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7/20/2020
Tuesday 7/14/20
-We finally got the treadmill out of our old Aviator apartment and handed the keys to Elder Bertola (the housing coordinator) so we are now officially done with that apartment for good.
-We had a really inspiring and motivating mission-wide Zoom training meeting with the Mission President and a social media representative from Salt Lake. It was really cool that we were able to do that and hear messages about fulfilling our purpose and increasing our faith. One thing they talked about was that missionary work is never going to go completely back to what it was before quarantine or Covid-19. Our finding efforts will be shifting from going door to door to finding online through social media, and he said the goal is to spend 4-6 hours a day on Facebook, so that we can search for the people who are really interested in hearing the message of the gospel (whoa, crazy)
-Elder Miller and I made a goal to go running in the mornings to help wake us up and get us energized for the day!
Wednesday 7/15/20
-As missionaries we have an app that we use as a tool for our missionary work called Areabook. Basically it keeps track of our schedule, addresses and phone numbers for people in our area, and contacts and lessons that we have. Today we did a TON of contacting on Areabook, and currently we are in the process of calling everyone under our "Not Interested" section because sometimes people change their minds over time. And this was the case for a guy that we called named Tony! He said he missed having the missionaries over and wanted to have lessons again!! Yeah!
Thursday 7/16/20
-We did some service for Sister Carlston where we took out some old and broken fence posts and replaced them with new ones. The fence is super old and malleable so it was a bit hard to work with, but we eventually got everything squared away.
-We had another lesson with AnnaBelle today, and it was kind of interesting because her foster mom joined in for the lesson, but said she would keep her opinions to herself.
Friday 7/17/20
-We were supposed to have a lesson with Tony (from our 'Not Interested' list) today to get to know him a little more, but it turns out we called right before he was gonna take his wife to the ER. He still wants to meet with us some other time though.
-Someone named Leilani referred herself to us for a Bible study from the Church's website, and when we called her, she actually picked up! (Most of the time these self-referrals don't actually answer and never get back to us, but she seems genuinely interested in learning more about God and Jesus Christ!!
Sunday 7/19/20
-After our church sacrament meeting, we had our Bible study with Leilani and she is way into it! She had started in the Old Testament and was already to Judges in her personal reading. We went through a little introduction to how the Bible was written and talked through some key attributes of God our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We mentioned that we as member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints read from more than just the Bible and she said she wouldn't mind talking a bit about the Book of Mormon for our next lesson.
-Two of the Sister Missionaries in our district got permission from President Eccles and asked us if we would be able to give them priesthood blessings of comfort. So Elder Miller and I both had the opportunity to exercise the authority of God's priesthood and gave them blessings. That was a really neat experience.
-Elder Miller and I hosted a (actually two) Facebook live event(s) for our zone Facebook page, The Church of Jesus Christ in Fountain. We went through the Restoration Proclamation that was just released this year by the First Presidency and the Apostles from our most recent general conference of the Church. It was going really great until we ran into some technical difficulties with our internet service for a few minutes, but we were able to start another live to finish up the second half of our presentation. Other than that, it was really good because we were guided by the Spirit for what to say and to talk about.
It's been a great week for me here, hope you guys are living it up as best you can while stuck inside!
Love y'all,
-Elder Bird
Copy and Paste the URL into your browser to see my video messages talk & song
Facebook Message Part 1
https://www.facebook.com/103015768038546/videos/287301279046052/
Facebook Message Part 2
https://www.facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristinFountain/videos/3147268225354480/
Song that Elder Miller and I sang
https://www.facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristinFountain/videos/1551564565023793
7/13/2020
Hey everyone! Everything's going great here (except all the time we have and don't really have anything to do - haha).
Monday 7/6/20
-Our p-day was filled as usual with doing laundry and going grocery shopping. I was finally able to get a haircut today, which is good because my hair was getting so long. I took a couple of pictures so you can see a side-by-side comparison. In the evening we went to the church to play some volleyball which we get to do every Monday night. At the church I also get to play the piano which is good.
Tuesday 7/7/20
-Elder Bryant is leaving today for his transfer. He got everything packed up and ready for when he will get picked up. He was a good companion and trainer.
-Elders Freeman and McPeak dropped off Elder Miller, who is my new companion. Neither of us had our DPs (driving privileges) yet, so they drove us to the mission office. We found out that the APs [assistants to the president] had the cards with them at a different church building, where they were doing an orientation for the brand new missionaries. So we drove over there and they had mine! I can now officially drive the mission vehicles. I'm so excited!
-We played volleyball again (we've been doing that a lot recently) for our district game night.
Wednesday & Thursday 7/8-9/20
-Elder Miller and I are getting used to each other now. We have been playing some chess, and I'd say we're about equally matched.
Friday 7/10/20
-We went to another Zone Conference in person to meet the Eccles family and get to know them. They are awesome, and I know they will do great for their three years of service.
-On our way home we saw a woman on the side of the road trying to push her car, so we stopped and helped her get it off the main road.
Sunday 7/12/20
-I think President Eccles' primary focus for the mission is going to be helping us get more active with finding and contacting people on social media. So, today I joined a couple of Facebook groups. One of them was for sales and stuff in Colorado, so I decided to post that we had a Book of Mormon to give away for free if anyone was interested. And oh boy I was NOT expecting the amount of attention it got. All the other posts on the page selling like bikes and other stuff had no likes or comments, but a ton of people commented on my post, mostly negative of course, but one person was actually really nice and mentioned that it changed her life. And another said they were actually curious, so maybe we can get into contactilact with him.
-The big news for this week is that we actually got to go to church in person today! The ward I am assigned to allowed Sacrament Meeting by following strict guidelines put out by church leaders. We had to follow certain cleaning rules, social distancing, keep the group to a certain number, and of course wear gloves and a mask. To keep the numbers good half the ward comes one week and then the other half comes the next week - alternating. We had every other pew sanctioned off to promote social distancing, there were ushers seating people in the chapel, we could only enter the building from one door on one side and exit from one door on the other side of the building, and everyone handling the sacrament had masks (of course) and gloves. All the hymn books were taken out and we just listened to the hymns rather than singing them. It was all very safe, and we cleaned and disinfected the whole chapel after we finished. But in-person church was very exciting because now we can actually see the faces of the people in the ward who we're trying to serve.
That's pretty much it. Hope you all have a great week!
-Elder Bird
-Hair comparison (haircut was definitely needed haha)
-Screenshot of some comments on my Book of Mormon post
7/6/2020
Monday 6/29/20
-I started watching a new show about Jesus' life called, "The Chosen." It's really good, but there are only 8 episodes in the first season, so I'll probably finish it pretty quick haha.
-We went on a really nice hike called Seven Bridges with the rest of my district which are Sister Missionaries. It was really nice to be able to chat and have fun with more people. Elder Bryant was a little worried that a couple of the Sisters wouldn't get along in their companionships, this transfer because apparently there's been some past beef, but it seems like they've put it behind them! It's just really nice that we can hang out together and be friends!!
-I was supposed to get a haircut, but we kinda ran out of time, so my hair is longer right now than it's ever been. It's kinda funny! If I comb it just right, it looks a but like an afro haha.
Tuesday 6/30/20
-We spent a lot of time calling people trying to set up lessons for this week. None of the people we're currently teaching wanted to meet with us this week, because of the holiday. So, we called a bunch of members in our ward to get at least a few lessons in for the week.
-It was Distinct game night and it was super fun! We played charades over Facebook messenger. It's really nice to see everyone be themselves around each other.
Wednesday 7/1/20
-Normally we do some service called "Care and Share," but it was cancelled today because they were doing inventory or something and didn't need any volunteer help. It's okay though, we got our fill of service in throughout the day with Brother Coon and Sister Hess respectively.
Thursday 7/2/20
-I finished the first season of "The Chosen!" It is really good so far! The season ended with the story of the woman at the well as the final episode. I'm anxiously waiting for season 2.
-The new Mission President, President Eccles and his family, came to our district, the Springs, today.
Friday 7/3/20
-Normally we have a District council meeting in the morning on Fridays, but it was moved to 4:00pm. Turns out the STLs [Sister Training Leaders] had an MLC [Missionary Leadership Council) meeting for like 7 hours (seriously, like 9am-3pm). I love how close our district is getting. Our District council meeting also went almost an hour past our meeting ending time, because we had so many random tangents that we talked about.
Saturday 7/4/20
-4th of July!!!
-The Missionaries in the Peterson area hosted a bit of a July 4th get-together at a nearby park. It started to rain really hard, but it actually worked out well with the game we were playing. We played this game where we stood in a circle and spun a bottle and whoever it landed on has to grab an egg and try to hit one of the other people who are all running away. It was really funny to see the egg explode and the yolk flying everywhere when it hit someone.
-In the afternoon we got a call from Mission President Eccles, and he asked Elder Bryant to be a zone leader over the North Zone. That was a big shock to us because we both thought that we would stay together this transfer, so he could finish up my training. But I guess I'm gonna have 3 trainers now haha. We don't yet know who is gonna replace Elder Bryant here in Sprins, but the (mid) transfer sheet drops tonight!
-In the evening we met up with our district again at a park to play some spikeball and watch the fireworks go off in the surrounding area.
-The transfer sheet dropped around 9pm and it looks like I will now be with Elder Miller, who was in a trio with Elder Freeman and Elder McPeak in Peterson, CO. He will finish my training and replace Elder Bryant as the district leader here in Springs. I'm a little sad to see Elder Bryant go when we were just getting super comfortable with each other, but I'm glad I already know the person who's going to replace him and finish out my training. We will both have some training to do - I'll train him in this area and he'll train me how to teach and stuff. It's kinda funny though because we both don't have our driving privileges yet, so it will be interesting trying to get around haha.
Love you all, hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
6/29/2020
Hey everyone!
We had a lot of opportunities to see and be with other missionaries in person this week, which is not usual because of our quarantine guidelines. It was definitely much needed and really fun! So, here is last week's happenings.
Monday 6/22/20
-It was Elder Bryant's birthday today!! Woot woot. We went over and balled up at the church like usual, [played basketball] and then we went to the Waffle House for breakfast.
-Squaded up [we met up] with Elders Freeman, Miller, McPeak, Guag, Mendoza, Dean, Brown, Whitted, and Allen and went on a really cool hike to the summit of one of the smaller mountains over on the edge of the Springs! (We were all allowed to be together because everyone in the district just entered into Phase I of allowances for quarantined missionaries which allows people in the same district to go on hikes and stuff together on P-days.) Because we don't have any other Elders in our district, Elder Bryant and I got permission to go with them. It was really weird to see a ton of missionaries together after being in quarantine for so long. But yeah, we hiked all the way up to the summit of Mt. Muscoco!
Tuesday 6/23/20
-We went to Cañon again today. Elder Bryant previously went to the hospital while serving there and received a bill for services. The bill was sent to the new Elders living at that address.
On the way over, we stopped by the Springs ZLs [Zone Leaders] to pick up some items to be delivered to a few of the Cañon missionaries. We did this so we could be efficient with mile usage for them.
-We got to Cañon and met up with Elders Olsen and Harris. While we were with them, they got a phone call from some kids that said they were looking for Elder Edwards, who was Elder Bryant's trainer while he served there. Elder Olsen passed the phone to Elder Bryant, who they did recognized. Turns out these were some kids who Elder Bryant and Elder Edward's taught a while ago and they were just calling to check in, so it was a blessing that we were there, so that Elder Bryant could talk to them a little bit.
-On the way home, we drove through a bit of a scary, super heavy rainstorm, with what looked like lightning striking right in front of us. We said a prayer that we would be able to make it back to our apartment in safety and the rain instantly stopped. Just another witness to me that God answers our prayers.
Wednesday 6/24/20
-We dropped off a Book of Mormon to a guy named Josh, that Sandcreek missionaries referred to us. The sisters were a bit unnerved to drop it off because there were a few kinda sketchy-looking guys standing outside the main door when they drove by. When we got there, the same guys were there, and they didn't give us any trouble on our way in. When we came back out, they stopped us and said they had a couple questions for us. It seemed like they genuinely wanted to know about our church, they weren't just giving us a hard time. We had a really gospel conversation with them, and in the end they actually expressed some interest in reading the Book of Mormon. So we went and got three more from our apartment and wrote our phone number in each one for them, so that if they had any more questions they could reach out to us.
Thursday 6/25/20
-We had our farewell zone conference in person with President and Sister Stevenson today at the AeroPlaza building. Many tears were shed especially during the musical numbers.
-We went to Buffalo Wild Wings after our conference and ran into the Cañon district, who had their conference later in the afternoon at the same building. We sat at different tables though.
Saturday 6/27/20
-We did some service for a member this morning with the Peterson Elders. We laid down some recycled turf in his backyard, which was pretty fun as far as service goes - haha.
-Elder Bryant has been in contact with a really awesome guy from California, and in the past few weeks, he's been on a big road trip. Today he stopped by the Springs to see us (well mainly Elder Bryant haha) in person! He took us out for lunch at a sushi place and then drove us up to the top of Pike's Peak!! It was a stunning view. Supposedly on a really sunny, clear day, you are able to see 6 different states from the summit, which is a little over 14,000 feet!
It was a good week. I just want to bear my testimony that our Heavenly Father does answer our prayers according to our faith, but he also does it on His timeline and according to His will for us. I know that everything happens for a reason whether it be good or bad.
Love you all! Have a great week!!
-Elder Bird
Pictures -
-Elder Bryant and I at Palmer Park one day
-In the car
-Hike with a ton of Elders
-Summit of Pikes Peak
6/22/2020
Hey everyone!! This week had a ton of ups!
Monday 6/15/20
-After about four days of looking for my wallet and many prayers, Elder Bryant and I came to the conclusion that we weren't going to find it. I called my mom to cancel my personal debit card and we figured we would have to call the mission office to order a new MSF card (the mission provided debit card on which we get like 35 dollars a week for food). Elder Bryant was on the phone with the mission finance coordinator about to ask about a new card when his eyes landed on my wallet! Turns out it was in the crook of the arm on my office chair, where I never would have thought to look. That was the last thing we were gonna do before leaving that apartment, so it was definitely a miracle that he saw it before we left! I was so excited! It literally made my week!!
-Our housing coordinators found us a new apartment and we get to move in tomorrow, [last Tuesday].
Tuesday 6/16/20
-Transfers!!! Elder Bryant and I are still companions. Two of the sisters in our district got transferred, so we have a new companionship of sisters, Sister Murray and Sister Sampson, and they are the new STLs (sister training leaders) for the zone.
-We got our move going! Our new apartment is at Pine Crest and is pretty nice. We got about half our stuff from the Aviator apartment to the Pine Crest apartment: bed stuff, Elder Bryant's bench press/weight stuff, food stuffs. We had a couple appointments and lessons in the afternoon, so we needed to get the rest of it the next day.
-We had a really good lesson with AnnaBelle!! We were able to have it in person at the church and the spirit was super strong. A member of the ward, Sister Harrison, was there as well, and she shared her conversion story. It was really good to get to know her a little better too, as she shared her current foster care situation.
Wednesday 6/17/20
-We woke up early to meet the Elders from Peterson at the Aviator apartment to get the rest of the the stuff - the big furniture. We coordinated with the APs to use the mission trailer, and with it we got everything in one trip. We got everything moved in and staged. Unfortunately, it already looks pretty lived-in because the desks and couches are super worn-out and old, but it's definitely nice to finally have everything we need now in one spot again.
-Our final project for this apartment was to make a big collage of Jesus pictures to put on the wall (see picture) Elder Bryant is determined to make one in every apartment he lives in throughout his mission. Good for him, but it's a lot of work. Maybe I'll discover a different tradition for my apartments/areas...
Thursday 6/18/20
-Earl called us out of the blue today!! (He's the one that was super engaged and interested in the Church, but wouldn't return our calls for a while.) He told us he was sorry to have missed a few (a lot) of our appointments, he just got really sidetracked with some other projects, but that he is still really interested in learning more about God's true church on the earth.
-Lisa, another person we are working with, was really eager to hear the rest of the commandments that God has revealed to modern-day prophets. After going through the rest of them, she was a bit resistant, but is really faithful and wants to keep all of the Lord's commandments, so we're setting her up an appointment with the bishop so that he can help her and give better advice for how to pursue these goals. Elder Bryant and I are excited for her progress.
Friday 6/19/20
-AnnaBelle wanted to meet with us again this week (!!) so we set up an appointment today at the church with Sister Bascom. We went through the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and when we got to baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost, we asked her formally if she would like to set a date for baptism, and she gave us an overwhelming Yes! She is so excited to finally be baptized and become a member of the Church after working with the missionaries in previous areas for so long. We were so excited!
Sunday 6/21/20
-We got news that the new Mission President and his wife, who are supposed to be coming here, the Maurers, are being reassigned. Apparently, a ton of presidents-to-be are having a lot of trouble with visa stuff right now, so we're getting somebody different from the States, the Eccles, who are from Salt Lake.
- I got to talk with my whole family today. We had a family call for Father's Day and it was great to see them all.
I read a general conference talk this week by Elder Holland about the importance of kind words. I love this scripture he used, Ephesians 4:29, 31-32:
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
I also liked his quote, "no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse." As we strive to be kinder in our words, we'll start to have kinder feelings for others and their situations.
Love you all, hope you have a good week!
-Elder Bird
Pictures-
-My district after transfers
-Beautiful sunset one night
-Our Jesus collage in the new apartment
-My call with my family on Father's Day
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