Hard Labor, A Labor of Love!

      Tuesday we went to Eugene for specialized training and we were there pretty much all day.  After that we headed home and only had a little time to visit a few people.
     Wednesday was pretty busy.  We did some finding in the morning.  We went and saw Troy and down and read with him.  He is doing awesome! His daughter was in town so we got to meet her, she was pretty chill.  We had a really good lesson with a new investigator we have been teaching.  Her name is Amber and she works at the school district as a councilor.   She grew up Lutheran and  has really struggled with a lot of the doctrine she grew up with and has  been looking for more! We  taught her about the Restoration and  answered a lot of her questions. It went really well.  She said  everything we taught her made complete sense and it's something that she really wants in her life, so we set a baptismal date with her for May 19th! :)   After that we had dinner with the Jacintos  Such a funny couple! I love them!  Brother Jacinto worked for NASA for a really long time and told us all these cool stories about every space launch.  He's writing a book about them all!   After dinner we saw a few people and read with the  Athertons. Everything is going really well there.  We moved Memory's baptismal date to May 12th,  so she is pretty stoked about it!
    

Myrtle Creek, Oregon.  A sample of the country Brock gets to see on the road.

Thursday morning we did some finding and then drove down to Myrtle Creek to go on exchanges with South Umpqua.  I was with Elder Ringer in my area.  We had a lesson with Brandon Waddell.  He is doing better,  just getting ready for the big day and the big surgery! He's kind of nervous about it.  Afterwards we went over to Troy's and talked with him and his brother.  They are hilarious. We dinner and then went over to the  Athertons to read with them! :)
     Friday we did some finding and ran into some pretty chill people who told us to come back, so that was good! We had a lesson with Sarah.  She is getting ready for her wedding and has a lot going on! She has been reading quite a bit from the Book of Mormon. Our lessons have gone really well and she is always excited when we come over.

Elder Bird was impressed with the green trees and rolling hills of Camas Valley, Oregon.

 After our lesson with her we exchanged back and then had to drive to Camas Valley for dinner, way out in the middle of the boonies, but it's really pretty over there, nothing but rolling hills of green tall trees! We read with the Athertons and the Van Ackers.  HaHa,  get those two families together and you're in for a treat.  They're pretty funny! We played some games with them and then went home and crashed.
     Saturday was a lot of hard work. We were at the Athertons cutting down trees, and ripping out fence all day.  It was 90 degrees.  I got fried.  We went over to the Simpson's house to see Wylie.  Patrick and his wife were so we just talked with them and then we all drove to Taco Time and ate. It was pretty fun!
     Sunday was just crazy! We had stake conference, then stake correlation, and lunch right after that. We had a lesson with Talati. He is doing really well, super stoked about his baptismal date and has been really busy with all the sports and stuff he and his brother are doing.  We had a great lesson. Sepha and Talati are so funny. We had another lesson with Amber. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she just loved it. It was a really good lesson and she is just so solid with everything! She has three dogs though and oh my gosh haha! One is a chihuahua,  like 3 months old, smallest thing I have seen, a black lab, and a toy poodle! The toy poodle just yaps and wants to play 24/7. It's a little black ball of energy haha!  It always gives us a laugh when we see it since it just runs around as fast as it can! haha! We had dinner with the Beckinhauers which is always fun.  Their 3 year old son is my little buddy.  He just folows me around and says the cutest things.  Jennifer, his mom said, "I have never seen him take to anyone the way he takes to you! Only his father and grandfather!" He is a cute kid! I love him! When we left there we had a lesson with Memory and that was our evening and week!
     Things here are going well. Signing up for classes this week! :)  I love you and will send pics next week! :)

Love you,
Brock

Elder Bird Trains New Zone Leader!

(From Ron Bird)
I had the pleasure to speak on the phone with President Mark Young.  It is great to hear that Brock is doing so well and has been given a very important assignment to finish his mission.  Brock was sad to see his great companion Elder Cooper transferred, but he's excited to have his new companion Elder Ewell.  He's only been out six months but President Young has called on Brock to train him as a new zone leader as his "last hurrah!"  President Young said Brock has been an exceptional leader in the mission and that he will miss him once he goes home at the end of June.  President Young has had such a profound impact on Brock and the other missionaries. We are forever grateful to him.

President and Sister Young have a blog you can see at:  www.oregoneugenemission.blogspot.com.
Brock showed up in some of their photos.  Here are a few!


This is at a zone leader conference on March 2, 2012.  Brock is on the back row, 10th elder from left to right.  President
Young says Brock is a frequent contributor at the training conferences.

No question, Brock loves to eat and usually one meal is one bite!  This photo
was taken at a zone conference in March.

President and Sister Young pose with the zone leaders outside the mission home in Eugene.  This is during a zone leaders'
conference on February 1, 2012.  Brock is in the middle of the back row.  What a beautiful setting.  It looks like Oregon!

Elder Bird Gets Release Date!

Brock just learned he will be released from his missionary service on June 28th.  This is about a month early so he can start school at Utah State University and be there in time for fall football camp.  Here are some of the highlights in Oregon from the last couple of weeks:

Elder Bird gives us a look at Winston, likely the place where he will end his mission.

March 12-18, 2012

Tuesday we contacted a few former investigators and actually ran into a really cool family, the Grimes family of 8 that we are now starting to teach.  They are really chill and really cool, humble people!  They live out in the middle of nowhere and Elder Cooper almost drove our car off a cliff trying to find them! :)

We had a lesson with Troy that went really well, haha he's funny, and is getting ready for his finals in his class. He is a welder, so he is under a lot of pressure because he's a little behind on his project. We had dinner and then a lesson with Brandon who is doing very well, getting ready for his bone marrow transplant at the end of the month, so he is a little nervous about that.  We went over to the Athertons and finished up with Memory's lessons.  So now we're just reading with her and reviewing things before she gets baptized!  She is doing great! Later we met up with Wylie again and went over some things we taught and he is just doing awesome! Haha,  funny kid! Got to love him! :)



Elder Bird and Elder Cooper sharing a lighter moment with Brandon at his baptism!  Brandon will soon receive the Aaronic Priesthood.

Wednesday we had a really good lesson with the Mackey family!  We set a date for them for May 5th to be baptized as a family.  It was really cool to sit down and have a nice lesson with them.  We saw Troy again and helped him around his yard a bit.  We had a lesson with Brandon who was recently baptized recently about  getting ready for the priesthood, so I  am excited for him.  We stopped over at the  Lancaters.  They are a recent convert family that got baptized back in November and it was a good visit.

Thursday we met up with Elder Jensen and Elder Sutton the assistants. I went with Jensen to teach Troy and Elder Cooper went with Elder Sutton to teach  Brother Kehne. Both lessons went really well.  Jensen was the original missionary that found Troy, so that was a nice surprise for Troy and it went really well. Elder Cooper and I did some finding after the lessons and ran into a girl named Sarah who is getting married in August, and she had been looking for a church to attend.  So we set an appointment  for  Saturday! :)

Friday we had a lesson with the Mackeys again and it went well.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation, and took a puzzle for the kids to put everything together. They really enjoyed having the lesson geared for the kids.  The are really excited about the church. We did some finding in a town called Ten Mile which is pretty much nothing haha! But we met some interesting people!  We saw the Van Acker family, a part member family and we set up an appiontment for that evening and taught Luke the non member husband! We had an awesome lesson with him. He is really cool and he really opened up to us and said he is going to start making church a higher priority in his life along with having an even stronger unity within the family! :) We were stoked! :)

March 19-25, 2012

So Tuesday we did some finding in the morning, had some lunch and then had a pretty good lesson with Troy.  I love that guy he is so funny! We have grown really close to troy and he is getting super stoked about his baptism, as am I.  A lot of people have been waiting on  Troy for awhile.  I am just glad i get to be a part of it all. We had a pretty sick lesson with the Athertons again.  The family is solid.  They're a funny group and their girls are crazy, but we have a fun time teaching them. Memory is getting ready for her baptism as well.  We're just continuing to read with her and Stephanie.  She just discovered that her iphone will read the B.O.M to her, so she was pretty stoked about that! Haha!  We also taught Wylie. \That kid is literally so funny! No joke! I love him, but he and his family are doing really well! :)

Wednesday we had a great lesson with Sarah.  She has been really excited  about church.  Her date isn't until August, so unfortunately I will miss out since I'll be home by then.  But it's still a blast to teach her and her husband Jared.   We also went and read with Stephanie and helped Billy move some stuff into the backyard because we're building a fence. We also visited with the Lancasters. Their kids are getting ready to go on Trek this summer.  Haha! Their daughter is slightly less excited about it. It was funny!
Thursday we did some more finding in the morning and then we had a lesson with Troy. He is totally changing and he was so happy that we were coming back over.  He wouldn't let the missionaries over for awhile but he loves us and reading with us. He has just been super happy lately and he said he knows it's because he has been meeting with us and feeling the Spirit. He bore his testimony to us about a few things and then we invited us over for dinner on  Saturday.

Friday we had interviews with President Young. I got my release date. It is june 28th. He basically talked about going home and he told me that where I am now is my last area and that he wants to have Elder Cooper and me  together for another transfer,  but he also wants me to train a new zone leader! It was good talking with President Young.  He is a funny guy!