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11/6/17
Hello Everyone!!
What a fantastic week! Between Halloween on Tuesday, the temple on Wednesday, and the miracles on the other days, it was a busy week to be a missionary!
Halloween day was super funny! Elder Hales and I had a normal day out and about, knocking on doors. Around 4pm, we started joking with the people and asking them if it was too early to get some candy. To our surprise, people actually gave it to us! We even got a full size Snickers bar from one lady we ran in to! People are so nice here!! At 5pm we had dinner with a family in the ward and then we were asked to head in for the night. Elder Hales and I decided to have a movie night together and watched the Testaments. We popped popcorn and it was pretty awesome! We also went to bed a little early because we would be going to the temple early the next morning.
Our temple session was at 6:30am on Wednesday. Elder Hales and I had to get up extra early because we had to go and get some other Elders to give them a ride in our sweet minivan. We all made it on time, and as we entered the temple around 6am, I was greeted by Sister Simmons. She is the sweet sister who I lived with while in Parker! I would like to give a shout out to her. She is the sweetest lady and I just light up every time I see her! She writes to me every week and is always so kind! It was truly a blessing living with her for a bit, and I was grateful to see her as I entered the temple.
We had a great session, and then we headed for home! But we went out to eat at Chick-Fil-A before dropping everyone off. The rest of Wednesday was pretty standard, but that night we were able to go and see Jason, a YSA investigator that is probably our top progressing investigator. Jason is great. In our lesson, we talked about the doctrine of Christ, covering mostly repentance and baptism. By the end of the lesson, Jason had committed to set a goal to be baptized by the end of the year, on December 30th!! There is a lot to cover before then, but Jason made a comment in church that Sunday that I liked. "I might have to sacrifice some things for God to show Him that I love Him."
I don't have too much time to write about all of the cool things that happened this week, but one thing I will talk about was our trip into the city on Saturday. Our YSA [Young Single Adult] ward covers the whole Eastern part of Denver, which is a big area. We decided that since Saturday was pretty open, we would make the trip up there and see if we could find any YSA. It was an awesome trip! There are so many people to talk to up in the city!! We really had no clue where we were or where any of our boundaries were, so we just kind of drove around. We ended up calling the missionaries serving in the home ward for that area and asked for help on where to go for YSA. They directed us to a cool place called Stapleton, where we met some awesome people. We picked up like 3 or 4 pretty cool potentials up in the city, one of which was a YSA kid that said he'd be pretty interested in checking out church and learning more! It was just a super fun trip, meeting so many people, and a cool change of scenery.
We saw Hans again on Sunday night! He let us in and we talked a lot about his life and things, and followed up with him about his reading of the Book of Mormon. He had actually read!! He really liked how it is an account of Christ on this side of the world, not just in the Middle East. We had a good talk (still no formal lesson) and set up a time next week to see him again. He is so awesome!! His son, Faison (I think) even remembered our names from last week!
I have another fun story for you before I leave! This one is not a crisis thing, but just an interesting insight. With the time change on Sunday it was pretty hard to proselyte last night. We went out knocking on doors from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, but it was so dark out it basically looked like it was 8pm or 9pm. Some people told us it was too late and to stop, and how ridiculous we were for being out that late (and I would just like to point out that it was only 6:15pm). I could understand because it was really dark and I don't know how happy I would be if someone knocked on our door when it was pitch black. Anyway, while I was thinking this was not very effective for us to be out, Heavenly Father was just looking down patiently at me, and waiting to plop someone into our path. A name popped into my head of a less active member who we ended up having a really good visit with, and then another guy who walked past us, as we visited with him. This guy ended up talking to us for like an hour and told us we could come back! God is always right!
There is so much happening here in Denver! I am just thrilled to be able to be a part of it all! I hope we can continue to do what God needs us to do for the people here!
I love you all!!
Elder Bird
Movie Night!
Temple trip!
A family took our picture after feeding us.
When your uber driver pulls up in a golf cart
10/30/17
Hey everyone!!
What a week! There has literally been so many miracles, I don't even know where to begin or how to express all that happened in the little time that I have!
Basically, people let us in this week. A LOT of people. We had four people who we knocked on their door and they just simply asked if we wanted to come on in and sit down. FOUR! That is the most on my mission so far! How awesome is that? Three of them we had to pass off to the missionaries covering the family congregation ward that covers their area (we were knocking everywhere because we are YSA missionaries and our ward covers all the young single adults in the area). Let me explain each one!
1. Stanley! Stanley is a super cool guy who we knocked on his door and he just up and let us in on Tuesday. We sat down and talked about his religious beliefs and how things have been going for him recently in life. We talked a lot about how tough the world is nowadays. We had a really great conversation and then asked if we could share the Book of Mormon with him and continued to have good talks. He said anytime, and we set up something for the zone leaders (he lives in their ward) to come and teach him that weekend. As we were leaving, he asked if he could give us both hugs and thanked us so much for the work we were doing. It was so awesome!
2. Omer! Omer is a Muslim who lives in the same ward as Stanley, the zone leaders ward(a good ward to knock haha). He talked with us for a bit on the doorstep before I asked if we could use his bathroom. He let us in and I used the restroom while Elder Hales struck up a convo about Islam and this guy's faith. When I came out of the bathroom and found Omer sitting on his couch, I just sat on the floor and Elder Hales followed my lead. We ended up having an hour conversation in Omer's home about the world and different religions. He took a Book of Mormon to study and asked if we could bring one in Arabic! We set up for the zone leaders to come to teach him and headed out!
3. Connor! Connor was actually in our Fox Hollow ward boundries! We were out knocking on door Saturday morning and Connor, a 17 year old kid opened up and asked if we wanted to come in. We asked if his parents were going to come out, but apparently they were hiding in the back from us. Conner said he kind of wanted to hear the message! It turns out that Connor had previously met Elder Gonzalez and Elder Vail outside of Walmart one day and had a great convo with them. He was just waiting for us to knock on his door to learn more! Well, we had a great conversation about religion in general and also about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration! He accepted a Book of Mormon and told us that we could come back this Thursday. He is super solid and says he is okay to learn more (his parents are okay with it too). We are super excited and we really think he has been prepared. He kept on saying things like "it makes sense that there would be a living prophet"!
4. Hans. Hans was the last door we knocked on last week, on Sunday evening. He let us in and we had a great 1 1/2 hour conversation about life and religion in general. He is from Camaryn, next to Ethiopia, and speaks great English. He has a lot of the same thoughts and beliefs that we teach. He took a Book of Mormon and said we could come and talk with him any time!
We of course knocked on a lot of doors where the people weren't interested in what we had to say this week too, but as we kept our faith high, we were able to see miracles! Four of them!!
Crazy story about some poor missionary communication! So on Thursday, I had an endocrinology appointment scheduled. Elder Hales and I were driving to downtown Denver for it, when I got a call from some unknown number. It turned out to be Elder Brown, from his new phone where he was transferred to. He starts talking and telling me he was on his way down to our area [Arapaho]. I was a tad confused, and had no clue what he was talking about. Apparently, Sister Savage had set up for us to sing at a funeral service that morning (Elder Brown, me, and two sisters in our district), but no one had informed me about it. It was a double whammy because I had my doctor's appointment scheduled, and had also scheduled a district meeting for later that day that I wasn't sure I would get to. If someone had just called me and let me know, the conflict could have been avoided, but now we were in a huge mess! We got to the appointment and ended up cancelling and rescheduling it, and then headed straight to the funeral. Elder Hales and I didn't have suits with us, so I borrowed a sweater so I could look a little better. On our drive down, I made some calls and asked Elder Gonzalez to be in charge of things at the district meeting while I was absent. So luckily, everything ended up working out. I was a little upset with the Sisters though for not telling me ahead of time, but we sang fine and no one cared that I didn't have a suit on. We walked into district meeting only 15 minutes late and I was able to take over, so the day ran fine anyways. In situations like this I think of my mom, because she stays pretty calm and cool in hard situations, and is able to figure out a solution quickly. I think I handled the situation well, even though it seemed pretty terrible at first. That is something I think I am learning out here and have been able to develop.
I am loving it out here and loving being a servant of God!
Elder Bird
Me with a guy in the ward who matched with me on Sunday
Pumpkin spice Cheerios
The Mystery Machine!!
10/23/17
Hello!!!
I hope everyone's week has been "fan-flipping-tastic"! Ours definitely was! Also, we got some good news about the change that came with transfers last Friday!
It was a little different having transfers last Friday. They were supposed to be Wednesday of this week, but got moved up due to some weird MTC [mission training center] scheduling stuff. The big news for us was that Elder Hales and I will be staying together, however we were taken out of the Smoky Hills ward! We will be staying in the Fox Hollow ward, and are gaining the Flanders YSA ward! Yay!!! This will be my 3rd YSA [young single adult] ward to serve in, and I am super excited!
We were a little surprised by the switch. We thought everything would just stay the same for us this transfer, but they ended up switching things up, because of car issues. The mission is losing more cars than it is gaining, and so now our mini van and the Sister's Corolla are the only two cars in our Stake. Elder Hales and I are now the official chauffeur's for the rest of the Elders in the Stake! We also might be doing a bit more biking ourselves, because our mileage allotment didn't get raised by much. It should be quite the "wild ride" for the next couple of weeks.
Our week was super good. I think the coolest two experiences from the week were a lesson we had with Melissa Heckamn early in the week, and then finding a new YSA potential investigator on Saturday night, who is super enthusiastic to learn.
Our lesson with Melissa was on Tuesday. She was super excited to meet with us, but we had a little hiccup because the ward member who was supposed to meet with us, was late. We couldn't go in her house without a member present, so we sat outside on her porch and doorstep, just chatting with her, for almost 40 minutes waiting. [A rule for missionaries is that Elders cannot meet with a single woman without a member being present.] Our ward member, a super funny, kind of eccentric guy named Ray Williams, finally came and he told us that his car battery had died on the way over and he had subsequently gotten stuck in some pretty bad traffic. Luckily, Melissa understood and we had a great discussion about the Restoration, specifically about the role of prophets today and revelation that comes from God. Melissa had tons of questions and was curious about what our current prophet teaches and prophesy's of. Brother Williams did a fantastic job telling her about the The Family Proclamation and how important it is for the world nowadays, but when it was given, it seemed normal. We had a great discussion and left Melissa with some great things to think about. Hopefully things will continue to go great for her with her new missionaries. Next time she will meet with new Elders because she lives in the Smokey Hills ward boundaries, which we no longer work in.
The next awesome experience was with a guy named Taylor Rogers who lives in our apartment complex. We saw Taylor on his porch outside smoking and struck up a conversation with him, talking about the unique message of the Book of Mormon that we share with people. Taylor was so awesome! He was super nice to us and super happy to be hearing the message, and impressed with everything he heard. He told us how grateful he was that we were out sharing what we believed, especially when things were tough in the world. He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said he would start reading it. He told us we could come back and see him again this Tuesday. We are super excited! It is super great to have these kind of contacts, especially after a while of not having them.
Sunday, yesterday, was one of the craziest, funnest days! Elder Hales and I both gave talks in the Fox Hollow ward, which was super stressful but turned out great! I was happy because it will help the ward members get to know us better. After Sacrament meeting [main worship meeting - called this because this is where you partake of the Sacrament and is held in the chapel], we taught the gospel principles class. There was a nonmember couple there investigating! Anyway, after Fox Hollow we ran to the Flanders YSA ward, which meets at the Chambers building, where Cherry Creek and Piney Creek wards meet! It was fun because I got to say "hi" to a bunch of old friends from each ward there, as we waited for our meetings to start. Flanders YSA ward is a little bitty, teeny tiny ward, with only about 30 members. It is good though!! We met many of them and are super excited for it!
After church, Elder Hales and I became chauffeurs and picked up 4 other Elders, and drove up to Westminster. We were singing in the Conversion Fireside for the north half of the mission. Last week we had a Conversion Fireside for the southern part of the mission and this week it was the northern part's turn. It was an awesome meeting and we were privileged to hear people who have just been baptized stories and testimonies.
The work here is booming and I am just loving life here in Denver. I can see God's hand in my life and in the lives of the people we talk to. I am so grateful just to be a part.
Love,
Elder Bird
All the Elders who have lived with Sister Simmons
My Jesus wall
The swag wagon
10/17/17
Hey everybody!!
What a week! It has been quite a blast. It feels like it just flew by, because so many fun things are happening! Lots of meetings and stuff that just makes the time fly.
On Wednesday, we had a zone conference basically all day. Elder Hales and I got there about 7:30am so that I could practice with the quartet I was singing with. Our quartet sang "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" at the conference. Also, I was asked to lead some Elders in practicing some songs for the Conversion Fireside, that would be happening on Sunday. It's a little funny to be asked to do all this music stuff! I feel like once people knew I could sing, even if it wasn't that great, they asked me to do music stuff! It is fun! :)
We had a great zone conference. Elder Hales got to experience the great spirit uplift you get from these meetings and we both got to learn lots of stuff. We didn't leave until 6pm (crazy, right?) and then hurried on over to see Dahlia. For our lesson we talked about having Faith and about Repentance, the first two principles of the gospel. Things are going good with Dahlia. She keeps us on our toes because she darts from subject to subject. After our visit with her, I had a baptismal interview with a woman named Wanda, who was going to be baptized on Saturday. Wanda had such a great testimony. She and I chatted for about 45 minutes about her testimony and the things she had learned from the Elders. I knew she was ready to be baptized and so things were all set for her on Saturday. We heard later that it was just an awesome service, and her daughter Cierra wants to be baptized next.
On Thursday, I went on an exchange with Elder Gonzalez, a missionary who is in my group to go home together. He and I are the oldest missionaries in our district! So weird. We are pretty good friends and we had a good day of work together.
On Friday, we had interviews with President Savage. He and I had a great talk, mostly about the missionaries I am over in my district and what they really need coming up with transfers, which will be this Friday the 20th. It was good to council with him and see the love he has for every missionary in my district.
After meeting with the Mission President, Elder Hales and I went back to our home area to get some good work in before having a quick dinner. Then we had a great lesson with a girl named Judy. She is in high school right now and has a friend in our ward who has introduced her to the church. She has come to church with her friend for the last 3 weeks and also watched some of General Conference. We had a great lesson about the Restoration. She understood everything we talked about and took a copy of the Book of Mormon and is beginning to read. She has lots of questions about the Plan of Salvation, and is excited to meet up with us again with her friend! I think the coolest part of our 1st lesson with her was when her friend Isaac, who is prepping for his mission, shared his testimony of him kind of coming back to the church. It was really similar to Alma the Younger's story. It was super powerful, and a great experience for him to share with her. It was a good way to end the night!
On Sunday we had our church marathon again, except this week was especially crazy! We had church with the Fox Hollow Ward from 9am-12pm (it was the Primary program, so really fun [one Sunday a year, usually in the Fall, the children sing and give little talks about Jesus]), then church with the Smoky Hill Ward from 1pm-4pm (Judy came again and enjoyed the lessons!). After church we were invited over to our Stake President's home for a little bit, where we had dinner, and then went to a rehearsal for the songs we were singing at the Fireside, which started at 7pm. It was crazy! I led the basses in a few of their parts, and then I threw together an acapella group of me and 7 other Elders to sing "I Need Thee Every Hour" about 15 minutes before the fireside. The fireside went over great! The songs were all good, and the testimonies were all fantastic! It was so cool to see recent converts bear their testimonies and hear about their paths into the church. Wanda, the woman I interviewed earlier in the week, and was baptized on Saturday, even gave her testimony at the fireside, which was super awesome to hear! I also got to see a few old friends, like Sister Simmons, who I lived with in Parker (every time I saw her, I couldn't help but beam with a smile) and also Ryan Tupper, an investigator who Elder Brown is still working with. It was just a powerful night to feel the Spirit and hear everyone's story.
Anyway, things are going great here! I am absolutely loving it out here and all the things that come with being a missionary! Transfers are coming up on Friday, and I desperately want to stay here and keep working with the awesome people I have met here. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!
Elder Bird
10/10/17
Hey everyone!!
Sorry I didn't get to write yesterday, the libraries were closed because of Columbus Day!
What an awesome week! Elder Hales and I had such a blast this week serving out here, and we experienced like a million little miracles along the way!!
Yes, snow. We did indeed have our first snow of the season yesterday! How crazy is that?? It snowed all day, and we got to enjoy it as we walked around a mall shopping on P-day! It was definitely a shock for Elder Hales [he is from Arizona], but for me it was fun to be back in the cold again. I had to break out my winter stuff and I wore some nice thick socks and some thermals to survive the day.
I don't even know where to start this week, but I guess I'll start with me catching a cold at the beginning of the week. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling exhausted and just terrible. I tried to work through the morning like normal and get out at 10am for some awesome tracting, but by 10:45am I could barely knock on the doors. I ended up calling the mission nurse (apparently we are bound to be besties) and she told me to basically take it easy and go home and nap. Elder Hales and I grabbed some medications at the store and then did just that. After a few hours of rest, I went back to work, and we found a woman named Melissa. She was outside working in her yard, and she let us inside her house (she thought we were JW's [Jehovah Witnesses]) and let us teach her about the Book of Mormon and Restoration! She told us to come back next week and seemed pretty intrigued. Anyway, we worked for the rest of the day, and I was basically fried by 8pm, so we decided to come home early and rest for the night.
Wednesday was pretty uneventful, but Thursday was chalk full of awesome happenings! We went to see and got in with a few former investigators that let Elder Hales "practice the lesson" on them. One went absolutely awesome, and we even watched Tad R. Callister's recent General Conference talk on the Book of Mormon! The other, not so great. She had lots of questions on just about every point and we didn't get to teach like we had hoped, but it was a great experience for Elder Hales!! The real blessing came that night after dinner, when a potential named Omar, let us into his home and let us teach him about the Book of Mormon! It was such a sweet lesson! He accepted a copy and even asked us if he could come to church the Sunday after this one. I feel like God blessed us twice in a row, leading us to people who actually let us come in to their homes, just like that!!
I'm running out of time, but the last miracles came Sunday night, when we had 3 sweet lessons right in a row. First, we had our 'church-a-thon' in the morning, with church from 8:30am-4:15pm [2 wards- 3 hours each, plus ward council meeting times 2]. It was testimony meeting so we bore our testimonies so that the ward members could get to know us a bit better. I bore my testimony of the Lord's love for each of us. I told them about my recent health issues and the story of getting my appendix removed and then them finding the tumor inside, and how I have felt strengthened by knowing I am loved by the Lord. He has blessed me so much! After church, we went straight to a lesson with Dahlia, a 10 year old girl wanting to get baptized. We finished teaching her the Plan of Salvation and made a plan to continue having awesome lessons with her in the future! Then, we ran to teach Maria, a member referral from Sister Torres in the Smoky Hill ward. We taught her once before about the Book of Mormon, and we got to talk a bit more about it. She told us that she feels like God is leading her to our church, but she has been a little resistant. She wants to do what God is telling her though and so wants to read the Book of Mormon! It was awesome! Right after meeting with her, we went on some splits with the ward missionaries and I got to teach Rego, an investigator that is kind of hard to catch. Rego talked a lot about where he is coming from spiritually and just kept saying that he feels God is reaching out to him and he has been holding back. We talked for a long time and at the end "committed" Rego to read in the book of Mormon every day. We promised him that if he would, God would fill His life with what he thought was missing. He committed to it and is even excited!! It was so cool!
Anyway, the work is hastening on and it feels like all we have to do is get out the door and open our mouths! I am so happy to be here and to be serving and loving these people! I know that this is God's work!!
Elder Bird
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