|
4/03/17
Hey everyone!! I hope General Conference weekend was a blast for all who were able to watch it. General Conference is like the Superbowl for us missionaries on a mission, so we enjoyed ourselves and liked all the talks that were given to us.
It was transfer week this week!! Elder Eldredge left Wednesday morning for Aurora, and Elder Mork came up here to Arvada with me! We had a few other changes in the zone with Elders and Sisters moving around. Two companionships were "swept out" where both Elders or Sisters were transferred and the two wards they were serving in were combined. A new set of Elders came in that I think will be able to handle the new change. With the number of missionaries here getting smaller with each transfer, the Mission President has had to combine a lot of wards and shrink some zones down. But I am really excited for this transfer!!
As for highlights of the week, we found some really awesome new people!! Elder Eldredge and I tracted most of his last day, and had a miracle because of it. It was raining outside and we went to an apartment complex with inside hallways right before dinner. We knocked on a door and this guy named Aaron answers and lets us in. So we sit down with him, and his wife Ashley joins us and brings activities for the kids to sit down at the table with us as well!! We start talking to them and they tell us that they have been waiting for missionaries to knock on their door for about a year! Ashley's dad joined the church a while back and they have just been waiting for someone to invite them to come to get into it. They had even tried to flag down a few missionaries in the past with no luck! How crazy is that?? They were so excited to meet us that they invited us back over for dinner....before I even knew their last name! Elder Eldredge was so sad because he was leaving the next day and wouldn't get to teach them. But how cool is that?? This stuff never happens!
On Thursday, Elder Mork and I put together a zone meeting to introduce our new zone to the Church's new Easter video and initiative. It was a great meeting and we got to meet all of the zone! The church has put out a video for Easter time about the #PrinceofPeace. It is super awesome and the missionaries are going to start introducing it to everyone this Easter to try and help everyone realize how much peace the Savior can bring into their lives if they only let him in. Ask your missionaries and check it out!!
On Friday, Elder Mork and I went to a missionary Leadership council for the majority of the day. We got some good feedback on what needs to happen this transfer and what we can do moving forward to best help the missionaries in the zone. It is always fun going to these meetings to hear feedback from the Mission President, but also because we get to see a bunch of our old friends and companions.
Elder Mork and I found another cool investigator at the end of the week. Her name is Jennifer, and we found her by street contacting. She was a bit abrasive at first, but we kept on talking with her, explaining what we do and testifying of the help it can bring to her life. She has some pretty big challenges, but was open to talking more. Then, when I said a prayer with her before we left, she started tearing up and ran inside. It was so cool to see how quickly the Spirit can touch someone you meet on the street.
This weekend was Conference! Elder Mork and I spent a lot of time in the Stake Center (about 10 hours) watching the different sessions. It was so good to hear from the General Authorities! I enjoyed all of the talks, but my favorites must have been Elder Ballard's talk on goal setting (especially applicable as a missionary) and Elder Costa's story of his conversion. I also felt particularly touched by Elder Bednar's talk in the priesthood session about missionary re-assignments. I love how the Lord loves us and knows us that He is able to direct his servants to speak directly to us. I know that these messages are sent from God for each of us and we should keep these talks in our minds as we move forward these next few months. I promise all of you that heeding their counsel will bless your life, and I can promise that by how much it has blessed mine.
So that was our week! We are looking forward to a big week next week with lots of stuff going on and much work to be done!! I hope everyone's upcoming week back home is a blast!!
Much love,
Elder Bird
Easter Video
https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_SU_2-4-2017_dPFD_fMORG_xLIDyL1-C_
3/27/17
Hey Everyone!!
Transfers have come out, and Elder Eldredge is getting the boot! He is going to head down to Aurora South to end his mission as a district leader. He is going to do awesome down there. As for me up here, I will stay and my new companion will be . . . Elder Mork!! He was in last area when I was serving in Piney and Cherry Creek Wards. He is a fantastic Elder, and I am so excited to be serving with him!!
As for the week, it was pretty good! I'll just go through the highlights really quick, because we spent a lot of time freaking out about transfers.
Most of the week was spent tracting and trying to find some new people to teach. We picked up 3 new investigators this week!! Two of them, we found by tracting and were able to teach about the Book of Mormon and share a copy with them. They were both super nice, and interested in us coming back and seeing them again. I am super excited to see both of them again. The third person was actually a guy named Bryan we had found tracting a few weeks ago, but never had the chance to teach. We sat down with him, and he told us he had been taught in the past a long time ago. He really likes our "3 tiered heaven concept" and has no real concerns! We set up a time to come back in a few weeks and see how he has enjoyed some reading we gave him to do, and to teach him the lessons again. I am so excited for him!
We went on exchanges on Wednesday with some elders in the zone. I went into the Arvada 4th ward area with Elder Olsen. We did something different and rode the bus all over Arvada. We had the chance to talk to people on the bus and try to teach them before they got off. It was super fun to talk with everyone there. We had a good time together and are really excited for the transfer moving forward.
We also had interviews with the Mission President this week. It was really fun to have the whole zone there together and to talk with the president in our own individual interviews. We also gave him some suggestions on what we think would really help the zone for transfers. The President is really excited for this transfer, because these are some of his last before the next Mission President comes in. It should be good!
Anyways, the week was pretty standard. I think the biggest highlight for me came when we had a lesson with a YSA [Young Single Adult] guy named Tyler. Unfortunately, the lesson with him went poorly, but I was able to talk with the member who came with us afterwards. Turns out this guy, named Jake, had actually been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes right before his mission. Because of it, he was called to serve in Utah. But, he had to go home only 2 transfers in to it [1 transfer equals 6 weeks] because he just couldn't get his diabetes under control. He had accepted that it was God's plan for him and he was okay with that. As I was listening to him tell his story, I was just overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the blessings I have had of being able to serve a full time mission with my recent diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. I am in a place where I can go out and talk with people everyday that don't have the gospel, and try to teach them. I feel so blessed that God's plan for me is to serve this mission. I know God is watching over me, as he does with all of us, and gives us little miracles along the way.
I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!!
Elder Bird
Elder Eldredge wearing the same tie as the Pres
This is what it's about - the BoM
3/20/17
Hey everybody!!
I hope everyone's week was a good one and you all had a fantastic St. Patrick's Day!! We had a great day and wore green ties that my mom sent us. We were told why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day by a drunk man in Olde Town Arvada!! Apparently, we celebrate it because "St. Patrick was a Christian" :)
The week was really good! Lots of stuff happened, so I think I am going to do the highlights like I did last week.
So on Monday was our zone P-day!! Elder Eldredge and I were in charge! We got everything set up for our Quidditch game and then waited for everyone to show up with their brooms. It turned out to be super fun! And super tiring. Everyone in the zone seemed to really like it and I think it will be pretty memorable for them, so we were happy about that.
On Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the Elders in the 3rd ward. I was with Elder Holtry in the 3rd ward area. We had a really good day together. Elder Holtry is super funny and an awesome guy. We did a lot of walking, because they don't have a car, so by the end of the day if felt like we had done a good days work. That night when the two companionships came back together, we all talked about our day. Elder Edlredge and Elder Wagner had had a good day too, in our ward area, and had set up some good appointments for Wednesday.
On Wednesday, we did a lot of contacting and tracting. That morning, we were able to meet with this really awesome investigator named Less, who broke his toe and now had ample time to meet with us! We taught him about the Plan of Salvation. After seeing him, we held a meeting with the District Leaders in our zone. We talked about things we could do to improve and keep moving forward, and it felt pretty effective. We bought Little Caesars for all of us afterwards and had a quick "lunch party."
The big event on Thursday was at the end of the day, where I actually had my very first baptismal interview! [Someone who wants to be baptized is "interviewed" to make sure they really want to be baptized and that they have a good understanding of our beliefs and will commit to keeping the commandments] It was with a really sincere investigator named Anthony, who had actually already gone through 4 other baptismal interviews, but was unsure of where his testimony stood of Joseph Smith and the current prophet. As we first started talking I took some time to get to know Anthony and see what his story was. Then he brought up his concerns I guess that he always had had. I tried to work with him through all of the questions and save the questions he had concerns over until the end. When we did get to them, we talked a lot about them and I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and of Thomas S. Monson as the current prophet. The spirit was very strong in the room. At the end, we decided to postpone his baptism again until he could receive a more solid answer and a stronger testimony. It was tough to postpone it, but I was super happy with how the interview went.
The biggest event on Friday was again near the end of the night! We taught a guy named Tyler, who is in the YSA [young single adult] ward. We were able to have a great conversation with him about what his concerns were moving forward and were able to set some goals to help him work towards baptism! It was a great lesson!
Saturday was a pretty packed day, but the biggest thing that happened was a lesson we had with the Gabaldon family, who's daughter Julia was scheduled to be baptized next Saturday. We taught them about prophets, and then were trying to set things up with them about Julia's baptism. Well Angel, the mom, told us that she didn't think Julia could be baptized on Saturday! Nooo! She told Julia that she had to be living all of the commandments more in her life, and she thought Julia was struggling being a good sibling and child with commandment number 5 [honoring her mother and father.] We were all bummed, but hopefully this will make Julia work harder towards the commitment of baptism. The other fun thing that happened on Saturday was tracting in (we didn't realize it until later) a retirement community for 2 hours!! We talked to a lot of sweet, but not super interested, older people. They were super fun though! That night, we had dinner at the Chili Bowl for our ward.
Sunday was pretty standard. We were able to see Julia and another investigator at church, who we totally didn't expect to come. We had a solid block of church all the way until 4:30pm, had dinner, contacted some people, then we came home and ended for the night.
Overall, it was a pretty great week! We are super excited for the upcoming week as it is the last week of this transfer.
I hope you all have a fantastic week moving forward! I love you all!!
Elder Bird
Elder Eldredge and I made quick work of the puzzle my mom sent
3/13/17
Hey everyone!!
I hope everyone has had a great week! We definitely did in the "St. Arvada" zone here in Denver!!
We had a great week. My companion and I are trying to get set up for an awesome "zone p-day" today, so I have only a little time to give an update, so here are the highlights!
We had a car fast on Tuesday [this is where they don't use their car for a day]. It was weird to go without our truck for a day, I have gotten so used to it. But we did some good work on our bikes! Elder Eldredge's helmet made him look like a "Goomba" [a character from Mario Brothers].
We picked up and started teaching a new investigator this week! His name is Matt, and he is dating someone in the church. He was a referral that we got from a member in Utah. The interesting thing is, Elder Eldredge and his previous companion had actually accidentally tracted and ran into this guy before he was referred...and he was not interested. And now, we are teaching him because he is dating someone in the church. How crazy is that??
On Friday, we started teaching a guy named Keith that we had tracted and found a while back. It was such an awesome lesson! We were out with him while he was walking his cat around his apartment complex. We walked with him and his cat, and ended up in some "wooded glen". We talked about the Book of Mormon a ton and how it helps us learn about Jesus Christ. He told us not to "spoil it" for him, and so he doesn't know where Lehi and his family will land after thy build their boat (spoiler alert, it is America). It was so awesome!!
On Saturday, our zone volunteered at a city event for St. Patty's day that they asked us to help out with. We went, and were asked to stop people from leaving the event with alcohol (it was good Word of Wisdom work!) It ended up being pretty fun as we talked and laughed with a bunch of people. Some guy was even super nice (he had worked with missionaries before) and gave us some money! We used it to buy some ice cream at the festival, and Elder Eldredge bought a flavor called "Leprechaun Poop." He said it was pretty good!
Finally, the last cool thing was a zone leader meeting that we went to last night. Our Mission President gathered the zone leaders together and we discussed what was going well and what wasn't in the mission. And then what we could do as leaders to help the missionaries. We also talked about the administrative work that we have to do, which was awesome. During the meeting, I was asked to bear my testimony on anything that came to my mind. I felt impressed to speak on humility. I said a few words about how much the Savior could have done with the power he had, but instead had the greatest impact on the human race through his meekness and humility and ministry to individuals, one by one. It has been cool to be a leader in the mission and to see how much we could do with the power given to us, but have to humble ourselves, to be beneath the missionaries we serve, to have a greater impact on them.
Anyway, that was pretty much the big moments from our week! I love it out here and am so happy to be serving and feeling the support from all of you back home. I hope you all have great weeks moving forward!!!
Thanks so much!!
Elder Bird
3/6/17
Hey everyone!!
Happy March! I hope all is going well and that your last week has been a good one! Elder Eldredge and I definitely had a good, but interesting week!
So the week started with a pretty good P-day after emailing! We went from emailing at the library to sports. We had most things prepped already for the week and Elder Eldredge and I started brainstorming for the "Zone P-day," which is next week. This will be a P-day where the whole zone gets together and does something super fun, and we are in charge. We had gotten requests to have a game of Quidditch, so we were trying to figure out how to play (because neither of us really knew). We played some volleyball and basketball and then a game of (my homemade version) of Settlers of Catan. A sister missionary from our zone got into a little fender bender that day, so after dinner we went over to their apartment to give her a blessing. She was okay aside from being shaken up. She asked me to give the blessing, which I did, and then we headed out to work for the night. We tried to visit with a bunch of different people before heading home to end for the night.
Tuesday was spent mostly tracting and trying by some people we hadn't seen in a while. We met a nice guy named Kyle who said we could come back! He was even YSA age, [YSA = young single adult 18-30] which was pretty awesome. Later that night we met with some investigator teenagers who were coming to Mutual [youth activity]. They enjoyed mutual, and then after we met with them and talked to them a lot about baptism. Julia, a 13 year old girl, said that she wanted to be baptized! Micheal, the 14 year old, said his only hang up was that he liked drinking coffee too much. After some discussion on it, he told us that if we got him some hot chocolate, he would switch over (easy peezy!). We set a goal for both of them to be baptized on the 25th of March, which is the last week of the transfer. We are super excited for them!!
On Wednesday, we went on exchanges with another set of elders in the zone who are kind of struggling with the work. Elder Eldridge and I wanted to see if we could help them with it and give them some training. So I went with one of the Elders from the Standley Lake Ward, and Elder Eldridge went with the other. The Elder I was with, was a little quiet and apprehensive about talking to people. He also was struggling with staying motivated to tract or street contact. So I was excited for the exchange and to see what I could to help! That morning, we went We talked about as missionaries how could we help people attend church and prepare for baptism. WE tracted for about 4 hours before dinner that night, with an appointment in between with a less active member named Harold. Tracting was great! This Elder was a bit shy at first, but by the end of our time together he was participating and leading in door approaches! Our appointment went well too. After dinner, we tracted, even more! It was a solid day of work. I ended the day talking with him about how things were going for their companionship and why we had gone on exchanges with them. We talked a lot about his companionship and things that were happening with them. I asked him to commit to working hard and to push themselves, as hard as they could, to achieve their goals. I am excited to see what happens with them moving forward!
Thursday was a good day! That morning we tried to contact some people in our area and then did some tracting. In the afternoon, we went to our district meeting, which was about planning effectively. It was great! After district meeting, we contacted a few YSA people and tried to set up some return appointments with them and get some phone numbers. We had a good dinner, and then went out again that night. We had a pass off lesson with a guy named Tyler in the YSA ward, and then we went to someone's house we had met while tracting. We taught her and her daughters about the Plan of Salvation! It was so awesome! Then we headed in for the night.
Friday, I woke up to Elder Eldredge throwing up in the bathroom. It turns out that he had gotten food poisoning when he was with the other elder on exchanges. So I narrowly dodged that bullet. I stayed in with Elder Eldredge all day while he rested. I didn't have much to do, so we watched church movies and I got caught up in my journal. It was a pretty boring day of staying home.
We were hoping Elder Eldredge would be feeling better by Saturday, but he was still out of it. So, we decided to go on exchanges again with the Elders from the Standley Lake Ward. The sick Elders stayed home, while the healthy Elders (me) went out teaching. We had 5 appointments set up, but only two actually happened. They were both good though! The first was a lunch with a recent convert who is now a ward missionary. She was going to go out with us and we helped her prep for the lesson she was going to help us teach at 1pm. We met with Michael and Julia's family. This is the family with 7 kids. We taught about fasting for answers. It was a little crazy with all the kids, but we got through at least 2 scriptures. Michael and Julia, and their 11 year old son said they would come to church on Sunday!!
Finally, Sunday! Elder Edlredge was feeling better! Our day was full of church meetings, but Micheal, Julia, and their son came to church! YAY! We also had Tyler, the YSA guy, come to the YSA ward! After church, we had dinner, and then tracted for a bit before heading in and ending the week.
So it was a crazy week! So much happened, and we felt like we really made progress with some people! Even though we didn't get to work for a day and a half and got food poisoning, we were still able to get a lot of stuff done. We are super excited to work all week this week!!
I hope everything is well back home!! I love you all and am super grateful for all of the support!!
Elder Bird
Playing my homemade game on P-day at the church
Burgundy sweater day - haha
Showing: [64,65,66,67,68 of 107 entries]
|
