Hey Family,

How is everything going at home? How is everyone enjoying Labor Day at home? Things here are going pretty well, today was transfers but neither of got transferred so it is kind of easier day for us. Things last week were kind of slow for us we weren’t able to find too many new investigators but this week we are going to focus a lot more on finding that is what we are lacking in our area right now and especially finding through members so that is what we are going to focus on this week is using the members better asking for more referrals and all that kind of stuff. This week with the new transfer starting we are starting new as well we didn’t have too much success this last change but this next we are planning on doing a lot better and working more with the ward. Our ward is pretty big and there are a lot of members that I am sure have people that want to hear about the gospel so we just have to start using the members more and finding the people that the Lord is preparing for us to teach here. It is crazy to think that is already September and that school has already started and it just makes me want to keep working harder and harder to finish the best I can and to keep improving as a missionary and as a person. I am going to start taking more pictures and then I will send them to you guys. Also in what part of Mexico did John Marshall serve as mission president? I think that only thing that I can think of that I would maybe need would be some more Cetaphil so that hopefully I won’t run out before I get home and if I think of anything else I will let you, and anything else you want to send if well received here. Well I hope that everyone has a good week at home and I will write more next week.

 

Love Elder Bird

Hey Family,

Sounds like everyone had a good time in Disneyland so that is good. Things here are doing about the same as last week, we just seem to keep finding people that are interested in the Gosple but arent married. It kind of feels like all of our investigators right now need to get married so thatis kind of a bummer but oh well, we can work through that. This last week we went to a little town that is part of the other ward that we cover called Tetla del Volcan, it is a little town that is right up by the Volcano of which i sent a couple pictures before. It is a little town that is about a hour away from where we live and it is a town where there arent really members of the church except a couple and we recieved the name of a member to visit there and when we got there she was super excited to see us. It is a town that is pretty big and it was pretty weird to think that there are so many people there that have never heard of the Gospel that have never heard of the blessings that they can recieve from living the gospel. The problem is that it is a town that is really far away from the church and to go you have to take a conbi (a little bus) which coast 20 pesos to get to church and 20 to get back so 40 pesos for each person to go, so the problem is that is far and then the people there dont really have much work to gain the money to go each week so sadly the member we visited hasnt gone for a while to church. It just reminds me of just how blessed we are to live in an area where the gospel is, where we are able to have the true church so close to where we live. Seeing that little town just remindes me of how much I want to share this message with the people that surround me. Another cool thing that happened last week was that we went and visited a former investigator who my companion taught when he frist got here to the area, and she had know the missionaries for a long time. One of the reasons is that she isnt married (yet again) but the other is she says she just hasnt taken the decision to work towards getting married and then baptised. So my companion told me that when he first went to visit here that she didnt take everything very seriously but when we went back to visit her she told us that she felt that the church was true and they they had decided that her and her husband were going to get married so that was really cool to hear. It is just an example that everyone has there time to accept the gosple and that our work never is in vain that even if it is years later that the people can accept the gospel. Thats pretty much it for last week, time just keeps on flying this is the last week of the transfer I assume that I wont get changed the next week but who knows after the last transfers. Well I hope that everyone has a good week at home and I will write more next week.

Love Elder Bird

Hey Family, how is everything going at home? Are you still in Disneyland? or have you gotten home? Well this last week I completed a year and a half in the mission so that is crazy to think about, it doesn’t feel like it has been that long. This last week went pretty well for us we were able to find a couple people that seem interested so hopefully we can work with them in the next couple weeks and they can progress. The one problem that we have with quite a few of our investigators is that they need to get married to be able to get baptized so hopefully in this week we can set up everything with a member here that is a judge and marries people so we can get them so that they can get baptized in the next couple weeks so that is pretty much mostly who we are working with right now. Not too much happened this last week but I hope that everyone has a good week this week and I will write more next week.

Love Elder Bird

Hey Family, sounds like things were kind of exciting for the family at home this week with Sarah getting hit and such. Hope that everything is alright now at home and such. Well this last week was kind of different week mostly because my companion got sick and so I tried working with some members so we could keep working but it was kind of hard to find two members to help us and then we had our zone conference this last week but since my companion was sick we had to stay home and so we weren’t able to go so this week was kind of long and not very exciting at the start but the good thing was that on Saturday we were able to have a baptism of an investigator of the Elders who were in the other ward that we are covering for now so that was cool, I didn’t really know her very well since whenever we went with her I was in divisions or at the leadership training I had so that was different from all my other baptisms but oh well. Then the rest of the week was kind of hard since we were able to work like we wanted to so we found a couple people to teach this week so hopefully they can progress as well and then we have a  others investigators who are progressing but the problem is we have to get them married first, it is kind of weird here but all of our investigators that we have we have to get married pretty much. So hopefully this week my companion get feeling better and we can work harder this week and find the people that are being prepared for the gospel.

Hope that everyone has a good week at home and in Disneyland and I will write more next week

Love Elder Bird

 Hey Family,

Sounds like everything is going well at home doesn’t sound like too much is changing. So after kind of tough first week here in the area this last week went much better for us. This was a week full of cool things that happened. First off in this week we were able to find quite a few people that are really prepared to hear the gospel, first was a couple that went to church both yesterday and the week before, so we went to teach them and at the end of the lesson I asked what they would be willing to do if the found out that the church was true and they answer saying they would get baptized without us even having talked really about baptism at all so that was awesome and then yesterday I asked the wife how she felt about everything how she felt in church and she said she felt it was true the she felt she knew it was true so that was really cool to hear the only problem is that they aren’t married so we have to work with them to get them married then they can get baptized. Then we also meet one of the investigators that the other elders were teaching in the other area we are covering and she is really excited and is going to get baptized this Saturday so hopefully everything goes well with her (Cristina) in this week. Another was a reference we also received his name is Alejandro and he is super excited as well he went to church yesterday so that was cool he also accepted a baptismal date for the 25th of this month. Hopefully he can keep progressing and can stop drinking because that is one of the main reasons that he wanted to listen to us.

Another fun thing this week was that I went to another leadership training in cuernavaca the first with President Kusch so that was cool it was a really cool conference one to see all of my friends in the mission and then two to learn. We learned more about the conversion of the people through the Holy Ghost so that was cool and how we help the people to really be converted to the gospel and to receive the testimony they need to progress and to gain the eternal life. So that was super cool and then finally this week I had to do a baptismal interview and that is one of my favorite parts of being District Leader is the interviews to hear the testimonies of the people that are going to get baptized. I did the interview for someone named Bernecie and she has a super strong testimony that she shared with me and it all ways just reminds me of the work that we are doing and how we can help the people to receive the happiness in their lives.

So over all this last week went well so hopefully things go well this week as well. Hope that everyone has a good week at home

Love Elder Bird

PS crazy to think that school is starting up here in this week crazy to think how time is flying

PSS Everyone is watching the Olympics here to answer your question dad

 

Hey Family how is everything going at home? Sounds like a fun week at home for everyone with all the family activates. Things here went pretty well, kind of hard getting to know a new area again and it is kind of the same how Burgos was when Elder Porter and I got there so kind was kind a disappointing having to start over again but oh well that’s how it goes. This week we got to know a lot of the members and there are a lot here it is way different from being in Burgos yesterday in church we filled up the Sacrament Meeting with probably close to two hundred members there so that was cool. Our area is pretty big so hopefully things goes well this week and we can work well and have a good week. I would love to tell you more about the area but I still don’t really know anything about it I just know it is bigger than Burgos and that there are a lot more members. I don’t know our street name but it is right off the highway of Cuernavaca Cuatla by and OXXO but I don’t think that is much help but I will investigate what our street name is and let you know next week.. Well I think that is all for this week I will write more next week. Have a great week

 

 

 

Love Elder Bird

Hey Family how is everything going at home for you all? Sounds like Sun Valley was fun, that house you stayed in sounds super nice and the pictures show that the pool was at least. Well so on Saturday we got the call for transfers and again after just one transfer in Burgos I was changed to an area in called Casasano but the thing is that this area is still in the same zone that I was in and the same city so I am only like twenty minutes from  Burgos so that is kind of weird. It was pretty sad since we were having a lot of success in Burgos and there is still a lot of work left to do there and we had quite a few plans Elder Porter and I to help the branch keep growing and to help out our investigators since all of them are getting close to baptism so that was kind of sad to get changed again. It was kind of sad especially since when we got there we didn’t really have anything and now there are a lot of investigators who are progressing really well but I know that there is a reason that I was there and now I know that there is a reason that I was changed but still it is kind of hard to leave and especially since I will be so close. So anyways yeah my new area I don’t really know anything about it my companion is from Peru so now I have had two companions for South America. His name is Elder Huaman from Trujillo Peru I think but I am not sure I will check and let you know. I kind of know him a little but not much so we will see how things go. I am back to being District Leader again so that will be like in Acapulco and the difference is that my companion only has like 5 months in the mission two transfers here in Mexico and like 2 months in Peru so that is different, a new area and some new challenges, but oh well. So yeah that is pretty much it for last week kind of sad but I know that President Kusch was called to lead our mission and so I know that this is where I am supposed to be. Well I hope that everyone have a good week this week, with the family reunion and with Jacquis wedding. Tell everyone hi from me at the wedding at reunion. Oh yeah I got you packages today thanks for sending them. Hope that everyone has a good week at home.

 

Love Elder Bird

 

Elder Matthew Bird's new Mission President, his wife and his area missionaries

Hey Family,

How is everything going at home? Sounds like fun that you are all up at Sun Valley. Hope that you all have fun there this week. This week here didnt go as well as we wanted we had a little bit of a tough time finding people to teach this week and then the ones we found still havent gone to church so that was kind of a bummer but oh well little by little. Things here in the branch are doing well, our branch president is starting to call more members to callings and this last week we got a Ward  Mission Leader so that was cool he is a convert from about a year ago and is really cool he has a super strong testimony so that is pretty awesome that we will now get to work with him more. For a lot of this change we have mostly been working with less active members and we have had quite a bit of success there a couple of the families we have visited have started come back to church so that is cool. We still have quite a few investigators that can get baptised in the next couple weeks they pretty much have everything they just have to decide that they want to get baptized so that is what we are working on now. We have like 4 investigators that all have quite a few times coming to church so we are just working with them on that now to recognize there answer that this is true and make the decision to get baptized so hopefully we can work with them in these next week and get them to be baptized. So this last transfer has gone by really fast we are already in the last week of the transfer so that is pretty crazy that it has gone so fast. Oh yeah dad my area is two branches so we dont cover a ward but are working on it so that we can go some times to the other branch but is kind of hard since it is a little town far away so hopefully things goes well and we can start working more there and having success there too. Well I think that is all for this week, have a good week in Sun Valley and Katie Happy Birthday have a good day with the family.


Love Elder Bird