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6/25/18
Hi everyone!!
This is the last email I will send home for my mission blog. It is so weird that things are ending soon! I had my departing interview with President Savage today, and it is starting to sink in that I'm really going home. This upcoming week is going to be very, very busy, but I'm super pumped to finish strong.
I just want to bare a short testimony. I have loved being a missionary for the church and I have come to know that the Book of Mormon is a true book. Because it is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and restored the gospel here on the earth. I know that all this is true because I have read it and taught it, and I've watched people learn it and better their lives because of it.
I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I know that he suffered and took upon himself our sins and our afflictions and our burdens and everything, so that we could return to Him. I have felt relief in times of discouragement and trials because of this act - the atonement. I have seen others find so much peace because of Jesus Christ. I can feel His love all around me as I testify of him everyday.
I know that Heavenly Father loves us and has a very specific plan for each of us, even if we think things are not going so well. He sees the big picture of our lives and helps us become better people. Heavenly Father knows us and what will best help us to grow and learn. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's very specific plan for me.
I love God, I love the Savior, I love the restored gospel. And I LOVE MY MISSION.
Elder Bird out
6/18/18
Hi Everyone!!
What an awesome week we had this week! So many cool things happened, and it is so weird to think that things are winding down for me. On Thursday, I went to my last zone conference, and gave my departing testimony - so crazy! I have seen so many other missionaries sharing their departing testimonies and now it was my turn. It is surreal to have it finally happen.
We worked hard this week trying to build up a good pool of investigators. We have one person, Emily, who is solidly progressing in the gospel and with the missionary lessons. She is super busy though, so it makes it tough for her to keep her appointments with us or come to church. Also, we were able to find two new investigators this week, Deon and Angela.
Angela was found by Elder Burt and Elder Baker on exchanges last Wednesday, and then taught by Elder Siler and me on Saturday. She is a super cool lady from the south and told us she had cousins that are LDS. As we taught her, she kept asking kind of weird questions about things she had "heard." We tried to clear things up as best as we could. Then she asked us why we didn't celebrate holidays. It was then that we realized that her cousin is actually a Jehovah's Witness and not Mormon. She was having a hard time understanding the difference between the two. But, we cleared it up and she became pretty interested in what we were teaching and in reading the Book of Mormon. We are excited for her moving forward!
Deon has a cool story! I first talked to Deon about a year and a half ago back in Arvada, in the Arvada 3rd ward. Then when I went back on an exchange, I found him again and he let the current Arvada Elders back in and they taught him for a while. Then he moved, and so we lost all contact with him. Well, a few months back, when I was still in the Skylake ward, I went on an exchange here in U-Hills with Elder Braegger. I ran into Deon again and he totally remembered me! I was so excited! But, I was only on an exchange and so went back to Skylake. The current Elders told me not too much came from the contact with him, and so the miracle of seeing him again slipped away from him learning more about the gospel. But, now I'm in U-Hills and last Sunday, we ran into him as he was walking his dog!! He decided to have us for dinner and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. We marked up a copy for him, and he is currently reading through it. How insane is that?? Some things are definitely not a coincidence and I think I was meant to teach him. It just shows how Heavenly Father knows each of us and what we need, and will make opportunities for us.
Speaking of miracles and "no coincidences," the most exciting news of the week is that Monika Manzo from the Skylake ward area (my last area) is getting baptized this Saturday!!! Elder Christensen called me this past Friday night and let me know. Monika is someone Elder Bjerga and I found in March, and that Elder Christensen and I had taught frequently while we were together. Her and her young children were coming to church just about every week right before I left Skylake. And now, she is making the commitment to be baptized and join the church! It is hard to express my feelings of how much joy and happiness I have in my heart seeing her make this commitment. Because we missionaries move often, it is actually pretty rare to find someone by knocking on their door, watch them go through the whole investigation process by teaching them, and then see their baptism. I will never forget the night we knocked on her door, at 8pm and in the middle of a small snow storm. She told Elder Bjerga and I that she would normally never open the door, but that she felt bad for us and so opened up and invited us in. She said she just felt prompted to do so, and that "it was right." Little did she know at the time, that this small step would bring so much happiness into her life. I am so grateful for the chance I had to be a part of Monica's story and the miracle of her finding the gospel of Jesus Christ. This work is truly amazing and I am so grateful to be a missionary.
I love you all!
Elder Bird
6/11/18
Hi!!
What an awesome week in the work here in the U-Hills ward! It seems to just keep going on as we learn more about the area and all the people we can teach here!
On Tuesday I went on an exchange in the Willow Creek area, which was in my old district when I was serving in the Cherry Creek and Piney Creek wards. It was a biking exchange and we had lots of fun out in the sun, biking around. But, as you can probably tell from my subject line though, I got into a little bit of an accident that day. While biking around, my brakes locked up and the bike bucked me off - I flew over the handle bars and landed on the cement. I was mostly okay, but hurt my leg pretty bad. I pushed through it for the rest of the day, but learned that it was a sprained ankle the next day. Such a bummer! Luckily, it wasn't too bad, and it healed up quickly. Some elevating, wrapping, and icing was all it took to heal right up.
Wednesday morning we had the chance to go to the temple, which is always a great experience. I got to see Sister Simmons there that morning, which was a big blessing! I also got to be in the same session as Elder Christensen and President Savage. It was so good to catch up with them and find out how the least three weeks have been going.
This week in the work, we learned that Akuch and Aleeza are going to be moving back to Tennessee on Friday. We were so sad to find that out! We hope to get the missionaries there to work with them and hopefully keep Akuch going to church out there. With them leaving, we worked really hard to find more people to teach. We spent some time flipping through the area book and looking at who has been taught in the past, and if they might want to see missionaries again.
We found two awesome families that let us right in, when we went by! The first family is a woman named Carol who has 6 kids. The kids were all pretty rowdy and crazy, but I loved getting to know their family, and trying to share something about Jesus that would be exciting for the kids. The kids are actually going to a Bible Camp this week to learn more about God, and we told them we would show them the hand signals for the ten commandments when we see them next. The other family consists of a woman named Jennifer, and she has 4 kids, all rowdy and fun like Carol's kids. Turns out they both live in the same apartment complex. It was fun to get to know her family as well, and we had a great talk. With Carol and Jennifer, and someone else we are teaching named Amber, we are now teaching 3 families with young kids. So fun! The ward is going to try and put together a primary activity that they all might like, so that they'll feel included! We are so excited for them all to come to church and meet everyone in the ward!
With these families we are teaching and more investigators in the works, I am loving this place to death. I can't wait for this upcoming week!
Elder Bird
6/4/18
I love it here! I am just starting to settle into the ward, the work, the zone, our assignment, and all that. It was kind of a transition to go from the Skylake area and the office work, to regular missionary work, but I love it here and am excited for this transfer.
Our biggest assignment here as Zone Leaders is to help the District Leaders be successful in their assignments. We get to go to each of their district meetings, see how they are doing, and make suggestions and give ideas of what might work a little better. Luckily, all of our District Leaders are awesome and are doing an amazing job! We had a chance to go to all of their meetings and loved what they are doing!
Also as Zone Leaders, we get to go to the Mission Leadership Counsel and share our opinions on the things going on around the mission. We went up to Brighton on Friday and discussed different things as a counsel with the other Zone Leaders, STL's, AP's, and the President. One of the things we discussed was what the mission baptismal goal should be for the month of June. Our goal for May was 35, and we came in just a little bit under our goal with 32 baptisms. It was a mission record for all the time the Savages have been here! It was really a great month. We all got together and decided the monthly goal for June should be 41. It is summer and missionary work is always sweet in summer, and there are lots of people that are ready this month. Our zone's goal alone will be 12, and I know we can do it, and help people come closer to Christ in this way. Then we got to see a preview of a musical fireside some of our musically talented Elders are putting on. There are five Elders who are performing multiple songs they either wrote or are singing about missionary work, and the message we teach. Elder Brown, my companion from the Parker area is one of the Elders in it. We were teasing Sister Savage that she has turned them in to a boy band. It will be a great fireside and we are excited for the missionary opportunities that will come from it.
Besides the Zone Leader duties we had this week, we also have some pretty awesome people we are teaching right now. We are teaching a mom, Aleeza, and her daughter, Akuch. Aleeza just recently (in March) lost her brother in a shooting here in Aurora. Aleeza and Akuch actually live in Tennessee, but flew out here for an extended amount of time to be with family. They will be here until mid August. Aleeza's mom is a member of our ward, and that is how we met and are working with her. Akuch has loved coming to church with her grandma and keeps telling us that she wants to be baptized. Aleeza, on the other hand, is still really struggling with her brother's death. We think she has a lot of confusion with what happened and possible frustration with the whole situation. We are just trying to build her back up and help in any way we can. They are such a good family.
The other really promising couple we are teaching is Emily and Andrew. Andrew is a less active member of the church that grew up never really going or knowing the gospel. Some Sister Missionaries found him by tracting and have been teaching him. He has had all the lessons and has gained a conversion of all the doctrine, but he can't seem to commit and so has fallen back into inactivity. But he loves the church and its teachings. Emily is his girlfriend, who is Jewish, but not really active in her religion. She just recently started investigating our church and has loved learning the lessons and reading the Book of Mormon. We had a great talk with them this week about the Plan of Salvation. It was so cool to see them hear things that made sense to them and piece it all together. She is super eager to come to church next Sunday when she gets back in town. I have a lot of hope for them because the potential is there.
The ward is awesome! So many cool people and cool stories from them. And my companions are great! Trios are always fun, and I realize now that I started my mission with a trio and I will end my mission in a trio. [Missionaries usually go out in groups of two, but sometimes when the numbers are off they are in a group of three.] Funny stuff. I am just absolutely loving it here and am excited for what the next month holds.
I love you all!
Elder Bird
Here are some pictures of the Denver Zone at a service opportunity where they volunteered and helped with the Heart and Stroke walk held in Denver last Saturday.
5/28/18
This has been an awesome week. I have been transferred down to the Denver zone as a zone leader in a trio with Elder Burt and Elder Siler. We are serving in the University Hills Ward, which also covers the campus of Denver University (DU). It is a super cool area and I an super excited to have this be the last area where I will serve and end my mission!
The beginning of this week was all about transfers. The new AP, Elder Braegger, came up to Skylake on Monday morning. We spent the day (P-day) all together in a quad companionship, because Elder Sato was still with us. The next day, Tuesday, Elder Sato left us for his departing interview and temple trip with the other departing missionaries. Meanwhile, the three of us AP's spent literally the whole day working out logistics for transfers. There were going to be a lot of area shifts (combining some wards, splitting others, etc) and we had to work out where cars should go, apartments, and getting bunk beds around. There is going to be 12 trios this transfer, mine included! It was a lot of work!
That night, we heard the departing missionary devotional, and then I packed up all my stuff. I haven't had to do that for a while so it took a while. We also had to do some driving around and switching of cars. By the time we got back home, it was about 2am and we needed to get up at 5am for the next day!
Wednesday, instead of going to the transfer meeting and meeting my new companions, I went out to open up the new apartment in Strasburg with our housing guy, Elder Etherington. I went because he needed some help, and I had never seen Strasburg, so I figured it would be better for me to go, than to pull two other Elders away from missionary work. When we were done opening up the apartment, we went back to the transfer area and I met my new companions. Then the three of us headed to University Hills and got to work.
I finally get to live and serve in the city of Denver! I have wanted to serve in the city for my whole mission practically, and so I feel like I am getting what I have wanted here at the end. Even the apartment is one of the coolest in the mission. We live in a duplex town-home in University Hills. I am currently in the process of cleaning it up, but there is a lot of room and it is a cool place to live. The ward is cool and we have a great ward mission leader and a really awesome Elders Quorum President. I am super excited to be serving here!
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all good days of missionary work and getting to know the area. We are teaching some really cool people. One family in particular is a mother from South Sudan with several children. The mom has been baptized, but the children have not been, so we are working with them a ton. We have a few other people we are teaching and some recent converts we are helping.
Sunday was my 21st birthday and it was great. The ward was really nice about it, and the man who fed us dinner even got a cake for me, because he had heard it was my b-day. He was super nice! I loved it and can now say I have had three birthdays on my mission!
I want to say thank you to all who reached out or sent some love my way for my birthday. I really appreciated all of the care and support sent to me either by mail, email, or Facebook! It was super nice to hear from everyone and know that people were thinking of me. I also felt so much love from my family this week and I am so grateful for them.
The work is moving along great here and I am thankful to be a part of it. We had the opportunity to go to the temple this week and give one of our recent converts a tour of the grounds. It just reminded me of how important families are in our earthly life, and in our journey in the gospel. I love this work and I love being able to help families be together forever and become even closer.
Elder Bird
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