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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
12/5/16
Hello everyone!! Happy December!! I can't believe it's December already!
This week was a good week here in Colorado!! We are getting ready for Christmas, and I think the missionaries here just can't wait! (Because we get to call home.)
So Monday, P-day, was super fun on bikes. After emailing at the library, we biked over to the shopping center and grabbed some lunch at McDonalds (the $1 Big Mac deal because the Broncos had played the previous day. Then we shopped at the grocery store and bought what we needed for the week. When we went outside we realized we kind of had a problem. How were we going to get everything we just bought home? Luckily, my bike had a small rack on the back. So, we purchased some bungee cords and put everything into a big red bag and strapped it on. It was a little ghetto (and it made my bike super heavy), but we got everything home okay! Then we had a good rest of the day, finishing with an FHE with a young family, where we shared the Christmas video and helped them set up for Christmas!
Tuesday was another fun day of biking around. We went to the old folks home next door and did Tai Chi with them for an hour (by the end, most people were asleep...it was fun!) and then we also helped them set up for Christmas. It was fun to see the people light up as they saw the Christmas decorations go up! After that, we biked around and had some good lessons with 2 of our investigators and a recent convert. One of our investigators, Ricky, has a son who was ready to be baptized on Friday! We talked to him about that, got him ready for what was going to happen, and then told him we would see him at the service!
Wednesday was, yet again, another super fun day of biking!! That morning, we met a very nice atheist man who had been taught before, and then we biked to lunch after. While eating lunch, we got a call from the car place telling us that our car was done!! We were ecstatic (mostly our legs were) and we got a member to drive us over there. We were so happy! With the car back, we saw a few more people and ended the night with a bit of basketball at the church and a small spiritual thought with our investigator, Daniel. We were glad that we didn't have to bike home in the cold that night!!
On Thursday, we had a meeting in the morning and then had 3 set appointments with people. We had good meetings, and shared the Christmas program #lighttheworld with all of them. It was December 1st and so was starting that day!! After our set appointments, we knocked on doors and offered our help to people (because it was the day of service) to anyone that needed it! No one took us up on the offer, but it was good to be out meeting people.
On Friday morning, we had an amazing lesson. We met a Muslim woman at the local library and caught up with her because we hadn't seen her in a few weeks. We had an amazing discussion! We taught her for two hours about the plan of salvation, a bit of the restoration, and why baptism is so important. Elder Olsen and I were able to teach really well together and she told us that she really enjoyed the discussion! We gave her more "homework" which was to read in the Book of Mormon and learn more about Christ. Hopefully we will see her again this next week. After seeing her, we stopped by a few more people we could potentially teach, and then had lunch. Then we came home and planned for the week ahead.
That evening we were able to have a good conversation over dinner and the during the prep for dinner (Elder Olson was teaching a part member family how to make sushi). The Bishop came with us that night, and he shared his conversion story. He had to leave a bit early to prepare for the baptism that night (of Ricky's son!!!). This prompted the family's 9 year old to ask about baptism and then tell us she wanted to get baptized too! How cool is that?? We taught about baptism then. Afterward, we went to the church for the baptism. It was a great service! Two of the kids in our ward came and we saw Ricky as he supported his son as he took the step of baptism. While talking with Ricky after the service and saying goodbye to leave, he told us he would see us Sunday!! We left with big smiles on our faces.
On Saturday, we had a training meeting in the morning and then started our work. We didn't have too much set up ahead of time, so we went from house to house of people we normally see on Saturdays. There were a lot away and couldn't see, but we were able to see our friend, Andrew, and meet his son and talk with him more about baptism. We also saw our young recent convert, Trevor, and read the scripture 1 Nephi 8 with him. This chapter is about the Tree of Life, and it was fun to talk with him about it and about the fruit from it. He told us he really likes bananas, so for the rest of the lesson we said, "follow the path so that we can eat the white bananas." After meeting with him, we had a great dinner with a young family who gave us 3 families referrals to try and teach! How awesome is that? We also tried to stop by a few more people that night before heading in.
Finally, Sunday. Fast Sunday was great! Full of church. Ricky came to Sacrament meeting and we were super happy to see him there and to have him watch his son bear a testimony! Also, one of our recent converts in the Piney Creek Ward came to church after missing all of last transfer!! He showed up all by himself on his bike. It was such a blessing! So church was awesome, and then we headed out to work. We tried by a few people we had wanted to see, but had no luck seeing any of them. We had a great dinner with another young family and then were able to watch the Christmas devotional with some other members. After the devotional, we tried by a few more people and then headed in for the day.
It was a full week!! We kept busy and were able to have some really amazing spiritual experiences. One theme that I noticed from this week was the theme of progression (I noticed this at our lesson with the Muslim lady). The Plan that God has for us is ALL, is about progression!! Life is all about our progression as we learn and grow, this is why we are here on earth, to learn and progress. That's why we go to church (to learn and progress), that is why we read the scriptures and pray (to learn and progress), that is why we are baptized (a step that leads to progression), that is why having a family is so important to us (it leads to more progression). It is all about progression!! And we are always moving along the path, whether that movement is forward or backwards. I like to think of it as a moving sidewalk at the airport. We are constantly walking against the sidewalk, while it pushes us backwards. It seems like the world is trying to bring us down and push us backwards, to get us to digress. We need to take action and actively fight against that, and walk forward on that sidewalk, if we are ever going to get somewhere. As we do, we will move forward, and we will be stronger for it.
I am so grateful for the progression I am making out here on my mission. I am learning and progressing as I try to help others out, and make a difference as we all walk towards those "white bananas."
Anyway, I hope you all have another wonderful week this 1st week of December! I love you all!!
Elder Bird
P.S. Here is an article about us for the turkey basket handout. [Ryan is in the second picture, well at least the back of him is.]
http://coloradomormons.com/mormon-missionaries-deliver-2912-turkeys-to-catholic-charities/
11/28/16
Hey everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and had lots of Turkey! We had a wonderful week out here. Lots happened!
On Tuesday we had a good rest of the day for P-day! While we were shopping later in the day, some random lady in Walmart gave us $20 (how sweet is that?? It was amazing!) We used that money to buy ourselves a Christmas Tree for the apartment. We were able to buy a cheap 6 foot tall tree and then we bought a few strands of lights for it for only $5. So, thanks to the sweet woman in Walmart, we can have a great December!!!
On Wednesday, we were told we had to take our car into the shop to get the scratch on it fixed up. So, that meant we were going to be biking until the following Wednesday!! It was a good thing I found a free one and Elder Olson borrowed one from one of our ward mission leaders. After dropping off the car, we got ready to work extra hard! I didn't realize how awesome having the car was, or how hilly our two areas are. We have sore thighs and a much greater appreciation for the car now!! We biked around a lot on Wednesday and had a few lessons with some of our investigators. We taught a guy named Ricky and his kids about Thanksgiving and living in it daily! Then we saw a man named Andrew, who is very philosophical, and so Elder Olson loved talking with him. Then we tried a few other houses before biking down to dinner, which was with a cute young family in the ward. We had a fun dinner with them and then tried a few more people before having a lesson with a guy named Daniel. We had a good lesson and he knows we really do care about him. After that lesson, we biked home (with dead legs and ready for bed).
Thursday was Thanksgiving day!! We had a meeting that morning at the Stake Center where we learned about the new Christmas initiative. It's a new Christmas program this year that helps us to remember Jesus did and to do certain things over the 25 days of December, that will draw us closer to Christ. it is really awesome, and there is a great video about it on Mormon.org. I recommend everyone to check it out!! After the meeting, we visited with a family in the ward for a bit and played some games with their kids, and left a Thanksgiving message. Then we had dinner with a sweet family who we are very good friends with. Dinner was delicious! I way over ate, and payed for it later when we were biking around. It was pretty worth it though. Then, we visited two more families in the ward, ate pie with them, and shared the Thanksgiving message. I was grateful for a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
On Friday, Elder Olsen and I got flu shots in the morning and then planned stuff out for the following week. Then we had a pretty standard day of tracting and trying to contact people. We had two lessons with some less active members we are working with, both about the new Christmas message! We also had a fun dinner with the Bishop of Piney Creek Ward and his family. He is super hilarious!
On Saturday, we had a training meeting in the morning. Afterward, our zone leaders gave us 5 dozen eggs (for some reason?), so when we got home we decided to make big 6 egg omelets for ourselves. That was pretty nice. Then we got to work! We had a lesson with a less active member, and we helped her set up her Christmas tree and showed the Christmas message to her and her daughter. Then we ran over and had a great discussion with one of our investigators, a worship pastor at a Christian church. He is a great guy, but has a lot of deep concerns. We brought over a member who really helped out a lot. Mike is really progressing and we are going to try to go to his church one time so that he will come to ours. I'm very excited for him!! After Mike, we saw Trevor (a young man who was just baptized). We read scriptures with him and his family, which was really nice and good for all of them. Then, we were supposed to head to dinner. Well, my GPS told me that the house we needed to get to was clear across town almost near the reservoir, where I didn't think were any houses. We biked over as fast as we could!! We showed up to where my GPS said about 15 minutes late, only to find that there were no houses over there. We gave the brother a call, confused and exhausted. He told us where he lived, and then just came and picked us up. I felt so bad!!! It was kind if funny that we had worked and panicked and then just showed up in the middle of nowhere, We had a good dinner with them. Afterward, we biked over to a family who were really not too interested in meeting with us. But, we felt inspired to go there so we did. Elder Olson was able to have a good conversation with the wife, both of them have liberal points of view, and so she was willing to hear his lesson. We were even able to set a return appointment and will start teaching her!! What a miracle!!
Sunday was busy with church, as usual. We felt a little silly biking around in our suit coats. Why not look professional when you bike around? We had a good 6 hours at church, and then had a lesson right after. It was a good lesson about the Christmas program. After 7 hours at the church, we biked home and recouped, grabbed a quick snack, and then headed out again. We were able to contact one person before dinner. We had a great dinner, and then finished the day with two more lessons that night. We taught one of our investigators and then a family going through a hard time. We gave them the Christmas message. Then we biked home, dead tired, and ready for P-day.
We had a great week!! Elder Olson and I are loving the work and loving working hard. Biking has really made us close friends, and it is fun to be working together, It is also amazing to see how much light can be brought into people's lives as they learn and work towards becoming more like Jesus. It is such a blessing!
I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!
Elder Bird
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