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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
5/8/18
This week just seemed to fly by! The big things that happened were: the entire mission getting smartphones, MLC [Mission Leadership Council] on Friday, exchanges on Saturday, and then Monica coming to church on Sunday!!
On Wednesday of this week, the whole mission went through training because they were getting their smartphones! All of the technology missionaries (us included) went around to each zone and helped train the missionaries on how to set up their phones, use their new area book planner, and use Facebook as a missionary. Elder C and I went to the Arapahoe and the Aurora zones, working three hours with each zone. The whole mission now has smartphones!
On Friday, May the 4th (be with you), we had a miniature MLC. We came together as leaders to do a follow up on how the smartphone training went for all of us. We also needed to decide on a monthly mission baptismal goal for the month of May and to talk briefly about a mission tour our mission is doing next week. The meeting was held in the afternoon from 1pm-4:30pm in Aurora and was pretty effective. We decided that the goal for the month of May, for the mission, will be 35 baptisms! We have been averaging about 19 baptisms a month for this year and over the last 5 years. It is an average, so some months are higher and others lower. This goal will help us to really stretch ourselves. We are super excited!
On Saturday we went on an exchange with the zone leaders in Arvada; Elder Heiner, Elder Lytle, and Elder Schwabb. This was Elder Schwabb's first transfer as a zone leader, and we were excited to work with him. I went with Elder Lytle and Elder Schwabb in Arvada 2nd (my old ward!), while Elder Christensen took Elder Heiner to the Skylake area. Working in a trio reminded me of when I first came to the mission and we had a great day! It was super fun to be back in my old area. I even got to catch up with some people I used to teach, like Bryan Coffing. Both of the Elders I went with, were just fantastic, and showed great examples of care and concern for their companions and zone.
On Sunday, Elder Christensen and I were back together and at church around 7:30am for ward council and then prepped at 8:30am for the Sacrament. We were expecting Monica, who Elder Christensen had asked to come the day before on exchanges. We waited and waited, and then she showed up with all three of her young children around 9:20am. She really enjoyed the meeting, and we were so happy to have her there! That night we visited with her and Sister Savage, and she is showing some serious signs of wanting to join the church!! We are so excited for her!
For my spiritual thought, I thought I would tell you about the training I gave at the MLC. My training was on how we need to think outside the box and try new things if we are going to reach our mission goal of 35 baptisms this month and stretch ourselves. I have a cousin who likes to do the high jump. The high jump was always done as a run and jump face forward, until a guy came along named, Dick Fosbury. Dick Fosbury wasn't able to do the high jump the same way as the others, so he tried out a new technique by going over the bar backwards. No one had ever seen this before, but he was successful and today it is the only way people go over the high jump. It is known as the Fosbury Flop. Dick Fosbury changed the game by trying out a new technique and thinking outside of the box. I am super pumped for the mission goal this month to see what we can do. I hope I have the faith enough to push and fight and lead, and try out some new ideas to get some different results.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” —Thomas Edison.
Thank you all so much for your love and support!!
Elder Bird
Pictures:
Stella the dog at a member family's home
Found a little door
The Aurora zone getting their smart phones
4/30/18
Hey everyone!
First off, I want to give my dad a little about out. It's his birthday today!! My dad is the best example of what kind of dad and person I want to be when I get older, and I am so grateful for his wonderful example. It is so funny as I get older, the more like him I am out here. Sometimes I say or do things and immediately think, "Wow, I'm turning in to my dad." Even when I don't have him around! I love you dad!!
This week was just a whirlwind of activity. I feel like I blinked and it is Monday again. A lot of the week was spent on Zone Conferences and prepping for them, and I am happy to say, it all turned out great.
Zone Conferences were on Wednesday and Thursday, for the South and North respectively. Both had the exact same schedule and trainings, running from 9am-5pm. The days started off with a little piece on "Give me this Mountain", which I talked about last week, and then we showed the video that we made. After, we heard from some counselors at LED services about how to tackle mountains in our lives. Then we broke out for 4 breakout trainings, with President and Sister Savage, and Elder Christensen and I each leading a group. My training was on how to act as a missionary at Sacrament meeting, to benefit the members, our investigators, and ourselves. I used the acronym "PLAY", telling everybody we need to come to Play at Sacrament. It was great! Great meetings and some really good trainings!
After the breakouts sessions, we had lunch and heard some administrative trainings about cars and how to pass off investigators. Then Elder Christensen and I were given some time to talk about smartphones and rules, because we will be rolling those out to the whole mission this week. After us, we headed in to departing testimonies and some testimonies of miracles happening around the mission. Finally, President and Sister Savage wrapped up the conference by talking about a Mission President seminar they attended last week. And then we finished!
On Wednesday night, President and Sister Savage took Elder Christensen and I to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. That was super nice of them. It is always nice to spend time with them. They are such awesome, fun people! On Friday, after both zone conferences were done, we took a big sigh of relief that all went well and that our trainings were good.
On Friday, our zone leaders met with us because they were planning a big zone activity that we were going to do the next day. Each companionship in the zone were going to contact all day in our own areas, and see if we could try to break the mission record, which was set at 151 people contacted. They named the day after Wilt Chamberlain, who had scored 100 points in a single basketball game. They taught us that we could do hard things! Everyone was a tad skeptical, but willing to try. Elder Christensen and I set out on Saturday with no appointments, but one that we rescheduled to another day. We got out at about 9:45am and just worked, going to parks, apartment complexes, busy streets, tracting homes, anywhere we could go to contact people. We took only a 20 minute lunch and a 45 minute dinner. Other than that, we were on our feet and out and about, talking to people. We knew the zone leaders were going to work hard and we wanted to beat them - you know, a little competition among Elders.
The end result - we contacted 214 people!!! With about 15 people who said we could come back!! It was such a GREAT day!! But, we were so tired afterwards. We picked up some Ben and Jerry's to celebrate a successful day out! We felt so good about the day and thought we had the competition all sewn up, but our zone leaders did beat us. They had a total of 220 people contacted. Oh so close! BUT, the top companionship in the zone got 231 people contacted!! For a zone total of 1,566 people contacted in a single day, which was an average of 174 people for each companionship. What an awesome "Wilt Day!"
Sunday we had a good day out contacting again. It is funny, that we were out all day the previous day, but found the most promising family to teach, on Sunday! Elder Christensen and I felt directed to a particular area that day and met a man named James, who has a few kids. He's trying to flip his life around and it was the best conversation we had had in a while. We are super pumped to teach him next week, and possibly see him at church next Sunday. It just shows us, that really the only way to do God's work, is with His help and direction.
We had an awesome week full of great work. We love it out here and feeling God's love for all the people we meet (especially those 214). I love you all!!
Elder Bird
4/23/18
Hey howdy hey! Another week seems to have just flown by! I feel like it was seriously just yesterday when I wrote home.
This week was full of fun and some great missionary work! Elder C and I went on two exchanges with different sets of zone leaders around the mission. The first was on Wednesday, with the Elders over the Denver zone. I went with Elder Burt, a newly called zone leader, while Elder Christensen went with Elder Braegger. Both are super great missionaries! I loved to see Elder Burt's tenacity and love of the work as we got out and pushed hard. We did lots of finding and contacting, and attended a district meeting together. It was cool to be with him again, because I had gone on an exchange with him a few months back as his zone leader, when I was with Elder Call. The other exchange was with the Elders covering the Aurora zone. We actually went into a trio that day, me with both of those Elders, while Elder Christensen stayed home and worked on a video we are showing at the next zone conference. Anyway, that exchange was pretty fun. Both Elders are great missionaries and super upbeat and happy, which was a joy to be around for the day.
The video Elder Christensen was working on is called "Give Me This Mountain" and it is based on the theme of the zone conference, established by President & Sister Savage. The video is a compilation of interviews taken of missionaries in our mission, talking about "mountains" they have experienced while on their mission, and how they overcame them. In the background, is a song that two Elders in the mission wrote, called "Give Me this Mountain."
We were pretty busy with it all week trying to put it all together, while also prepping some other things for the zone conference. On a funny note, on Friday, we drove the two Elders who wrote the song downtown to get a good recording of them at one of the studios in the library. Little did we realize, the date of that day was 4/20, and that things were CRAZY downtown. What do Mormon missionaries know about 4/20? Anyway, there was a pretty "worldly" festival happening that we didn't know about until we were in the thick of it. People were kind of laughing that the Mormon missionaries would be downtown on this day, but we actually met some people and gave a card or two away! And we got the song recorded, and the video is looking great! I think it will be a cool thing for all the missionaries at zone conference.
The message of "Give Me This Mountain" is a cool one. There is a story in the old testament about how the Israelites were in the wilderness wandering for 40 years and how one man's faith was enough to say to God "give me this mountain," or in other words, "give me whatever trial and I will take it head on." It is interesting how many mountains seem to pop up in our lives, or for me, in the mission. But over time with God's help, they seem to become hills and then just paths to walk through, if we only have enough faith to start the journey. I know God is watching out for all of us and giving us mountains we can all climb.
I love you all!
Elder Bird
My new suit
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