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2/5/18
Hello!
WHAT. A. WEEK. Oh my goodness. So much happened this week! I feel like our area just kind of exploded with stuff going on. By the end of Sunday, we had two nonmembers at church and a guy set for a baptismal date for the end of February, out of nowhere! Definitely some serious miracles happened this week.
So let me begin with a short update on Gloria from last week. We weren't able to see her at all this week because of some stuff that came up for her, but we have another meeting scheduled with her for tomorrow, which should be super good!
On Monday after P-day, we had a lesson with a family that we have kind of been seeing every so often and teaching the kids. There is a 5 yr old and a 7 yr old and they love having us over. Their mom Tina is a less active member that wants to start coming back to church. She is dating a guy right now named John, who seems pretty open and receptive to us. It has been hard in the past to teach them all as a family because Tina and John seem to have stuff going on all the time, so we usually just teach the kids with them kind of half listening in the background. Well, this week we were actually able to teach Tina and John. We talked a lot about the Sacrament and the power it has in helping us remember the good experiences we have from baptism. Tina's baptism is a big deal for her in her life and so that really resonated. Well, they ended up both coming to church on Sunday, and John actually knew two people in the congregation! It was so cool! We had a powerful testimony meeting and we could see that both of them were touched from the meeting. John isn't really investigating yet, and Tina doesn't want to push it, but I think there could be some real potential with them moving forward!
The other nonmember that attended church on Sunday was Sean. Sean is married to the sister-in-law of a recent convert we are teaching, Michael McCormack. We have been helping Brother McCormack get ready to pass and bless the Sacrament, once he receives the Melchizedek priesthood. Well, Sean and his wife Sheena moved in and we were able to teach them for the first time on Friday. It turns out that Sean has actually taken all of the lessons already in Sacramento (where they moved from), been to church a bunch of times there, and really desires to be baptized and join the church. The only reason he didn't get baptized in California is because a week or two before he was going to be baptized out there, he accidentally slipped up and drank a coffee someone offered to him. Then he moved out here. Hopefully he has no setbacks, problems, or concerns of being baptized! When we asked Sean why he wanted to get baptized so bad, he told us that he wanted to be sealed in the temple with his wife. Mind blown! He is so ready. He is such a good guy and we are super happy to be helping him. We set a day for him to be baptized on February 24th. They all came to church on Sunday and Sheena, his wife bore her testimony in the ward during Sacrament meeting. Now the whole ward is rallying around them and are super excited for him as well. What a huge miracle!!!
We helped out with a leadership conference this week as well, prepping and giving trainings. I was super nervous at first, but things went great and the missionaries really loved it! We are going to be really busy this week too because of zone conferences coming up.
Obviously, things are really moving here and we have tons of stuff to keep us busy. I am just so happy to see families coming together and people experiencing the blessings of living the gospel. I love it so much!
Elder Bird
1/29/18
Hello!!
What a wonderful week here in the Denver Mission and the Skylake ward! Things are going well -- the work is moving along, and Elder Bjerga and I are laughing our way through the end of January! We love it so much here in the ward and working together!
So much happened this week - tracting, exchanges, and prepping for a Sisters Conference. We have a lot of duties, but mostly just always being available in case the President needs help with something. We also help a lot with transfers and help missionaries get to where they need to go. Another one of our duties is on Sunday night we draft up a group email/newsletter to send out to all the missionaries the next day, P-day.
On Tuesday we went out tracting and knocking on doors and found a woman named Gloria. She was asking all of the right questions. On Thursday we had kind of a scattered lesson with her, and then another lesson on Sunday. She has lots of great questions, like which church has correct interpretations of scripture, or if we need a prophet today, etc. In our lesson on Sunday, something super interesting happened. Whenever Elder Bjerga or I would be teaching or testifying and Gloria was starting to really understand and feel the Spirit, Gloria's phone would ring or she'd get a text or she'd have to help out her brother with something. She actually noticed that these things were distracting her from the lesson and pointed it out to us, and told us she knew that she was being distracted by the adversary and that our message was from God!! It was so awesome! We will be seeing her again on Thursday and are just so excited for her moving forward.
On Friday we helped set up a conference for the Sisters in the mission. We also helped serve during lunch. This week will be prepping for a leadership counsel for this weekend and zone conferences next week. We are super pumped to be seeing and training with the leaders in the mission, and trying to help the missionaries be super effective as they are out and about.
One of my goals this transfer is to minister better to the missionaries we are serving. I am kind of a more "getting business done" kind of leader. And so I am really trying my hardest to keep a huge smile on my face whenever I see missionaries and just take a second to chat about their areas and their life - get to know them better. I am also really trying to set good examples in how we work (especially in keeping my shoes polished). It is a wild ride!
I love this work so much, and things are really hastening here. Just now as we are writing our letter here in the library, a man named Cory, approached us and asked us for a Book of Mormon. I was able to share one that my father had written his testimony in and given to me to hand out. (My whole family wrote their testimonies in BOMs and gave them to me for Christmas to hand out.) People are just coming to us!! I know this is God's work and I am glad that we can be his instrument.
I love you all!
Elder Bird
Pics from the Sisters Conference
1/23/18
Hello!!
Hi everyone! I hope everyone's weeks back home was great! I had a pretty busy week out here with transfers and snow and just lots of fun stuff going on. I'll start by telling what happened with transfers.
The Mission President called me to be his new assistant this last week, which came as quite the surprise. Elder Call and I were sure we were going to stay together in he Skylake ward again, but I guess the Lord had other plans. My new companion is Elder Bjerga, from Norway. We will actually be staying in the Skylake ward, which is pretty sweet for me (no packing!!). Elder Call went to the old AP area to become a zone leader. Elder Bjerga is a fantastic missionary and he is really teaching me a lot.
With the new assignment, came lots of changes in my duties. I am now always "on call" to help out around the mission, if the President needs us. We still go out and proselytize, but we have to be a bit more flexible with our appointments and lessons. We still get lots of time to knock on doors, and we've been spending lots of time in Commerce City :)
After I was called to the new assignment, our week was spent helping with transfers and getting missionaries settled afterwards. One of the things we did was drive the departing missionaries to the airport to fly home. That was a little strange, to see the airport again! I am really going to miss the Elders that just went home, a lot of them were really good friends of mine out here.
One of the biggest highlights from the week was reconnecting with Steven, an investigator that Elder Call and I had found together and that was really solid, but had been out of town for about a month. He is finally back in town and Elder Bjerga and I were able to teach him this last Sunday. He is a high school kid down in Commerce City that lives with his Grandma and loves when we come over. He is looking for happiness and says he feels peace when we come over. He is excited to come to church and to learn more about Christ! This week, we will be giving him a tour of the church building and teach him more about the Plan of Salvation. We are super excited for him!
This week has been crazy, but good! I love this work so much and am just thrilled to be able to serve the missionaries more here in the mission. I know that this is God's work and am grateful to be an instrument in the Lord's hands out here. I am so grateful for everyone back home and their support as I try my best out here. Love you all!
Elder Bird
Post from Mission President on Facebook
President & Sister Savage with Elder Bjerga
1/17/18
Hello All!!
We had a pretty awesome week this week! There was a lot of fun stuff that happened!
On Tuesday Elder Call and I went on another exchange this week. I was able to go with another really cool Elder in our zone, Elder Burt! Elder Burt is a great Elder in our zone. He and his companion serve in a biking area, so we rode our bikes all day, which was super fun. It rained and we got to see a rainbow!
Also, on Friday, Elder Call and I got to lead a zone conference for our zone. We got to teach and model different teaching methods that we learned last week and that the mission is trying to teach us. It was a super fun meeting and we were able to get so much stuff done!
I don't have too much time to write today, but good things are happening. Transfers are coming! I guess I will find out today because we have interviews with the Mission President later today. I hope you all have a wonderful week!
I love you all,
Elder Bird
1/8/18
Hello Everyone!!
What a wonderful week here in the Skylake ward! Elder Call and I are just loving it here so much and wish things would slow down just a little bit! I feel like things are just flying by all the time!
Elder Call and I had the chance to go on some more exchanges this week! Our life has been just chalkful of them lately. It's been good to check in with the missionaries and to make sure they are all doing good. My first exchange was with Elder Hugie, a newer missionary in the Spanish area. He is a great missionary. He is great with people and works super hard. We had a great day together out talking with people and working hard. He is pretty funny and so we laughed the whole day. He has red hair and kind of looks a bit like the Lucky Charms guy, so I teased him a bit about it with the other missionaries, and the people on the street. Elder Hugie was a good sport about it. :) My second exchange was with Elder Cluff, a missionary I served near when I was in Parker area (not my companion, but in my zone.) Elder Cluff and I are super good friends and we had another really good day together. We were out finding and doing service most of the day. The people who had signed up to have us to dinner cancelled on us, so I decided to take him to Red Robin as a special treat. (I had a gift card there from my mom.) That was super fun, and we were able to have a super fun day together.
Another highlight of the week was spending the day with Elder Call at a mission leadership counsel on Friday. It was a great conference where we talked a lot as leaders about what we could do to help the missionaries in our zones, and their needs. It was a really good meting and we learned a lot. Elder Call and I are planning on passing on the things we learned to our missionaries at our upcoming zone meeting on Thursday.
The Mission President, President Savage spent all day Saturday with our missionaries from our zone. We all had the chance to have interviews with him. We are so grateful to him and all the work and care and efforts he is putting into us as missionaries. He is a really great man,
Elder Call and I are doing really well together out here. I am super grateful to have him as my companion and for the help he is out here to me and all the missionaries we serve. Today we are planning on having a zone P-day and are planning to have a Nerf war. I am super excited! It should be super fun and we can't wait to just have some good fun with everyone.
The work is going well and we are just loving it, like I said before. I love being an instrument in the Lord's hands out here. We have miracles daily and I know the Lord is helping us in our endeavors.
I hope everything is well for everyone back home,
Elder Bird
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