Uncooked Meat And A Spiritual Feast!

Elder Bird had another baptism this past week.  Here's a portion of his play by play letter:

Tuesday was busy.  We had lessons with the Mackey family which went really well. We read and discussed the Plan of Salvation with them.  They are way stoked about the church and everything that we are teaching them. We have seen a huge difference in their family.  They're definitely more unified! :)  We contacted a lot of people, had dinner and a lesson with the Athertons. Memory is doing great.  She is getting ready for baptism and is super stoked about everything we're teaching her. It's been fun getting to know them and to see who this family was before and where they are now! :)  We had a lesson with Wylie. He is the coolest kid ever.  He's always happy and so enthused when we come over for lessons. He has really grasped onto the gospel and the things we're teaching him.

Brock in Winston March 2012.

Wednesday we did a bunch of finding in the morning and had another lesson with the Mackey family.  We also had a lesson with Troy Singlton.  Haha, he is a goof!  He's just always joking around, he is fun to teach, just really outgoing and positive.  He has come along way in the past 10 years!   We had dinner with the Roberts again.  Haha, everytime we eat there we have an adventure,  not in a bad way though! In a good way!  It seems like there is always something that goes wrong.  This time the roast didn't cook all the way through so they had to shave the outside of it to eat because it was the only part that was done, but it was really good! :)  We had a lesson with Brandon, got him ready for his baptismal interview and went over some stuff.  He was really excited. Then we had a brief lesson with Memory. We played basketball that night, it was a blast! :)
Thursday we had district meeting and then lunch.  Right after that we had our correlation with our district leader. The zone is doing really well actually!  It's doing the best in the whole mission! :) So we're happy that things are goin so well! :)  We had a lesson with brother Kehne again. He is doing well. We're  working on his stop smoking program with him, and its coming along really well.  We taught him the Gospel of Christ, and he really enjoyed it.  Later we contacted a lot of people, went to Brandon's baptismal interview and then had a really late dinner with brother Heirs and his litttle kid at McDonalds.  Haha! Gotta love Mcdonalds!  After that we had a call in conference with all the zone leaders and just talked about the work.


Elder Bird and Elder Cooper with Brandon on his baptism day (3-10-2012).

Saturday was super busy.  We wrote up the baptismal program and got everything set up. We had a lesson with Troy and then a correlation with Elder Jensen, and then another correlation with Brother Jensen. We were luckily able to fit in a few hours to go tracting and get our 12 hours for the week.  Brandon's baptism was awesome. He asked me to baptize him! He is a stud.  His mom was super stoked for it, it went really well and we had a good turn out. 
Sunday we had meetings with the ward all morning. Then we had church and later stake correlation with the stake president and his councilors over missionary work.  Later we did some tracting and picked up a new guy named Michael.  He is black and Muslim and wants to get baptized.  He's actually has taken the lessons before and said he is really excited to get the ball rollin! :)
Today (Monday) I am just resting! Haha, really tired but ready for a new week! :)

For The Love Of The People

It is so amazing to see how service to the Lord brings about mighty changes.  In this case it is wonderful to see how Brock has become devoted to others and his genuine love for the people he teaches.

So, here's my week!Tuesday we had dinner and a lesson at the Athertons with Stephanie, who just got baptized and Memory who will get baptized in a few weeks.  Our lesson went really well.  Memory prayed, and she is super excited about her baptism coming up. Afterwards weWylie's house and had a lesson with him.  We're re-teaching him everything, and honestly we have seen such a huge difference in him in the way he comprehends things.  He picks them up and understands them so much quicker now! His mom said he is doing a lot better at controlling his emotions.  If you don't remember, Wylie is autistic.  But he is the coolest kid ever.  I have a deep love for that kid, for who he is and the things he goes through.  I told him his new name is Thee Man.  So whenever I see him I ask him what his name is and he says, Thee Man! Haha! because he is thee man!

Brock taking a break on the porch of his missionary pad in Winston.

Wednesday we did a lot of finding and it turned out good.  We met Troy Singleton who is a former investigator. He has had a really rough past, has spent most of his life in prison, but has turned his life around.  The funny thing is Elder Jensen (Brock's former companion) found him almost two years ago and has been taking lessons on and off. So we sat down with him and talked for a bit, about life and the Gospel and we set a return apointment for Friday! :)  We had another lesson with the Athertons and a really good lesson with Brandon Waddell who is getting baptized on the 10th.  He starts his chemotherapy on the 12th, so he is really excited to be baptized right before he goes in.  He has been reading and praying every night and he said it has made the biggest difference in his days.  He's just has more peace and comfort as he  gets ready for his bone marrow transplant. So it was exciting to hear that from Brandon!  We played basketball later that night.  A lot of people were there as well as some of our investigators so we had a good time running around.


Thursday we had our district meeting, lunch and correlation.  Then we jetted home for a lesson with Emilio who is doing really well.  He totally cracks me up. He always has to be doing something!  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and read with him. He came to church this weekend,  so we were stoked about that. We ate dinner and then had to drive all the way back to Roseburg to do some baptismal interviews with some kids.  They were super cute, haha.  I love interviewing kids because they say the darndest things, that's for sure.  Kids are just awesome! They're so funny all the time,  and there is never a dull moment.  We drove right back to Winston to have a lesson with the Athertons. The dad has been coming back to church and we're hoping to get him to baptize his daughter. He said it's something he wants to do, and were working with him to make that happen. Since he has been coming to church and  participating in lessons he has been pumped about the church!


Friday we had a lesson with Troy.  We taught the Gospel of Christ to him and set a date for the 24th of March.  He is really excited about it and really wants to get baptized.  He is a funny guy and we have really grown close to him.  We had a lesson with Brother Kehne and his wife. She is not a member and he just came back to church since I have been here.  The lesson went really well and his wife had a lot of questions for us.  We taught her the Restoration, and she said it totally makes sense how it all works.
Saturday was all planning and corelating.  We did our weekly planning session that took forever because we are so busy! We had our correlation with Elder Jensen (AP).  There is so much going on now and the ward is excited!
We have zone leader council on Friday in Eugene. Elder Holland will be there!  Just 14 missionaries and the Spirit in the company of an apostle.  Oh gosh! 


Love you, and hope all is well!


Love Brock