyone! Feel free to write letters.. OK...yes please write me letters. Well, this week has been good, I got a new companion named Sister Alexis Jensen, she is from Indiana. We became instant best friends from the moment we met! I'm so grateful to have her! I'm staying in Cielito "Little Heaven" Ward here in Phoenix for another 6 weeks. My companion and I have big plans for this Ward to truly make it a little heaven. 
 
We have a family on date for baptism! The Palacios :) They are my favorite! I love them so much. We visit them/contact them a lot. They are so ready to be baptized. They are pretty much already members. They come to church, pray, and read without us asking! I'm so excited for them. A year from now they want to make a temple date, which means I'm coming back to Arizona after my mission. As for this week it was really eventful, so I will give you a run down.
 
Monday- I had my last companionship P-day with Sister Thompson.  We had pedicures and went to lunch. It was pretty fun then we had a few lessons fall through and a pretty slow Monday night for teaching. Later I finished planning Leticia and Rigoberto's wedding they are some investigators of the Elders. I made all the decorations for their wedding.
 
Tuesday- Today we had District Meeting, and found that one of the Zone Leaders that I worked with in Leadership became an AP, or Assistant to the President. After the meeting we just had a regular day of proselyting, then headed home for transfer calls. Sister Thompson got transferred to Maricopa, and Sister Kleinlein went home.  Sister Schroeder, who I have lived with pretty much my whole mission, got a call to be a trainer of a new Greenie. I got the call that I'm still the Sister Training Leader for Phoenix!
 
Wednesday- Today was a hard day. I have been missing Grandma Pat a ton lately and we went to a less- active members house and he was smoking. I was having a really rough night so the Elders gave me a blessing. It was really good!  I'm grateful for Priesthood blessings in the mission because I don't have my Dad here with me, but they still do a good job.
 
Thursday- TRANSFERS!! I got put with Sister Jensen today and we became best friends. We visited some new people and had a couple good lessons. My prayers were answered. I received an amazing new companion and I'm so ready for this new transfer. We are going to do WORK!! After transfers some members took us out to lunch, and we unpacked Sister Jensen's things.
 
Friday- Today we had weekly planning, and made goals for this new transfer. We are going to be focused on finding the people that are prepared for the Gospel.  Later, we went and set up for Leticias and Rigobertos wedding.  Next, we had dinner with the PALACIO family! It was soo good! He is a chef, and he made some really good Mexican food...go figure! It was amazing.  The wedding went really well. We didn't have a super good turn-out because it was planned in 3 days...yes it can be done!!  Despues la boda yo y Hermana Jensen teniamos planamiento diario
 
Saturday- We had an amazing lesson with the Palacios Family about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Next, we had Leticia's Baptism and the member used my example of teaching the Holy Ghost in the her talk for the Baptism...Brownie Points!
 
Sunday- It was a crazy day at church, but Sister Jensen met our ward. We made some plans to get this ward fixed ASAP!
 
Well that's about it for my week. It has been good!  PLEASE WRITE ME!!
 
5421 W Indian School Rd. #1062
Phoenix, AZ 85031
 
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Greenhalgh
 
Pedicures with Sister Thompson
Wedding Decorations
Palacios Wedding
Sister Jensen and I