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

Merry Christmas.

"Yinz"....Means You all!

So i am not sending a long email like i usually do since i will be talking to you guys in 3 days.  plus i don't feel like it:)  I have a headache. 

I got the last package!  You should see our fireplace...   I'm anxious to see what you sent me...  hahah i can't really imagine what i have:)  I got Julie's package and the Larson's (Dad's sister) sent me one as well. .  I'm sad a missed the party.  I'm glad it was fun though.  Oddly enough, some of the things i miss the most are getting together with the usual people, Family Christmas parties, BINGO with Julie and Rich, as well as, watching football with Jonnie and Natalie and Kristine.  I always really enjoyed doing things with them.  Wish them a merry Christmas for me:)   It seriously doesn't feel like Brandon has been gone for that long!  I feel like he just left!  I also can't believe that i am almost at my 3 month mark!  It feels like it has been forever, but also in the blink of an eye!

 LOVE YA!

Elder Birrell

Christmas Presents.

Prayers are answered.....It Snowed!!!!!

 

 

 

First off, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY, AND I LOVE THIS CHURCH, AND IT SNOWED A LOT!!!

That basically sums up our week.  It was, to say the least, awesome!  We started off a little slow, but exploded in the end!  Being a missionary for the Lord's true church is the only way to spend the remainder of your teenage years.  It is way more fun, busy, and exciting than i thought it would be!  So here was our week.

 

Monday: We had our P-day as usual.  We cleaned the WHOLE house!  Your could have eaten anywhere, and on any surface.  It was that clean.  Later that night, we had an appointment at a members house at 8.  We arrived 30 minutes early, so we decided to tract around.  One house had their lights set up to a song.  So obviously we had to tract it!  That didn't turn out very well so went and had that meeting with the members.  We have been meeting with them frequently to get them to give us a referral.  They are inviting 2 people to church this Sunday, and then the first week of January they are going to have us meet them!!!

 

Tuesday:  We went and taught the guy who lives down the street from us.  We answered all his questions,  His mom was there and She kept asking us why we were there, and that her house was not a house for Bible study.  We started to talk to her, and her heart instantly softened.  She was describing a way she wishes church's were, and she totally described ours!  We didn't end up having time to teach them though:(  Next we taught one of our investigators,  We talked about how much our Heavenly Father loves us, and he really liked that.  Sister Mcclendon was there as well.  She is so powerful, and she bore her testimony so many times. 

Wednesday: We had zone conference that took pretty much the whole day.  That was really fun!  President Topham is the coolest person ever!  Ah i love him.  I'm so sad him and his wife are being released at the end of June :(  That night we had Book of Mormon class, and after taught the Plan of Salvation.  We are teaching the new member discussions, which is teaching lesson 1-5 in Preach My Gospel again.

 

Thursday:  This is when the week really got awesome!  We went to teach one of our investigators and have lunch/dinner with her.  Her daughter was there, and she isn't a member.  She told the last missionaries that she wanted to wait until she was 14 to get baptized.    She sat in the first little bit of the lesson, but then someone called and she went to talk to them in the other room.  I felt the strongest feeling that we needed her in the lesson.  I asked her if her daughter was going to be joining us, and she had her come back and listen to the lesson.  Then at the end of the lesson, Elder Johnson asked the daughter what we need to do to get to heaven.  She said: "Pray, Church, and Baptism."  I was so happy!  I immediately invited her to be baptized, and she said yes!!!    Later that night we went to teach a guy who is less active.  We went over, and his dad (who is active) let us teach him.  Right at the beginning though he came down and sat in the lesson as well!  It was so great!  We taught him about the atonement.

 

Friday:  We went to go teach this lady who is less-active, and actually got baptized into the Baptist church >:(  We showed up right when she had gotten home.  As we were teaching her, she asked what Joseph Smith did.  We didn't have time to really teach her, so we gave her a little over view and we are going back this Friday to teach her more!  

 

Saturday:  The sisters had a baptism!  The girl who got baptized 2 weeks ago, it was her mom.  It was really really nice!  I love baptisms.  It also snowed ALL day!  I was so happy, it was unreal.  I pray for snow pretty much every week.  Driving in the snow is a nightmare, but i love looking at it! 

Sunday: ONE OF OUR INVESTIGATORS CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!  Finally.  It was SO nice to see her there!  She really liked it as well.  Later that night we went to the stake Christmas devotional in Cranberry.  It was really good!  That's all we did on Sunday though.  It was sad not to be able to teach anyone.

 

The mission has been so much fun thus far!  I feel like i have grown so much!  Thanks for all you guys do!  Love ya!

 

Elder Birrell

December 8, 2013

 

Ward Christmas Party.

 

Bonjour!

It finally snowed here in Picksburgh (That's how the locals say it...)  I was filled with joy!  We were in church yesterday, and it just dumped.  It was super scary to drive home in.  The roads are very narrow here, and there isn't a flat one in sight.  We almost crashed into this truck at a stop sign, because our car wouldn't stop moving!  Needless to say, i was very happy for the snow:)

 

Monday:  We had our P-day.  I took a nap.  I was dead.  It was awesome to sleep a little bit longer!  I am always so tired!  If they would just give us 1 more hour of sleep, i would be perfectly fine.  For dinner we went to the Mama and Papa Z's.  It was delicious as usual!  It's always such a fun time when we are at their house.  I don't think we taught anyone...  I cannot remember.  I think it snowed this day as well. Not sure though.  Your memory kind of goes when your on a mission.  Every day blurs into one.

 

 

Wednesday: We had the Book of Mormon class.  We taught it, and it was Alma 53.  It was great as usual.  Not a whole lot of people showed up, but we are grateful for the ones that did.

 

Thursday: We went and taught this a guy, and he said we could come back at anytime.  He has had some questions about differences in the BoM and the Bible.    He asked us again about some of his questions, and in my mind i just kept remembering what Elder Johnson said.  Something along the lines of "We have been set apart to answer any question people throw at us"  I TOTALLY DID THAT!  Every single question he asked, i immediately thought of an answer.  It was sweet!

 

Friday: we decided we would go OYM.  We gave this guy a card, and ended up talking to him for 40 minutes!  He asked us all of these questions about our church that all pertained to the restoration.  We kept trying to find something he didn't agree with, but he found we basically believe everything he does!  I was so happy!  It was snowing, we were outside, and we were spreading the gospel.  It was a dream come true.  After we went to a members house for dinner.  The Snow's.  It was delicious!  

 

Saturday: We went to lunch at the Z's, and it was super fun and awesome!  It's fun to go there, because it's kind of like a break to recharge, and head out and spread the gospel some more!  We then went to Turtle Creek and tried to contact a referral we had received.  They weren't there, so we just OYM'd.  Then we drove home, and got a ride to the church for the Christmas party.  That was a lot of fun!  I never liked ward parties growing up, but now i love them!

 

Sunday:  None of our investigators or less-active members came.  That made us super sad.  Ahh I wish people would come to church.  It's fun i promise!  I still felt the spirit super strong though, and it was awesome!  Later that night we went to the Z's to watch the Christmas devotional.  They picked us up with the sisters.  Their car is entertainment central.  We popped in a Mormon Message, and we all watched them.  It was super fun!  Mormon Messages are da best.  

 

Our area is going good!  For some reason, we are teaching one less lesson a week.  It's getting frustrating.  No one has time to visit with us.  Some how, i have managed to always be happy though.  I really haven't felt super down since i have been on my mission.  I just go with the flow, and if something doesn't work out, i know the Lord is preparing something else for us to do.  It's been a great week regardless, and i still love serving a mission!  There isn't anything else I'd rather be doing!  Love ya!

 

Elder Birrell 

First Transfer down!!!

The most comfortable couch ever!!!!

Finally!!!!! A Dunkin' Donuts!!!!!!!

First transfer down.

Where has time gone?  Time moves by ridiculously fast here!  It feels like these past 6 weeks have been 1 long day.  So much has happened.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!:)  It's way better and a lot more fun than i thought it was going to be.  Well here's a little of what happened this week.

     So we picked up a new investigator this week.  It turns out, she wants to know everything about the gospel!  We were talking to her about the Book of Mormon, and she's like "It's basically like another Bible!"  We were so excited!  The lesson went perfectly... a little too perfect.  It followed PMG to the tee.  So she's basically the coolest person ever, because she's so open and receptive to the gospel.  The only problem is, she says she's already been baptized... So we'll cross that bridge another day.

     We went on another exchange this week.  This time, i went to Greensburgh.  It's about 30 minutes east.  I was with Elder Little, and Elder Martin (DL) came to our area with Elder Johnson.  We had a pretty awesome time!  The spirit pops things into my head so naturally (patriarchal blessing).  I am starting to really realize that.  It's awesome!  Ahh i get so excited just thinking about it.   Later that night, they went to try and visit a family. They are a recent progressing investigator, and his wife .  They had an awesome time fellow shipping.  He is a chef, so he always cooks us amazing food when we go over.  I can definitely tell he wants to know more.  They basically said they could be Mormon.  They are super inactive Baptist.  They said "We just chose this route to know Jesus better, but there are more ways to learn about him."  They talked about eternal families, and they LOVED that! they then asked how our whole church started, and basically taught her the restoration!  I was so said I missed it.  ANOTHER investigator!  We dropped a lot last week, so the Lord is blessing us with new ones.  I had a fun time on the exchange!  Where their house is located is in a town called Jennette.  I guess there were a couple drive by shootings, murders, robberies, etc. all within the last couple of weeks.  They live in the ghetto part of their area.  We walked around at night trying to OYM.  With every car that passed, i braced my self for bullets to come flying at me.  It was an adventure!

          Yesterday at church was amazing! We had and investigator come!  He's been investigating for a while know, and we were so happy to see him!  It was the most powerful Fast and Testimony meeting i have ever been to.  Everyone that bore a testimony was super inspired!  I love church so much!  I never thought i would say that...  hahah! 

     Our area is doing pretty awesome.  It has it's ups and down's.  We are getting there though.  Elder Johnson and I are having a pretty grand time!  We both have a strong desire to serve, and i am so grateful he is my trainer.  I look at other people being trained, and those that are just finishing, and i feel like I have already caught up with, if not surpassed them on missionary work.  Not at all to brag or anything!  I am trying to be as humble as i can to say that.  It's all because Elder Johnson has trained me so well, and our goals are similar, and we both want to be 100% missionary.  The Lord has blessed me with him.  I wouldn't have been able to grow as quickly with any other trainer. 

    That's been our week!  Love ya, and have an awesome week!

Elder Birrell

The Sisters in our area

My District