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1/9/17
Hey everyone!!
It feels like ages since I have had a P-day! My last P-day was last year (10 days ago)!! I hope all is well for everyone and that you all have had a great first week of 2017.
First off, I want to give a shout out to my amazing little brother. Nathan got two awards this last week for his performance in the marching band!! How awesome is that?? He is a little champ, I am so proud of him :)
As for my week, we had a long but successful week! We now have three investigators who are scheduled to be baptized in the next few weeks!!
Saturday [12/31 - New Year's Eve] was a good P-day! We did normal P-day things, and then had dinner at a party with all of the empty-nesters in the Piney Creek Ward. It was awesome!! I loved hanging out with all of them! The missionaries had to be at their apartments at 7pm that night, so we had to leave at 6:50pm. Elder Olson and I put the polishing touches on our talks that we were giving the next morning, and then we went to bed at 10pm. We set an alarm on our phone for 12am (The New Year) and when it went off, we got up, popped some poppers we had bought at Walmart, and had some Martinelli's. After our 5 minutes of party, we headed back to bed!
Sunday was fantastic. Elder Olson and I gave talks in the Piney Creek ward about the Plan of Salvation. Because we were speaking, two of our investigators showed up!! After we spoke, Elder Olson and I went to the church of one of the investigators who had come to see our talks (a church swap, if you will). We had a fun time with him and his wife and kids at their church! Their kids held our hands as we walked them to their nursery and then out again once the sermon was finished. Afterwards we went back to our church for the Cherry Creek ward Sacrament meeting. The rest of that day was good too! We felt particularly directed, through some thoughts and feelings we had, of who to see that day. In one particular instance, as we sat in our car, close to the end of the nigh, we prayed to know what to do and where to go. The thought came to us that we should go see our Ward Mission leader (weird, right). So we drove over there, and as we pull up, another car pulls up at the same time, and a former investigator gets out of the car! We started talking to her, and we learned a lot about her and her background!! She said she loved talking to us and we could stop back anytime. How crazy is that?? The Holy Ghost is real and really does direct us out here.
Monday was a normal working day. We had two really awesome lessons. One was with a man from Ghana named Robert. He is a former investigator that is still searching for things in his life. He was super sincere, and we talked about how he could be guided by the Holy Ghost. He said he'd be interested in talking more with us. Then later that night, we met with a less active woman who hasn't been to church in a couple of years. We read 3 Nephi 18 with her and her daughter. That chapter talks about the importance of the Sacrament, and we asked them if they would come this Sunday to take part in the Sacrament with us. They said they would!!
Tuesday was solid! It was a biking day! We started with service at the old folks home, which is always fun. Then we went out on our bikes and tried to see some people. Most all of our appointments fell through, so we ended up tracting most of the afternoon. We had dinner with an active and less active member, and taught a lesson. The less active man (who had been sipping on his beer during dinner) asked some questions and we had a good discussion. After dinner, we had two more lessons. One with a solid investigator, who we helped through some concerns that he had and we had a good talk with him. The next was with a family and we shared a good kids lesson about the Holy Ghost. We used mints as our object lesson. It was a good day! After we had all finished, we came home and we exchanged companions, for the next day. The new Elder, Elder Cooper, became my companion and Elder Olson and Elder Mork became companions for the Willow Creek ward.
Wednesday turned out to be pretty cold. Elder Copper and I did a lot of tracting around and knocking on doors because all of our appointments had fallen through. We did some good work, and it was fun to be out doing the hard stuff with a brand new Elder! We did have a lesson with a Muslim man from Bangladesh, and Elder Cooper got his first taste of teaching the Plan of Salvation with a language barrier. It was a good lesson though! We had dinner after that, and by that point it had started snowing and was coming down pretty hard. Our area was expecting at least half a foot. Because Elder Cooper didn't have snow boots already, and I didn't want him to suffer until P-day, after dinner we went to Target and picked him up a nice new pair. With those in hand, we got a text saying that the cars needed to be parked for the rest of the night. So we headed back to the apartment. Elder Olson and Elder Mork showed up there, too, and we finished the day by exchanging stories and saying what we had learned that day, and then exchanged companions back.
Thursday was super snowy!! We did get about half a foot of snow overnight. The cars still had to be parked until we were told we could drive them. This stressed me out a bit because I was supposed to be holding my weekly training meeting for the Elders in my district that morning. I was given permission to hold the training meeting in our apartment, so the Willow Creek Elders who live there also, and we could be there, while the Zone leaders in my district could phone in. It was kind of fun to hold the meeting in the apartment. Elder Olson and I both gave training talks. Afterwards, Elder Olson and I needed to get to a lunch with a member, so, we walked there because we still couldn't drive the car. Luckily it was only a 15 minute walk and we were out of the cold quickly. We had lunch and then the message came that we could now use our cars. The big thing that day was we had a first lesson with a young man named Ian. He is 21 and super interested in learning about religion. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he was super interested the whole time. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read before our next visit, and when we asked when we could meet again, he told us that the next day would be good!! How exciting is that? It would be so great if we could have more lessons like his.
Friday was great! We We had some good lesson with people. I'll talk about the main three. The first one, was with a guy named James, and we went over to help him with genealogy. He had been born into the church, but was never active and was pretty distant for most of his life. We ended up finding his baptism and confirmation certificates online, while we were there, and re-taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He is super cool! The next big lesson was with Ian again. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had done all of the reading we asked him to do and his prayers were fantastic! He accepted the invitation to be baptized and decided on February 4th. Now we need to prepare him for it the best we can! We are so excited for him! The other big thing was a blessing we gave that night to an investigator. He finally told us why he hasn't been coming to church or reading. We gave him a blessing and are going to work a lot more closely with him as we move forward. The night ended with a meeting with myself, the other district leaders in the zone, and the zone leaders. There will be some interesting things happening in the mission soon, and I learned the name of my new mission President, who will be coming in June.
Saturday was a good day again. I led a meeting for the Elders in the zone in the morning, and then we did some service and had a few lessons in the afternoon. We had dinner the family who we went to church with last Sunday. They are super sweet, and we were able to talk with them about Joseph Smith after the kids went to bed.
Finally, Sunday!! We had fast and testimony meeting in both of our wards. The big news is that Ian came to 2 hours of church and liked it!! It was so awesome to have him there. Elder Olson and I both bore our testimonies in both Sacrament meetings. After church, we saw a lot of people, just checking up on them and making sure they were still reading scriptures, praying, and going to church. We headed in for the night and I made some phone calls as a district leader, checking in on my other Elders.
It was a long and fantastic week!! Every week, miracles happen. We are so blessed to be able to experience so many and be able to recognize them as they come!!
I hope everyone has a good week!
Elder Bird
Braving the cold and snow
I got a new chair and desk. I feel like a real leader now
12/31/16
Happy New Year's Eve everyone! Our P-day was switched to today, because of the holiday, but our next P-day will be January 9th and we will be back on our regular schedule :)
So...Christmas happened!! Wow! What a wonderful time of year!! It was such an awesome experience out here in Denver. Although everything was great and seeing people was nice, my favorite part by far, was talking to my family on Christmas Eve.
So, Christmas Eve started out with me finding out about transfers (which were last Wednesday). We found out that Elder Olson and I are both staying here in the Piney/Cherry Creek Wards in the Denver Stake. We also found out that our District leader, Elder Bjerga, is becoming a zone leader in Arapaho and that I have been asked to fill his place as the new District Leader. Wow! I was so surprised!
For this Christmas we missionaries in the Denver area were allowed to watch two approved Christmas movies. We tried to watch them at a members house, but the TV ended up not working. So we just worked on a puzzle and hung out until dinner time. We had a great dinner, but I was a little anxious the whole time because I knew that after dinner I would be able to skype my family. Finally, dinner was finished and I signed on to Skype at the pre-arranged time with my family!!! It was so wonderful to see them all again and to be able to talk with them for a little bit! It felt like I barely had time to talk when it was time to say goodbye to them. I ended by leaving them with my testimony and lots of love, and then Elder Olsen and I had to head out. It felt so much more like Christmas after seeing them though, which was really nice :)
Right after talking with my family, Elder Olsen and I headed to the combined Ward Christmas program put on by both of our wards. There was some great music that brought the Spirit. While I listened, I thought about my family and what makes the Christmas season so special. After the program, we went home and read the Christmas story "Mormon style" (3 Nephi 1:1-14 and then Luke 2). It was a great way to end the night and keep that spirit with us for the next day as well.
Sunday was Christmas!!! Elder Olson and I woke up at 6:30 (like good, dutiful missionaries) and opened the Christmas presents that had been sent to us. Thank you all so much for anything you sent, be it a present, a letter, or just prayers my way. I felt so loved and I was so grateful to be supported by so many people. I think Elder Olson and I both ended up with like 4 scarves and 5 gift cards to Chick-fil-a. haha We got lots of other clothes too. It was a great morning! Then, we had to get ready quick and head off to church and both of our Sacrament meetings. We had wonderful meetings in both wards, and kept getting handed Christmas presents from the members (they were so sweet.) Afterwards, we headed over to a member's house so that Elder Olson could Skype home and his family. He was so excited and glad to see them again. He had a good time with them, and then we headed out and pretty much just visited with members and shared small Christmas messages wherever we went. It was a nice day!
Monday wasn't P-day, so it was back to work for us. We saw a few of our less active members, but tried to be very courteous to people. We had a great day of talking with as many as we could, and had a small miracle that night. We were driving home through a park when I got a feeling to stop and walk around the park (at 8pm at night...luckily we were in a nice neighborhood), So we did, but nothing too exciting happened. So we headed home. But, while pulling into our complex, Elder Olson got the feeling that he wanted to visit one more person who lives in our same complex. So we did, and we arrived at exactly the right time. We had a good lesson with this guy. It was kind of weird, but I think we were supposed to walk around the park in order to stall time, and meet this guy exactly the moment when we did. It was a cool experience.
On Tuesday, we started off our day with service at the old folks home, doing Tai Chi, and making crafts for the residents. Then we came home and had lunch, and then had a lesson with a guy we have been working with, whose son was just baptized. Well, we had a very good lesson and even set a date for him to be baptized at the end of January!!! He has been working with missionaries for years, and now he is finally ready!
That night we had another amazing lesson on the Restoration with a solid investigator named Mike, who we have recently started teaching. He is progressing really well and doing everything he needs to! He said that he would consider baptism, and told us he would come to church with us this week!! It was amazing! Then, we called it a day and headed home.
I talked with Elder Bjerga and he gave me some good training on how to be a good district leader. We said our goodbyes on the phone, before he left the next morning for transfers.
On Wednesday, everybody else transferred or worked getting their things moved around while Elder Olsen and I stayed home and did some good work. It was a bit of a tough day with a lot of appointments falling through. We did have a great lesson near the end of the day with a man named Jeff who has been coming to church, but is tentative about baptism. We had an awesome lesson with him about what concerns he has. We are excited to work with him!! After the day was all done, we went to meet the new Elder that had come into the district. He is a brand new missionary and his name is Elder Cooper.
Then Thursday morning, my first real responsibility as a district leader came. During our regular district meeting, I was going to give some training to the district. Luckily, everything went well. At the end, I had everyone circle up and we got to know each other a little bit (where we were from, what we do, why we are out here -- that kind of stuff). I am so excited for the new district and to be serving them all here!! After the meeting ended, we went home for lunch and then ran off to a lesson we had at 1pm. We had a good lesson and taught about the Holy Ghost. Then, we were supposed to see a potential investigator at 2pm, but that fell through and so we did some tracting! And then our 3pm appointment fell through also, so more tracting! And our 4pm fell through also, so we tried visiting some former investigators. Normal missionary stuff. We had a good dinner, and then had two lessons. We taught and read scriptures with a nice less-active family in the ward and then had a good discussion with some really intense investigators in Piney Creek Ward. We talked a lot about some pretty awesome stuff, they are still having a hard time with things they "heard", but luckily are still meeting with us! After them, we headed home and I made some calls to my Elders. [A District Leader supervises 2-3 other missionary companionships and makes sure they are doing okay.]
Finally, yesterday, [Friday] we had a good day! We planned for the week and then went out and taught. We saw a man who we are working with who is a professor of theology and an atheist. We have made some really good ground with him, and are even hoping to get him to church soon! After seeing him, we went and saw Trevor, a young recent convert. He had gotten a tablet for Christmas, so we downloaded the Gospel Library app (which is rocking now!!) and watched some Mormon messages with him. After seeing him, we did some service for some people in the ward and then had a good dinner. Then we had a good lesson with a returning member. He'll be coming to church this Sunday!! After him, I headed to my first District Leader Council, where all the district leaders and Zone leaders get together and talk about what will happen this next transfer. Then we headed home, planned for today, and I made some calls.
It was a really good week!! And I am very excited to work hard next week too. We are speaking in church this Sunday, [New Year's Day] so hopefully a lot of our people might come to see us! It was amazing to feel the love of the season and then to be able to get back out there and have a good week. I hope everyone's New Year's is fun and, most importantly, safe! I will be praying for you all as I sleep right through it :)
Happy New Year, and Much love!
Elder Bird
Driving in the car.
Our Christmas tree!
My Christmas pajamas that match my family
Lots of scarves for the Denver cold
My homemade Settlers of Catan gameboard
12/23/16
Hello everyone!! I'm sure it is a little weird hearing from me in the middle of the week. Saturday was going to be my P-day, but they are having us email today [Friday]. So hi!!! Merry Christmas!
This week has been awesome so far!! We have been able to see and make progress with so many awesome people!!
Monday was your typical P-day. We shopped, ran around, had a bit of time to relax. We both got our Christmas boxes in the mail, so now our tree looks pretty full with presents! We had a good dinner that day, and then tried to see a few people, but without much luck that night.
Tuesday was a full day!! We started with service at the old folks home, which is always fun. I got the opportunity to talk with a woman (who has dementia). A few weeks back she yelled at us because she forgot who we were. I had kind of been avoiding her because I didn't want her to yell at me again. Her name is Helen, so I called my fear of her, Helenaphobia. Well, we had a good conversation that helped me to overcome my fear of her and recognize that she can't really control herself sometimes. After that, we headed home and had lunch. Then we helped one of our investigators clean up and get all ready for her holiday trip. She was super appreciative and said we'd have a good long lesson when she got back :) Then we were able to see another investigator, a Jewish convert woman. We had a long (I mean really long) conversation. We even gave her a Christmas card with Jesus on it, and she put it right on her mantle over the fireplace!
After that we helped get things ready and decorated for a birthday party of some members of the ward that we are really close with. While we were decorating, I made a joke about how, instead of the streamers, we could just use toilet paper. Elder Olson liked that idea so much that we actually did it. We decorated with toilet paper as streamers, and then when the Birthday people arrived, we told them the theme of the party was "a pretty crappy birthday." They loved it and we had lots of fun!! Then that night, we ran and had an amazing Plan of Salvation lesson with a guy who is just recently changing and deciding to investigate the church. He had no concerns with all of what we taught, and we are so excited for him moving forward.
Wednesday was a pretty full day, too. We had to take our car into a Firestone Tire shop early in the morning. While waiting for them to change our tires we did our studies right there in the Firestone waiting room. Then we headed home to re-group and go out for the day. We saw our atheist investigator and had a nice talk with him about God and if He's there (He is!!!). He told us that maybe he just doesn't believe because God has never spoken to him. That was big ground, instead of him just saying that he doesn't want to believe in God!!
We had a good lunch and then went out again. We saw our investigator Ricky, who's son was baptized a few weeks back. He had all his kids, and we taught a good Christmas lesson with them and they showed us their turtles. Then we ran through the Baptismal interview Questions with Ricky and got him excited to move towards baptism!! After Ricky, we went and read scriptures with one of our less active members and then taught a young man who wants to be baptized about the Plan of Salvation. We asked him to prepare himself to be baptized. He picked a specific date in January to do it!! That night, we saw another less active member who is struggling, and read scriptures with him and his son. After that, we were asked to give a blessing to someone in the ward. Finally, one of our investigators really wanted to play basketball with us, so we told him if he got a few of his friends together, we would play. We were able to play basketball with 4 non-members and give them a little tour of the church!
Thursday was a solid day as well! We had a training meeting in the morning and then went straight to work right after! We took a young man who is a bit less active in the ward out to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and were able to have a great discussion with him about the Holy Ghost. Then we saw a new member of the ward, who just moved in, who is a recent convert. We took him and his non-member nephew to the church to have a lesson, and ended up giving them a tour of the church and teaching the Catholic nephew a lot about our beliefs. After that lesson, we saw a guy in the ward we are working with to get the Melchizedek Priesthood, and had a solid conversation with him. Then we went and read some scriptures with another less active man in one of the wards. After that, we went out and tracted for a bit before dinner. After dinner, we went and saw a less active, part-member family. We weren't able to share a spiritual thought with them, but it was good to say "hi" and check in before Christmas. Finally, we ended the night with a superb lesson with an investigator couple who are just the sweetest people. They even gave us Christmas Presents!!!
And now it is today!!! We had a fantastic week so far, and the rest of the week with P-day tomorrow and Christmas the next day should be pretty awesome. I am so excited to Skype home and talk to and see my family, especially at this time of year where family is so important.
I hope everyone has an amazing time this weekend! I heard a quote the other day that made me think. "We wouldn't celebrate Christmas, if there had been no Easter." I hope we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate the Savior's birth.
Merry Christmas!!
Elder Bird
12/19/16
Hello everyone!! I hope you all are getting ready for Christmas week! We definitely are here in Colorado. We had a super crazy, busy week, but it was amazing to see all the people that we did.
Monday was our typical P-day! We ran around and got ready for the rest of the week!!
On Tuesday, we hit the work as hard as we could. We started that morning by putting together a Christmas song (Joy to the World) for the zone conference. Because I had been in band and choir...everybody decided to put me in charge of it. It was a tad stressful trying to figure out what we could do that wouldn't be super boring, in just an hour, but we got it figured out and then headed home to get to work. After lunch, we saw our friend Frank, who is a recent convert to the church, and helped him move some furniture. Then we shared some scriptures and thoughts with him. After, we ran over and saw Ricky, a man we are teaching who's son was just baptized. Because he's a bit more shy, we have worked hard to get him to open up and trust us. Then we had a great discussion about baptism and learned he is ready to move forward!! We are excited for him, he just has to put in the work! After Ricky, we saw an investigator named Paul. He's an Atheist man who has zero belief in God. He is very kind though, and very smart and learned when it comes to any religion. We talked to him about personal revelation and how prophets of old used similar methods to receive revelation from God. Our biggest challenge with him is getting him to want to believe in God. After Paul, we had dinner and then went and saw a 10 year old named Skylar who desperately wants to be baptized. We had a good discussion with him about what baptism is and why it is important. We are excited for him to move forward! Finally after Skylar, we saw our friend Gino, a less active guy with lots of health problems. We had a great discussion with him on the Book of Mormon and were able to read with him in it. He had read on his own and had really enjoyed it, which was a big step!!
On Wednesday, we had a big meeting for the entire south half of the mission. It was a great zone conference, and we were able to learn a lot. We performed our Joy to the World song, which went good. We also got lots of helpful instruction and were challenged to read the whole Book of Mormon in 63 days (how long it took to translate it). We were each given our own special Book of Mormon to do it with, and we are really excited about this challenge. My favorite part about the conference was the final speaker, who talked about the 3 levels of Christmas: 1. the Santa Clause level, 2. the Silent Night level (baby Jesus), and 3. The Living Christ level, where we remember all of Christ's life and what He did for us. He told us that the first two levels can only last for so long, but the third level will always bring us joy as we continue to live it. It was a wonderful message, and ended with the a great quote about the Savior. "He came to pay a debt that he did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay." Wonderful.
After zone conference, we were able to take some sweet bread, that we were given, over to a family that has been tentative to meet with us. We got in the door! We even taught a lesson and were able to set up lessons weekly with them! After them, we had dinner and then were able to go on splits again with our Ward Mission Leader and a ward missionary. I went with the Ward Mission Leader and taught the #Lighttheworld message to a nice less active, part member family. Elder Olson went with the ward missionary and also taught a nice less active, part member family about the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome!! Finally after splits, we ended the night with a sweet investigator couple who we have been working with. They have heard things from their church about us, and so have lots of concerns, with a lot of things. But they are very open and we have great discussions! They even wanted to do a church swap that Sunday, which was amazing!
Thursday was "exchange day" with our District leader and his companion. [This is where they trade companions for the day] So I stayed in our area with the District leader, Elder Bjerga, while Elder Olson went to their area to do some work there. Elder Bjerga and I had a great day! All of the people we talked to loved hearing his accent and learning that he was from Norway.
That morning, we were able to see Janet, an investigator we hadn't seen in a few weeks. We talked with her about life's burdens and about trusting in God. She is going through a really rough time, and so we gave her a blessing. (Small Miracle - that morning, I had felt prompted to put my oil container into my bag, which was sitting on my desk. I did, and then she asked for a blessing when we were with her. Amazing, right??) We had some lunch after Janet, and then saw our friend Shawn, who is returning to church and wants to get the Melchizedek Priesthood. We talked to him about that and then read some scriptures with him.
After Shawn, we were going to go out and see a former investigator, but saw a man outside playing guitar on the way, so decided to stop and talk with him. It turns out this guy, named Dusty, has been going through a really hard time recently. He was super nice, and told us that he knew that God had sent us to him!! He accepted a Book of Mormon and an invitation to come to church on Sunday!! After meeting Dusty, we went to dinner and then were able to teach the Mercado family, a less active family, afterwards. We read scriptures with them and heard their conversion story. It was great, and we are really excited for the progression they are making. After that lesson, we headed downtown because we were going to be Christmas Caroling at 16th street mall, a popular mall downtown, with all of the missionaries in the Stake. They had a piano set up in the middle of the street while we sang and other missionaries shared cards and the Christmas video with people. It was really fun! After that was all done, Elder Olson and I got back together and headed home for the night.
On Friday, we started out the day by seeing Anne, a Muslim investigator. She was curious about the Priesthood last time we met, and we had a really great conversation about it with her. Unfortunately, she told us she wasn't really looking for baptism, but she enjoys the discussion. We asked her to read and pray about Alma 34 and about the Savior and then see what she feels. After Anne, we had lunch and planned out what we were doing for the rest of the week. Then we went out and set up some appointments. We had a great lesson with our friend Jeff. He served a mission, but now has kind of gone inactive, so we talked with him about why. He lost his father while he was on his mission, lost his brother while serving in the Navy, and then lost his best friend in the Aurora shooting (that theater that was in a shooting and is just north of our areas). After so much loss, he just kind of snapped and went a bit less active. He totally knows the truth though, so we go over and ask for advice, to get him to teach himself basically. We had a really great talk with him.
Later we had dinner with a less active woman and a member family! The woman, who used to be a bit "anti-Mormon," even let us teach her kids our dinner message, and her son said the closing prayer!! Then, we were invited over to a second dinner with another less active family, who had a nonmember friend over that we will start to teach! We had a great time with them and we taught a second little dinner lesson. Then we headed home, just before the snow came in.
Saturday was freezing because it had snowed the whole night before. That morning, we shoveled a woman in the ward's walk. She really appreciated it, and we went around trying to help other people out. After giving service, we had lunch and then were able to see a young man that is struggling with his testimony. We taught him a great lesson, but told him that he needed to learn for himself, the things we taught were true, through personal prayer and scripture study. We are hopeful that if he actually does this that he will gain that testimony and become active again. After seeing him, we saw our friend Jerry, who just moved into the area. He has a bit of brain damage from an accident he was in. He told us a lot about that and about his conversion story. It was great to hear! After him, we saw Trevor, a young recent convert who we read scriptures with. After Trevor, we took some sweet bread over to a friend who had just gone through surgery and chatted with them for a bit before dinner. After dinner, we had a lesson with a man named William. He has a strong testimony, and is starting to come back to church. We talked a lot about the Nephites in the Americas and about the evidence they left. We also read some scriptures with him, and headed home for the night.
Sunday we had church and then we got to see Handel's Messiah downtown with Janet! Church was really great, and we even saw Julie again (someone we had baptized last transfer but had gone out of town for a while). Six hours of church is long, but then we went right over to get a ride with Janet downtown. The Messiah performance was great, and it was good to be there with Janet as she felt the Spirit during the performance. It was a sing along, if you could follow it. The best part was singing the Hallelujah chorus part, which everybody knows. After the performance, we headed home, and squeezed in one final discussion with the less active part, member-family we had met on Wednesday (with the sweetbread.) We had a really great conversation with them about kindness, and they even invited us over to their house for Christmas!! It was awesome! Then we headed home.
I forgot to mention one thing, during Piney Creek Sacrament meeting, my "fixed" cracked tooth fell apart again!! So I looked like a giant hick for the Messiah performance and the lesson that night. And all this morning!! Luckily, a dentist can see me today at 3:30pm. All I want for Christmas IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH!!
It was a fantastic week, and I loved being able to see and talk with so many people leading up to Christmas. We have some awesome things planned this week, and we learn about transfers on our next P-day, which is the 24th!! I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas week and a wonderful Christmas Day!
I love you all!!
Elder Bird
My broken tooth again
Being goofy!
12/12/16
Christmas!!
Hey everyone!! I hope you all are doing well and getting ready for Christmas, and the reason for the season, our Savior's Birthday!
We had a good week here! It was a little tough to teach people though, because at this time, people are super busy. But we had some really fun things happen!!
We had a pretty standard Monday of preparing for the week and hanging out. We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner, which was really good. (I don't think I have ever had so much Chick-fil-A in my life).
Tuesday was a bit of a crazy/fun day! We didn't have the car that day, because our mission president likes to do something called a "Car Fasts" every month. [go without something for a while] So we were on bikes again!!
We started that morning at the old folks home, like usual, wrapping boxes for Christmas present decorations (one of the older folks took our scissors and wouldn't give them back, so we had to ask for help from the staff). That was fun! Then we came home and had lunch before heading out again! Unfortunately, Elder Olson didn't have a bike, and my back tire was flat. We tried talking with a friend of ours named Frank to borrow a bike, but he wasn't home...so we walked a little farther and tried to get help from our Ward Mission leader.
Elder Olson was able to borrow a bike...but I still had a flat tire. Well, we had an appointment really soon and I couldn't really do much else but ride on it over there! We were only 5 minutes late to the appointment, but my back tire was shredded...but we made it! We had a good talk with this woman, who has quite a story. She is an ex LAPD cop, who lost both her legs. She raised three boys, almost on her own, and converted from Southern Baptist to Judaism...like, what?? It was so cool listening to her and hearing her experiences. She is so kind, and we are heading back this week to keep talking to her! After that lesson, we biked over to an atheist man we talk to (my back tire getting even worse). We had a good conversation with him about how we believe we can receive knowledge from more than just books, others, and history, but directly from God through the Holy Ghost. He's a good guy, and we have a lot to cover with him! When we went to leave and head to dinner, both my tires were now flat!! So we just walked to dinner, which was luckily only a block away. We had a good dinner and, thankfully, the members gave us and our bikes a ride home.
Wednesday was a full day! We spent a lot of time running around trying to talk to people. We had a really great lesson with one of our less active members about reading in the Book of Mormon and why that is important, and we are starting over again with him! We tried to talk to a few more people before dinner. We had dinner with a family that is investigating the church in one of the wards, which was super fun. It was awesome to just be with these people and hang out and develop trust without having a "lesson setting." After dinner, we were able to go on splits with our Ward Mission Leader (WML) and a ward missionary for the first time! The WML and I went around to new move-ins in the ward and invited them to the Christmas party on Saturday, while Elder Olson and the ward missionary taught a really great lesson to one of our investigators. It was great!! Next time, they are going to try to teach her without her drinking wine during the lesson though :)
On Thursday, we had a really good (but long) zone meeting with the other Elders in the Stake. We learned lots and were ready to apply what we learned in the area! Afterwards, we tried to meet with some other people, but weren't having much luck. Finally, after dinner, we were able to sit down with a guy in one of the wards who is going through a hard time. He has been coming to church and we shared the #Lighttheworld challenge with him.
On Friday, we had a meeting in the morning for trainers and trainees. Elder Olson liked seeing everyone from his district again, and I had fun seeing some of my Elder friends who are training. We were able to learn lots from President and it was a good boost for all the newbies. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch and then planned for this week. Then, we went directly to the church to help set up for the Cherry Creek Christmas party, which was happening the next day. After helping out, we saw our recent convert friend named Frank. He is helping me fix up my bike. While we dropped off my bike to him, we shared some scriptures and had a good conversation with him. Afterward, we went to dinner and then tried a few more people that night before heading in.
Saturday was party day!! We had the Cherry Creek Christmas party in the morning and then the Piney Creek Christmas party that night. We were asked to be the judges of the ugly sweater contest that morning, and so we brought our own ugly sweaters that we had bought. We also helped out with taking pictures with Santa (it was so funny to see the little baby's immediately start screaming once they hit Santa's lap, and then try and catch a good picture of them). After the party, the ward gave us all of the left overs (so we have sweet bread and eggs for days now...I guess we'll have a lot of french toast).
We went back out to work, while we could, in between parties, and we were able to talk to two families. The first, a less active single mom, who is recently dating a man named Mike, who is familiar with the church, but is open to learning more! We had a really great lesson about progression and change (he wasn't open to the church too much before, but now talked about change. I told him, "You know Mike, life's all about change." He thought that was funny). Later we went and saw our recent convert young friend, Trevor, and had a lesson that continued off of the "white bananas".
After talking to Trevor, we ran over and helped get things ready for the Piney Creek Christmas party. We had tons of fun that night at the party and were able to talk to a lot of nonmembers that came and even hand out a Book of Mormon! Then we helped clean up and headed home for the night.
Sunday was full of church!! A lot of our lesser actives came and we even had a part-member family come! Yay! On a side note, we also had put out a box of Book of Mormon's in the foyer and our Ward Mission Leader put up a sign that said, "Give the gift that keeps on giving." By the end of our meetings, there was only one book left!! After church, we were able to see two people, one in each ward, and have good conversations with them. Then we headed in for the night!
It was a good week! It is amazing just how many people we are able to see and meet with each week and talk to. Even when we were out knocking on doors in 20* degree whether. It amazes me how fulfilling everything feels.
I hope you all have good week!!
Elder Bird
Christmas decorations!!
Us in our ugly sweaters
Us with Santa and Mrs. Clause
Elder Olson becoming a Christmas tree at one of the parties
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