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2/22/2021
Hey guys!
This week I've been thinking about how feasting upon the words of Christ, especially reading from the Book of Mormon, really gives you spiritual strength, protection, and spiritual gifts. My companion here, Elder Capello, is native to Brazil, but served his first year in Texas before the pandemic. So, he speaks Portuguese and English really well. He told me that he didn't do any language study other than reading the Book of Mormon in English, and that he was just about fluent when he finished it. So I am trying to do the same thing, reading "O Livro de Mormon" [Book of Mormon] every day in Portuguese. My goal is to do it in under 50 days, which is about 5 chapters per day. I'm only up to 2 Nephi 10 so far, but I have already seen so many more improvements with my understanding than I think I would have experienced without that extra faith/power.
It has been a bit difficult for me, but not because I'm uncomfortable not understanding people (although that is at least a little frustrating), it's more like anxiety that I won't ever improve, even though I've already seen improvements in my understanding. That will continue I'm sure throughout the remainder of my mission. I just have to work through that and have patience with myself and the progress I'm making. The fact that I can't really make it happen faster than it's going right now, is also hard to deal with. But, it has been a great week nonetheless!! It is super nice to have a to have a companion that is fluent in both languages and will help me out when needed. This is his last transfer before retuning home.
We set a date for baptism for someone we've been teaching named Cleyton! It will be this Friday! I am very excited for him.
Today for p-day we went bowling and for ice cream with a few other Elders. It was super fun!
Boa semana! [Good week!]
Com amor, [With love,]
Elder Bird
Pictures:
My new companion Elder Capello
We got Pizza!
We went bowling for p-day
2/15/2021
Tudo bem! It's good to be back in Brazil, and it's been really good so far!
Friday was the big day, although in the morning I wasn't even sure if I would make my flight. I had taken a Covid test a few days before (Tuesday) and sent in the sample as instructed. However, the results hadn't come back as expected. Luckily, there was someone in the church travel department who was on the case, and the results finally came, with only an hour and a half before my flight. It was a bit nerve racking waiting for those results, but I said a prayer for peace to come to my heart. I knew that if I was supposed to be on that flight, they would come, and then they did! Just in time! I had everything packed and ready to go. We stopped at the mission office, I said my goodbyes, and then the Elders who shared my apartment in Rye, took me to the Colorado Springs airport.
Then began my 20(ish) hour journey to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The only hiccup was that on my first flight to Dallas, the plane had to be de-iced, and that took almost an hour, making us an hour late. Also, there was a lady on the flight who refused to wear her mask, claiming that "she was eating." The flight attendants asked her repeatedly to put one on, reminding her that it's a federal law to wear a mask on the plane. Finally, they just taxied back to the terminal and forced her off the plane. Luckily, my layover in Dallas was for 2+ hours, so I was able to make it to my connecting flight just in time for boarding. The flight to Sao Paulo went off without a hitch. I was with a few of the missionaries that I was with before, so it was fun to be reunited with them. I was able to get bit of sleep on the plane, but I was still tired by the time we landed.
Landing, getting my suitcases, and heading to the mission van waiting outside, was just like the first time I landed in Brazil, a year ago. The van took us to the mission office where all the arriving missionaries met together with President Hirschi. He is a different Mission President from the one I met previously [mission presidents are assigned for a period of 3 years and then they switch, usually in the month of July]. We also met the office missionaries and they each told us about their jobs in the office and then the APs [assistants to the President] gave a spiritual thought. After that, President took us to the mission home where we met his wife and had lunch together so they could get to know us more. Afterwards we went back to the office to get our suitcases and then headed out to our new areas and new assignments with our new companions.
It's been kind of crazy so far just getting into the groove of the language. Luckily, I already know how to be a missionary, so that part is taken care of. I just need to learn how to express those idea and insights into Portuguese - haha.
Love you all and hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
The last photo taken with President Eccles
2/8/2021
Hey everyone!! Wow, we just love longs drives here in these small-town areas - haha. Being so far away we end up in the car a lot. Nothing as long as our trip to Denver last week, but enough time in the car to nod off a few times. We drove to Westcliffe (about an hour northwest of Rye) last week on p-day to play some pickleball on their courts. And we took many trips to and from Pueblo throughout the week. Also, today we did a bit of a drive through the mountains, to a hike by Lake Isabel, for my last p-day activity here in the Colorado Springs area. I will probably not be able to see any mountain majesty for a bit and so I am soaking it up, before I leave to live in the dense city of Sao Paulo.
Speaking of Sao Paulo, I got my flight plans and and am finishing up preparations for my loooong transfer to my next area - haha. I packed up a few boxes of things I don't need anymore and I was able to hand them off to my parents. Elder Gray and I drove up to the Colorado Springs mission office on Saturday to meet up with them and my sister, who were traveling across country. It was super exciting and kind of weird to see my family for just a bit, but it was all approved by President Eccles of course. There was quite a bit I had to get rid of (a ton of English materials and a lot of heavy/winter clothes) that I won't need for the next chapter of my mission, and then they gave me a few items to take with me.
I'm still so shocked that I'm going back to Brazil so soon. But, I'm soooo excited to be able to spend about one year in each of my missions. I have come to love Colorado dearly and am sad to leave. The connections I have made here have helped me see that it was good for my journey, and I know the same will be true for the people I will meet in Brazil. I have already learned and grown so much and know I will have similar experiences there. If everything goes to plan (banking on a negative Covid test), I will leave and fly down on Friday. I ask that you pray that everything will work out as planned, for me to have a safe journey, and also that my suitcases will be under 50 pounds each - haha.
Love you all and I can't wait to give an update next week.
-Elder Bird
2/1/2021
Hey everyone!
This week there was a lot of driving for us. I received a notification that I needed to get my yellow fever vaccine before leaving for Brazil. I made an appointment for Tuesday up in Denver, but because of the bad snow we got that day, it was pushed back to Thursday. Denver is about a 150 mile drive which turned out to be about 2 and a half hours, but we were properly prepared. When we got to Denver, I got the vaccine plus a tetanus shot, and then we drove by the Denver temple. After a quick picture, we went to Costa Vida for lunch and then started the drive back. On the way down we stopped by the mission office in Colorado Springs to grab my visa card and a couple other items for the apartment. We made it home just in time to pick up dinner from a ward member.
On Saturday, we drove down to Trinidad which is about an hour south, to do an exchange with the Elders there. It was a beautiful drive. Trinidad is actually really big compared to Rye and Colorado City. We had a good exchange and got some good pictures.
We've been focusing a lot on Sarah this week, and she is making some really good progress. She has a lot of really good questions, and I'm glad I get to be here to help her work through those, along with the help of some awesome members of the Rye ward!
Hope you guys have a great week!!
-Elder Bird
1/25/2021
This week has been very emotional with lots of ups and downs, but I'm excited for the future.
Monday 1/18/21
-First P-day here in Rye!
-We got our shopping done in the morning and then the Elders from Trinidad came over. We headed up into the mountains to check out "Bishop's Castle." It is a crazy medieval style building, that apparently is not finished yet, located in the mountains above Rye. It was a cool building and it was fun to scale the various towers and platforms that are part of the structure. I took a lot of pictures, so hopefully you can get a feel for what it was like to be at the top looking down at the ground. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sketchy haha. Some of the stairs going up the tower had holes in them and there's a shaky dome made solely of iron bars at one of the top levels of the main building. Definitely made me feel alive haha!
-Elder Corless is big into coding, so we were talking about all the projects he has done. He also showed me a few HTML programs he wrote in a note-taking app that could be run in the browser - a basic text editor and stuff like that, which was really interesting. One of his pages shows how many milliseconds he has left in his mission. Maybe the coolest thing about Elder Corless is that he's all self-taught. He wants to be a computer programming teacher, and he's well on his way.
Tuesday 1/19/21
-Pretty much the whole day today we did our monthly service opportunity, which was helping out with packing boxes of food and handing them out as people drive through. That was pretty fun, and it feels great to get back to a scheduled service project like I had in Rustic Hills. Of course, we did service in Calhan, but it wasn't anything scheduled.
Wednesday 1/20/21
-Today we did an exchange with the Zone Leaders for this area. I was paired with Elder Odum. We talked about my new district here in Rye, and apparently the Zone Leaders, the APs, and President Eccles all have pretty high expectations for me as a district leader down here. Elder Odum told me the reason President sent me here is because he knows I can turn this district around in terms of motivation and morale. That was very humbling to hear and it makes me want to be the best I can be, so I can set a good example for the missionaries in this district.
Thursday 1/21/21
-Today we had two really great lessons with Bruce and Sarah, respectively. I could feel the spirit in both lessons and with them, which was great.
-Tonight after our correlation meeting, my companion, Elder Gray, got a call from his family with some bad news from home. He was talking to his family for a long time. President Eccles then called me to explain what had happened - one of his friends from home had passed away, which was really hard to hear. Then in the same phone call President Eccles gave me the shocking news that I would be returning to Brazil, my original assignment, on February 12th. Wow!! That was a lot sooner than I had imagined. It was all a bit much to take in! Everyone in the apartment had a lot to think about. We stayed up a bit late crying with and consoling Elder Gray. I was able to give him a priesthood blessing of comfort and peace.
Friday 1/22/21
-Elder Gray and all of us were feeling better this morning, which was very good. We were able to go about our day like usual.
-A lady named Corrine, who is a neighbor of some recent new members, had some questions for us and wanted to read the Book of Mormon too. So, we went over there and brought her a copy of the book and talked a bit about it with her. She seems pretty interested in hearing what we had to say, which was awesome!
-Elder Gray and I did a livestream tonight, which was pretty fun.
Saturday 1/23/21
-Today we helped a German lady we've been teaching. We unloaded some things for her friend, who is moving into a different apartment. She is pretty funny!
Sunday 1/24/21
-Sarah came to church today. We had a lesson with her right after church, with the Taylors and it went really well!
I am excited about the thought of returning to Brazil. It will be an adventure, but it will be hard to leave the Colorado Springs Mission too. I have grown to love it here. I will go where the Lord and the church leaders want me to go though. I have an appointment this week to get my Yellow Fever shot and hopefully all goes well.
I hope you all have a great week!
-Elder Bird
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