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2/21/17
Hey everyone!!
I hope you all had fantastic Valentine's Day!! It was super fun/ kind of weird / to be out as a missionary for Valentine's Day, but we all had our one true love on the forefront of our minds: the gospel!
Anyway, things here this week were super fun! I am continuing to learn how to be an effective Zone Leader from Elder Eldredge. There is so much to do, and remember!! But, hopefully I can learn it all quickly, so that I can do a good job moving forward!
I don't have a ton of time to email today, but I will try to give a brief summary of everything that happened in our big week!
P-day was fantastic last Monday! We were able to get tons of stuff done and then spent a lot of time playing basketball and different other sports that we could think of with all of the Elders in the Zone. It was a relaxing day to get prepared! Then that night, we met with the whole Zone and had dinner at the Stake President's house. He fed us dinner and gave us a little devotional at the end. It was super awesome and great to see the leadership in the Stake in Arvada. The Stake President has a love for the people and for his flock here. That night, we tried contacting a few people and then met with a man in the YSA Ward named Jordan. We were able to express to him our purpose in helping him follow Christ and he agreed to read a part of the Book of Mormon and maybe be baptized in the future, in order to follow the Savior! After that lesson, we went on exchanges, with a District Leader in our Zone who went with Elder Eldredge to work in our area, while I went with Elder Tonga, to work in their area.
Tuesday (Valentine's Day!) was a great day with Elder Tonga. He is a younger missionary, but has a lot of fire and likes to work hard! So we did. The day consisted of a lesson in the morning, a District Meeting in the afternoon, and then a lot of tracting in the late afternoon! It was really cool, because we were able to find three people who seemed really interested in investigating the church (and I learned on Sunday that someone we had found is now set for baptism in March!!). We had a great dinner that night at Red Robin with some members of their ward and then went back out knocking. We didn't have too much success, and then realized that it was probably because it was Valentine's Day and people didn't want to see us. But we kept trucking on, and met another great guy who ran out after us to give us the correct address to meet him again!! It was so sweet! We thanked him and then headed back to swap companions back and turn in for the night.
Wednesday morning we went to the southern half of the Mission, to a Zone Conference, where we did car inspections. They asked the Zone Leaders to check all of the cars being used to make sure they have been cleaned and are in proper working order. It was cool, because I got to see my old Toyota Corolla that Elder Olson is still using, and leave a note for him saying that "Elder Bird was here." haha
Later we tried contacting people by calling a lot of people in YSA Ward, setting up times to try and meet, and then went out tracting. We had a few "fun experiences." One woman told us she wasn't too interested, but let us sit on her porch and gave us a glass of water and some bananas. Then another woman on the same street answered the door asking us if we were "kidding." We didn't know what to say, so we said no! She kindly told us to never come back. And then still another woman on the same street answered the door angrily without a shirt on yelling at us...we got out of that situation ASAP. So it was an interesting afternoon! When stuff like that happens now, we take it all in stride and think it is kind of funny, and we don't get too phased by it. Most of the times we just laugh it off and move on! We had a good dinner afterward to make up for it, and then a lesson with a girl in the YSA Ward about setting goals. It was a good way to end the night.
Thursday was our Zone Conference! It was all about the Book of Mormon and our experiences with reading it these past 65 days. It was our goal to read it in as many days as it took Joseph Smith to translate it. I had it mostly finished, and a lot of us (myself included) were able to bear our testimonies. The Book of Mormon is one of strongest parts of my testimony, with a lot of things relying upon it. It contains the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am so glad that we have it. So we had a good long meeting and then headed to dinner. We saw a man named Chris that night. Chris is a super great guy who knows the truth of everything we teach him, but has a hard time overcoming smoking and has some laziness to act on the things he knows he should do. We had a great discussion with him and he said he would come to church on Sunday!
Friday was a full day. I started the day off with an Endocrinology (diabetes) doctor's appointment in downtown. This visit was about hooking a continuous glucose monitor to me so that my doctor can see how my diabetes did during the week. So they hooked me up to a tiny little system that they shot into me, and now I can check my blood sugar every 5 minutes on a little thing that looks like an Ipod! I will go in again next Friday to talk about the results. Anyway, after the visit to the doctor's, Elder Eldredge and I planned out what we were doing the following week with appointments and goals. Then, we got out and did some work that afternoon and had a great dinner that night with some awesome members. After dinner, we had some appointments lined up, which all seemed to fall through. So we tracted that night and had some good conversations. Then we saw a less-active woman named Nicole that night and shared with her how much reading form the Book of Mormon has helped us find peace in life. She goes to another church, but hopefully reading from the Book of Mormon will help her find some peace that she is looking for right now.
Saturday was a booked day! We had an appointment in the morning, then lunch, and then a bunch of appointments in the afternoon. A lot of those fell through, but the coolest one that we had was with the Gabaldon family. They are a super cool, super huge family. We were able to meet with the mom and some of the kids. We were drawing out the plan of salvation for them. The kids were all kind of going crazy and the mom wasn't paying attention, but the cool thing was that the 9 year old was engrossed and even asked for a picture of the plan after the lesson!! It was so cool! She was really interested in "what God had for her", in her words. Then that night, we went out tracting and tried to contact people.
Sunday was a full day with church. We went to church at 8:30am for ward counsel, and didn't finish with meetings until 4:30pm with the two wards!!!!! How crazy is that? But, Chris did come to church and was with us for Sacrament meeting, which was awesome for him. And, one of the Gabaldon kids and his girlfriend came to Sunday School class. It was so cool to have them there with us! After church, we didn't have too much time for appointments, but had a great dinner and then were able to meet with a really nice guy that night. We found that he wasn't too interested, but really appreciated the work we were doing to help people come closer to Christ. He thanked us and we headed home for the night!
Anyway, so it was a super cool week with a lot happening! There is so much to balance here, with being a zone leader and trying to help out all the other missionaries, trying to keep my health a non-issue, and helping people in both wards come closer to Christ! But, I have felt the stress from it all dissipate over the last couple of weeks as I've tried my hardest to do a good job and have asked God for help. It has been so cool to see Him make my burdens (not that these are burdens, but responsibilities) feel lighter.
I hope you all have great weeks moving forward! Thanks so much for all of the love and support that I feel!!
Sincerely,
Elder Bird
This was me & Elder Holtry having fun at the Army surplus store last P-day!
2/13/17
Hey everyone!! I hope everyone's week has been awesome and that things are going great back home!
This week was a bit crazy for me...but super fun and full of great missionary work! I am with my new companion, Elder Eldredge, and now in Arvada. I am assigned as a zone leader over the Elders and Sisters in the Arvada zone! The transition has been wonderful and I am loving it up here.
So the week started off at the library on Monday morning emailing and finding out that I would be transferred. It was sad that we would have to leave each other, but we were all glad to be getting a fresh start and continuing on in the mission. After emailing, we went home and grabbed some lunch before heading out to a zone p-day, where everyone in the zone got together one last time to play volleyball and hang out. It was way fun, and a good way to say bye!
Afterwards, we took the Willow Creek Elders (Elder Mork and Elder Cooper) out to eat at an all you can eat Sushi place for a last hoorah. Then Elder Olson and I had a great dinner with Sister Larsen and we were able to say goodbye to her. She has been wonderful and has had us over to her house a lot. That night, we had an FHE [Family Home Evening] with the Hartt family in the ward. I gave a lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ and said goodbye. I'll miss that family, with their crazy 3 boys. It was a sweet goodbye though. Afterwards, we ran over to a less active member, Sister Trevizo. I got really close with her and her daughter over the time I have taught them, and they said they would miss me a bunch. They told me they wanted me to come back and visit them when I am all done with my mission. It has been kind of interesting to see how attached people can get to each other out here. After seeing them and sharing one of my favorite scriptures, we headed home and I started to pack for the transfer.
Tuesday was my last day in the area! We started the day off as we normally do with service at the old folks home. It was so weird knowing that this would be my last time there! We did the Tai Chi class and then played some board games with two older woman. It was super funny because as we played Jenga, and near the end of the game, both of the women quit, and it was just Elder Olson and I battling it out. Then we said bye and headed out!
We went home real quick for lunch and then headed out for the day...on bikes! Because it was the first Tuesday of the month, we were without the use of our car. So we hopped on our bikes to see some people for my last time! I was able to say goodbye and share a final message to a recent convert named Frank, a good friend named Jerry, a few investigators (including a lawyer named Andrew and a final lesson with Jordan Smith, who we've gotten very close to). The funny thing that day was that all the snow was melting and the roads were wet...so our clothes got way muddy from riding around! Luckily, Jordan gave us a ride home after his lesson. Once there we could change, and then we were allowed to use our car because it was after 5pm, then we went to dinner.
Dinner was actually breakfast, at a cute family's house, in the ward. They have four girls and have another on the way! I was able to say a good goodbye after dinner, and then we headed out to meet Nancy at Red Robin! She had wanted to take me out for a goodbye dinner, so we agreed if we could share some spiritual thoughts. Red Robin was a delicious second dinner, and it was nice to be able to say goodbye to her. Nancy was probably our top progressing investigator in the wards we were assigned to. After saying goodbye to her, I was able to see my Cherry Creek Ward Mission Leader one last time and then actually do some quick service for a woman in the ward before coming home and finishing up packing. It had been a full but fun day!
Wednesday was transfer day! I finished getting everything packed up and then saw our Piney Creek Ward Mission Leader one last time before heading over to the Stake Center. While we waited for the transfer van we got to visit with some of the other missionaries. Then I said goodbye to everyone and hopped on and headed up north again!! Elder Olson then left to pick up his newbie. The ride was nice, and we were at the drop off site soon. There I was able to meet some of the Elders and Sisters in my new zone (that I was in charge of) and also meet Elder Eldredge, my new companion. He is a really cool guy! We loaded up our truck (zone leaders get trucks out here) with all the luggage we could, and gave some of the Elders a ride back to their house. After dropping them off, we went to my new apartment and dropped off my stuff. We got it all unloaded and then quickly got back to work!
We spent most of the day having conversations on the streets and tracting, which turned out to be awesome! So many more people are out on the streets here in Arvada, and it seemed like almost everyone we talked to was either kind and polite or very interested! It was super cool! Elder Eldredge also showed me some really casual approaches to use in the future. So we had a great afternoon talking with people. That night, someone dropped off our dinner, which was a blessing because I was able to start getting unpacked. After dinner, we went back out talking with people. Later we took the Elders in the Arvada 3rd Ward (who don't have a car) out shopping with us so that they could pick up anything they needed to hold them over until P-day. Then we ended transfer day!
Thursday was a big, busy day. We had our District Meeting that morning, which was fun because I got to meet everyone in the new district. Our district leader is in the Arvada 3rd Ward, and his name is Elder Wagner. He is a super cool dude and he gave a us some good training. After the meeting, we took them home and then my new companion and I had a planning meeting for the upcoming week. Normally we plan on Fridays, but we had a big meeting the next day, so we planned early. It was good to be able to learn a bit about the work being done here and the people we teach. That took a large part of the day, so we didn't get back out until after dinner. Dinner was good. It was at a good Mexican place with our YSA [Young Single Adult] Ward Mission Leader. He is a solid dude that is really helpful with the work! It is kind of weird though, that he is almost our age.
After dinner, we got back to work. We did a lot more tracting and street contacting, and finished the night with a lesson with a guy named Chris. He is a super nice guy, and has desires to change, but has some hang ups with smoking. I am hopeful that we can help him move forward! One funny thing that happened was that a member was going to meet us there for our lesson with Chris. He called while we were at the appointment telling us that he had been knocking on the door. When we opened the door, he wasn't there. We waited and waited, and he just never showed up...we don't know what happened! He was probably at the wrong house.
Friday was our big meeting day. It was called Missionary Leadership Counsel. It was basically all of the Zone Leaders coming together and getting training that we needed to pass down to our Elders and Sisters. It was a very good meeting and I got some good training. Also, it was fun because I got to see friends and old companions like Elder LaPerle and Elder Bjerga. The meeting ran from 9am until 4pm, so we were pooped by the end of it. The meeting also brought some changes to how we will run meetings, so afterwards we made some changes to some upcoming meetings we had planned. After that, we tracted around and then had dinner with a guy in the YSA Ward named Matt. He took us out to dinner and then we had him come with us to some appointments we had planned, but they all fell through, so we let him go, and finished the night by tracting.
Saturday was a booked day for us! We started the day with a District Leader Counsel, which was basically me and my companion training to the district leaders in our zone, kind of like a District meeting. It went well! After the meeting, we got changed and then headed out to teach for the day. We ate lunch at a young, recent convert's, house named Zoey. She is really cool, and we are helping with some challenges she's facing right now. We read some scriptures with her, and when we asked her if she would come to church, she said, "duh." (We love to hear that!).
Later, we taught a lesson to a super fun, huge, family named the Gabaldons. The mom, Angel, has bright blue hair and she has 8 kids! They drive a small school bus around to all the kid's places. The kids are all excited about church and are just working through some stuff. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a good lesson, but a bit tough to get all the kids to listen.
After that a couple of our next appointments fell through, so we went tracting. Street contacting out here is super fun, so we street contacted for the rest of the day until dinner. Dinner was great at a cute family's house, who gave us pie for the husband's birthday after. It turns out the husband used to play the trombone, so that was cool to make a connection with that! After a good dinner and a quick message with them, we headed out and finished the night by tracting and trying to contact people.
Finally, it was Sunday! I thought maybe it would be shorter here, but it turns out that church was actually much longer. We are over two wards again and we were not done until around 4pm. We had dinner and then had some companion study time together. We also had a planning meeting about the upcoming week ahead and then got to work. We called some potential people to set up some appointment times and then tracted for a bit before going home and finishing off the week!
Anyway, it was a super solid week. The transition went smoothly and I am loving it here in Arvada. We have a pretty packed week moving forward, so I'm super excited! I hope everyone's week back home is great as well!! I love you all!
Elder Bird
Me with:
Frank, Jerry, Andrew, Cherry Creek WML, Elder Eldredge
2/6/17
Hey everyone!! What a fantastic week! And, transfer info came out this morning, and I have some pretty exciting news...that I will save until the end :)
This last week started off kind of different for us because it was a regular day on Monday instead of a P-day. Monday was a fun day, spent mostly out tracting. The weather has been very beautiful lately, and it reminds me of home. So we were out with our sleeves rolled up knocking on doors. We didn't find too many people interested, but we did have a pretty awesome experience that night. As we were knocking on a particular door, no one answered, so we walked away. Then a guy comes running out to stop us. He introduced himself and we told him why we were there. He said he would like to meet and talk! His name is Mike, and we got his phone number and set up an appointment and everything. It was so exciting! Later, we exchanged companions with some other Elders, so that I could be with with each of my Elders before transfers. So I spent Monday night to Tuesday night with Elder Mork.
Tuesday was awesome. Elder Mork is a great Elder. We did some service at our Old Folks home in the morning, which he loved and thought was super fun. All the elderly people laughed at us trying to do the exercises they were doing. After that, we headed home and had lunch before going to see Jerry, a friend of ours who recently moved into Cherry Creek area after just getting baptized in another ward. It was really cool, because Elder Mork had helped teach him in the other ward! So they got to see each other again, and we talked with Jerry about the importance of have a calling [basically a job] in the church. He liked that he might be able to share some of his talents with people moving forward in a calling. We are hoping he will be called as a greeter at church. After meeting with Jerry, we went tracting. As we were out knocking on doors, the third door opened and a guy named Jon let us in. Jon is super knowledgeable about different religions, and studied Mormonism for a while. He has some concerns with some of our teachings, but the church just came out with some essays that I think will really help him. He is super nice and told us to come back anytime! I'm very excited for him. After seeing him, we knocked on some more doors until dinner. Elder Mork is very good at door approaches and being personable very early on, so I learned a lot from him. Then we had a great dinner with some sweet people in the ward and then knocked even more doors that night. After a solid night of tracting, we headed home to talk about how he was doing, how the day went, and what we could both do to improve. Then Elder Olson and Elder Cooper showed up and we exchanged back to our normal companions.
Wednesday was a great P-day, starting off with waking up early to go to the temple. Our session started at 6am, so we woke up at 4:45am to get ready. We showed up at Elder Mork and Elder Cooper's door at 5:15am to give them a ride, and there was no answer. So we knocked again. Again, no answer. I didn't really want to be late to the temple, so I did a "police knock" on their door. A minute later, they opened it up saying that they had just woken up from my knock! They hurried to get ready, and we raced off. It was a stressful car ride, but we made it in on time! It was a wonderful session and it was cool to feel complete peace during our session, especially after feeling so stressed that morning and just in general lately. After the session, we went to Deseret Book store. I decided to pick up some cute new scriptures with my name engraved on them, so they would be a little lighter for tracting. After browsing and seeing other missionaries for a bit, we headed home. We went to the library and emailed, and then Elder Olson and I went out to sushi with our friend Donald. It was really good, all you can eat.
After that, we shopped and hung out for a while. We played my homemade Settlers of Catan game that I made, with Elder Mork and Cooper. I won, with longest road and largest army :) Then we had a good dinner and spent the night with our Ward Mission Leader. We couldn't use our car that night because it was "grounded" because there was ice on the roads. So he drove us to our next appointment at 8pm. It was a good appointment with Jackie and Jordan Smith, a cute couple investigating the church in Piney Creek area. Our lesson was on how Christ established His church, and how ours is organized like it.
Thursday was a full day. It was a little different than a normal Thursday with my district meeting held later in the day. But we had a good morning tracting and even found someone super interested....in March - haha. That will be fun for the Elders who will be in this area then, because she was super awesome! We had a good district meeting that afternoon, more discussions about the new changes for missionaries and how we report now, and then we had some demonstrations from everyone on how they do door approaches. With transfers coming up next Wednesday, I was pretty sure I was leaving, so this was my last meeting with everybody! I made everyone sing "God Be with you Till We Meet Again" to make it super sappy. After the meeting, Elder Olson and I headed out to see Nancy, a sweet investigator that treats us like her sons. She told us she would come to church that week because it might be my last week! After seeing her, we saw the Johnson family and shared a small message with them before dinner. We had a good dinner and then saw the Angulo family in the ward, so that I could say some goodbyes.
Friday started off a bit slower. We did some planning for the week ahead. We had no clue what was happening moving forward, but I let Elder Olson take over the lead because he was most likely staying. We figured out what we were going to do for the next week and then went out to work. We did some tracting before seeing a young man in the ward named Joey. We have been helping him come back to church, and it has been cool being his friend. After Joey, we continued to tract and try to see meet some more potential people to teach. We actually ran into a guy who had served a mission! His name was Phil, and he served in Alaska in 2014. He said we could come back any time to talk with him! We had a good dinner after him, and had a meeting with the zone leaders about the district. It was good, and then we came home and finished the night.
Saturday started with a training session in the morning. It was about loving your companion and being able to work with them. Elder Olson and I loved it. We spent most of Saturday either tracting and going by some people's homes who had told us to come back. We found some very nice people who I have high hopes for moving forward, and then we headed over to see Trevor before dinner. We read scriptures with him and then I had to say goodbye. It was kind of sad saying goodbye to him! Then we had dinner, tried a few more people that night, and headed home to get ready for Sunday.
Sunday was a booked day as usual and we had two of our investigators come to church! That was awesome! I told everybody we saw that it was probably my last week, and so that got them there! Jordan Smith came to the Piney Creek ward. I bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon (because that is what he is struggling with). I think he liked the meeting. We had more meetings throughout the day, but the next big thing was that Nancy came to Cherry Creek ward Sacrament. She met a lot of the woman in the ward, and got a warm welcome. I bore my testimony in that ward about the Plan of Salvation, and she seemed to really like the meeting. She told us she wants to come back to more meetings in the future!! We were super excited! After seeing her off after Sacrament, we had one more meeting and then headed out too.
We had a late lunch after church, because we were there until about 3:30pm. Then we knocked on a few doors before people started to get a little irritated with us because the Superbowl was starting soon. Then we had dinner at 4:30pm with a nice new family in Piney Creek area. After dinner, we were a little lost as to what to do...because literally everyone was watching the Superbowl and no one wanted to talk to us. As we were driving around, wondering to go to next, we got a phone call from someone who had been moving around lately and wanted to meet up with us. We had a good meeting with her, and it felt like a blessing, sent from God, to meet with her and read some scriptures. After visiting with her, we went over to Nancy's house. She had some company who we visited with, who were wondering who we were, what we were doing, and what we were teaching Nancy. They actually paused the game while we talked, and got to know them! Then we headed home.
When we got home Sunday night, we got a couple of phone calls. Elder Olson got a call from an Assistant to the President...asking him to become a trainer for a new missionary in our area!!! I was excited for him and after talking for a bit about it, I got a call from our Mission President asking me to be...a Zone Leader in another zone! I was shocked! I had no idea if I was ready for it or if I could handle it, but I accepted of course. We learned this morning where everyone who is transferring will be going. I'll be heading to Arvada to be a zone leader up there, and Elder Olson will stay here with his new "greenie." The change will take place on Wednesday!!
Anyway, things were really good this week! I'm really excited for the people here and for Elder Olson to take charge!!!
I hope everything back home is going well! I love you all!!
Elder Bird
Pictures: Me and Elder Mork
People we are teaching
2/1/17
Hello everyone!! It was a wonderful week this week! Our P-day was switched to today (Wednesday) because we were able to go to the temple this morning!! It was a wonderful session and I feel rejuvenated after feeling the special peace that is always found there.
We had a full week! And some pretty big changes! I'll start from the beginning.
Last Monday was another great P-day! Pretty standard. We were able to have dinner with a wonderful family. The wife, Sister Boughton, is a member, but the rest of the family are nonmembers, except for one son. One of her sons, Craig James, is mentally handicapped. Having dinner with them was super awesome! We were able to have a pretty good discussion on what a missionary does with her family, and it was fun to sit with Craig James and talk with him (he is hilarious and he loves visiting with us). After sharing a small message with them, we headed home. I ended the night by going to our zone leaders area, because they wanted me to go on exchanges with then so they could see how I am doing as a district leader.
Tuesday in the zone leader's area was pretty fun. They live in a very nice home with a member. We did some service in their area, some tracting around for a bit, and then taught a lesson with a recent convert named Andy. He's an older gentleman from Elder Olson's neck of the woods. He talked to us a lot about cameras, and then we talked about the Holy Ghost and his baptism, a few weeks back. He has so much wisdom from all of his years of experience, it was so awesome to listen and talk with him.
Afterwards we went and saw an investigator, named Melissa. She is the sweetest woman. She has an autistic son and they are preparing for baptism. We had a great talk with her about the Atonement. She told us as she was going to read all of the "Teachings of the Presidents: Gordon B. Hinkley" By the end of the night. We were amazed!! After seeing her, we tracted a bit. Then we had dinner with some great members, and tracted again that night. Not much success, but we were able to reconnect with a guy named Chris that they had met a while back and talk with him more about the Book of Mormon and how much peace reading it brings. Afterwards, we headed back to my area and exchanged back to our companions. Elder Olson had had a good day with Elder Burt. We talked about our days for a bit, then the zone leaders headed out and we went to bed.
Wednesday was a big day for all missionaries across the globe. There was a broadcast for all missionaries around the world! They gave lots of good training about our job and how to best help people. Also, they announced some new changes for us missionaries, changes that I think will really help us. Our schedules will change a bit, so we will have a bit more flexibility. Also, they announced some changes with how we will report to our leaders. This new system will really help us focus more on helping people progress, to actually change their lives and become happier. I love the new system. After the announcement, we came home and had a great day of teaching. We taught two member families who we are working with to come to church, and had great lessons. We also saw our friend Paul, who is our atheist friend. Unfortunately, he is just not too interested in coming closer to God or going to church or even asking questions, so we probably won't be seeing him too much anymore.
On Thursday, I held a district meeting for my Elders in the morning. We went over the changes that were announced and what it would mean for us now. I talked a lot about accountability. This new system will provide a lot of missionaries with more freedom, but it is going to be harder for mission leaders to see from their numbers if they are doing the work that they need to be doing. We had lunch and did a bit of studying, and then headed out to work. We tracted a lot. Not too much came from that during the day, but after dinner we met a guy named Brandon! He and his girlfriend have been looking around at different churches to go to lately, and so we offered to teach him about ours! He seemed interested, so we have a return appointment with him next Friday! We are super excited! That night, we also taught a young girl from one of our wards, Breyonna. We are taught her about the Gospel of Christ, and invited her to attend a baptism with us to see what it was like. She said she'd like that! We left excited, and then ended the night.
Friday was a good day, but a slow day. I had a district leader meeting in the morning. The meeting was a training on how to be a good district leader and how best to do our jobs. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot. We also talked about the new changes and what that will mean moving forward. At the meeting, I got to see all of my old companions, which was awesome! (E. LaPerle is a DL, and E Brammer's and E. Sato's companions are both DL's). After the meeting, Elder Olson and I headed out. We picked up lunch and then planned for the upcoming week. We decided how we will find others to teach (mostly by tracting, but we are trying hard to diversify). Then we went out and tried to see some potential investigators, who told us we could stop back. We also tracted around for a bit. Nothing much happened, but Elder Olson and I had fun being out. We had dinner, and then tracted around again that night before having a District leader Counsel with the zone leaders (so many meetings, I know). We again talked about the changes and what we can do moving forward. Then we headed home for the night.
Saturday was a pretty full day! The morning started off with meeting a former investigator named Ryan. We have been trying to meet with him for a long time, but we finally caught him! He was super nice. He isn't too interested in learning more or coming to church with us, but he was very kind and prayed with us. It was a good conversation. Then we tracted some more before heading over to Willow Creek Elder's baptism. They were baptizing a sweet older woman named Tara, who actually all four of us had taught (Elder Olson and I on exchanges). We had invited some investigators to come and see it, but no one ended up coming. It was a great baptism though, and we were very happy to see Tara's excitement and happiness. After the baptism, we tracted a bit before dinner. Then we had dinner with a nice family in the ward and shared a message with them. We ended the night by going to see the Monson family, who are a part-member family in the Cherry Creek ward. After talking with them for a bit, we headed home.
Finally, Sunday! Our day was booked with meetings, as usual. Sacrament in Piney Creek ward started us off at 9am, which was awesome because two of our less active families and one of our investigators came to church! It felt so good to see them there, and I am so happy that they were able to come and feel the Spirit! Then we had a fun Gospel Principles class in both wards (it is interesting because they are both in different places in the book). After the classes, one of our meetings got cancelled that is usually in the middle of the day...so we got to take a lunch break!! It was so nice. We hurried and ate, and then headed back to the meetings. Next was Sacrament meeting in Cherry Creek, which was a great meeting (we always get to pass the Sacrament in Cherry Creek with the young men, so that is always fun and a blessing). Then we finished with our missionary coordination meeting in Cherry Creek, where we explained to the Ward leadership the new changes and then talked about the people we were able to see and visit that week. After all of those meetings, we ran home and got ourselves changed and ready to work after the block of meetings, and headed out again. We tracted around a bit before dinner, then had dinner with the Bishop of the Piney Creek ward and his family. The Bishop is hilarious! He actually did stand up comedy in college, so he is really fun to eat with. We had a great dinner with them, and then headed out to see some more people that night.
We were able to stop by some of our investigators in Piney Creek who had just gotten back from a trip. We talked for a bit about their trip and set up a time to meet the next week. Then we were able to stop by another investigator's house, who we haven't seen in a while, Robert. Robert is super awesome, but very busy. We stopped by, and they told us they were just having dinner and couldn't see us. As we were walking away though, Robert ran out and invited us to come and eat with them! Never being one to turn down food or the opportunity to break bread, we accepted and had a great conversation with not only Robert, but his whole family over a "second dinner." We learned so much more about Robert and his family, and it was a great visit. After seeing them, we saw a woman in the ward, Sister Hartt. Apparently she has Bronchitis again, which is tough for her with her three boys. We went over and saw her, but mostly just to see and teach the boys for a bit. Finally, after seeing them, we stopped by to see Breyonna and to follow up with her because she didn't come to the baptism or to church. It turns out they were all sick, so we offered to help. After that we came home and finished the week!
Anyway, it was a great week. I absolutely love the new changes the missionaries have and just feel so good to be a missionary. I really hope we can continue to help all of these people in this area and with whatever God needs from us. I am so glad we get to be doing this work and working hard at it!
I hope you all have great weeks! I love you all!
Elder Bird
1/23/17
Hey everyone!! I hope you are all doing well back home! We are doing great out here. Except, as you could have guessed from the title of this blog entry...Elder Olson and I are both sick right now. We kind of feel terrible...but we are good! We started feeling it yesterday, but really felt it this morning. Hopefully we can beat it and be better by tomorrow!
Aside from that, we had a good week! We had tons of meetings and lots going on!
So after emailing on Tuesday, we were able to see 6 people, mostly less active friends we teach in the ward. They were all good meetings, and we are working hard at getting them all to church! One of my favorite conversations that day was with a young man in the ward who is struggling with his testimony. He's a nice kid, but having a tough time. We took him out to get milkshakes at Chick-Fil-A and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He really enjoyed it and we had a fun time. He's really grown since we first started seeing him and comes a lot more to church. It has been cool to see how much just being friends with this young man has helped him. The other cool thing that happened that day was we were taken to dinner at a place with unlimited ice cream. It was awesome! Elder Olson didn't have any, but I think I had enough for the both of us.
Wednesday was dominated by a zone conference for all of the missionaries in the south half of the mission. It was held at a huge stake center down in Parker, CO. I was extremely lucky, because all of my old companions are serving in the south half of the mission right now! I got to see Elder Brammer, LaPerle, and Elder Sato! They are all doing great! It is so cool to see how much I love all of the people that I have served with. The meeting was on zone changes that are coming to missionaries worldwide! There will be a meeting this Wednesday that talks more about it, so ask your missionaries what it is. I am excited!! After the meeting, we came home and met with a few people, and then had 2 dinners (one with someone in the ward that had signed up and then another with one of our investigators.) We were able to teach this investigator about the Plan of Salvation and its purpose. This was some big ground for this investigator, who is an atheist professor of theology!
On Thursday, I held a District Meeting for the elders in my district. It was a good meeting. The focus of the week for us is on getting more investigators to Sacrament meeting, so we all practiced how to invite people more. We had a pretty solid day afterwards of mostly tracting and trying by former investigators. We had a pretty cool experience! While we were driving around trying to figure out what to do, we felt directed to a certain street. Someone's garage door was open on the street, and I always go for open garage doors because it means that people are probably home. So we knocked on that door, and an old Chinese man walked out. He smiled at us and I tried to go into my usual door approach. Well, this guy knew no English, only Mandarin! He pointed at us and said "Hallelujah?". So we said "hallelujah" back to confirm. He smiled and let us in! He sat us down at his table and we looked at each other. I tried to speak and communicate with him, but we couldn't figure anything out. Then, I remembered that we had some Chinese pamphlets in the car! Elder Olson and I ran out to the car and grabbed them, and were headed back to the old man's house to see that he had slipped on some ice and fallen!! We ran over and helped him up, and helped him walk back inside. Then we gave him the pamphlets and he thanked us, and we left. It was such a strange experience, and I have no clue if anything will ever come from it, but it was certainly important that we pick that man up. I just thought it was interesting.
Friday was a bit of a slower day for us. We planned for the next week, and then grabbed some lunch with some members in the ward at Chick-fil-A before heading to a meeting in north Aurora. The meeting was for all of the missionaries who were training a companion. I had almost forgotten that Elder Olson was still being trained by me! It was a good meeting, and Elder Olson was able to see all of his friends. I let the assistants (to the President) know that I thought Elder Olson was capable of training next transfer if they needed him to. I really think he is, he is kind of a rock star and we work well together. He must have had a good trainer ;) After the meeting, we tracted around Piney Creek for a bit and met some interesting people. Then we had dinner and continued to try and contact people before we had to head to another meeting, this time with just the zone leaders and me to follow up on the progress of my district. It was a great meeting. I really like our zone leaders. After the meeting, we headed home for the day.
Saturday was a pretty full day too. We had yet another meeting to get some training from a member in the Stake. After that meeting, we had lunch and headed out to work for the day. We were able to see our atheist investigator, who is now stuck on some very small things that he found in the gospel principles book. We tried to work him through it, but I am worried that he won't want to move forward. After seeing him, we saw our friend Jerry, who is a recent convert that just moved into our ward. We had a good meeting with him and tried to settle some of his concerns about coming to the ward. Then we saw our friend Trevor, a young recent convert, and talked with him about the priesthood and blessings, because he was sick. Then we had a great dinner at Chipotle with some awesome members, did some service that night, and headed in for the night.
Sunday was good! We had our usual 6 hours of church. We were disappointed in Piney Creek ward, because none of our people who said they would come came. But, we had an investigator we didn't expect to come, come to Cherry Creek ward! We also had three of our less actives, we are working with in Cherry Creek, come! We were super excited about that! Afterwards, we came home and napped during our lunch hour because we were so tired and we were starting to get sick. Then we went out to see some of the people who didn't come in Piney Creek and find out what happened. We also tracted for a bit, and then that night made some real progress with an investigator in Cherry Creek, teaching them about the Gospel of Christ. Then we came home, and I made some calls to check on my elders because the week was ending. After all that, we crashed for the night, dead tired.
It was a pretty good week! We were happy to see some work pay off with inviting all of our people to Sacrament meeting. We were also able to get a lot of work done, even though we had tons of meetings to go to. Anyway, it is so cool to have experiences out here and to continue to learn and grow every week! I hope all is well back home, I love you all!
Elder Bird
Our "posterity stick". It has the names of people who have trained, down to us.
Maps of our areas on our walls!
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