Week 14....a Baptism.

I accidentally put 20th birthday on a balloon I sent him.  I know he is only 19!  A "senior" moment :)

I cannot believe it's already week 14!  The work of the Lord is really pushing forward here in PA.  It has been a really busy week, and really productive!

Monday was really busy!  We had our P-Day, and we spent the whole day at the Z's.  We played scum and lucky unders.  It was really fun!  After, we went and taught K just to make sure she was ready for her baptism.  We ended up moving it to Friday, because the young women were going on an ice skating activity and the bishop wanted them to be there.  After we went and had a quick lesson with H.  We hadn't seen her for over 10 days, but she was really happy, and was doing well!  She gave one of her friends a Gospel Principles book, and they talked about it until like 3am.  She is continuing to share the gospel with everyone!

Tuesday was also very successful.  The best Tuesday we've had yet!  We went to service, and we got a hold of a potential investigator, B.  We scheduled to see him at 7:30.  Before that however, we stopped by a less-active.  Her brother was there (LA) and his girl friend (NM)!  We taught the the restoration!  It went really really well!    After we went and had a lesson with Sister M.  She also had a friend over who isn't a member, and what we talked about she had asked Sister M that night before!  It was truly inspiration!  Later that night, we had a lesson with B.  We first went to his door, and we didn't see his car.  Elder Johnson said he  didn't fell good about knocking, so we walked around the street.  We were kind of discouraged.  We felt we should go back, and when we turned the corner we saw his car!  We seriously freaked out, and were like giddy little girls.  We were laughing and screaming and freaking out.  Hopefully no one saw, or they'll be sacred of missionaries... HAHAH.  He had SO many questions, and he was riddled with doubt.  He didn't want to doubt everything though.  It ended up being a 2 hour lesson.  The spirit was so strong and he said we will take the lessons.  ANOTHER INVESTIGATOR!

Wednesday was another great day!  We had our zone training in Butler, and learned a lot!  It took most of the day, so when we got back we had a lesson with K just making sure everything was good.  One of her friends was there, and we were showing K how to be baptized.  Her friend was watching, and said that she wanted to be baptized that same way too!  I was asking one of K cousins at church if her friend was interested in hearing the gospel.  She said if we were teaching them.  She really liked church and was involved in the lesson.

Thursday was still fantastic!  We had a great lesson with Sister K, and her in-active son.  We also had a really powerful lesson with sister M.  Later that night we had a lesson with some members continuing to seek referrals from them.  They are getting closer.

Friday we had a lesson with a less active member, and he said that he is going to come to church.  He knows he needs to and so we gave him that extra push!  then we went to the church to prepare for the baptism!  That night K. GOT BAPTIZED!  It was amazing!  A lot of people showed up, and her nonmember friend!  I was so happy for her!  It was a great day.

Saturday was interesting.  We went and had such a powerful lesson with sister M and her granddaughter C. We read D&C 121 with them.  It was awesome!  They cried.  The spirit was strong, that's fur sure.  Later that night we went and contacted a referral we received from sister k, who asked us what the purpose of life is.  She wanted answers from the Bible.  We had  a 30 minute conversation.  

Sunday was freaking awesome!  K. GOT THE HOLY GHOST!  Her friend also came to support her, and really clicked well with the ward and everything.  She said i looked like one of the 1 direction freaks... Grrrrrrrr!  There was a recent convert visiting at our  church building, and we asked him to go on a team up with us that night.  He was willing, and we went and saw a family with him.  They are less active, and she actually got baptized into a baptist church.  He gave such a powerful humble testimony.  All we did was testify of this truths!  She said she's going to come back.  They know they need to.  It was the most powerful moment I've had on my mission.  I loved it!

Great week!  We taught 14 lesson's in all!  2 new investigators, and the bishop loves us!  The ward really likes us as well.  They tell us we are the best missionaries they've had in a while.  We are constantly trying to keep ourselves humble.  We hate compliments... hahahah  I love Elder Johnson, he's such a great missionary and I'm honored to serve another 5 weeks with him!  I am so excited for the week to come!  Have a great week, and i love you guys!

Love 

Elder Birrell  

The font door was locked....good thing Austin has long legs.

Homemade by Austin

Birthday week...week 12!

 

 

My district.

Best DL ever!

My Birthday Cake

It's not my birthday until I get my Disneyland Birthday button!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This letter is gonna be a little short.

 

This week has been amazing though!  Elder Johnson and i are not getting transferred.  Neither are the sisters in our ward.  Rumor has it, we are getting another set of missionaries for this ward!  That's crazy!  The ward is really pushing missionary work, and the stake president promised if they used us, they'd get more missionaries. 

 

K. is still getting baptized!  She is getting baptized this Friday.  We have been meeting with her every day this week, and she has grown so much.  It's amazing!

 

Monday and Tuesday were FREEZING!  We didn't teach anyone, and tried to stay busy.  We had a lot of lessons with members.

Wednesday was a little warmer.  We had a lesson with K. about the law of chastity, and keeping the sabbath day holy.  It was really great.  We had our book of mormon class that night, and dinner at a members so we didn't teach anyone else.

 

Thursday was pretty great!  It was a little slow, but we taught K. again, and had a lesson with a less-active member.  I don't know who though...  This week has blazed by.  It's hard to remember everything we did.  Oh, we got new tires.  It took 5 hours!  They had to keep calling back and forth with the mission, and then it got super busy and ya.  It took forever.  Good thing though.  They said that our tires were one step away from being bald.  That explains why we were sliding EVERYWHERE!

 

Friday WAS AWESOME!  We taught 4 lessons, picked up a new investigator, and had such a fun time!  It was a really successful day.  We taught K. again,   We also had a lesson with a less active member who is going to ask his girl friend to take the lessons!  We also met with another investigator to see his progress on reading the book of mormon.  It was a fantastic day!  Very busy, and very tiring.

 

Saturday:  It was another great day!  They had a big family history/genealogy event, and there were 70 people from the community.  Prime proselyting.  Hopefully we can pick some of them up.  We went to the Zebroski's and had my birthday dinner.  IT WAS SO GOOD!  It tasted just like you make it Mom!  After we went and taught a less active member, and we are really pushing for him to come back to church.  One day...

 

Sunday: 2 investigators came to chuch.  That was awesome!    It was a really great day.  We met with 2 families, and they are in the process of giving us some referrals.  We also tracked a women who has been to the church before!  One of the Vivint Sales people told her about the church.  That's 3 people that i have met that have been introduced to the church through Vivint.  The Lord works in mysterious ways!  It was such a great week, and Elder Johnson and I are so glad we get to stay together!  We have finally gotten into the groove of everything, and are, with the Lord's help, becoming quite successful!  We thank the Lord for everything, and anything! 

 

Love ya

ELDER BIRRELL

 

 

Birthday dinner

Coldest morning ever!!!!!

Austin is almost as cool as him :)

 

Week 10 and 11

Week 10

Howdie y'all.

This week has been great!  As usual.  I can't remember what happened though.  So bear with me!

Thursday:  I went on an exchange over to Greensburgh again.  It was a fun day, but we probably taught for a total of 45 minutes.  There was a lot of travel during the day.  It was nice to see their area though!

Friday:  It was a pretty slow day.  Our schedule was thrown off because of the exchange, and then we had weekly planning for 3 hours.  We were able to have 1 lesson that night with a less active.  We walked there, because we are really low on miles.  The walk way was probably a foot wide on the side of the road.  Luckily we didn't get run over.  Hahah!

Saturday:  We went to see a less-active, and she yelled from her house to come in.  She said she needed to go to the hospital because he head was spinning, and she couldn't stay up when she was standing.  We gave her a blessing, and i kept praying that we would be able to teach her.  We asked if we could share a spiritual thought and she said yes.  I gave her a new Book of Mormon, and it had a restoration pamphlet in it.  She started reading it, and asked a bunch of questions about it.  The spirit was there, and she was learning a lot!  She really liked what we said, and it made a lot of sense to her.  We ended up having a 30-40 minute lesson with her!  It was great:)  We aren't sure if she went to the hospital or not...

Sunday:  We went to church, and did our studies with took up most of the day.  We had a lesson with this less active family from Hawaii, and they fed us the most delicious food ever!  I was so happy!  They are really awesome, and hopefully they come back to church!  They aren't in our area; they're in the sisters.  So we can't teach them, but hopefully the sisters do!

That was our week!  So it's a little short this week.  It been pretty fun!  I can't believe there are only 2 more weeks of the transfer!  I have almost been out for 2 months!  It's mind blowing.  I love serving a mission, and i wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now.  Love ya, and have a great week!

Elder Birrell

Week 11

Hello!

How is it already week 11?!  Time has ffffffffffffffffffffffllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn by.  Seriously.

Monday: We taught our investigator with the Bishop.  She was really struggling with some personal matters, so we went over to give her the spiritual strength to carry on throughout the week.  It was a really great lesson, and we focused on the things she need to start doing (word of wisdom) to finally start to feel all of the peace and happiness that come from living the gospel.  It really helped her, and she seemed a lot happier after.

Tuesday:  I can't remember what happened, but i don't think it was very eventful.  Another faith day.

Wednesday:  We were in Verona and trying a few different potential investigators.  We weren't having much luck, and i suggested that we go and try this recently re-activated lady, We showed up at her house, and he son answered the door.  He said his mom wasn't home, but we could come in if we wanted.  We got in, and we weren't leaving until a lesson was taught >:).  Hahah.  It was perfect!  It just melted into a lesson, and we talked about the restoration.  Her son was baptized when he was 12, but immediately fell away because his brother teased him.  As we were teaching, he would give this great answers by the spirit!  We know that there is a flame in there, we just have to find it.  After we had our Book of Mormon class.

Thursday:  We met the Greensburgh elders and did an exchange.  I went with Elder Martin (DL) to his area, and his companion Elder Little came to our area with Elder Johnson.  It was such a fun exchange!  We went to Torrence, which is the hospital for those that are struggling with emotional things, and had an awesome lesson with some of the patients there.  After we met the sisters in their area to go to a members house and have dinner.  Around 3 it started to snow.  It was snowing quite a bit all night.  We got to the members house, and had dinner with them.  After we went out to our car, and it was snowing like crazy!  Not like a blizzard, but just dumping snow (I was so happy).  Like i have said before, the roads here are NOT flat.  We drive Chevy Cruze's, and they do an awful job in the snow.  We got to this hill, and our car would not drive anymore.  Elder Martin and i, as well as one of the sister got out and pushed it up the hill, while the other sister drove it up the hill.  The hill was probably a mile long.  It was SOOOOO cold!  It was SO MUCH FUN THOUGH.  I was laughing like crazy.  I was probably delirious from the cold...  It was a blast though.  It ended up taking us an 1 and a 1/2 to get back to our house.  It was so much fun.

Friday:  We taught this less-active member who has health problems with her kids.  We finally got to her house around 8pm, and she said that she is going to start coming back to church.  She said if she can go to the hospital 2 a week with her son, she can come to church once a week.  We were so happy!  Our less-active members have been doing a great job!  6 of them are on their way to reactivation just from the time that i have been here.

Saturday:  WAS AMAZING!  Our schedule was so jam packed, that we didn't have any room for dinner.  We taught a girl, who is getting baptized on the 18 of January.  Her mom is one that is working on getting reactivated, and it was remarkable!  She is still super excited to be baptized!  Her mom has been a HUGE help in her progress as well.  After we taught another less-active,  We taught her about temples, and challenged her to prepare to go to the temple.  Later that night, we taught a girl at a members home.  She was so drunk.  I was SO uncomfortable.  The spirit was so strong, and she was so sad for what she did.   We basically told her, that when she wants to be happy she'll stop doing these things, and she will be happy.  We challenged her to give a little more to the Lord.  She liked that, and really seemed to have a softer heart.  After we taught another less-active, and his nonmember girlfriend.  They really liked what we taught.  The plan of Salvation.  They are slowly coming around.  I was so hungry all day, and i never had a chance to eat anything.  We were running around all day, and we got home at 10:10pm... 

Sunday:  It was fast Sunday, and i thought i was going to die.  I WAS SO HUNGRY!  our investigator came to church and apologized for last night.  She said it's not going to happen again.  2 others came also came!  This other family that is reactivating themselves also came:)  It was a great day

It was a great week.  Elder Johnson and i have become really close, and we are really good at teaching together!  The transfers are coming up next week, and i hope he doesn't get transferred!  I love this companionship, area, and district!  I hope everyone stays.  However, when things start going good.  You get transferred...  Love ya!  Have a great week.

Elder Birrell