Extra Excitement

Hey guys!!!!

Well i must say i'm a little disappointed that I only heard from Kendall and Audrey this week (he heard from us all later on)... but i'm sure you guys are super busy so i guess i can forgive you all just this one time. Well today we had a big activity with all the missionaries in the stake and all the youth and we went and played soccer and had pizza and then there was a giant surprise waterballoon fight! haha, so that was pretty cool. Except now I am SUPERRR sunburnt. So that's not too fun, but the activity was way cool!

Well this week has been pretty awesome as far as the people we are teaching. We had 6 investigators go to church yesterday and we have 4 baptismal dates for the family we are teaching. So we hope to baptize them either this Sunday or the next Sunday, but we will definitely keep working with them. We have also been working with D, who is a 65 year old man who has some serious problems with alcohol, but we have been visiting him daily and helping him work out his addiction. He now has 5 days without drinking and he constantly is thanking us for our help and support and teachings. So that has been way cool. Yesterday I also got to give a talk in sacrament meeting, for which I was super nervous, but it didn't turn out to be too bad. I talked about the importance of service and following the example of Christ. 

So this week there have been a lot of problems in the areas here in Saltillo as far as safety. The Elders in Aurora (the area that's right next to ours) were mugged this week, luckily they only had minor injuries and they weren't carrying much on them at the time but they were pretty shaken up. In our area we've also had some scary moments but luckily we haven't been harmed physically in any way.  There has definitely been something that provoked an ´´interest´´ in the missionaries, but we aren't sure what. We are all taking extra precautions but I would just like for you guys to keep us all in your prayers this week for safety, and that whatever is going on here will pass. I love you guys all a ton and i miss you even more! and i hope you all have a great week!

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Bird

Our Faith is Revealed in Trials

Hey guys!!!

Well it sounds like you guys had a great week enjoying dad's last week off! I'm sure he is more than excited to go back to work now.. haha. I also hear that the Bakers (or some of them) are going back to Peru to visit Taylor's mission! That's super sweet! I'm sure that will be a lot of fun seeing all the places he served and people whose lives he touched.

Well, this week has had it's ups and downs. Number one, it's rained EVERY SINGLE DAY here and I can't remember the last time I went through a day with dry clothes... but it's also a good thing because it hasn't been super hot, so it's been a blessing and a curse. Haha, We continue to teach the N family but they can not wake up for church for the life of them! No matter how many times we call or knock on their door they can't seem to wake up! haha, because now that's really all that they need to get baptized, is go to church one or two more times. Their faith has been strengthened this week and right now we are helping the hermana with her smoking problem and we hope that this week she will be able to leave it behind her all together. But, they're a super cool family as well and it's been really cool to see their changes and their willingness to apply the gospel in their lives.

Something that I've been thinking a lot about this week, largely because it was mentioned that Taylor talked about this in his homecoming talk, is the way we react and respond to trials is a direct correlation to the faith we have in God, our Savior and His atonement. We're never going to be able to escape our trials and problems in this life, and sometimes it seems like the obstacles are too big to climb, but when we put our trust in the Lord and let him help carry the burden, we can overcome all things. No matter how hard the trial seems to be, when we put our trust in the Lord there will ALWAYS be the hope and light of something greater than we can understand. We just have to put ALL our trust in Him and understand that everything happens for a reason, and everything that we go through makes us stronger and a better person if we endure it well.

Well, I love all of you guys and miss you a TON and i hope you all have a great week!!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Bird

Zone Conference

Well first off i'd like to wish Dad a happy happy birthday!! Sounds like it was a pretty low key day but still good. I celebrated on your behalf here in mexico for you.

Well this week has been pretty good, we have found a couple of new people to teach and have been able to reactivate a lot of inactive families, which has been super great. This week we were working a lot with the family we baptized a few weeks ago so that they would be able to go to the temple on Saturday. He wanted to bring the names of one of his uncles so we were running all over the place all week to try to help it get ready. They went to the temple on Saturday and told us yesterday how much they loved it. The hermano actually started to cry yesterday when telling us about getting baptized for his uncle because of the spirit he felt. It was really, really neat. Yesterday, we were also finally able to visit with the N family after 2 weeks of not seeing them. We had a really powerful lesson about the plan of salvation and they thanked us for the peace we were able to bring them.

We had our zone conference with President Rodriguez on Friday -- which was really great. We had interviews with him later in the day. I really like him a lot and he seems to have a lot of good ideas to help out the mission. 

Well, i hope you guys have a great week. love you all.

Elder Bird

Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

Hey guys!

Sounds like it's been a super busy week for you guys again, but so cool that all the family could come in town to visit! I'm sure that has been whole lots of fun! I'm a little jealous that you guys will be spending 4th of July up at the lakehouse. I'm pretty sure I won't be celebrating that here, but that's just a guess.. haha. Well today has been another fun P-day. Our zone and the other zone in Saltillo went to play basketball and soccer at the mission offices, and then we went to Peter Piper Pizza again... haha. I always eat way too much their but today has been really fun.

Well this week has definitely been full of surprises. Almost all of them being super cool! In our zone meeting on Tuesday we were asked by the zone leaders to have a special fast this week for the daughter of their bishop, who has a heart problem and is struggling to stay healthy. We all were also asked to think of anybody else that we wanted to fast for and to think of them the day of the fast. So on Wednesday to Thursday we fasted. And oh my goodness.. it was tough. Walking and working all day on no food isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it brought a really strong spirit to us and to the zone and to our areas. And it was a little harder because I got pretty sick earlier in the week, some kind of throat infection. But i took my meds and now i'm all good! Then on Thursday night there was a random power outage in our part of the neighborhood so we had no light or electricity until Friday morning at about 10:30. So we had to do everything in the dark and i can't tell you how many times i ran into things or tripped or banged my head on something. Haha, it was definitely an interesting night.

The coolest part of the week was definitely yesterday. To start off we have found ANOTHER super awesome family that we have been teaching that live on the same street of the family we just baptized. So both of those families all went to church yesterday, along with I and his family, who have been inactive but through I and his decision to get baptized they are starting to come back to church. So it was really cool to have all of them in church yesterday. The GV family were all confirmed yesterday, which was awesome! They are such an incredible family and they are all already so willing to do everything. But so we had those 2 families at church and had to go all over the place to show them where to go and everything, so we were super busy. And also Saturday night the bishop called us at about 11:00 to ask if we could give the 3rd hour class yesterday to the whole ward since it was 5th sunday... haha so we had to prepare that and then gave a capacitaciòn to about 100 members in the 3rd hour. But it went really really well! SO well actually, that after the meetings were over, a couple came up to us with the bishop, and the bishop said to us that they had some news for us. Turns out that the hermano wasn't a member but his wife was, and they just barely moved here from a few hours away and he had been investigating the church for about 1 year and a half but he told us he felt the spirit so strongly during our class that he decided he wanted to get baptized! So cool right?! So we talked to him and made sure he had gotten all the lessons and everything and then the zone leaders came and interviewed him and everything was good! So he got baptized along with Isai yesterday as well. So so cool! So yesterday we baptized I and E, and then the 2 other wards also were baptizing so we joined all of them together for one service. And it was really cool! We also invited the new mission president to come since all of us were going to be baptizing.  He and his wife and his 3 daughters came to the baptism, so we got to meet all of them for the first time! They seem like a really really cool family and he seems really cool too. He's a goofy guy and always seems to be smiling. So i'm excited to see how he can help us as missionaries in the mission. 

Well these last few weeks the Lord has really really blessed our area with people to teach and people to take the step to be baptized. It's been incredible to see the people that the Lord has prepared for us to find. Cambios are next monday and I'm REALLY hoping they let me stay one more Cambio aqui. I've really come to love this area and love this ward and it'd be really sad to leave. But of course whatever the President sends me i'll go.

Also, I got the email that they messed up the address to the mission offices, so this is the REAL address to the mission offices. 

Misión México Saltillo

Eulalio González #1057

Col. Las Praderas

Saltillo, Coahuila 25295

Love you guys!!! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Bird

P.S.  And as far as how to send things to me. i'm not exactly sure what pouch mail is, but if you guys know what it is or how to work it if you could put that information on the blog too so people know. And obviously you can send stuff directly to the offices too. Like my patriarchal blessing, i've been dying to have! And, yeah! I haven't gotten anything handwritten in my whole time in Mexico so i would really love to get some love!:) and if you have doubts about if it will get here or not because of the mail service, just put a bunch of pictures of the virgin mary or of jesus on the package or envelope and they say nobody does anything if it has those. love you guys!!

"I" and his family as well as the new mission president and his wife.

"E.", his wife, and the Bishop