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!