Burning Calories, Blowing Tires in Bend!

Elder Bird soaking up the scenery in Bend.

     Tuesday of this week, I had an exchange with Elder Newman a recently released AP and a really cool kid!  We had a ton of fun! We handed out 500 mormon. org cards in an hour! :) Haha!  We burned 800 calories in that hour.  No joke, his watch told us so! :) It was a good day.   We taught Charlie.  He is really cool and we go biking with him He is getting baptized!  He's just praying about the date right now. We had our lesson at the park and it started raining and thundering but we just had fun with it.  We had dinner at Mikey's house.  He gets baptized this Sunday! :)   And boy is he awesome.  We're gonna play ball with him tomorrow! :)



     Wednesday was a day full of finding and teaching. We handed out a ton of fliers because we're having an open house this weekend at the church so we have really been pushing for that.  We had a planning meeting for it.  We also taught Courtney and Lauren that day!  Courtney is a "super hippie" haha ,and is kinda crazy, but she is absorbing the Gospel.  It's awesome to see the change in her life as she has been reading and praying and coming to church.  We also taught Mikey. He is so funny, as well as his sister Alondra.  They are the coolest family.


     Thursday we had weekly planing and talked about a ton of people we're working with, went over a few things for the open house, and we also had to plan for lessons were teaching at zone confrence. It was super long and exhausting so it was nice when we were done to get out and work hard and just talk to people. Yes, I love just talking to people. It's really the best!  We met a few intersting people.  We had prayed for someone who needed help and then went to the park. There was a lady there who said she had cancer and was in the middle of an ordeal where she was stranded.  She said she saw us and just really wanted to be taught. So we sat down and had a lesson with her about the Book of Mormon.  She said when she gets back home she wants to go to church.  So we got her name and number and referred her to the missionaries out in Missiouri.  That was a cool experience just to see Heavenly Father's hand bring us together at that park.  Then we hurried over to a lesson with Jim Jensen where we read with him, discussed a few things and just had a really good spiritual lesson. That man's life has changed so much since we have met him! :) Unbelievable! You look at him now and he is just glowing.  After his lesson we had sports night with the young single adults.  That was fun. We were there for about 30 minutes and played indoor soccer at a place which a member owns. We actually ate dinner with them last Monday! :) Man we had some good meals this last week.  Steak twice and ribs twice! :) ooh buddy! :)  Well, we had to leave the single adults because we have our call in confrenece every Thursday night at 9.  All the zone leaders, AP's and president link up over the phones and talk about things! :) Pretty cool. 


     Friday we had zone conference all day from 10 to 6.  It was way spiritual!  Elder Golden, a general authority, came and talked to us! We learned a lot of things that we can take back to our areas. President apologized for the long conference, hah, and told us from now on we're gonna play some kind of sport before or after zone conference.  After that we had dinner at Brother Carlson's house.  This guy is old and super funny!  He reminds me of my grandpa! It was a good dinner and we talked about a lot of things.  He is just really an awesome guy! He and his wife have served tons of missions! They were last in Africa.


     Saturday I was with Elder Goode and we handed out 300 fliers with the Mountain View elders downtown and just enjoyed talking to people.  We found a few new investigators.  One girl named Kiki.  She was pretty cool and we'll meet with her Thursday. We then split and had another lesson with Mikey out in his backyard and read out of the Book of Mormon! :) Good stuff! :) We also met with Reed and headed over to Marc and Jessica Miller's. We just talked about some questions they had, and she asked for a blessing because she had never had one and since she was starting a new job so she really wanted one.  I gave her one and it was a super spiritual experience. She was crying. She and her and husband are now getting baptized shortly.  I am so happy for them! :)

     Sunday we had stake confrence!  President Young talked and so did Elder Golden!  It was really good.  We had a few lessons and planned Mikey's baptism.  So everything was pretty good.


    And today, P-day, I went mountain biking and blew my tire out! So it's in the shop! haha! :)






     I love you and want to let you know I do have a testimony of this Gospel!  I am very thankful for it and how it has changed my life. My Heavenly Father loves me and he loves you.  I have great love for our Savior, for if it weren't for Him I wouldn't have the comfort of knowing that I can return to live with Him. My Savior saved my life and we as members and missionaries owe Him everything!  I challenge all of us to strenthen our faith, for faith preceeeds the miracle!  I love you!

Love,

Your son! :)