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Chegando Seguramente em Casa

1/18/2021

Hey all, sorry this is coming out to you guys a bit later than expected! I had a crazy past couple of weeks with coming home and being with my family, but here's my final mission update! I had some memorable final mission experiences.

So, picking up where I last left off, Tuesday right after Christmas Elder Dale and I hosted our final English class! Well, final for me. I think he's planning on continuing it. It went great, and right after, one of the members in the other elders' wards called and wanted to talk to me. He told me he really appreciated my missionary service and knew I was going home, so he got me a little box of chocolates as a going-home gift (that he left hidden in the chapel for me to grab.) What a nice gesture! Then we played soccer for my last time with the youth after the class.

On our way home later that evening, the four of us were walking down our main road which is usually pretty busy, but it didn't have many people at night. So we are about to cross the street to get to our turnoff, and a lesser-well-off looking woman comes up to me and sees that I'm carrying this box of chocolates that the member just gave me, in a plastic bag. She says something along the lines of, "Help a woman out, give me some chocolate." So I reached into the bag to open the box to give her one and she instead just took the whole bag out of my hands and started walking off! Crazy! I wasn't sure what to do, but luckily Elder Araujo jumped in to help me out. He went over and talked to the woman, and eventually another guy on the street came by to help out too. I got the box back with about half the chocolates left - haha! It was a crazy experience, but in the end it worked out.

Other than that, there was a lot of saying goodbye to some people I really connected with, like Nair and her family, and Aline and her family. In fact I'm still in contact with them over WhatsApp and they are doing great!

On my last Monday in the field, I had all my stuff packed and we headed to the bus terminal for transfers, and then I went to the Mission Office with Elder De Luca in an Uber. We did our final exit interviews with President Hirschi and chatted with each other about our missions and the experiences we each had over the past two years. In the evening we went to the Mission Home and had a nice dinner and a testimony meeting with President and Sister Hirschi. Later, we headed back to the office elders' apartment to spend our last night in Brazil.

In the morning, we all went out together, the three of us Americans going home and the secretaries, to get our Covid tests. If we tested positive, we would have had to stay in Brazil for another week or two, but luckily everyone tested negative! So happy! From then on we were just waited around the office until we left for the airport in the afternoon. We then got to the airport and boarded the plane and flew out Tuesday night at 10:45pm. Elder Pontious was my airplane companion. We landed in Houston Wednesday morning, ate a bagel during our layover, and departed again towards Salt Lake City! I had a window seat so I was able to catch a little needed sleep. When we landed we were so excited to see our families!!

It was great so great to see my family there to greet me! They had signs and everything! I loved being able to chat with them the whole drive home. We went to In'n'Out Burger as my first American meal home! It was so good!! When we got home, we celebrated Christmas and opened presents. They waited to do it with me which was awesome. That night I had an interview with my new Stake President here in Utah, to be released as a full-time missionary.

I am so grateful that I was able to serve as a full-time missionary and be able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Colorado and Sao Paulo. I'm grateful for the people I have met and the new friendships I've made. I have had some amazing experiences that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Thanks eveyone for reading my weekly email blog posts and sharing this experience with me. I am so grateful for all of you!

Love, Nathan [previousely] Elder Bird

- New Year's Eve Zoom call (finishing the BoM together)

- last p-day churrasco [BBQ] get together

- everyone going home on this transfer

- last photo with President & Sister Hirschi

- my family at the airport

- coming home

Uma Época Especial do Ano

12/27/2021

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

These last few weeks I have had "returning home" online courses that I have been doing each p-day. Last Monday all the missionaries going home soon had a self-reliance training with someone from the mission department of the Church. It was pretty cool, because there were people from my mission and the next mission over, so I got to see Elder Brinton (from my MTC district) one more time. Elder Pontous was there as well. The three of us are the last ones still serving here in Brazil from that district, which is pretty cool. I'm proud to have been able to stick it out to the end with them.

The next couple days were pretty slow, because President Hirschi put our house in quarantine for a couple of days. Apparently there's a two-day cold going around the mission (maybe even Brazil as a whole country) and a lot of people are getting sick. What's funny is that everyone in our house had already had this sickness the previous week, and we were already better when President mandated us to stay at home. So, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent inside all day unfortunately.

Things picked up a little bit on Thursday though. We were able to give a quick priesthood blessing to someone in the ward. Other than that, we spent the rest of the day trying to set up lessons with people, but it was difficult because it was so close to Christmas. We were able though to set something up with Franklin, the next day on Christmas Eve. He said he would be delighted for us to come over!

So on Friday, Christmas Eve, we were able to do a quick lesson with Franklin, and then he invited us and the other companionship over for his Christmas Eve dinner with his family!. I learned throughout the day that it's actually more common here in Brazil to celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. That was super nice of him to invite all four of us over. So we went back home and returned a bit later for Christmas Eve dinner at Franklin's!

The next day was Christmas! Elder Dale's mom was kind enough to include a stocking and some small gifts for each of us in the house in his Christmas package. [He was able to get a package because a family member hand-delivered to the mission office.] So we all got to open some presents on Christmas Day! What a blessing! We had a nice chill day at home and I got to talk with my whole family! It was a great day.

Then on Sunday we had the Christmas Sacrament meeting with all four wards together. I had the great blessing of accompanying the hymns and musical numbers on the piano. The choir sang a few special Christmas songs and it went really well, until the piano bugged out for a little bit. One of the pedals stopped working and all the notes were being held as if the pedal was always being pressed. Other than that, it was great, and I was happy to help out. Many people mentioned that they will miss my piano playing when I leave, so that made me feel good.

Alright gang, that was my week!

This upcoming week, we've got a couple of lessons set up already, and some plans for what we're going to do for New Year's Eve and Elder C. França's birthday. I'll be packing up of course, and getting ready for my departure throughout the week.

Now here's the dealio, for next p-day. I will be heading over to the Mission Office from my area, and I'm not sure if will have time (or a phone) to send out my last weekly email. But for sure I will send one out when arrive at home, to report on my last week, and to let you all know that I got home safely.

Thank you all for reading and sticking with me throughout my mission experience. I love you all and appreciate all the support that you have provided to me over the course of these last two years.

Love,

Elder Bird

- Self-reliance training with President Hirschi, the OGs, (+Elder Jackson)

- Elder Dale and I with Papai Noel (Santa Claus)

- Christmas Eve dinner at Franklin's house

- Chillin' with Elder Dale at Franklin's house

- Christmas morning after opening our stockings - thanks Sister Dale!

- Matching outfits with President Hirschi

Última Conferência de Zona

12/21/2021

This week was definitely one of the memorable ones out here!

Feeling Sick - A two day sickness hit all four of us in the house this week, starting with Elder C. França (last) Saturday and Sunday, me on Monday and Tuesday, Elder Araujo got it Wednesday and Thursday, and finally Elder Dale had it on Friday and Saturday. So last Monday we all went to get haircuts, but I wasn't feeling so well and I almost passed out at the haircut place - haha. I ended up foregoing getting my hair cut.

Zone/Christmas Conference! - On Tuesday the Sul Zone and our Diadema Zone had a Zone Conference, the last one of my mission! It was super uplifting with some talks and trainings from the President and other missionaries from both zones. During lunch they played a really cool video compilation of Christmas messages from all our families to us missionaries!! I was super surprised to see my whole family in there wishing me a Merry Christmas! It made my week! Thanks fam!!

Then after lunch, there was a little Christmas program that Sister Hirschi put together. There were special musical numbers and Christmas songs for everyone to sing, with messages in between. I got to play two of the congregational songs, which was fun! Overall super awesome last zone conference.

English class or fix the basketball hoop - Since our Zone Conference landed on Tuesday (the day we usually do our English class), we moved it to Wednesday. Only one person ended up coming, so we decided to just cancel it. I headed out to the basketball court with Elder Dale to see if there was anything we could do to help fix the rim that had been bent. I think Elder Dale felt kinda bad because he was the one that broke it after doing a slam dunk. After a bit of time and a couple of different methods, he got it back to being pretty straight. We'll see how long it stays that way though, haha.

Baptismal Interview - Wednesday night we went over to Nair's house, like usual. We were able to call our district leader, Elder Araujo, to do Bárbara's baptismal interview. She ended up passing! So we made some preparations for her baptism on Saturday!

Whole lotta walking/some exchanges - As the sickness was passing through our apartment of Elders we did some exchanges throughout the week. Elder Araujo and I went out with Elder Dale to an appointment, and then to a members house to pick up their lunch. Then we headed to another member's house to pick up my lunch with Elder C. França and it was super far away/ We also had some more appointments planned for the evening, so that day there was a lot of walking! When Elder Dale got the sickness on Friday, I stayed home with him while Elder C. França went out with Elder Araujo for their appointments.

Bárbara's Baptism!! - Saturday morning was Bárbara's baptism! We went to the church early to get the font all filled up making sure the water not too hot, because it was a nice warm day. The family showed up not too late - haha - and Bárbara got changed into the white jumpsuit. We took some pictures and then had the baptismal service. It was really sweet and some awesome members came to support the family.

Inamar Christmas Party - After the baptism, we called Diego in the Inamar ward and hitched a ride with him to the Inamar Christmas get-together, which was being held at a super sweet venue near the reservoir! There was a pool (which the missionaries didn't use obviously), a little soccer field, a fuseball table, a pool table, karaoke, and a place to eat! A barbeque lunch was provided, and it was a fun time being able to hang out a bit with the members of the ward! Both sets of missionaries were invited to come, so we had a good time there! Unfortunately there weren't any investigators who came, but we got to talk more with the members of the ward, and it was really cool!

Christmas devotional piano recruitment - On Sunday, I played the piano for both our Sunday meetings, like usual, then after the Inamar ward a group was being organized to do some musical numbers for the following Sunday. Next week all four of our wards will meet all together for the Christmas program. It should be epic! The group practicing their set, asked me to accompany them on the piano. I was surprised to be able to get the hang of all of the songs during our impromptu rehearsal. I'm very thankful for my talent of piano playing, and man has it developed over the course of my mission.

I hope it's a beautiful Christmas for all you! Catch you all next Monday!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Great to see Elder Pontious (from my MTC district) at the Zone Conference

- Me and Elder Dale

- signature move!

- Bárbara's Baptism - me, Nair, Bárbara, Samara, Claudio, Elder C. Franca

- selfie of Inamar ward Bishop and the party venue (pool in background)

- super awesome pizza we had one night - yes that is chocolate on the edges

Perdendo para um Jogador de Basquete

12/13/2021

Hey all! Just a normal week out here in Brazil.

Family Home Evenings - This week we got to do two Family Home Evenings. The first one was on Monday night with a member who lives in Eldorado. He invited all four of us missionaries to come over and dedicate his house, and it turned into talking about the life and sacrifice of Jesus and eating some pizza. The other Family Home Evening was on Thursday with Aline, Bruno, and Ana Laura! We watched the Church's short film about the birth of Christ and then talked about the signs of His coming to the people living in the Americas, from the Book of Mormon. It's so great to be able to have spiritual experiences with the members here.

Last Interview with President - I say "last interview" even though I still have my exit interview left to do with President Hirschi, but this past week was my last regular interview with him. We talked about finishing strong, who we're teaching that could potentially be baptized before I leave, and basically it was a nice, short, but spiritually uplifting conversation.

Bárbara's Baptismal Date - Speaking of people who could be baptized before I leave, we went to Nair's house on Wednesday like usual, and talked with her about Bárbara's baptismal date. She wants to move it up because there's a possibility she'll be at her dad's house for Christmas, so it was moved to this upcoming Saturday the 18th! Super exciting!

Basketball with Venezuelan Professionals - There's a member in the Vila Paulina ward who played basketball professionally in the Venezuelan second division, and the Peruvian third division. He is super good at basketball. He invited us missionaries to come to the church and play a bit with him and some non-member friends of his. Elder Dale was keeping up pretty good with the five of them, but the rest of us were way in over our heads - haha.

Vila Paulina Christmas Party - Saturday night was the Christmas party for the Vila Paulina ward, and Elder C. França and I were invited to come, by the Bishop, which was great! It was a really good time, and there were even some investigators there as well, so it was super fun! There was a member who brought a friend, and while Elder Araujo and C. França were talking to another guy, I went with Elder Dale to meet him and talk about what we do as missionaries. We got his information and he seems interested in learning more. Exciting stuff!

Alrighty my peeps, that's it for this week. Tune in next time for more mission news! This week will be zone conference, our ward's Christmas party, and hopefully Bárbara's baptism. Catch ya next week!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Christmas decorations thanks to Elder Dale

- Elder Dale decorating his tree

- Our little tree

- Vila Paulina Christmas party

Tela Rachada

12/6/2021

Hey all! How's it going? Good? It's December!!

A long walk - Elder C. França and I were trying to find the house of a referral that we received, actually from two different people. The first person didn't leave a phone number, just an address, so we headed over to the house and tried knocking. The person who came to the door said the person we were looking for, didn't live there. Then recently, we had someone else tell us about this person, and gave us her address and phone number. So we went to the address were maps took us again, and the same thing happened as the first time. But, this time we had her phone number so we called to confirm the address, and it turns out she lives way far away, on the same street at the same number, but on the other side of our area. Classic Brazilian house numbering system. So that day we had a long walk. In the end we found the house and had a good conversation with a woman named Lia.

Exchange with Elder Pedroso - On Thursday morning, the mission did it's transferal Mission Leadership Counsel. I didn't go this time because I'm not in leadership anymore, but my companion had to go, along with the other Zone Leader in the zone, Elder Vasconcelos. Because they each have a companion who doesn't go to the meetings, the APs told our two companionships to start an exchange Wednesday evening. So I stayed with Elder Pedroso in their area. I had some good conversations with everyone who lives over there, including a Brazilian Elder who will go home with me at the end of this transfer, and another American. After lunch the next day, we switched back companions.

Visits with André - On Saturday, a member of the ward went out with us to do some contacting and visits! We followed a route that would eventually lead us to a house where we had a lesson planned. The sad part was that nobody who we visited, including the lesson, answered their door. That was kind of a bummer, but we still had a good time. We ended up taking André back home a bit earlier than expected, but we had a good chat with him after.

Youth Christmas Activity - Later on Saturday, the other Elders had been asked to do a special musical number for their youth's Christmas party activity and they invited us to join them. I got to play the piano and they sang "The First Noel" (in Portuguese, of course). They also shared a bit of a message and the youth did their Secret Santa gift exchange. Then there was food! Which was good.

Cracked screen - The four of us were standing outside the church building, on concrete, as Elder Dale uses our phone to translate something. He then tried to put it back in Elder C. França's pocket, but misses, and it falls face down on the ground. We didn't ever receive a screen protector, so it got pretty smashed up.. Bummer!

Someone stole the light - Throughout the week, our church building kept losing more and more power. One day, the power was out in one hallway, then later, the chapel lost power, then finally the upstairs hallway lost light. We were talking to Bishop Porfirio about it and he said that someone was stealing the wiring for the power of the church. Apparently it's a super expensive type of cable, like R$300 per meter of wiring. So by the end of the week, there was no power in the whole church building. So for Sacrament Meeting, [Sunday Services] there was no light, no piano, and no microphone. We were still able to have church though because there are windows that line the chapel, so we had some natural light during the day. This is probably a good analogy about enduring through the dark times in life, but you guys can come to your own spiritual conclusions.

Alright guys, those are the highlights this week! It's gonna be a great last month of my mission here, I can already tell. The holiday season is always a magical time of year. Anyway, hope it's a great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Huge Butterfly/moth we saw in one of the churchs

- Close up

- The four of us at the Christmas youth activity

- me and my companion

- something strange we saw on our long walk

- playing ball in the rain

- Acai with the boiz

- I'm literally in Brazil

- This bus driver must really love Christmas [none of the other buses are decorated like this]

Acompanhador de Piano

11/29/2021

Howdy my people. Another week here that has flown by.

English Class - This week we started offering an English class, mainly for the youth, who want to learn and bring their friends. Elder Dale and I are the ones teaching, and we had a pretty good turn-out for our first lesson. The plan is to do one lesson a week (until the transfer) to build up some interest, incentivize the participants to invite friends, and hopefully start teaching some new people of the youth that we meet.

Balling up with the youth - We are trying to teach more people and support the youth, so our plan is to play some ball with them a couple times throughout the week. We play either basketball or soccer after the English class, and then again on Saturday. This last Saturday we got the Vila Paulina Bishop and a few other members to come play with us.

Saturday Night Futebol - Saturday night there was a pretty huge national soccer game, and from what I could understand, it was for the yearly championship. I think it would be like the equivalent of the Superbowl for Americans. The teams playing off were the Palmeiras and the Flamengos. A lot of people here in São Paulo are Palmeiras fans because the team is from this state. Cláudio had the game on while Elder C. França and I were at their house waiting for Nair to get back from an errand.

Primary Program(s) - I was asked by the Primary of both the Mata Virgem Branch and Inamar Ward to be their pianist and accompany for the children's musical performances. Sunday was the Primary program for Mata Virgem's Sacrament meeting, and then Inamar did their program after the 2nd-hour of church. It was awesome to be a part of that! Turns out when people found out I can play the piano I am now in high demand. Haha! This time of the year, people are arranging choirs and special musical numbers. It's a good feeling being able to do that and help people out.

Lessons - This week we were blessed to have been able to have lessons with the following people: Franklin and his daughter Jennifer, Dalila, Djair, Jailson, Lurdes, Wallison, Sabrina, Nair, Cláudio, Samara, Bárbara, Felipe, Dace, and her son Guilherme. It's always a great feeling to get into that teaching mode and be able to explain something so beautiful as the Plan of Salvation, or so logical as the Restoration of the Gospel. I'm so grateful to have so many people to teach!

I love being a missionary, and although I'm feeling ready for my time to come to an end (in just about a month), I will definitely miss that feeling of the spirit testifying of all the things I say, and that I know to be true.

Hope y'all are thriving and prospering wherever you are.

Love,

Elder Bird

- Foggy Day

- Welcome to Diadema

- Christmas Decorations 1

- Christmas Decorations 2

- Christmas Decorations 3

Vários Assuntos

11/23/2021

Alright everyone, I'm gonna try something kinda different this time, start with a phrase of something that happened during the week and then explain it.

"Bird Connect" - With Elder Dale [the new American] being here in our house, we've been taking advantage of the opportunity to learn both Portuguese and English. I've been able to be a bit of a liaison between the two Brazilians and the American. There's a program in the Church called English Connect, where people can start learning English, and we've been doing kind of a collective language study in our two companionships and calling it "Bird Connect." I feel like I've come such a long way now that I can communicate quasi-fluently between English and Portuguese.

Franklin - We received some inspiration this week to return to Franklin's house after a little bit away. He is a person that Elder Eggleston and I were teaching, who is kind of a member, but no one can find his membership record. We've talked with the Bishop about it and it seems like he's going to have to get baptized again. We are going over to his house tonight to get his thoughts on that and maybe even mark a baptismal date.

Last-transfer missionary training - Being the first week of the transfer, the mission had a Zoom training for all the missionaries returning home at the end of this transfer, which will be a few days after New Year's. Turns out it will be all Elders. It was a good short training where President Hirschi talked about flights, a mission bazaar we could donate clothes to, and other "finish the mission strong" type stuff. It was good.

Basketball in the rain - One afternoon this week the four of us missionaries in our house arranged a bit of a pick-up basketball game with a few of the young men that we're teaching. It was a bit rainy during the day, but it started to clear up around the time we had set to play. Cue the tempest that arrived about a half an hour into it, but we kept on going because we were all already there. It turned out to be really fun to play in the rain, and afterwards the four of us gave a really spiritual lesson.

Sharing a "word" with the city drunks - as we walked home one night we passed by some drunk guys on the street. They yelled out, "hey Mormons! Mormons come over here! Mormons give us the good "word." Not wanting to disappoint I pulled out my scriptures and read to them Alma 32:21 - a great scripture about faith. I'm not sure what they remembered the next morning, but maybe they will remember something about faith.

Baptism miracle - Man I tell ya, God really knew what was up when Nair's and Samara's baptism didn't end up happening last week. Amazingly, during our weekly lesson on Wednesday, Cláudio told us that he wanted to be baptized the same day as his wife, Nair. So exciting! So we talked through it, and because he had already been coming to church every week and had started to diminish his coffee drinking, we were able to set up a baptismal interview, which was two days later along with Nair. They all passed and all three of them were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday during the branch meeting. It was truly a miracle, and we are excited to continue working with the rest of the family!

Alright people, it's late here, so hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Elder França and I chilin' at Franklin's

- Baptism!! Cláudio, Samara, and Nair

- Sunday School class with the Young Single Adults

Confraternização de Natal

11/15/2021

Hey all! It was a great last week of the transfer here, and an exciting start to my last one.

I guess I'll start out with the not-so-fun part of the week. Unfortunately, Nair and Samara weren't able to be baptized on Saturday, but we're hopeful that they can be prepared sufficiently for this Saturday, and maybe make it a triple baptism with João. That would be really cool if those three members of the family are baptized at the same time.

We were able to keep in touch with Kelvin's friends from last week's youth activity. We have been mainly talking to Guilherme. We have had a couple of phone calls with him to talk about and read from the Book of Mormon. He keeps showing more and more interest, so we're excited for his progress, and hoping that the other friends will follow suit.

We had a lot of things going on over the weekend, with Diadema's Stake Conference, the baptism, another baptism for the other Elders here, a primary program rehearsal (that I was asked to help accompany on the piano), and the Mata Virgem branch Christmas party!

Now, you may be wondering, "Wow, Christmas already? We haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet." I thought the same thing, but they don't have Thanksgiving in Brazil. It was a great activity for the branch, and so many friends of members of the branch came, that we called the other Elders to come and help us with integration. Nair and her husband, Cláudio, came and sat at our table, along with some other people that we're teaching as well. There was great food, a short Christmas message, and Santa Claus even came by to all the tables and handed out candy.

Transfers turned out to be pretty interesting this time around, especially here in our zone. I was right about being rotated out of my position as a Zone Leader, and so now I am a district leader again for my last transfer. The weird part is that I will be staying with my current companion, Elder C. França, who will remain as Zone Leader. The other Zone Leader is in a completely different district in the zone, so that will make this a very interesting transfer indeed! The other cool thing that happened in our zone is that President split our district, so now my district will have only two companionships: us, and the companionship we live with! That will make our district council meetings super easy, haha. In other news, Elder Pajaro left our quaint house and Elder Araújo received a new American companion! His name is Elder Dale and he has only been in Sao Paulo for a couple weeks, so this will be his first full transfer. Luckily, we live together so I'll be able to be a support for him, and I can help translate for him and Elder Araujo when needed.

Thanks for reading everyone, we're excited for this week, and hope to have some good news for next time. Until then.

Love,

Elder Bird

- Christmas Party!

- Us with Nair and Claudio

- Festive Decorations

- Papai Noel [Santa Claus] and us with Presidente Severiano

Mais Uma Data de Batismo

11/8/2021

Hey everyone! We had lots of fun over here this week, plus interviews with President and Sister Hirschi!! It's always exciting to be able to chat with them about my mission experiences.

We started the week off with our interviews, which was a boost for our spiritual tanks. I had a good conversation with Sister Hirschi about how I'm coming to the close of my mission and how I can stay focused on the work the next few weeks. With President we talked about my area and what's going on there. He said that there will be a lot of new missionaries coming into the mission soon, and also mentioned that he likes missionaries in their last transfer, not to be leaders. From the conversation, I think I might be moving out of this area and my position as a Zone Leader, and maybe be a trainer for a new American companion to help with his Portuguese. I'll have to wait and see what actually happens next Monday. It will depend on what impressions or revelation the President receives from the Spirit. In any case, I'm super excited to find out how things will be and where I might go for my last transfer. (Tune in next week for the reveal.)

In other news, we continue to have lessons with our two families in Mata Virgem, João and Márcia, and Nair and Cláudio. Members of both families are all progressing at different rates, but it's been cool to see how everyone's testimonies of the gospel, and of the Book of Mormon, have increased since we've been teaching them.

On Saturday we had the chance to go over to Nair's house with Bruno (our recent-convert, Ana Laura's brother!) Nair's son, João, was the only one who was there for the lesson, but it was a cool experience teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. Bruno was very helpful and shared his testimony. We were actually able to set a baptismal date for him, for the end of November! Nair and her grand daughter. Samara, are set for baptism this Saturday, and we are so excited for them. We have faith that the whole family will be able to feel the Spirit and be baptized and sealed together in due time.

One more fun thing that happened on Saturday was a "torta na cara" [whipped-cream in the face] activity with the young men and young women in the Mata Virgem branch. We were invited to give a little presentation about the Restoration and then there were trivia questions after. I may or may not have lost my round with Elder C. França (see photo), but only because he grabbed the cup first and then thought about the answer for like 30 seconds - haha. By the way, I knew the answer right away, just for the record. One of the young men brought four friends to the activity, so we're hoping to keep in touch with them and to try and set up some lessons in the future.

Alright, those were the highlights for this week, hope you guys enjoyed reading! Coming up, a report on Nair's and Samara's baptism, with a reveal of where and who I'll be with for my last transfer!! Catch y'all next time!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Posing with weapons of mass destruction

- Playing with weapons of mass destruction

- The results of the activity "torta na cara"

- A night view of Sapopema, a prominent area in the Inamar ward

Mesmo Velho, Mesmo Velho

11/1/2021

Hey all! This week was great! Not too much news, but I'll let you guys in on the highlights.

On Monday we played soccer with some other companionships in the zone. I ended up triggering my chronic back pain, so it was back to the brace this week for me.

We are teaching a family over in Sete Praias (in the Mata Virgem area). One of the daughters of the family brought her boyfriend to our lesson on Tuesday! His name is André and he's super interested in learning more about the gospel, along with the family! That's so exciting!

Wednesday was pretty busy, filled to the brim with visits, which was good. We visited with one guy who is a relatively famous Evangelical singer, (I got one of his CDs), and he is interested in learning more, but has a contract to sing at another church. He likes us to visit with him though. Later in the day, we visited Nair and her family, and we had another great lesson. This one was to clear up some misconceptions they had about our church. Nair and her grand daughter, Samara, are preparing for baptism sometime in November, so that'll be exciting!

Thursday we had another in-person Mission Leadership Council! It was another bus ride there, and the bus station made us a bit late again. What are you gonna do? It was a good meeting though and on the plus side lunch was included!

Saturday was another great day of lessons with our two families. First with João and Márcia (the family in Sete Praias). It was with just the parents this time because the daughters ended up going to a Halloween party. Then we headed over to Nair and Cláudio's house. Everyone was home and participated in our lesson, which was a blessing. One of the sons even had his girlfriend over to join. It was a great night!

Sunday was Halloween! It felt like a regular day though because it's not a huge holiday here in Brazil. Funny enough, we saw some stores already decorating for Christmas, as we walked by, on our way to church, so that was fun!

Hope you guys had a great week as well! Until next time!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Mission Leadership Council: October-November

- Elder França and I on our way to Sete Praias

Monte de Ônibus

10/25/2021

Hey y'all, it's been a great week here in Brazil!

I'll start off by explaining the subject line, which is that every day this week, except for Sunday, we used the bus. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out the bus system, with the help of Google Maps. I've become the "cara do ônibus" [the bus guy] for our house. On Tuesday we took the bus way out to the corner of our area for a planned lesson. On both Wednesday and Saturday we had meetings in Jabaquara (the area of the APs), which required 3 different buses to get there, and then on Thursday and Friday we had an exchange with our district leader and his companion which required a bus ride too.

We had a mission meeting with the Brazil Area President, Elder Parrella, which is called a "mission tour". That was the meeting we had in Jabaquara on Wednesday. The day started off at 8am with a mini Mission Leadership Council meeting, then at 9am we started the session with the Sul and Diadema zones. The other two zones did their session with him on Thursday. It was a great conference! Elder Parrella talked a lot about mission culture and how we could improve our sense of urgency in finding people who are ready to let God prevail in their lives. He also did a question and answer session with all of us missionaries, which was enlightening. Overall we had great experiences with this mission tour!

Our other important meeting in Jabaquara was on Saturday. It was a Zoom conference with Elder Soares, one of the current apostles of the Church. He is from Brazil and was giving this conference to a few of the missions in Brazil. It was really cool to hear him speak in his native language and actually understand what he was saying. We saw Elder Parrella during the transmission [broadcast] of the conference talking with Elder Soares, so that was cool to see him again.

In terms of people we're teaching, most everyone lives in Mata Virgem, so we've been focusing our efforts there. These are the people who are really progressing towards the goal of baptism. Nair and her family are coming to church every week and we have faith that she will be prepared to be baptized before the end of this transfer. We're also teaching two other families in Mata Virgem, João and Márcia, and Dhiego and Mayara. We've been seeing many miracles in Mata Virgem and we want to keep the ball rolling!

Alright everyone, those are the highlights for this week. Thanks for reading, and catch you guys next time!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Us with Aline and Ana Laura again!

- A snack after our lesson with a family in the corner of Mata Virgem

- An exchange with Elder Kimball

- Elder Kimball is related to our past prophet Spencer W. Kimball

- A p-day soccer game with several Elders in our zone

Visita Surpresa

10/18/2021

Hey all! We had an exciting week here!

I'll start off by talking about our surprise visit. On Wednesday, President Hirschi sent us a message, out of the blue, saying he wanted to spend the next day with us. He wanted to work with us in our area! We were glad that we had set up some good lessons, and had planned a good route of contacts to go see in Mata Virgem to be able to do with President.

Right, so on Thursday we started off our afternoon by having lunch with Aline, Bruno, and Ana Laura. After lunch, we taught Ana Laura the last missionary lesson so that she is ready for her baptism on Sunday (a change from Saturday). President Hirschi arrived during our visit with the family, and then came with us to visit our referrals in Sete Praias (an area in our branch) using his car which was nice for the longer distances. One of our contact visits turned into a lesson. It was with a family who had been receiving the missionary lessons before the pandemic, and still had their copy of the Book of Mormon that the previous missionaries gave them. It was a great lesson that President Hirschi really took the lead on - haha. After that, President Hirschi dropped us off at our next house for another lesson, and he returned back to the mission office. He later told us that he really enjoyed his time with us, so that made us feel good about the work we're doing.

The other big thing that happened this week was Ana Laura's baptism!! It was moved to Sunday after church for the Inamar ward, so that her brother Bruno could baptize her. First though, he had to be ordained to the office of priest. So, right after the second hour of church, Elder França and I got the baptism room set up, Bruno was ordained as a priest by Bishop Porfírio, and then the baptism started. We gave some quick instructions to Bruno as they entered the baptismal font, and he did a great job performing the ordinance. Ana Laura was so excited! The service was nice, with some great testimonies and some good musical numbers. She was blessed with the Holy Ghost and confirmed a member of the Church right after the baptism. What an amazing experience with an amazing family!

Right-io, that's all I'll share for this week! Hope it was a good read. This upcoming week we are finally having that mission tour, where we get to be instructed by one of the Seventies here in Brazil. It was alluded to by the mission since like the beginning of the year - haha. This will be in place of our Zone Conference, so we don't have to prepare a training this time, woot woot. At least until interviews with the Mission President come around, then we'll have to see if he asks the Zone leaders to do that training again.

In the meantime, hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Bird

-My new companion Elder C. França

-Our zone with their Book of Mormons (Mission collage)

-Us and President Hirschi with Aline, Bruno, and Ana Laura, (and Niclaus the dog)

-The legendary Diadema Zone leaders

-Ana Laura and her family after her baptism

O Início do Final

10/11/2021

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week. It certainly has been interesting around here!

For starters, our main focus this week was on Ana Laura, who is the young daughter of a member who is returning to church after the pandemic. Elder Eggleston and I have had the opportunity to visit with this family and teach Ana the missionary lessons getting her ready for baptism. She will be baptized this Saturday and we are so excited for her!! She is so great, and her mom and her brother as well. It has been a pleasure to feel like part of their family when we come by to teach about the gospel.

The other main thing that happened this week was the transfer!! (Today, in fact.) I had the great privilege of serving with Elder Eggleston for the past two months, but the time has come for him to move on from this area. He has big things ahead of him, opening an area in São Bernardo. He will be in a trio with another American and a Brazilian missionary. [As things are progressing here with Covid, and with people being vaccinated, more things are opening up. There are not so many restrictions, and so more missionaries are arriving into the country. This influx of missionaries means we can "re-open" areas that were shut down. Before Covid, the The mission had 10 zones, but when all the missionaries went home it was cut down to 3 zones.] Today a new zone opened up, bringing the amount of zones up from three to four. My new companion is Elder C. França and he will be the other Zone Leader with me over Diadema. Elder Pajaro got a new companion also, to take the place of Elder Antonio who went home this transfer. His name is Elder Araujo.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of attending a baptism over Zoom. It was for Sarah Scott who I helped teach back in February. It was with Elder Gray, back in Rye, Colorado right before I came to Brazil. How cool is that? She invited all the missionaries who helped teach her the gospel, to come to her baptism which meant by Zoom for most of us.

Other things of note that happened this week included:

- Meeting the brother of a person we are trying to get in contact with, on the street

- Setting a baptismal date with Nair

- Visiting lots of people in the pouring rain (because it's monsoon season here!)

There is a popular saying among missionaries here in Brazil when someone is starting to come to the close of their mission. They say the missionary is entering the "doze semanas" or the "twelve weeks" meaning the last two transfers. I envision it being a really great second-to-last transfer, and I intend to give it my all, until I return from my service.

That's it for this week, thanks for tuning in! I hope it's another great week, and I'll let y'all know how Ana Laura's baptism went next time!

Love,

Elder Bird

- A good view of Mata Virgem

- Our last house picture before the transfer [Elders Antonio, Pajaro, Eggleston and me]

General Conference October 2021

10/4/2021

Hey all! It was a great week for us, but the highlight was General Conference.

Monday was pday and then in the evening we went over to Elias' house and started work on our Kanban [poster thingy] that he wanted us to make for us in relation to our missionary plans for the ward.

On Tuesday I caught some kind of cold, so I was totally sick the whole day. We spent our day doing missionary work from home.

By Wednesday I was feeling a bit better, so I went with Elder Antonio to host our training for the last two districts in my zone. These two districts meet together for their district council meetingss because they are pretty small and only have two or three companionships. This made it easy to do the training. President and Sister Hirschi were there again to do interviews with the missionaries. Then President and Sister Hirachi took Elder Antonio and I out for lunch again, which was awesome! After lunch, Elder Antonio and I went over to the APs' house and started an exchange with them. I went back to my area with Elder S. Silva. Felt like old times, when I was a DL in Santo André, and he was my ZL, now I'm the ZL and he's an AP. Anyways, we had a few really great lessons and made a couple of new friends.

On Thursday we exchanged back to our regular companions kinda. The APs went back to their companions, but Elder Antonio and I stayed together for a bit longer. We picked up our lunch and then he had his last English tutoring session before he has his end-of-mission test. Afterwards, Elder Pajaro and Elder Eggleston met us at the church building and we finally switched back fully. Then we headed out once again to knock on some more doors. Later we went back to Elias' house to finish up the Kanban. When we got home, Elias sent us a really nice message that made us feel good about the work we are doing in this area.

On Friday we had lots of lessons, in almost all ways possible. First, over the phone with a call to Ygor, then a video call with Ana, who is a recent convert in the Mata Virgem branch, then lastly in person with Ana Laura! She's the daughter of a member in Inamar ward that hasn't been baptized yet because of the pandemic. It was a really great lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saturday, was General Conference!! We picked up lunch and headed to the church building to watch the first session. Then we went to our friend Diego's house, who is a super great young guy who talked with missionaries before the pandemic, and watched the Saturday afternoon session with him and his mother-in-law. After conference he said he enjoyed it and we had a good conversation with them. He was so nice, he even gave us a ride back to our house!

Sunday we started the morning off by watching the Saturday Evening session of General Conference at the church building. Some great talks in that one! Then we headed to Diego's house (a different Diego in the Inamar ward) to eat lunch and watch the Sunday "Morning" session with him and his wife. They were very thoughtful and wanted to put it on in English for us. We told them it was okay to watch in Portuguese, but they insisted. After the session and a bit more visiting with them, we went to do a member lesson with another member in Inamar. Then we went over to Elias' place to watch the Sunday Afternoon session. He put it on in English for us as well, and he watched it translated on his phone with earbuds. Once again very thoughtful. We had another nice conversation with him after the session, then returned home for the night.

It was really refreshing to watch most of Conference this time in my native language. Even though I have improved a lot since the last Conference in April, and understood for the most part the parts we watched in Portuguese, I could really feel the love that all the speakers demonstrated in their talks when I heard them in English. Overall, I loved this Conference!

Whelp that was my week! Today we went to a mall to check it out and grab a few things we needed. Now we're heading into the last week of this transfer. It's gonna be a good week, and hope it's a sublime week for you guys as well!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Lunch with Elder Antonio and President & Sister Hirschi

- say that 10 times [the fine print]

- time for a haircut

- a picture of President Nelson with SLC temple that I liked

Mais uma Semana na Vida

9/27/2021

Hey everyone, this week was great!!

On Tuesday we started our week off right - with a lesson with Dace. She is someone who has had contact with the missionaries in the past, but is having a bit of trouble believing in the Book of Mormon after growing up with only the Bible. But it was a great lesson! We answered some of her questions and were able to clear up some of her doubts. After our lesson with her, we followed our planned route of houses to knock in the Inamar area, but unfortunately nobody seemed to be home. The mission has also emphasized the importance of continuing to use the resources that were available to us during the pandemic, namely our areabook and the records and phone numbers we already have, and to continue to do lessons online as well.

On Wednesday Elder Antonio and I hosted a training for two of our four districts in the zone, and next week we will do the other two. We also got to have lunch with President and Sister Hirschi in between the two districts. Afterwards, President Hirschi drove us back to our area, and we switched back to our regular companions. Then Elder Eggleston and I headed to the church building and arrived just in time for my group piano lesson for the ward, which nobody showed up for this week, haha. I think I'll talk to the Bishop about it, because at the moment it's not really an effective missionary tool for us, and it's taking up valuable time in our schedule, that we could be using for something more productive. Now that we're liberated to do more missionary activities, we have to be more mindful about how to wisely use the limited time that we have.

On Thursday we started an exchange with Elder Novaes and his companion. We met up with them at the mall and then Elder Novaes and I headed back to our area. A few of the lessons that were planned fell through, but it was good to walk around the Mata Virgem area and chat with him. As we headed back home we stopped for a milkshake, and as it turned out, Elder Novaes ended up leaving his scriptures there. We didn't realize it though until we got all the way back to our apartment. Luckily, the place was still open when we returned, walking all the way down the steep road and then down the main street. Once back at home, with scriptures in hand, we used the rest of our day to make a few good phone calls. We ended up making a new friend named Moisés (which is Moses in English - there are lots of biblical names here in São Paulo [Saint Paul]). Moisés is very religious and we are excited to talk to him more!

Friday we had our mission training. This time it was all the district leaders sharing best practices from their districts. After that, Irmão Danilo came and picked Elder Novaes and I up to have lunch with him and his wife Laisla. We had a great visit with their family. They both served missions, so we traded stories and experiences. After lunch, we went to the mall and switched back to our regular companions, and Elder Eggleston and I headed home. In the evening we wrote up a report for Elias on how our work is going in the Inamar ward. We were supposed to have another lesson with Robson and Rafaela, but they had to cancel, so instead we made a few more good calls.

Saturday we had lunch with Gabriel, a returned missionary in the Mata Virgem branch. At his house the Disney movie Coco was playing in the background. It made me think that it will be nice to be able to watch movies again when I get home - haha. When we got back to our apartment, we had another good conversation over the phone with Moisés about the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and invited him to church. Later during our nightly calls, we had a cool experience finding someone who had been baptized some years ago, but had been inactive because of some lack of attention from her ward when she needed help. She lives in São Bernardo, so we plan to send her number to the missionaries over there, who will be able to help her out better than we can, long distance.

Sunday, the Day of the Lord! After sacrament meeting with the Mata Virgem branch, Elder Eggleston and I got stuck [locked] in one of the classrooms! Whoops! But, also kinda funny. Luckily we were able to get out using the ol' card-in-the-latch trick. Afterward, we had a quick correlation meeting with President Severiano, and then he took us to his house for lunch. Later in the day, I got to play piano for the Inamar ward's sacrament meeting, and then it was off to second hour! So exciting because this was the first week that we got to participate in Elder's Quorum in a long time. The Mata Virgem branch will start second hour the week after General Conference! That night we joined online for a Family Home Evening with the Mata Virgem branch, which was good.

This coming week, we've got exchanges planned with more of the district leaders, the APs, and one more training for the last two districts in our zone. I'll let you know how it goes next time! Hope it's another great week for everyone!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Elder Novaes and I petting a dog on the street

- Elder Novaes and I at the chapel for training

- Thinking real hard

- Stroganoff lunch at a member's house

- Elder Eggleston with a street mural

- Literally walking "down" the street

Como Dirigir Uma Reunião?

9/20/2021

Hey everyone! Gotta make this one quick, so let's get to it!

Monday night we had a correlation meeting with Elias, our ward mission leader. He made us a nice stroganoff dinner and in addition to talking about missionary work, taught us some Brazilian culture stuff, which was cool! After we got home, Elder Antonio and I worked on our lesson/training for our Zone Conference for the next day.

Tuesday was my first Zone Conference as a Zone Leader, which was kind of nerve-racking thinking about the training we were supposed to give. But it ended up working out all great, even with the little time we had to plan. I also got to conduct the meeting, so that was fun! After the conference, I did an exchange with Elder C. França, going to his area, while his companion, Elder Phenix, went with Elder Eggleston back to our area.

On Wednesday after lunch we finished our exchange, and then Elder Eggleston and I headed to the church for my group piano lesson! It turned out to just be two people, and we learned about the names of all the notes! After our lesson, we went out to do a couple of in-person contacts (show up randomly at a person's house) in the Mata Virgem area.

On Thursday we had our correlation meeting with President Severiano, and then a really long weekly planning session, where we planned for a ton of future events.

On Friday I had one more piano lesson with Ana, who is a recent convert in the Mata Virgem branch. She came up to me after sacrament meeting one day and asked me to teach her, so more opportunities for teaching music! In the evening we went out to do more contacts in Mata Virgem and ended up finding a woman named Nair and her family. They had been in touch with the missionaries a couple years ago, but were left behind because of the pandemic. We had an uplifting visit with them.

On Saturday we helped out with a move for a couple in the Inamar ward. It was super easy compared to the other moves I've done here, because they lived on the ground floor, with no stairs. After the move, we had a very interesting visit with a guy in Mata Virgem named Luiz Fernando, who apparently is an inactive member of the Church. I have a feeling we were supposed to go there for him to have a reminder that God remembers him, and will never forget about him. Then we helped set up for a ward activity in the Mata Virgem branch!! It was hotdog night - super fun, with great food, and great company with the members of the branch. We also met some members who hadn't been to church in a while, and got to know them better. When we got home we worked on writing our talks that we were giving the next day for the Mata Virgem branch during sacrament meeting.

Sunday! Our talks went well in the Mata Virgem branch. Then after the Inamar ward meetings, we were invited to the ward council meeting because Elias couldn't make it. In the evening we had a lesson with Robson and his girlfriend Rafaela, where we talked about the Book of Mormon and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They were very engaged and ready to learn more. We have another lesson with them set up for this Friday!

Welp, that's this week. We have interviews with President Hirschi upcoming this week, and the ZLs have been asked to give a training for each of their districts (four for my zone), so I'll let you guys know how those were!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

-pictures from Zone Conference

O que aconteceu com a fase Dois?

9/14/2021

Yo yo yo! It's been a super duper interesting week out here!!

Monday night during our working hours, we had a pretty disappointing experience trying to call one of our friends. We were texting back and forth and she said yep, I'm ready for our call, but when we asked if we could make it a video call, she then blocked our number. Kind of funny, but really sad at the same time. Then we got a message from a young adult member of the Vila Paulina ward and we were able to visit with his friend Dace (who lives in our area). It was super last minute, but we tried to help her with some things she was going through. It was a special lesson and we ended up singing her a hymn. All in all, good night.

Tuesday was Brazilian Independence Day! Unfortunately, it was not "missionary independence day," because the Mission Office had us stay in our various missionary homes all day, to keep us safe from any protests or agglomerations. So, we did a deep clean of our house, which was much needed, and then did the missionary work we could do from home. We were also able to call our families again, so I called my wonderful brother, Ryan! I love him!

On Wednesday I went with Elder Antonio to our Mission Leadership Counsel meeting, or MLC as it's known to English speaking missionaries. The meeting is basically like a Zone Conference, but only the Zone leaders and the STLs [sister missionary leaders] attend. It was held at the church building in the AP's area, so we took the bus there - only one bus, luckily! It was super great to see everyone again and have some good convos during lunch. It was especially great to see Elder Pontious, who is from my MTC time, and my last companion, Elder Boize, and his new American companion, Elder Lewis.

We learned during the meeting that the Area Presidency just gave the approval for the Mission to move from Phase 1 (which is what we were in) to Phase 3 of missionary work. YAY! President Hirschi explained that in Phase 3, we could eat in people's homes, knock on doors, and do street contacting again!! That was super unexpected, but very welcome news indeed! We are so excited!!

Thursday was my first time being able to eat in someone's house in a year and seven months - the first time on my entire mission! We had a great lunch and visit with the Stake President and his family, who live in the Inamar ward. And then later, we were able to have a lesson with Mauro and his mom, Joana. We talked about how the Spirit speaks to us in our lives. It was a powerful lesson. Then Elder Eggleston and I followed our previously planned route that would take us from house to house, visiting people who were in our Areabook app. It was super great to be able to be out of the house, basically all night, and a great feeling to arrive home exhausted from walking all over our area. I'm sure I'll get much more used to walking that much now that we can do it, haha!

On Friday we felt humbled to eat lunch with a Venezuelan couple who spoke very little Portuguese, and even less English, but still wanted the missionaries in their home, to invite the spirit that we bring. It was a good opportunity to try out the few words in Spanish that I knew from doing lessons on Duolingo [a language app]. In the afternoon, we had a correlation meeting with President Severiano (of the Mata Virgem Branch) at the church building. While we were waiting for him to arrive, I was playing the piano, and Bishop Porfirio (of the Inamar Ward) was there and heard me. He then asked me to teach piano in mass for the entire ward! I'm not quite sure how to teach several people all at once, but we will see how that goes! Later, we delivered a Book of Mormon to a new friend and he accepted it, so we'll see if we can keep in touch with him! I think I'm getting a bit better at doing in-person contacts while visiting with people.

One of the members of the Inamar ward, Marcio, asked us to come to his house. So, on Saturday we went and visited with him and his wife. It was a great conversation about missionary work. He asked us how he could better share the gospel with his friends and neighbors, and explain it in a simple way so that that they can understand our beliefs. It was a great visit and I hope we will be able to go back there in the future and share more. In the afternoon, I had the privilege of performing a baptismal interview for Julia, a friend of the Elders in Serraria. It was an edifying experience, and an exciting time in her life to be able to get baptized. Then later we were able to visit Franklin! We talked all about the priesthood and callings in the church, and he made us "misto quente" [grilled ham and cheese] after the lesson, which was delish!

Sunday, we had lots of meetings! We went to the Vila Paulina ward because that's the ward Mauro's girlfriend lives in, and then went to our own ward and branch Sacrament meetings as well. During the Inamar ward meeting, Bishop Porfirio officially announced to the congregation that I would be teaching piano lesson at 6pm every Wednesday evening, for everyone who wants to come and participate. There's no backing out now -haha! I'm still not exactly sure how I will teach a group of people instead of individuals, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. In the evening, Elder Eggleston and I gave the message for a Family Home Evening lesson online with Mata Virgem, which went really well. Then we went out teaching, exchanging companions with the other Elder's in our house. We did two lessons in their area which went well. We ended up missing the Face to Face event with Elder Bednar, but we hope to watch it later this week in our downtime.

Alright, that's it for this week, hope you guys enjoyed reading it! And I hope you all have another great week as well!!

Love,

Elder Bird

-a nice picture of Christ stretching out his hand to all of us who might feel like we are drowning in our difficulties

Relatórios, Relatórios, Relatórios!

9/6/2021

Hey all you people!

Last Monday, like I mentioned in my post, we were out of a phone! It was supposed to arrive that morning, and I guess technically it did. The mission secretaries sent us one of the extra phones they had in the office in an Uber Flash, which is for object delivery, but the phone they sent didn't work. It ended up being a bit bugged and wouldn't initiate correctly. So, we had to use the other Elders' phone to write short emails and call our families. That was one phone for four Elders - haha!

Tuesday afternoon, we finally got a new phone that works! Two of the mission secretaries delivered it to us personally to our house. They also brought some hard-back copies of the Book of Mormon for our district. The whole mission has set a goal to read the Book of Mormon together, and they gave each missionary a new hard-back copy to annotate. It's been sweet! With our new goal we will read and be done with the whole book by the new year. That's right before I come home, so a great way to end the mission. In the evening, we headed to the church to set up our new phone and sent out our new number to all of our people. We ran into President Severiano while we were there, and had the opportunity to give him a priesthood blessing.

On Wednesday we had a mission correlation meeting with President Severiano where we talked about how we could work together to help the branch grow. Then, after lunch I sat in for a new leadership meeting. Next up, Elder Antonio and I did a bit of planning for the zone, with follow-up calls and exchanges and such. In the evening we went to the church building again for a stake report meeting for the Alvarenga Stake, to which the Mata Virgem branch belongs. And it was kinda funny, the stake president reminded me a LOT of Sylvester Stallone haha, in his appearance and the way he talked. Very Italian.

Thursday was our district council meeting. Elder Eggleston and I took the bus this time because we had the box of Book of Mormons that we were carrying to hand out at the meeting. On the bus we met someone who knew missionaries in the past! Unfortunately we didn't get any contact info for him before we had to get off at our stop, but we had a good short chat. After our council meeting and another quick zone leadership meeting, we took a district picture with all our new copies of the Book of Mormon. Later that night, we had another stake meeting, this time in person, for the Diadema Stake, which the Inamar Ward is in. It was cool to see all our district once again, and to take some sweet pictures posing with some Marvel props that the Stake President's family had. On the way home we were walking past a group of dogs, and Eldee Pajaro stomped really hard to scare them, and they totally came after us. I wasn't scared of the dogs, they were pretty small, but it made me uncomfortable because we were in our missionary clothes and he did it in front of a group of people. So, we all had a good chat about representing Christ and His church the rest of the way home.

After our Mission training meeting Friday morning, Bishop came over to pick us up and took us out to lunch. Bishop Porfirio is pretty awesome with the missionaries! After that, we sent yet another report to Irmão Elias, our ward mission leader of Inamar, and then one more report of the work in our areas to our district leader, Elder Novaes. In the evening, President Severiano asked for our help to set up tables for an activity the branch was having the next day, called Almoço de Jejum, which means Lunch of Fasting!

Saturday was Almoço de Jejum!! It was a great activity with some great food and some really good conversation with a member and his wife. After we ate, Irmão Thiago said the prayer to start our 24 hour fast. [In our church, members fast the 1st Sunday of each month.] Later, we had a lesson planned with Mauro, but he had to cancel on us, unfortunately. So we had a bit of time to stop by the house of a person in our area book that we don't have a phone number for. Turns out they weren't home, and we had forgotten a pen to write down our number on a pass-along card. Whoops! We passed by the church on our way home, and there was a baptism service the other Elders from our apartment were having. I ended up participating by accompanying the hymns on the piano. So that was cool.

On Sunday, Franklin came to church in the Mata Virgem branch! It was good for him to meet some more members and to start making some friendships. Then later after the meeting for the Inamar ward, a member gave us a few referrals of people who might be interested in hearing about the gospel, and two of them came to church and were there in the meeting! We got their number and will have a lesson with them this week! So exciting! In the evening, a member sent us some churrasco, which is like really good meat, and steaks! Super yummy.

That's all folks! Hope y'all have a great week! Until next time!!

Love,

Elder Bird

Pics:

- Happy Breakfast!

- Diadema Stake missionary work meeting

- President Hirschi with Marvel teaching props

- Thor would totally win over Capatain, just saying!

- Our district with their new personal hard copies of the Book of Mormon

Divisões e Doenças

8/30/2021

Hey y'all, this week has been kind of insane! And to top it off, we lost our phone over the weekend so I'm kind of hard-pressed for time in writing this report. So much happened this week and I want to write everything, but unfortunately I'll have to just keep it to the highlights to save on time.

Last Monday in the evening I had the opportunity to do an exchange with Elder Antonio, because his companion, Elder Pajaro, was feeling super sick. We went to visit one of their friends who had a baptismal date set for Saturday, so kind of an important visit. It was a great lesson and her whole family was present.

On Tuesday night, we had a really awesome member lesson with a member of the Mata Virgem branch and his mom. We had a great visit and they are a sweet family.

On Wednesday, because of our dear, sick Elder Pajaro, we had our district council meeting online. In the evening, Elder Pajaro's companionship had another lesson planned for Leda, their friend on date for baptism, but we also had a lesson planned with a pretty important friend, so I couldn't do the exchange like we did on Monday. So instead we did an exchange with Elder Childers, our district leader, and his companion. Elder Childers and I stayed in our area, Elder Antonio and Elder Eggleston went to visit Leda, and Elder Pajaro went with Elder Pimentel back to their area. It was great to get to know Elder Childers a little more. He's an American, and a band kid as well, so we got along great! It was a fun day. We headed to the church building to do our chapel tour with Ginaldo, which went really well, and then ordered a pizza for when the other Elders got home.

Thursday was our most chill day, with just finishing our exchange and then doing contacts throughout the day.

On Friday, we did a double exchange, one in the afternoon to visit, Marisa, another friend of the other Elders, and another one in the evening to see Leda again. We did her baptismal interview online with Elder Childers. Elder Eggleston had been developing a bit of a sickness as well over the past couple of days, so he stayed back with Elder Pajaro. [BTW Pajaro means Bird in Spanish - so that's funny - Elder Bird and Elder Bird.]

Saturday was the big day for Leda! Elder Eggleston and I were able to attend her baptism. It was a great service, but somehow while we were at the church building, we ended up losing our phone. I remember having it while we were sitting down, kind of talking to some people waiting for the service to start, and then I think I either put it down on the bench or put it in my pocket which then fell out on the bench. In any case, we couldn't find it anywhere in the church building after the baptismal service. Later that afternoon we talked with a guy named Mauro, who is a friend of a member, and it was a good lesson. We arrived at home that day empty handed.

Sunday morning, I caught my own version of sickness, a stomach sickness - pain in my abdomen. With the two of us being sick, and without a phone, we stayed home most the day. We did however go to the church for the Inamar Ward services, because we were hoping our friend, Ginaldo would show up with his family. But, they ended up not coming. Fortunately, because we live with the other two Elders here in our house, we could use their phone to message our materials secretary about getting a new phone and Sister Hirschi about our sicknesses. It was a long, slow day.

Monday: Transfers! Interesting changes in the zone, but nothing new in our house. Our new phone (new to us at least, lol) arrived in the morning, so we're able to charge it up and get it ready to go for us to get back to work.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

Pictures: -The houze boyz

-Youth activity with whipped cream

-Pizza with Elder Childers

Trabalhando até o Pó

8/23/2021

Hey all! This week has been a TON of getting to know my new area and the people in it! It's kind of like I am white-washing this area (which means coming into a new area with no previous knowledge about it). My companion, Elder Eggleston, has only been here a few weeks and it's his first area in Brazil, so he's still working on his Portuguese comprehension. I've already been able to see some miracles, so, hype!

On Monday during the day, a man on a bike rode up to us and asked if we were those "Mormons." Then he started bashing us and saying how he doesn't like that us Americans are here dirtying up the place. We left him our testimonies and he said he'd pass by the church building on Sunday to check it out. That evening was filled with contacts and resolving a couple of things in the Zone. Elder Antonio, my ZL companion, is helping me out with some of my new responsibilities as a Zone Leader.

Tuesday was a great day for doing a bit of organizing of our Area Book because we had weekly planning. We took a good couple hours to contact all the people in our teaching pool and see where we should put our efforts. In the evening, we were asked by Branch President Severiano to fill a request for a priesthood blessing for a member in the Mata Virgem Branch. It was a really spiritual experience.

On Wednesday we started an exchange with the Assistants (APs). It had to be a bit of a three-fold exchange. I went with Elder Erickson to the APs' area, Elder Larson stayed with Elder Antonio in their area, and then Elder Pajaro went with Elder Eggleston back to our area. It was a long, busy day with Elder Erickson. In the evening we gave a blessing to a bit of a crazy member, then went to the gym to work out.. I mean teach a lesson for one of their friends who owns the gym and works out nonstop - haha. But it was a good lesson with him, despite the distraction of the ninjutsu class and the loud music playing in the background.

Thursday we finished our exchange with the APs early in the morning because they were giving a training lesson at the Mission Office. After we all switched back to our companions, we ordered lunch, did contacts, and then headed over to Franklin's house. We talked a lot about the importance of coming to sacrament meeting, so that he can be baptized at the end of the month, because he hasn't been coming. He told us the reason he hasn't been able to come and we were able to talk through it. We hope that he can keep his baptismal date. In the evening we did our weekly area report to with our District Leader.

On Friday we were able to have a really great lesson with Ricardo, in which we talked about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was a really good conversation. Unfortunately he doesn't live in our area, so we will have to give his name and address to the missionaries close to him, and they can deliver a Book of Mormon to him.

On Saturday we went to the house of a member who lives really far away, but the walk (more like a hike lol) to get to his house was really cool! We walked through a pretty jungley section of land, which we took advantage of on the way home for a photo shoot. It also has one of the sweetest vistas I've seen here in Brazil so far, overlooking a lake and some open, green land, very hard to come by here in the city. Then it was another long night of contacts setting up more lessons to get to know people in our ward and branch.

Sunday was our busiest day, going to all four sacrament meetings that we usually attend, two for our areas, and the other two for the other Elders' [who we live with] wards. We were able to pick up lunch from a member of the Mata Virgem branch, and then a couple of our appointments in the afternoon fell through. Then we were going to go to the house of a recent convert, Ana, who was just confirmed last Sunday during sacrament meeting to give her a blessing, but it turned out that President Severiano and another member of the branch had already gone to her house to do it. Then in the afternoon, we were going to go to the house of a referral that we received in our Area Book, but when we asked him for his address, it was somewhere in Utinga, a city in my last district. So we sent his info over to the Elders over there. It seemed like everything we tried fell through, so we ended up doing our studies instead! I love to study here in the mission.

That's about it! We've just been trying to work hard, getting to know as many people as we can in the area and get to teaching! This next week is the last one of the transfer, so it's gonna be interesting to see if anything changes next week. My bet is that nothing will because I just got here last week, but we'll see!

Oh funny story -- my new companion was serving in the Sacramento Mission before coming here to Brazil and was in the city of Stockton where my dad grew up. He was serving in my Uncle David, Uncle Bret, and Aunt Jeanine's ward and knew my cousins! How crazy is that? It can be such a small world sometimes.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

Novos Lugares, Novas Caras

8/16/2021

Hey all! I don't have much time to give all the details (except for the first few days when I had time to write during the day), but here's the latest happenings!

Tuesday was the day the city of São Paulo started to vaccinate our age group, so Elder Boize and I were able to schedule an appointment! We got to use the computers at the church building because Bishop Zanini was there when we were. Unfortunately the scheduling site didn't give us many options for date and location, but we did get an appointment set up, for Monday the 16th (so today). We also had time to do a really deep clean of our apartment on Tuesday, which was great! When we finished, it was probably the cleanest it has ever been in it's history - haha, except for maybe when it was first constructed.

On Wednesday I did a baptismal interview over video call for Felipe! He is a friend of the 2nd Ward Sister missionaries and he wasn't afraid to talk about his testimony! He passed with flying colors and was baptized on Saturday!! In the afternoon Elder Boize and I went to the old-folks home again to talk with Daniel. We talked about the whole Plan of Salvation and he loved it all! After our conversation, one of the workers said that a group of the seniors wanted to hear a message, so we went inside and it was like a living-room full of seniors on every couch. They paused their movie to hear a small scripture and message from us about faith. It was a cool experience.

Thursday was district council meeting and interviews! While talking with Prez Hirschi, I had a bit of an inkling that something might change for me for the transfer, because he asked me if I knew how to use spreadsheets. Like maybe President would put me in the office haha. Which I would be down for, not gonna lie.

Friday morning we had our usual mission-wide training. Then Elder Boize and I got a call from the APs telling us that two new American missionaries just arrived. Things were going to change! One of them would be put with Elder Boize to take my place, and so I would be moving over to Diadema and take the place of that Zone Leader out there. Crazy stuff! A little later, President Hirschi called us to introduce us to the new American, Elder Lewis, who was at the Mission office. They told us that the plan would be for him to arrive here in the afternoon, all three of us to sleep the night here, and then in the afternoon the next day, Saturday, I would head out to my new assignment.

President dropped him off at our place, and while he unpacked his stuff, I finished packing up my suitcases. It was nice to speak in English for a bit and cool to be able to translate from Elder Boize to Elder Lewis. Elder Boize told me, it's going to be a long transfer for them with the language barrier - haha. We had a couple of lessons that night, and were able to stop by Alquilino's house for me to say goodbye, and for him to sign my Tchau Tchau Book (transfer journal).

Saturday afternoon I said my goodbyes to Elder Boize, who has been an amazing friend that I had the opportunity to get to know and work with, got into my Uber, and made the long trip to Diadema (which is on the very west side of the mission). When I arrived, Elder Antônio and Elder Eggleston helped me with my bags, and I saw my new house for the first time. This house actually has two companionships that live here. I then learned that instead of the two Zone Leaders being companions, that they are split up within those two companionships. That's a bit different than normal. So, Elder Antônio is the other ZL, but his companion is Elder Pajaro, and Elder Eggleston is my actual companion! But it's fun to have four of us living in the same house, it reminds me of my time in Rye, Colorado. In the afternoon, I was able to get my first dose of the Covid vaccine, and then Elder Eggleston and I walked around our area a bit that night to have some lessons.

On Sunday I was feeling some side effects from the vaccine, so a bit of a bummer, but we were able to still attend our Sundays meetings. We are over a ward and a branch and I got to know a couple of key people. Then in the evening I was able to finish unpacking and we did some contacting. Elder Antônio and I did some follow-up calls with the district leaders in the Zone. Hopefully, I can do a good job as a Zone Leader.

Today we got some good chores done, like buy some groceries and food for me, and talk to our families. Then on the way home we met a basher [comes from the word "bible basher" which is someone who is against the church and wants to argue with you] on the street. Tonight we will make some visits.

I hope you guys have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Bird

- Me and my new companion, Elder Eggleston!

Milagre de Última Hora

8/9/2021

Hey! Good to see y'all here again. This week we had a few amazing lessons, and Zone Conference!

On Tuesday we had two great lessons, one with Meire over video call, and the other in the evening with Anderson. With Meire we Explained a lot of the principles of the Church and of the Restoration, and we were able to do a virtual church tour, which was awesome! Then with Anderson, we taught all about Christ's gospel and some of the divine commandments that have been revealed to us through scriptures and prophets. We also talked about baptism, and asked him to go to the Lord himself in prayer and ask if it's right for him to be baptized. Great lesson.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to go to the old folks home and have a great conversation with Daniel! He has such a strong belief in the scriptures, and he's been liking his reading so far, in the Book of Mormon. We were also able to show him the video of the prophet, President Nelson, reading the Proclamation of the Restoration, which was a cool experience. Wednesday evening, Elder Erikson asked me and the other two district leaders in my zone to help him out with part of his training for Zone Conference, so I spent an hour or so studying about covenants and preparing some remarks.

Thursday was Zone Conference!! This Zone Conference was held in a different church building than usual. It was the Stake building for São Bernardo, which ended up bringing back some memories from my very first moments in the mission field. Turns out this was the building where, all the foreign missionaries, gathered to wait for a bus to the airport, to be sent home because of the Coronavirus. I'll include a couple pictures from that day, and you can see the contrast from then until now, in my mission.

Anyways, Zone Conference was great! Right before it started, Elder Erikson came up to me and told me they ended up going with a different training, so I could get off easy not having to give my portion that I prepared. That was kind of a relief. During the conference, there were trainings on using the Book of Mormon to answer hard questions, the importance of baptism on the covenant path, and using the Restoration Proclamation as a teaching tool. Some amazing insights were shared and I am always inspired by my mission leaders. We had meter-long sandwiches for lunch! (Cut into slices unfortunately haha.) It was just great!

On Friday in the evening we were able to have that family home evening with Juliana and Cleiton. We used our chess/Christlike-attributes lesson that we already had prepared, and it was a hit. It was a great night with them, and I hope we sparked some remembrance of the Spirit for Cleiton. It was the first contact we've had with them since Elder França and I helped them move into their new house.

During the week, I was asked by the Guarará ward secretary to give a talk in church on Sunday. Then as we were picking up lunch on Saturday, Irmão Jefferson, a counselor in the 5th ward asked me to speak too. Unfortunately or fortunately, I had plenty of time to work on my talk because some of our lessons fell through that day.

Sunday was our busiest day of the week! I was able to give my talk, from my notes with relative ease in both of our wards, which was a blessing. After church, we walked to pick up lunch, and then met outside the church building with Diogo, our ward mission leader for Guarará. He had a referral for us, so we took the bus with him and his wife towards the Jardim Cipreste neighborhood and tried to find this guy's house. I guess Diogo met him while walking on the street and just got the name of the street he lived on without the house number. Luckily it was a pretty small street, and after asking a few neighbors, we think we found his house, but he wasn't home. Bummer, but good to spend a bit more time with members!

At the beginning of the week, Elder Boize and I set a goal for how many new people we wanted to meet and start teaching the gospel. Up until Sunday afternoon (for missionary goal setting purposes, the week ends on Sunday), we hadn't been able to hit our goal. But then in the evening we had a lesson planned with a woman we found in our Areabook, who lives way far away in a favela. We showed up to the address, and it turned out that her whole family were there to hear us teach. We taught about faith and used a scripture in the Book of Mormon to talk about it. The husband then asked us to explain what the Book of Mormon is. So then we taught about the Restoration as well, and it was a very Spirit-filled lesson! The husband, whose name is Israel, was especially super into everything that we were teaching, and liked learning about Jesus Christ, prophets, and authority, and Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. The wife and the daughter also asked us to give them priesthood blessings, which was another really cool experience. We set up another time to meet with them, and then headed out after a closing prayer. They were our last minute miracle, on Sunday night, to hit our goal that we had set, so that was awesome!

That's all folks! We've got interviews with the Prez coming up this week, so I'll let you know how it goes! Big tchau!!

Love,

Elder Bird

-Zone Pic

-Me and Elder Boize

-The Boiz sandwich

-São Bernardo parking lot with all the suitcases, is from last February when Covid-19 hit

-São Bernardo building parking lot with this week

-Elder Boize and I visiting Daniel in the old folks home

Sem Mais Água

8/2/2021

Hey all! Had a great week with lots of lessons!

I said last week I would have some details about our family home evening activity with Cleiton and Juliana last Monday night. Turns out they had to postpone because Juliana was feeling a bit sick and thought it better not to risk passing anything to us. Sooo, no details, oh well.

Tuesday we set up lessons for the week with people like usual, during our weekly planning session. In the evening, Elder Boize and I prepared our training lesson for our district council meeting the next day.

Wednesday morning we had district council meeting, which was great as always. Our training went really well, except that we had to cut it down a bit because we were running low on time. In the evening we had another lesson with Anderson! We marked it for 6pm, but he showed up pretty late. It was no problem because we were at Alquilino's house. We talked with him for a bit while waiting for Anderson to come home. Alquilino mentioned he wanted to get some help with reading the Book of Mormon in English, and suggested for us to come over once a week and help him with pronunciation, so that will be great! Anderson finally got home around 7pm and we taught him the whole Plan of Salvation. It was a great lesson!

Thursday was awesome as well. We got to prepare the baptismal font for Amon's baptism! While the font was filling up with water and heating up, we did personal scripture study and language study. Elder Boize had a meeting with President Hirschi and they talked about him getting his Patriarchal Blessing. Then we noticed that the font was only halfway full, and there wasn't any water coming out of the spigot! Well this wouldn't be a huge problem because Amon is a pretty small kid, but the water level hadn't even reached the point where it was covering the jets, where the warm water comes out. That day was an especially cold day here in São Paulo, especially in Santo André, so we had to figure out how to get the water heated somehow. After conferring with Bishop Zanini, we decided to just close all the doors to the font area and let the water run through the heater to come shooting out the warm water jet, spaying all over the room. We had to keep a pretty close watch on it in order to squeegee the water coming through the rags we shoved into bottom of the door back into the font haha. Crazy! But by the evening, everything turned out great. Luciana showed up with Amon, and then other family members arrived for the baptism. We heard later from his grandpa, who was the one to baptize Amon, that the water was a good warm temperature. What a day!

On Friday we had lessons with a couple online referrals. One of them being a first contact lesson, getting to know her and saying a prayer together over video call. The other one was a lesson with a woman that Elder França and I were teaching previously, who just got a bit busy with life. We sent her another message and she responded. It was a great lesson about the Restoration of the gospel. We set up to bring her a Book of Mormon the next day! Then in the evening we had a video call lesson with a member family, Osmar e Dartemis, whom we see every week at church, but it was great to have a good chat with just their family.

On Saturday we delivered the Book of Mormon to Meire, who was very gracious to receive it. After a couple more lessons falling through, in the evening we went over to Alquilino's house to read the Book of Mormon with him in English and talk about religion and the gospel. Overall a good day.

Sunday during church we had one person join us for Fast Sunday testimony meeting! His name is Otacilio and I think he enjoyed the meeting, although it was a bit different than what he is used to. After picking up lunch we did some studies and then made contacts for the rest of the day. We headed over to the church building to hang out there.

Today for p-day we are going to go bowling. Hope you guys have another great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

-District pics! x3

-Brazil flag at night

-Cleaning the baptismal font

-Preparing our training with chess

-Drawer of a missionary - haha (members like to give us candy)

Correlação Chmorrelação

7/26/2021

Hey all! We've been finding a lot of success in working with our members here in our two wards!

Monday night, we went over to Alquilino's house again. We talked with Alquilino, his brother Alexandre, and their friend, Anderson, who happened to be there as well. Alquilino asked us to give him a priesthood blessing, which was a cool experience. Then Alquilino talked to us about starting the missionary lessons with Anderson, who's not a member of the Church. We set up a lesson with him for Wednesday night!

On Tuesday we had another lesson with Amom. We talked about the Plan of Happiness and we felt the spirit strongly guiding our lesson. We also set up lessons with other ward members and our investigators to meet throughout the week.

On Wednesday the mission was doing online leadership meetings for all the new young missionary leaders because of the transfer. So I had a meeting with all the district leaders, and the zone leaders and STLs had one right after. In the evening we went over to Alquilino's house for our conversation with Anderson. It's really cool because Anderson just moved in to the downstairs house at Alquilino's address, and so Alquilino invited us to do it in his house. It was a great conversation with Anderson talking about his religious experiences in the past, and his relationship with God. It was also cool to have both Alquilino and Alexandre there, sharing their experiences as well. Super amazing how everything just lined up the way it did, and I have no doubt that it was the Lord that led us all here to make this moment happen. At the end of the evening, Anderson said he wanted to meet the next night to talk more! Awesome!

Thursday was our district council because of all the leadership meetings the day before. You can imagine my surprise as we walked past President's car in the parking lot, into the church building, and saw President Hirschi and his wife sitting in our district council chair circle! It was a great counsel meeting (as it usually is) so that was a blessing, plus Sister Hirschi always makes treats! This time it was lemon poppy seed muffins!! So good. And I guess President wanted to talk to the ZLs in person, so I think that's why they joined us.

After our district council meeting, Elder Boize and I headed off to another lesson with Valter. We talked about the rest of the commandments with him, with a focus on baptism and confirmation. We now know exactly what his hold-up is, so we can get to work on how to resolve his concern. In the evening, we had another lesson with Anderson, this time it was just him and us, and we talked about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. He had no qualms or doubts about what we taught, and he's excited to read the Book of Mormon. We stayed a bit after to visit with Alquilino and his wife's mother, Meires. We found out that she actually works at the old-folks home where we've been going to teach Amon, the son of a sister in the ward. She told us that there may be a few people there who might be interested in hearing about the gospel! How exciting!

Friday turned out to be a looong day - haha. We had a mission-wide training in the morning, which will happen every Friday from now on. Then we did part of our studies and grabbed lunch from a member. We finished our studies after lunch and then I did call-ins with the ZLs and STLs. After, we went to the old-folks home and taught the last few principles to young Amon before his baptism next week. After the lesson, we stopped by where Meires was working and she introduced us to Daniel, a resident of the home for a couple years. We didn't have much time for a full lesson, but we were able to get to know him a bit, explained minimally about the Book of Mormon, and gave him a copy to read and annotate. While we were there, two other workers gave us their addresses for us to stop by and talk about the gospel with them too, super exciting! Meires told us, as she led us out, that one of her co-workers even had a dream about two young boys in white shirts and dark slacks coming to the home, which was cool to hear and realize that her dream was about us! To finish out the night, my companion and I had a nice long chat at the church building, waiting for our next lesson, which was a video call with a ward member. This ward member it turns out is a relative to Alquilino! It was a great lesson with some good laughs.

Saturday slowed down a bit, as our planned lessons fell through. So, we set up a last minute lesson with Alquilino and his family. When we got to his house, Maicon, who is a counselor in the Bishopric, and his whole family happened to be there as well! Holy cow! We can't believe how many family connections Alquilino and his wife Jessica have to church members! Our lesson was kind of like a Family Home Evening, which was so great! Then they made a fire in the park across the street. Overall it was a great night!

On Sunday José made it to church! Unfortunately his girlfriend Anailys was working, so she wasn't able to come. But it was great to talk to José after the meeting. We talked about fasting and the blessings that can come from doing that. In the afternoon we had a Stake Report online meeting with Mission President Hirschi, Stake President Predro, and all the missionaries in the Stake, which is my district. It went well. Then later we had a meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader of the Guarará Ward. It's a new calling for him, so we brainstormed and gave him some ideas for some mission based activities we could do to get ward members to share the gospel with their friends.

P-day! Today should be a pretty normal p-day. We were finally able to set up a family home evening with Juliana and Cleiton, which is planned for later tonight! I'll have some details about that next week!

Hope yall have a great week, cheers!

Love, Elder Bird

-All the zones in the mission (pics from last Zone Conference)

-Us with Anderson!

-Me in front of the church!

-This must be some kind of copyright infringement-haha (SpongeBob and Patrick as missionaries)

-Saturday night's fire in the park

-video call with my parents

Mais Uma

7/19/2021

Hey all! This week was probably one of the most challenging and most rewarding weeks of my mission so far, and I'm always excited that I get to share a small portion of my experiences with you all every week.

On Wednesday we were so busy we barely had time to do our studies! We started off with our district council meeting, and then in the afternoon we had one more lesson with Valter. We talked about some of the commandments! Then in the evening we were able to do a church tour with Ataildo, which was amazing! He is so hungry to learn more and willing to do what the Lord asks of us. At the end of the tour we gave him a Book of Mormon. He expressed so much excitement to read it and learn more about finding lasting happiness rather than what he's experienced of temporal indulgences. I'm grateful to be part of his spiritual journey!

On Thursday we were able to meet a couple of our friends, José and his girlfriend Anailys, at the church building. Turned out that Bishop Zanini was there doing an interview, so it worked out perfectly for them to meet each other. They talked for a bit, and then we were able to give Anailys a priesthood blessing. It was good to see them again after a couple weeks without meeting. After they left, we stayed for a ward correlation meeting in which we shared an idea about an activity we could do to get the ward more active and involved in missionary work. We'll see where it goes!

Friday was awesome! An Irmã [Sister] in the ward asked us to help teach the lessons to her 8 year-old son to help prepare him for baptism, so we had our first lesson with him. After that, we got a request to dedicate a restaurant, because apparently they were seeing some weird stuff going on. But that was cool, to say that prayer for the woman, asking that the building could be a place for the Spirit to reside. In the evening, we had the opportunity to go over to Alquilino's house again and just sit, listen, and talk with him. It's super good to just listen sometimes. It was a really good night.

Saturday was mostly just a lot of contacting people and then we had a couple of member lessons. That is where we meet with people who are already members and share a spiritual thought with them. It helps us to know the members of the wards better. (Same for Tuesday btw)

Sunday. What a day. I cannot describe in detail what I felt today, both negative and positive, so I'll just give the events that occurred, surface-level. The day started out with church, and we were excited to have Ataildo come and see Elder Boize give a talk in the Guarará ward. But, he ended up not coming which was disappointing. After lunch, there was some confusion about who we had a lesson with in the afternoon. With the language barrier, I just could not understand what was going on, and Elder Boize got frustrated with me, and I was being impatient with myself and with him. It was just a mess. After some time we figured it out and went to have the lesson, which actually turned out to be pretty good.

That evening we went to visit Alquilino again, and we had the most amazing, heartfelt conversation with him. He talked for a while about various different things, but the things he said ended up answering pretty much every part of our day, if that makes sense. He told us a couple spiritual experiences he's had in his life, and said he felt like we were the only people he felt comfortable talking to about religious stuff. Then he told us that we were different than all the other missionaries he's ever known, that we carry the Spirit with us stronger than anyone he's met before. That made me feel so good. I can't explain everything we talked about or all the things he said, but it was very humbling, especially for me. It was pretty cool how we were all inspired by the Spirit to know exactly what to say, and that it was what each of us needed to hear that night.

Monday, transfers! Nothing will change for me - haha. Looks like I'll be able to finish off Elder Boize's training in this area, and that I will continue to be able to meet with Alquilino and the rest of our investigators.

Hey again, thanks for sticking with me and supporting me, I really appreciate all of the kind words, spiritual thoughts, and generally anything that I receive from y'all - haha. But hope you have a great week, like mine was!

Love,

Elder Bird

-Nice view looking west, from the hill on the east of our apartment

-Majestic roadside-field horse

-Goat/pig combo taking to the streets

-Looks like rocks, but actually is chocolate

-P-day hijinks

Encontrando Propósito

7/12/2021

Hey everyone! It's been a really good week here, lots of humbling myself and forgetting myself in the work.

I had a really touching experience with my companion Elder Boize this week that kind of opened my eyes a bit. It really helped me double down my focus on where I am, where I'm supposed to be, and how I can fulfill my responsibilities as a district leader and trainer for my companion. In mission slang, the relationship between a trainer and his trainee is referred to paternally, i.e. Elder Boize would be my mission "son." I usually would rather use proper, non-slang terms like trainer and trainee, but I discovered that me being Elder Boize's "father" actually caries a lot of meaning. He's had a pretty rough go during his first transfer in the field, and I feel blessed, honored, and humbled that the Lord has chosen me to be his support, his anchor, his companion, his "dad."

This week was filled to the brim with lessons, a huge blessing. We came up with an idea to go through all of the names of members of the Church in our areabook to set up some lessons. We ended up meeting some really awesome people who are less active or inactive in the Church. We also finally got in touch with Igor, a referral passed to us by Bishop Zanini, who originally asked for a priesthood blessing. Well it turns out he's actually a member who has been inactive for a long time as well. All in all, Elder Boize and I have been finding purpose here in our area, despite difficulties in finding new investigators to teach. We are helping these less active members recognize that they are loved, by us, by those around them, and most importantly, by God.

Alright that's it for this week. A lot more stuff happened, but I felt it would be better to keep this one shorter. We're heading into the last week of the transfer here. Not expecting any changes in our companionship, but we'll see what happens. Thanks for reading, and hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Bird

-Stopped on this staircase again on our walk home after we helped someone in the ward move

-A member gave us these gift bags!! Awesome!!!

-Last week at the emergency room waiting for Elder Boize to come out (don't worry he's fine, just an infection)

Fim de Semana de Aniversários

7/6/2021

Hey! Happy 4th!!

On Tuesday we received a referral for a guy named Artur (sans 'h') and ended up having a really spiritual lesson with him over a video call. He was so humble and willing to learn. He told us later that the scripture we shared with him that night, about faith, was exactly what he needed to hear. Really cool.

Our district council meeting was moved to Wednesday because we had interviews with President and Sister Hirschi! Interviews are always so great, a real kick in the motivation, and this one was no different. They pull people from our meeting while district council is going on, and so it was like a double whammy in terms of the spirit.

Thursday morning we had a training about making your companion your best friend by Elder Koplin from the missionary department (I think). He didn't speak any Portuguese, so one of the APs translated for him. It was a good reminder that I'm literally functioning in a different country and with a different language. Huh, pretty cool. The training was good as well! Elder Boize and I are going to make some more time to play games together (like chess) and talk more, which will really boost our friendship!

In the afternoon we had some free time and noticed the church hasn't been getting cleaned regularly with the rise of church attendance after the pandemic. So, we spent a couple of hours sweeping and mopping the chapel, the bathrooms, and a few other major rooms of the church building. It was a good service project!

Friday was kind of a slow day, but good nonetheless. We've been going to the church more often when we have slow times, and I've noticed a difference in my attitude. I just feel better when we spend time there instead of spending time at our apartment. Friday was also Sister Hirschi's birthday, so we recorded a little video of us singing "Parabéns pra Você" [Happy Birthday] and sent it to her, which she really liked.

Saturday was my wonderful Mom's birthday!! I was able to call home and have a quick chat with her to wish her a Happy Birthday! In the afternoon, we had a really good lesson with Valter. We talked with him about the principle of baptism and he said he would pray for an answer to setting a baptismal date and whether or not Joseph Smith was really a prophet. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and already feels the spirit really strong when he reads. We have no doubt that he will be able to recognize the answer he receives about Joseph Smith and baptism!

Sunday was July 4th! How fun! We didn't really do anything to celebrate though because this is Brazil - haha. But it was also Elder Boize's birthday! How awesome! Unfortunately all of our lessons we had planned for the day fell through, and Elder Boize was in some pain - his nose was hurting him. Kind of a bummer of a birthday, but we'll make it up this week by buying him a cake or something.

Like I said, all of our lessons fell through, which included going to Gabrielle's house and talking to her parents about her baptism. Her dad had to work. BUT, we invited her to write a letter to herself containing her testimony and why she really wants to be baptized. We asked her to show it to her parents and try to help them understand how she truly feels about this important step in her life.

Today, p-day, was pretty chill, we didn't hang out with the district or anything, just chilled at the church, played some ping pong, and talked with our families. In the evening after our Mission Huddle (a brief Zoom call with the whole mission), we talked to Sister Hirschi and then walked to the emergency room for Elder Boize's pain. Which is where I am sitting right now writing this email - haha.

Valter and Gabrielle are two of the people we're teaching that are most progressing in the gospel right now, and they both have so much potential! I'm excited to see how these next few weeks play out. We have faith that everything will work out with them!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bird

-Brazilian hotdogs, yum!

-On our way to clean the chapel, (also, my shirt commemorating US Independence Day!)

Atitude de Gratidão

6/28/2021

Hey y'all, another great week here in Santo André! (My subject line doesn't rhyme too well in Portuguese, but it does in English - haha.) Had a lot of ups and a couple downs throughout the week, but I'm choosing to focus on the ups and see how my attitude changes!

We started off the week great on Tuesday with a service project in the 4th ward. One of the members there has a little store where he sells some bits and bobs, and some pieces of furniture. The Sister missionaries who cover that ward asked us and the ZLs to come and help them move and arrange some of the items for him, and clean and organize the store a bit. It was pretty fun to do some service after a bit of a hiatus, and he bought us all snacks and lunch!

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference, woohoo!! It was Elder Boize's first zone conference in the mission, and it was great to see everyone in the zone. I saw Elder França there, my old companion, and I talked to an American who had just arrived, and thought his Portuguese was already good. Anyway, I had the opportunity to play the piano during the conference, which was really fun because I finally learned how to play the Missão São Paulo Sul Mission Hymn for the meeting. All the trainings were inspiring and in the middle they provided pizza for lunch! President and Sister Hirschi love to give out chocolate bars (Hershey's of course) for birthdays within the last transfer and for other things they ask missionaries to do in between conferences, so I ended up with two! What a treat!

We talked with Valter again on Thursday. He invited us in and we talked about the whole Plan of Salvation with him. We spent almost 2 hours talking about all the points, and he was really into it. He also mentioned that he actually stopped drinking coffee, which was unexpected! He's making great progress and it's really cool to see the Spirit being manifested in him.

Friday was a big day with our lesson with Gabriele. We asked if her parents were okay with her getting baptized, and she said they had some doubts about if she's old enough to get baptized yet. But she talked it through with them and we are still going try to shoot for an official baptismal date. For the lesson, we talked about all of the commandments with her, and the importance and blessings of each one. She was really interested and good with it all. She even asked for a list of scriptures to go along with each one, so she could do a bit more studying on her own! What a champ!

On Saturday we had another lesson planned with Edilene, the one who lives straight up the mountain, but it ended up falling through. However, we received a couple of pretty solid referrals, one from the Areabook and another from the Sister missionaries.

Sunday morning we had a bit of a sickness scare. I woke up in the morning with a sore throat, but didn't really think much of it because that happens sometimes when I wake up. But today I had a runny nose as well. And here's the kicker, I took a cough drop to ease the sore throat and I didn't taste the flavor at all and barely noticed the menthol feeling. I checked the bag and they weren't supposed to expire for another year. Obviously a bit strange, no? I was thinking it might be Round II of Covid. So I texted Sister Hirschi my symptoms and they said we would have to stay at home until we could get a Covid test. We ended up missing our Sacrament meetings, but then the mission office called us an Uber to go to a nearby pharmacy. There they had a rapid Covid test where we could get the results in just a few minutes. It turned out that both of us tested negative, which was a huge relief, and we were able to avoid the 10-day quarantine. Then we let all of our people know that we were fine.

Today for p-day we got to go bowling with most of our district. It was super fun!

Alright, that's all for this week! Hope you guys are doing great wherever you are, and focusing on what you're grateful for! I really saw a difference this week as I shifted my own perspective.

Love you all!

Elder Bird

-Elder Boize and me at the church for Zone Conference

-Our Zone

-Our District

-It is getting cold here heading into Winter - super foggy day

-Elder Boize and me at the mall on P-day

De Casa em Casa

6/21/2021

We got word this week that we are now allowed to go into people's homes if people invite us in or we have pre-planned lessons. So things have been picking up around here!

On Tuesday we had a Mission Leadership Counsel meeting, in-person, with just our zone, which included the District Leaders and their companions. It was a great, very spiritually uplifting meeting about how we can better work with our members. President Hirschi wants every companionship to set a goal to have lessons with 6 members/families every single day. We are supposed to ask for referrals from the members and to build up trust with them, in order to boost the amount of solid people who are really looking to change their lives for the better. He also asked us to not do Facebook contacting this week to see how our in person teaching improves. It was a pretty interesting meeting.

In the evening, Bishop Zanini of the 5th ward sent us the contact info of a man named José who was looking for some help in his life. We ended up meeting with him and his wife Analice that night at the church building to talk more. We had to opportunity as well, to give them both priesthood blessings of comfort and counsel. We left them with our testimonies of the power of faith and how it can give each of us the strength to push past the difficulties and challenges we face in our lives. It was an amazing lesson and we all felt the spirit really strong. We set up a day to meet with them again, next week at the same time.

Wednesday started off great with an amazing district council meeting, but then we had a couple of hiccups throughout the rest of the day. After the meeting. we realized that the member who was providing us lunch lived pretty far away from our apartment. I suggested we try taking a different bus home that would pass by her house on the way back to our terminal, or so I thought. It's the same bus we usually take to get to district council, and I thought it would just do a big loop and bring us back home, but it turned out not to do that. There was a final stop that was even farther away from home than where we started. Sooo Embarrassing! Elder Boize and I shared a quick laugh about it, but it put me in a not-so-great mood for the rest of the day. To get where we needed to be, I called my mission office secretary buddy and he called an Uber for us. We had to spend a bit more time and money on travel than we planned on, but that's okay. Then, on the long walk home from the member's house, we got splashed with mud by a car passing by. It's funny now, looking back at it, but in the moment, it worsened my mood. I was stuck in this mindset of "everything is going wrong today."

I was wondering how such a bad day (or so it seemed to me in that moment) could start off with such a spiritually rich district council meeting in the morning. To feel better, I started to read the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" booklet to help me deal with the anxiety I was feeling. I was thinking about my inability to say exactly what I mean and to understand people to the fullest extent, and then something caught my attention. It said, "Let go of what you cannot control (things like the past, the culture, your own limitations) and focus on things you can do something about, such as your behavior, your current choices, and your attitude." I realized then that I hadn't really been in good control of my attitude during the afternoon. I'm learning more and more here in Brazil what it means to truly put my trust in the One who is in control. With this in mind, I pushed forward through some lessons I was still a bit anxious over, and we ended up finishing the day where we had started, with the Spirit in our midst.

On Thursday we did a lot of traveling. In the morning, we had the chance to deliver a copy of the Book of Mormon to a person we are teaching named Valter. He invited us in to talk a bit about it. He told us he had done some "reading up" about some things we believe, so we had a good chat about the Word of Wisdom. We were able to bring the conversation back to the pattern of prophets in the lives of the God's children and the Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He told us he would read and pray about whether it was a good thing for his life, so everything turned out well.

Next up we walked from Valter's apartment to pick up lunch from a member. She invited us and we were able to share a quick message with her. This was the first time in a while since I'd been able to do an in person member lesson.

In the afternoon we were supposed to visit with a person who was referred to us and who we had set up a lesson with. But, it ended up falling through. Although we were sad to have a lesson fall through, her house was really far away, like a 30 minute walk from our place, and in a bit of a sketchy area, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

In the evening we had the opportunity to visit with a less active young man named Luis in the Guarará ward. He lives way down south in the Parque Miami/Vila Riviera area by the reservoir and the damn. So we took the bus to get there and had a great lesson with Luis and his friend Luan, an active member in the ward. We talked about the scripture reading from this week's "Come, Follow Me" Sunday School, and then invited Luis to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to a friend with an explanation of what it means to him in his life. Elder Boize was really good at being friendly with them (probably because he speaks Portuguese) and they were close to our age, so I think we made a good connection with them both, Luis and Luan.

On Friday after lunch and the EnglishConnect class for Elder Boize, we started our first exchange of this transfer, with the ZLs. I went with Elder Silva to their area, while Elder Larson stayed in our area with Elder Boize. While there, I was able to do a baptismal interview for a person they were teaching named Paulo. Everything went great with his interview, and he is ready. I'm excited for him, to be dressed in all white, for his baptism on Sunday. I won't be able to be there in person, but it's tradition for us to share pictures of our baptisms every week in our WhatsApp mission group chat, with their permission of course. Afterwards, we went back to the apartment and ordered a pizza to celebrate.

On Saturday we got up nice and early (the usual time-haha) to get ready and switch back companions for another successful day of missionary work.

The lesson that fell through on Thursday, was with a referral named Edilene, and we were able to teach her on this day. She lives on the border of the city to the south, the last road before it turns into a park/nature preserve, and straight up the mountain. Her house was in a favela [hood] but, we made it there after a while of hiking up the road. She nicely invited us in for the message we wanted to share with her. We taught her a few different things and she shared with us a bit about her life there. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited her to read about when Jesus appears to the people in the Americas. She seemed very excited to read and learn more. It was a great lesson, and she said she'll have some other family members over the next time we come to teach. Hurray!

Sunday-- Happy Father's Day!!!

We started our day off with our normal church meetings and Elder Boize gave a great talk during the 5th ward's sacrament meeting. In the Guarará ward, Marina brought her friend Gabriele again, and we followed up on the things we talked about in our video call lesson earlier in the week. She is really close to accepting a baptismal date, we just need to make sure her parents are aware that she is looking into the Church and that it is okay with them.

We had a couple lessons planned for the late afternoon, one by phone and the other in person, but they both fell through. Oh well. At least we got a good walk out of it. It's always so much better to be out of the apartment and seeing people on the street and getting some exercise.

In the evening, I was able to call my parents and wish my dad a Feliz Dia dos Pais! So grateful for my dad and everything he's taught me over the years.

Today for p-day, the ZLs organized a barbecue for our district and a couple of other missionaries. It was super fun! We bought some meat to grill up and then met at the chapel across the street from the ZL's apartment. We got there a bit early, so we helped set up and got the grill all fired up.

When the Sister missionaries arrived, they had a new American Sister with them, who must have just arrived on Saturday! How exciting!! Always good to see more Americans having the chance to come back to Brazil! Also, super nice to have another person I can talk to and relate to. Anyways, Elder Silva started grilling and we got a game of Uno going, and everyone was laughing and having a great time. It's been so long since I've had such a rejuvenating p-day like this one, and it was really amazing to feel like I was hanging out with friends again. We'll have to see if we can do stuff like this more often.

Hey all, I know it this was a really long one, so thanks for sticking with me! Overall it was an amazing week here and I can't wait to get started with this next week! We already have lots of lessons, and plans, and service projects set up. Plus we have Zone Conference! Super exciting to be getting back into the mission groove of things, and I just know my time here is gonna fly by with how busy we're becoming again. I'm trying to do my best to make the most of it by fulfilling my missionary purpose of helping others come unto Christ.

Love you all,

Elder Bird

-Elder Boize and I in front of the church, new profile picture for WhatsApp

-In front of a little park on the way from Valter's house

-Celebration Pizza with Elder S. Silva

-Me on a tall ledge overlooking a favela [poorer community]

-Crazy horse casually walking down the city street

-Me in front of the nighttime lights of our area - our street at night

Surtos de Ocupação

6/14/2021

Hey my people! Sorry for not getting an update out last week, it was a crazy p-day with transfers happening. I ended up spending the day with the APs [assistants to the President] because my new companion wasn't arriving until the next day. But, I will recount a couple of things during the week leading up to it.

So two weeks ago I left off with the account of Elder Vivanco coming to be in our companionship for a while. As it turned out, after talking to various counselors, President Hirschi, and his parents, Elder Vivanco decided to return back home, after only just a couple of weeks here in Brazil. He let Elder França and me know Monday night that he would be leaving us on Thursday to stay with the mission office secretaries, and then flying home on Friday. From a few of the conversations I had with him, it seemed like he's never really seen extreme cases of poverty up close before, and I guess he wasn't prepared for the reality of some rash decisions people choose to make in desperate situations. It was sad to see him leave the mission knowing he'd be missing out on a lot of personal and spiritual growth and development, but ultimately it was his decision to make and I know all things happen for a reason (see 2 Nephi 2:24).

Speed round:

-Tuesday was the last District Council meeting of that transfer, the Sisters made a cake to celebrate.

-Wednesday, we helped teach part of a seminary class online and Marina brought Gabriella again. It was a great lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel.

-Thursday we left early in the morning to take Elder Vivanco to the Mission Office and then returned to our area, just the two of us again.

On Sunday we received news about the upcoming transfer. In the morning we got a text from the APs saying that Elder França would be leaving our area for another area in our zone. This caught us somewhat by surprise because we thought I would be the one leaving because I've had more time here. Then in the evening President Hirschi called and asked me if I would be willing to train a new missionary. That was pretty exciting! He said my new trainee was Brazilian and knew no English, so even more opportunities to improve my Portuguese was coming. Then he told Elder França which area he would now be serving in. He said he would decide how he wanted us to move the next day - Monday morning.

Last Monday (p-day) we got the apartment all cleaned up and ready for the new guy, and Elder França ready to head out to his new area in Mauá. We got a call from the APs in the afternoon saying how our part of the transfer would go. I would go with Elder França to drop him off to his new area and with his new companion (turns out it's Elder Pontius from my MTC group), then go with Elder Pontius' old companion to another missionary house. Then from there I was to get an Uber and go to the Mission Office where I stayed with one of the APs, Elder Erickson, until about 9pm when transfers were over. It wasn't until then that I could call my family for quick chat and then we headed back to the APs house. The reason for all this was because my trainee wasn't arriving until Tuesday and as missionaries we need to be in a companionship or with other Elders. Also, it helped that I was close to the office for when my new companion arrived.

Tuesday morning, I woke up with the APs and a couple other missionaries who were finishing their missions who had flights home. We had a normal morning of exercise/stretching and personal study, and then an Uber picked me and the APs up. We headed back to the Mission Office where I waited for my trainee to arrive. So, I had plenty of time to document the happenings of the previous week.

Turns out I would stay there at the office for the whole day, because my new companion's flight got changed. He finally arrived around 6pm and we met, and I learned his name is Elder Boize. President Hirschi then took us in his car to the mission home where Sister Hirschi made a lovely dinner for the four of us. After dinner, each of us shared our testimonies, which was a very spiritual moment for me. It had been a while since I felt the Spirit so strongly. After testimonies and a couple of quick pictures, it was back to the office for a couple of short trainings from the APs. By this time it was already about 9:30pm, and the APs were having some trouble finding an Uber that could fit both of us and Elder Boize's luggage, or that would accept the long drive back to our area, so we ended up splitting up. I went with Elder Erickson to stay the night in the AP's apartment once again, and Elder Antônio, the other AP, stayed the night in the secretaries' apartment (which is right next to the Mission office) with Elder Boize and his suitcases.

Wednesday morning we woke up, joined the Zoom call for our morning mission leadership prayer, and then I finally got to go back to my own area with my novinho [brand-new] trainee, Elder Boize. It turned out to be one of the most busy days on the mission in Brazil so far, which was really interesting. We had a ton of meetings, with the mission, with leadership, with the ward leaders, with the Stake presidency, and also three member lessons and weekly planning sprinkled in.

Thursday was our district council meeting which was pushed because of transfers on Monday and Tuesday. Right after our meeting, the Sister missionaries had a referral for us. His name was Valter and we had a lesson together so they could introduce us to him. We get to teach him because he lives in our area not theirs. We stayed at the church building with the ZLs (Zone Leaders) and the other set of sisters, to join another mission leadership call. After our meetings, we finally got back to our area, and went to the bank and to the store to buy some much needed breakfast and dinner foods. In the evening, we had some good text conversations with some of the people we are currently teaching.

Friday was much more relaxed and the first full day spent entirely in our own area. We didn't have so many meetings. Something kind of funny happened as we were going through our area book, contacting some of the people who were taught or had talked to the missionaries in the past. One woman we sent a message to said to us, "Hey you guys disappeared, what happened?" After we responded, she said, "I'm already looking to get baptized." Elder Boize and I looked at each other in excitement and I was thinking, "Wow I'm finally being blessed for all the hard work I've been putting in." So we took a screenshot of the conversation and sent it to our district chat with the caption, "Aqui só milagres," which means "Only miracles here." After some congratulations from the district and trying to set up a lesson with the woman, she told us, "Well, I can't do a lesson tomorrow because I have something at another church I'm getting baptized in." Dun dun dun! Hahahaha! We spoke way too soon on that one. We're still gonna try and keep in contact with her though, and teach her about the Priesthood and proper authority. And hey, now Elder Boize and I have our first inside joke, Aqui só milagres! Haha

On Sunday, we had a great couple of first-Sunday-of-the-mission sacrament meetings for Elder Boize. He was even asked to give a talk next week in the 5th ward, haha. Classic! Other than that, just business as usual, lots and lots and lots of contacting.

Well that oughta do it for the past two weeks. Thanks for sticking with me and reading to the end (which if you're reading this, means you probably did that, yay!). It was great to feel busy again for that short burst of time around the transfer, if not a slightly bit overwhelming, after a while of not having too much to do. But I'm yet very happy to be here, improving my Portuguese day by day, doing my part by having no fear and just opening my mouth to share what I know to be true.

Love you all. The support you have given me is so much appreciated. Catch y'all next week!

Elder Bird

-Elder Boize with President and Sister Hirschi

-Elder Boize and I at the mission home x2

-Door of the mission office, with the mission logo!

-The state of São Paulo is trying to have everyone vaccinated by September. Only three months away, exciting!

Novos Desenvolvimentos

5/31/2021

Hey all you people, hey all you people, hey all you people won't you listen to meeee! Alright now that we've gotten that obscure reference out of the way, let's get on with this weeks happenings!

On Wednesday, an older member of the Guarará ward was looking for some help with her English grammar for a test she's about to take, and asked me to go over a review sheet she had been given. So we gave her a call and talked through a couple of the questions she had doubts about. It felt good to be able to help her out, using my unique talent (at least here in Brazil) of being able to speak fluent English, and to be proficient enough in Portuguese to understand and resolve her concerns.

We are working a lot with the members here and helping them become more active in the church, and also with sharing what they know with the people around them. On Friday, we were invited to the home of a member of the 5th ward (which was great, because we're only allowed to go to people's homes if they explicitly invite us). He is a math professor at a university (I'm not sure where haha). He had a big, really energetic dog that was jumping around all over the place, it was kind of funny. The member was finally able to get his dog into another room and shut the door, and then we had a chance to visit with him for a bit. It was a good chat.

Saturday is when things got a bit interesting. In the morning, President Hirschi called us and asked how many beds we had in our apartment. We told him that we have two beds, but three mattresses. Then he told us there was an Elder who arrived last week, Elder Vivanco, that was having a bit of trouble adjusting to Brazil in his other area. President was looking for a place Elder Vivanco would feel a bit more comfortable, and then said he would get back to us after making a few more calls. Later that night, the mission office called an Uber for us to go and pick up Elder Vivanco from his area, which was on the far west side of the mission, so it was about a 45 minute drive both ways.

When we arrived, I started to understand what Elder Vivanco was feeling. This was a pretty rough part of town, and especially where their house was located it was super sketchy. As we drove back to our area, Elder Vivanco talked the whole way, relishing the opportunity to speak in English, after feeling a bit trapped with his Brazilian companions. He started his mission in the Denver Colorado South Mission, serving there for about a year, and was just transferred to Brazil. He only knew a tiny bit of Portuguese from his "at home" MTC training. Then he shared what his experiences were in this scary part of town, having only been there for just a week. I won't go into detail, but I can say the things he was telling me were really bad. I think it was good for him to get it all out, and I hope I can help him work through it, even if just a little bit. Well, when we got home it was pretty much bed time, so we showered up and I took the floor mattress. Funny to think how the dynamics of the mission and a companionship can change so quickly. When we woke up this morning, Elder França and I had no idea such a change would happen. But, we think it is an excellent addition to our companionship and we hope to be able to help him get better adjusted. We're not sure exactly how long it will be the three of us, but we're happy to be here. Transfers are next week, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading, hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Bird

--Elder França, Elder Vivanco, and me

Semana de Aniversário

5/24/2021

Hey y'all, it was a great birthday week here for me!! I want to send a big "thank you" to all those who were thinking of me and sent a message or an email. It was very much appreciated!

On Tuesday we called the wedding office in Diadema for Juliana (Cleiton's girlfriend) and related all the things they told us back to her. We are trying to help them get their marriage down on paper, so that Cleiton can get baptized! Juliana has been the one leading the charge in finishing up this whole process, but understandable because Cleiton works a lot.

Tuesday night was our final lesson with Isabella before her baptismal interview on Thursday!! It's been so much fun teaching her all about the Gospel and seeing her progress through the lessons with a clear knowledge that this is right.

On Wednesday, we had our district council meeting in conjunction with interviews with President and Sister Hirschi. The APs were also there to give a bit of a training. After our meeting finished, everyone gathered around me and sang the Brazilian Happy Birthday song to me! It was super nice!

On Thursday we started our exchange with the ZLs, where Elder Silva came and stayed in our area with Elder França to do the interview for Isabella, and I went with Elder Larson back to their area. It was seriously sooo nice to have an American companion again, just for a little bit. Don't get me wrong, Elder França and I get along really well, but it's just that I'm not proficient enough in Portuguese to have long, deep, and profound conversations with Brazilians yet. So it was an awesome English exchange really getting to know Elder Larson and developing a friendship with him. He was English deprived too, so we talked and joked around a lot - haha.

On Friday we finished our exchange and went back with our regualer companions. Elder França and I made some final preparations for Isabella's baptism for the next day. Friday was also my actual Birth Day!! Pretty exciting, officially not a teenager anymore - haha. Apparently Isabella made a cake for my birthday, which was so sweet of her! Elder Silva and França brought some back to the house for me after her baptismal interview on Thursday. Then later Elder França and I got some birthday ice cream, and President and Sister Hirschi called to wish me a happy birthday. So nice! Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. Oh, I was able to call my parents in the evening as well, which was the cherry on top!

Saturday was baptism day! Elder França and I spent pretty much the whole day at the church building, filling up and heating the baptismal font, and then after, draining it. All of those take more than an hour to complete, respectively, and need to have someone in the building to check the progress. But the baptism itself was so amazing to be able to be a part of. They asked me to lead the music, so that was my contribution, and Isabella's dad was able to perform the baptism and the confirmation.

That's all for this week, hope it was a good read! See y'all next time!!

Amorão,

Elder Bird

-Sunday sweater gang

-We are heading into winter and it's getting foggy and super cold at night! Time for some double blanket action - haha

-Birthday ice cream

-Baptism pics!!

Video - District wishing me a happy birthday after District Council "

Click to view video

Conferência de Zona e Construção

5/17/2021

Hey everyone! Last week we had our first in person zone conference! But first, a couple other updates..

We taught Isabella twice this week, first about the Plan of Salvation, and then about the Word of Wisdom. Both lessons went great, and she is just so awesome at remembering everything we've taught so far. At the end of each lesson we've been doing reviews of previous principles. She seems to be ready for her baptism on Saturday and we are super excited for it!

We finished our visits with the people on our recent-move-ins list, and made some good connections to people who are wanting to come back to church! One big family came on Sunday and we talked with them for a bit and set up a lesson with them for later this coming week. It is with one of the sons and his family.

I finally got around to mending a few of my pants. Some of the seams had come undone in a few places. I also redid the hem on two pairs of my pants. Even though I'm a beginner, they all turned out pretty good, and I'm proud of myself for a task completed.

Zone conference for our zone was on Thursday. We were excited that it was going to be in person. We got to the church building around 9:30am for a 10am start and it went all the way until 4pm. Sister Hirschi spoke first about how some of the pillars of our mission (Christ-like attributes) will lead to the Miracle of Conversion for our investigators. Then President Hirschi talked about what we, and the people in our wards, need to do in order to become who the Lord wants us to be, and how we can better work together with our ward leadership. Afterwards, our financial secretary gave a brief presentation and then our STLs and ZLs did their trainings. It was about lunch time by then, which was provided by one of the Bishops. It was super good!

After lunch, we took a zone-wide picture outside, and then the APs gave some thoughts and did a roleplay training for everyone. At the close of the meeting, the Mission President had some final thoughts and we sang our mission hymn. Overall it was an amazing conference and now I'm super pumped to be getting back into the work!

Saturday was pretty fun, we got to help with some construction on a member's house in the Guarará ward. We worked a lot with cement: mixing, filling buckets, and handing them up to the people pouring it into a preset mold to harden and dry. We got ourselves covered from head to toe in cement, so went straight into the shower when we got back home.

On Sunday we were super sore from the service project. It was a good workout - haha. One of the young women asked us to give a little talk/presentation on an article from the Liahona magazine for a "2nd hour" meeting. It went super well and we took up all the time we were supposed to.

This upcoming week should be super great, with my birthday on Friday and Isabella's baptism on Saturday!! We are super excited!

Love you all, boa semana!!!

Elder Bird

-Pics from Zone Conference!! -The whole zone

-Elder França and I thumbs up

-The room set-up

-I got some packages and letters that took a while to get to me - haha

-Elder França and I quick selfie

-I couldn't snap a picture during the construction project because I didn't want the phone to get cement on it, but that night they ordered us a pizza as a thank you for coming to help out

-The poster for the Sunday night meeting we spoke in, "Super Heroes"

Noite Familiar

5/10/2021

Big howdy all you folks! Another blessed week has gone by here in Santo André.

Last week after P-day (P-day ends at 6pm, for those who didn't know), we were invited to join Family Home Evening by a member family in the Ala 5 ward, who had just recently moved into the ward. We were pretty excited to join in, but also a bit scared to be walking around their area at night. They live in one of the apartment buildings way up on the mountain to the east. But, we made it unscathed, and it was a real treat for us to be able to participate! One of the sons conducted and the other son gave a lesson about repentance. We basically just added a few comments here and there. It was so great being able to just hang out and visit for a bit in person. Then they ordered an Uber for us to get back to our apartment safe, which was super nice.

On Wednesday, we had to take a good part of our day to update our cell phone. I guess there is a new version of software that we had to get, so we did a factory reset on our phone and set it up completely new again. Since all of our work is dependent on our phone, we didn't really have anything to do for a couple hours. We recently heard from one of our bishops that the church building has a ping pong table that we didn't know about, so we pulled that out, and played a couple of games in the meantime.

On Friday, we taught Isabella about the Restoration of the Gospel, which includes prophets, apostles, the priesthood, and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Because she's a bit younger, we tried some more interactive methods of teaching of the principles, which seemed to work out great! She understood everything we talked about. The family even has the picture book that we used, so she could look at it more with her parents, who are going to help with some review. We were able to set a date for her to be baptized, so we're planning on May 22nd! We know that she'll be ready by then, after we teach each lesson and the ZLs do her baptismal interview. Super exciting!!

Throughout the week we have been making visits to people who have recently moved into the Ala 5 ward. So far, we've been able to talk to two families out of the few we've visited, and this is seriously the most I've felt like a missionary for my whole time here in Brazil. Being up on our feet out of our apartment, walking around our area, going to people's houses with a purpose in mind, and having really good conversations with those at home.

On the way home from one of our visits, a guy in a car waved for us to come over. We didn't recognize him but we went over, and he opened his car door and handed us two little blue pamphlets that said "For Mormons" on the front. Then the guy gave us a thumbs up and drove off - haha. Well I knew exactly what this pamphlet was, because I had seen some like it at our bus terminal, but those were "For Catholics" and "For Jehovah's Witnesses", so maybe this was the same guy who made those. They are pamphlets that discourage these religions. It had highlights a couple scriptures in the Bible and then does some mental gymnastics to say our church isn't biblical, but I gotta say, it wasn't very effective - haha. It was some of the same tired arguments I have seen hundreds of times before, and I could respond to each one if need be. Anyways, that was just a funny little experience from one of our journeys.

Yesterday during sacrament meeting for Ala 5, I was asked to give a short talk right before the meeting started. I was grateful to have a little something prepared to talk about from when we were asked a couple weeks ago. It went alright and I was able to get my points across.

Well that's pretty much it for this past week! Today we're heading over to Diadema area to get flu shots with our district.

Happy Mother's Day!! I hope everyone was able to do something nice for your Moms yesterday!!

Love you all! Until next week,

Elder Bird

-Photo taken from a part of our area we hadn't been to yet.

-"For Mormons," "Truths and Illustrations That a Mormon has to Know" lol

Dia do Trabalho Mudança

5/3/2021

Hey guys! It was a great first week of our transfer here!

I guess I forgot to mention last time that I stayed in my same area with Elder França in Ala 5 and Ala Guarará wards, which is what we were expecting because we're both still pretty new here. Not much else changed in our district either, except that Elder Barriga completed his service and went home. He was our Zone Leader, so we have a new one now, whose name is Elder Larson! He's from Florida! It is so relieving to have another American in the district, even if his Portuguese is way better than mine - haha. On Tuesday, he and his companion, Elder S. Silva, video called all the companionships within the zone to introduce themselves to all of us. I was glad we got to talk with them both for a bit.

On Wednesday, there was a training for all of the District Leaders. It was kind of horrendous because all of our cell phone data ran out really quickly, so throughout the zoom call there were a bunch of us getting randomly disconnected, including me. I was asked to be involved in a bit of a roleplay and of course I was disconnected and then reconnected right at that time. Luckily, after my reconnection, my phone lasted throughout the rest of our conversation, so that was good - haha.

I'm feeling so much better about my language skills now, especially after seeing other Americans have the same struggles as me, including those in leadership positions. A few more Americans have arrived with this past transfer and I'm grateful to see with my own eyes that I'm not alone. Even the new AP [Assistant to the President] is an American, still perfecting his idiomatic abilities. Anyways, it was a great DL training meeting that left me pumped and hyped for this transfer!

Wednesday night we were able to have a lesson in person, for the daughter of a member family who is wanting to get baptized! Her name is Isabella. We are going to move through the lessons very simply and quickly with her. Their family is already reading the Book of Mormon and praying together daily as a family, which is awesome!

Our District Council meeting was moved to Thursday because of the transfer and DL training. We met all together again in person (so great) and were able to set some goals for ourselves for this transfer, super exciting! It went much better than my last goal-setting segment - haha.

This week we've been in touch with Cleiton. He is one of our investigators who's basically already a member and is ready to be baptized, but is just waiting to get married to Juliana. On Saturday we helped them move to a different house (still in the Guarará ward) with a few other members of the ward. They moved to the same address as the family of Irmão Maicon, who's son was just baptized last week, so that's pretty cool! (I say "same address" because there is usually more than one house at each address, and this one has three.) At the house they were moving from, there was a stairway that was pretty narrow, so the decision was made to lower the two couches from the balcony with rope instead of going down the stairs. I was one of the ones holding the rope and got a bit of rope-burn on my hands, but better than a broken back I guess. At one point I also had a mattress thrown at me from the balcony by one of the members who is pretty funny. He's very outgoing and friendly, and he calls everyone inseto, which means bug - haha. Anyway, we were able to fit everything into the moving truck in two trips, which was nice, and got the whole thing done in about four hours. It felt super good to do some service again and to feel like we were being productive with our time.

On Sunday we had church again in person, and were able to attend the ward council meeting for Ala 5 later in the day. It is so nice to see everyone in person again. I'm beginning to understand so much more of what people are saying around me.

Thanks for reading, love you all! Until next next time!!

Elder Bird

-Some more pics from around our area - my apartment buildings

-Apparently April 30th was a national or international holiday, Day of the Pianist

Nível Laranja

4/26/2021

Hey everyone! The last week of this transfer is over, so this week I'm heading into another chapter of my mission. Exciting!

Restrictions here for Covid are getting a bit better day by day. We were actually allowed to gather together in person for our district council meeting this week, which was a huge blessing. It has been a long time since we have been able to see anyone else in person, and it was great for me to regain that energy, I usually get from being around lots of people.

A young woman from the Guarará ward reached out to us and asked us if we could help her answer some questions that her friend, who has been coming to seminary with her, has. What a great member missionary co-op opportunity! It was a great lesson with the two of them, and we were able to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of the Church. After we finished and said goodbye, Elder França described feeling like he was on fire with the spirit during the lesson, and I felt it strongly as well. Hopefully we can continue to develop that relationship!

Also this week, we had follow up lessons with Gilberto and his wife, Dijaneide, and also with Meire. We reviewed the things we taught last time and shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon with each of them respectively. We are trying to ease our way back into teaching Deuzi again, without being overbearing. She is still mourning the loss of a close family member, so we're being as loving and as understanding as possible. We had a lesson planned with Sérgio on Sunday, but he was out of the house when we tried to call so we'll have to try again. We have gone through our entire online Area book and tried to clean it up. There were hundreds of people we contacted and sorted into categories of "not interested," "unable to contact," and "too busy." Now we are looking through our physical ones left on a list from a long time ago when the Sister missionaries were still serving here.

On Thursday we helped clean the baptismal font for an upcoming baptism. A member of the Guarará ward has a son who just turned 8, so he is being baptized! We got it all nice and clean, and on Saturday filled it up for them. They invited us to stay for the baptism as well, which was a real treat to be able to feel that spirit once again. I love the feeling that comes during such a special ceremony of commitment to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Our in-person church meetings are back! We loved having the opportunity to see the members of each of our wards and to be able to feel the spirit again during sacrament. It's just a bit different from doing it for ourselves in our apartment, to have a special place to go and be with people you love, and to show your love for God. The Bishop of Ala 5 (the 5th ward) asked us missionaries to be backup speakers just in case the people he asked to speak, weren't able to show up. I prepared a little something, but luckily the intended speakers made it to church, and we were in the clear, at least for this week - haha.

Thanks for reading, that's my update for this week!

Love you all,

Elder Bird

Muitas Lições Muito Espirituais

4/19/2021

Hey everyone!

On Tuesday we were able to get out of the apartment for a bit and help a member of the ward, pack up who is moving to a different state. I had actually met him a year ago. He is an artist, and he used to sell personalized leather scripture cases outside of the São Paulo MTC. I bought a scripture case from him last March when I was in the MTC here. What a coincidence, that I am now serving in the ward he lives in, right? He also had a couple of really cool leather-worked pieces of art, framed around his house - like pictures of Jesus and whatnot. Super cool!

Our online Zone Conference went well. It was a two-hour zoom call, led by the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, training us on better technology use. President and Sister Hirschi talked with us as well. Along with conference, we had our interviews with President online also. He and I talked a bit about how my companionship is, how the district is doing, and stuff like that. Our stake is creating a new ward, which was announced in our Stake Conference last week, so we talked about which missionaries might cover that new ward.

In terms of people we are teaching, we currently are in contact with Deuzi, to whom we were able to deliver a Book of Mormon to, this week! She seems to be really excited to start reading it. She has a really hard trial over the weekend, so any prayers for her and her family would be much appreciated. We are also teaching a woman named Meire. In our lesson with her, she had such a vibrant smile, and Elder França and I felt the spirit very strong. We also started teaching a man named Gilberto, and his wife joined us today for our second lesson! We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them and they just seem so receptive! It's very exciting to be able to teach them all more.

We still do a lot of contacting via Facebook. We try to contact 50 people a day. I also am still doing a lot of language training every day.

That's all I got for this week. This upcoming week is our last week of the transfer (it was a short 5 week transfer), but we think we'll both stay here where we are. We'll know on Sunday, and then transfers are on Monday!

Have another great week wherever you may be!

Elder Bird

-Packing up the moving van

-The scripture case this same member made for me a year ago

-Our bathroom mirror has a crack in it - haha

-We were feeling luxurious one night and ordered some sushi!

Perspectivo Infinito, Eterno e Perfeito

4/12/2021

Hey everybody! I had a few really difficult moments this week, but each left me with a positive perspective as I sought for peace in my Savior.

First off, we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week, and I ended up staying in our area with Elder S. Silva. We met up with them at the bus terminal close to their area, o terminal Celso Daniel, and then traded companions for the next 24 hours. The whole bus ride back to our area I could barely understand a word he said. And he asked me so many questions I didn't have the vocabulary to answer. Just a bit frustrating. He was using the same words I was used to hearing meaning one thing to convey a completely different meaning. I was so frustrated at the end of the day that I kind of broke down in front of Elder Silva. We read together from the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" resource booklet, a real lifesaver in terms of missionary mental health, I must say. The rest of the night he showed me some alternate, more fun ways to learn the language, like acting out words to better picture them in my mind and to listen to some Brazilian worship music to get better at my listening skills.

I felt better the next day after we switched back to our regular companions. Also, I realized I could actually understand Elder Silva by the end of our exchange. Maybe I just needed to constantly be around someone I couldn't previously understand, to get used to a new way of speaking the same language. I also realized that I have only been in Brazil for two months, and I actually have accomplished so much in just this short time. Just that thought makes me excited for the nine or so months I have left of my mission.

We met a guy who is trying to get his life together. He has had some problems with drugs, but is trying to overcome it. He asked us to drop off a Book of Mormon to him, which was very exciting. The address he gave us was in one of the barrios and we spent like 3 hours trying to find it, but were eventually unsuccessful. It was quite confusing up there. Hopefully we will run into him again.

On Saturday, in a bit of a lull in our FB contacting efforts, I pulled out a game I had brought with me called Carcasonne, to play with Elder França. We didn't have enough space on any of our desks or tables to play, so we ended up on the floor. I guess I wasn't sitting in a very good position, because after we finished playing about 30-45 minutes later, I tried to get up and pain started shooting down my back. Luckily, I had brought my back brace with me that I picked up in Colorado Springs, after straining my back there one time. I also had some back pain medicine that I brought with me, but I still had to stay lying down on my bed for a bit. So many thoughtless functions of our bodies we take for granted. I restarted doing my back stretches and we fasted this weekend, both of which have helped me feel much better.

Something I've been thinking about this week is that there will always be trials and hardships our lives, that's kind of the point. But in our lowest moments, when everything seems out of our control, the one thing we can control is our mindset. We can either choose to remain stuck in our limited vision focusing on the negative, or look past our obstacles to see what could be in store for us ahead. Sometimes having a weakness or going through a trial teaches us strengths like compassion, empathy, patience, humility, and reliance on the Lord. God has the infinite, eternal, perfect perspective of all things that have and will come to pass, and I know that all things are done in His loving wisdom. As we seek for this perspective for our own lives, we can push past negative experiences and enjoy life as it is meant to be enjoyed.

This week we have online Zone Conference, sounds like fun! Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Bird

I took some Pictures of our area:

-Our bus station

-Our church building

-Our scenery

Curte de Cabelo Brasileirão

3/29/2021

Hey everybody! I'll just jump right in to the most interesting parts of the week.

I got my first haircut here in Brazil! (This being one of the most interesting things about my week should tell you something - haha) I studied the vocabulary for it ahead of time, and was able to explain what I wanted to the barber, which I felt was a great accomplishment for me. Sometimes it's the little things you've gotta celebrate.

Each night this week, the mission had a "huddle" (zoom get-together) for our "knowledge bowl!" It was pretty fun. The winner every night had a pizza sent to them by the mission President. We never won, but it was nice to play and see other missionaries every night.

General Conference this weekend was awesome, even though I could understood very little of it - haha! Elder França and I watched it at our church building because it had the much-needed wifi. I was able to understand most of the words of the speakers, but wasn't really able to catch the overarching significance of the messages, if that makes sense. So I plan on listening to all the talks in English and then again in Portuguese. Being able to read along with the speaker will really help me understand the concepts better.

I hope you all had a good Easter. I am so thankful for the knowledge I have that Jesus died for me and then was resurrected. And because of the atonement we have the opportunity to repent and can live with Him again. I'm thankful to be a missionary and will hopefully be able to share that message of hope with others.

Well, nothing very new planned for this week, except for an exchange with the Zone Leaders. We'll see how that goes. Hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Haircut looking fly

-A member was super nice and dropped off these chocolate Easter eggs! Also, you can kind of see our conference-watching set-up

-He has Risen!

Aprendi Muito

3/29/2021

Hey all!! It's been a hard, but really good week.

Thank you all for the prayers! The gift of tounges is real for sure, and I had some cool experiences with it this week. It wasn't nearly as bad or humiliating as I thought it would be. The District Council meeting (that I was in charge of) was a bit rocky in the goal setting portion, because I don't really know any of that vocabulary, but everyone was very supportive. I am much less stressed about the responsibilities of being DL now that I know exactly what I'm expected to do after a week of doing it.

My new companion is Elder França. He is from the northern part of Brazil called São Luís, in the State of Maranhão. He speaks only a little English, so it has been a great week of immersion for me and I feel like I've come further. He likes to walk instead of taking buses, so one day when we went to pick up lunch from a member who lived kind of far away, and we walked for an hour and a half to get there. Luckily, they were able to drive us home, so that saved us - haha! The good thing was that it was beautiful countryside that we were walking through. It was very pretty!

This week the mission is actually doing a competition of sorts in anticipation for Easter and General Conference! President Hirschi asked all the companionships to submit four questions (related to mission rules or scripture/doctrine) for a "knowledge bowl." Every day apparently will be a different focus or activity to prepare for a weekend of high spirituality. Very exciting!!

As for General Conference, hearing it in Portuguese will be a first for sure. I'm hoping I'll have improved enough in my listening skills to be able to understand anything being said - haha. If all else fails, I will be able to read the talks when the Liahona magazine comes out or when they are put up on Gospel Library. But I'm hoping I will be able to understand everything I'm supposed to, with the help of the Spirit and diligent preparation.

Hope you guys are excited about Conference! And hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Elder França and I

-Very pretty countryside on our walk to get lunch

-I love this picture of Jesus. I feel like it really depicts what it will be like after this life to see Him and embrace Him

Primeira Transferência Brasileira

3/22/2021

O que se passa meus amigos? [What is up my friends?]

Whelp, today we have transfers here in São Paulo Sul, which means it's time for me to say goodbye to Elder Capello, as he has completed his mission and returns home to Londrina. Our last week together was pretty normal (normal meaning sitting in our apartment all day), but with him packing and me jamming on the uke. On Saturday though we stopped by outside a member's house, so he could say goodbye to a family we are really close with.

The only lesson we were able to have this week was with Daniela, which we did over a video call with the sister missionaries. It was a great lesson, but the sisters had to carry most of it because a couple of things went crazy in our apartment, haha. First Elder Capello got a bloody nose, which he was able to stop surprisingly quick, and then our sink started over flowing. It was the sink that our washing machine drains into and there was a rag clogging it, so it was overflowing like crazy. We unclogged it pretty quick, but there was water all over our kitchen floor, which we cleaned up after the lesson. Fun stuff.

The real interesting part of the week was yesterday, Sunday. After we picked up and ate lunch. Elder Capello gathered all his things and we headed over to the ZLs apartment to stay the night. This made it easier for travel arrangements the next day because Elder Candido was going home too. Later, we got a call from President Hirschi, who said he wanted to talk to me. Maybe you can see where this is going. . .

Well, after some light banter, President Hirschi said he wanted to appoint me as the new District Leader in Santo André. I was a bit shocked and I don't feel prepared at all with the language, but I accepted after a bit of convincing. I do have experience being a DL from my previous assignments in the Colorado Springs Mission, but this will be a whole new expierence. I still can't even understand what people are saying when they're talking to me. But, now more than ever, I really need to understand what's going on and give council to the missionaries in my district here. I'm not excited to test my district's patience with me, but I do know that this will at least force me to get better with listening and comprehension skills in Portuguese. I'm anticipating this will be one of my hardest transfers of my mission. Please pray for me!

Later in the evening, the APs called the ZLs to give them the information for each missionary in the zone for the transfer. Then the ZLs hosted a zoom meeting for the whole zone to relay the info to all the missionaries! It's different from the transfer sheet they used in the Springs, but kind of cool! Turns out my new companion will be Elder França. I heard he doesn't know any English, which is probably better for learning the language anyway.

I'm currently staying with Elder Barriga, waiting to meet my companion later today (Monday). Wish me luck for the weeks ahead!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Pics:

-American Flag and Brazilian Flag on Rubiks cube

-Lightning storm came through

Estado de Emergência...

3/15/2021

Hey everyone!

This week the state of São Paulo declared a state of emergency due to the rising number of Covid cases in the state. This resulted in us having a lot more restrictions placed on us as citizens of São Paulo and as missionaries. Basically it is a "stay at home" order unless it is essential for you to go out. So, no more church meetings or other missionary meetings in person. Our district council meeting was a video call and church was an at-home Sacrament meeting.

This has given us a lot of extra time at home, which has given me time to really reflect on my life and my mission so far. I am so thankful for my mission and had some personal revelation. I can see differences in myself. Before my mission I loved not having anything to do, but stay on my phone watching videos all the time. But, because of quarantines and Covid restrictions, my attitude has shifted now to longing to be with people and doing things that bring more lasting joy.

I have realized that I probably wouldn't have had this change of mindset without my mission and every experience I have had and will continue to have on my mission. Crazy how God knows His children so perfectly and gives us personal experiences we need to prepare us for so much more to come later in life. This is my second witness that I need to change the habits I had before my mission into more fulfilling pastimes, and give those old activities much, much less priority in my life. I've had a lot of time to think about how I can improve myself each day and live up to the divine potential I know my Heavenly Father sees in me.

Despite all of our restrictions, the work of the Lord doesn't stop, and the will of God cannot be altered. I have witnessed that this week, when we started teaching Daniela, who was a referral from some Sister missionaries in our district. We were able to have three lessons with her over video calls this week. She seems like she loves our calls and she even invited one of her relatives, Creusa, to join in our lesson on Sunday.

My language abilities are improving slowly, and I'm able to understand people better and better, especially during lessons. This is an undeniable miracle and I know that the Gift of Tongues is a real spiritual gift that I'm experiencing. I cannot deny the spiritual experiences I am having. I am staying positive and I hope you all are able to focus on the positive things through difficult times.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

- I tried a new Brazilian food this week called pastel! It's like a warm pastry but it's meat instead of crème.

-A weird VW van/truck thing we saw -haha

-The view from our 11th story apartment during a cloudy twilight - you can see our church steeple in one of the photos

Não muito a escrever esta vez...

3/8/2021

Hey everyone!

On Tuesday we had interviews with President and Sister Hirschi after district council meeting. That really made my week! It's not often that I get to see other Americans here, and it was so good to get yet another witness that I'm not alone in this language learning process. Sister Hirschi said she is struggling too. Both interviews were in English, which was a huge relief for me. I love them both dearly and I think they are doing great work here in this mission.

In terms of lessons, we had a pretty slow week. Usually we get around 1-3 media referrals a day, which means that these people went onto the comeuntochrist.com website and signed up to have the missionaries contact them. But, then a lot of them ghost us after texting back and forth for a bit. Also, there are a bit more restrictions here in Brazil due to the pandemic than back in the US, so we are trying to work around that.

That's pretty much all I have for this week. Until next time!

Boa semana!! [Good week!!]

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Guaraná Jesus - great logo, bad soda. New slogan for them haha!

-Got some pics as a district right before interviews

Nosso Celular Foi Roubado...

3/1/2021

Hey everyone, it's been an exciting week over here in Santo André!

On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference, and in preparation, Presidente Hirschi asked all of us to prepare a 5 minute talk on repentance and it's importance in our lives and in our teaching. He only called on some of us to share our talk, and of course he picked the two people in the zone who are learning Portuguese, me and Sister Watterson. So I guess that was my first real talk in my mission language, pretty dope. The rest of the conference was pretty standard. The ZLs (LZs em português -líderes da zona) [in Portugese it's LZ - leaders of the zone] talked about working with our ward leadership and helping them develop a ward mission plan and the Assistentes [AP assistants to the president] shared some spiritual thoughts. Sister Hirschi gave her talk in English (thank goodness) with a missionary translating to Portuguese, and finally Presidente was the last speaker. It was kind of nice because he has an American accent when he speaks, so I can understand his Portuguese better - haha. Anyways, it was nice to see a ton of people, and I actually recognized some missionaries who are still in the mission from last year, for the brief amount of time I was here before, so it was really cool to reconnect.

After zone conference, Elder Capello and I went straight into exchanges (24 hour exchanges in this mission) with the LZs. This was our second exchange with them. This time I went with Elder Candido back to their area, and Elders Capello and Barriga went to ours. Elder Candido and I had a really good lesson at the church building and then another one with a member over a video call, which ended about 9pm. When we were finished we heard the apartment phone ring, which means there's someone outside the building, and it turned out to be Elder Capello and Barriga. I didn't catch all of what they said at first because they were talking really fast, but I heard the words assaltados and celulares. Then Elder Capello explains to me that as they were walking back from a member's place, that we go to often, he and the Elder Barriga were robbed. They passed a couple guys and apparently one of them asked what time it was and when they turned around, it looked like the guy was holding a gun in his waistband. He took both of their phones. So, because Elder Capello and I no longer had a cell phone, we had to stay with the LZs for another day, while the mission office got a new one for us. This way we could stay in touch with our investigators and members.

In terms of people we are teaching, we are teaching a guy named Cleyton and his girlfriend, Juliana. Cleyton was planning on being baptized last week, but things didn't go through at the last minute. The two of them need to get married before they are baptized because they are living together (which is very common here.) They went to the marriage office, but they said that Cleyton and Juliana needed to update a few more things before they could get married. But, Cleyton is super ready and working towards going to the temple as well! Other than that, we are having lessons with a few more people, but trying to gauge their interest in really hearing more of our message.

Hoping for another great week, and wish me luck for interviews with Presidente and his wife!

Boa semana! [Have a good week!]

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Good view of my area - Santo André

-Played some futebol today for pday

Eita/Opa [slang for Hello]

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

A Chegada [The Arrival]

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

One Year Down, One More to Go...

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

Preparations Begin

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

Rollercoaster of Emotions

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

First Week in Rye

Monday 1/11/21

-Today we made the necessary preparations for our day tomorrow, mainly getting me all packed up, deep cleaning the cabin, signing the rest of transfer journals, and saying my last goodbyes to some of the members of the district who I won't see again.

-In the evening, we picked up dinner from the Haynies, then headed over to the Fisks' house to say goodbye to them. They have been amazing members, and they are always close with the missionaries because they are pretty recent converts (of a few years). I will miss them and the Calhan ward very much.

Tuesday 1/12/21

-TRANSFERS!!!

-I put my last few things in my suitcase, said goodbye to the Lewises, and headed over to the other Elders' house to pick up Elder Manwaring. He was being transferred too and came with us in the truck to the transfers building. I took one final picture with Elder Ellsworth and then he headed inside the building to "Train the Trainer". I found Elder Vail, who I would be traveling down with and we packed our stuff into the new truck. We made our way down to Pueblo and stopped to grab some lunch and a couple of things from Walmart. Then we continued our drive through Colorado City, and finally made it to Rye! We pulled up to our new apartment, which apparently is in a church building, but not one of ours, very interesting! Then we met up with Elder Gray (my new companion) and Elder Franco (Elder Vail's new companion) and unpacked our stuff.

-The Rye ward has two companionships of Elders, and we all live in the same apartment, which is fun. It will be interesting to share an apartment; I haven't done that before. New experiences!

-Later we had a great lesson with a lady named Dawn over FB Messenger, and it was really spiritual! We talked about the Plan of Salvation and about how Jesus Christ and His atonement are the central event and focal point of the gospel.

-In the evening we had a Zone leadership call to get to know each other and to set some goals for the rest of the month. Then all the other missionaries joined in on the call and we talked about those goals, and everyone in the Pueblo zone introduced themselves.

Wednesday 1/13/21

-Today we helped out a woman named Haley at her house, moving some stone to cover up places where the snow runoff melts and makes standing water. She runs a pitbull rescue, so it was fun to see all the dogs running around! She also has a couple of pigs that we helped feed, very cute.

-We went to the church's youth [Young Men's] activity tonight. We played some ultimate frisbee which was pretty fun, and a good opportunity to fellowship with the ward, especially for Elder Vail and I to meet the members here.

-When we got back to the apartment Elder Gray and I got a call from the Mission President asking us to be the Facebook admins for the FB pages down in this areas. It looks like we'll have some extra responsibilities this transfer.

Thursday 1/14/21

-The main things we did today was our Weekly Planning session and went to our ward missionary correlation meeting.

-Our Ward Mission leader (WML) is SO BOMB!! His name is Brother Taylor (ironically the same name as the WML in Calhan) and he is super involved with the missionary work here in the ward. He has been coordinating with all of the ward leaders and asking each of them to think of ways they could help us in our efforts to find, teach, and baptize.

Friday 1/15/21

-In the morning I led my first District Council meeting here in Rye. I think it went well - I tried to make it as efficient as possible, so we could all get back to our work. Unfortunately it still ended up being over an hour, but it was a good meeting for me to continue to get to know all the other missionaries in my district.

-For lunch we went to Subway with the Trinidad/Raton Elders, Elders Armstrong and Elder Corless. They are pretty funny dudes! I'm getting along well I think.

-In the afternoon, we had a member lesson with Brother Lohse, who has a pretty interesting backstory. I won't won't go into detail, but he reminds me a lot of Andrew back in Calhan. Maybe we'll have to set up a lesson with Andrew and Brother Lohse in the same call - I think he might have some interesting insights for him. Anyway, Brother Lohse is also an avid guitarist, and when Elder Gray and I mentioned that we were trying to learn how to play here on the mission, he said he wanted to give us one of his guitars that he wasn't using! So nice!! He also gave us a DVD of guitar tutorials haha, so we'll have to find some time to check that out. But it's really nice, because Elder Gray has a good guitar already, and now I will have a good guitar too. I have one that Elder Whitted gave me a while back, but that one is pretty roughed up and tough to play!

Saturday 1/16/21

-Elder Gray and I looked through our Facebook page schedule for the zone and did a bit of housekeeping items in relation to that. Then we had a call with the Social Media Specialists who gave us some pretty interesting news! I can't share it though, because some other missionaries in this mission read these emails, and it's a secret for now.

-We had a New-Member lesson tonight with the Edwards Family, who are recent converts to the church. Brother Reeder came with us and he was great at leading the lesson back on topic when it veered off.

Sunday 1/17/21

-First Sunday in Rye! Elder Gray and I have two church services [Sacrament meetings] that we go to every week, one at 9:30am and one at 11:00am. Because of Covid the ward meets in two halves, so we have the privilege of attending both sessions. It was great for me because I got to meet a lot of people in the ward.

-After church we had a messenger video lesson with Sarah, who is looking into the Church, and the Garners (from the ward) joined us on the call as well! Sarah has had some difficult experiences with some other churches and is hesitant to accept some of the concepts of the Restored Gospel, but we know that as she continues to read the Book of Mormon, she'll be able to feel the spirit and receive answers to her questions.

-The Garners are amazing! We talked to them about some service opportunities in the area and they said they would love to introduce us to one of their friends who needed some help. So we met at a café in town and then walked to her house, which is right across the street from it. Marty invited us all in, and the Garners visited with her for a bit and then told her about who we are and what we do. It was really good to meet her. She said that she and her neighbor might need some assistance with a couple of things, so we are excited to help both of them out.

HEY!!! So I got my new address for out here in Rye. It's actually a PO Box, so if you want to send me anything, you can send it here:

Elder Nathan A. Bird

PO Box 205

Rye, CO 81069

Because I'm so far away from the mission office, this will be a better option. The Zone Leaders only bring stuff to us, out here like once a month, so the PO Box would be preferable. Thanks!

Hope you all have a good week,

-Elder Bird

Going Down to Rye

Tuesday 1/5/21

-The guy we are working with, Andrew, texted us last night asking us how to study more effectively. So, we had a lesson with him this morning giving him some good tips and ways of how to study and understand the scriptures better. We've found that the most important way to understand scriptures is to start with building a foundation on knowing the basics and then building your knowledge line upon line, and precept upon precept. Done with prayerful consideration, we know he will get a lot out of his reading of gospel topics. He is a quick reader and is already in Alma now!

-In the afternoon we had a lesson with Kathryn, the lady from Elizabeth. We had to pass her off to the missionaries in her area. It was a really good lesson about the Restoration, and she is excited to keep meeting with the sister missionaries there.

-In the evening, Elder Ellsworth and I tried to make some cookies without a recipe, but it turned out to not be a good idea - haha. They did not turn out well at all and went promptly into the trash. On our second try, we used the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag and those turned out great!

Wednesday 1/6/21

-Our day started off with doing some service with Sister Hamblin for Billy, the huskie dude (he has a lot of huskies). We just wrapped up his old AC unit with a tarp and then she took us to Subway and bought us lunch.

-After lunch, we headed over to Falcon to do some district Facebook work and worked with the Meridian Elders on our video planning guide. We are making a video next week for our FB page and we want to make sure it's a good one!

-Then we had an exchange with the Meridian Elders again, and this time I went with Elder Manwaring. He is a super great missionary! We talked about methods of finding more people through Facebook and then did a good companionship study session.

-Sister Kelley, the organist in our ward, learned I could play the piano and asked if I would play for her for church on Sunday, so that she could go out of town. I said yes of course, and so we went to the church so I could practice the hymns we would be singing on the organ.

-Word must have spread that I can play, because Sister Bringhurst sent us a text today asking if I would play a piano accompaniment for the young women as they sing a song for Josiah Rasco's funeral tomorrow. Luckily it's a song I already know, "Peace in Christ." I'm grateful for my talent and that I can use it to bless the lives of others.

Thursday 1/7/21

-This morning our housing coordinators had a cleaning devotional with all of us. They talked about how to deep clean our apartments for transfers (speaking of which, those are coming up, exciting). They made a video with some of the social media specialists and it was pretty funny!

-In the afternoon, we attended the funeral for Josiah Rasco. I was glad to see that a lot of people came, and that there was so much support for the Rasco family. Please pray for them if you would, during this trying time.

-After the funeral service, a couple of people came up to me and told me they liked hearing me play the piano, including Sister Kelley, the ward organist. She said she wants to grow up to be able to play like me, and that I was her role model - haha! I know she was just being nice, but it made me really happy!

Friday 1/8/21

-We had our district council this morning, like usual on Fridays. Then we did our district Facebook work. Transfers are coming up next week, so we also did some transfer predictions. It's where each person guesses where everyone will go for transfers! It's just kind of fun to conjecture.

-We were able to set up a couple of lessons with some people over FB messenger, so that's good! A guy named Daltry said he is interested in learning about the Church and in coming to church! Also, we've been messaging with a lady named Danielle, who has been having some trials and said she wants to have a priesthood blessing. So now we are working with some ward members to make that happen. She also said she wants to come to church!

Saturday 1/9/21

-In the morning we were able to go over to the church and join a Zoom link for Elder Ellsworth's brother's baptism, which was awesome!

-Then I practiced the organ some more for tomorrow.

-We got lunch with the Meridian Elders who were also at the Calhan building. They were there for a baptism in their ward. That Subway gift card I got for Christmas is coming in handy!

-In the afternoon, we started our deep cleaning of our cabin. I think I spent like half an hour just cleaning the back door which had these red splotches all over it. Then I did the windows, Mr. Clean-ed the black marks on our walls, and steamed and mopped the wood floors.

-The transfer sheet drops tonight. Elder Ellsworth and I were expecting a call from the Mission President because we had a hunch that one of us was going to leave. Also, I had a hunch that Elder Ellsworth would be training for this next transfer. He's a great missionary! We got the call as we were coming home from picking up dinner from the Moyes family. President Eccles asked Elder Ellsworth if he was willing to train another missionary and become a District Leader!! He was shocked to hear that, but he accepted.

-Later, when the transfer sheet dropped, we were both surprised to see that I would be the one who was actually transferring out of the area! There were a bunch of changes made to our district: the Woodmen Hills and Meridian areas were being combined (Elder Wilde and his trainee will have fun with that), Elder Omer is moving to the Fountain Zone to be a District Leader, Elder Duffin is going to be a Content (Social Media) Specialist in the East zone, and the Sisters missionaries will be training as well.

-While I will be super sad to leave this area, as it has been a great district to work with, I am super excited to meet my new companion and get to work in my new area. I'm pretty much moving to the other side of the mission, haha. I'm heading down west and south to a town called Rye, which is a small town just west of Colorado City. It's in the Pueblo zone and part of my district actually goes clear into New Mexico. I've already heard so many great things about Rye from a couple of people, so I'm super excited to see what the southside of Colorado has in store for me!

Sunday 1/10/21

-We were all set to have four people come to church this morning. All said they were coming, but as it turned out, Andrew couldn't come because of the snow (it dumped quite a bit last night), Daltry said he was busy even after we found him a ride, Danielle pretty much said she doesn't want anything to do with us or the Book of Mormon, and Joel and his family didn't make it. So that was disappointing.

-I played the organ during sacrament meeting [Sunday service]! It was a bit nerve racking because the congregation doesn't actually sing (as a Covid restriction) so everybody just listened to me play while they looked at the words in the hymnbook.

-The Bishop asked me to bear my testimony during the meeting also because I am leaving the area on Tuesday. Sister Bringhurst came up to me after the closing prayer and said that her family is actually from Rye, so I'll be looking our for them.

-We went and visited with the Lewises, our cabin owners, and he said they're gonna have to revoke the order for me to leave, haha. He gave us the key to the shop where my suitcases were, and I grabbed them and started to pack a bit.

-In the evening, our district got together for one last time finding and then we wrote in each others' transfer journals.

Have a good week,

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

--One last picture of our district

--Zoom call with district

--Call with my parents

Happy New Year!

Tuesday 12/29/20

-This morning the snow continued to come down from last night, and so the Mission President decided to "park" all the zones in Colorado Springs (which means we cannot drive). Being out in the country and not having any bikes meant we had to postpone our lesson with Andrew until further notice, when we can once again meet him at the church building.

-We were however, able to have a lesson with a person we found on Facebook over a messenger video call. Her name is Kathryn and she is great! She has met with missionaries in the past, but had a bit of a weird experience with those previous missionaries. But, she loves God and we were able to clear some things up. By the end of the call, we found out that she lives in a town called Elizabeth, which is a bit north of Calhan, and is actually outside of my mission. It is in the Denver North Mission where my brother Ryan served. We were able to coordinate with the missionaries assigned there and they are going to drop off a Bible and a Book of Mormon to her. It was so interesting, because it turns out I know one of the sister missionaries there. Her name is Sister Rosenlund and we were at the Brazil MTC at the same time. She was actually on the same crazy flight down to Brazil that I was on, part of what we called "the Miami District" haha! Anyway, she happens to have been re-assigned to the Denver North mission, and now we are kind of working together to help Kathryn come closer to Christ. Crazy crazy!! #smallworld

-Good news, the snow stopped and the weather cleared up in the afternoon so we were able to pick up some food from Sister Whipple. She always has so much to give us - she is so nice!

-In the evening we made another video lesson for Donny and his family, talking about the Great Apostasy, which went really well. He said he liked it! We are trying to get to the point where we can actually meet face-to-face and really get to know him and his family.

-Being the District Leader isn't always fun. Tonight I had to message some of the companionships I'm responsible for in my district, and do a a bit of chastising. But, they received it well and I feel like they all respect me and my leadership, and I'm grateful for that.

Wednesday 12/30/20

-This morning we joined in again over Zoom for this months goal setting portion of MLC (Mission Leadership Council), which was really cool! It was much more efficient this time, and our mission is setting much higher goals than in previous months and years, which is super exciting.

-We coordinated with Brother Taylor, our Ward Mission Leader, to take pies to people in the ward for New Years. It was pretty fun driving around to people to bring them some cheer and to share a scripture with them.

Thursday 12/31/20

-New Years Eve! It doesn't really feel like a holiday out here, we just had a regular missionary day.

-In the morning, we had a really good lesson with Andrew. He told us he's been looking all over the place for answers to questions he's had and then he found a really good YouTube channel called "Saints Unscripted" that has answered a lot of them. The hosts are members of our Church. We talked a bit about the things he was curious about and then we jumped into the Book of Mormon. We read through chapter 10 of Moroni and went pretty much verse by verse sharing insights and principles of the gospel. He really enjoyed reading straight from the Book of Mormon and said he would try to focus more reading from there.

-In the afternoon, the Meridian Elders joined us for a really short service project and then we did a missionary exchange [trade companions for the day.] Doing exchanges helps me as a District Leader to know the Elders better. I was with Elder Wilde, and we had a great time together talking through some ways to build up his area and have some really good study sessions. At the end, he said he really looks up to me. That made me feel good. I'm just so grateful and hope to be a good example and role model for the Elders in my district.

-Had a great lesson with the Fisk Family tonight and they gave us street tacos for dinner, bless them! Haha

-On the way home I joined in on the call for the High Plains zone leadership meeting. It was great to hear about everything else that happened at the Mission Leadership Council that I wasn't a part of, and come with ways to help motivate my district.

Friday 1/1/2021

-Elder Ellsworth and I made a New Year's goal/resolution to go on a jog every morning, except for Sundays and Mondays because that's kind of like our weekend - haha. It's been chilly in the snow, but we've been doing it. You can see pictures from some of our mornings below.

-Not a whole ton exciting about our New Years day - haha - just had a good District Council and then set goals for our district for the month of January.

Saturday 1/2/21

-In the morning we went and opened up the Calhan building for the Woodmen Hills ward because they had a baptism. We helped fill up the baptismal font while the missionaries doing the baptism sat in on a mission wide training call. It was a trainee meeting for all new missionaries, which one of them was. We were glad to help.

-Later we joined in on a lesson of a guy who was referred to us by the Springs Elders. This guy started bashing a little bit [putting us down, arguing]. We try not to engage when this happens because contention never brings the Spirit. But, it was very interesting listening to him and to see what his interpretations of the Bible was. I'm thankful for the Spirit and the knowledge I have - haha.

-After that we had another lesson with Andrew. He is making some spiritual progress as he continues to read the Book of Mormon.

-In the evening, we got dinner from the Moyes and then shared a quick spiritual thought with them about New Years.

Sunday 1/3/21

-In the morning we went to ward council. One of the families in the ward has a teenage son who just died. He was about mission age. It is very sad and the whole ward is mourning his passing and doing their best to help the family.

-After church we had a quick lesson with Dustin and Rusty. Re-teaching and going over again Gospel principles and their testimonies of Jesus Christ. It went really well.

-In the foyer of the building, somebody from the ward left a ton of old books and study resources with a sign that said "free" next to it. Elder Ellsworth and I looked through it and found some really good stuff!! The most exciting thing for me was a hymn book from 1948! It has a lot of hymns in it that aren't in the current hymnal used by the Church, which is pretty cool!

-In the evening we had a really good lesson with a guy named Joel and the Limon Branch President was able to join us. It's good to have someone from the ward or branch join in lessons because after the missionaries teach and then leave, there is someone in the area that knows them and can befriend them. We talked about and answered his questions about priesthood authority, and how it comes from God. He has been reading the the Book of Mormon and he is almost all finished with it. We asked him to pray about whether or not he should be baptized. We are praying that he will recognize the answer when it comes.

-On Facebook, there's a group called Worldwide Missionary Referrals. On it there was a missionary who made a post for a person they're teaching who's actually from Calhan! So they made a group chat with us and we are going to have a lesson with her on Tuesday.

Monday 1/4/21

-We got confirmation last night that the county we are in went back down to Orange (from Red). Which means we are allowed to hang out again with our districts on P-day and teach in people's homes again! Yay!! So today we went and played pickleball with some of the missionaries from our district. It was super fun! It's great to play games with people in person again.

-After lunch we played a board game and then came home. We talked with our families and wrote emails.

I hope you all have a good week,

-Elder Bird

Time for Christmas

Howdy,

Tuesday 12/22/20

-It really is the season for remembering Christ, and I've come to gain a much greater appreciation for the reason behind all the celebration, which is to commemorate the birth and the life of our Savior.

-We have been trying to visit as many people as we can before Christmas Eve and Day and share a Christmas message with them. It's been great to visit with people and share His light. Today we had a lesson with the Wagner family over the phone, which went great!

-When we picked up dinner from the Hendricks, they invited us to go down the road to one of their neighbors' houses and check out Saturn and Jupiter through their telescope! It was pretty dope, and apparently the convergence of the two planets only happens about every 800 years or so. Crazy cool!

Wednesday 12/23/20

-Today we had a super packed schedule of 6 lessons to share Christmas messages! (Well 5 actually and one chapel tour, but I'll get to that in a sec.) We were scheduled to have 4 member lessons and 2 non-member lessons, which is usually a great WEEK for us, so to have those planned for one DAY was pretty exciting, but also a bit daunting. I remember having 3 lessons back-to-back in my last area, and it was so good, but so spiritually draining. We prayed for the stamina to get through them all!

-So as I mentioned earlier, our fist lesson was actually a chapel tour with a guy that we found on Facebook, Andrew. We met him at the Calhan building, and he had some great, genuine questions that we were able to answer as we went through the rooms and talked about each room's purpose. He even mentioned that he had heard of missionaries from the Church and was just waiting for them to come and knock on his door, so when we messaged him on Facebook, he jumped at the opportunity. We set up another lesson with him this Saturday, which will be super great!! I'm really excited to meet with him more!

-The rest of our lessons went pretty much the same, we talked about fun Christmas traditions they might have, what their favorite part of the Nativity story is, and about how Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. It was awesome to meet with so many people and families.

Thursday 12/24/20

-Christmas Eve! Today we were in meetings for most of the day up until about dinner time.

-We moved our district council (which is usually on Fridays) to today because of the (obvious) big holiday tomorrow. In the afternoon we tried something new with the zone and did a zone weekly planning. Usually, a weekly planning session is done just as individual companionship, but Elder Wilkinson, one of our zone leaders, said he did it a few times in his previous mission and it was really effective. So we set up a bunch of tables in the cultural hall [basketball & stage area] and each companionship had their whiteboards and stuff, and did their planning. Zone Leaders and District Leaders were able to walk around and see how everyone was doing, and companionships were able to ask questions or get advice much more easily. It turned out to be pretty effective in my opinion. Afterwards we played a game called signs with (almost) everyone.

-After meetings, we went to pick up dinner from the Fisk's in our ward, who are super great, and we shared a quick message with them. They said our visits with them are the highlight of their week, which made me really happy!

-Later that evening, we gathered with our district and read the Christmas nativity story in Luke and Matthew chapter 2 (in each respectively). One of the Sister missionaries thought it would be fun to re-enact the story and all have a role. It was really fun - and funny! We then got a bit more serious and sat down together and read through the story again, each sharing our favorite parts, our thoughts, and insights with each other. This invited the Spirit and made us all feel closer to each other with the work we are doing.

-For our activity, we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts with each other. It was nice to see that everyone was so very pleased with the gift they got!

Friday 12/25/20

-CHRISTMAS!!!! We had the day off for the holiday so that we could celebrate.

-We pre-arranged to be with the Meridian House Elders for Christmas morning, so, bright and early we got up, showered and dressed, and brought all of our wrapped presents to their house. When we arrived we ate some breakfast and then started to open our presents! We went one-by-one, picking out presents for each other to open, and we all got some pretty great stuff! The things I received that I'm most excited about are a really nice digital watch, a Bluetooth keyboard for my phone, some nice ties, a cool motion-censored drone, and a really nice-looking sweater! I also got other things like snacks and candy. I'm thankful for the keyboard because it will be so much nicer to type out emails with that, than on just the phone's keypad. I am so grateful to all those who were so kind and sent me a card or a letter as well - thank you!

-After presents, we played some games, picked up dinner, and called our families! It was SO great to see my whole family together on a Zoom call, and to be able to catch up with each other a bit. I love my family so much!

-In the evening we had a Zoom call with President and Sister Eccles who shared a spiritual thought with the whole mission, and then we had a movie night. This time we watched The Other Side of Heaven, a great movie about a missionary and his experiences serving in Tonga.

Saturday 12/26/20

-In the afternoon, we had a long, hour and a half, lesson with Andrew. He asked a lot of awesome questions, and said he would come to church tomorrow! Then we did some Facebook finding. In the evening we had a lesson with the Moyes family and then they gave us a delicious dinner to take home to eat.

Sunday 12/27/20

-Today was a great Sunday! We went to church, and unfortunately Andrew didn't show, but we are having another lesson with him this week. After church, we had a lesson with Dustin and Rusty and watched a movie about the Restoration. Then it was awesome to be there as they received the Aaronic Priesthood.

-After we got home, we did some study, and then got dinner from the the Bishop and his family.

-In the evening, we went to a Baptist church service with this guy we thought would be interested in learning about our church, but it turns out he just wanted us to come to his church. It was a fun service, but I'm grateful for the spirit of discernment, and the gift of the Holy Ghost that we have as members of our church, and I'll leave it at that.

Monday 12/28/20

-Today was our p-day, which we made a very chill day. We didn't go anywhere and just had a relaxing day at home. In the afternoon it started to snow and get pretty windy, so we may be parked tomorrow, but we are hoping for the best.

I hope you all have a good week and Happy New Year!

-Elder Bird

The Moyes Brothers Baptism!!

This week has mostly been getting the final preparations done for Dustin and Rusty's baptism on Saturday. We wanted to make sure they were completely ready for it. We filled out all the forms, had their baptismal interviews with the zone leaders, and had daily contact with each of them individually to give them things to study and videos to watch as they prepared. They are both so diligent in following up with their studies and prayers every day, and the baptismal service was amazing!! Their dad was the one to baptize them, which was a really great moment.

The next day, during Sacrament meeting [church], Brother Moye confirmed both of them as members of the Church and blessed them with the gift of the Holy Ghost. We were invited to be in the circle with him and were grateful to be a part of it. After church they an interview with Bishop Simmons in preparation to be ordained to the Aaronic priesthood!! They are really moving along with everything, and they are truly ready to be making these steps on their individual covenant paths.

I'm so grateful for miracles and to be able to see the hand of the Lord these past couple of months. Especially in the opportunity to teach these two young men. I am grateful that they were able to understand all of the principles and that they felt ready to make this commitment in their lives. I love the Lord and I love His gospel, and I continue to be amazed at both Rusty and Dustin's example of Christ-like faith.

I am grateful for this season and for the opportunity to reflect on the birth of our Savior. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

-Elder Bird

Zone Conference & Interviews

Howdy!

Tuesday 12/8/20

-This morning we were supposed to have a lesson with a lady named Margaret, over WhatsApp, but she had to reschedule. She is someone who has been taught previously by other missionaries, and hopefully we can start teaching her again.

-Then we had Zone conference pretty late in the day, which was interesting. It was a really good training though. The focus was on helping us to elevate the efficacy of our weekly and daily planning. The APs also did a roleplay of extending a baptismal invitation to someone who says that they don't think they're ready. It was pretty helpful, preparing us to act on our commitment to extend a baptismal invitation before Christmas.

-After our training we had an ugly sweater competition and did a white elephant gift exchange with the whole zone! Super fun! The gift I contributed was a swim cap, which I thought was hilarious! Everyone was going for it. Most of the gifts were super funny and I think everyone had a great time.

Wednesday 12/9/20

-This afternoon, we "helped" with some service for a person the Falcon sisters are teaching. I say "helped" in quotation marks because there was only one rake and my whole district was there, so we had to take turns raking the entire horse pasture haha.

Thursday 12/10/20

-We are having a bit of trouble reaching out to one of the members of the Limon Branch presidency. It's a really long story and I can't go very much into detail, but I figured I should include it, because these weekly emails are essentially my mission journal. It would mean a lot to me if anyone reading this could pray for me. I'm hoping Brother Allen will have his heart softened towards us and that we will be able to work with him. There has been a misunderstanding and it has been a bit of a stressor for me.

Friday 12/11/20

-We had interviews with President Eccles today. He did mine as we walked around the church building. He said he needed to keep his mind active haha. But we had a really great chat and he said he loves the work I'm doing, which made me really happy :).

-It also snowed today, so the roads were a bit slick. We're being careful though, don't worry.

Saturday 12/12/20

-We tried our first pre-recorded video lesson today for Donny and his family. It went really good I think! When we sent it to him, he said thanks, so we'll have to see if he has any questions after watching it.

Sunday 12/13/20

-We had our weekly lesson with Rusty and Dustin after church. We went through the baptismal interview questions with them to make sure they are prepared for their interviews this Tuesday. They are so ready! They have been extremely diligent in their studies of the Book of Mormon and talks from the prophet and apostles. It's amazing to see their progression in the gospel and in their testimonies. They'll definitely be ready for their baptisms next Saturday.

Monday 12/14/20

-Today we helped with moving all the furniture out of the Limon missionary apartment, which probably means they won't be putting any new missionaries in that area for a while. It was a good opportunity for Elder Ellsworth and I to see the town which is now part of area too.

Hope you all have a good week!

-Elder Bird

December 2020

Tuesday 12/1/20

-Today is the first day of "Light the World," a program that the Church implements every year during the Christmas season and for the month of December. Each day a service-oriented invitation is given to help remind us to help and highlight those around us! Today for "Giving Tuesday" was the invitation to give a donation to a charity or volunteer at a non-profit organization. For our donation, we collected up a lot of our canned items and some other bits and bobs that we could spare, and donated them to a local food bank.

-It was also the day of Transfers!! Elder Humphries finished up the last of his packing and we headed out to drop him off with Elder Alexander, who was supposed to drive him to his new area. But, it turned out that Elder Alexander's car didn't have a bike rack for Elder Humphries' bike. We checked in with the APs on what to do, and ended up just keeping everything in the truck and following the other car all the way out to his new apartment, which was pretty fun!

-Elder Humphries' new companion is a super funny guy and after meeting and talking with him, we said goodbye and hit up the newly built In-N-Out burger place that had just been finished about a week ago. The drive through line was insane! it wrapped so far around and even went through a parking garage. So we put on our face masks and waited in the standing line, which didn't take too long at all.

-Two more quick stops at other missionaries' places, and we finally made it back home just in time to get ready for our ward's mutual/young men's activity. We played a game of ultimate frisbee, always a good time.

Wednesday 12/2/20

-Today was a really great day because as the District Leader I had the opportunity to perform my first baptismal interviews. Two other companionships in my district have baptismal candidates, Hunter for the Falcon Sisters, and Chace for the Paintbrush Hills Sisters! What's even more exciting is that they both passed their interviews, and both seem ready, which means they are going to be baptized this Saturday!!! I'm super excited for them both and I'm grateful to have been able to play a small part in their individual conversion processes.

-Other than that, not much else today other than doing some rearranging of the cabin and taking out the third bed that we had needed for Elder Humphries. We also picked up a small table from the ZLs that we can use as a desk. That's the one thing we have been missing in our little cabin, is a good place to do studying, that's not on the couch. I've gotta say, it's really nice to rearrange every once-in-a-while. It gives us a fresh start, and right after transfers was a great time to do it.

Thursday 12/3/20

-In the afternoon all of us in the district went over to help, Winifred, a lady in the Falcon area again with some farm renovations. The main project was removing and rearranging some old fencing so that she could have one fully enclosed chicken coop. It was pretty fun!

-That night Elder Ellsworth and I joined in a video call with a couple other companionships in the district. We have been doing a Book of Mormon study group, looking for all the promises that God made to His covenant people, Israel. It was a challenge our prophet invited us to do during the most recent General Conference. It was a really good study group and we plan on doing it every night.

Friday 12/4/20

-This morning we had a devotional with the whole mission where we talked about a recent change to our mission rules. During the first few months of Covid we were allowed to call our families on P-day (Monday) and one other day of the week. But the mission department in Salt Lake just announced that starting on Monday, we will return to only calling once a week, on P-days. I think some people might see this as a negative thing, but I actually see it as a positive step forward. I think it means means things are in the process (even if it's a long one) of returning back to normal, and I'm very hopeful for the near future.

-During this same devotional, Elder Edwards, one of the APs [assistants to the president] gave us a revelation-inspired challenge, with the approval of the Mission President, for each companionship to extend a baptismal invitation before Christmas. That was kind of cool! It will be exciting to see how that invitation will affect the mission.

-I had another exchange with the Zone Leaders today as well. I spent time with Elder Norby, who has a lot of experience and it was great to receive some direction from him.

Saturday 12/5/20

-Hunter's and Chace's baptisms are today!! Elder Ellsworth and I were able to go to Hunter's baptism in the afternoon and it was a really amazing spiritual experience! Unfortunately, we weren't able to go to Chace's service because we had a previous appointment to pick up a dinner from someone in our area who lives pretty far away. But, we told the Sister missionaries to let Chace know that we are super proud of him for making such a great decision for himself.

Sunday 12/6/20

-After church we had another great lesson with Rusty and Dustin. Lincoln, a young man from the ward and the Priest Quorum 1st Assistant, came with us. It's always nice to have someone from the ward, especially someone their own age, come with us to teach! We finished the rest of the lessons and then planned out their baptismal program (like who will speak, what songs we'll sing, etc.) All that is left for us to do is to have their baptismal interviews with the Zone Leaders. Very exciting!!

-After the lesson, we spent some time whipping up a sweet-looking paper program for the service!

Monday 12/7/20

-It has been warm this week which is kinda weird considering how late it is in the year, but hey, I'm not complaining. So, for our p-day activity we decided it would be a great day to go golfing before it gets cold again. This was my first ever real golfing experience, and I feel like I did pretty alright for my first time!

-The rest of the day it was really nice to chill out a bit before picking up dinner from the Haynies.

-Funny thing, I received a certificate from the secretary of my mission in Brazil, which was interesting. It says "We are eternally grateful to: Elder Bird, For dedicating all you time, gifts and talents as a representative of Jesus Christ, for tireless effort and work done for our mission." Signed by by the mission president and his wife, President and Sister Acosta.

Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Bye Elder Humphries!

Hey Everyone!

Tuesday 11/24/20

-Today I did my first exchanges with some of the Elders in my district, starting with Elder Duffin and Elder Omer (in the Woodmen Hills area). We did them one right after the other, which was pretty draining. I tried to build social and spiritual connections with each of them, and I think it went really well. I felt like I was able to connect with them both and give them the training that they needed.

-Then we had a lesson with the Hendricks tonight where we talked about gratitude in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Wednesday 11/25/20

-We were scheduled to visit with Matty today, to teach him more about the gospel and follow up with his reading, but he hadn't responded to any of our texts for the past week. Not a good sign. We showed up at his house anyway, but nobody came to the door. We made cookies and so left them and a note on his porch. Hopefully he was just really busy and forgot about the lesson. We're hoping he sees our note and we can get in touch with him again soon though.

-After that, we went to help out with a service project for a member in the Woodmen Hills ward. We helped a sister put in some peat gravel and some rocks for a pathway in her backyard. At the end, she gave all of us who came to help, loaves of homemade bread! So good.

Thursday 11/26/20

-Thanksgiving!!! It was a great day!

-Today we pretty much got the whole day off for the holiday, except for our morning studies, and we called it T-day (a P-day pun). After our work, we met up with the other missionaries in our district and we played board games and card games. I brought our newly-made three-player chess board, which is super fun! Around 3pm, we went and picked up Thanksgiving day dinners from two families in the ward, the Choates and the Kecks. We brought them back to the Meridian House (the house where the other two companionships of Elders in the district stay) to eat with them. We also called our families. At 6pm, we had a Zoom devotional with President Eccles and his whole family, during which he said he had a surprise for us. Then he put on a movie over the screen-share feature of Zoom, and we got to watch the "Fighting Preacher" together as a whole mission! It was was really fun and really cool. I now love holidays on the mission!

Friday 11/27/20

-In the afternoon we had exchanges with the Limon Elders, Elder Richins and Elder Emfield, and I was partnered with Elder Richins this time.

-On one of the Facebook groups out here in this area, someone posted about how they made way too much Thanksgiving dinner and was offering lots of leftovers. Of course being the valiant missionaries that we are, we saw it as a teaching opportunity and not just a way to get more food - haha. So I responded to the post and set up a time to pick it up. They were extremely kind and giving! They didn't end up having time for us to share a message or anything with them tonight, but they said to keep in touch and that they'll have plates for us for Christmas as well!! So nice!!! That was really, really cool!

Saturday 11/28/20

-Our county just moved into the red zone on the COVID scale, and so in turn we now have more restrictions in terms of mission regulations. Basically, while we're in red zone, we aren't allowed to enter people's homes for lessons and we can't gather as a district for non-religious related activities. We are still able to have lessons at the church building though, so that's what we will have to plan to do for teaching the Moyes Family.

-This week is the end of the last week of the transfer [happens every 6 weeks], and so we were anticipating the transfer sheet to come out this evening. When it came, we were surprised to see that Elder Humphries is being transferred out of the Calhan area and over to the North Zone. Elder Ellsworth and I will just be a duo now, staying here. We will both miss him for sure. I'm excited for him to see the less rural side of the mission and broaden his horizons a bit. We'll say goodbye to him next Tuesday when we drop him off at the church where transfers happen.

-Also, it turns out that the mission will not be sending missionaries out to the Limon area for now. Instead, we in Calhan will cover that as part of our area too, so that's kind of exciting! We will have one of the biggest areas in the entire mission, bordering the mission's north and east borders, and we've more than doubled our original boundaries.

Sunday 11/29/20

-Elder Humphries gave his testimony during church today as a goodbye to the ward. After church we talked with the Moyes Family and had another lesson with Rusty and Dustin. The date we have set for their baptism is coming up soon, just in a few weeks, so we're trying to teach them the lessons as quick as we can without rushing them. Both of their individual commitment to the Lord and to their testimonies of the gospel are of the utmost importance to us, and they are making a lot of progress as they are continuing to read the Book of Mormon and pray every day.

Monday 11/30/20

-This morning [p-day] we went mini-golfing as a companionship, as a last hurrah for Elder Humphries' departure tomorrow. It was really fun! The course we went to, had two cool Jurassic-Park-esque themed courses with a couple hilarious grammar mishaps on some of their dinosaur fact plaques. Hopefully the picture I took shows and you can read it. It seriously had me dying laughing.

-Afterwards, we stopped by the Meridian house to get signatures on Elder Humphries' Colorado flag and transfer journal by the other missionaries, and then we grabbed a few groceries at Walmart. Since then Elder Humphries has been packing up, and Elder Ellsworth and I are working on writing emails and journal entries.

Hope you have a great week!!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

Thanksgiving Dinner

Mini-golfing & funny sign

Map of Col Springs mission with our new area in the top right corner - I'm the blue dot.

Baptismal Dates for Dustin and Rusty!!

Hey everyone, very exciting week again this week!

Tuesday 11/17/20

-We've been trying to get in contact with a family out here named the Moyes who we have heard that their kids (both high school age) were wanting to get baptized. But we have been unable to get a hold of them because they are super, super busy throughout the day, like from 5am-9pm, so calling and texting wasn't working. But just this past Sunday they came to church and we were able to talk to them and set up a lesson. The lesson was set up for tonight.

-We spent most of the lesson time just getting to know them and learning about what they like to do! Then we talked specifically with Dustin and Rusty about each of their individual commitment to Jesus Christ. We expressed to them that our purpose is not to baptize them as quick as possible, but to focus on their testimony of the gospel and help them to grow in their knowledge of Christ. They were both very adamant about their desire to be baptized and said they were willing to do what was needed in order to prepare themselves for that commitment and covenant with Heavenly Father. So we set up a baptismal date for them, as a goal to work toward and to keep them on track, for the 19th of December. Overall, it was a very spiritual lesson!

Wednesday 11/18/20

-We had an exchange with the APs [assistants to the president] tonight! (A missionary exchange is where a couple of companionships switch with each other. A normal one lasts 24 hours, but during Covid restrictions we just do 2-3 hours with each other.) It was really just the thing I needed! I went with Elder Edwards and we talked and laughed for a bit and then he did some training with me. It was really great! I'm excited to be able to do similar exchanges with each of the Elders in my district. [Nathan is the district leader.]

Thursday 11/19/20

-Did some service for Brother Clarke this morning. We helped him frame out some skirting for his trailer.

-In the afternoon we called all of the people on our ward's unbaptized children list. We wanted to see if the parents wanted to set up lessons for their children, to help them get ready for baptism. [In our church, children are not baptised until they are 8 years old.] We didn't get many responses.

-We had a really good lesson with the Choate family tonight when we picked up dinner from them. They are an amazing family which makes me miss my own, but I know I'm right where I'm supposed to be, here in Colorado.

Friday 11/20/20

-As many of you may know, President Nelson hosted a brief live devotional on Facebook today talking about the healing power of gratitude! It was really cool to hear from the prophet and to receive direct guidance from him on how we can continue to feel peace and the Spirit even through hard times. I have been following his admonition to post everyday about something I am grateful for.

-This evening we helped Sister Hamblin and her friend Billy clean out one of his sheds with the sister missionaries from Falcon. Sister Hamblin apparently is known as the Snack Lady, and she didn't disappoint. She came through with a ton of snacks to give us and the sisters, after we finished up.

Saturday 11/21/20

-This morning all the new missionaries in the mission had a really long training over zoom, so Elder Ellsworth tuned in for that.

-Later in the afternoon we had another missionary exchange, but with the ZLs [zone leaders] this time. I was paired with Elder Wilkinson and it was great to talk and get to know him. He gave me some tips about the best way I should go about doing exchanges with the Elders in my district. Because of our time with Covid and quarantining, I haven't had a chance to conduct any exchanges with my district yet. I learned a lot from him and got some good training.

Sunday 11/22/20

-We went to church today and had our normal church meetings. We did other missionary stuff too. I have been keeping up with my gratitude posts! Go check out the hashtag #GiveThanks on Facebook if you want to see some positive content. The prophet promised if we expressed gratitude and found things to be thankful for, we would all feel the peace of Christ. I believe that is true.

Monday 11/23/20

-Today we went and walked around the Garden of the Gods with our district for all the new missionaries who haven't seen it yet. It was beautiful as ever! Then we checked out the trading post (which is basically just a gift shop).

-After that we went and did another hike up Pulpit Rock which is a really cool rock formation in the northeast part of the Springs. I got some good pictures from there.

-At 6pm we picked up dinner from the Haynie family and then headed over to the Moyes house again to continue with the lessons for Dustin and Rusty!

-Rusty and Dustin are really starting to open up and talk easily with us. Our lesson was on the Plan of Salvation, which is one of my favorites because it teaches where we came from, why we're here on this earth, and what happens after this life. I like this lesson because it gives so many people hope that they will see their loved ones, who have already passed away, in the life to come. That's definitely been a comfort for me and my family as well. Anyway, it was a great lesson and we can see that they are really feeling the Spirit. Rusty also told us that he sleeps better when he reads the Book of Mormon, so that is a really cool testimony of its power.

Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

-Last P-day we did the incline again! This time in the evening.

--Pics at bottom of stairs and top!

-Garden of the Gods

--Sign, District in Cracks, Me Pointing

-Pulpit Rock

--Full district on top, me on highest point

New Person!

Hey everyone! I want to share briefly something really exciting that happened to us this week!!

Wednesday 11/11/20

-As you know, because of Covid, we as missionaries have had to find other ways to share our message, other than knocking on doors. So, we have been asked to share via Facebook, messages, videos, songs, etc. Elder Ellsworth found a guy on Facebook in our area named Matty, who has a mutual friend with him. Turns out that their friend is a member of the church from Elder Ellsworth's home ward who cohosts a podcast that Matty is really in to. It's a podcast in which they talk a little bit about their faith. Elder Ellsworth asked Matty if he would be interested in learning more about that faith mentioned in their podcast (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and he said yes!

-Today was our first lesson with him! We went over to Matty's house and also invited, over zoom, the member from Elder Ellsworth's ward that does that podcast, Brother Sorensen. In this first lesson we got to know Matty a little bit and talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Matty is a super great guy and was super engaged throughout the whole lesson, especially whenever Brother Sorensen shared his thoughts. It was really cool to see that Matty was feeling the spirit while we were teaching. We gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and ponder for the week, and then we'll have another lesson with him soon!!

It's not often that we find new people to teach, especially out here in Calhan where everyone is so spread out. Being able to find someone as a result of being diligent in our Facebook work was a real miracle. I'm confident that we would not have been able to find Matty if it wasn't for our new missionary tool of Facebook. I have a testimony that missionary work still goes on even in the hardest of times, and I have a newfound witness that Facebook can be an effective tool for our missionary work.

Love you guys, and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Finally Free!

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

Covid Positive

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!!

Burning through the Miles

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

Adjusting to Rural Life

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

New Assignment!

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

New Car!!

Hey everyone!

Tuesday 9/29/20

-We had Zone conference today! There was a very heavy emphasis on us [missionaries] improving our relationships with the members in our wards, which has been hard to do these past few months. Overall it was a really good and spiritually uplifting conference. And President Eccles is so funny, he was cracking jokes for like the first ten minutes, hilarious.

Wednesday 9/30/20

-Today is the day our little Corolla is going in to the shop for a few minor repairs, so our amazing vehicle coordinators arranged for us to temporarily use one of the mission's newly bought 2020 Chevrolet Equinoxes!! We were finding some sweet features in it throughout the day, it is a great car!

-We were picking up a meal from a member this evening and she had a service project for us. A deer had broken one of her fence posts, and because our scheduled lesson got cancelled, we were able to do it right then. She was super excited! We were glad we could help her and take one less thing for her to worry about off her mind.

-This upcoming weekend is General Conference [a bi-yearly churchwide conference where church leaders give revelation, inspiration, and encouragement to church members.] The Tanners made some invitations to watch conference in their home for us to drop off to a few people. So we had a really great time driving around to drop those off, including our recent converts, AnnaBelle and Roy. While doing that we were able to have a little bit of a lesson with AnnaBelle outside her house. We also got to talk with Roy, outside his house, and he said one of his friends has a few questions about the Church. S0, we are excited to set up a time with them to answer some of her questions. We're really proud of Roy for doing some missionary work, he is just so awesome!

Thursday 10/1/20

-Today we worked on a video for our zone's FB page and we used some pictures of our family and friends. If you want to see it, visit our page [The Church of Jesus Christ in Fountain]! I invite each of you to look for one post on our page, give it a like, and share it with someone who you think might like to see it. I am grateful we missionaries are able to fill facebook with positive messages in the midst of so much negativity.

Friday 10/2/20

-Today we spent a lot of time calling the leadership of our ward (the Bishopric, Elders' Quorum President, Relief Society President, etc.) to set up lessons with them. We are trying to start the process of building the foundation of member-missionary unity in our ward. So, we were able to set up a bunch of lessons for next week. In the meantime, we had a few lessons cancel on us this past week, but it's alright.

Saturday-Sunday 10/3-4/20

-General Conference!!!! We streamed conference to one of our phones and watched/listened to Saturday's sessions with our district. For the Sunday sessions, we had the privilege of watching it together as a zone at the Stake Center! There were so many great talks! A couple that stood out to me was President Dallin H. Oaks' in the Saturday morning session where he talked about being peacemakers and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk in the Sunday afternoon session where he talked about the divine role of trials in our lives. I would highly recommend listening to the whole conference, but if you're lacking time, especially give those ones a listen. They are available on the Gospel Library app or through the churchofjesuschrist.org website.

Monday 10/5/20

-The main event today other than the usual P-day activities was that we went ice skating as a whole district this time! It was really fun!! I think I'm getting pretty good at it, or at least I'm not horrendous anymore haha.

That's all for now. Love you all, hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Video about Family:

https://www.facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristinFountain/videos/832147200891214

Pictures:

-Zone Conference

-Service

-Our new car!

-Ice Skating

Ice Skating & Service

Hey everyone! Pretty slow this week.

Monday 9/21/20

-My companions and I went ice skating this P-day. It was fun! We will probably come back here with the whole district in a couple weeks because of how cheap it was! Only 4 bucks total! I couldn't believe it.

Tuesday 9/22/20

-Today we talked with a few companionships in the zone about how they are feeling about making videos and stuff on Facebook (for our zone page). We lead that out now because we are the new admins for our zone's FB page.

Wednesday-Saturday

-Same old, same old

Sunday 9/27/20

-We taught the lesson for tonight's gospel principles class because the Tanners (who usually lead it) were out of town for a family reunion. It was a great chapter about Temple Work and Family History work. Roy has been wanting to get into that stuff so that he can do some ordinances for his mother who passed away. We are hoping to meet together sometime at the family history center at the stake center so that we can set him up on FamilySearch.

I'm getting really excited for General Conference this Saturday!

Love you all, have a great week!!

-Elder Bird

Pictures -

P-day hike to Garden of the Gods

Car Wash Take 2

Hey everyone! Hope your week was excellent!!

Tuesday 9/15/20

-We had a great lesson in person with the Nash family in our ward. Brother Nash is the Elder's Quorum President, but we haven't actually met in person until now - haha. It was a great lesson, and I am coming to know that the in person lessons are just so much more enjoyable than over the phone or zoom. There is just so much more interaction, I love it.

Wednesday 9/16/20

-We did a big service project at Sister Hess' house with some of the youth today. She's trying to redo her whole backyard, but she has a ton of river rock all over the place. We helped shovel it all out and put it on a cloth she has laid down, then sifted it to get all the dirt out. We got a lot done and we went until it got dark.

Thursday 9/17/20

-Temple Trip!! Elder Whitesell has been preparing to go through the temple to receive his endowment, [a special ordinance/ceremony where you make covenants with the Lord] which missionaries usually do before their missions. Elder Whitesell came out during the height of COVID when temples were closed, so he didn't get a chance to go previously. The Denver temple has reopened for some limited ordinances, so today was his day to go!! Elder Miller and I weren't sure if we would be able to go inside the temple with him, but once we got there, President Eccles told us we could. He said we were some of the very few, lucky missionaries who got to go through with their companion, so we were super excited!! Elder Whitesell's parents flew in and were able to be there too. Afterwards we were able to spend some time with Elder Whitesell's parents and go out to dinner with them! It was a great day!!

Friday 9/18/20

-Today we helped Sister Brown and Sister Shipley [the sister missionaries] move into their new permanent apartment. They are very happy to be able to finally settle down, because they were in this kind of transition for a long time now. They have been living in a hotel for a while and they are glad they're done with all that now.

Saturday 9/19/20

-Today we had another car wash to make up for the one we previously had that got rained out. This time it was perfect - kind of overcast, which was nice so we didn't heat up too much, and it didn't rain at all. We talked to some members of the Church and a few non-members, so it was really good. One person said they wanted to come to church tomorrow and we were able to hand out a Book of Mormon to one guy, so we're hoping we made a good impression on everyone.

Sunday 9/20/20

-The woman we met at the car wash actually came to church today and brought her daughter too! We were able to have a good conversation with her right after church, so that was great!

-We heard at the last minute that our zone was to have interviews with President Eccles today. So we had to change our schedule while we were at church - haha. We had it all worked out by the time we had finished sacrament meeting [worship service].

-Every week I have a zoom meeting with my Brazilian district and the missionaries from that mission. We practice our Portuguese and it helps us stay connected. This week I had the opportunity to give the spiritual thought! Oh, my Portuguese is still so bad, but I'm constantly working on it and trying to improve day by day.

-We had our interviews with President Eccles around 6:00-6:30pm. It's nice to be able to have these interviews and check in with him and let him know how we are doing.

I hope everyone's week was super great! Have another amazing week!!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Car wash

-One of the members of our Stake presidency brought his sweet Jaguar to our car wash

-Temple pics with companionship and President Eccles

Snow, Baptism, and Circus Training

Hey everyone! Had another great week here in beautiful Colorado Springs!!

Tuesday 9/8/20

-TRANSFERS! Nothing changed in my companionship. I'm still with Elder Miller (for his last transfer of his mission) and Elder Whitesell! Woot woot! But we were asked by the APs [assistants to the President] to help pick up some of the rental cars for a few other companionships in the mission, so we stood out in the freezing cold whether for about an hour and a half waiting to pick those up.

-The prediction about snow came true! We got snow - snow in September! The high/low today was 39/28 (*F). It started snowing around 2pm, so we took a couple of hours for our outside time and drove through Cheyenne Canyon with the snow falling all around us. It was beautiful!! We stopped to take some good pictures in the mountains.

Wednesday 9/9/20

-It was still nice and chilly today with the snow still stuck to everything except the roads. It was the perfect atmosphere if you ask me. But it is getting warmer as the days go by, it got up to 46* today with a steady climb throughout the week.

-So there are a few missionary companionships per zone set apart as social media specialists, and yesterday, the specialists over our zone asked us to become the admins for our zone's Facebook page. That means my companionship has a ton of new responsibilities in terms of our Facebook page, including checking everyone's posts before they go up to make sure everything's kosher, being up-to-date with all of the stats in relation to our page, and being in charge of our zone's weekly meeting to discuss post ideas and themes for each week, to name a few. We were definitely not expecting that assignment, but we're glad to take it and keep ourselves busy and more motivated to be Facebook oriented.

Thursday 9/10/20

-We were at the church pretty much all day today because the Cimarron Hills Sister missionaries needed us to be there. They can't do much work from their hotel room, where they are staying until they can move over to their new apartment next week. So, I got to do a bit of piano practice while we were there.

Friday 9/11/20

-Today we went to the church and made sure that the right size baptismal clothing was there in preparation for Roy's baptism the next day. Sister Tanner also got the program all finished up, so now everything is squared away, and we are completely ready for the baptism tomorrow!!

-Tonight we had our first in-person lesson with the Bascom family and it was just so amazing!! It's crazy how different it felt to actually be with people in person rather than over a video call. We tossed a frisbee around in their backyard with their kids, and then had a quick object lesson with them. They even invited some friends over to hear our message, so that was just so awesome!

Saturday 9/12/20

-Baptism day!! Roy's baptism was at 2pm and everything went perfectly! Brother Lang and Brother Ricks, some of Roy's close member friends, gave talks about the importance of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives. Brother Tanner performed the baptism and it was a powerful spiritual experience for everyone who attended, and especially for Roy. He said he's going to write down all of his thoughts and spiritual feelings in his journal. That is such a great thing to do so you can remember that feeling you had forever.

-We had another in person lesson tonight with the LeCheminant family. We were able to do a little service for them too. We wrapped a giant pad under a crazy looking rig. It turns out that Sister LeCheminant performs with circuses doing all kinds of acrobatic stuff with silks and hoops. She showed us some neat moves that we could try and then we did. It was insane! Elder Miller really kinda had a knack for it haha. Later, we ended the evening with a quick spiritual thought from the Book of Mormon about unity and how we can be closer to Jesus and our family.

Sunday 9/13/20

-In the evening, there was a worldwide Church devotional for the young adults that all the missionaries were invited to watch. It was a Face-to-face event with one of our current apostles, Elder Rasband and his wife. They shared some awesome advice and experiences with us, and then answered some questions about the gospel. It was really nice to have that spiritual recharge for the rest of the week!

Hope you all are doing well!

-Elder Bird

Another Transfer in Rustic Hills

Hey everyone!

Tuesday 9/1/20

-Elder Whitesell has a temple preparation class every night this week over zoom, so that he and a few other missionaries across the mission can go to the temple soon. That is usually something that prospective missionaries do before their missions, but because of Covid, all of the temples have been closed down. But the Denver temple is opening up for us to do certain ordinances, so all of the missionaries in the area are getting ready to go there, which is so exciting!!

Wednesday 9/2/20

-Tonight we had our last lesson with Roy before he's ready for his baptismal interview, which is awesome!! His faith in Jesus Christ and his testimony of the gospel is very strong. He is extremely excited to be baptized and do as much service as he can in the church!

-The mission leadership had their big meeting today and our zone leaders and sister training leaders came back with some good news, we are now able to teach lessons in person again! It can be in people's yards, and not just at the church building!! Small steps forward, but steps nonetheless!

Thursday 9/3/20

-Today we had another lesson with Patti. She has been reading the Book of Mormon, so we asked her to pray to know of it was true. We followed up with her about it and she said she knows without a doubt that it is true! We asked her if she would like to prepare for a goal of being baptized, and she is all for it!! Very exciting!

Friday 9/4/20

-We had a phone call with Roy to prepare him for his baptismal interview. We just went through what questions would be asked real quick. His interview is set with the ZLs for Sunday, and we know he is ready.

-The Sisters in Cimmaron Hills called and asked us if we could come help their ward clean the church building with them because not a lot of people showed up. [The church members take turns helping clean the church building so that the responsibility is shared.] So, we went over and washed all the windows and doors at all the entrances to the building.

-After cleaning, we stayed at the church building so that the Sisters could use the wifi. Meanwhile my companions and I prepared a bit of an outline for a video that the Tanners (our ward mission leaders) want to do with the ward.

Saturday 9/5/20

-We had to be at church pretty much all day for both sets of Sister Missionaries [for protection]. So, we made good use of our time by making phone calls to members, letting them know we can now teach in their yards and were able to set up some appointments for the coming weeks.

-We had our Facebook training today too and then the transfer "drop sheet" came and we found out the changes that were happening for the next transfer. Elder Miller, Elder Whitesell, and I are all three staying here again this transfer, so nothing special for us. I'm really glad because I will get to be here for Roy's baptism, Elder Whitesell going to the temple, and being with Elder Miller for his last transfer in the mission! The district, though, is losing Sister Workman (because she is finished with her mission) and Sister Wolf (who's going to a different area).

Sunday 9/6/20

-After sacrament meeting, Roy had his interview with the ZLs, and they told us he passed with flying colors, so he's all ready to go! And we got the form signed by the ZLs and him, so all of that is done already too.

-Tonight at our gospel principles class, we planned the baptism program out with Roy and the Tanners, so everything is going very smoothly this time.

Monday 9/7/20

-For the past few days we've been hearing that it's going to snow here in Colorado Springs tomorrow. I was skeptical at first, but tonight it got really cold and windy, so we're preparing for 6 or so inches of snow tomorrow!

-Elder Bird

Pasta Sauce and 911

Hey everyone!

Monday 8/24/20

-Today we went and got haircuts from Sister Workman to save some money; she's pretty good. While that was happening, Elder Whitesell got some news about going to the temple to get his endowment!! [With Covid-19 the temples have been closed so Elders have not been able to go.] He got so excited that he was jumping up and down and his phone flew out of his pocket and down three stories onto the concrete. Luckily, the screen protector took all the damage and his phone was completely fine! That was a miracle. Elder Miller and I are hoping that we are able to go with him to the temple in Denver (which is outside our mission), and even if we don't get to go inside the temple, just being on the grounds would be so cool! So we're hoping that neither of us gets transferred before that happens.

Tuesday 8/25/20

-The Cimarron Hills Sisters were finally moving out of their sketchy apartment, so we helped them move their big furniture down into the mission's storage unit. They don't actually have a new apartment yet, so they are just staying at other places temporarily until the new apartment is ready.

-Later we started the process of painting some signs for the car wash that my district is doing this coming Saturday. We are hoping that we can find a couple new people to teach from that. Brother Tanner (the Ward Mission Leader in our ward) had some big old signs that we painted over, so that was awesome.

-Then the Sisters wanted help cleaning their old apartment, so we went back and helped them out.

Wednesday 8/26/20

-Today was our service day at Care and Share. Afterward we went to the Mission Office because Elder Whitesell had an interview with President Eccles. Those usually run late so we scheduled out a ton of time for that - haha.

-In the afternoon we had a really good lesson with Roy over the phone. With this lesson we actually finished teaching him all the missionary lessons, so technically, all he needs now is the baptismal interview. But, we're going to meet with him again to go over some of the principles from previous lessons, just to make sure he really understands the things we're teaching him. He's made so much progress and is super excited to be baptized!! He's always asking what the next steps are for preparing him for baptism, which is so great! He is just an awesome guy, and the Tanners (Ward Mission Leader and his wife) are being so helpful in our lessons with him, when we do them in person at the church.

Thursday 8/27/20

-We had an awesome lesson with Patti with the Tanners at the church today! We went through the whole lesson about the Restoration and she said that everything just makes so much sense to her, which is so great! She has already had some experiences with feeling the Spirit, so she is very understanding of the promise that if she asks God with real intent if the Book of Mormon is true, she will receive an answer through the Holy Ghost, which is so cool!

-The zone leaders came by and dropped off some packages for Elder Whitesell (classic new missionary stuff lol.) One of the boxes had just six cans of pasta sauce, with nothing else in the box - random. It was really funny! He asked his mom if she knew who sent it, and after asking around, they have no idea who sent that to him haha!

-We had a lesson with Leilanie tonight over zoom, and she actually invited a friend. She had to leave early, but we continued to talk to her friend, but it didn't turn out so well. She didn't really want to talk with us and just tried to argue - what we call a "basher" (a person who interprets the bible differently from us and tries to use verses to disprove what we're trying to teach). It's a bit annoying when people tell you you're wrong every five seconds, but we were as civil as we could be, and just tried to end the call as fast as possible. The Spirit can't dwell in places of contention, and you can just instantly feel it leave when people start arguing. Leilanie seems more open to the things we're teaching, so I'm kinda glad she had to leave before all that happened. That really drained us for the night.

Friday 8/28/20

-We put up the signs we made for our carwash, so hopefully those attract some attention. We have also been sending out fliers to all our separate wards trying to get as many people to come as possible.

-My mom sent me a really awesome 1000 piece Star Wars puzzle that we had been working on, and tonight we finished that! Very exciting.

Saturday 8/29/20

-Had our car wash today! Brother Tanner provided us some hoses and a power washer and the other sisters got buckets, rags, sponges, and soap. We were all set to go from 2pm-5pm, and we had a few cars come through, like six or seven. But, then it started raining - like super hard! What luck. The one day it's not supposed to rain, and it rains - haha. We packed everything up and took shelter inside the church building. We stayed there just in case anyone happened to show up, but we were pretty confident that nobody would get their car washed in the middle of a rainstorm - LOL.

-While we were still at the church, a guy came up to the building and asked if we knew where the nearest hospital was. He had no car and was planning to walk there, but he said that he couldn't breath. So we called 911 to get some emergency service people to help him out. The fire truck and paramedics came, and after looking him over, they took him to the hospital. I'm so glad we stayed at the church so that we could help this guy get the help he needed.

Sunday 8/30/20

-Patti, a new person we are teaching, came to the Tanners' gospel principles class that we have every Sunday night at the church, and she loved it! We talked about families and other gospel principles. She is understanding all of the principles that she is being taught by us and the Tanners, which is so good to see.

-Elder Whitesell is starting a temple preparation class over zoom every night, which is awesome!

Monday 8/31/20 (Today)

-This morning we did a really strenuous hike called the Incline with the district. It's pretty much just stairs that go straight up a mountain, crazy! We had to stop to take a break like every 20-30 steps just because it was so steep. But it was a beautiful view when we got to the top and a really rewarding experience!

Hope you all have a great week!!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Helping the Sisters clean their apartment

-Finished puzzle

-Carwash sign we painted

-Incline Photos!!

-Us at the bottom

-Beginning the ascent

-Made it to the top!!

-Feeding a chipmunk part of a granola bar

Working Things Out

Big Howdy!! Had a good week.

Tuesday 8/18/20

-Zone Conference!! It's always nice to be able to do things in person and see the other missionaries. The Stake President gave us a little talk on including members in our missionary work and building trust with them. Then our Zone Leaders lead us in a training, teaching us how to help investigators recognize the Spirit when we teach. It was a really productive and helpful training!

Thursday 8/20/20

-We had 6 lessons planned for today, but only two actually happened. We had one with AnnaBelle and two people from her family that she brought with her, and one with Roy and the Tanners, our ward mission leader and his wife. It was almost only one, but Brother Tanner is very persistent and was able to help Roy meet with us. Both of the lessons were awesome!!

Friday 8/21/20

-Today we started to get this really bad haze from the smoke and ash coming from all the fires up in northern Colorado. We could barely see the mountains from our area (only about a 30 minute drive). We have been working really hard these past few days and have been missing our outside time, so we took a couple of our free hours and hiked up a trail to the summit of Mount Cutler. When we got to the top we could see a slight orange haze from the other side of Pike's Peak. We learned later that another fire actually started up on Pike's Peak, so that's a bit scary. Doubtful that it will get all the way down the mountain and into town, but still very sad to think about the mountains being on fire.

Saturday 8/22/20

-The Stake I'm serving in right now has a weird rule (not a common thing) where Sister missionaries can't be alone in the church building without a priesthood holder outside watching guard, even if the building is completely locked. And the Sisters in Cimarron Hills have been feeling not so safe in their current apartment, so they have been spending a lot of time at the church building while the housing coordinator gets them a new apartment. So we have been at the church a lot this week, guarding the building, and we just do our missionary work in our car.

Monday 8/24/20

-Today we got haircuts, prepared for our week, and then filmed a video for our zone's Facebook page. That's kind of the big focus right now, is making videos and regularly posting on our page to help us in our efforts to find more people to teach.

Hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Two Videos we made:

How do you obey the Lord?

How do you Hear Him with so many distractions around you?

Hectic Baptism Week!!!

Hey everybody!

I can't even begin to describe the gratitude I have felt for my Heavenly Father because of all the miracles that I have seen this week. One of the people we're teaching, AnnaBelle, had her baptism on Saturday and this whole past week has been crazy for us, getting her as ready and prepared as possible, for that essential ordinance. In the end, everything worked out so smoothly and she was able to be baptized on Saturday evening and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the following Sunday.

Monday 8/10/20

-We went bowling today for p-day with the other missionaries in our district. It was a lot of fun!

-In the evening, we had a super long, super good lesson with AnnaBelle and Sister Bascom who has been so awesome, and has been like a second mother figure for her. They both said they had time and were ready to finish off the last of the missionary lessons. So we finished teaching her everything that was left to teach and went through the baptismal interview questions with her, so that she would be ready for her interview.

-We brought a Baptism and Confirmation Record form that needed to be filled out before AnnaBelle was baptized, usually signed by the parents if under the age of 18. We had a bit of a hiccup with who was supposed to sign it though, because she is in the foster care system. We called our Zone Leaders, then the APs, and then our Mission President and literally no one knows who is supposed to sign that consent portion. President Eccles suggested we start with AnnaBelle's case worker and then her attorney to figure that out. He said he would do some research also and would get back to us.

Tuesday 8/11/20

-We got in touch with AnnaBelle's attorney this morning, and he told us that her biological mom actually still holds legal guardianship for religious freedom consent stuff. So that is good because AnnaBelle goes to see her mom occasionally and is actually seeing her a couple times this week. When President Eccles gets back to us with the "all-clear" for her biological mom to sign, we'll be able to meet up with them and get her signature.

Wednesday 8/12/20

-The next thing to do for AnnaBelle is to have a baptismal interview. This is done so that someone besides the missionaries doing the teaching, makes sure that the person who wants to be baptized understands what they are doing and the commitment that they are making. Usually the DL (district leader) does the baptismal interview, but if the DL is in the companionship with the baptismal candidate, it would usually go to the ZLs (zone leaders). Since Elder Miller is the DL, and the ZLs are unable to do it, President Eccles is going to be the one to do the interview with her. But, we are having a bit of trouble getting a hold of him because this entire week is packed with zone conferences and interviews with all the missionaries. Since he's so busy, we're gonna just have to wait for his response.

Thursday 8/13/20

-We did a lot of service today. We went over to Tony's house to pick some more weeds with him, and we ended up teaching him about the Restoration in his garage. He didn't seem too interested in us doing service, but I guess just misses talking with the missionaries in the area, so that's good. Next time we'll have to get him to come to the church building because that's the only place that we are actually cleared to do in person lessons right now. We think he's feeling the difference of the Spirit while we're there versus when he's on his own.

-We did some more service for Sister Mendenhall and while picking weeds, we finally got a call back from President Eccles. He gave us the go-ahead to get AnnaBelle's mom's signature and told us he was available for an interview only on Saturday morning. So, we'll have to do the baptism in the evening, which AnnaBelle said worked perfect for her, so everything is starting to fall into place.

Friday 8/14/20

-Today we met with AnnaBelle and her biological mom, and were able to get her signature on the Baptism and Confirmation Record form!! Now we just have the baptismal interview left to do and we'll be all set!

-Later we drove all the way down to Fountain to do some service for a lady that Elder Miller found on Facebook. We met the Elders from that area there too and we had good bonding time while picking weeds.

Saturday 8/15/20

-AnnaBelle's interview with President was this morning, and it went super well!! Which means that everything is all set for her baptism at 5pm!

-Sister Harrison handled the whole program, which was so nice for us because normally the missionaries have to do that. She found ward members who gave the talks and did the music. We headed over to the church early to fill up the baptismal font and to set up chairs. Elder Bryant (my last companion & trainer) and his companion showed up unexpectedly, which was so awesome to see him again. We got some great pictures with AnnaBelle and then we had some great speakers on the program. I was so honored to be the one to perform the actual ordinance and baptize AnnaBelle!! The Spirit so strong! It was an amazing day!

Sunday 8/16/20

-AnnaBelle's confirmation was done during sacrament meeting today by Elder Miller, and he gave her a wonderful blessing with it as well. So now AnnaBelle is officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and she is so happy to have finally become a member, she's been waiting a long time.

It's amazing to witness and be a part of someone's conversion process, and it has strengthened my own testimony so much. AnnaBelle is a huge inspiration to me and I'm so grateful to have had the privilege of teaching her and being there for her through her trials and through this bit of her journey.

Love you guys, have a super week!!!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-P-day bowling with the district

-The Sister missionaries dropped off some celebration cookies for us!!

-Elder Bryant and me with AnnaBelle

-My current companions and me with AnnaBelle

Facebook Finding

Howdy all you people!

Wednesday 8/5/20

-The Mission President told us all that we needed to get out of our apartments more, so we decided to play soccer and other sports at Palmer Park near our apartment. After our service at Care and Share, we went over to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought a nice soccer ball and a frisbee to keep ourselves active.

-We made a ton of phone calls to people in our area trying to set up lessons, for this week, with not too much luck. We got two responses from members in our ward for lessons later in the week.

-We moved our district game nights to Wednesdays because that seemed to work better for everyone. Tonight we met over at Paler Park and played a game called Signs until it got dark, it was super fun!

Thursday 8/6/20

-This morning we dropped off two copies of the Book of Mormon to a young couple in our area who we found on Facebook! They were extremely appreciative and they really want to learn more. We are going to set up a lesson with them sometime when they're not working, which might be kind of hard because they have some tough hours, but it's gonna be awesome!

-We did some yard work for a guy we called about a week ago named Tony. He is a guy who used to meet regularly with the missionaries in our area and was missing their chats. So while we worked, we talked about his past and a little about what he and the previous missionaries talked about. We got some awesome weeding in as well, so let's goooo.

-Later in the day, we took our dinner over to the Garden of the Gods because we wanted to show it to Elder Whitesell. Then we got out and hiked around one of the cooler areas there.

Friday 8/7/20

-Our District council this morning was great as always! Gotta love basic in person human interaction.

-In our efforts to find people I started up a Facebook group for the community in my area. It's centered around Jesus Christ and finding those who are willing to learn more about Him, and uplift and inspire others. Elder Miller, Elder Whitesell, and I went up to the top of Palmer Park to record a video for it, and I think we did a pretty good job!

Saturday 8/8/20

-We had a really good lesson with Roy today. He told us he stopped drinking coffee for good now!!! We are super stoked for him. We are talking to him about what his next steps will be for baptism because he is focusing on that goal now, which is super awesome!! So he's a lot closer to being baptized than we originally thought -- miracle!

Sunday 8/9/20

-Before church today, AnnaBelle had her interview with Bishop Cox and apparently it went super well. We're still shooting for her baptismal date which is this Saturday!!! Another miracle! All she has left to do to be fully ready is finish the last missionary lesson and have her baptismal interview with our zone leaders, then she'll be prepared for the 15th!!! Very awesome!

We saw a lot of miracles this week, so I just want to invite you guys to look for God's hand in your life. How has he helped you get through those tough times?

Love yall, have a great week!!

-Elder Bird

-Our video for our Rustic Hills Christian Community group on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/cayden.miller.986/videos/1205897386428912/

-The district after game night!

-Pulled pork sandwiches at Garden of the Gods

-Companionship pic from one of the rock formations at Garden of the Gods

Many Lessons

Monday 7/27/20

-While we were having dinner, DJ (who is AnnaBelle's previous foster father) called us and explained to us why he doesn't think AnnaBelle is ready for baptism. We had a really hard (and a bit heated) conversation with him, over the phone, that went on for almost an hour. But by the end of it we both apologized and kind of came to an understanding of each other. After that conversation I realized that this is where missionary work, especially the work that I am doing, suddenly became real to me. I knelt down and said the longest prayer I think I have ever said before and instantly felt a wave of comfort and relief flow over me. This was definitely the most difficult night I've had on the mission so far, and I know I'll have more like it, but I also know that I am not alone.

Tuesday 7/28/20

-TRANSFER DAY!!!!!!

-In the morning, Elder Miller and I went to a meeting for all the people who will be training a new missionary this next transfer. [A transfer is a period of 3 or 6 weeks.] Then during lunch, we socialized a bit (at proper distances) and met our new companions! Elder Whitesell is our new greenie!! [A "greenie" is a brand new missionary] He is understandably a bit shy right now, but we've assured him he will have the time of his life - haha! He is from South Carolina and just came from his at-home MTC experience, which is what new missionaries have to do now that the Missionary Training Center is closed due to Coronavirus.

-Later that day, we had three lessons back to back with non-members, which was the perfect introduction for Elder Whitesell into the mission field!

Wednesday 7/29/20

-Today we taught Elder Whitesell what to say during a typical phone call contact. We practiced by contacting a TON of members to try and set up some lessons and were able to schedule three lessons for the week.

Thursday 7/30/20

-Today we had a lesson over the phone with a member who had a way of dominating the conversation. We tried butting in a couple times, but it became exhausting after a while, so we kinda just sat there and listened to him preach for like an hour. Not very fun for us when that happens, but unfortunately it happens quite a bit.

-Elder Miller and I had our first weekly planning session with Elder Whitesell. This is the meeting we have once a week where we discuss who we are currently teaching, how we can better meet their needs, and how we can reach out and teach others.

Friday 7/31/20

-Today was our District Council Meeting, whoop whoop!! It's super awesome to be able to meet with the other missionaries in our district and talk about how we can help each other and find out what they are doing. Right now each "companionship" has three people! Trios! We are all training someone new.

-We had a very good lesson with Sister Christian where we made some awesome connections and shared some great insights.

Saturday 8/1/20

-August is here!! I can't believe it - so soon as well. July just flew by. Crazy!

-For our 'outside time' we drove over to the mountains and went for a nice scenic drive on a cool mountain pass. At one point we stopped to get out of our car and take a picture, and some people in another car driving past us were laughing with their phone camera pointed at us, so that was pretty funny, pretty classic.

Sunday 8/2/20

-Two of the people we're teaching, who have baptismal dates scheduled, came to our gospel principles class tonight, so that was awesome! We talked about the principle of missionary work in the Church and why it's important.

Monday 8/3/20

-Today we got a lot of stuff done for Elder Whitesell, so that's been taking up the majority of our day today.

-For our zone FHE, [Family Home Evening] we tried to play a missionary version of Mafia over zoom. That was very interesting and we are still working out the kinks - haha.

Hope everyone has a great week!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Full district after district council meeting

-The Rustic Hills bois (Elder Whitesell is the one on the right)

-Mountain pass we drove

-We had 7 pizzas this week because that's a lot of members' first meal idea for the missionaries haha.

Finishing Up My 'Training'

Howdy all!

Monday 7/20/20

-Last Monday we went on a hike to the Garden of the Gods with our district! We went on a hike and got to see some cool rock formations and take some good pictures! After picking up dinner from a member of the Church, we got some ice cream to finish off our Pday.

Tuesday 7/21/20

-Elder Miller and I started a new tradition of driving over to Palmer Park every morning and doing a lesson or two in our Ed App (which is like a training app for missionaries to know how to find and teach using technology and social media). It's been going really great so far, and we're starting to get into this new habit!

-We had a really good lesson with Earl today. He had kind of lost sight of his goal to be baptized, so we had a really good discussion about the next steps he needs to take in his progression and then we recommitted him to be baptized in September!

Wednesday 7/22/20

-I got an email from the MTC saying that people who are in temporary assignments are welcome to schedule times to meet with one of the instructors there to get some extra help in practicing their original mission language. I had my first virtual meeting tonight where we talked about my language study plan, and what things I might be able to be doing better to keep learning and progressing in my Portuguese.

Thursday 7/23/20

-In the morning we did two service projects for some members. For the first one, we cleaned out a garage so they could have people install a new garage door, and then we put all the stuff back inside. The other one we raked up some pine needles in a backyard and then did some weeding for a sister in the ward. Afterwards she insisted on buying lunch for us and it was so good!

Friday 7/24/20

-The city is doing some work on one of the main roads we drive on and some gravel/slur kicked up into one of our rotors. It was making a really horrendous grinding sound, so we tried to go to a car wash to power wash it out of there, but that didn't work. So we called our vehicle coordinator at the mission office, and he said just take it to Pep Boys and put it on the Church's tab with them. We did that, and it actually went really quick. We were only there for about half an hour and the guy we were working with said he wasn't going to charge us anything! That was cool.

Saturday 7/25/20

-We had another really good lesson with Earl today where we answered some questions he had about Adam and Eve and the Plan of Salvation. After the lesson, Elder Miller told me my teaching skills are improving a lot! That was awesome to hear from him.

-In the late afternoon we did our "outside time" with our district playing spikeball at a park. While we were playing, a kid came up and asked if he could play with us, so we let him join. It was really fun!

-In the car ride home from the park, we got a call from President Eccles. If someone is getting a leadership position or something for transfers, the mission president usually calls them one on one, but he said to put it on speakerphone, then he asked us both if we would be willing to train another missionary! We said yes of course!! At first we thought one of us might be leaving the area, but then we realized we were probably going to be in a trio, with both of us training a new missionary. It turns out we were right. The APs sent out the transfer sheet a little while later and we found out we were indeed both staying here and becoming a trio! So it looks like I will be training right out of my own training haha! That will be super exciting!!

Elder Miller and I are super excited to find out who will be our new greenie! Transfers are always super interesting times!

Love you all, have a great week!!

-Elder Bird

Online Missionary Work

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

Slow Week

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

Surprise Transfer

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

Work Hard, Play Hard

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

All Moved In (Finally)

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

Trucking Along

Hey everyone!

I had a much better week than last week haha!

Tuesday 6/9/20

-We went to a Young Men's/Young Women's activity where we were introduced to AnnaBelle! She had just moved here from Limon (which is a bit east of Colorado Springs) and had been working with the missionaries over there in the past. It seems like they had made some really good progress because she really wants to get baptized!!!! We'll set up a time to get to know her and her circumstances a little better in the coming weeks.

-My back is healing really well! Elder Bryant gave me a priesthood blessing Sunday night and it's been a miracle with how much progress I'm making every day.

Wednesday 6/10/20

-We did our service at the Care and Share center and while we were signing out and washing our hands, one of the girls from another group walked up to me and asked if my last name was Bird. She looked vaguely familiar. I said yes, and she said we were in the same FHE group while at BYU-Idaho; I then immediately recognized her. We talked for a second and then we had to go, but that was a crazy coincidence!

Friday 6/12/20

-We learned today that the apartment Elder Bryant and I were going to move into fell through. It looks like we'll have to move in with some other Elders to make room for whoever will be put here in our temporary apartment.

Saturday 6/13/20

-We did a lot of service today outside in the hot sun and I got straight fried. I'm super sunburned on my arms and the back of my neck. We got some aloe vera from the Spanish Elders, so hopefully that will help. I guess I should have put sunscreen on.

-The transfer sheet dropped tonight!! Every three weeks we have transfer Tuesdays, where the missionaries get moved around to different areas. The transfer sheet has every missionary in the mission laid out and organized for where they're gonna go (or stay) for the next transfer. Elder Bryant and I are staying here to finish my training, and we get to keep our car even though this is usually a biking area!!

Sunday 6/14/20

-Today we were told that we are going to stay with the zone leaders in the next zone over, which is about 25 minutes (driving) from our area, oof. That's probably why we got to keep our car. We packed up most of our stuff today so that we don't have to worry too much about it tomorrow.

-I couldn't seem to find my wallet anywhere. I looked all over our apartment, our car, the church building, you name it. I'm a little bummed about the cards and the money I had in there, but I'm really disappointed that my driver's license is gone. At least I have a paper copy of it, but that's going to be a real pain to get back. We have prayed to find it so hopefully it will turn up as we finish packing stuff and moving stuff around. And luckily, we know the Elders who will be moving into this apartment, so if they happen to find it, they'll let me know.

Monday 6/15/20

-Today is p-day (preparation day). We did laundry and finished packing up. I still am looking for my wallet. Wrote letters and talked to my family. As we were on the phone with someone at the mission office, requesting a new msf card [credit/debit card missionaries use] for me, Elder Bryant spotted my wallet. It was in the little space of the lever of the office chair. Very excited! I am so happy!

I just want to say that I am doing awesome, and despite the minor setbacks or difficulties, (they are minor) I am loving it out here! Elder Bryant is such a great trainer and a really caring companion.

For my spiritual thought, I'll share a scripture, Ether 12:27, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I'm definitely learning out here that my memory is one of my weaknesses. Whether it be forgetting to put on sunscreen or not remembering where I put my wallet, I know that I have been given this weakness so that I'm not lifted up in pride, and so that I can remember the Lord when I seek guidance from Him.

Love you all, hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Pictures-

-My district over facebook messenger video chat for 'family' prayer

-Benching it up!! (Not really haha)

-Police cars roaming around our apartment complex

-Can you spot my wallet?

Rough Week

Hey everyone! It has been a really interesting week to say the least.

Tuesday 6/2/20

-Early in the morning, around 8:30 after we had showered and were both making our beds, we heard some really loud bangs in our apartment complex. We figured it was probably gunshots and not fireworks because June 2nd isn't any holiday we know of, but you know, maybe it was somebody's birthday or something. Everything was fine after that, no police showed up or anything.

-Had a zone training after lunch which went really well! Our zone leaders (ZLs) are super funny and just really awesome dudes. Almost immediately after that ended, like five or ten minutes later, we heard 6 loud gunshots, much closer than the ones in the morning. After the shooting, we heard somebody yelling in our hallway to get inside and take cover, so Elder Bryant and I ran to our bathroom and called our ZLs, who told us to call the mission president. He told us to stay put and that they would try to get us out of that apartment as soon as possible. He then gave us permission to stay at Elder Allen and Elder Whitted's (the ZLs) apartment for the night.

-There were a ton of police cars in the parking lot when we left for the ZLs place, and apparently, they had locked down the outside of the building so no one could get in, but we could still come out

Wednesday 6/3/20

-We did some service at Car and Share, where we sorted through some products from a ton of various donators. It was really nice to get out of our apartment for a time, and it looks like this might be a weekly thing, so that's awesome! -Had some trouble staying focused while we were cooped up in our apartment, so we drove out to Palmer Park and got a really good view of the city and the mountains. From there, we made a ton of phone calls to try to find people to teach.

-We had a lessons scheduled with 2 different people, but they both canceled. We got cleared to do lessons in person at the church, and we were really looking forward to our lesson with Earl, who is on date to be baptized at the end of the month, but he called the Tanners (who are the ward mission leaders, and were going to be at the lesson with us) and they related to us that he had to postpone. It was a real bummer, but the Tanners bought us some ice cream at Wendy's as a consolation, they're so nice.

Friday 6/5/20

-We had a really great lesson with Lisa (which lasted for two hours!) where we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. She really loves how the Book of Mormon kind of clears up some of the more confusing parts of the Bible. At the end of the lesson, she committed to be baptized!!! She is such a sweet woman!

-Today we moved into a vacant missionary apartment temporarily until our housing coordinators find us a good permanent one. There are a couple problems with it, such as the bathtub drain is clogged, and our water heater doesn't stay on for more than five minutes, but I am definitely grateful to be somewhere safer than the old one.

Saturday 6/6/20

-In the afternoon, the Hudsons called us (they are a part-member family we're teaching) and said they were doing some yard work and asked if we would be able to help them. So we dropped everything we were doing (which wasn't much) and went over to do some service for them. They're big on gardening, so we were pulling some weeds for them. But when I bent down to pick one up, I felt a sharp pain in my lower back.

-Earl bailed out again on our lesson with him and the Tanners. We're not sure what's going on with him lately. Elder Bryant told me he was really solid before I came. Just had something come up again I guess.

Sunday 6/7/20

-Today was really hard because of my back. It actually got worse overnight. Maybe it was morning stiffness, but it hurt really bad. I woke up at about 4am and had to use the restroom, but I could barely get out of bed. It took me an hour to hobble around to grab some acetaminophen and use the bathroom.

-I stayed in bed all morning due to the pain. At one point I was trying to get up, but I just couldn't because it hurt so much. At another point, I was trying to do some stretches on the ground, but I couldn't get up for almost two hours. Elder Bryant really wanted to help me up a couple times -- he said it was really hard for him to watch me suffer trying to get up -- but it just hurt too much for him to help me as well.

-I was so exhausted in the afternoon that I accidentally slept through one of our lessons; Elder Bryant thought it would be best for me to sleep to get some energy back.

-As the day went on, I was getting slightly better.

Although I was having a really hard week this week, I got to put into effect the challenge I gave in last week's email, which was to list the things that I'm grateful for in order to invite the Spirit back into my life. I know that we all go through trials, and I was definitely due for a couple. As we go through these trials, it's really our attitude that determines how we are going to act: will we turn to God and seek his refuge, or will we forget that he is the one in charge and blame him for not doing more?

I've been really loving this scripture right now: 2 Nephi 2:24, "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me, and I will choose to thank Him for my trials so that I might learn and grow from them.

I am still loving it out here, and I am grateful for ALL the experiences that I have already had and will continue to have, whether they be good or bad.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

-Screenshot from video I sent for President and Sister Stevenson's farewell

-My office chair broke haha

-Buffalo Wild Wings dinner!!

-Shiny new bullet casing we found outside our apartment

-Bullet holes in the wall in the hall where the gunshots were fired

New Adventures in Colorado Springs

Hey everybody!

I'm back! For those of you who haven't heard, I have been temporarily reassigned to the Colorado Colorado Springs Mission, at least until it's safe for missionaries to return to their original missions. I am hoping to go back to Brazil, but I'm just not sure if that will happen. And even if I don't go back, I would be more than grateful to finish my service here in Colorado!!

As of this email, I've spent as much time "in the field" here in Colorado as I had in the field in Brazil haha! And this time, we have smartphones, so we can at least do some finding and teaching while stuck in our apartments, and I am loving it so far!

I arrived in Colorado last Monday with a bunch of other missionaries. The Mission President, his wife, and the Assistants to the President (APs) met us at our gate and took us to a church building where we took some pictures and had lunch. Then they took us to a hotel that was close by, where we spent that night. It was a pretty uneventful night.

The next morning, we went back to the church building where the Mission President gave us an introduction/'orientation' and we all met our new companions. In order to keep proper social distancing, we were all spread out throughout the chapel and when President Stevenson announced who was with who, they just stood up and we waved to one another.

My new companion is Elder Bryant! It's kind of funny that two basketball player's names got put together. Sometimes we call each other Elder Kobe and Elder Larry haha!!

He's a stud, a super cool dude. When I told him I had only been in the field for six days, he got super excited to have the opportunity to train me. We got to our apartment and I unpacked all my stuff. We had 3 over-the-phone lessons, but they all had to reschedule. So Elder Bryant pretty much just spent the rest of the day teaching me how to set up my phone and how to use the apps we use. To end each day, we have a video call with our district to say a 'family' prayer, which is awesome.

One really cool thing we had the chance to do this week was to drive to Elder Bryant's previous area, Cañon City, so that he could baptize a woman that he was teaching. We were only allowed to have a total of ten people at the baptism, but other than that, it went really well! I was able to play the piano for the hymns we sang, so I thought that was a nice way for me to participate, and Elder Bryant was the one to baptize Maureen. It was very sweet. After the baptism, Elder Bryant showed me some cool spots around Cañon City. We also visited a family that he had previously baptized, and we had a really good conversation with them.

As a spiritual thought, I just wanted to share something that our zone leaders brought up during our district council this week. Elder Whitted mentioned that a really easy (and I guess efficient) way to invite the Spirit is through feelings of gratitude. So he asked everyone present to just quietly and very intently think about something for which we were truly and undeniably thankful. After a minute or so, he asked a couple people to share what they were thinking about. As people shared, Elder Whitted pointed out how our voices had instinctively quieted down and our meeting had shifted from funny and laughing to more solemn and serious. In those moments, the Holy Ghost in that meeting became so tangible, and it was a real testament to me about how powerful having a grateful attitude in our lives is.

I would invite you to try this out! If you are ever feeling a bit lost or out of place, go somewhere quiet and think about or maybe list the things you are truly grateful for, and take a minute to pay attention to the atmosphere around you. I promise you that if you will do this, you will be able to feel the Spirit, and I know this because I have felt it in my life.

I've had a great week, I'm loving the work, and I'm so happy to be exactly where I am right now!!

I love you all!!

-Elder Bird

Out Again!

Nathan leaves for his new mission assignment - Colorado Springs.

Stuck in Quarantine!

Hi Everyone,

I just thought I'd write a quick update for you everyone on the "mish sitch" [mission situation].

Wednesday 3/25/2020 - I'm back home now in the United States! It was great to be able to see my family for the first time at the airport. Here at home, I am being self-quarantined for two weeks and then I'm supposed to be temporarily reassigned to a different mission in the States, at least until I'm able to go back to Brazil (if ever). They're not going to release me from my calling (which means I will remain a missionary) unless there are any new developments that the church makes in regards to missionaries.

It has been a little hard to return home after not having the chance to do any actual work in Brazil, especially with progressing in the language. I have been reading a lot of scriptures (because there's not really much else to do, and I can only play the piano so much) and I've found some comforting and inspiring messages from there.

I have been called to be a representative of Jesus Christ and declare His word unto all people and I know that He will prepare a way for me to be able to do it whether it be in Brazil or somewhere in the US. I know that Christ directs His Church on the earth today and I know that my Redeemer leads me, loves me, and walks beside me. I have felt for myself the Spirit that accompanies the teachings in the scriptures and I know through personal revelation that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith and contains the fullness of Christ's everlasting gospel on His earth today.

I love you all so much, keep staying optimistic and putting your trust in God and His son!

Sinceramente,

-Élder Pássaro

The End of Brazil

Hello Everybody,

I left the Brazilian CTM [Missionary Training Center] and arrived to my mission last Tuesday. We had a big mission conference with all the novinhos (newbies) and met our companions and were told our zones and where we would be serving. I was put with Elder Espinoza, who is from Bolivia, and we would be in the Zona São Bernardo. We then went to our apartment and it was pretty chique (coolio).

The next day we were about to go to a zone conference, but we got a call saying we had to go back to our casa (home). We couldn't meet together because of the Coronavirus. Then later that night we got another call from our leaders saying we were being quarantined for an unknown amount of time. So the days have been going by slowly and we haven´t been able to do any work. It gets so boring just being in our apartment.

On Sunday, we had church in our casa and I made a xadrez (Chess) set to pass the time with Elder Espinoza. That afternoon, we got another call from our zone leaders and they said we will have to be quarantined for at least four more weeks, so it was looking like I wouldn't be doing any actual work until May.

Then Sunday night when we were about to go to bed, we got yet another call, this time from the Assistantes (Assistants to the President of the Mission). They said that all foreign missionaries in Brazil will have to return home and will probably be reassigned to their home country. Elder Espinoza and I were shocked! They also said that I needed to pack right away and had to be ready to leave at any moment.

I am very sad that I have to leave Brazil so early. I was just getting started. But, I will always put my trust in the Lord, that he knows what is best for me, and I will follow His will for me at all times. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be able to come to Brazil and learn some Portuguese. Hopefully, I will be able to continue learning and growing in the language in my free time. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the missionaries who are feeling a little bit lost at this time, and I am also praying for all of you guys back home. I love you all, and I will see you soon.

Sinceramente, com muito amor e coração,

-Elder Pássaro

[Sincerely, with much love and heart, --Elder Bird]

The End of the CTM

Hey Everyone!!

I am writing today because my P-Day is switching from Wednesdays to Mondays now that I am leaving the CTM. Today is my last day in the CTM! I am very excited to leave and get out into the city of Sao Paulo.

This Coronavirus thing is getting crazier and crazier. I'm sure most of you are aware of all the temporary changes and precautions the church is taking in order to mitigate the problem, including cancelling sacrament meetings and all church gatherings. This will definitely make missionary work much harder. I'm not sure what our situation will be in the field, but there are a lot of things that missionaries in other missions are not able to do, so we'll see how that goes.

In other sad news, my mission president sent an email out to all the missionaries serving here that says we won't be able to go to internet cafes to get wi-fi to write and check emails. I am not sure when or where I will be able to write, so this letter might be the last one for a bit.

It will be hard to leave my district, the 10 other missionaries I have been learning with. We have been together everyday for six weeks, but I'm sure I will see some of them in the field over the course of these next two years. I'm sure I will be humbled this week because my Portuguese is still not quite the best! I hope that I get a native Brazilian trainer so that he can help me kick my language skills into gear. I'm super stoked to try to speak to the people here.

I've loved my time in the CTM, and there was definitely a ton of spiritual growth and preparation that happened to me here. I just want to bear my testimony that I know this Church is true, I know that Joseph Smith was truly called of God to bring to pass the Restoration of Christ's church and gospel when he was on the earth, and I know that I will be able to do all things through Christ and His Atonement. I also know that this virus will pass, and that everything will all work out.

Vai dar certo! [It will work!]

I love you all, and I will write whenever I am able. Good luck until then!!

--Elder Bird

Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Pictures -

1. São Paulo Brazil temple

2. Everyone in my district, plus our zone leaders before they left

3-4. Sao Paulo Brazil CTM [missionary training center]

A Crazy Mosquito

Tudo Bem!

Thursday 3/5/20 - We had our first (out of two) lesson with our Devisão (splits) companions today. I think it went pretty well, except that nobody really knew what was happening and there wasn't really any supervision. But we had lunch with our companions and Elder Gómez is a really nice guy. He definitely made up for my slack during our lesson.

In the evening, Irmã Nascimento showed a really funny video about some missionaries trying to teaching a real lesson. The first lesson was awkward because the person the missionaries were trying to teach, didn't fully understand what was being taught, so the next lesson, four days later, was all about clearing up the miscommunications. It was also funny because the video kept pausing and starting because of a crazy mosquito that was buzzing and flying into the touch screen TV.

Tão Engraçado! [So funny!]

Saturday 3/7/20 - Today we had Member TRC for the first time, which is similar to regular TRC, but rather than an "interested person," we were practicing having a lesson with someone who is already a member of the Church. Elder Bone and I taught 'Victor,' who was super nice and joke-y with us for the whole visit. He even memorized and recited the scripture we were going to share with him which was really impressive. It was super fun to teach him about member missionary work and we invited him to talk with someone at work about the gospel. Irmão Aravena warned us that a lot of missionaries are tempted to stay longer than they should with the members, and now I understand why. It was just so easy-going and we actually understood what Victor was saying, so we wanted to talk more with him. Overall, it was good to see what things might be like in the field so that we will be able to understand and heed Aravena's advice.

Monday 3/9/20 - We're going into our last full week here at the CTM. Today we had three practices with teaching interested people, and we will continue to have as many per day. *Our goal as a district this week is to not speak any English during our classes, so that we don't go off topic as much, and to practice what we know, which is really a lot more than what I presume we all think. I'm surprised at myself sometimes when I can actually find the words to say what I am actually thinking in my head. I'm so grateful for all the resources that are provided to us missionaries for the purposes of learning the language and the doctrine. I know that we have come far from the time that we arrived here, but I also know that most of the real learning will come when we get into the field. I can't wait to get out of the CTM and serve with all my coração, poder, mente e força! [heart, power, mind and strength!]

Pictures:

1. Classico Tag picture & Campinas temple

2. All the Elders and Sisters in my CTM district

3. Me and Elder Sabel

4. Campanions and matching sweaters (Me & Elder Bone)

End of Week 4

Thursday 27/2/20 - During our afternoon instruction, we got some bad news. Sickness has been plaguing the CTM, so any instructor who was sick had to go home and remain there, effective immediately. This included one of our favorites, Irmão (Brother) Aravena. We'll miss him while he's gone. As he was leaving, another Irmã (Sister) came in and told us that anyone who had any symptoms of sickness had to wear a face mask. That meant pretty much everyone in my district got a face mask, and we have to wear it for a couple days. (See picture below)

Friday 28/2/20 - We have been hearing about the Coronavirus and found out that there was a first confirmed case in South America, and it just so happens to be in São Paulo. Kinda scary. But everyone here was joking and saying, "What if it's someone in the CTM." I would definitely not be happy if I had to go home because of the virus.

Saturday 29/2/20 - Muitas coisas interessante aconteceram hoje. [Many interesting things happened today] We were scheduled to go out proselytizing today, which is just talking to people on the street and getting their contact information for future visits from missionaries. Everyone in my district was nervous, but all ready to go out; we had practiced how to start conversations with people and were ready to use them on people to help them come closer to Christ. All the missionaries who were going out were out by the vans waiting to leave when our district was next to get in a van. So we all piled in and were sitting there joking about not having to go due to Coronavirus when one of the staff opened the door and said it had been cancelled. We were all like, "Serio???" super shocked and then he said "Yeah, for real." So we all clambered out of the van and headed back to our classroom while we waited to know what the actual cause was. Then Irmão Aravena came in and told us it was mostly because it was the end of Carnaval, but it was in part because of Coronavirus too. He told us it would be too big of a risk for a missionary to catch it and spread it around the CTM, where people are being sent all over Brazil, Argentina, and even a few to Japan. It would definitely not be good if the virus spread all over South America because of the missionaries.

Tuesday 3/3/20 - Eu acho que estou se tornando melhor em ler e escrever frases em Português , mas eu ainda não posso totalmente entender quando as pessoas falam muito rápido. [I think I'm becoming better at reading and writing Portuguese phrases, but I still can't fully understand when people speak too fast.]

Love you all, and I hope you all have a great week! Tchau tchau!!!

-Elder Bird

Pictures:

1-2. The unlucky ones who have to wear face masks (including me)

3. Us and our Brazilian roommates the night before they left the CTM (last week)

4. Me trying on Elder Nicol's glasses at the police station (last week)

Fingerprinted in Brazil

Olá todas!

Friday, 2/21/20

Today, we had to wake up a little earlier in the morning to go to the Federal Police Station and get fingerprinted for an extension of all our visas. When all the missionaries apply in the States, they only grant up to one year visas. We were there for about four hours, from about 7:10am when we left until about 12:00pm when we got back. Later in the day, my companion Elder Bone told us (our district) that he and his sister were the main actors in one of the EFY theme music videos. We aren't allowed to access youtube on the computers in the CTM (Centro de Treinamento Missionários), but we convinced one of our instructors, Irmã Nascimento to look it up on her account access in our classroom. She looked up the video and sure enough, there he was. I'm not sure exactly what the video is called, but if you look up "Trust in the Lord March 2019" you might find it.

Monday, 2/24/20

Our Brazilian roommates are leaving the CTM early tomorrow morning, which will mark about the halfway point for my district here. Portuguese has been coming along very well I'd say.

Our TRC interested person, Leonardo (I'm not sure exactly what TRC stands for, but it's where we practice teaching to one person (an instructor who is acting like a person they taught on their mission) in Portuguese over the course of two weeks), committed to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and I understood most of his questions. I know that as we keep progressing in the language we will be able to better share gospel principles and be able to more eloquently testify of those principles.

Elder Sabel, a Brazilian missionary who had previously learned a ton of English, will also be leaving in the morning, so the Elders in my district wanted to sing him his favorite hymn, "If You Could Hie to Kolob." We have been friends with him since we got here and it will be sad to see everyone leave. He got all of our emails though, so I hope to hear from him while in the field.

I forgot to grab my camera cable, so I can't add pictures this time, but I will put double the pictures next week.

Love you all, and I hope you all have a great week! Tchau tchau!!!

-Elder Bird

Picture of us talking with Nathan [Elder Bird} this morning.

Speaking Portuguese!

Tudo Bem!

My district is awesome! We have a ton of fun with each other as we learn all that we are supposed to do, and someone is always cracking a joke. It helps that we got a little bit of bonding time over our journey in Miami.

Portuguese is coming much quicker than I would have thought. My companion Elder Bone and I have been doing practice lessons with our instructor, acting as a person who is interested in learning about the gospel, and we've been doing it entirely in whatever Portuguese we know. We were allowed to write down a couple key points for our lesson, but responding to his questions was difficult because we still have much to learn (obviously). It was very rewarding though leaving those lessons knowing we had spoken entirely in Portuguese.

Sundays are always a little scary because our Branch President doesn't give any of the missionary speakers any warning. When we walk in for Sacrament meeting, the names of those speaking are written on the board, and those people have to give a talk in Portuguese, coming up with about five minutes of material on the weekly topic including a relating scripture. After those people, some of the leaders give their talks in English.

Each P-Day, the missionaries get to visit one of two temples, either São Paulo or Campinas. Today we went to Campinas which is almost two hours away with traffic. After doing a session and taking some pictures, we come back to the MTC and are allowed to leave on foot to check out some of the shops within a certain boundary. Today before writing emails and talking with my family, Elder Bone and I checked out the post office and a little stand that sells some really cool leather scripture cases.

This week, for one whole day, our district made a goal to do an English fast, which means we wouldn't speak English for the entire day. It was very difficult. I think we all felt kind of trapped when we couldn't properly express our thoughts and feelings. It was interesting to see the different ways the missionaries came up with alternative ways of saying things. One example is that during lunch, we were trying to say "the chicken is dry," but we couldn't find the right words, so one of the other Elders came up with "Meu boca está deserto;" in English, "my mouth is a desert." By our last class for the day, all of our brains were fried and everyone was so tired. Although it was hard, I think that we will be blessed for trying our hardest and making that sacrifice of our native language.

Considering my district has only been here for thirteen days, I'm very proud of how far we've already come. I think it is definitely much easier to learn a new language when you have a purpose for actually using it, but I also believe that we as missionaries are being blessed to be able to learn it much faster through our faith in the Spirit of God. I know that if we open our mouths to speak, the Lord will help us to know what to say.

-Elder Bird

Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Pictures:

1. Me and Elder Bone (my companion) in front of the Campinas Temple

2. Purple flowers and the Angel Moroni on top ot the temple

3. The Elders in my district (From left to right: Me, Elder Brinton, Elder Winters, Elder Pontius, Elder Bone, and Elder Hattori)

4. Some other Elders from the 'Miami District'

First P-day!

Tudo Bem! Hey everybody! This is my first Preparation Day in the MTC here in Brazil. On this email, I will try to share a couple stories or experiences and then a spiritual thought.

From the first day of being a missionary, I have been having some interesting adventures. My travel plan was to fly from SLC to Dallas, and then straight from Dallas to Sao Paulo; however, it did not exactly work out that way. From SLC to Dallas was great! I was with a couple of other missionaries who were also travelling to the MTC in São Paulo, and we talked a bit before the flight. Then in Dallas, we had a bit of a layover until our next flight. When we flew in, there were already some other missionaries waiting at the gate that we met, and then some missionaries from Colorado landed and we all formed kind of a big group There was about 20 of us. A couple of us went to get some Subway for the next leg of our trip, and I decided to save my sandwich for the flight. When it was time (around 7:30pm), we got onto the plane each in different seats around the plane and we were on our merry way. A few hours in, I thought it would be a good idea to get some sleep, so I set my screen to the flight plan and tried to get some sleep.

When I woke up, I checked my screen and it said we had turned around over Central America and we were now headed to Florida. There were a lot of confused people, and then the pilot came on the speaker and confirmed that we were going to land in Miami to fix some "maintenance problems." (Send me a separate email to get the scoop on what it actually was.) We landed in Miami around 12:30am, and we were all hoping to leave again after the problems were solved. We did not. We were sitting stuck at the terminal for about another 3 hours, and then finally they said we had to deboard the plane. They said the flight would be there until a new flight crew could come back in the morning; they told us we will board at 6:30am. So the group of us missionaries found a different terminal to sit down, chat, or sleep.

Time rolls around to when they said we would board, and we stood there waiting for another half hour. They kept pushing back the time by a half hour every half hour. We finally got back on the plane around 9:30am, delayed another 3 hours. Then we sat on the tarmac waiting for our turn to take off. The captain came on the speaker saying we needed to go back to the gate so that he could sign some paperwork and refuel. Ugggh. We deboard again another half hour later. I was closer to the front of the plane, so it was kind of funny though seeing all the missionaries come off the plane and form this big group. They told us they needed a different flight crew and that the plane would leave at 3:30pm. Sit around, sleep on the floor, eat complimentary snacks; board the plane for the third time at 4:00pm. Sat on the tarmac for about another hour, and then finally took off around 5:00pm, almost 20 hours after we left Dallas. This time the flight actually went to Brazil, and we landed in São Paulo at 2:00am. Went through customs, got all our bags, and met our drivers around 4:00am. Traveled in our vans to the MTC and finally arrived at 4:40am, about 21 hours behind schedule. We had a couple minutes to email our families that we arrived safely, and then just went on with our day without getting sleep.

Everything since then has gone very well, and I'm so thankful that we were able to have that time together to get to know each other. Many of those missionaries are in my district, and the rest are in the next district over, so it's really nice to have some friends here.

Have to go now, my time ran out. I'll try to get a spiritual thought in next time. Hope you all have a great week!!!

-- -Elder Bird

Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Arrived at MTC

Hello!

I made it to the MTC in Brazil around 5:00am this morning, after spending 36+ hours in various airports and airplanes. Just allowed a quick email to let you know that I am alive and well. My companion is Elder Bone and we're just getting thrown into the fire here (not a pun, but also kind of, because it's blazing hot in Sao Paulo). The group of missionaries I was with in Miami have all gotten to know each other pretty well, so it's nice to have made some friends already. Hope you are all doing well. Love you!!

My P-day is on Wednesdays so an email will be coming then!!

-Elder Bird Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Nathan leaves for the Brazil MTC

Tim, Ryan, and I took Nathan to the airport this morning. He was bound for the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Sao Paolo Brazil. There were other missionaries that were on the same flight, so luckily he won't be traveling alone. They have a layover in Dallas, and I am sure there will be other missionaries bound for the Brazilian MTC that they will meet there.

Later in the day one of the parents of those missionaries texted me a notice that the flight the boys were on, left Dallas and after flying past Cuba and almost to South America, was diverted back to Miami Florida. We are assuming there was some sort of plane malfunction or medical emergency. We have been monitoring the flight status since then and they have not left Florida yet.

02/05/2020

After being delayed for several hours the flight finally left Florida around 5pm EST. Hopefully all is well now and they are actually on their way. I wonder what all those newly, off their cell phone boys, did to keep themselves busy for all those hours in the airport.

Elder Nathan Bird
Sao Paulo South Brazil
Colorado Springs Colorado

Contact Information:

E-mail Address:
nathan.bird@missionary.org

Current Mailing Address:
Elder Nathan A. Bird
Av. Dr. Luiz Rocha Miranda
159-8* Andar
Parque Jabaquara
Sao Paulo 04344-010
Brazil