|
1/2/18
Happy New Year's Everyone!
What an awesome week here in Denver over the holidays! Elder Call and I are loving it so much here. Before heading into the week and what went on, I just wanted to give a special shout out to all the people who sent me packages or letters over Christmas! Thanks to: Grandma and Grandpa Bird (before she passed), Grandma and Grandpa Snook, Amanda and Cameron (and the girls), Melanie and Andrew (and Eli), Aunt Norine and Jake, Grandma Janet, the Smith Family, Sister Simmons, Randi & Jonathan Springer, Aunt Susan and Uncle Roy, and of course my rockin' parents and brother! Thank you so so much for making it a special Christmas for me out here! (I think that is all...I hope I didn't forget anyone.)
Okay. This was a pretty fun week! We had a great week where we went on exchanges. I spent a day with a newer missionary, Elder Carling, and then with an experienced missionary, Elder Barberan. It was so fun to spend these days with them and see how they work! I was really impressed with how both are doing, and how the work is moving forward up here in Brighton! Next week is going to be full of exchanges also. We have some planned for tomorrow, Thursday, and Saturday, so it should be another cool week of checking in with people and seeing how the work is moving along and how people are doing. It gives us a really cool chance to get to know the missionaries in our zone.
As for the stuff going on here in Skylake, it has been pretty slow moving with everybody out of town for the holidays. Elder Call and I were finally able to see Yolanda again last night, who had been out of town in Nebraska...but had come home to a flooded house! How nuts is her life??? At this point, Elder Call and I just want to go in there and help her with anything that will get her back on her feet. She just has so much on her plate. She is super strong and tackling it one thing at a time and doing a super job. Hopefully we can help her this week. As for a couple of our other investigators, we should be able to see them again either at the end of this week or the beginning of next week, when they get back in town. Then things can settle down and we can start the ball rolling. Elder Call and I had a super fun day yesterday in Commerce City contacting all day and finding some super cool people!
The biggest highlight of the week was definitely New Year's Eve. The whole mission got together for a little party to celebrate New Year's Eve and Sister Savage's birthday, which is on the 1st. We played some "Minute to Win It" games, had dinner and some cake & ice cream. It was super fun to see everyone again and say "hi" to friends and previous companions, as well as hang out with the zone and compete against each other. When Elder Call and I got home that night, we went straight to bed, and then at midnight we woke up to fireworks going off. We said, "Happy New Year" to each other before falling back asleep. A missionary New Year's Eve. :)
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Bird
12/26/17
Hello!
What a seriously awesome week it was here in Denver over Christmas! I think this is one of my favorite Christmas's of all time. There was just so much goodness about and so many people watching out for Elder Call and I. For my letter, I think that I'll focus my thoughts around a big miracle that happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The big miracle this week was the miracle of Yolanda. On Monday night, Elder Call and I were out knocking on doors before dinner and met this woman named Yolanda. She couldn't talk right then so we set up an appointment for us to come back in a few days. We saw her again on Thursday and got to teach her. At first, Yolanda just sat there and dumped her whole life story on us. Yolanda is a single mom from Nebraska raising three kids here by herself, with no family or anything. She moved here for her son who has autism, because of the good hospital in Aurora that has great programs for him. Yolanda used to have a pretty hard life before, she had been in gangs since she was little and dealing drugs and all sorts of crazy things. She has completely flipped her life around and has sacrificed everything for her kids. She moved into a cheap home here in Thornton, that used to be owned by some people that trashed it. The home is falling apart on top of her. She let us in because she just needed someone to talk to and some spiritual help! Elder Call and I were amazed! She asked if she could come to church that week, saying she "had never been invited to anywhere yet." We asked around in the ward and found someone that could have her over for Christmas dinner too! Unfortunately, Yolanda's heater broke on Christmas Eve and her son had a seizure Christmas Day, so we missed her on both of those days. She is an amazing woman and we are looking forward this week to finding other ways we can help her out.
Okay, Christmas Eve - Sunday! The day started with our Christmas Eve service at 11am. One of our investigators came, a young guy named Conner (about 12). It was Conner's first time at church! Elder Call and I both sang in the choir, and Conner didn't want to sit in a pew alone at church, so he ended up sitting in the choir with us! That was pretty cool! Connor's first week at church and he was already up in the stand! We had an awesome service and felt the Spirit super strong.
Then we went home and changed, grabbed lunch, and went over to the Bigelow's house - a family in the ward. They were super nice and we decorated Christmas cookies with them. They gave Elder Call and I presents of our favorite cereal and then we played Apples to Apples with them. After seeing them, we drove over to the Kusch's house, a super fun family with five young kids. We were greeted by a Nerf war and some fun games with the kids! Then we helped put together dinner and played some board games the parents afterwards. They are both actually from San Jose, so it was super cool to meet and hang out with them! They also gave us some Christmas gifts and stockings! That was super awesome! To close off the night, we had a zone gathering and acted out the nativity, in both Bethlehem and the Americas, as a zone. It was hectic and rushed and crazy, but everyone had a fun time and it was a great time to remember the Savior. Elder Call and I rushed home afterwards, I opened my Christmas Eve present from my parents which of course here new PJ's. Then I read Elder Call the "Legend of the Candy Cane" before heading to bed that night.
Christmas!! For Christmas morning we invited over two other sets of Elders from the Stake and all opened our presents together and ate breakfast. It was super fun! Thank you to all who sent something, it was wonderful to feel all the love and support from home that morning. After our little get together, we all got dressed and went and did some service that morning with our zone, putting together some hygiene kits for the homeless. We finished a little earlier than expected, and so we went around the circle and said our favorite Christmas traditions and memories.
After meeting together with our zone, Elder Call and I went over to the Picthforth's house. We had a quick lunch and then got to Skype with our families. That was awesome! I feel like I just fit right back into the family right then, which was so nice. It was a good 45 minutes, and sad to say goodbye. It's crazy to think there is only 1 more call left (Mother's Day) before I come home! That is pretty nuts. After Skyping, we went to dinner at the Larson's house and had a really good, relaxed Christmas dinner with them. Then we watched my movie pick, "Wreck it Ralph," (Elder Call and I each got to choose a movie to watch for Christmas.) It was so good to see a movie again. I forgot how much I love movies. After "Wreck it Ralph," we drove over to another member's house and watched "Moana," (Elder Call's movie pick.) Neither of us had seen it before so it was the first time for both of us! That was super fun as well!! Seeing those movies was a really good way to end the season and just sit back and relax for a few hours.
So that was Christmas! I loved it and I loved focusing on the birth of our Savior. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and will have a happy New Years as well!! I am loving it out here and can't wait to get back to work :)
Love, Elder Bird
Church with Conner
Making Christmas cookies
Presents
Skyping with my family
12/18/17
Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful week this week! Christmas is in full swing here in Denver, and we are loving every second of it! All of the lights are are so beautiful and people seem to stop longer and spread a bit more kindness out into the world. We had a pretty awesome week this week! Lots of stuff going on and Elder Call and I are still trying to figure out a whole bunch of stuff with our new area, but things are slowly starting to fall into place.
One of the biggest highlights from this last week was the Christmas zone conference we held on Thursday. Elder Call and I were asked to conduct and kind of be in charge of the meeting. Most of the program was pretty fluid, but we had to stay on our toes the whole time and know what was going on and announce the whole thing. The program started at 9am. We had some training and teachings, and then got out for lunch right at about 1pm. It was a "Christmas Dinner" and was catered by Tucanos, a Brazilian style barbecue place that my roommates and I used to love going to in Provo while at college. It was super good, and during lunch there were some games we played as zones and other Christmas traditions. Then we went back into the chapel and heard from President and Sister Savage followed by a testimony meeting. The Spirit was super strong and it was so good to hear all of the brand new missionaries testimonies of how much they've been able to learn in such a short amount of time. The meeting was supposed to conclude at 5pm, but we actually ended around 6:10pm. I was a little worried about it and kept checking my watch, but Sister Savage helped me to see that it was okay to let the meeting continue. It was a really good day.
Another big highlight of the week was on Saturday! It was like the first full open day that we have had in a while and a good chance to get some work done! Since we have been running really low on miles, Elder Call and I biked around in the morning and did some good tracting. Wed met this woman named Malahni who was super funny! At first, she came out of her house and started telling us about how she had left religion all together and that she hated religion for what it did and a bunch of other stuff. We listened and made jokes with her in between little rants, and she started to open up a little bit and laugh and make jokes too. By the end of about and hour long conversation with her on her doorstep, we had completely flipped her view of missionaries and she told us that she liked us and we could come back! We were actually able to go back on Sunday and get into her home and talk a little bit more! She thinks it's funny all the rules and always asks "So what would happen to you if you [watched a movie, drank, etc]." We would always just joke and say that we would be struck by lightning or eaten by sharks or something crazy. It was so fun! Anyway, we should be seeing her again on Friday of this week and hopefully will be able to get her to come to our Christmas Eve service.
We spent the rest of Saturday in Commerce City, tracting and going around to a bunch of people the previous missionaries had met. We had lunch down there at, what looked like a sketchy Mexican restaurant, but was actually super good (and nice and cheap). It was definitely a memory, sitting in that place listening to Feliz Navidad playing on the radio, along with a bunch of other songs in Spanish. I felt like I was kind of serving my mission in Mexico. Later we had dinner with a family down in CC too, and a lesson with a recent convert family right after. Elder Call and I are really starting to love it down there and are loving how nice and open the people are, both in and out of the church. I am really glad that I could serve here over Christmas.
Anyway, things here are great! We are super pumped for Christmas Eve this week and Christmas Day next week. I will have P-day the following day, boxing day. Until then, we will be working hard and loving every minute! I love you all so much!
Merry Christmas,
Elder Bird
Some lights down in CC
12/11/17
Hey everyone!!
So really, two big things happened this week. Like it says in my subject line, I was transferred to a new area and some sad news about my dear Grandma Bird.
We had probably one of the craziest, busiest weeks of my mission! I was called to be a zone leader again and so did in fact leave Fox Hollow and Flanders YSA wards, in the Arapahoe stake. I was called with Elder Call to be zone leaders over the Brighton zone, which includes the Brighton and Denver North Stakes (northeast of Denver). We are serving in the Skylake ward, which was previously covered by sisters. So we not only swept in as Elders to Skylake, but swept in as zone leaders to a brand new zone, car, and apartment. It has been nutso trying to figure everything out up here. But really fun! I definitely love it so far! Elder Call is an awesome missionary. He reminds me a lot of Elder Eldredge, when I was in Arvada. I think we are going to love being companions here. The ward is super cool and definitely very interesting. The ward covers one of the more sketchy places in all of Denver, a little town called Commerce City. It used to have its own building and branch, but with an ever aging population, they closed the branch and combined it with the Thornton ward in an effort to save the church there. Now, most members are inactive and the building is vacant (we have keys to it and it is super cool to go inside. We went for the first time last night...super spooky). So basically, our ward is massive geographically. There are 29 pages in the ward list and 800 names to it, but there are only about 170 members who come to church from week to week. The ward goes from about 46th Ave to 136th ave, about 30 miles up and down (I think). It is so fun! I have never served in a ward like it, and I am so pumped to get working here.
Before leaving my previous area, I was able to say goodbye to some really cool people that I had met in the Fox Hollow and YSA wards, including the ward mission leader and some people we taught/found. It was good to see them and sad to say goodbye. I will include some pictures.
I heard from my parents today that my Grandma, Virginia Bird, passed away yesterday. It was pretty sad and shocking to receive that news. I didn't really expect her to go for a while and so it was a surprise. She had a stroke on Sunday morning and then passed away in the hospital later that day. Grandma Bird was such a sweet woman. She loved and cared about so many, and was so kind and happy to everyone she ever met. She was an excellent example of optimism, through thick and thin. I loved spending time at her home, the one where my father grew up. I will definitely miss her and the wonderful friend and family member that she was. But, I am grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have that she is close to us and that we will be able to see her again soon.
Anyway, things are good here. We are getting super pumped and excited for Christmas in this new area! I hope things are well back home! I love you all!
Elder Bird
Me and Elder Call!
Me and Hans, a guy I found and passed off to the family ward. He is looking into the church and loving it so far.
A few other cool pics
12/4/17
. . . Christmas!!!
Hey everyone! What a great week! I hope everyone out there is doing well! This week was full of excitement because it was the last week of the transfer and it was the time to leave it all out there. We had a great week with some awesome highlights!
On Tuesday, I went on an exchange with Elder Curtis and we worked in the Southlands ward area. They don't have a car there, so we spent the day biking around. It was actually super fun, I loved it so much! First though we had interviews with the Mission President in the morning. It was good to touch base with him and let him know how things have been going for Elder Hales and I, and the other missionaries in the district. It was also Elder Curtis' companions birthday, so to surprise him, we made him a cake during our lunch break. Elder Curtis and I had a good day of working together. It was just so good to be out and about in the fresh air and enjoying the good weather as we tried to find people to teach. That night, when we met back up with our companions, we surprised Elder Blackham with the cake and a card we made. He loved it and it was a good way to end the day.
On Wednesday, we had a lesson with Jason and then with Brandon, both of whom are doing really well. We were finally able to get to the end of the Plan of Salvation lesson with Brandon. We have been trying to get Brandon to ask for some time off on Sunday, so that he can come to church with us. With Jason we went over the baptismal interview questions so that he could be prepared. The only thing holding up Jason is his smoking (and a few other commandment issues.) He committed to work on them hardcore as we prepare for December 30th. I hope he can make it. I just don't want him to be too stressed this month that it makes it a bad experience for him. He is doing really well though, and even bore his testimony on Sunday during Fast and Testimony meeting! He did a great job and talked about Lehi's dream, and how he feels like once he is baptized, he will be taking part of the fruit of the tree of life!
Thursday was our final district meeting before the transfer. Sister Savage showed up suddenly out of nowhere and with no warning! No pressure! We had a good meeting though, and afterward she decided to drive around with us all day and meet the people we were trying to see that day. We tried to take her to Jessica, an investigator we had already scheduled with, but had no luck. We didn't have much luck at all that day catching people. Eventually she just dropped us off at our dinner appointment.
The rest of the week was pretty normal. We have been using the Light the World campaign in a lot of our meetings with people, and have even been able to show the video to a couple people at their door. The times we have, they have really been touched. It is such an awesome program, and we love having it at this time of year. It helps us reach those people, we couldn't otherwise reach. It seems everyone wants to be a little nicer and slow down to talk a little bit more during the holidays.
Anyway, transfers are coming up this week on Thursday! We will learn on Wednesday what is happening, and if we are moving to somewhere new or not. I have no clue what will happen yet! I am sure though that I will be happy with whatever happens. I love serving out here and being a part of such an awesome work. I love you all so much and hope you continue to have a good December. :)
Elder Bird
Showing: [26,27,28,29,30 of 107 entries]
|
