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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
5/21/18
Hi!!
The big news from this week was a mission tour with a General Authority! Elder Edward Dube, a Seventy from the Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission to visit us. While he was here, we had a mini MLC [Mission Leadership Council] on Wednesday, had a southern Mission Conference on Thursday, and had a northern Mission Conference on Friday. With all those meetings planned, Elder Christensen and I were kept pretty darn busy the whole time! It was very cool to rub elbows with Elder Dube and get to know him and his story. He is from Zimbabwe, and is basically revered as like the "Brigham Young" of the church in Southern Africa. He had lots of energy and taught us a lot about being an effective and efficient missionary. It was so great!
The other big thing that happened this week was lots of talk about transfers with us and the Mission President. We know who is going where, and now we just need to figure out cars and apartments. Because Elder Christensen and I will both be going home in July, it is important that we get a new AP [Assistant to the President] so that he can be trained before we both leave. I am super excited because I will be transferred, and I am excited for the new area and companions I will have! I have six more weeks to find, teach, and baptize as many people as I possibly can!
On Sunday, during the Sunday School hour we had a really powerful lesson that has stuck with me since. The teacher led a discussion about President Oaks's talk that he gave at General Conference, entitled "Small and Simple Things." President Oaks told the story of walking along a path and had taken a picture of a sidewalk that had cracked over time by a root growing underneath. He said that it was interesting that over a daily or even monthly basis, you could not detect even a hint of impact from the root, but over a long period of time, the impact became powerful. I love the thought applied to missions and life in general. Our hard work on our mission can't really be measured on a daily or maybe even monthly basis: it is small and simple. But over time, the effect our missionary work can have a powerful effect! I love that. I know that as we continue to be diligent in the small and simple things, we will make a huge difference.
I love you all! Thank you for everything!
Elder Bird
5/14/18
It's been an interesting week! The craziness started on Monday night, when President Savage sent an urgent request for our help with something. There were two Elders up in Boulder who were not making good decisions and were being sent home. So Elder Christensen and I drove up there and each took one for the night. When we finally got to bed, after talking with each of them, it was close to 1am! The next morning, we helped them get all packed up and then took them to the airport. They both flew home that afternoon. It didn't seem real, seeing these two missionaries end their mission right then, and have to witness seeing them both off. It was a testament to me, that it is important to make each missionary day a good one, and work as hard as you can, because you never really know how quickly life can change!
After seeing the Elders off, we had kind of a normal night, until being called by the Aurora South zone leaders and hearing that one of the elders in their zone was missing! We drove down to Aurora South as quick as we could, and found the missing elder, who had had a panic attack! By the time we got there, he had made it back to his companion, but was having some serious anxiety problems. We took him back with us for the night, and then back to his companion in the morning. At the end of the week, we learned that his condition is pretty severe and so he will be going home on this transfer (May 24th) instead of the next. Until then, he is our new companion!!
On Thursday, we went on an exchange with the Parker zone leaders. I was excited because I got to be with Elder Call in Parker. That was a fun day! We were back in Crowfoot YSA, and had a fun time contacting some cool people our age! Then on Saturday we had another exchange, up in Boulder this time. I went with Elder Cluff into the Mountain View area. That meant we got to go to the CU Boulder campus and talk to the students there. That was super cool! It is a super cool college town up there and we met lots of "Boulder-ites." I loved being up there and just having a little bit of a different experience for the day. Elder Cluff and I had set a goal of talking to 100 people that day, and we made it and ended up talking to 101!
As for Sunday, Monika came to church again and stayed all three hours with her kids!! That was awesome for us! She seemed to really enjoy it and the kids had a good time in Primary. She is really moving along well and we are super excited for her moving forward. After church, Elder Christensen and I got to Skype home for Mother's Day. Speaking of which, huge shout out to my mom for being the best! It was so good to see all of my family and to catch up a little bit on their lives. It was the last time I would be calling home from my mission, and it's weird to think I will be seeing them all in about 7 weeks.
I think the biggest take away of the week for me, was that Satan knows full well the good things we are doing, and tries to stop us. He uses lies, disbelief, rationalization, and discouragement to bring us down. But with all the sad or hard things we saw happen this week in the mission, there were also so many miracles that occurred. Six people entered the waters of baptism, making our total for May, so far, 12. Plus, there are 15-18 other people getting baptized next week, which means we will be at around 30 by the end of three weeks, and then have another week to achieve our mission goal of 35 for the month. It is totally doable! I know we are heading in the right direction because of all this stuff going on, and I am so grateful to be a part of such a great work.
Elder Bird
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