PICTURES!!!! March 31, 2014

March 31, 2014

FINALLY A BABY. JUDAS ROLLERBLADING PREIST. I thought I was going to have to enlist someone to go poke her until she popped. Haha. He looks like Mikey. I love that photo of Ash holding Andy and Mikey is in the background eating like he deserved it. 2 days?! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME, ASH?! Props, sis. You can go toe to toe with anyone now. I imagine her closed fisted pounding her chest yelling, "YOU THINK IT'S THAT EASY?! I GOT A LOT LEFT IN THE TANK!" Then flips a table over.
Also, Tyler and Allison are going to have another too?! WHAT IS WITH YOU FREAKING MORMON'S?! It's like every time I turn around I have a new name to learn and a baby to hold while it's puking. Puking, pooping, crying. Those are the 3 main exports of babies. Like, do they contribute anything to society?

This week has been good. We almost hit standard, but none of our 7 investigators came to church. Punks. I was a little bit mad because we talked to Rafael an hour and a half before and he told us that he and his whole family we coming. We'll get him. The Lord works in his own time. Have you sent that package yet? Because I have another thing that I need. Haha. Oops. Sorry. There are a bunch of books on the bookshelf that have to do with missionary work. Like 400 questions the book of mormon answers, and the missionaries little quote book.
We've been working hard this last week and I was super dead tired yesterday. McClain only has one more transfer (6 weeks). This transfer is already over. Dannnngggggg, that went by fast. I feel like it just started and I was making fun of my twitchy comp. I love that kid. He's so tight. I don't think I've read the Book of Mormon like I ever have before. It's sooooo good.

 If you want, you can add my home share's on facebook. Valerie Wilde, Sean Wilde and Andrew Wilde. They're really cool people. I love them. Haha.

I sent a bunch of pictures. The one of the dog with dreadlocks is super gnar. Haha.

Love and miss you guys

Cody in Riverside

Elder Greenburg Week 4

ASHLEY STILL HASN'T HAD A BABY YET? JUDAS ROLLERBLADING PRIEST! IS THAT KID EVER COMING?! People in the ward I'm serving in are starting to even get anxious. Every Monday I get asked, "Did your sister have her baby yet?" Haha. Someone just poke her really hard and get the ball rolling. That's good that Jared bought another car, but it sucks that it kind of crapped out.  It's too bad that you're sick still. Go to the dentist and see if he can just pull it for you and get it over with. See if Mikey and someone else from the ward can give you a blessing. I kind of had a toothache about 2 weeks ago, but it was just a canker coming in. It sucked, but I rubbed some Sensodyne on it and it was good. Yeah, Hoffer emailed me. He's a good guy.
It was Jared that told me that Trevor and Cortney were having a baby. That's good. They'll be great parents.

This week has been good, but the hardest so far. We've only got a 1/4 of the ward in our area and we've already burned through our part-member families, less active families, and former investigators. There is this less active family named the Knecht's (Pronounced Connect's), and the husband has Alzheimer's. It's really hard to go over there sometimes because he doesn't remember a lot of things. We pretty much introduce ourselves every time. They don't have a lot of money either, so they rely on the VA a lot.

It was hard and during our comp inventory Elder McClain and I had a really good heart to heart about the area. He's such a good missionary and friend. He's probably given me about 5 pep talks a day because I get discouraged sometimes. I talked with President Smart last night as well. He's such a good and inspired man. It's been a hard transfer, but it's starting to pick up. Last night we met with a guy named Sam and he's just so elect. He said that he believes in God and Christ, but doesn't know anything about the gospel or other religions at all, but has been really wondering about what happens when we die and the nature of our Heavenly Father. Those are the types of questions missionaries love and dream about. We're also going to pick up a woman named Michelle. We've met her and her husband Cory a few times, and these people are LDS, they just don't know it. He is super curious about temples, so we went over and gave him a Book of Mormon. He's going off to training to be a corrections officer, though. He's going to be gone for 4 months. He's this big black dude that can just curl 90 pound dumbbells like it's nobody's business.

It think that it's just best to look at things in transfers. I'm almost done with my first one, then I only have 16 more. It's crazy how fast this one has gone by. I passed my month mark this last week.

I did get the pictures you emailed. If you could send me a laminated copy of my patriarchal blessing, my black Neff beanie (if you can find it) and one of my H&M white long-sleeve button-up shirts, that'd be great. I'm trying to remember if I need anything else. I keep making lists. Haha. Sorry I haven't sent any pictures. For some reason my converter doesn't read in these computers. I'll try to get it taken care of.
We still have that family. They're slowing progressing, which is good. The 22 year old daughter is investigating Jehovah's Witness still. Man, if I get poached by a J-dub, I'm going to be pissed. "And that's when I got transferred...to Kentucky."
I forgot to mention. This new guy named Sam is also a drummer! He's got over 20 top of the line snare drums. I'm going to see if I can get him to give me one after I baptize him. Haha. Or buy one super cheap and send it home. Haha. I don't know where those items are. The blessing is anyone's guess, the beanie I think was around the TV area, maybe. But the shirt should be in the hall closet. Also send a bunch of ties. I've only got like 10 and I'm tired of wearing the same ones. Haha.

Cody with primary kids in the Ward he is serving in.

I told him that the Jehovah Witnesses stopped by the other day, but I felt bad because I didn't get a chance to get to the door, and I thought about him and how that probably happens to him a lot.  That's where the "J-dub came in.  So please don't be offended by that.  He is doing well. So proud of him.  He asks that people write him/email him.  He loves to hear from everyone!

Elder Greenburg Week 3

The weather here is always the same. Sunny. Haha. It was like 90 degrees yesterday. I had no idea because I just don't check that stuff. I was at a member family's home yesterday and they had a six year old and it was weird to think that Riley will be that age when I get back. I keep going through weird waves of thinking that the mission will be short and that it will be super long. You just have to take it a day at a time and then a transfer at a time. I past my month mark this last week. It seems like just yesterday, but a long time ago at the same time. Missions are weird in that way. I keep wondering when Ashley will have her baby, the kid just doesn't want to come out apparently, or her body has just gotten used to Andrew being in there. Hopefully it happens soon. Yeah, Jared emailed me and said he was headed back to Convergy's. That will be good since you said that he wasn't liking Sportsman's Warehouse. He cut his finger because he's a dope. We had a multi-zone conference on Thursday. It was fun. It was 8 hours of training, but it flew by. Daylight savings killed us this week. It sucked waking up an hour earlier than we're used to. We did however get Rafael, his wife Martiza, and his daughter Ashley to come to church on Sunday. That's 3 out of 5. I'm not sure where their sons were. They could only stay for Sacrament because the daughter is also investigating Jehovah's Witness as well. We're not concerned about it. The Spirit will confirm everything we say and she knows the gospel is true. We have a lesson with them later tonight.
I did get the package. It was a lot. Haha. . Thanks for the Bayside shirt. I wear that as often as I can. If you want to search on MerchNow.com and find some more Bayside or band merch, I wouldn't stop you. Haha.
The turtles and Butterfingers were good, as well. I've been eating a lot of Taco Bell. I just don't understand how something you love so much can hurt you so bad, but I keep going back. Haha. TB is a heartless witch, but I love her. I'm only at 145 pounds, though.
I've already been out of the mission and it's only been three weeks. Haha. i had an exchange with the Elder's who do ASL and they cover three missions. We ended up in Rancho Cucamuga. It was a good change of pace. We do a lot of walking to try and save miles.
McClain is super good. He's been having troubles with his stomach for the last year and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong, so some days he just can't work. So I sit and study. I've read Our Heritage, and Our Search For Happiness, and I just started Jesus The Christ. Elder Talamge is a freaking beast. That guy was on a whole different level.
I've been reading the Book of Mormon a lot as well. McClain is so good at it that if you just give him a chapter in any book in the Book of Mormon, he can tell you what is going on. I'll try to get to that point.
Don't hesitate to send pictures of everyone as well. I have a 16 gb flash drive that isn't full. Saturday was kind of a hard day. It was the first day out here where I didn't feel like working. I wasn't homesick or anything like that, just worn down and didn't want to work. It was going to happen eventually. I just need to pray and eat through it and ask the Lord for help. OYM's are getting better, though. We tract sometimes and when we do that our OYM's are more genuine than trying to get people to listen in the parking lot of an Albertson's or Stater Brother's. I don't like those because the make me feel like a salesmen.

We listen to a lot of Disney. I regret not seeing Frozen before I came out, because I know that soundtrack like the back of my hand now. Haha. Send me some CD's of Disney music. Tarzan, Hercules, Lion King, Mulan, anything you can think of. I'm kind of desperate for new music. I have a constant soundtrack of different bands going through my head. If you could find my black Neff beanie and send it as well that would be great. Tell Matt, Aurora, Courtney, Trevor, Lee, Tyler Lee, and everyone else to email me. Those punks.
I think that's all I have for now.
Love and Miss you all
Elder G-Dizzle

Elder Greenburg @ Riverside Zone Conference

Cody at the Riverside Zone Conference.  I just love this Kid.. So Grateful for his service and he looks so good.. I make good looking babies!

Elder Greenburg/ Week 2

Things have been okay this week. We're slowly building up the area little by little. Last Monday night I had my first Bible Bash. Well, we didn't really engage too much because that's just not how we are. It was with a younger Pastor from a church called "Harvest" and they spread a bunch of anti-Mormon crap around. We knocked on his door thinking it was a former investigator named Eric Green, but he opened the door and they were having bible study, so there was like 10 of them in there. But he just stepped out and spoke with us for about 20 minutes. He wasn't like yelling and getting mean, just really pointed in his questions. He was totally baiting us too.
He'd drop lines like, "Don't you believe that...oh, what's his name..."
And we'd say Joseph Smith, and he'd be like, "Yeah! That guy" like he was pretending not to know who Joseph Smith was. He was trying to prove that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and that in Revelation it says that you shouldn't add things to the bible, and how it was dumb that we believed that we would become Gods, even though it says that in the bible.
I felt pretty useless because he would quote all these parts of the bible, and I don't know the bible very well. McClain did a lot of the talking. Then the next day on Tuesday we had another bash with a kid named Austin and his dad. Austin didn't hardly say anything, but his dad, Doyle, might as well been a bible scholar. He kind of deep six'd it at the end, though. He went off on how the bible is really just a numbers game and how there are three's and seven's all over the place, yada yada yada. That's two bashes in an 18 hour period, though. It made me want to go and study the Bible front to back, but in Preach My Gospel it says that a testimony, The Spirit, and the Book of Mormon are the only three things you need to teach and help the Spirit to convert, so that's what I've been focusing on. I've found that testifying simply is the key. You don't have to speak elequently, just open your mouth and let the spirit do the talking. Elder Bednar said in an MTC address that when you're doing what you're suppose to, and you're doing your best, don't worry about trying to follow what the spirit it trying to say. Just open your mouth and the spirit will testify of your words to be true.

We haven't had a ton of lessons, and our numbers are still kind of low, but they're improving, so that's good. We came into this area with a referral, and one part member family. We invited Rafael and his family to church yesterday and they were going to come, but Radael's mother in-law is in the hospital, so they couldn't come, and our other family The Bishopp's didn't come either. But we got two of the Bishopp's kids on date for baptism on the 30th! So hopefully they'll be able to keep that. If we get Rafael and his family on that day too, that will be 7 baptisms in one month, and our zone goal is 30. That's two more than what we committed to have. I hope that's how it goes down, but it's in the Lord's hands.
It was kind of a drag because all of our appointments fell through yesterday, but we had a lesson with a less active family later last night and it went great. We talked about the Atonement and how church was important. At first it didn't seem like it sunk in, even though McClain and I could feel the Spirit. We were wrapping up and asked if the had any questions, and the daughter who is about 18 kind of hesitated and then burst out crying and asked if we could come back. So we're going to teach them next Sunday as well. She was saying that she was thinking of going on a mission, but I'm pretty sure that she's going to go now.


 You probably won't hear from President Smart directly unless crap goes down. He's pretty busy with 200 missionaries in the mission, but it's odd that he has time for every single one of us and knows us personally. That's what the spirit can do.

I think that's all I have for now. You could send that cardigan I wore at my farewell if you want, or any of them should do. It doesn't matter.

I miss and love you guys,
Cody

Letter From Cody, week One!

First week here in Cali! First thing is first, ANYONE CAN EMAIL ME AND I CAN EMAIL ANYONE. I guess President Smart changed it, but not in the packet. Oh, well.
My companion's name is Elder McClain. He's from Orem and turns 21 this month. He's been out 21 months, and I get to kill him off. That's when a missionary goes home. He's my "dad" of the mission since he's my trainer when I was "born". He's trained a lot on his mission, so I have three "brothers" and I'm Uncle's to a few Elders. It's odd, missions have their own genealogy. Elder McClain has torretts, but it's mild. He squeaks and twitches a little bit. He's pretty hyper as well, so sometimes it gets pretty annoying, but I have to remember that a lot of it's out of his control. One of his twitches is that he says "oh" a lot, so I'm always like, "What?" and it causes a lot of confusion. I lied, I am in Riverside, but it's not even that scary. For real, California is just like Utah. I feel like I'm just bumping around streets in Utah all the time. Haha. I'm the south end in an area called Orange-crest/Wood-crest. Our area is pretty massive, so we got a car, but we biked on Wednesday and there is a giant hill on Trautwein and Orange-crest, I believe, and it is murder to bike up. Look it up on Google Maps. My thighs and knee hurt so bad, but I slept so good. We live with a family. They're named the Wilde's, and he's a firefighter/paramedic. They're house is so pimp. Imagine Dave and Terra's house, but better. I'm actually pretty spoiled for my first area when it comes to living. Elder McClain and I got doubled into our area. That's where both missionaries aren't really familliar with the area. This last week has been kind of hard when it comes to work, since the area was pretty much dead. We've had to pound the pavement and hit up inactive member, or part member families. A lot of O.Y.M's, which stand for "open your mouth". It's just talking to random people about the Gospel. We're supposed to get 10 a day. A lot of them don't answer the door, or say no, and our stats have been pretty much zeros since last Wednesday...but it's totally paid off! We're teaching a family of 5. Rafael, Maritza, Ashley, Mark, and Andrew, and they are golden. A guy from Vivint was out here selling and he OYM'd them, Rafael just latched on and referred himself on Mormon.org, and we hit them up, and they are just perfect. The Restoration lesson went so well and was so powerful, and I'm 100% sure that they're going to get baptized. A family of 5! That's only happened to McClain one other time in his 21 months. You've just got to work hard and let the Lord do the rest. It's kind of unnerving to talk to random people, and they shoot you down a lot, but it gets easier when you realize that it's not your work, but the Lords. The Lord has perfect timing, and when we're being obedient, the rest just falls into place.

How are things at home? I know we've tried in the past, but see if you can get a family scripture night going every night. I know it's hard at first and everyone is running everywhere and everyone is tired, but the Lord will help if you make it a priority. The mission is great, and I'm stoked to be out here! Tell Jared to start getting ready, so that he has a bank of information for the spirit to pull from. The spirit brings all things to remembrance.

Also, the address of the place that I'll be at for the next 3 months is 8441 Applegate Court, Riverside California, 92508. Send that package of soccer pants and whatever else to there.

I miss and love you guys.

I hope this is enough info. P-day is on Mondays!