The sun is shinng

Hello!

Well it's finally spring here in PA.  There have been about 4 days of warm sunshine.  It's been awesome.  I have definitely missed that.  I've practically gone albino this winter.  It's starting to get so green here as well!  It's crazy, because it just feels so natural here.  It feels like i have always been here, and gone to the Pitt 3rd chapel.  Our week was pretty grand too!

The beginning of the weeks started good!  After P-day we went and taught P.  Our investigator.  He always talks about the book of revelations.  We looked on his desk, and he had all these creepy satanic movies.  So we pretty much got out of there pretty quick, and dropped him from our investigator pool.  Then we helped Brother Memmott do some more service.  They are frantically trying to get their house on the market by tomorrow, because they are going to Disney World for a week.  They are moving to Utah in the summer.  Brother Memmott got a job at BYU as a nuclear professor.  Tuesday i went on an exchange to Greensburg, with Elder Glick.  Elder Wilson came to my area with Elder Bowers.  They had a great time, and picked up 4 potential investigators.  I had a great time in Greensburg helping Elder Glick with his missionary work.

Wednesday we switched back, we went and taught A. and K.   K's. friend P. wants to learn again.  She said that she is going to beg her mom to let her be baptized.  After we had dinner at the Memmott's, and went to BoM Class.  Thursday we visited with T.  Our investigator getting baptized on MAY 9!  Previously before the lesson, we had to get our oil changed which took 4 hours!!!!!!!!  It was ridiculous.  After we had dinner with the Cooks.

Friday was interesting.  In the morning we went and helped Memmott with his house.  Then we did our weekly planning.  After we went to a members house and had dinner with them.  Then we dug a grave for their dog in the pouring rain.  I mean it was pouring; of course only while we were digging.  It stopped right when we finished.  After we went and taught C.  He's from El Salvador.  He doesn't speak much English so the lesson was... rough. We are going back today to teach him with a member who speaks Spanish.  He's investigating though!  Saturday we did a lot of service.  We helped a member rebuild his retaining wall.  Our FHC had a big event to we helped with that.  Then we helped the Memmott's and then had dinner at the McDowells.  It was super fun, but not a whole lot of proselyting.  Our appointments fell through.  Sunday we had church then went to dinner at the Snow's.  After we went and taught a less-active family with Brother Memmott.  He gave them his PS3 and they were SO happy!  It was really neat to watch.

Overall it was a great week.  I'm excited for this week, but i cannot believe i only have 3 more weeks here!  I really am going to miss this place.  I've been here for 7 months now!  CRAZY!  Well i hope you have a great week.  Love ya.

Elder Birrell

Easter Week

Easter Baskets!!!!

Hello!

This week was great!  Easter Sunday was awesome.  We have a baptism coming up on May 10th!

The beginning of the week was a little slow--the whole week was slow.  On Monday we went and visited our neighbor who is a devote Catholic.  She's super nice though, and interested in learning more about the church.  We taught her The Plan of Salvation.  On Tuesday we went to the doctors for Elder Bowers back.  It was also super cold this day.  It had a weird snow/hail mix.  We went to the doctors, and they weren't very helpful.  They said that he needed an MRI to be able to see what was really going on.  We left the doctors a little discouraged.  He kind of wasted our time.  He wasn't super helpful or caring.  As we drove through the Fort Pitt Tunnel to get back to our house, you couldn't see the city.  The whole area was covered in clouds.  It was pretty sweet!  After we went and taught our investigator T.  We set him with May 10 to be baptized, and he is so excited for it!  Our plans for the rest of the day kind of fell through, and we went around talking to people.

Wednesday and Thursday picked up a bit.  I taught my second district meeting on involving the ward members in our work.  I thought that it went pretty well.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and learn something from it.  We did an exchange with the zone leaders, and i went back to my area with Elder Weatherston.  He is HUGE!  He is 6 9"  He's awesome.  We went and saw some other investigators and then had dinner at the Memmott's.  The Memmott's have this huge pile of wood that they need to move, so we helped them with that!  Then they took us to Rita's after.  It's this yummy ice cream place.  Thursday we exchanged back, and went and helped the Z's take apart their deck.  They are doing and addition to their kitchen, so they needed help dismantling their deck.  It was fun.  We got to destroy it!:)  Then we went and taught T. again.  He's still doing awesome, and he agreed to come to the baptism the Sister's were having on Saturday.  After we had dinner with the Mickelson's, then taught some more people.  

Friday and Saturday were slow numbers wise, but we were SO busy.  On Friday we had weekly planning and then went and walked around a city called Oak Mount for 2 hours.  It's a nicer area, so people were less friendly...  After we went and had dinner.  Then we went and saw Sister S. a less-active and invited her to come out to church.  Then we Helped Bro Memmott with his pile of wood.  On Saturday we had the baptism.  It was such an awesome experience.  It's a great family, and 4 of them got baptized.  A lot of the ward came out as well.  T. came, and got super excited for his baptism on the 10th.  He really likes the church, and doesn't have any problems with it.  After we went and helped Bro. Memmott with the wood.  Then we went and taught G.  We talked about the resurrection.  

Sunday was Easter Sunday!  We went to church and had a good sacrament meeting.  T. came and loved it.   The family that were baptized, were confirmed.  I confirmed one of them.  It was a cool experience.  You can literally feel the Holy Ghost enter their body!  After, we went to their house, and had a little Easter thought with them.  Then we had dinner at the Memmott's.  It was yummy!  We had ham and funeral potato's.

Overall it was a great week.  I little slow numbers wise, but still great!  I am excited for this week.  It is shaping out to be a pretty busy one.  Have a great week.  Love ya guys!

Elder Birrell

Spring is finally here.

This is sooooo Austin!

Hello!

It was another fantastic week on the missionary front.  We had a lot of success.  So that's been great to have:)  Elder Bowers and I are excited to keep pushing the work forward.  We've accomplished quite a bit, but there is still so much to do.  We are just putting our best foot forward, and trying to leave the area better then when we found it.

Monday and Tuesday we great.  On Monday, we found a new investigator!  His name is P, and he contacted us in the library.  He asked what we believed in.  He has mental disability, so we will see what happens.  We taught him the restoration, and about the BoM.  He really liked all of it.  Hopefully he's understanding it.  Tuesday was also very successful.  We got to an appointment early, so we decided to OYM (street contacting).  We gave this guy a card and said we could come teach him on Thursday.  We got another new investigator!  Remember when i told you about the guy who gave us a ride in the rain a couple weeks ago.  Well, we called him and he wanted to learn more!  We went to his house that night and taught him for about 2 hours.  He agreed with everything, and said that he would pray about the BoM.

Wednesday and Thursday rocked!  We had our zone training on Wednesday.  It was on asking inspired questions.  It was a great learning experience, and i got more of a fire to go out and teach people.  After we went and taught A and K.  They are doing awesome!  Sister Cardwell fed us and the sisters at the church for dinner.  We had Mexican food. yummm I've been craving Mexican food forever!  Thursday was awesome!  We got another new investigator.  The guy we contacted on Tuesday.  We taught him the restoration, and have absolutely no problems with anything.  He loved it all!  That was great! 

Friday and Saturday were good.  A little slow.  On Friday we had our weekly planning and went and taught Sister S. She believes that she's fine just praying.  I've been working with her since i have been on my mission.   After, we went to the M.  An awesome family that the sisters are working with.  They are getting baptized this Saturday.  So i had to go do their interviews.  They also invited us for dinner.  When we got there, sister M said that 3 other families were coming over (members of the ward).  Which is crazy, because they aren't even members yet!  That just shows you how well they get along with the ward.  The ward has done a great job in reaching out to them.   They are awesome.  They love the gospel.  On Saturday we went back to finish the rest of the interviews.  4 of them are getting baptized, and we only had time to do 2 interviews on Friday.  Can't wait for Saturday.

Sunday we went to this Easter  thing in Cranberry.  We drove through Downtown to get there.  That was cool!  The stake center here is over an hour away.  Which is crazy!  I'd never have gone to stake things if that was the case in Utah... hahah.  The members out here are phenomenal.

Have a great week.  Love ya!

Elder Birrell

Done with the ice age

Hello!

I cannot believe this week is already over!  It seriously flew by.  In fact, this whole transfer has flown by!  We are already on our last week.  It's been a great transfer though!  It's also been a great week.  A lot better than last week:)  We're getting our numbers back up.

Monday and Tuesday started the week off good!  We had dinner with a less-active family.  The wife kind of laughed when we were talking about living with God again...  After we had a lesson with Sister K.  Tuesday was much too good!  We went on a team-up with this older guy who is around 80.  We went and visited his less-active friend.  Next thing i know, he is, explaining in detail, his first time getting a colonoscopy.  This was years ago, before they changed it i guess...  It was pretty detailed, and his words and expressions he used were quite interesting.  Needless to say, i was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face.  Oh man, it was so hilarious!  It was his friend too, so he enjoyed the story too.

Friday and Saturday slowed things down a bit, but they were both very fulfilling days.  On Friday, we did our weekly planning and were able to see a family called the G.  The husband is very less-active, but the wife is very solid!  It was nice to visit with them and have a dinner appointment.  After we visited this 80 year old Catholic lady who lives next door to us.  She calls us her Mormon grandson's.  She calls her self our Mormon grandma.  She is awesome!  We taught her the restoration, and she said she agreed with everything.  She said she is too old and we aren't going to change her.  However, she's interested in learning more about our church.  So we'll see if she is too old to change...  hehe.  On Saturday we ran out of miles for our car.  So we decided to walk to the library.  It ended up being a 3 hour walk, and it was raining.  I had an umbrella and Elder Bowers didn't.  I payed attention in scouts; always be prepared.  As we were walking, we made an effort to talk to as many people as possible.  We have these 2 activities we do called Friend 10, and Flood the Earth.  President Hinkley said that if missionaries would talk to 10 more people a day, we would have 665,000 more convert baptisms a year.  Flood the Earth is to hand out 1 BoM a day.  We were able to achieve and exceed these goals.  On our way back though, we had 1 more person we need to talk to.  This guy pulled over, and offered us a ride.  When we were in the car, he said that he saw us earlier waving to people but he was on his way to work.  As he was driving home he saw us again and felt he needed to offer us a ride.  We started talking to him and asked if he knew anything about our church.  He said he didn't know much, and asked what our foundation was, and what we believed.  We said we'd give him the short version, but he said he could tell his wife he had to give some guys a ride--meaning he wasn't on a time crunch.  We pulled in the parking lot we asked him to drop us off at, and we ended up teaching him the restoration in his car!  He accepted a BoM, and said we could contact him.  He said that he felt "enlightened" talking to us.  The Lord truly does bless you for your efforts.  He always places people in our paths that are ready to hear the restored gospel.

Sunday was great!  We saw 3 less-active families, and had 3 less-actives come to church!  It was a pretty good turn out!

I love this gospel so much.  I know that it is true, and it is in its fullness.  Jesus Christ loves us SO much, and is willing to take all of our pain away.  He will provide us with a change of heart.  We just have to be willing and follow him.  This gospel is true, and i love sharing it with those of PA.  I love Heavenly Father, and learn more and more each day how much he truly does love us, and how much he blesses us!  Have a great week.  I love you!

Elder Birrell

March 24, 2014

Someone made us Tony Romas Ribs.  Yum!!!!

This week has been great!  We are down to 0 investigators now...  It's been really hard to find people as well.  We have set goals and made plans though, so i have a lot of faith for this week, and am excited to get out and get to work!  The weather has been pretty good.  It's definitely warming up.  I planted some sun flowers and then it froze the next day.  So they're for sure dead.  A lot happened this week, but we're kind of in a rut.  However, i am SO excited for this week!  I can't wait to just get to work.

     Monday and Tuesday were great days!  On Monday we had dinner at the Prince's house.  They're an awesome family in the ward.  We had planned to have a lesson with H that night.  When we texted her to confirm it, she said she wasn't home and she forgot...sorry.  She knows the church is true and LOVES it, but she isn't willing to give up smoking yet.  So i texted her, and told her to contact us when she wants to meet again.    On Tuesday we taught the usual lesson's.  We saw Sister H. and her Bro.   They both want to go to the temple which is awesome!

    Wednesday and Thursday we kinda a blur.  We have this Book of Mormon class that we do with the Sister's at night, and the bishop recently said that only one set of us can go... bummer.  So we went home teaching with Brother Snow to see this guy who lives in a retirement home.  He has MS.  It was sad to see, especially because he has such a strong testimony of the gospel; at the same time it has helped him with everything.  Thursday we saw P and Sister K.  We had great lesson's with them as well.  

     

Friday we had weekly planning and then went to see another investigator.  As we were talking with her, she pretty much said she doesn't believe the things that happened in the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  She thinks they were stories to help us learn.  We challenged her to read from the Book of Mormon each day, and pray about it.  She needs that witness that it is true.  She doesn't really have a testimony.  We then went home teaching with Brother de Poix that night.  On Saturday we went and saw Sister H .  We probably texted everyone in the ward to come on the team up with us.  It was really hard to find someone.  There was a relief society activity that night, so everyone had prior commitments. We finally found someone.  She ended up having 3 other people over and they were all way into the lesson.  That night we had a church tour.  The Sister's brought 2 of their investigators.  It turned out to be awesome!  They are both Catholic, but disagree with quite a few things in the church.  The spirit was so strong, and their hearts were really softened after being through the church.  On Sunday we had ward conference.  It was sweet!

     It's been a great week, and I'm grateful for all of the tender mercies from the Lord.  There is always more we can do, and I am definitely going to put more work into it.  This is a great work that we are ALL involved in.  The member missionaries are just as, if not more important than the full-time missionaries.  We can't do it alone.  I love this church and I know it is true.  I hope you have a great week!  Love ya.

Elder Birrell

March 17, 2014

Hello,
This week has been great!  We've been busy trying to push the work forward in this area.  We've had to drop all of our investigators except for 1...  So were on the hunt to find new people to teach.  We had a zone conference on finding, so we're pumped to do it!

This week was similar to last week.  We taught H. once.  it was a great lesson!  She said that she need to "Get her self together."  We taught her the restoration.  The spirit was so strong.  Preach My Gospel is right when it says to make sure the people that we teach understand the restoration.  She said that she was definitely going to come to church.  Well she didn't end up coming... We are seeing her today.  We have planned to talk about temptations.  Hopefully it all goes well!

We had a great lesson with Bro. M!  He has changed so much!  He is reading the BoM everyday which has been awesome!   He is truly becoming converted once again.  Time is tight.  So this was our week.  The highlights anyway.

It's been so fun though!  Elder Bowers is awesome.  We get along great.  He's super funny.  I haven't been dead tired anymore!  I get in bed at 9:45 now instead of right after planning... haha no it's been good!  Our area is great!  I am very excited for the coming week.  Love ya!

Elder Birrell

 

 

 

 

 

Austin and Elder Bowers

First week of training

Hola,

As you can tell from my title, it's my first week successfully training (hopefully).  It's been a great week.  Not as scary and hectic as i thought it was going to be.  That's for sure!  It's been a great week though.  A lot easier than i thought it was going to be.  That just means something hard is going to happen... so pray for me!

Monday:  We hung out at the Zebraski's, and had dinner with them.  We had sister Holmstead's mom's chicken noodle soup, and these wheat pancakes from elder Johnson's.  Surprisingly it all went together really well!  We had soy sauce with pancakes, and you know how much i like soy sauce!  So naturally, they were divine.

Tuesday: Transfer day!  We drove to Greentree.  That is where the president goes to church.  There are two tiny tunnels you have to go through, so we were stuck in stop and go traffic.  We ended up being 30 minutes late... However, we beat the sisters, so we counted that as on time (they always beat us everywhere).  President ended up being late too, so we didn't miss anything.  I got my new companion.  Elder Bowers.  He's from Kaysville Utah, and he is a great missionary!  He has so much fire to be out her.  It almost blew me away.  I love training.  I enjoy having leadership positions.  They really help me, because they motivate me and "force" me to do better.  Ever since i have been a trainer I've had a lot more energy, and I've been way more positive.  It's a great calling!

Wednesday: Our Wednesday's are always pretty set.  Nothing to plan usually.  We always see A and K, and then have dinner with the Memmott's, coordination meeting, then BoM class.  It never cancels.  That's what i was telling Elder Bowers the night before as we planned for Monday.  I said heck would have to freeze over before these cancelled.  Well, it turns out the weather we've been having here made it down there!  EVERYTHING CANCELLED.  I was so sad... but whatever.  The Lord really needed us to see other people.  So we got to work!  We went and tried a lot of people.  It turned out to be a pretty good day though!  Members haven't been feeding us as they used to, so I've been scheduling with them to feed us!  The day go a million times better if we have a dinner appointment.

Thursday: We had our day planned, and went and saw sister H, sister M, and then we also saw H. that night.  Nothing exciting really happened. 

Friday: Elder Bowers got really sick, so we were inside all day until about 6pm.  Then we had a dinner appointment with a member at 6.  So we did that, and got home around 7:30-8.  We went and tried to see Y. after.  He was there, but told us to come back Saturday afternoon.

Saturday: Since Elder Bowers was sick on Friday, it pushed out weekly planning to this day.  Plus our 3 hours of studies.  So we did a lot of studying this day!  We ended up seeing H and eating at the Prince's for dinner.  It was really fun!  They're a great family.  We had Navajo taco's and i loved them!

Sunday: It snowed all day, and church was cancelled.  However, they didn't' tell us until we got there.  So, we went to the Z's and did our studies.  Then we watched the D+C videos with them, and had dinner. After dinner the roads cleared up enough that we were able to drive home.  Our neighborhood was really bad though, so we weren't able to drive anywhere.  Even with all of the craziness of the week, we still managed to teach 10 lesson's!  This week went by so fast!  Have a great week.  love ya

elder birrell