Hippies and Clown Hair!

Elder Brock Bird

     Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Nelson.  We taught a 16 year old girl named Victoria Quesenbery.  Really cool.  She got baptized this week!  She was kind of nervous about everything so we just sat and talked with her and made sure baptism is what she wanted and she knew it was right! So obviously the lesson went pretty well.  Other than that, we just did some tracting and ran into some hippies! Haha!  I am so used to hippies they don't even stick out anymore. My life! One guy I thought legit had clown hair,but turned out, nope, it was real!

     Wednesday we taught Robin, a way sick guy.  We have worked with him for awhile.  He is turning his balcony into a ship! Haha!  It's for plays and theater type stuff.  We talked to him a little about the Plan of Salvation.  He said it totally made sense to him and that he was surprised how much he over thought it, but in reality it's so simple and not as complex as he made it out to be.  That was cool!  We also taught Haylee Odle.  She is a member and her husband isn't.  A really cute family!  Their little boy loves us.  He is really funny.  We just talked and got to know the husband.  We haven't really talked to him too much before but he really likes us and we have another appointment to see them again tomorrow, so it will be fun.  We also met up with Roy and his wife.  Roy has been reading and has really just opened up to the Gospel.  When we first started teaching him he didn't really believe in God but now he knows there is one for sure!  He said he knew deep down He was there all along.  "I just didn't open my heart to it because I was too stubborn," he said.   I asked him, "So why are you moving now?" Haha!  Unfortunately that was our last visit with them.  They moved to Utah, Cotton Wood Heights area this weekend!

President and Sister Young

     Thursday, boy was it a long day!  We had interviews with President Young from 8 to 5!  My interview went well.  I felt good when he talked about how impressed he was with me as a missionary, how I get people to open up, members or non members and how organized I am with running things in my district.  He is a really cool, very sincere guy!  We have a lot in common!
     Friday we had correlation and I had to prepare a talk for a fireside for the Eugene Stake! President asked me to go with him and talk.  Haha! Lucky me!  But it was fun!  I enjoyed it, but that was on Sunday!   In the meantime, we had a lesson with Qin Beavens from China.  We finished talking about baptism and the Holy Ghost.  She was funny, but it was a good lesson.  She is really loving the church, so it's been good.  We also helped the Leavits move.  They're the family whose kids I read stories to.  They left Friday.  We helped them finish packing the truck and they were off.  I'm gonna miss them! They are headed to Sandy, so who knows I might see them again! :)

Monica Bruin, a very
close friend who passed
away in June 2010.

     Saturday we went to Carolina's! She is an older woman who has brain cancer and she broke her leg so she can't do anything in her yard.  We went over there, taught her a lesson and then went to work!  It reminded me of when Monica (Bruin)would sit in her front yard in her wheel chair and watch me work in her yard! :)  It brought back some bittersweet memories.  I really miss her! I actually carry her funeral pamphlet around in my suit jacket along with a picture of the family :) We did that then hit the streets.  It was busy.  Afterwards we correlated with our ward mission leader.
     Sunday we had church plus several meetings.  We ate, tracted, visited people, and then I went to that fireside. Pretty interesting! I talked to the young single adults and the youth, a good experience! All in all that's my week!


Well dad, I love you. Hope all is well!
Love,

Your son!

A Baptism And Getting The Saints Excited!

Pre-mission photo.  Brock is fast approaching
his one year mark!

     My week was alright! Very busy, and very stressful! Obviously the 4th we just chilled inside and kicked it!  Tuesday we did some finding and then we went on exchanges from Tuesday night to Wednesday night with my buddy Elder Johnson, the one who came out with me.  We had some pretty crazy times! Haha! Did a lot of finding but it was fun.
     Thursday we had a lot of work and visited some less actives.  One guy, named George and another guy named Rich.  George is this crazy old guy who wreaks of smoke and just throws out profanities, but it's kind of funny.  Rich is this old guy who is really sweet but he had a stroke awhile back and has just been recovering.  We're preparing him to receive the priesthood, so that's pretty cool.  We also visited Steve our recent convert.  He is struggling.  He moved out of his house and is getting his foot amputated, so it's been hard on him.  We just went over and talked with him and tried to help him but other than that we did some finding and went through the unbaptized childrens' list.  I also had correlation with the zone leaders that day to figure out some things for the zone and district.  It was pretty cool!  Elder Knight thought it was 7/11 and started tripping,  but in reality that was today and I still didn't get my free Slurpee! haha! Iam an idiot! Oh well!
     Friday we had district meeting.  It went pretty well.  I think we got some things figured out. After that we had lunch at Taco Bell! 

     We did some finding, just cruised around talking to people.  Some girl asked me for my number and to see if I wanted to go to a party with her at the U of O.  I just laughed and said,  Sorry, I am a missionary and I have a girlfriend!"  Everyone else laughed and started making fun of me!. 
     After lunch and our district "finding" we went back to our areas and worked there.  We had an appointment with Qin  Beavens, the one from China! It was a really good lesson.  She actually started to cry and said, "I know it's true!  I know it is!"  It was really cool and super peaceful! I just wanted to cry for her and her husband.  It was really cool!  Later we played some ping pong with them, and yes I freaking suck!

Elder Ryan Bruin (left) now serves in Argentina.  Brock
and Ryan grew up together.  Jake Roper (right) also serves
in Argentina but in a different mission.

Her son looks exactly how Ryan Bruin did when he was 5! haha! So funny! He's a little runt just like him too in every way possible! After that we went to our ward mission leader's house to finish our laundry.  We talked about things and what he did on his mission .:)  It was cool!
     Saturday we had a baptism! Her name is Marcy Shram.  I guess it technically wasn't our baptism but it was in our ward so we had put it all together.  The sisters actually taught her, but it was a good baptism! I don't know Marcy very well,  but I was happy for her.  We then had lunch and went to work!  We went through our ward list and are starting to visit families and kind of build the ward up to help them become more unified.  We don't fieel that everyone knows each other very well and that they're on their own, so we're just trying to bring the ward closer together.  We want to get to know the families too because we don't know many of them and noone seems to sign up for dinners. Haha! We did meet with a bunch of cool families, like the Hess's, Ferriers, and  Hendricksons!  We will visit more this week!
     We also had a lesson with Kathleen Wagner a single mother with 6 kids!   They're really cool and a super nice family!  Their kids are crazy for sure! Haha!  They were playing games with us and were all crazy and wild, except the one year old.  She would just sit in front of me, wave and just smile!  It was super cute.  But three of the kids want to get baptized so it will be really cool.  I am excited for them! :)
     Sunday we obviously had church as well as stake correlation!  Since I'm the DL I discussed the work with the stake presidency and it went very well!  President Young was there!  He's a super cool guy and I love him to death! It went well and president pulled me aside and told me I did a great job.
     We did some finding and had dinner with my favorite family the Leavitts!  Their daughter is the one who tucked me into bed and sang to me, haha! :) We had fun over there! Unfortunatly they are moving on friday to Sandy! My favorite family here moves to my home town! Haha! Great! Oh well!
     I love you dad!  I know you guys love me and want what's best for me.  I love you guys, I do! I am grateful for everything you have done for me. You guys are a blessing!


I love you!
Stay safe!


Love, Elder Bird

Elder Bird Transferred to Eugene!

     Brock was transferred to Eugene from Klamath Falls on June 14th!  Here's his first letter, once he arrived in his new area:

I really like Eugene and my comp!  His name is Elder Ivie.  I have served around him before.  He goes home in 7 weeks so that's not cool!  I am still the DL, and yes this is president's last week here. President Young comes in next week and President Macdonald will hand the Youngs the keys and take off!       


Fast forward to Tuesday,  June 28th.  The Macdonalds leave Oregon
for their home in Utah County.  I (Ron) actually saw the Macdonalds
the next day on I-15 near Salt Lake.  What are the chances
of that?!

     My week was pretty interesting!  I transferred Tuesday night, so we drove to Medford and we stayed the night with Elders Mcmakin and Perkins, guys I know and have served around so it was fun!
    Wednesday morning we left at 9:30 to go to the trasnfer spot to head up to Eugene!  It was a pretty long drive, like 3-and-a-half hours!  But it was good to talk to all my buddies that I came out with on the van.

Biking is huge in Eugene.  Brock says there's
a bike shop on every corner.  Photo: "WeBikeEugene" 

     I got to my area about 2-ish and then just unpacked and went to dinner.  My allergies are off the wall here.  Eugene is so pollinated! My eyes were swollen shut!
     Thursday we hopped on the bikes and went crazy with work!  It's nice being in an area where people walk around! 
     We visited several people we're teaching.  Shelly and Angelina are ready for baptism!  Shelly just needs to get divorced and then re-married.  And Angelina is just waiting to get baptized with her mom.  Shelly's dad Steve is a recent convert for like a month.  Really cool old guy, but it's sad he has gangrene in his feet and kidney failure so he might have to get his feet cut off and then the kidney transplant.  But the guy is a trooper!  He goes fishing everyday!
     We visited Ann and Rob!  They also have dates. They are a cute young family. Then we just did some finding!

    Friday we had district meeting.  The whole zone gets together and does all their D-meetings at once! Kinda cool!  We just set expectations and goals.  It was a good meeting and we got to meet some of the new guys.  Afterwards we went to Mucho Gusto, a Mexican restaurant.

  Pretty cool and pretty good! Then when district meeting and everything was done we had correlation with the zone leaders! Really long! After that I had a baptismal interview with a 9 year old, Mckyle Arthur, a really cool kid, really shy and has Ashbergers but he was really cute.  By the time we were done with that it was like 5:30 so we went back home for dinner and then we visited a few people and then it was time for bed! Haha!

     Saturday we were booked.   We went to our ward mission leader's house.  He is Brother Baird, a super cool guy, 28 years old and married.   Just a really refreshing and solid guy!  We talked with him for awhile about the work and then ate luch with Elder Trayden Johnson and his comp.  Then we did some finding, taught Steve, Shelly and Angelina and visited George,  this old crazy less active guy. He was super funny and he really likes me! 
     Sunday we went to church and then visited some people and had dinner with the Leavitts. Super cool family! They have three young kids, a 2 year old daughter, a 6 year old daughter and a 4 year old boy.  They were so cute after dinner. They all ran up to me holding books and wanted me to read to them.  So they all sat on my lap and I read to them!  The 2-year-old looked at me when I was done reading and said, "Elder, I love you!"  Then she said she'd be right back and came with another book.  It was cute! :)  I loved it!  After about an hour of reading to the kids we shared a message and got back to work!
     I am grateful for the support, love and passion you have for me!  I couldn't do this without you guys! :)


Love,
Elder Bird!

Pitbulls, Drunks and Great Lessons!

     Things are going well here!  Work's been good and that's what matters to me.  I do want to thank you for everything you guys do for me, and the love and support you give me! It means a lot! :)  My shoulder is great and I should be out of the sling this week!  I have full range of motion and I am very mobile, so the shoulder is fantastic! :)



My week:


     Tuesday we had a lot going on.  We taught a lot and did a bunch of finding!  We ran into a crazy drunk guy who was saying there were demons everywhere!  He was just trippin' out.  Aside from that, we taught the Fergosos and had a "family lesson" with them, kind of like a family home evening.  They were super excited for church and everything and it was just all around a good lesson.  We went through the ward list and visited a bunch of less active members!  Some were interested and said we could come back, but most of them just kind of didn't want anything to do with it.  But hey, gotta still love them!

This is an LDS chapel in Klamath Falls with
the Articles of Faith on the front of the building. 

    From Tuesday to Wednesday night I went on exchanges with 5th ward missionaries and we had some fun! I was with Elder Stewart!  He came into my area and we visited with Annie Cervantez.  It was really good to see her again!  She has been struggling a bit just because of her health issues.  She is the one who has had surgery on like everything. But she is doing better and is up and about now.  She is unable to come to church so we worked out a deal where we can go over and give her the sacrament and teach her a lesson Sundays! :)  She was super excited and is ready for baptism!  We also went and visited Morgan Lamprech and his family.  He is the 12 year old who had a date but just didn't want to do anything.  He stopped going to school.  For me it looked like he had totally changed his life around and is now going to school, listening to his mom and is wanting to take the missionary discussions again!  So it was an over all good experience with him!


     Thursday we went on exchanges with Brother Ravoir!.  He is a really cool guy!  He has this little Honda Prelude that he bought for 500 dollars and oh my heck it was ridiculous!  We were crammed in the car!  But it was funny.  We went and visited the Zumwalt family, a part member family and taught them about the sacrament.  We tweaked the lesson so their younger kids could understand and they just absolutely loved it!  It was pretty sick!  We also stopped by to see several other people and visited with them.  One of them was a girl named Amanda Dahl.  She is a member and lives with six girls and we got to talk to her a lot about religion.  It was just a good discussion and we are going to start teaching her roommate Kristy, so it was pretty chill!


     Friday, we had district meeting.  It was a really good one!  We just had an open discussion on a lot of things.  Everyone loved it and got a lot out of it for their areas and investigators, so I was happy to be a part of that and help the other guys out!  

     Friday night I exchanged with Third Ward and I went into their area with Elder Barker, a really cool kid!   We helped some people move! Haha!  I moved the bare minumum, haha, due to my shoulder but we were there from 8 to 2:30!  We took lunch for about thirty minutes and then we headed off to a great lesson with a less active member in their ward on prayer and what it can do for us! We helped resolve some of her concerns! But she had these pitbulls and they were thee absolute fattest things I have ever seen and for some reason they were attracted to me!   While I was teaching the oldest, fattest one came out of nowhere and had just taken a drink of water out of its dish.  It decided to wipe his mouth all over me!  I literally had the whole left side of my pants drenched in nastiness of a dog! Haha!  I guess just one of those things! 

     Sunday we had 6 investigators at church! 

     I  hope all is well!  I miss you guys and hope you are doing well!  I can't believe Abbie's sophomore year is over.  That's nuts! Love you guys a lot!


Love,
Elder Bird!

The Work Goes On, One Arm And All!



Brock isn't in this photo, but this is a cool shot of the Salem
Zone missionaries with OEM (Oregon Eugene Mission) carved
in the sandy beach.  Brock happens to be in the Klamath Falls zone, the most
remote zone in the mission, so he's nowhere near any beach, at least for now.


     I went to the doctor's and got my stitches taken out.  That was a relief due to them snagging on my shirt every second of my life! Haha!  But now that is not a factor.

     We went out and worked the usual standing on the street talking to people.  We did have a few appointments but they all managed to fall through! ( I hate it when that happens!)  It's been like 75 -80 all week so it definitely makes things nice!  Wednesday we hung out with the 5th Ward, got our phone fixed and then just went and visited a ton of people.  I came back and iced my shoulder and took my meds and just passed out!  For some reason I must have slept on it wrong and it just destroyed it! Haha!  That wasn't very pleasant, let me tell you! :)

     Thursday, as you know, we had interviews with the president. He told me 50/50 that I will be transferred, but more on the side of getting transferred.  I might have to stay here for my shoulder. After interviews we went on splits with the elders in our ward!  I went with Brother Phair and Elder Roberts went with Brother Bassard.  We visted a lot of people.  One family we're teaching is the Fegosos.  They are doing alright but they keep promising us they will come to church but they never do.  They are super funny though about the excuses they make.  Hah!  We'll keep working with them.

     We also saw the Zumwolt family.  They actually showed up to church this Sunday and loved it! He is a really cool guy.  He was in the Air Force and they have two young kids. The dad, Josh is a member. His wife is not.  He just wants to go back to church and see if it can help their family, which we know it will.  

      Yet another family is the Rohabackers.  They are a less active family but since we have been teaching them they have come to church and are very active now! They do love church it really has helped them with their struggles.  They are in a lot better shape than when we found them! :)



     Saturday we taught the Dockeries.  They are going through a tough time right now.  Bill's sister just went to jail and his wife's best friend is now in the hospital so we just pretty much told them if they need anything to give us a call and that we would be there!

     Later we went and retaught the Fergosos The Restoration and just talked about baptism.  They set their baptism date for the 28th of June!  It will be cool and and an awesome experience for them!


     Saturday night we ate at the Browns.  He makes the best food I kid you not! He really does! I hope to be as good as him one day! :) Haha !  Then we had correlation with our ward mission leader Brother Phillips! Sunday we were at church and had dinner with the Potters.  They are a really cute family. Their daughter and son are like 5 and 4 and they are just super cute and sooo talkative! :)

Love,
Elder Bird

The One Armed Elder!

     Elder Bird is now in a sling following his shoulder surgery.  He's down to just one arm for at least a month.  Here's what he had to say about it in his last email:

Brock with President and Sister Macdonald.  Their mission comes
to an end in July.  Sister Macdonald has kept tabs on Brock's
recovery and the President will have dinner with Elder Bird on
May 18th.  (2011)

     Shoulder is doing the best it can for right now, I guess.   Just icing and doing my part.  As for missionary work this last week I haven't been able to do much.   I got dropped off at a member's house to basically sleep and recover the first couple of days, while Elder Roberts went out and did the work!  Our investigators have been coming along, some quicker than others.  The Fergosos (family) did not make it to church this last week so I was  kind of  bumbed.



     I will be sure to send an SD card with photos soon!  (Yeah.  We'd like to see some "sling shots" of Brock.)
     Love,
     Elder Bird!

Brock Has Surgery. So Far, So Good.

     Brock had surgery on his hurt shoulder on Tuesday, May 10th (2011).  According to Sister Macdonald the surgery went extremely well and Brock was sent "home" to his apartment with his companion Elder Roberts.  Several hours after the operation Elder Roberts reported that Brock was still "loopy" from the anesthesia.  Sister Macdonald will give Brock permission to call us once he's feeling better.  He should be in a sling for 4 to 5 weeks and undergo physical therapy for 12 weeks or more.

Brock and Mom moments before entering the MTC.

      Meanwhile it was great to talk with Brock on Mother's Day.  He was able to talk for a few minutes with each member of the family which included his sisters Jaron and Abbie, brother-in-law Matt, Grandma Bryson, and mom and dad.  He says everything is going fine, although he says there are ups and downs to missionary life.  The following day (P-Day) he told us in an email, "THANKS FOR TALKING TO ME YESTERDAY!  IT WAS AWESOME!"  Brock said P-Day was crazy because he was running around trying to get things done while he still had two arms! In a day or two he will pick up where he left off.  He says they have six people with baptism dates, so he's excited about that.