Flashback, A Stabbing, Surgeries and Missionary Work!

     Things are alright here!  Just working as usual.  We did teach a less active guy who was in the military and has killed several people (in military action).  He was a marine and has tons of medals, but he has been struggling.  This week he had a flashback while he was sharpening his knife and stabbed himself in the stomach.  So the police took him from his family because he was a threat to them.  I guess they took all his guns and knives.  Everything is better now.  He is back in his house with his family, so that is good.

     Thursday we went on splits and I was with Brother Smith.  He's a really cool guy. 

Klamath Union High School in Klamath Falls.  Brock might
do some training with the football team here on his P-days.

     He is the Klamath High School football coach and told me I can work out with him in the mornings at 5 and run routes with the team on Mondays! :)  We went to visit several people.  One was Guy Baker, a less active member who has a form of Terrets so I just talked to him and gave him a message about faith and how our Heavenly Father can bless us as we go to church and follow the commandments.


     Our investiggators with dates are doing well.   But it's weird they are all in surgery.  Haha!  Annie went into surgery today and Morgan's mom went in on Saturday, but we were able to give them blessings and comfort , I guess.  We will be meet with them this next week and set dates! :)


    The weather here is alright!  It's just been snowing and we just deal with it!  But it is good to see the sun now! :)

     Love you,
     Brock

Getting Acquainted

     Klamath Falls is alright.  It's a lot like Utah and is a really small town but it is really spread out. Kinda reminds me of a mix of St. george and Logan. Weird, I guess!  Our apartment is pretty nice. It might be the biggest in the mission.  It is about the same square footage as my apartment in college, so you can imagine the size for two people which is nice.

     My new comp is Elder Osborn. He is really cool.  Born in Mexico but is from Florida!  We get along really well but too bad he goes home in 11 weeks.  The other elders in our district are Elder Stewart, a kid I came out with and Elder Mcmakin.  They are so funny!


     Tuesday I got transferred and didn't get to Klamath until 12:30 in the morning so you can imagine how tired I was haha!  We stopped in Eugene and just chilled with President MacDonald.  We met some of the new eklders just coming in. Haha!  They all looked so scared!  I hope I never looked like they did, which I don't think I did! Haha!  Come to think of it I was probably in the fetal  position!  JK! 


     Thursday we went to visited several people.  Most of them I am still trying to remember their names.  We are teaching a kid named Morgan who will get baptized. He is eleven and a pretty cool kid I would say.


     Friday we had dinner with the Nashes.  They are a really cute old couple and very nice.  We got along great with them.  Then we visited Nik Parazoo, a recent convert.  I just talked to him about things and tried to find what he needed.  Really nice kid.  JUST STRUGGLING BECAUSE HE HAS TWO KIDS AND HE IS ONLY 18! That would be tough but he is changing his life around so I am happy for him.


     Church on Sunday was weird because noone was there!  It's so small down here!  It's like the ward should just be a branch.  \But Elder Osborn told me that a lot of people were gone this weekend. We ate at our ward mission leader's house.  Dinner was good. We had chile and cinnamon rolls!  I was so hungry.  They are really cool people!


     I will be teaching a lot in Spanish, and it's mainly for the summer while there's large population of immigrants who come to pick berries and work on the farms. My comp is a Spanish elder so I have to learn it anyway.  Pres said it will be good for me and explained they are doing this to cover more ground throughout the mission to reach out to the Spanish speaking people.  It probably won't be permanent, though.  So yeah, I am learning! 

     Hey, it's supposed to snow this week so it will be fun! Haha!  I love you! Hope your week is awesome! :)
    
     Brock was right.  Southern Oregon has had its share of snow as you can tell by this image from the local TV station.  Many customers experienced power outages!  Brock should feel right at home!

Love, Brock! Your one and only son! :)

BREAKING NEWS! ELDER BIRD TRANSFERRED!

    SO HERE I GO! BIG CHANGES AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES OUT HERE IN OREGON!

     Here's what's going on with me now!  I am getting transferred to Klamath Falls! Haha!

 Klamath is at the very bottom of our mission so I'll also be serving in California, not to mention the Klamath Indian Reservation.  I will be a Spanish elder for a couple transfers or maybe permanently.  I will be the district leader down there too!  So this next transfer will be an interesting one! Haha!  It's like everything has completely changed for me out here but I am not complaining.  I am ready to move onto another area!  OH, HERE'S MY NEW ADDRESS- 2169 ELDORADO APT #6 KLAMATH FALLS, OR 97601! :) WRITE ME! Haha! My new comp's name is Elder Osborn.  He goes home in two transfers!

     

Klamath Falls has a population of about 21,000.  The older part of the city
sits above geothermal springs and homes and businesses in the downtown
area use them for heating.  The area is a high desert landscape.

Crater Lake north of Klamath Falls.
The area is known for incredible outdoor scenery.

     As for my week, Tuesday we just did finding all day and taught some lessons. Wednesday we had leadership training and I had to teach a two hour class on the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. I liked it.  It was fun to teach and not sit there and have to listen the whole time. But leadership training went from 9 to pretty much 4:30.  Here's how it works:  Noone knows who is teaching what class or when.  President just tells everyone what to study and to be ready to prepare to teach a class. I honestly  had the feeling I was gonna teach.  And I did!  President walked in and said, "Hey, I have been looking for you Bird! You're teaching!" So that pretty much killed our whole day and I was pretty exhausted after that.  So we went to dinner then went home.  

     On Thursday we did some finding, taught Andrea, Jordan, the Vaughns, and Tony Reynolds, the Seventh Day Aventist!  On Friday we talked to random people all day and just kinda kicked it.  We taught some lessons and then went to our buddy Toby Meekins and shot his hunting bow! It's sick!  Saturday I started packing!  Yesterday we went to church and I just visited some people. This my last day in Albany, so it will be a party! Haha! 



I love you and i hope all is well! :)
Love,

Your Son

A New Missionary Sport Called "Prossball!"

     We did do alot of finding and were blessed with some people!  A woman from Italy.  She is older. Her name is Lucia Tyler! She was really nice and wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon! :) So we told her we would meet with her when she got back from her trip. It was interesting to see how the Lord tests us.  We knocked on the doors of the whole neighborhood and the last door was the one that wanted to hear our message!  Talk about patience and enduring to the end with the Lord!  That really taught me to never give up! :) He is just testing us to see if we are ready to teach the people he has prepared for us!



     This week we went on splits with the Spanish elders.  Elder Rivera stayed in my area with me. We taught Andrea. She is really cool and has come to know that the Book of Mormon is true!  She definately has been prepared by the Lord.  She has been praying for answers, and what we have taught her has been an answer to her prayers! :)  It was cool to see her read the Book of Mormon and just have it make total sense to her!


     We're going to pick up Tony Reynolds again.  His wife really wants us to teach him and the Spirit has influenced me that everything will work this time, so we'll give it a shot! :)


     We went on splits on Wednesday and Tuesday to find people.  We came up with a few potential investigators but no promises. As for Jordan,  she is doing great!  She will get baptized this weekend! So that will be great to get her in the water. 

    We have leadership training on Wednesday so that will be cool!  I have to prepare to teach a 2 hour class in front of president.  It will be interesting! :) Haha!

Elders Lindsay and Bird in their apartment.
Notice the football on the desk.  Apparently it's
always on hand for a game of "prossball."

    On Saturday we just visited some former investigators and less actives. 
 We also played some "prossball." We challenged these kids to a game of football, 3 on 8, and if we won they had to listen to us! We played and won! They sat and listended.  Haha! It was all good!

    Yesterday we had church, went and got some eggs from the Minks, and then had dinner at the Mortensens, then cake and ice cream at the Burtons.  It was cool.  Then we rushed over to the Vaughns for a lesson! :)


    This week we have all been sick.  It's like one of us gets sick so the other two just have to sit and study and then once that person is better another is sick. I am still a little sick right now, but hey I am doing a lot better.  We did the best we could with managing rest and work! :)  I am just focusing on getting people in the water this weekend! :) Hope everything works out well. 

Willamette Park in Albany,left partially under water
from heavier than normal rain.

   The weather here has been nice lately, 65 and sunny!  Weird!  That motivated us to get out and work while we were sick! :)


     I hope all is well dad.  I love you!
     Stay strong and enjoy life!
     Love, Elder Bird!

Talking To The Dead!?

     Monday I chipped four of my teeth and I have an appointment to get them fixed on the 31st.  Haha! Good stuff!

Elder Bird and Elder Otteson on a split.
(This is pre-chipped teeth!)

     How's that for a greeting?  Brock apparently had a rough basketball game.  He and his companions play quite often with non members.  He took one for the team!

     So on Friday I went on splits with the zone leaders out in Corvallis.  It was fun!  I was with Elder Blackburn. He goes home in 2 weeks on the 8th!  We met a lot of people and taught several lessons. I was there with him during his correlation with the AP.s. It looks like I am either gonna stay and train or leave and train and become a district leader somewhere. But who knows! Haha! But it was fun! we ate at Subway for lunch with the mission leader out there. He is way cool. His name is Chris, a military guy.  I have known him since I got here.

      The "visa elder" (Elder Lewis) who is stuck with us is a cool kid and we really get along.  You will also see him in a few videos!
     
     This week we met a lot of people!  A few girls up in Corvallis with Elder Blackburn.  They were really cool.  We ran into them while tracting.  They invited us in and we just talked about the gospel and they said they would come to church the next day and check it out.  So that was cool to see and meet legit people! They asked us what we missed the most and  we both said our famlies! Hahah! :)
     
     On Tuesday we met a guy who was an inventor for HP! He was really smart but one of those guys who is too smart for his own good.  He created a printer that can put out a full color picture in under a second.  And he had a 3D TV back in 1970 haha! But he wanted us to read these books and then read the Bible and the Book of Mormon and then come back and see him.  Then he would teach us how to talk to our dead relatives! He talks to his wife and dog all the time! :) Haha!
That was a funny story! 

      This week we taught Caley, Jordan, the Vaughns, and a Shelly and her family, along with Andrea, and a few people over in the singles ward!  Caley is doing great.  She is praying on a date to set herself for baptism.  as for Jordan she is as solid as they get! She is getting baptized next weekend because eveyone is out of town this weekend. haha!  She is just like a golden nugget!  The Vaughns are doing great.  Shelly and her family have been really grasping on to the Gospel! It's definitely helping them.  You can tell!  Andrea is doing awesome too.

     Yesterday we had a lesson over at the Halladays.  They are a super cool family in the ward.   I am way close to them.  Oh and yesterday they had like 20 kids in nursery and two people to watch all of them, so they had us go in and help.   It was so fun, especially since I know all the kids. I enjoyed it! We just played games with all of them.  They are one to three years old. Jackson just followed me around and he was like,  "Can I be you when I am older?" I told him no, that he can be better! :)  He then told me, "But I wanna be you, Bird! :) Haha! He was cute! He is the son of the Wards! Brother Ward's wife is Brother Halladay's sister! Haha! It's funny.  I am tight with everyone in that related family! But it's good! They all have the cutest kids! :)
that's pretty much my week!