Elder Greenlaw - 6 Month Mark

Hello everybody!

Sorry to freak yall out from not hearing from me yesterday. It's transfers! So today, Tuesday, is our P-day.

Wow! Where do I even begin with this week. This week has definitely been a wild one. Last night we had our transfer call, and I'm STILL here in the Gainesville 2nd ward ha ha. I'm still training Elder Andersen and I also got the call to be the District Leader here. I was shocked! The Lord definitely calls the weak and inadequate because that's exactly how I feel right now. My 6 month mark just came up and I cant believe it's here! Time is flying by! 

My favorite family in Florida, the Whites, who I seem to always send pictures of me with, threw me a party! We did the annual burning of the tie, along with fireworks, delicious food, and especially Sis White's famous home made mac'n'cheese! MMMMmmmmmm SO good ha ha.  

Elder Greenlaw and Elder Anderson at the White family home.

Celebrating 6 months on Elder Greenlaw's Mission. 

Burning of the tie. It looks like Elder Greenlaw is burning a lot more than that. 

This transfer we received 37 new missionaries plus senior couples. Most of them are Sisters and so the Mission President asked a lot of Elders to sacrifice their cars and give them to the new comers... Yes... that includes me.  I look at it as such a blessing though. As much as I love AC in my beautiful Ford Fusion, we miss a lot of opportunities to talk to people on the side of the road. Now we won't have to worry about it. Also... I've gained 32 lbs as of this morning here so far and I'm about to bust through my suit pants so I am for sure going to lose some weigh here very soon. Luckily the hottest times of the year are almost over and it will be cooling down to about 80 with not as much humidity as 70-80% as it has been recently.

We set a baptism date with a kid named Charlie! A kid who people say is the furthest thing from a Christian. At first he only wanted to learn for simply more knowledge. He is a very smart kid. Almost too smart for his own good. As soon as we answered ALL of his questions and taught him the lessons, he knows it is true! He has learned on almost every kind of denomination and religion there is and now he is begging his less active friend to come to church with him, reminding us to leave with a prayer every time we see him, he even got up and bore powerful testimony in Sacrament meeting this last week. He had members crying and people coming up to him and hugging him afterwards! Oh he is so solid!!! But the only thing is.... He lives about a mile out of our ward boundaries and so we were asked to turn him over to High Springs Elders... UGH!!!! It is so hard to get rid of him because we have such a close relationship with him. But, it's the way it has to be I guess. We know we will be blessed for it. It's a very humbling experience too.  Roosevelt Watts his best friend came to church this Sunday for the first time in 10 years. Such a miracle! He is very depressed and almost suicidal.  We are making huge steps with him. As far as the rest of our teaching pool, It has dwindled and we are back to finding more people. WE have a huge area too so we are not limited on how far away from home we can go because of bikes. BUT, I know the Lord will bless us greatly.

There are many ways that Satan tries to bring us down, and he will never give up. When he reminds us of our past, we must remind him of his future. I've also learned that it is simply up to us if we are going to be happy or not. There are so many decisions that have to be made each day and we have the opportunity to act just as the Savior would. We have the choice to be happy or not and sadly I've learned this the hard way recently. God will never give us a task that we can not handle. As long as we keep our faith strong, nothing wavering, we shall not fear and he promises us so many blessing if we do. Most importantly, when it comes to the Spirit, I know that the Savior's Atonement is real or else I would not be out here right now. He strengthens me everyday and I love him, along with my Father in heaven very much. In this life, we need to figure out how to be happy.... and only through the gospel of Jesus Christ can we find the most lasting joy. I know this to be true by hard life experiences and trials I face each and everyday. I love my mission very much.. It is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to go through, but I can't imagine myself without being out here right now.    I love you all.

Elder Greenlaw