Yeah, finally a transfer! picture overload!

I'm being transferred to Moreno Valley (MoVal.)  I'm stoked. I'm going to be on bike and I'm step-daddying Elder Rampton. Elder McConkie served there and said it was his favorite area. I'm excited to go to work there. I love Woodcrest and everyone there, but I'm done there. I've got tons of photos from Woodcrest that I'll upload. It's been a crazy day, I was up late packing all my crap. I'm sad to leave Riverside because all of my friends are here, but I'm excited to get to know all the Elders in MoVal. It's a good change, I feel like a fire is being lit under me and me and Rampton are going to get some people baptized. This week has been fun. It's been fun to see everyone and say goodbye. Elders Frost and Westenskow are the other Woodcrest Elders and they're taking over the whole area, which is more than enough work for them. They're going to be teaching like crazy. I'm excited for them. The Michaelson homeshare closed, which is too bad. Sister Michaelson is really bummed about us leaving, but they told me to keep the key to their house, so that's pretty dope. Haha. I'm going to miss the Stubbs the most, though. They're such a good family. They took me and Elder Frost to the Temple of Friday and it was great. Just what I needed. I'm drafting and important email to send someone and used a lot of revelation and study in the Temple.
Anyways, hope all goes well with Kylee's MRI tomorrow. Once again, blessing, blessing, blessing. Do it tonight. Mikey and Jared. With oil. Aight?
Also, I've thought about it and sometimes I miss home, but then I think about everyone at home doing the same crap they've always been doing and I think, "That really freaking sucks. I'm over here in California living like a ghost (moving all the time, meeting new people, never seeing them again, watching people learn and grow) and it's freaking awesome and the Saviour is allowing me to do it. He's letting me learn and grow and help others learn and grow too. What a great blessing this is. Yeah, sometimes it's hard. Enduring to the end is really hard, because it's suppose to be. That's what separates the wheat from the tares. If you worked yours hardest to follow all the commandments to the T and got eternal salvation and exaltation, and I did the bare minimum and received the same reward, how is that even fair? Our Heavenly Father loves us enough to chastise  us and get us going in the right direction. (D&C 95:1-2).
And by "everyone at home doing the same crap they've always been doing" I mean the people I went to high school with, friends that aren't doing anything but slaving away.
Anyway, I love you.
You're great. You'll be great. Stay great.
Qualify yourself
Holiness to The Lord
Love,
Elder C-Dizzle G-String.

D&C 19: 15-18-->Mosiah 3:7 

Alma 12: 11-12
D&C 19: 23
2 Nephi 33:6

PS: Let's be honest here. I'm doing all I can to make my calling and election made sure.

 

 

Elder King and I

Elder McConkie and I. I love that kid

Elder Page and I. Elder Lieneiger in the background. He's deaf.

Elder Cook and I. He goes home today

Elder Knudsen and I

McConkie playing with my camera

Conkie is a goof

Elder Barton

Elder Anderson

Dope Palm trees on Victoria Ave. They go the whole length of Riverside

Me and The Wildes Andrew farted in one of the photos. Can you guess which one? Haha

Me and the Stubbs Family. I love them so much. They've had our backs since day one. 

Passmore and I being bomb as fetch before dinner

I went on exchange with Elder Page in the Arlington area (ghettoooooooo)

and there were these fake eyelashes on a trash can outside the 7-Eleven on Monroe and Indiana. #Ghetto

Also, I got roasted. It was like 105 degrees outside.

Dope street art in Woodcrest

Me and the Garcia family. Thom and Verlyn just received their endowments this last Friday and it was great. 

That's Elder Steet's smart car. He is a service missionary at the Bishop's Store House. He's like 85 and has one leg and will murder you. He trained with Chuck Norris. I wish I was kidding. He was at the Manti Pageant. 

Me and Azuree. My first convert. 

This was back when me and Hughes were still comps and Henderson was with us collecting grapes. 

September 15,2014

I've never been persecuted, or shot because I was a member of this church. I can go and knock on that door one more time. That's not a big deal.
The afflictions that I have bore while serving the Lord are nothing compared to the burdens of other people. I'm very blessed to be a part of this Gospel and to serve in a place that is accepting of the message that we share. I know that as we "come unto Christ" that he will bear our burdens and make then light when we "take his yoke upon us". The Lord and Heavenly Father do not take away our burdens, but strengthens our backs and what our strength increase.

It's good to hear that all (well, most) is well. I get to go to the Temple on Friday. There is a recent convert couple in our ward that are receiving their endowments and President approved for us to go. I'm excited because maybe I'll be able to gain some revelation that I've been looking for, and boost my spirit for transfers. I find out if I'm staying or going this Saturday. Everyone is saying that I'm gone, but I've known Elders who have stayed in areas for 10 1/2 months. We'll see what the Lord wants. It's too bad that Kylee's back is messed up, but I know that the Lord will be there for her. Scripture Pun: Mosiah 24: 14. Hahahaha, hurr, hurrr, hurr. #MissionaryJokes. Ask Jared and Mikey for a blessing of peace and comfort, then if surgery is a must, everyone get one, then after the surgery give one to Kylee with oil. Hopefully all is well with Tyler and Allison. Tell them I think of them often and pray about their well being. That may not mean much to them, though. Anyway, the work is going. We found a family and they believe everything and believe that the Book of Mormon is true...but just don't want to leave Catholicism. Ugh. We'll get them, though. 

Anyway, that's kind of what's going on here. 

Love, 

Cody

We freaking hiked Mt. Rubidioux a couple of weeks ago. It's gorgeous up there. 

Everyone that was in the photo was: Westenskow, Frost, Merriman,

Murray, Peterson, Williams, Knudsen, Anderson, Passmore, Greenburg,

Camper, Snider, Higashi, Barton, Mecham, Nielson, and Spanderson!

 Then there is David, Passmore, and I. David just left for BYUI. I miss him. He went out with us 

every night. 

That's Sister Soto and I. She has got to be one of the strongest members of the church I've ever met. She grew up in Mexico/Texas/New Mexico and when she was 15 she kidnapped and raped. She had her first child from that and her mother forced her to marry the man. He didn't want the responsibility of being a dad and abandoned Sister Soto and the child. After a year, he came back and decided that he wanted her to be with him and told her that she had to leave the church. She refused. One day after giving a talk in sacrament meeting of her little branch in New Mexico, she was leaving and he came and shot her 9 times. As she was laying there, blood running down the sidewalk, she said that she felt no pain and left her body for a short time. She said that she felt the love and the embrace of the Saviour. As she left to go back to her body, she was clinging to his robes begging to stay. She still has shrapnel in a lot of her left side, and a bullet in her stomach still that is not causing her some health issues. But she bore the sweetest testimony of Mark 11: 28-30, Alma 31: 38, and Mosiah 24: 15.  

Check out this dope freaking shirt I got from a recent convert. The dude is in his 70s and wears stuff like this!

  

Hey,
This week was pretty good, but weak in a lot of aspects. Low lessons, just obedience. We have two weeks until transfers and I'm just trying to finish strong and not die (Dying is when a missionary gets lazy). We had Zone Conference and that was good. It's always good to get a boost from your Mission President. We tracked into a family named "Torres" and have a lesson with them tonight. Hopefully they will keep it. We have high hopes for them. We're really excited about it. The area is hard, but good.

Sept. 2, 2014

Hey, this week we finished moving out the Marquette family and we moved Mark and Diane out as well. They're moving to Orange County in Santa Ana, then maybe they'll move to Utah. I don't know exactly what their plans are. All saints end up in Utah at some point or another. Pedro and his family cancelled their appointment with us for Thursday and moved it to this Thursday. Hopefully they'll keep it. It's so not good to miss a week, the Spirit is totally gone and Satan can move in. We have a ton of meetings this week. We have a Zone Conference tomorrow and a Zone Meeting on Friday and a bunch of stuff to do this week. We're going to have to resort to tracting, which is good and bad. Tracting is terribly ineffective, but it's showing the Lord or obedience and diligence, which is good. You have to show the Lord you want it. 

Me and Elder Westenskow. I went to high school with his cousin Travis Richardson. Small world. 

I went on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Cook, and we blew up air mattresses and slept outside. I woke up to this. #CaliLife

I bought a pretty sick shirt yesterday at Ross. I wish I could wear it while doing missionary work. 

Saw Elder Folau today for the first time since like, May. Anyways, his biceps so big that he can rip his shirt sleeves if he wanted to. I love that kid.  

August 25,2014

Hey, this week was good. We picked up a family of 3 on Thursday. Their names are Pedro, Angelica, and Isaac. They're really receptive of the gospel and we have high hopes for them. How was your guy's week? Things here pretty much stay the same and it gets repetitive after awhile. Just working and trying to stay busy. Kylee's birthday is on Thursday, so that's cool. Tell her happy birthday for me. 

Things on my end are meh. Same stuff different day. Just trying to stay busy. I wake up, go run until I want to puke, don't puke (maybe), get a runners high, convince myself that I'm going to be able to find work to do today, pray as hard as I can, go home, make eggs, granola ceral, OJ, and toast to convince myself that I'm eating healthier so I can lose a little bit of my double chin, go shower, try to figure out how to make my hair as boss as a can, get pissed at my cowlick, go study and read the Book of Mormon, then companionship study and prepare what we're going to teach our investigators that day (it takes like 20 minutes maybe, but we have to fill the whole hour), hit the road at 10 AM, hit up potentials, hit up potentials, pray, hit up potentials, blow miles, go back home for lunch, hit it again until dinner at 6, then hit up less actives/inactives, get OYMs, and go back home to plan for tomorrow, go to sleep, wake up, repeat until P-day. (But hey, I'm cutting Elder Higashi's hair today, that'll be funny. That man is braver than I.) I dyed my hair this week (YOLOBROSWAG), I came into a guitar that someone was just going to throw out, so I went and grab it before the dude got rid of it. So that's fun. It turns out that Azuree moved to Orange County, but has Sunday's off, so she's going to be out here every Sunday for church and to visit her son. That'll be fun. The mission is great, and it's a great privilege and honor to be able to serve the Lord, and it has it's ups and downs, and right now it's just down a little bit, but it won't be down eventually. There's always and upswing. Passmore is cool. He loves movies, so that's what we mainly talk about.  Anyways, I'm slowly just not caring about knocking on the same doors over and over again. We're working with Alex again to see if we can get his butt in gear. Your week sounded fun. Sucks to hear that Kylee has to go get her back looked at, hopefully that gets better soon. It's cool that Jared is an Elder now and that the priesthood is in the home again. I'm proud of him. 
Love, 


Cody

Transfer, anyone? NO!

Hey...we got transfer calls on Saturday and...I'm staying in Woodcrest...again. I honestly don't know what I'm suppose to be in Woodcrest for, but I'm about to find out, because I'm at the point where I don't care about all the things that I've been afraid of anymore. I'm just so done and ready to do what it takes to finish up my work here in Woodcrest. We moved into a really cool homeshare, The Michealsons. She basically just buys all of our groceries. It's really cool. They love us. We have a free pass to a local gym too, so I can run and work out. My new comp's name is Elder Passmore. I don't know anything about him. We have a few people that we can work with, but I'm just at the point where they're on date for baptism, or they're dropped. I'm done wasting my time on people that aren't ready for it. That sounds harsh, but it's true. The elect are out there, we have to find them.

Cody


Side note: The companion that Cody has been assigned to/with, has had a really hard time. So much so that President Mullen's had to go and straighten a few Elders out.  Needless to say, they transferred him to be companions with Cody.  I guess this Elder has a lot of emotional problems.  It just breaks my heart that the people that are suppose to be bringing people to the gospel are treating one of their own so horribly.  I KNOW Cody will be good for him.  Cody has a kind heart.  He was never allowed as a child to be mean to other kids, I made that very clear that I WOULD NOT TOLERATE IT!.  It still breaks my heart that Elders could treat him this way. Keep Cody and his new companion in your prayers, this will be 7 1/2 months in the same area. As you can tell, he is a little frustrated.
I will post pictures later.
Love to all,
Mama G.

We Have a New Baby! Teague Adam Greenburg is Born!

Hey,
Our Mission President challenged us to crossfit last week and we did it today. It hurts to type. My arms feel like they're going to fall off, but I didn't burn off all my pre-workout and I'm super jittery still. #WorkingOutProblems. It's good that we have a new baby. You guys are just popping them out of there like they're candy. That's good, because I'm not having any for...a long time. So enjoy it while it lasts. Haha. This week has been okay. It's been hard as of late. We dropped Alex and Judy because they were refusing to progress. Sometimes you just have to drop people so they can figure themselves out and go find the people who are ready for the Gospel. Yeah, see if you can get Gavin into Paul or someone. That kid needs a haircut. It's good that Andrew is doing well too. Transfers are this week. Hopefully I get transferred.
Anywho, the mission is still great. A pain in the butt sometimes, but great.
Hope everyone is doing well.


Cody

We harvested some grapes from our Ward Mission Leader's house and made grape juice. It was terrible. Haha.

 Elder Hughes was making a house of cards

That is me and Elder Snider. We went to High School together.

Cody didn't have a lot to share with us this week.  The stuff he did share was personal between me and him and he asked me not to publish it.  Please keep him in your prayers, serving a mission can be discouraging sometimes. 

Mama G.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!
 It's good to hear that all is well on your end of the world. It doesn't surprise me that Gavin and Riley are still wreaking havoc. Andrew looks like he's getting big. It's good that Allison is having her C-section and we will have another baby. Still no name, I guess. They either don't have one, and are making you all think they do, or it's a good one that they don't want anyone stealing. Knowing Tyler, it's a little of both. It's good that Cameron and Shelby are having a girl, It's good that Cameron got a better job with troubled youth. It's great that Ethan is getting married. Like you said, now it's down to Breanna. What's Caleb up to? Find out the deets on that new family in the ward, fellowship them. Our ward sucks at that, and now you have a common element. Make them your best friends. Everyone out here has dinners with other families in the ward and fellowships each other. It's something that I noticed never happens in Utah. Make them feel welcomed and at home. Yeah, get us our plaques! Haha. I want something to hang on my wall when I'm 45 and unmarried rolling in doe. Haha. Just kidding...(about the rolling doe part. Maybe. #BussinessAdministrationProbs).

This week was...lame. Haha. We only taught like 10 lessons, which suckkkssss. We met with Alex and found out that he doesn't even know if he has a desire to know if the Book of Mormon is true, or even wants a desire. No matter what way Hughes and I put a spin on it, he was just like, "Maybe...". I was like, "Look, we're making some pretty bold claims here. Either this book is 100% true, or 100% false. There is no 60/40 going on here. And if it's true, that means that Christ's original church that he himself set up when he is on the Earth has been restored, that means that the priesthood authority of God has been restored to the Earth through a modern day prophet, and we have a living prophet today. That sounds like something that's worth knowing right? I mean, if the Book of Mormon is true, it will literally change your life. Don't you want to know if it's true?" He said, "That sounds good. I don't know." So we asked him, "If it were true, would you act on it?" He said, "Maybe. Even if it were true, I don't know if this church would be the church for me." I lost it a little bit and looked at him right in the eyes and frustratingly said, "Alex, that doesn't make sense. If it's true, your search for the true church and Gospel of Christ is over. If this is true, but not right for you, something is off, and it's not the book." So he's on the list to be dropped this week. Ugh.
But Vasti got confirmed yesterday. That was good. She's great. We're working on her inactive dad, and his non-member wife and her three unbaptized daughters. It's fun out here, hard, but fun. I'm glad you like the shirt. 16 year old kids walk around with the hoodie form of that shirt on...at the end of July. #CaliKidsAreDumbSometimes. It was like 107 degrees on Thursday out here and it was overcast. It was soooooo humid. It doesn't even rain here during the summer, it just pretends and makes it muggy. We're super blessed with a car. Haha. Sorry, Helmet Biking Elders. Transfers are in two weeks on August 10th. Hopefully I'll get bounced elsewhere. I really feel like my time in Woodcrest is done. I'm just going to prepare for the worst. Doubled in, First Time District Leader, Training, on bike, in August, in the hilly part of Corona. That way, if anything else happens, it'll be pleasant. And if the above happens, my boy and I are going to kill it. #BornForAdversity. We kind of dropped Judy this last week as well. She flat out said that she wasn't committing to baptism, and won't for awhile. So...we kind of don't have anyone to teach. Hahaha. I came in with no one, I go out with no one. At least I left it the way I found it. Hahaha. That's terrible. No, we worked hard and found people ready for the Gospel, and I learned a lot.
Glad to hear that Kylee is doing better. Tell her to just keep following what the doctor says. He know's what he's doing.
Yeah, time is rolling by. No biggie.
Love you, happy birthday
Cody



This is Cooper, our homeshare's dog. That homie loves me. He tried to make out with me, and I almost let him. #TheStruggleIsReal. Also, I need to work out. My face is getting fat.

Hughes and I

Redland's Temple