New Area!!

Hey guys!!!!

Well you guys were on my mind a lot today since it's your first day of school for everyone!! I hope you guys don't hate your lives too much haha. But I can't wait to hear all about how it went. It's crazy that Caden now has the priesthood and is in middle school and Kendall is starting her senior year! When did everyone start growing up so fast?!

Steel Plant in Manclavo

Well last week it turns out that I got changed and got sent to Monclova! The area is Pioneros and i'm with Elder Lopez, who's from Mexico City. The area here is COMPLETELYYY different from my area in Saltillo. My area has parts where it's just ranches, and it's superrrrrrrrrr hot here. Way hotter than Saltillo, I heard a rumor that Monclova on average is actually the hottest place in Mexico, I don't know how true that is or not but it' definitely super stinkin hot. But I took a few pictures of the area so I'll send those to you guys as well. We live next to this GIANTTT factory, and we're not really sure what it does but it gives off a wholeee lot of pollution. Haha, and it also looks like six flags at night. Haha, umm the zone here is way smaller than the zone I was in in Saltillo, only about 12 missionaries, but they're all cool. And Elder Shaum is here in the zone! SO that's been way cool to reunite with him. 

But this week has been good, a lot of meeting members and then the investigators that they already had in teaching. One family in particular that we are teaching is super cool! It's a family of 6, but as of now only the daughter Emma has gone to church more than once. She went her 5th time yesterday so we are going to work with her this week to see how she feels about baptism! Apparently her only problem is that she doesn't want to do it alone and wants to do it with her family. But they have only gone one time to church, and couldn't go yesterday because they had car problems. but we are going to work with them this week. Well something that we have done a lot of this week is teaching the lessons to members, which is a result of what we were told in our conference with Elder de Hoyos, so we had a family home evening with a member family almost every night this week. And it's brought a ton of good results! So that's been something new for us but so far so good!

Well I'll send you guys some of the pictures I took this week! I hope that all of you guys are doing great and had a great first day of school. Love you guys:)

Elder Bird

New Missionary Transportation

Busy Painting a House

The Apartment

Will I Stay or Will I Go??

Hey guys! Sorry this is coming in so late, we've been super super busy today doing everything getting ready for transfers tomorrow because i'm 97% sure i am going to get transferred. I already packed up all my stuff last night. Haha,so i've been saying all my goodbyes the last few days, and will be saying more tonight. I really don't wanna leave this area but i think it's time. But i will let you guys know as soon as i know. Also... Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear mom and Cadennnnnnn. Happy birthday to you! I bet you guys thought i would forget huh? But nope! I was going to send you guys a sweet gift, but... i'm poor. Haha, and i didn't really have time to do it. But i'll make up for it later:) But you guys will have to tell me next week how your birthdays go!

Well this week has been another good one, this weekend was Stake conference and also all the mission had a conference with Elder de Hoyos from the Area presidency. which was really good! But they have raised the bar for missionary work to a really high level now, which is all good. It will just require a lot of work, but of course no one said missionary work would be easy:) now the new rule here in mexico is that investigators have to go FIVE times to church before they get baptized, when before it was only 2. So that's a huge change, because we'll have to adjust our teaching and planning to accommodate for that. But it's all good. Now hopefully the investigators that do get baptized will have a better chance of staying active and truly being converted, which of course is our goal anyways. Just different way to work now.

Well i'm sorry i don't have much this week but it's been a relatively slow week, but i will let you guys know about transfers as soon as i find out. I hope you al have a great last week of your summer, do lots of swimming for me. Love you guys!!!

con mucho amor,

Elder Bird

Great Week

Hey guys!!! Well it sounds like you guys have had another great week! And sounds like Caden is being quite the trooper today, you guys will have to let me know how all of that turns out. Also that's sweet that Kevin and Cortney have officially moved to Plano! Wooh! That's way exciting! Where are they living? All i know is that they'll be in the Allen stake, which means they must be pretty close to our house.

Well, it's been a great and successful week here in the Zaragoza ward. We had 5 baptisms this weekend! 4 on Saturday, and then one yesterday. It was pretty stressful trying to organize it and coordinate all of it, but all worth it. On Saturday we baptized the N family, which was super cool. All 4 of the members of the family got baptized, C, C, I, and K. They're suchhhhhh a cool family. And they live like 15 houses away from the G family (the other family we baptized) so it'll be really convenient when visiting them. haha. But the baptismal service was really great, and the spirit was really strong.They were also all confirmed yesterday, which was super cool. And to celebrate, later tonight they are making us discada, which is seriously one of the most delicious foods that exists. You guys should have Dad look it up and try to make it! So yeah we're pretty excited about that. And then yesterday we baptized I, but we did it in the church in the area called Zarco, which is also in Saltillo but about 20 minutes away, because she got baptized with her cousin also. But Elder Barrera is in that ward, (he was in my district the first 2 changes) so it was really cool to be able to see him again! The baptism went well, except for the water was FREEZING cold, and Iris had a really hard time getting in the water. ha, but everything ended up fine. 

Well apart from all of them we have also continued to work with Á, and we had some SUPER powerful lessons with him along with his girlfriend and her family (who are members) this week and he really is progressing a lot, even though unfortunately i probably won't be here to see him get baptized since cambios are this next tuesday. But it's okay. Also, I would like to ask you guys to keep our ward mission leader in your prayers this week. He had a pretty severe seizure this Wednesday just a few minutes before we were going to go over for our weekly meeting with him. So he is in pretty bad shape right now, his tongue is really badly bitten, and he has a lot of other problems right now due to the seizure. So if you could keep A. V. in your prayers that would be great.

Well that's all i got for you guys this week, i'll send you the pictures in  a second but also let me know what else you want me to write about in my letters so i don't bore you guys! Haha, i feel like my letters are kinda boring so whatever else you want me to write about just let me know and i'd be gladly to share it with you guys:)

I miss you all and love you even more! have a great week!!:)

con mucho amor,

Elder Bird 

Fun Video of Elder Bird

Elder Bird Making a Bad Choice

Another Exciting Week

Hey guys!!! Well it was so great to hear from every single one of you this week!!! Sounds like you're all doing great and staying plenty busy to finish up the summer. When does school start for you guys? I imagine in a couple weeks? Well now that it's official I can congratulate dad on his new calling as a seminary teacher!! That'll be super  cool! Especially if you end up teaching Kendall's class. 

Well this week has been really good for our investigators. The N Family went to church again yesterday and continue strong and excited for their baptism this Sunday. Also we met I and Á this week. I is the daughter of a less active member who we have been teaching this week. We had a really really powerful lesson about the restoration and she was able to feel the spirit very strong and was reminded of the testimony she had. Now we are just having some problems because her husband, who doesn't believe in God or support us teaching them, is doing everything he can so that Iris won't get baptized this week. So that's been a little tough but we are still working with them and she is also preparing to be baptized this Sunday. Ä is the boyfriend of one of the young women in our ward and he came to church on Sunday and had a lot of questions for us, so we've been working a lot with him as well.

 

Well this week was a little less crazy as far as the scary stuff. Except Wednesday, all of Saltillo was under ´Codigo Rojo´(code red) because there were like 17 murders the night before, and 5 or 6 in our area. Supposedly there were supposed to be a bunch of shootings in the streets that day so literally NO ONE was in the streets the whole day except for us that day because everyone was inside their house. That was kinda scary... but luckily nothing happened here. 

So something that I have been thinking about a lot this week is obedience and the blessings that come with it. There's a scripture that Dad always quotes and that I have really come to understand, D&C 82:10, that God is forced to bless us when we do what he says. And in the mission I have really seen the blessings of being obedient, even when it's not convenient or the ´fun´ thing to do. So try and be more obedient to God's commandments this week!:)

Well i love you all and i hope you have a great week!

Elder Bird