Epistle - 4.29.09

Good Wednesday Everyone!

I've been transferred! I am now in the Montgomery Village area. I'm way up in the North West portion of the mission, in the Seneca Zone. I am still on a bike though (And there aren't many bike areas up this far north!) but for a change it looks like we will have regular member meals up here most days a week. I've never had that before!

My time in Capitol Hill was a lot of fun, I definitely enjoyed it. Now I'm excited for something totally different from anything I've ever done before.

My companions (Yes another 3-some) are Elder Durfee and Elder Cox. We live with the Gaithursburg Elders, Elder Hamblin and Elder Nardini. Elder Hamblin is from the Issaquah 5th ward! I thought that was interesting.

The weather has gotten very hot lately. In the Capitol Hill appartment we were in a high rise, with central AC, and the management isn't planning on turning on the AC until May 15th! It's been mid 90's, and hot and sticky at night with no AC. That's been an interesting expierience!

Another thing that has been astounding to me is the pollen. I've heard that Seattle has had a bad time also, but DC is just amazing! In DC they have deciduous (spelling?) trees planted pretty much every 20 feet on both sides of every street. It just RAINS pollen! When we bike our tires turn green. When we walk our shoes turn green. You see big green pollen deposits in every gutter. For a guy from the Evergreen state it has just knocked me flat. My voice is totally shot. It's been funny because everyone we go teach is asking if I'm OK, members are asking if I need any medicine and I reply that I'm already taking it, this is me ON the medication! It's been pretty interesting, this spring time pollen rush has given me good reason to continue living on the West Coast.

Other then all that I'm not sure what else to report. Aaron in capitol hill looks very solid for baptism now on the 24th but I won't be there for it, so now I get to start learning some new names to tell you about!

Talk to you next week!
-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 4.22.09

Ok all. I wrote a really nice epistle, and IE just crashed. Not only did it crash but it somehow wiped clean my clipboard, since I periodically highlight my entire epistle and copy it in case anything happens.

So. This will now be short, but it would have been long.

Next week is transfers. It is very very probable that I will be moving somewhere else. Chances are excellent it will be somewhere out in Maryland, which will be very different from the Ghetto I've been in my entire mission thus far.

Mothers day will mark 8 months on my mission. Goodness time flies!

Miracle for this week ocurred on Monday. When we woke up in the morning it was dumping rain. We had to bike to District Meeting at 9am. Before we left I prayed that, if God be willing, the rain would lighten, but that whatever he saw fit to put us through would be fine. We got soaked on the way to District Meeting. After District Meeting (which entails some sitting inside meaning we had dried out mostly) we went to lunch. Just walked around the corner to a mexican place so we could use umbrellas. Stayed dry. Then we came back to the church to get our bikes. Still raining. We had to make a couple calls to line up some Visitor Center trips this week, then, right after we finished calls and started taking our bikes out the door, the rain stopped completely. It stayed stopped all afternoon, until it started again while we were in a dinner appointment. Because the appointment was near the church we had left our bikes in the church. It was raining as we walked over to our bikes, we went in, grabbed our bikes, came back out and the rain had stopped, for a nice dry bike ride back home.

It is a great joy to me to see the abundant evidences in my life that God cares about the little things. That is so key because our lives consist of lots and lots of very little things. Somehow, some way that only he can comprehend and that we can only marvel at, he cares about and notices every little detail of our lives. In a love matched only in its infinite nature perhaps by the atonement of Jesus Christ, wherein he suffered every little agony of our existance, God loves us. I testify that he does and count myself incrediby lucky to be so blessed with that knowledge that I can stand as a witness in the small ways I am granted opportunity to do so.

I love you all!
-Elder Ted E. Bear

Epistle - 4.15.09

Howdy Everyone!

Not a whole lot of time this week.

We took Tyrone to a night of music and inspiration last night at the Visitor's Center. It was nice. One of the Elders that sang is VERY Musical Theater and I was just laughing the whole time. Another Year or so and I'll worry about all that stuff!

We have a coule really cool families we're working with right now. Including one that we met Monday, a guy answered the door and said we could come right in, so we did and taught them the message of the Restoration for the next 45 minutes or so. They had just tried going to a baptist church the day before and didn't like it, so they seem pretty open. A couple other really cool people we're working with.

I really enjoyed the end of the war chapters in the Book of Mormon this time through. I was struck by how the war drags on and on and on, and doesn't seem to have any end in sight. Then Moroni realizes that the "Inner Vessel" the "head" of the government, was not clean and so they couldn't purge any of the rest of the land. He swoops in, cleanses the inner vessel, then goes and takes care of everything else like it's a breeze.

Reminded me that if we can cleanse our inner vessel, our hearts and minds, then we will be able to obey the commandments of God much easier.

I got to get running, but I love you all and love getting your letters!

Take Care,
Elder Ted E. Bear

Fwd: FW: Epistle - 4.8.09

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Since last wednesday I have had an exciting and wonderful week! How was yours?

So, I wrote to you last wednesday. Wednesday night Brother Vezina and Sister Cruz asked me to sing at their wedding on Saturday. That was funny.
Thursday morning I left my really cool really awesome super small and light and high tech titanium reinforced umbrella on the bus. I'm not the kind to leave things on busses very often, and I was a little bummed. So (of course) Friday morning it dumped rain! =]

Friday night we left our bikes locked up down stairs in our Appartment complexes enclosed and gated parking lot, and forgot to bring them up to our appartment when we went in for the night... (cue dramatic music)

Saturday morning when we went to bike to the church building for General Conference, all 6 of our wheels were gone! (Three Missionaries with Three Bikes) SO we caught a metro to the church building.
Saturday between the morning and afternoon sessions I sang Come Thou Found of Every Blessing at the wedding, it was fun, they liked it.

Next really exciting thing was yesterday, when we extended a baptismal date of May 3rd to Aaron, an investigator we've been working with for quite a while. He's a really cool guy and we're quite excited that he's taking this step.

This letter sounds a little depressing, but in reality I'm really quite cheerful, I thought the events of this week were really funny, and I just thought I'd recount them all =] Tyrone gets confirmed this Sunday. Selena is doing awesome, she gave us an Apple pie the other day! We went to the Nation Museum of Natural History today, there were lots of fossils and dinosaur skeletons and stuff, it was really cool. The Cherry blossoms are mostly gone now, but they were really pretty, I'm glad I got to be in down town for them.

As always I love getting all of your letters. I know that this gospel is true. I see the joy and the change it brings to the lives of God's children on this earth. Stay strong in the faith my friends!

-Elder Ted E. Bear

Fwd: FW: Epistle - 4.1.09

Happy Wednesday everyone!

It's been a great P-Day so far for us! We went over and met up with 6 other missionaries to wander around the Air and Space Museum. That was a fun one for me... although I bet they will all be fun for me. I love gaining knowledge and so all fo the exhibits I were quite fascinating. It's amazing to be so close to one of the world's largest museums. When you wander around there are all sorts of REAL things, instead of replicas. It was a lot of fun.

From there we headed over to where the Cherry Blossoms were. They were pretty, but I've almost enjoyed the last week biking around even more. There are cherry trees planted everywhere in this city. It's been gorgeous to see them blooming all over the place. I love the purple ones with the big flowers that almost look like tulips. They're gorgeous.

Tyrone's baptism went smoothly on Sunday. He's going to be a funny member =]

Oh I just remembered some funny news I found out last week, which really only applies to members that lives near me. There is a Brother Boehm in this ward. I've been in this ward for 4 months now, but he and I had never really talked. Once we talked we found out that he was the son of President Boehm, who was formerly in the Renton North/Bellevue South Stake Presidency, and who did my Priesthood interview to become an Elder. He was also in the Somerset ward Bishopric, and new all the friends I had who lives in that ward. So that was quite funny to finally make that connection with him.

All of us out here are really pumped for General Conference. Really looking forward to it.

Not really sure what else to share... life is good. We're all healthy. The cherry blossoms are pretty. My Bike isn't broken and the weather hasn't been too bad.

All around, life is quite good!

Love you all!
Elder Ted E. Bear