|
11/9/2020
Hey everyone, it was a great week here in Calhan!
Tuesday-Friday 11/3-6/20
-We are still in isolation due to being Covid positive, although all three of us don't feel any of the symptoms, other than the lack of smell or taste. Most of the time we don't even notice those though. Honestly it just makes me less inclined to eat food, which can be a good thing. Even though the virus has been easy on us, I know that for other people it might be extremely dangerous, and my sympathies go out to all those who have been affected.
-This week we did a lot of Facebook tracting, and responding to people who messaged us. We have found a couple of potential people to teach through our Facebook tracting efforts, which is exciting!
-Friday was our last day of isolation, and we were so excited to be done.
Saturday 11/7/20
-We are back to our service projects! Today we went over to Lupie's house to help her out with installing a new printer, and we also helped our ward mission leader move a piano from his garage to his basement. Let me tell you, I've never been more happy to move a piano down a flight of stairs, after being cooped up for two weeks with just my companions.
-Also this weekend we had Stake Conference! It is truly a blessing that we were able to attend, because I actually had a really cool experience. Our first meeting was in the afternoon and as we walked in I saw a familiar face. As it turns out, the presiding area authority was Elder Jeremiah Morgan!! He is my brother's father-in-law [Savannah's dad]! I was so surprised and happy to see him! After the meeting we were able to talk for a bit and got a picture together.
Sunday 11/8/20
-We attended the main session of Stake conference this morning, and then did other general missionary work throughout the day, pretty standard.
Monday 11/9/20
-Today was so great! It was the first time in a really long time that we were able to be with our whole district again! In the morning we hiked up to the summit of Mt. Cutler, a pretty low-key trail, and then got lunch together. After that we went over to the Meridian house to play some games and answer some emails in our spare time.
-I love my companions, but it was really nice to be with some other missionaries. We were starting to get some cabin-fever. But now we feel ready and motivated to get through this week and be even more diligent in our efforts!
Love you all, have a great week!
-Elder Bird
11/2/2020
Hey everyone! I don't mean to alarm you with the subject line, so I'll say right now that everyone in our companionship is doing fine!
Monday 10/26/20
-Last Monday my companion, Elder Ellsworth, was feeling one of the most telltale symptoms of Covid-19, which is the diminishing ability to taste or smell. It was crazy, he could literally put a spoonful of garlic powder in his mouth and taste nothing. We have no idea where he would have gotten it from. So today we called Dr. Platz and he told us to go get him tested at a Walgreens in the city. So, that took up most of our day, and so now we are on lockdown until we get those test results back.
Tuesday - Wednesday 10/27-28/20
-Nothing very interesting happened on these days. We let all our mission leaders know about our situation and they pretty much said to just hang tight. We can still do our Facebook finding and phone calls. We had a good laugh with the APs [assistants to the president] though so that lightened our mood a bit.
Thursday 10/29/20
-Today we had our mission-wide zoom devotional. During it, Walgreens called us back and said that Elder Ellsworth indeed tested positive for Covid. It was kind of shocking to hear, but we were not really surprised, if you know what I mean. It's pretty much inevitable that the other two of us are going to get it as well. We called Dr. Platz again and he told us to go get tested, so that took up another big portion of our day. We're actually hoping we test positive so that we can just get this isolation thing over with and get back to regular missionary work. Apparently, they now say that if you have it, you only have to wait 10 days from your first symptoms, before you can go out because it's not contagious anymore. But, if you've come into contact with a person who has it, you have to quarantine for much longer, because it's not clear whether it's dormant or not. We all called our families to let them know what was happening with us. We also called the Bishop of the ward we are working with and told him we will be out of commission from church and activities for a couple weeks.
Friday 10/30/20
-We had zone conference today, but of course we had to attend over a zoom call. It was hard to hear anything though because it was in the big, echoey chapel and they weren't using the microphone. I was a little bit sad that Elder Ellsworth's first zone conference was kind of bummer, but he'll have plenty of other ones to be motivated by.
-We are all now feeling the symptoms of coronavirus - mainly the lack of taste and smell. It's seriously a real bummer not to taste or even like food, but that's pretty much the only symptom any of us have. Maybe I will lose some weight - haha.
Saturday 10/31/20
-Halloween!! Our Covid test came back POSITIVE, scarrryyy. Too bad we have it, or else we could have hung out with our district tonight, along with everyone else. That's okay though. We didn't really have a costume anyway, except for a few of these sweet character glasses that my mom sent!
-We have been doing a lot of Facebook work by making posts and dry contacting people, which is actually going pretty good! We have a few conversations going with people over messenger, so we're seeing the blessings of being diligent, even in our state of isolation.
Sunday 11/1/20
-We attended the ward council meeting this morning by phone. We are trying our hardest to still be in touch with how we can best help our ward even in our current condition. We made some progress, and were able to contact the Moye family, who we've been trying to call for ages. They have a couple of teenagers that they want us to teach and be baptized! We'll see if we can start meeting with them soon, either over the phone or in person when we're not contagious anymore.
-A couple of church members came by and dropped off a TON of food for us, which was very thoughtful. They left it all on our porch for us and we are excited to have food to eat.
-The ZLs [zone leaders] stopped by tonight on their way home from Limon, to say "Hi" and give us some emotional support - distanced of course! It was nice to have a tiny bit of human interaction, even if it was from really far away - haha.
Monday 11/2/20
-Today our P-day was pretty good! [P-day stands for preparation day. It's the missionary's day off and when they can do laundry & chores and have time to do something fun like a hike or a game.] We played a game of Settlers of Zarahemla - a Book of Mormon version of Catan [a family favorite]. I almost won, but Elder Ellsworth pulled out the win in the end. In the evening, we had a lesson over the phone with one of the people I found on Facebook, so that was great! We also talked with another member for a little bit over the phone, especially to thank him for the Wendy's lunch he dropped off earlier.
Hey stay safe out there everyone, and I hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
-On our way to our covid test!
-Positive test result
-Halloween costumes
-Tons of food!!
10/26/2020
Hey everyone!
Monday 10/19/20
-Last Monday was a fun day. Our district met up and went over to check out the Paint Mines near Calhan. It is a beautiful place with some cool colored canyons! We got some good pics.
Tuesday 10/20/20
-My companions and I were able to be with the youth again tonight. We played dodgeball and it was super fun! It has really been great to be able to get to know the youth and connect with them. We're going try to work with one of the older kids, Lincoln, to set up a basketball game with a couple of the people we are currently teaching.
Wednesday 10/21/20
-Today we made a whole bunch of cookies to drive around to people who we've been trying to get ahold of, but who haven't been responding to our calls. We had a couple good contacts with people.
-We left some cookies for an older lady named Margaret who apparently really wants to meet with us, but she wasn't home, so we left them on her porch. Later, her granddaughter sent us a text saying they would love to have us over some time for a lesson! And also that she would be the text messenger for her grandmother in the future - haha.
-We tried to drop off cookies to a guy named Jacob who we've been trying to get into contact with, at the address we had for him, but the man we talked to said Jacob had moved out of there like 3 years ago. It was kind of a weird interaction though, we think he might have been covering for him, like maybe he didn't want to talk to us. Either way, we talked to this other guy, John, who was working on a car in the driveway, about who we are as missionaries and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He asked us a lot of the classic things, the stereotype questions, that people usually ask about the Church. We were able to clear up a lot of the misconceptions. But, then John said he had a "Mormon" friend who apparently told him a bunch of wacko stuff, like how the prophet was their Uncle and some other really weird stuff. We talked through all that stuff too. Anyways, we gave him our number and said if he had any more questions that he should call us. I don't think he's super interested in learning about the gospel, but I'm glad we were able to leave him with a better perspective on what we believe and what we absolutely do not believe.
-Because we drive a mission vehicle, the mission office places a certain limit on how many miles we are allowed to drive per month. And man those cookie deliveries and a few other things, like doing service for people sure took up a ton of them. It will be okay though, because our limit is pretty high out here. The Calhan district is the second biggest area in the whole mission!
Thursday 10/22/20
-We did some yoga and a couple other activities with the district in the afternoon to get some exercise. The APs also came, which was super fun! They came because they were going to do some exchanges with the other Elders in the district. [Exchanges are when missionaries change companions for one or two days.]
-We visited one of our neighbors, Lupie, with some of the cookies we had from yesterday. The missionaries here have been really good friends with her in the past, so she invited us in and we were glad to just sit and chat with her. We made some really good connections and I think she recognized that we were sent from God and inspired to visit with her because she's been so lonely lately. She loves the Bible very much and loves her Savior Jesus Christ, but does not yet believe the Book of Mormon to be another witness of His divine role in each of our lives. My companions and I are hoping that as we continue to grow in our friendship that we will be able to share with her about how the Book of Mormon has truly changed each of our lives and points us to Christ every day that we read from it.
Friday 10/23/20
-We had our weekly district council meeting today in Falcon, and afterward we stopped by the Meridian house (a house where two other sets of missionaries in my district live.) We played a fun card game with them for our outside time, it was called Unstable Unicorns.
-Holy cow it is getting really cold over here in Calhan, with all the wind and the elevation and such. It is supposed to snow on Sunday, so we're gearing up for that.
Saturday 10/24/20
-Today we did some early morning cattle ranching again at the same place as last week, out in the Limon area. It was fun! There were other people from their branch also helping out. [A branch is a smaller congregation of church members.] We were working on putting in a fence and so we dug out a few really deep post holes and put the big cedar posts in. It took all morning up until the afternoon.
-Right after we got home, Lupie had some service for us to do over out in her big yard. She needed us to move a bunch of large branches into a gigantic pile. Then we went in and visited with her for a while. She really enjoys our company and tells us to come by any time. I think she can really feel the spirit that we carry with us as members of the Church, and especially as missionaries, but I think it's hard for her to see us as more then just helpful young men and good friends. But, in reality, we are servants of God. Hopefully we can continue to build our relationship with her and be able to talk more about Jesus Christ's everlasting gospel with her.
Sunday 10/25/20
-Church was great. I am so glad we are able to attend in person again and make those relationships with the members of the ward.
-Lupie gave us a card game yesterday, called Skip-Bo and we played it after church during our outside time. It's pretty fun.
Hope you all have a blessed week!
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
-Pics from the Paint Mines with my new district!
-What a timely name for a road (Corona)
-Always a nice sunset out here, but especially this one
10/20/2020
Howdy y'all,
I'm slowing getting the hang of missionary life and culture in my area and district, so that's exciting!
Tuesday 10/13/20
-Transfers! Last Tuesday my companions and I headed over to the Aeroplaza church building, which is the central church building of the mission and where we meet to do transfers. We said goodbye to Elder Miller, who is heading home, and then Elder Whitesell and I went into the building for our class "Train the Trainer." Afterward, I met my new companions and we drove out east in our new truck to the middle of nothin - Calhan, CO. It's awesome! My new companions are, Elder Ellsworth, who is brand new, and Elder Humphries, who has already been in this area for one transfer so, he's kinda showing us the ropes of the area.
-We are staying in a cabin that is on a member's property, the Lewises. Brother Lewis came out to meet us when we drove up, and he is very nice. He's really very loving.
-When we arrived we unpacked and cleaned up a bit. Elder Humphries' previous companion, Elder Kreiling, left a couple things here, so we were doing some cleaning and throwing some stuff away.
-That night we were invited to the ward youth activity, which was super fun!! We played a few rounds of chair soccer, which is where everyone is guarding their own chair while trying to get other people out by kicking the ball and hitting other people's chairs. We had ice cream floats afterward. There are way more youth out here than back in Rustic Hills, and it was really awesome to get to meet everyone. Hopefully, we made a good first impression.
Wednesday 10/14/20
-We had a companion meeting and Elder Humphries is helping us learn who is in our teaching pool and how we can help with member relationships out here. I think we will be doing a lot of service, so that is great!
-We've been doing a ton of extra study time because we are training Elder Ellsworth. We had a really awesome, Spirit guided, companionship study session today and I'm so grateful for the Spirit in helping us learn and further our understanding of what we need to know.
-In the evening we had a fun activity with our new district so that we could get to know each other and have some fun together. It was really dark though, so I couldn't really see anyone's faces - haha.
Thursday 10/15/20
-The APs [assistants to the President] hosted a meeting this morning for all of the DLs [district leaders] throughout the mission to help the new ones know what the heck they're doing (including me haha). I'm hoping that I can get the hang of all my new responsibilities. I know that I can learn it all and be guided by the Holy Ghost.
-Then we had a service project in the Meridian area and the whole district came to help. It was really cool to actually meet everyone in the district, especially in the daylight - haha. We helped lay sod for a church member in the ward and it only took about an hour with all of us helping out!
-Then right after that, our companionship had another service project in our own area that we went to. We helped a guy named Billy, who owns like 7 rescue huskies. We spread out some mulch on his property and placed some cinder blocks around his asphalt.
-In the afternoon we had our Facebook page meeting. There are actually two zones contributing to the FB page out here, and if you want to check it out, it's called "The Church of Jesus Christ in Eastern Colorado Springs."
Friday 10/16/20
-This morning we had a mission wide devotional and we talked about how the mission is moving forward and we are now in "Phase II" !!!! That means we can now teach lessons inside of people's homes, with masks of course, and if they feel comfortable with it. That is a huge step forward for us as missionaries (especially here in Calhan where it's getting a bit too chilly to sit outside for 20 minutes and teach.) We are super excited to be making steps forward in our return to more familiar missionary work.
-Then I conducted my first district council as the new DL, and I think it went pretty well! Everyone gave some really good insights about how we can move the work forward.
-Later I had a couple of more meetings, one with the FB admins over our page, and then another with the High Plains ZLs (zone leaders). Holy cow at this rate with the amount of meetings I now have, comes the chance to become even more edified.
Saturday 10/17/20
-This morning we drove about an hour and a half east to the Limon area for a service project for a sister [woman church member] in the Limon ward. We helped her with some cattle ranching chores that she needed help with because she was on her own.
-After that we came back to Calhan to help out an elderly woman with some gardening. She is a friend of Sister Gwin in our ward, and we were glad to help her out!
-Then after that, we went over for yet another service opportunity, for the Falcon ward Sister missionaries and one of the people they're teaching. We helped this woman out with some things in and outside her house and then Elder Ellsworth and Elder Humphries taught a really great lesson about miracles in our lives. It was amazing to us to see her feeling the Spirit and recognizing that during the lesson.
Sunday 10/18/20
-We had our first sacrament meeting [church service] in the Calhan ward since I arrived in this area. Brother Haynie gave a really good talk about loving our enemies. He referenced Elder Oaks talk that was just given in the October General Conference. It was really good. If you have the opportunity I recommend looking it up or listening to it.
I hope you all have a great week!
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
--We cook more for ourselves now
--Ranching chores with cows and horses
--Sunset view from our cabin
10/12/2020
Hey everyone -
It's time for transfers! Transfers are the time where missionaries get moved around and normally happen every six weeks. However, this transfer was one week shorter than usual, so it kinda came up out of nowhere. My companion, Elder Miller, is finishing his mission and will be heading home, so on Saturday we anticipated a call from President Eccles. During the call he asked Elder Whitesell to train a new missionary and then he asked me to be a District Leader and to train two missionaries! I said yes, of course!
Today the transfer sheet dropped around 9:30pm and it turns out I'm not going to be the DL here, but I'm being moved to a different zone out in the northeast corner of the mission!! I will be going to the High Plains zone in the Calhan area. One of the missionaries I will be training, has been in the area already for the last 5 weeks, so I will just be finishing his training, and then I'll be training a new missionary from scratch.
I'm so excited to be getting a bit of a change in scenery and to have my Mission President trust me enough to give me these assignments. I will meet my new companions, say goodbye to my old ones, and head out to my new area tomorrow (Tuesday).
Love you all and hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
Showing: [60,61,62,63,64 of 94 entries]
|
