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3/13/18
Hello!
What a busy week Elder Christensen and I had. We were just going and going and going all week. We had a Mission Leadership Council on Friday which Elder Christensen and I were both in charge of and so had a lot to do to get ready for it. In prepping for this big meeting, Elder Christensen and I met with President on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to talk about and discuss what we could do in the meeting and how to make things most effective. It was an all day event and we were able to counsel with and teach the zone leaders and the STL's. We also heard a bit of the new program to introduce smartphones that will be coming to our mission soon. The day was a success!
On Saturday we had a district leadership meeting from 8-10am. Elder Christensen and I both had a chance to present at this meeting and gave training to all the district leaders on some of the duties that they perform. Then, right after, we drove over to Arvada to go on an exchange with the zone leaders. They had just been swept in to the area for that transfer and needed some help building up their teaching pool. I served in Arvada about a year ago, so I was able to get them some appointments with people that I used to teach.
On Sunday after church, Elder Christensen and I helped run and direct the "Why I Believ" fireside that was being held down in Aurora. The missionaries all sang as a choir and some converts shared their testimonies, including a man named Hans that Elder Hales and I had found, and who had been baptized after I left. It was cool to run the meeting, but stressful to direct 150 missionaries in a musical number all at the same time.
The next morning, Monday, yesterday, an Elder was going home due to a medical issue and so Elder Christensen and I helped shift a few companionship around. This meant driving them to their new areas, moving luggage, closing apartments, and what not, and getting things settled again in the mission. This took up most of the day and when we finished we finally got a chance to breathe a little.
Despite all the admin stuff we had to do, we actually were able to get a couple of things done in the work with a few people we are trying to start things up with. We had a couple first lessons, one with a man named Luis and then another with a woman named Monica. When we met with Luis, we gave him a Book of Mormon with some highlighted passages that we thought he might enjoy. He really liked that, and promised he'd look through and see what he thought about it. That was a pretty cool meeting! Then with Monica, who Elder Bjerga and I had found, but were never able to meet with, we had a great first meeting. We just chatted a little bit about God as a loving Heavenly Father and a little bit about the Restoration. She seems super nice and solid to work with in the future. Also, on Saturday night we met with the Baldasari family and gave them a tour of the church building. This is sometimes a good way to introduce new people to the church building so they can see it when it is quiet and not a lot of people are around. They asked a bunch of questions as we walked through and told them about the whole place. They seemed to enjoy it and will hopefully feel more comfortable when they decide to come to church on Sunday with us.
This upcoming week looks just as busy as last week. We will have two zone conferences, on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for. Both of us are presenting at them and we are both excited and nervous at the same time.
I would like to end my email today with a little spiritual thought about our offerings to God. At the "Why I Believe" Fireside Sunday night, there was a missionary named Elder Bailey who shared his testimony that really touched my heart. Elder Bailey told a story that one day he was wandering through his dad's closet and found a little gift he had given to his father a long time ago. It was in actuality something very dinky and small, but something which his father had kept, because it was what Elder Bailey could give at the time. He related this to the thought of what he was giving to his Heavenly father on his mission. Sometimes our offerings in actuality are very dinky and small, but they are what we can give, and it means a lot to our Father in Heaven. As I have been reflecting back on the last few busy weeks, I seem more tired than usual. I was kind of wondering if the things I was doing, and the gifts I was giving, would even matter in the lives of people. So this was a gentle reminder to me that what I can give, is what Heavenly Father will keep and cherish. I am so appreciative of His love in my life and the lives of those people who I come into contact with. I love this gospel and am so grateful for the chance to serve.
I love you all!
Elder Bird
Went to the Temple on Wednesday
Mission Leadership Counsel
From President Savage:
[The mission TECHNOLOGY TEAM! These Elders and Sisters are the ONLY Missionaries in our mission RIGHT NOW that have a smart phone. They will assist us in rolling out smart phones to our entire mission. They will set up, train, and trouble shoot smart phones in the CDN mission.]
3/5/18
Hey everyone!
This week was literally so crazy! With everything happening because of transfers, it just proved to be a little stressful and a lot of work. But no complaints here, super fun :)
What a week! It was probably one of the most stressful weeks of my mission! I had a lot to do for the transfers and was basically put in charge of them, and had to train Elder Christensen how to do it all at the same time. The main thing that was difficult was the time crunch. President Savage didn't make the final decisions until Wednesday around 3pm. As then as soon as he did, we made the phone calls, made leadership changes, and then had to make a transfer packet, all before 5pm. Whew! After the office work, we went and saw the new missionaries coming in to the mission from the MTC, and then had dinner and a little meet and greet where we got to share a few of our mission stories with them. That was pretty cool!
On Thursday we ran around and got things all smoothed out with the transfers, getting people to where they needed to be. Everything all worked out completely fine, but I was just stressed and worried the whole time! Now it is over and I feel good about it. We then helped with the departing missionary dinner and had dinner with all of them. It was so weird to see people like Elder Laperle, Elder Melchin, and Elder Bjerga going home. It's hard to think that will be me soon.
Elder Christensen is my new companion! He is a great missionary and just came from Crowfoot YSA, where I served with Elder Brown down in Parker. He is from Ogden Utah, and will go home the same time I do. He is a great missionary and was a good zone leader down there. President and Sister Savage love him to death. He comes from a family of 4 boys, loves photography, and most importantly, loves and is great at missionary work! We have actually had a lot of time to be out and about in Commerce City recently, and have been striving to really build up our teaching pool now that Sean has been baptized. We were able to find 3 contacts! We are a great team and work well together and the work is fun! I think it will be a great transfer! I will probably be handing the torch off to him and training for my last two transfers after that, hopefully in a bike area so I can get fit before I come home!!
On Friday morning, we took the departing missionaries to the airport and said our goodbyes. After Friday, things kind of calmed down a little bit, and we got all things finalized and everybody settled into their new areas, and things finished up.
Elder Christensen and I spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday working in Skylake!! It was fantastic to get some good work done. On Saturday, our last door for the night was interested and wanted us to come back! And on Sunday, our last door before dinner let us in and we will be going back to give him, Louis, a Book of Mormon. It is just a huge testimony that God will grant blessings if we are willing to push through and endure to the end during our days and in life!
Anyway, things are great and I love being out here. I know this work is inspired and from God!
Love, Elder Bird
2/26/18
Hello!
Sean was baptized this week! How awesome is that??
It was such an awesome service and I was so happy we were able to participate in it. Sean was just beaming the whole day on Saturday and couldn't stop smiling. He has waited so long for this. Brother McCormack, his brother in law, baptized him on Saturday, and then on Sunday, I had the privilege of confirming him a member of the church and giving him a blessing to receive the Holy Ghost. It was a really cool experience to feel the Spirit as I was confirming him. Elder Bjerga and I were just super pumped for him throughout the whole weekend. Now we are going to work on teaching him the recent convert lessons and prep him to receive the priesthood. We also want to get him to the temple as soon as possible. What a great way way for Elder Bjerga to end his mission.
Elder Bjerga is going home soon! I can't believe it! He has been working like crazy though before he heads home. So, we have been hitting Commerce City pretty hard with trying to find people to teach - knocking on doors and we were actually invited in, like 3 times! Also, on an exchange we had, Elder Bjerga and his companion for the day, found a really cool woman named Valerie! Apparently when she answered the door she was smiling and was excited to see them! She is super nice and friendly! She was going to come to church this Sunday, but got sick and couldn't make it. She told us she would be there next week though. Until then, she seems super interested in learning and having us teach her!
As for office work this week, we worked a lot on the transfers happening soon. It is so interesting! There are a lot of solid missionaries in our mission, but there are also about 10 or so that are harder to place because they have motivation, or obedience, or getting along issues. Most of our time is spent trying to figure out where to place these missionaries. [Elder Bjerga says that there are two types of missionaries: babies and babysitters.] We pray about it a lot and of course President Savage never does anything without direction or confirmation from God.
Because Elder Bjerga is leaving this week, President Savage called a new companion for me. We are going to meet up with him tonight and bring him into the office. He is a great leader and really loved and respected by the missionaries, so he will do great. This will be one of the more interesting weeks of the mission helping President and Sister Savage for something big on Thursday. I'll tell you all about it next week!
I love you all so much!
Elder Bird
2/20/18
Hello everyone!
Super good week this week! The highlight of the week was definitely some really cool exchanges that we got to go on with a few of the zone leaders around the mission. Now that things have kind of calmed down for us after the Mission Leadership Counsel and zone conferences, we have a little bit more time. We have been trying to go on as many exchanges with the zone leaders as possible, to see how they all are doing and how their zones are applying what they might have learned.
We went on a total of 3 exchanges this week, with the Parker Elders, the Arvada Elders, and the Westminster Elders. I got to go to two of my old wards and areas, the Crowfoot YSA ward in Parker and the Arvada 2nd ward in Arvada. It is always fun to go back to old areas! It was fun to see a few people I knew in Parker and a lot of people I knew in Arvada! I actually wasn't sure if anyone from the old areas would recognize me, maybe they would think that I was just another missionary, but they did! It was cool because most of them said they missed the times that I would come over and share lessons with them. I think for most of them it was a positive experience, and I convinced a lot of them to meet with the elders again. I was grateful to be able to see that my missionary service was meaningful in the lives of a few people in each area.
Things are still going well in our current ward too! A couple of our investigators have either dropped us or dropped off the map, like Steven and Yolanda. It is a bummer when that kind of stuff happens. Gloria is also going through a hard time and wasn't able to meet with us this week. Her brother fell and fractured his hip, and he is in a pretty bad way, but we are still in good contact with her. And while some people have been dropping off, others are picking up! It is crazy how the work will go that way. A friend of ours named Malahni who has only been open to us having casual conversations over dinner has now just accepted the invite for a church tour!! We are super excited for that! Of course, Sean is still doing fantastic! Sean is having his baptismal interview tonight at the church building, and things are looking like they'll go really well. He is just so honest, committed, and converted. It's been so cool to be able to work with him.
Elder Bjerga is getting close to the end of his time out here, but isn't "trunky" at all, and we are working super hard. We're hoping to have a killer week this week and are already starting to look at our mission roster in preparation for transfers next week. We have such awesome missionaries out here! I love sitting back and seeing where everybody is serving.
Anyway, things are well and the work is great. I love life and love serving out here. I know that the Book of Mormon is God's word and am so grateful to be able to testify of its truth to people everyday. I am grateful to all of you for all of your love and support as I try to serve the Lord the best I can. :)
Love, Elder Bird
2/13/18
Hi everybody!
So many good things happened this week, it is hard to know where to start! We had lots happen in the work and in the office. Elder Bjerga and I helped run two zone conferences this week and also a convert fireside on Sunday night. Sometimes with this new assignment I feel more like an event planner than a missionary out here. But everything went great and we were able to have some super spiritual moments as we helped out this week.
As for the work, a lot is going on. We are meeting with so many cool people! We met with Yolanda and her kids a bunch this week, we are still teaching Gloria, and Tina & John came to church again...so much! I want to focus my email on two miracles that happened this week though, and how they testify that God really does know and has a plan for our lives.
The first happened with a brand new person that we met out street contacting on Tuesday, named Grant. Our truck actually had to go into the shop on Tuesday for a tire change, so while in there, Elder Bjerga got out and started to street contact people. We talked to a few nice people and our last conversation before heading out, was with a guy named Grant. Grant is a nice kid (like 22) that recently moved here from Arkansas. He's not particularly religious, but we had a great conversation about God and the world today. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but we invited him to the fireside at the end of the week, and then we said goodbye. Well, we go on with our day and get the truck back. A few hours later, we are heading to dinner and decide to stop by one family in the ward who wants their kids to take some lessons. The family lives pretty far from where we were earlier that day with Grant, but as we pull up to go and to chat with them, we see Grant coming out of their next door neighbor's house. We freaked out! He asked us if we were stalking him and we told him that we had just been there to stop by a member of the congregation! We all freaked out because it was so obviously orchestrated by a higher being, us all seeing each other again. The exact right time and place, twice in one day! It was a super cool moment! He gave us his number and hopefully we can teach him this week!
The other miracle happened yesterday actually. Previously, I have talked about Sean, who is preparing to be baptized. Yesterday, I called him to chat about the details for his baptism and when he picked up, I could tell something was off. His wife was yelling in the background at us that he was acting strange and that we needed to come by. Sean wouldn't say anything, so I asked if we could all pray over the phone. I said a simple prayer and afterwards, Sean opened up and let us know that he had just found out his best friend had died. He was in a head on collision about a month ago and Sean had just learned about it that day. It really sent him over the edge. He was already going through so much with the recent move, trying to find a job, having to provide for a wife and kids, etc. He felt like he was being attacked. We talked for a long time about life and God and how Satan works, especially as he was prepping for baptism. As we chatted, I could literally hear a change in Sean's voice. He kept on telling us that we called at exactly the right moment, and that he knew Heavenly Father was mindful of him. We were so grateful to be able to call at the right time and help him when he needed it. It is cool when you can see that you are a tool in Heavenly Father's hands! We gave him a Book of Mormon chapter to read and think about. Later that night, he called again and we chatted about the chapter we gave him to read. He was feeling much better and seems to be totally fine now!
My mission has shown me over and over again that God does indeed have a plan and knows exactly what each of us are going through. He uses us, not just missionaries, but his children, as angels to help each other make it back to him and abide in His love. I am so grateful that I get to be out here to help in His work and continually get built up by him. I love this work!!
Elder Bird
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