district leader

One more thing I forgot last night I got assigned to be District leader woooo!!  I am honored they had faith in me to be a leader and hope I can be an example to those I serve.

9 weeks is long but I wouldn't trade the experiences for nothing

Hey everybody how are you doing?  I hope all is well.  I love all of you and the support you have given me so far on my mission.  Well to start Monday was our first day at BYU ELC.  It was so much fun to get off campus for 4 hrs and observe and plan lessons.  The foreign students that are there to learn english are so funny and fun to be around.  I can't believe how humble they are and how much they have given up to be here and learn English.  We get to do these things called talk abouts where we go around for like 40 min and just talk to the students about whatever so they can practice their english skills.  The picture I sent of those two sisters was my first time doing a talk about.  They told me about where they are from and their first experience watching conference in english. This Monday me and my companion are teaching our first English class, to the class called foundations prep.  Which means they are the most beginner students at the ELC.  I can't wait it has been so much fun observing it will be even better teaching.  They don't let us eat anything outside the MTC which is a bummer.  The ELC is over by the Football field at BYU so there really isn't anywhere close to eat anyway.  Me and my companion have been teaching our investigators and we have one committed to baptism, even though they are our teachers the experience is a lot the same.  Mongolian is coming we are getting pretty good at teaching lessons, we haven't learned how to do a lot else so I guess if I get lost in mongolia I will be able to teach people the gospel but not be able to ask how to get to my apartment from here jk.  Let me just say conference was amazing I learned so much.  My absolute favorite talk was Elder Jeffery R. Holland's about mothers.  He opened my eyes and made me realize how much my mom does love me and I should never take that for granted.  I love you so much mom and I hope you know that.  I also enjoyed Elder Bednars talk on how important prophets and apostles are.  They are older and have had more life experience for a reason, they have been our age before, but we have not been theirs.  I loved hearing from the Prophet especially the talk he gave during Priesthood session.  He said we need to follow the commandments, strait to the point.  It is so important for our lives and our salvation to do so, it is also a way we show our faith.  I learned so much from our apostles and prophets and hope I can apply everything I learned to my mission.  I also liked the talk by, I can't think of his name because I don't have my notes.  He talked about how him and his family started ponderizing scriptures.  I think it is so cool and I am gonna start doing that every week.  I just wanted to let everyone know that I have a testimony of the restored Gospel.  I have testimony that God the Father and His son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith.  I also know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us and wants only the best for us.  We need to follow the teachings of the prophet and keep the commandments so we can be worthy of the holy spirit.  I love all of you so much and hope you have a great week.

I Have Now Been Here for Just Over a Month

Hi everybody hope life is going great.  I have been here for awhile now, longer than a lot of the missionaries that come to the MTC.  Mongolian is hard but gets better and easier to both write and speak everyday.  On Wednesday our teacher Sister Largin was in such a great mood that she gave us some Mongolian candy, and talked about the mission for 2 hours it was so awesome.  She talked about some of her coolest and scariest moments on the mission. She talked about how the taxi's work in Mongolia.  So if you hold your hand up when someone drives by they will stop and give you kinda whatever rate they want and you can either bargain or say never mind and move on.  This whole time she is speaking English which is so crazy since we have barely heard her speak it before.  She was just so excited to tell us.  She told us about the food how it is very fatty and oily which I am not looking forward to.  She said you need to eat the food they give you because it means everything to them when you do.  The missionaries are their favorite and we need to be considerate.  I have now completed the first portion of my English teacher training.  Next week on Monday I get to start going to BYU to observe and teach the foreign student there.  I can't wait for a change in scenery.  I have been able to have so many spiritual experiences since I have been here.  On Tuesday for the devotional we listened to a member of the presidency of the 70.  He had a lot of things to say and it really made me realize why I am here.  We then had a district devotional review after and everyone had great testimonies and the spirit was so strong.  I feel like I am growing closer to my Heavenly Father everyday here as I diligently read and pray about the scriptures.  Conference is this weekend I can't wait we finally don't have to go to class or do anything with Mongolian for a little while.  I also had the opportunity to watch the funeral for Elder Richard G. Scott which was also a very powerful spiritual experience.  Life here gets repetitive, as does the food, but I wouldn't change any of the experienced I have had for anything.  I love all of you and the support I have received, it means so much to me.  I miss everybody but I know 2 years is such a short time compared to eternity.  I am grateful for my companion and my roomates they are so awesome and we have so much fun together.  From everything I have heard from a lot of people Mongolia is one of the most unique missions and I am so glad to be a part of it.  I can't wait for the experiences I will have, and hopefully I can touch the hearts of a lot of people while I am there.  Hope everyone has a good week, I will talk to you again next week.

Love,

Elder Bird  

3 Weeks Here at the MTC Still the same

Hi everybody it has been another week here at the MTC.  I love the spirit I am able to feel when I am here.  We have devotionals all of the time here from a temple Presidency to a General Authority from the 70.  I have 3 investigators now all of whom are our teachers but the experience is still the same and the spirit is felt.  Our newest one she is playing an investigator with a Buddhist background so no knowledge of Christianity.  It makes it hard to explain Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father with so little vocabulary in Mongolian as I have.  We have learned to teach the first 3 lessons in Preach My Gospel obviously with pretty basic vocab, but learn so much from teaching and feel the spirit every time.  The Elders in my District are so much fun we always have fun as often as we can.  Elder Espinoza in the trio companionship is always cracking jokes and does a crazy good Jack Black Nacho Libre impression.  On Sunday we had the opportunity to watch Meet the Mormons I have never seen it and is so cool.  I really liked how it showed that we as a church aren't crazy and live normal lives just with the fullness of the Gospel.  We had a District Devotional review on Tuesday and when we have those I feel the spirit so strong from the sincerity of the testimony's born.  I wish we could do those more often.  We are all getting tired of the food,  it repeats a lot and kinda all tastes the same.  I just have to survive 6 more weeks of this.  I have gotten a few packages from my family and that is the highlight of the day when you find out you have received a package from your District Leader.  Thanks Mom love you so much.  We ate at the Temple last Friday in their Cafeteria the food was much better than the MTC.  Thank goodness our teacher told us about that.  We get one hour of personal study every day and I really enjoy that time.  It is the one time I can really dive into the book of Mormon and increase my testimony of its truthfulness.  As a whole district there is 13 of us, which apparently is quite large for a group going to Mongolia.  It is really cool and we all learn from each other and have a great time.  We all play volleyball a lot during our gym time and it is really fun.  I love the weather right now it is like perfect.  I am not really looking forward to the below zero temperatures I will experience in a little while.  I know that I will be fine though and have a great time in Mongolia, I can't wait.  I love all of you and Miss you hope life is treating you as well as it is treating me.  Have a good week and I will talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Bird

Just Over Two Weeks Down, Man The TIme Goes Quick

Hey Everybody so I am now just over two weeks down.  I am still busy but starting to get used to the schedule here.  The food is really starting to get old, because now we have had everything they serve so it is starting to repeat.  My companion had to get a flu shot and I didn't thank goodness.  We have a new investigator and she is a lot tougher than our other because she has a background of buddhism and doesn't know anything about Christianity.  It's our teacher of course but it is the only way we can experience teaching in our language.  It is still very important and we feel the spirit very strong when we teach the lessons.  Let  me just say Mongolian is super hard it is formatted different than english and has a different alphabet with different rules.  I can pray and bear testimony and kinda read but that's about it.  I am learning everyday and improving so I know I can get better.  We got to hear from our English as a Second language Professor and he told us about mongolia and how we are gonna learn to teach english.  We will have an Online course from now until October 5 and then we will start to go up to BYU to their english as a second language learning center.  Which from what he said is one of the best if not the best in the world, So that is cool.  He also said it is such a cool experience to do this and we are the only mission in the world that has the opportunity to do so.  I have been able to attend the temple every friday, that is today.  I have learned so much from the spirit i feel there.  I take the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon as often as I can, and I am learning more from it than I ever have before.  I testify to you that it is the word of God and if you need anything read it and you will be surprised what you can learn.  We had a devotional on Tuesday from the Primary General President, Sister Wixom.  She had a lot of great points on being a missionary.  She related the First Story in Nephi when him and his brothers go to get the Brass Plates, to being a mission.  She said we as missionaries can do anything because we have the lord on our side.  I have also learned that we as missionaries are nothing without the spirit and cannot bring people unto Christ without it.  I love all of you and hope your lives are going well and I will write again next week.