12-12-12

Ciao Tutti!

     Wow it truly is hard to believe that December is almost halfway over and Christmas is right around the corner!!  I am excited to be here, even has alittle taste of home with all the snow!  The internet defiantly lied when it said the weather here was like Southern California! haha  But this week was so sick!  In many different ways.  First off last P-day did turn out to be incredible!  Saw tons of things and it was my first real P-day of getting out and seeing a ton of sites.  Cant wait for y'all to see pictures.  Just wish y'all could have been here to see it!  Then Thursday and Friday we did a scambi (exchanges) and I got an Italian comp. so it was sweet!

     Then Friday night we got to head back to Rome because on Saturday they had a huge service project to clean up and fix up a huge park area.  It was near the temple site so that was cool for those people to see us helping that community.  Another cool thing is last P-day another companionship went to the Vatican, and they went to the top, and when the Temple in Rome is done, you will be able to see it from there! How cool is that?!  But the service project was a lot of fun!  The first half of this week the work wasn't great, one we didn't have a ton of time with being in Rome so much, but then it was back to finding and one of our investigators that is awesome, Mirella, has 2 houses that they live in because she is moving, and there was confusion and we went to the wrong house so we missed that lesson.  But on Tuesday we got a lesson with her.  It was one of the most incredible things I have been apart of.  We are really starting to see the miracles here, first of all she is the one we found after our dinner appointment got cancelled, but then we didn't get to meet with her for a long time.  But she told us yesterday after she met us that first day she just had a feeling she shouldn't smoke anymore, and that night she said a prayer and hasnt smoked since!!  She is one of those people that you feel like you were called here to find them specifically.  And she really opened up during our lesson and we invited her to be baptized and she really wants too!  He husband is against it right now, but we will see.

     Monday was another incredible day!  We had 3 lessons!  Which basically matches what we had our first transfer!  It is so true if you are obedient, work hard, and have faith, you will see miracles.  Another interesting thing that happened Tuesday morning, we were doing street and we came to a park where there was a ton of people, unusual because it is freezing outside.  We were trying to figure out what was going on when we saw and heard a huge group of people on the road marching and protesting something.  We saw that and the cops starting to close in and so we figured it wasn't the best place to be, and we heard a huge BOOM and so we decided it was time to leave right then. haha 

     After English course yesterday we had the opportunity to be apart of 2 newish members (that are awesome) receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood!  It was way awesome!  Mattia is leaving to go to the M.T.C. this next week, and we have another who has his papers in, pretty cool.  We re-watched a little movie you watch the first night you get here of a bunch of pictures missionaries have sent in of the different areas, I have decided I have to serve in Napoli, Sarracusa or Palermo, Malta, And Rome! haha  I love yall so much and hope yall have an incredible week!

Love,

           Anziano Bird

December Already!

Wow! It is so hard to believe that it is December already! But it sure feels like it! We are in a mountain town and there has been snow in the mountains for a while now. And a couple days ago there was finally snow on the ground! Something I was not expecting to see in Italy. My letter wont be very long today because we are in Rome today and we are actually going to get some things done today! haha Planning on the coliseum and some other things close to it! Should be alot of fun! This past week I bought my first Italian tie! It is beautiful! And at Christmas Zone Conference yesterday we got a little gift pack and it had a super sweet tie it in also! Zone Conference was awesome, always is! It was way cool cause the Napoli zone came up and got to see my mtc comp and a ton of other people! Did some more finding this week, got to teach a couple of lessons, but we went through the area book the other day and found some awesome people we can hopefully teach! I read an awesome story in the Liahona about a missionary in France and the branch he was in was in the same situation ours is in and for Christmas he got them all Preach My Gospels and the work there exploded! So we are going to do the same and I am super excited!! I ate a hot dog this week! We saw a place and it said chilly cheese dogs, so we went back cause those sounded delicious, but they were just hotdogs. The best part was when I asked the guy what they put on them and he said "I don't know, you tell me cause I have no idea what to do with these" haha Also ate at McDonalds this week and got a burger they only make in Italy, it was super good! Did not taste like a burger from there! haha It was sweet this week we went for service at the shelter, and it just so happened they were having a party that night so they had pro chefs there and so we got to eat some amazing food! Really hoping to get the work going during the holiday season because this branch needs it. We have not had corolation in 6 weeks and it is a little frustrating. In will be nice when we can get a baptism! We had a party this week for Mattia who is in our branch and he is leaving to go on his mission to Portugal in a couple weeks! He is going to the Provo mtc and is super excited and is going to be a great missionary! Love yall and hope yall have an amazing week! Love, Anziano Bird

{Last week in November}

Hey! This week has been great! Thursday was Thanksgiving of course, and they do not celebrate it here, but Thursday nights is one of the nights we do English course and so we had a big activity with our students and the branch. It went awesome! But in the morning we got a lesson, which was a huge blessing! It went great, she is Romanian, so she doesn't speak or understand Italian super well, I can relate! :) We made brownies for the activity because people here LOVE our brownies, and they aren't very good. haha With students and members there were about 40 people there. And everyone brought a TON of food! We had turkey and it was delicious! But mostly Italian food! One of the students made cheesecake, and all the students wanted us to eat their food, so had to eat a ton of everything!! So I had to try this cheesecake and actually really liked it! I know I'm growing up so fast! There are so many awesome people that come to English course, I know the Lord is preparing them, so hopefully we will get the opportunity to teach some of them! There is a store in town called Lidle. It is a German store I believe so they have more "American food" I was hoping to find cheddar cheese but they didn't have it. They have an American section, but it is pretty gross. haha They put a picture of the statue of liberty on something and call it American. But they have cheeseburgers! And frozen buffalo wings! And last week my companion and I picked up some advent calenders!! So I am excited about that! We also found something there called Spuma. It is a drink that they make and bottle in Sicily. My companion had heard it was good, so we got some. It was delicious!!! Hard to explain the taste, but is kind of like Jim's guarana drink. A fun thing that happened this week was our water heater thing broke! They have been redoing our roof and they blocked something and it stopped working, and they couldn't get it fixed for about 3 days! Sponge baths it was!!! My first time with sponge baths, I think I prefer normal showers, but they finally got it fixed. Ready for them to get done with our roof also because we are on the top floor and they are always really loud and looking in our windows. haha We got the chance to do service with one of the members on Saturday, helped him move some furniture and it was a nice change of pace. Wish we could do no service. Then on Sunday they invited us over for lunch. Had the normal, salad and bread, pasta, fruit, then gelato! No complaints here! We didn't get as many lessons this week as we had hoped for, so we did alot of finding. Still trying to find that referral from Spain. And did a lot of street also. You really get the opportunity to talk to some really.... really interesting people! haha We had a lesson last night with an awesome lady from English course, we had an awesome lesson prepared, but of course nothing went as planned. We had some members with us and they tried to take over and it did not go well at all. This lady is so ready for the gospel too, so hopefully we can get another chance to teach her. I love ya'll so much and hope ya'll have a great week!! Love, Anziano Bird

{last day of the first transfer!}

Ciao tutti! One transfer already down, they go fast! I'll start back at last p-day is Pescara, we went and saw the beach which was awesome, we went to an African market and I got a sweet watch for Super cheap! Then we hung out in town and went in a bunch of sweet shops and I bought a scarf also. I am now high fashion and fit in better here! haha We also got Kabob, which is like a turkish food that is all kinds of mystery meat roasted and put on a sandwich with hot sauce and stuff, it was incredible! And appearently the best Kabob place is in Rome, so cant wait to go back to Rome in a couple of weeks. Then Thursday we left early in the morning so we could go to another town and get my finger printing and paperwork done for my permesso so I can live here legally. Took a while but wasnt too bad because the church has everything so well organized. But only got a year one, so in about a year I have to go and do it again. I have had gelato quite a few times at different places, but went to my first gelatoria and got some and it was as incredible as everyone says it is! It was pretty cool we were listening to a talk from President Monson this week from the March 2011 confrence and he was talking about temples, and at the end he spends a couple minutes talking about the Rome temple and how incredible it is. It is worth going on lds.org and listening to. Makes me unbelievably excited for the temple dedication! The moment when I was the most proud of myself this weekend was when I made Dad's classic hashbrowns.... perfectly!!! Even with the flip, and they blew my companion out of the water! So I was feeling like hot stuff. haha Transfer calls came last Saturday and my companion did not want to stay here, but Saturday we had a goal to do street in the morning and talk to everyone we saw, we talked to hundreds of people it felt soooo good. Got some quality contacts which was good too. Then we worked our way down to McDonalds and I got my first Italian Big Mac! It was delicious! haha Then in the afternoon and evening we did house, it was average house until one of the last doors we knocked on, the lady invited us in and we taught our lesson "lesson 0" and she decided she wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon in a couple weeks! So that was cool. Then we got the call that we are both staying. None of our investigators came to church which was a bummer but this week they are going to, last transfer we did all the finding, so this transfer we are going to do all the teaching and baptizing! haha Sunday we got a dinner appointment for after chuch! Food was good, alot of it! And we taught a short lesson, but the guy we taught was a family friend and he did not want to listen to us so it was interesting. Monday was finding and we went up to a young guy, Roberto 22, who was baptized a little while ago and he is awesome! And his mom always asks questions about the church. They own a shoe store in town so we thought we would go there and talk to her. She wasnt there, but I found some sick shoes that I need! haha And monday night I made Plum Loco salsa! I made a half batch and it is delicious! Alittle more fresh tasting than normal but incredible! haha I am doing awesome and really looking foreward to this transfer, love yall and have a great week! Love, Anziano Bird

{PICTURES}

Just downloaded these from Jareds memory card! These are still from when he was in the M.T.C. We cannot wait to see the pictures he is taking in ITALY!!

{Week 5}

Ciao Ciao! Wow, Wednesdays come around fast, and then I cant remember everything I want to write haha. Last p-day we were in Pescara, we are here again this week also, it is beautiful here and the beach and ocean are amazing. Some highlights and fun things from this last week are on Friday we had an FHE activity with 2 of the ragazzi, young adults, and we made tacos! They were delicious but were very very different from our tacos! haha you know you are in Italy when you are eating tacos with mozzarella cheese haha. oh and the fresh mozzarella here is incredible, we eat it with everything, its amazing to just chop up some tomatoes and cheese and eat that. It probably sounds strange to some of you to hear that I am eating that stuff but fresh food and fresh everything just makes it so much better! So they are super awesome to hang out with, and one, Roberto, his mom owns a nice shoe store in town so I will be checking that out real soon! haha Then Saturday was my one month anniversary in Italy, so we went to a sandwich shop for lunch! the food here for the most part is always very simple, but always very delicious. So for their sandwiches is it usually just bread, meat, and cheese. On one I had this smoked meat of some sort with cheese that is kinda like swiss but more stinky, it was way good tho, then my other one had very spicy peperoni with mozzarella, and I could not have been happier with my choices! haha Monday we had district meetings in the morning, then I left to go to Pescara with Anziano Heder for my first official scambi, or split!! It was so much fun! he made me lasagna on Monday afternoon, then we had a lesson with probably the most awesome and prepared investigators of all time, it was so much fun! we were at thier house for about 3.5 hours, they just didn't want us to leave! Tuesday we went out and did street in their awesome downtown area and around the beach, also walked by the Lamborghini dealership! haha then my companion and Anziano Heders companion come back to Pescara and we went to the church to prepare for a lesson we had after English course. but before English course I received my first "bidone" or dumpster haha it was disappointing, but I always love english course. and last minute on of the teachers didn't show up so I taught the intermediate course, it was so much fun! And there was a lady who was like 40 hitting on me throughout our lesson, so that keeps things interesting! haha And finished the night off with some pizza! Today, after internet, we will go back to the house for lunch then go out and go to some markets and check some things out! Then back to L'Aquila for tonight! I am really looking forward to this Sunday, we should have more investigators in church this Sunday than they have probably every had here! Love yall a ton, have a fantastic week! Love,

{Week 4}

Happy Halloween! Doesn't really feel like it here haha. Although tom will be interesting because it is the day of the dead holiday for them, and i guess everything is shut down and everyone goes to the cemitary and it is difficult to get stuff done. We will see what we can do! we also have a FHE activity planned for tom where we will be picking chestnut! wahoo!!! should be fun though! it is crazy cold here! just like Idaho, who would have thought! haha English course continues to be way awesome! there is one lady in there that is awesome and said she doesn't even come for the English she comes for the spiritual thought. she should be coming to church this Sunday and hopefully we can begin to teach her. it was cool i was teaching the plan of salvation and people started talking and she yelled at them and told them to shut up because what i was teaching was important! haha i also made Alfredo this week and it was pretty good! haha just like last week we have been doing finding!! my companion said he has never had as many people interested or given out as many book of Mormons as he has with me! haha and he is convinced I should do every door approach because he thinks people can feel the spirit more when i talk! so that is awesome to hear! hopefully i can keep my greeny spirit up. last night we finally had a dinner appointment with a member which would have only been my second, but right before they call and cancelled. we were bummed out and continued to do house. about 30 min later we knocked on this ladies door and she answered and I did my thing and talked about prophets and the book of Mormon, and she invited us in. her friend was there also and the both sat down and we taught our little message. the spirit was about as strong as i have ever felt and the one lady was in tears! they seemed extactic about our message and both accepted books of Mormon and hopefully will be in church this Sunday! so turns out that not going to that dinner appointment was a huge blessing, the Lord works in mysterious ways!!! I love missionary work! Just helping one person feel the spirit makes having 200 doors slammed in your face, people waging thier fingers in you face and having people yell at you all worth it when you have helped one person come closer to Christ! we are in pescara today for pday. it is a very nice city on the coast! makes me want to go hop in the water! and amazing as all the Italian food is, we went to an all you can eat Chinese buffet today!!! and it was incredible!!! ahhaha and had all you can eat gelato, which really is all it is cracked up to be! only got 2 more weeks then i am no longer a greeny!! that will be cool! i always have tons to talk about then i get to the computer and cant think of anything! just so grateful everyday that i am here and decided to come on a mission. i do miss yall like crazy but know yall are doing good. i know it sounds crazy but i also miss taco bell like crazy! haha but eating fresh food ,and besides the 3lbs of gelato i ate today, mostly healthy food, i can really tell a difference and just feel great! here in pescara they have huge outside markets! cant wait till i am in a city with those! my companion got a sweet suit at one for 50 euro! also looking forward to getting some new ties! well i love yall so much!!! and truly hope yall have a great week! Love, Anziano Bird

L'Aquila update

Another week gone already! It really is amazing how fast the weeks go, and I have a feeling they will go faster and faster. This week was a great week! We have been teaching English course since I have been here, but they only started it about 2 weeks before I got here. We have it every Monday and Thursday evening, it is awesome! It is one of my favorite things to do. Very entertaining also, their accents are soooo funny, makes me hope mine isnt bad haha. I taught the spiritual thought at the end of Mondays lesson and it was awesome, we have 3 people in the class that seem very interested in the church! So hopefully we will be able to teach them! It was kind of a bummer this week we had to drop one of our investigators cause she was not keeping any commitments and just wanted to be friends. She also made us pizza every time we went over so I will miss that also haha ;) So now we only have one investigator and he has cancelled our appointments like 4 times now so we will see. So, we have been doing finding pretty much everyday, allday! It is something that I have grown to love very quickly, cause if you dont, you will be miserable. But street is definatly my favorite, you get to walk around Italy! It is definatly harder, you get alot of people just wag thier finger in your face and keep on walking, or the ones that completely ignore you, or literally run the other way! haha at people dont want to make eye contact with you most of the time, that is why switching it up and doing house is nice, because you at least have them trapped for a second! That is if we are lucky enough for them to answer the door. But read an awesome scripture in D&C 75: 20-21 today, makes ya want to shake people and tell them all they are missing out on when they so easily reject you. Yesterday we did house all day, had no success until the very last house we knocked on. A young girl answered so we started to talk and she actually listened. Then we got to talking , and she was Catholic, and she told us she would believe there is a living prophet today and she said this on her own, "I also think people in churches should not get paid for their services" so I was super excited and she was also very interested in English course, so the Lord will bless you if you have faith and work hard! Sorry I wont be sending out too many hand written letters cause it is pretty spendy for a poor missionary haha, but I love to receive them! I love hearing from everyone and how yall are doing. P-days are also super nice because there is a basketball court not too far from our house so we get to go shoot around every week, and hand out pass along cards haha. It is actually pretty cold here in the mornings but usually warms up, but never thought i would come to Italy and be freezing outside, we will definatly be wearing jackets from now on! next p-day will be Halloween and we will be spending next p-day in a town about an hour away, I forgot the name but should be a fun day. One of the newer converts, Roberto, is 22 and he is awesome!! and his family owns a shoe story in town and their are a bunch of clothing stores nearby so he is gunna show us around and teach us about style! haha the style is defiantly different here but I like alot. that first day I noticed alot of the older missionaries had those side bag things, or man purses, and I was making fun of them, but everyone has one and they are actually super awesome!! so I will keep my eye out for one of those. Cant think of too much else to say, all the days kinda blend together and we do a lot of the same thing, but I love it! Going to pick up ingredients for Alfredo sauce today, since it is not Italian, and they think it is hilarious that we think it is. Turns out like 3/4ths of the things at olive garden are not Italian haha. We made brownies for our English course last week, they were kinda gross, but they thought they were the greatest things ever. And one of the ladies in the ward attempted making banana bread with our recipe, it was good, but nothing like home haha. Love ya'll and hope everyone has a great week! love, Anziano Bird

October 17, 2012

Hey hey everyone! This letter will be a little backwards because the last couple of days have been so cool I have to tell you about them now! So yesterday we got on a bus in the morning and headed to Rome for zone conference! Zone conference was amazing and really gets you pumped up to do work! Got to bear my testimony because I am a greeny, only get to bear my testimony there one more time and that is when I leave....seems weird. The food was amazing and it was good to finally get to Rome to get my package from Jess and also a letter from her and Dad. I haven't opened them yet, I am waiting to get home. For packages (which don't feel obligated so send, I could always use the money instead) are better to be sent to the Rome piazza address which is the mission home, but letter are best if sent to my city, I can get them sooner that way. just make sure it isn't right before a transfer haha. So we left the church and did splits with Anziano Kearl and Cassalis. I went with Anziano Kearl and they are in Rome 5 which is almost brand new so they dont have an apartment in their area so we had to drive like 30 minutes to English course, which went awesome!! President Kelly also promised them a baptism from that English course and the lady I talked to for a while was awesome! This is Anziano Kearls first transfer so he had no idea how to get home, and it was already 930, which is when you are supposed be home, but they have permission to be out later cause they have to drive so far. good thing we had a gps right? wrong! we typed in home, thinking it would take us home, it ended up taking us to this totally different part of Rome, but I loved it because this part was Really Really nice and we drove past the Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati dealerships! haha We ended up getting home about 11! there were 6 of us in the apartment and was nice to switch it up from just being alone, the other 2 are the APs and they are awesome. So we will be hanging out in Rome today seeing the Colosseum and possibly the Vatican, pretty lucky to see all this so early in the mission! The week in L Aquila has been awesome as well. On Friday mornings we do service and we go to the homeless shelter and help out with preparing, serving, and cleaning up with lunch. We don't have a ton of investigators (2) right now, so we do a lot of finding, which I love! Talking to Italians is fun! I talked a little about Roberto last week, he believes a lot of things about our church but doesn't feel he is receiving an answer to his prayers. Elizabetta is our other investigator and she loves when we come over, she makes like 3 pizzas and it is awesome. It is hard because she has a daughter that is completely aithist and yells and argues with everything we say. We went over Sunday and the daughter is about 20 and we brought one of our members who is about to go on his mission, and they argued most of the time, then it was super cool because when they were arguing the spirit wasn't there, but when they stopped to take a breath i boldly started in with my testimony, and everyone got completely silent, he son hung up the phone and all eyes were on me, and they were hanging on every word, it also helps that they have to listen super closely to understand what I am saying haha but then my companion bore testimony and it was super spiritual and the daughter couldn't say anything after that, so that made me happy cause she was scary! haha So much goes on every week there is just too much to say, but just know that I couldn't be happier, and to wake up in Italy every day.... there is no feeling like it, and to know we are doing the Lords work, and representing him is just an amazing experience. I love yall so much and hope yall have a great week! oh also ate at a members house and she was pourtorican or something so she made enchiladas and they were soooooo good! The food here is amazing, but that craving for a microwavable burrito just wont go away! haha also they figured it out, and statistically, we had a 1 in 500 chance of being called to Rome, Italy on our mission.... jackpot! love, Anziano Bird

I finally made it!

I finally made it!!! Felt like this would never get here! I guess the wait makes it that much better! Italy really is all it is cracked up to be! And the people are amazing, and I am blessed here in L'Aquila to have such a great branch with great members! The work has been incredible so far, when I arrived we had one new investigator, so my second day we went and taught him. His name is Roberto, he is awesome, had another lesson with him today and I extended the baptismal invite! It was awesome, and he is open to the idea. Pretty crazy story, so it was my 3rd overall day in Italy when we taught him for the first time, and we were waiting for the bus afterwards and a lady approached Anziano Fiala and I so I was thinking that was awesome someone was coming out of thier way to talk to us. She was very emotional and kinda freaking out, I didnt understand anything she said, and she walked away for a second, so I asked Anziano Fiala what she was talking about, and he said she said someone in her family was possessed and wanted to know if we could do an excorsism, so we called our mission president and he said to tell her that we were not trained to for that haha so that was super exciting!! And I gave her a Book of Mormon, my first one given out! The day we traveled was a fun day because it finally felt like I was a missionary, and it is so fun to just be able to talk to people and share our amazing message with them! Didnt get alot of sleep though so I have been alittle sleepy this week. But this week has been so cool! Even though I cant comunicate super well yet, I can do ok and my companion helps out alot! we were waiting for a bus the other day and I started talking to a lady and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and leaving,we got a call the next day saying we had a referral from mormon.org, and appearently that never happens! so we got the phone number for the person, and about 30 min. later, that number calls us! Turns out a different lady at the bus stop had overheard us talking to that lady and had gotten our number from her. This was Saturaday morning and bc of the time difference our first confrence session wasnt until later, so we invited her to that, and she came! and she loved it!!! so she came back Sunday also! and loved it! but.... she was here for school and she was moving back on Sunday night...luckily where she is going has missionaries, but she was the golden investigator and was awesome to have that experience! There are lots of mountains here so they do get snow here, which I was not prepared for, but should be awesome. We have quite a few young people in our branch and they are just awesome! First day experience here was awesome, felt like my head was about to explode from all the sweet things around me! I dont even know where to start to tell ya'll about how amazing it is here! also, nobody told us we were going to be getting to use bmw's for our mission! pretty sweet! bus, metro, and walking! alittle mission humor for you :) haha as you now probly know, my pday is wednesday and I think we are 8 hours ahead of ya'll in idaho and utah, and 7 in north dakota. i wish you could bring your family on your mission so ya'll could experience how awesome it is here! love ya'll and hope ya'll have a great week! Love, Anziano Bird

Last P-Day in the M.T.C.

Ciao tutti! Hope everyone is doing well! I am doing fantastic! And better everyday. I leave this coming Tuesday for Rome, Italy, and this time next week I will be in my new area! The feeling of excitement is unreal. We recieved our travel itinerary Friday of last week and have had alittle bit of "senioritis" since then, but continue to work hard because I know I need every bit I can get. We are flying British Airways an we leave SLC at: 11:10 a.m. arrive in Chicago at: 3:05 p.m. Leave Chicago at: 7:10 p.m. and arrive in London at: 9:05 a.m. Depart from London at 10:55 a.m. and arrive in Rome at: 2:20 p.m. Should be quite the day but it will be a good day! Then I will recieve my first area and have the chance to email, so everyone knows I'm safe! haha This has really been a great week, on Sunday we got to be apart of the Brigham City Temple dedication. It was an amzazing experience and got me that much more excited for the Rome Temple. As much as I love the food here in the M.T.C. I cannot wait for that first meal in Italy! And I am guessing right now my first area is going to be in Sicily, or Sicilia, and if it is true I am going to end up with a sweet accent! packages and mail are alot more expensive to send to Italy so send them now! :) Thank you all so much for all the love and support you have shown me thus far. My family truely is such a blessing. This week has been busy trying to squeeze everything in but this has to be one of the most exciting times of my life and so happy that I get this opportunity. Just a couple more classes left and another fast sunday, we have had 3, then the real work begins, and the real excercise begins! For anyone who is wondering, I have lost 1lb. so far! So pray for me that I never get a car in Italy! Love you all So much and have a great week! Love, Anziano Bird

Ciao Tutti!

     11 more days!  It is pretty hard to believe.  It has gone by so fast and I know the rest of it will as well.  It is so surreal that in such a short time I will be in Italy!  Speaking nothing but Italian.  I have had so many great experiences in the M.T.C. and have met so many great people.  It makes me look foreward to Italy even more and all the amazing people and experiences I will have there.  We have the opportunity to teach alot of lessons in here but I cannot wait for that first real lesson.  One of the Sorelle in our district got a letter from one of the older Sorelle already in Italy, and the experiences that she is having just sound amazing.  We will be doing alot of contacting each day which I am super excited about!  And as great as the food here in the M.T.C. has been, I am ready for that fresh and most delicious Italian food.  I got the opportunity this week to be a host to the new missionaries.  And now they door the curb drop off so you help them get their bags out and make sure their cell phone isn't in thier pocket :) then you take them to get all thier supplies and show them thier room and explain stuff to them, then drop them off at the class.  It was so fun!  I got to help out 3 Elders.  We get the opportunity to do it again next week which I am so excited about!  There were rumors that we were getting our travel plans today but haven't seen them yet. :(  We have the opportunity this Sunday to watch the Brigham City temple dedication which I am so excited about.  It will get me even more excited for the Rome Temple.  Got to speak in Sacrament meeting this past week, first of many in Italian to come! haha  Got to visit the outside world for an hour this week also!  It was different, but kinda nice to get out.  I love you all so much!  Can't wait to send ya'll pictures of me in Italy!  Hope ya'll have a great week!

Love,

           Anziano Bird

{Mormon.org}

Elder Bird has set up a Mormon.org profile, so I thought I would give you a little look at what his profile says!

About Me:
 Hi. I love to snowboard, fish, and be around those I love and care for. I am so blessed to have the About me opportunity to serve a mission in Italy. I know that this is a restored Gospel and the only true Church on the earth. And I am so excited to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. And be able to guide people along the path and help them to know of how the Atonement relates to our everyday lives and to invite them to come unto Christ.
How I live my faith
 I am currently serving in the Rome, Italy mission. I am so excited to get the chance to teach the Italian people what I know is true, and bring the happiness to their life that this Gospel has brought to mine. I am blessed to have had the great examples in my life to show me the way and teach me the correct principles that I should live by and help me to stay on the strait and narrow path to return to our Father in Heaven.
 Why I am a Mormon 
I am a member of this Church because I have seen how it can bless my life and the lives of those around me. After reading the Book of Mormon with real intent and asking to know if it was true, I came to know that it is. It is truly the most correct book of any on the earth today. I have chosen to serve a mission so that I may bring this light and love that I have discovered into the lives of the Italian people. And to think before my mission 2 years seemed like a long time. It is not. Especially when you think of all the Lord has given and done for us, this is the least I could do. I love my family and friends with all my heart and hope that by hearing my testimony grow throughout my experiences in the mission field that they will begin to envelope themselves in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and come closer to Him in everything they do.

7th week!!

Hello everyone!!

7th week already!  Its hard to believe sometimes.  We got new Anziani and Sorelle in on Wednesday so now we are the old group.  Its alittle like the end of middle school going into high school.  You are the big dog on campus and then you are a small fish in a big sea once you get to high school ( or Italy).  With everyday that comes I get more and more excited!!  I know I say this every week but the chance I have to go to the Temple every week is just amazing.  As most of you know it was my birthday this week!!  It was honestly a great birthday.  I ended up getting alot of letters and packages!  Thank you all so so much for your love and consideration.  It means so much to me to know I have so many people who are thinking about me.  My experience here at the M.T.C. has been better than I ever expected it would be.  The teachers here really push you in learning in all aspects which I am so grateful for!  Reading the scriptures as a missionary is one of the coolest things ever!  The scriptures apply to all of our lives so much!  This week (on my birthdday) my Uncle Brent and Aunt Cathy entered the M.T.C.  That was one of the best presents of all.  Being on a mission makes your love and appreciation for you family skyrocket!  And so being in here and seeing a familiar face, especially a family member, it is just an awesome experience and I am so happy at the choice they have made to serve a mission because I truely think it is something everybody should experience.  In our devotional on Tuesday the speaker mentioned something interesting.  He said the world is such a crazy place and doesnt know what it will be like when we get back, but, there has never been times in the history of the world when there were as many members of the church, missionaries, Temples, Priesthood holders, and he went on and that just really hit me and I thought it was a great statement.  He also said you can tell if a missionary is sucessful or not by how many times they bore thier testimony.  It is another week or so then we get our travel plans and I sure hope my visa went through because our roomates headed to Jamaca and they didnt recieve thiers so they are headed to Washington State.  Love you all so much and have a great week!

Love,

        Anziano Bird

{Over half way}

Hello Hello! Hope everyone is doing great this week! I am doing amazing! Can't say enough good things about the mtc. It is amazing all the people from around the world you meet and instantly have a friendship because you are here for the same reason! To whoever reads this all I need for my birthday is letters/dearelders! I want to set some sort of record for the amount of mail I get. haha I really do wish everyone could come spend a week in here and experience this atmosphere!! now that I am over halfway I think about Italy more and more each day! I am so blessed to be going there and know it will be an amazing experience!! Especially with the temple being finished, I think about having the opportunity to be there is amazing! sorry this is so short but I love ya'll so much and I am doing so amazing here, and appreciate all of the support and love that ya'll give me! hope everyone has a great week! Love, Anziano Bird

{PICTURES}

We were SO excited to get Jared's SD card in the mail today! So here are a FEW of the couple hundred he sent!! More to come! PS: click on the picture, to make it bigger, and more clear!

{4th Week}

Hello Hello!!! Just got back from the temple and got to do Initiatory today and it was great! It was nice to change it up and I had not done them since I went through for myself. This week has been great, I feel like I can teach better in Italian than I ever expected to be at week 4. I feel like my emails are getting shorter and more repetitive as the weeks go on haha. It has been awesome to get letters and packages, I am so thankful to all of you who have sent me things! Can't really think of anything I will need or want for my birthday. First year I could say that haha. I am now just getting used to wearing church clothes everywhere and something our teacher said the first day was that you have to get used to sweating in them. It really is weird for the first little while, I always found I wanted to go change when I started to get hot. I am developing some really great relationships here and have a lot of very good friends. Having P-day here in the M.T.C. gets me even more excited for those days in Italy when I can go out and explore. Hopefully somewhere along the way I also learn how to cook! Glad to here everyone in doing well and I love you all. Hope y'all have a great week! Love, Anziano Bird

weeks 1 day

well hello everyone!!!

 

          Wow! dont have alot of time this week.  So I will keep it short.  things are still awesome here, tons of people in my district have been sick so I have had the opportunity to give a blessing!  there is a tongan guy here that every morning for breakfast he eats 30 hard boiled eggs, so i challenged him and got 14 down and wasnt feeling so hot! haha pictures to come! I was thinking if somebody could send me another sd card for the camera I could send mine home then you wont have to wait 9 weeks to see pictures! haha The older group of Anziani and Sorelle left this week so we stole thier desks that were way nicer! which makes me happy when you spend alot of time in them!  it was supprisingly hard to say goodbye, mostly because I was jealous I had to be here for 6 more weeks haha I dont know how many of you know about Narnia holes, but they are secret hiding places in your room that when the older group leaves they leave stuff in them, and we got some sweet stuff!  If anybody has bens address I would like it please.  It is pretty cool at night we bear our testimony to random people in Italian and last night we did it to some spanish Elders and we could understand each other way good, Italian sounds way better though!!  I recieved 9 Dear Elders and three packages yesturday so thank you everyone so much! I have to be the most loved in the mtc!! More pictures are always appreciated! I love them and so do other people!! they love to see my awesome family and cat!! I love ya'll so much!! keep sending stuff cause it is about to get way more expensive! haha funny thing about them calling us Anziano instead of elder, it literally translates to "old man" haha but in a respective way I guess! haha  sorry this is short, I love ya'll, keep the letters coming.

 

Love,

            Anziano Bird

             Jared Bird

Week 3

Hello family!  I will try and not repeat myself too much because all the days start to blend together in here! haha But this P-day has been awesome, and will continue to be awesome if I can find some time to take a nap!  We were studying earlier today and some fellow Ansiani came into our room with thier hands full of ties yelling "there are free ties at the garment center".  So we ran as fast as we could to the garment center and got our share of some sweet ties!  I took pictures so ya'll can see in a little while.  I have been trying to be good about taking pictures and will try to continue to be good.  Its kind of strange to realize this opportunity only comes once as so you have to enjoy every second and make the most of every opportunity!  I did find out an interesting tid bit of news this week.  The older Ansiani and Sorelle got thier travels itinoraries and turns out you can call your family when you are in the airports!  And our flight should be like thiers so we will go from SLC, to Chicago, to London, to Rome I believe, and I think we have about 2 hours in each airport!  So I will call ya'll when I get to London and it is like 3 a.m. :)   Days are still going great, and someone said in a devotional recently, that if you ever start to have a bad day, just think off all the people praying for you, not just your family, but everyone in the temples, and almost every other church member! So then you don't feel like its that rough.  The email time in here goes really fast so for the time I am in the MTC it my be easier to dear elder me and then I can answer questions and respond in emails.  Packages are welcome!  Probly the best thing that happened to me this week was I found a fan in our room that a previous Ansiano had left so now I have a fan right next to my head and have been in heaven ever since!  I am very curious about how the Olympics went, and no one of course in here knows.  I would also like everyone to know I have yet to gain wieght so that is also good.  It is still a little sureal that in a little over 6 weeks I will be in Italy!  I am so excited and blessed to be going there, and have a feeling that I won't want to come home.  I can not wait to talk to ya'll in a couple weeks and maybe be able to send some pictures home then too so we can get my blog started.  I love you all so much, and I know its only been a couple weeks but I miss ya like crazy!  But at the same time there is no place I would rather be.  We are now teaching 2 "progressing investigators' a day (in Italian) with no notes, so they say these are the weeks the language really comes.  I love you all so much.

 

Love,

 

            Ansiano Bird

             Jared Bird

 Hello Friends & Family of Elder Bird! This is Elder Birds sister Jessica, and I will be runn'en this Blog from here on out! Hopefully I can scrape up some time each week to keep y'all informed on the exciting life of Elder Bird! Check back with us weekly to see pictures, and his weekly emails!

OH!! And don't forget to go to DearElder.com to write Jared a message! His box # is 234-1002. I know he would love to hear from all of you!!

August 9, 2012

  Well hello family!  Well this is actually just going to Mom and Dad, cause those are the only email adresses I have.  So please feel free to foreward this to everyone, and to all those, feel free to write me emails whenever!  I will only be able to respond on Thursdays though.  Well I just got back from the temple and it was amazing as always!  Today has been a very nice change from the normal schedule we will be following for the next 8 weeks.  I feel like I might be repeating myself a little from my first letter but this is just such and amazing experience that its just hard to keep it all to myself!  I miss you all a ton, but I am so happy to be serving the Lord.  So this morning I had some time to write a few letters, did laundry, ironed my clothes, ate lunch, and went to the temple.  I also recieved letters from Aunt Danika and Dad!  But I always save them for the evening to see if I reached my goals for the day first.  All of your letters and Dear Elders have been appreciated!  It just puts a pep in your step all day knowing that you have letters waiting for you at the room.  As I have mentioned before my companion Anziano kasper is awesome.  We get along great, and find new things in common with each other each day.

     Now I am just awaiting the arrival of my first package!! That will be a good day.  It was kind of funny today I was thinking about how Uncle Brent and Aunt Kathy get here on my birthday, and that is also the day that the new Sorrelle and Anziani get here!  Its also funny, Mom, that one of the older Sorrella (Sister) worked at chick-fil-a with Cathy Chudlieghs daughter!  Im am seeing tons of guys from both Skyline and Hillcrest in here so that is always nice to see a familiar face.  I also found out that my friend that went to Rome only left a couple of weeks ago so there is a chance I could serve with him!  All the mission confrences and Devotionals are Amazing! Our first night here all the new missionaries met in a meeting and we sang "We are now the Lords missionaries" and it was extremely powerful! It really makes me want to go to Italy right now and teach those people who are ready for the Gospel.  our group that came in had 28 people going to Italy, and that is the biggest groups they have had, especially in the past 20 years.  That really tells you that the great Italian people are ready, and that the temple is generating a ton of excitment!  Sorry that I can't write a ton more because I would love to, but I have about 3 minutes left.   I sent some letters off today so they should be on thier way.  I want you all to know how much I love and miss you all, I wish that you all could be here experiencing the with me!  The atmosphere and spirit here are like nothing I have ever seen before, it is truly an amazing place.  We had our first "investigator" agree to be baptized yesturday after teachihng her in Italian since the 2nd day!

 

 

Love you all so much,

                                                Anziano Bird            Jared Bird